mgbinspect

Do you make a buck or two extra also, or just charge at cost?

So, is it Kosher to ask if anyone has an opinion regarding the RecallChek deal? Got the call the other day and it seems some of the other fellows are doing it. Anyone have any real experience or Ethics opinions etc. regarding it.

No claustrophobia here. I've been through openings so tight I had to exhale completely to get through them and hope I could exhale that hard again to get back out. It haunts me forever if I didn't at least behold every area of the crawlspace. IN fact, I've grabbed something handy and excavated to make enough of a hole to continue. Even snakes haven't stopped me. (We have an unspoken agreement - if they stay where they are, they can live. And, if you din't know this, they do always stay where they are or make tracks for the exterior.) Now, mama Opossums have stopped me twice. You can't pay me enough to enter any space with a mother and her babies. That's suicidal... [:-graduat

Terence is the man than...

What Jim and Terence said, with one additional replacement - insulation. Disaster restoration was once my business and there's no way you can possibly dry that wall cavity fast enough to avoid fungal growth without yanking the drywall AND the insulation and then, as Jim says, get those hurricane fans going.

Nice Marc! One thing I observed during my years as a traveling vendor to home inspector seminars and conventions was that one of the the rarest statements ever heard in that arena is, "I honestly don't know." I actually kinda like the use of that phrase on inspections and believe my clients respect me for admitting it. But, I usually follow it up with the phrase, "But, I'm happy to find out for you. I wouldn't mind knowing the answer to that question myself."

Terry, In the now famous words of Underdog: "Bless you sir." When I havenly been there and haven't done it, I'm quickly the first to admit it.

The Elmer's was originally suggested to me for the stair tread deal and actually worked just fine. Certainly there are better adhesives out there now, but the main idea was - don't chisel off the mortar joints and relay the brick because it will look like hell. [:-graduate As far as resurfacing brick goes, I'm 100% with you. There are far better adhesives out there. Again, it was merely the presentation of options that most people don't realize exist, even when the brick surface has an aggregate finish.

Sorry about the adhessive side of all this. I wish my recall weren't so foggy regarding that side of the process, but I'm certain you can find one that works well. (You have me wondering what adhssive he was talking about when he warned about getting in on glasses... ) [:-headach

Elmer's Glue contains aluminum silicate? I find that hard to believe. Reply: Yep, you're right, Jim, about the composition of Elmer's. http://www.elmers.com/msds/me700_d.htm I remember it being the adhesive Mr. Barr recommended for the brick stair tread trick, but "aluminum silicates" and their characteristics stick in my head as coming from him, which causes me to question what adhesive we used for the brick face matching. As I wrote, this is a remedy written purely from memory (including the composition of Elmer's Wood Glue, which in 30 years may have changed), but, as you state, Elmer's wood glue was indeed water soluble before it sets, but Mr. Barr's claim was that once it sets, it is pretty much set for life. He warned not to let it set on your glasses, for instance, because you'd never get it off without damaging the lens (I believe that may have been his warning concerning an aluminum silicate adhesive). You may need to find, in this day and time, a different suitable adhesive, but the process works - no joke. It might work for this purpose, but it softens when it gets wet. I've found that joints made with it come apart when they get wet. Reply: I wonder if it was the glue or the surfaces it was bonding to? Similarly, on a few occasions we actually made repairs to old brickwork where the original brick was no longer made, by taking the aggregate facing from the surface of the original brick. We'd brush a solution of diluted Elmer's on the surface of the new brick to be installed and put that moist brick face down into the aggregate borrowed from the old brick much like battering chicken. How did you get the aggregate from the old brick? Reply: We would simply lightly brush it off from a large area of wall, for general finish, or from a specific color, if what we were looking for was a particular color, and collect it at the bottom of the wall. It's rather like surgery and requires patience and attention to detail. How did you make it a uniform consistency? Reply: This was a method we used for small repairs - not large areas of wall, but we even applied the aggregate to "in place" bricks, by brushing on the solution and then applying the collected aggregate with a dry sponge. The aggregate was spread across the surface of a medium pored sponge and quickly pressed onto the surface of the still moist adhesive. What if the old bricks had smooth faces, wouldn't the new bricks have a rough appearance? Reply: It was a method that was only useful for bricks that had an aggregate facing. And it only worked because we would still find a brick that was as close as possible - only missing some of the original brick's range of color - possibly a flashed brick color. But, with this question in mind, Mr. Barr had even developed stains to address matching with smooth faces. He was a wealth of innovation and I am sorry that the information isn't more fresh and accurate and that he is no longer with us. But, I am confident that armed with the knowledge that these remedies are possible, you may be able to locate better up to date methods on the Internet. What about textured bricks, is there a good way to match the texture? Reply: None that I'm aware of or fooled around with. If this is for real, I have dozens of clients who'd like to know about it. Reply: It is for real. We were a very reputable masonry company at that time performing a lot of T & M masonry in a pretty well-to-do area of Virginia, (Middleburg - Horsey Country) out in Robert Du Val's neck of the woods. There's no brick on my house, but I might have to go down to my neighbor's house and knock a few bricks loose to experiment. Reply: It's not a very practical solution for large areas, but it works beautifully when you have a small area that is a poor match and needs to be toned down. We did use it a couple of times with satisfactory results. - Jim Katen, Oregon

Comprehensive? What about this? Marc Nice Marc! That was print worthy. A great review, which I'll carry along as a reference.

With all this in mind, is anyone aware of a good site that offers comprehensive information about successful attic ventilation configurations?

Golly, I've always experienced, in general terms of course, that tall spacious attics seem to fare pretty well, in regards to extreme temperatures, and that little cramped attics tend to be like little ovens, no matter how much ventilation they have. (That general observation certainly doesn't take into account what types of ventilation were in place and even functional ridge vents may still not be enough) I do agree, though, that the more complex the roof lines are the more out of balance soffit to ridge ratios can get, which certainly becomes one of the monkey wrenches in the works. I've recommended an independent local interior environment specialist and it will be interesting to see what he finds and recommends. No doubt the builder and his roofer will be doing band-aid remedies when major surgery may be the answer. I couldn't help but bust out laughing with your last sentence. Thanks for that. I'll post that specialist's findings and recommendations here, when they become available.

It's all driven by the dollar now. If a crew is bringing in the sales and only a few if any callbacks, that's all that matters to the boss. I lost my last job in HVAC resid/light commercial because I fixed too many systems and didn't change enough condenser units or entire systems. Condenser/system changeouts bring in the most money. A certain 'HVAC tech' that I had to work with actually changed a condenser unit on a job when I knew that the condenser wasn't even related to the problem. He was a good talker and could sell. When the callback came, I got sent out alone to fix it, with the understood warning not to reveal the problem to the customer. The other tech got the credit for the overall account because he brought in a good quick sale. I brought in nothing because it was a callback and I couldn't charge for it. I had been with the company long enough for the boss to get to know me and my work. He knew what was going on but eventually laid me off because performance was measured in dollars only and I didn't do so well. Marc Gee, maybe we should start offering "after the contractor or service call" inspections. [:-eyebrow

My bad on the link to the temps, but that makes sense. Now that you mention it, the link is to Australia I guess. Mike, I wasn't fully convinced that the ridge vents weren't cut through, but could not even see any appreciable change in the look of the material where I knew the ridge vent overhead terminated and the ridge cap continued. That teamed up with those rediculous temperatures just had me assuming it may not be cut through. I suppose the bottom line for me is that an attic shouldn't be that hot even if it is 100 degrees outside. It wasn't a shallow attic. I imagine it was about thirteen feet or so to the peak. Any insights are welcome.

Years ago I was given a priceless masonry repair tip by one of my brick salesmen. He was also a ceramics engineer who had managed a brick manufacturing plant in the past. When the end brick of a stair tread is knocked off and all of the mortar joints remain perfectly in place, the best way to permanently reset it is to carefully clean both surfaces and let them thoroughly dry. Then glue the brick in place with good ole' original Elmer's Wood Glue - an aluminum silicate. He said it would never come off again and was a much better route than relaying it with the prospect of the mortars not matching and the brick remaining so easily knocked off again. Similarly, on a few occasions we actually made repairs to old brickwork where the original brick was no longer made, by taking the aggregate facing from the surface of the original brick. We'd brush a solution of diluted Elmer's on the surface of the new brick to be installed and put that moist brick face down into the aggregate borrowed from the old brick much like battering chicken. Both worked like a charm and were, just as he had claimed, quite permanent. This is about thirty year old information, so no doubt there may be more appropriate adhesives now. The main idea is that it is extremely difficult to perform repairs to masonry without them sticking out like a sore thumb. I, therefore, always discourage my clients from thinking they will make repairs to the masonry on their home, unless it's altogether unavoidable. I assure them that they will most likely be sorely disappointed with the result. So, this little brick tread repair is a great way to avoid an eyesore. Keep in mind that it only works nicely if the mortar joints are all still perfectly in place and the original brick is still available and undamaged.

New home construction find: A home approaching the termination of the one year builder's warranty. The home had soffit and continuous ridge vent. This is probably the fifth time I've found ridge vent that did not appear to be cut through the felt paper (and probably the shingles). It's typically rather hard to tell without real scrutiny. The outside temperature was 100 degrees. The wood trusses were measuring between 129 to 134 degrees. The surface temperature of the cooling system evaporator coil cabinet was 115 degrees and the surface temperature of the roof sheathing on the sunny slope was a blistering 149 degrees. Click to Enlarge 25.21 KB The link below shows ignition temperatures of materials. It's pretty sobering that decayed wood can ignite at 150 degrees. Paper yellows at 120 and ignites at 218. Wood slowly chars at 120 - 150. http://www.tcforensic.com.au/docs/article10.html The home had a large front gable attic area with a false gable vent. That attic was hardly open to the main attic and not all the way up to the peak. Click to Enlarge 59.73 KB Click to Enlarge 53.77 KB All of this was all too typical for new home construction. Nothing seems to be well thought out. And how in the world does someone install a ridge vent without cutting it through? On top of that, the second floor cooling system, which struggled to muster a nine degree differential, suffered from the typical symptoms of a careless HVAC installer - bare suction line in that blistering hot attic and a poor seal around that suction line where it entered the evap coil cabinet. I suppose if I managed an HVAC company, I'd probably follow behind my guys occasionally and when they left gaping holes like the one below I'd tell them they if walk away from such a condition a second time, they'll be unemployed. The number of times I see gaping holes in new HVAC installs is unbelievable. Click to Enlarge 34.38 KB The most outrageous find on a new home happened about nine months ago. The folks had lived in the home they had built for three years and were preparing to put it on the market. The attic was difficult to access and they had never been in it. When I entered it, I discovered they had been trying to heat and cool a 4000 square foot home with merely a half inch of drywall between them and the outside. There was no ceiling insulation anywhere throughout the attic. It was pretty stupefying and the home owners were justifiably pretty ticked off.

It's hard for me to get used to this detail now too. Even when I laid brick on US Government and County schools, etc. we always stopped the flashings about a 1/2" short of the front of the bed joint. The only ones that knew the flashing was there was the one that designed it and the one who installed it. I asked the county about this detail and they simply said "This was the only way to confirm the flashing was really there." - kinda sad, but I understand. It sure is ugly though...

[:-thumbd] I think the gas burninng coal basket replicas are a nice touch. If I had such a fireplace, I'd install them.

Many of the very old fireplaces in the downtown parts of Richmond are very shallow for another reason. tHey were designed to burn coal within a cast iron coal basket. The Copperclad cook stove I used in one of my 100+ year homes had in ter-changeable cast iron grates for the firebox - one for wood and one for coal.

BTW, if you locate a book about the modifications to fireplaces performed by Count Rumford, all of the dimensions are relative to the height and width of the fireplace opening. I'll try to locate my copy of the book and scan and post the formulas. Codes, no doubt, have made masonry fireplaces safer, but they are the worst thing that ever happened to their aerodynamics and heating performance. Rumford was way ahead of his time and had the fireplace as tweaked as it's ever been. The newer metal double-walled construction fireplaces introduced a new dimension to convection in a fireplace - an option not available in Rumford's time. But, he capitalized upon the ventura effect to keep the most heat possible within the firebox while just skimming off the smoke, and maximized that heat through radiation with his extreme reflecting walls - all quit brilliant.

I think it's more likely that they believe that, because they've always done something a certain way and it's always worked, then it must be the only way that it will work. I find that mentality a lot, but especially with masons. Boy, is there some truth to that. I remember the first time I constructed a true Rumford fireplace around 1976, according to all of his original dimension ratios (without asking the company owner). He had heart failure swearing it would never work and that I'd have to tear it down. The home owner loved it and said later that it would "run you out of the room" it works so well. Then there was the time I raised the smoke shelf to meet the height of the open damper door to reduce turbulence, which was met with equal panic, but worked perfectly. Masons are much like track home builders - a little variation here and a little design drift there and soon you don't have the original at all, but it remains the gospel as if no changes had occurred - kinda like that whispered phrase that is passed around a circle of people and arrives at the other end nothing like it began.

I don't know what the original alleged siding installer got for that job, but it should have been life...

I believe I would install a typical J-Channel for the siding to terminate into and flash behind it and over the horizontal trim. That should do it.

Yep, that's what I found when I priced one for that rental - cheaper overall, but only because of no ductwork. I'm betting that we're going to see a whole lot more of them in the future. Of course, this may be a bad thing for metal workers... NO!.. Not more unemployment!.. [:-weepn]