kurt

Really strong. Depends on the type and mix. Some grout is the consistency of heavy cream, but still sets like a rock, bonds like glue, with no shrinkage. This is an interesting repair method. Good pics.

All the single wythe stuff is problematic once you go over a single story. I knew it was bad years ago, but had no idea we'd be seeing failures like this.

Yikes. There's that part too. They're tinderboxes.

Kelly designed a metal bracket/joist hanger specific to these conditions. We've got an engineer working up the spec's now. It may be part of the Wick Right package. http://www.wickright.com/

Residential. Built in the boom. We're finding that anything, and I mean darn near everything....be it SFB or conventional cavity wall....built from 1998 to 2008-09, has water issues at some level. The codes are wrong. The masons are wrong. The principles, materials, and methods....it's all wrong. We're getting used to the idea that people think we're completely nuts. I'm getting really gun shy looking at these things. We've opened up too many of them, and I know too much. In conventional brick veneer, it's at least repairable by standard carpentry and redo the veneer. In load bearing cavity wall, it's the whole damn structure. And this one isn't even all that bad. Click to Enlarge 37.01 KB

A lot of the old joints sag like crazy. Put several tons of masonry inside a wood frame that's undersized and where plumbers have hacked it all up, and stuff sags. It's nothing to fret about. The engineers get freaked, but I've yet to meet an engineer that understands old buildings.

Everything is to blame. There's a lot of details at every step of the process that have to be right, and none of these things are even close. It's not the block; it's the installation. Not a one of them has back dam flaps, end dams, they use that crap IPCO plastic garbage bag membrane, the wicks are just plugs in holes that are too small and too few, the coping sags and water flows around the edges, there's no expansion joints, etc., etc. They're all ****ed up, and there are thousands of them. And, it's not just split face. We're opening up cavity wall that's sopping wet. Why? Because the mopes at Local 21 are sure they know now to lay brick, and they **** it all up. Kelly's not a shot in the dark. The stuff works. No one wants to believe it. So, we're changing people's minds one building at a time. We got buildings that prove it works.

We're getting a few lawyers that are finding the ways to pierce the veil. Architects have insurance; they go at the architects insurer. There's liability. I predict a firestorm of construction defect litigation in the coming years. We're talking billions of dollars of residential property that's seriously screwed. We've been talking about this stuff for years. If some bozo HI doesn't know enough to point out the major problems with masonry construction in the city, then they should get sued. There's a reason I'm considered a crank by the old guard realtors, although the newer crop seem to get it. I've outlasted the old guard; at times, I'm downright dismissive of them. Business is good. Great, in fact.

3 floors.

I think it's pretty awesome. That tile is beautifully done. Tile window casing, cove base, detail trims, marble window stool, trim around the tub, and the floor...pretty nice. That's some nice layout work. We tore one of those out several years ago, it was all beat up. With the tub, it was almost 3 1/2 tons of mud bed, tile, and iron. No wonder the floor is sloping.

In the case of these buildings, we've been predicting the future for >15 years, and now it's here.

10 years.

A pic from today... We opened it up because there was a soft spot in the roof sheathing. The truss are rotting in their pockets. Anyone feel free to use this pic to get the word out. Click to Enlarge 68.7 KB Click to Enlarge 63.64 KB Click to Enlarge 65.6 KB

That's because there isn't one unless it was granted as a dispensation specific to the building (which it probably wasn't). Hier and I have it from the boys downtown that if it's a roof deck more than one story above grade, it's gotta have two ways out. Since it was directly from on high, it might true. Might.

The way I'm seeing that discharge is it stops short of the building envelope; it looks as if it could discharge inside the siding, and be retained in the building. Bad. The pipe should discharge all the way to the exterior and be minimum 3' (that's our code anyway) from any building opening. 4' from the front door is OK, but check your local code.

The variegated coloration of the tile is what makes it, imho. The color is deep and with a hint of iridescence. The formulas for those glazes probably go back to Europe about 300-400 years. I bet there's 1 1/2-2 tons of mortar bed in there.

Except they pointed it with Portland cement. At least, it looks like Type N.

Too much new cement. It's what's ****ing everything up.

Wow. Ours are cast iron with a brass flapper. Never seen plastic.

Ours are iron with a big iron cap. What's that little plastic cap get you to?

Our anti backflow valves don't look anything like that. What distinguishes this as an anti backflow valve?

This is one of the arguments for taking pictures and archiving them for every job. I do the same; show them pics on site of the crawl because most (all) are never going in there. Of all the stuff that builds the client relationship, going in a crawl has got to be a top fiver.

Yuppie larvae. It is (was) reasonable.

World class HI society. The idea edges toward comedy, which is tragedy plus time. We've had tragic activity in the arena for a long time. All the organizations are pathetic in their own unique way. That gotten out of the way, I've been an ASHI member for 28 years. We have a lobbyist. We're the only organization with a shred of recognition outside of our proscribed teeny universe. We're recognized by HUD, FHA, the realtors, etc., etc. After that is iNACHI, which is a curiously American organization in that it proclaims itself to be something and thru the joy of its members paying their dues and loudly proclaiming itself to be something...sort of is that something. Sort of. Which is kind of fun, in a twisted sort of way. After the two big guns, none of it really matters. Nice folks, well intended, but nothing's there. There's a few fringe organizations masquerading as societies in order to sell you their report systems or ancillary services. They are recognizable by being nearly invisible. If you have to look to find them, you don't want them.

Could be the dryvit product; can't tell from the pics. If it's architectural panels, ask for the shop drawings and all related documents for window details. If there's no shop drawings, it could be anything up to and including someone fabricating it all on site. Which most often means it's a pile of shit. Where's it at?