kurt

Brick manufacture was a remarkably tricky operation. The old kilns had notoriously uneven heat, and brick quality varied wildly throughout a batch. Some of them are punk; those go in the inner wythes. The reasonably hard tempered one's go up on the parapets, cornices, rowlocks, and other details with major exposure. Field brick was somewhere in the middle ground. And it all goes to shit if the mortar isn't right. Doesn't matter how good the brick is, if the mortar's incompatible, it goes to shit, in 10, or 30, and sometimes 70+, but it goes to shit. If the brick is halfway decent (no spalling), limewash is the miracle. It nourishes the wall. Get it mixed right, it's (sort of) possible to "restore" the brick and mortar.

Definitely no on direct application...disaster. Definitely yes with some as yet unspecified combination of a breathable membrane (Vaproshield type stuff) and metal lath over a Stuccoflex or similar substrate. Works like an absolute charm, presupposing one is doing all the fenestrations, angles, vertices, and what have you with reasonably considered and executed sheet metal work. If you got a CNC sheet metal shop near you, it's remarkably simple; they'll roll out custom profiles from a rough sketch while you wait.

Are all shut offs subject to the working space requirement?

So true. I don't take the cover off anymore. I remember taking off the covers and having all the breakers fall out, and being so dense that it didn't impress on me what a total POS the things were.

I like Kogel's idea best. Precut all ties, cut a hole in the darn roof, slide in all the material, then cover the hole with a roof vent....or get nice and feather in shingles and patch like people used to know how to do. Working it with cable would be more work, more money...imho.

Bus is Stablok. Never seen wafer breakers on a Stablok. Is this a new wrinkle?

Did you see that? pretty cool....

Nice little hike! Up and down almost 10kvf in 14 hours.....that's an ass kicker. I'm jealous you can do that right in your neighborhood.

Europeans were livid at the Americans that were knocking off all the good Euro brands back in early American history. The up and comers always knock off the good stuff. We did it. We were really good at it. The Chinese are pretty good at it too with some stuff, not so good with other stuff.

I rarely see Square D, so haven't had to think much about recalls. The counterfeits are out of China...surprise surprise. Chinese electrical equipment is so crappy it would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous. Enclosures are plastic, bus is aluminum, and it's fairly common to find bare wires cast into concrete wall assemblies. They "build" giant apartment towers with no pre planning on anything. When you buy, you buy an empty concrete box. All wiring and fixture placement is decided upon after purchase, and is described under the general heading of "the decoration". Guys with Hilti knock off's come in and channel all the conduit pathways out of solid concrete. One thing Chinese do know how to do is mix concrete....they got the concrete part down. Fine grade Portland, pozolli ash, decent sand grade, and a decent aggregate ratio The stuff would spec out around 5000 psi in the States; it's some hard ass shit. Channeling out 5000 psi concrete with a Hilti gun for your career......Think about that. Oftentimes, conduit runs out and they just lay the wire in the rough concrete trench and mud it in. So, making crappy breakers probably seemed not so bad.

There's 4 grades of OSB. Talking about it all as one product isn't accurate. What's the brand name of the stuff that's fully waterproof? I forget......wait...Advantech. That stuff is amazing. I did some tests several years back where I put the stuff in a bucket of water for a year; id didn't change dimension or degrade in any manner whatsoever. I know that #1 goes to mush if you get it wet; it's the interior grade stuff that I occasionally see used as roof sheathing on cheap reroofs. This reminds me I should start checking grade stamps more carefully.....

I do too. Lotta rotten windows. It's tree farm punk wood that's the problem. Or worse, finger jointed tree farm punk wood.

Is that a new stove? I can't tell. Everyone gets to do whatever they want. If someone insists on taking the minimum standard and extolling it as lovely and perfect, that is their prerogative.

Yes. I've even seen some decent vinyl windows, although in general they're the low end. There are some new foam filled fiberglass windows that will probably become the standard of quality in the future.

I agree. 18" isn't enough, even if the mfg. says it is. 3', or a shield.

The plastic water softener salt bin, the carpet at the back. The front and sides look wrong, are you SURE there's enough clearance? Also, what about the flue and chimney? Given what I'm seeing, you're not tying into the same flue as the water heater and furnace, are you? I'd be most comfortable if you'd call in a professional, either fireplace contractor or inspector. There's more to look at than just clearance to combustibles.

I've used a Chromebook; they're OK if I only lived in Google. I use Google Drive and Docs for a lot of stuff, but I need more. I mean an OS that will run all software, like Photoshop, Filemaker, or any other personal software.

OSX really is the greatest OS. Folks that have never used it think it's some kind of weird cult thing. It's what an operating system should be. Windows is a painful mess to even think about, let alone use. Hardware is hardware; that's the easy part. Getting the OS right....not so easy. And Word....how anyone can continue to use that buggy piece of bloatware is beyond me. Folks think Apple is more expensive. It's not. On a usage cost per day, it's cheaper than Windows stuff. Youngsters get it, for the most part. Apple has been growing 30% a year when the PC market has been going the other way. It's a better OS in every way. Personally, I wish Google would ditch servicing the Windows crowd and make their own OS complete from scratch, then manufacture the hardware it goes on. IOW, build the entire universe like Apple did. I would looooove a complete Chrome experience. It's the best browser, and it should be running my machinery.

Wait, wait, wait.....don't move so fast. I wanna have someone taste it before you start getting all technical....[:-dev3] Seriously, yes, open up the wall. Guessing about what's in a wall is silly; open it all up and find out. You're talking $5 worth of material and an hour to open and close it.

That's why I was wondering about the substrate. If substrate is OK, a patch and recoat would run $25k+, easy. Maybe $35k+. We've got some here that don't need stripping; they can be patched and recoated with a cementitious "paint" and they go another 30 years. If that place had to be stripped, and completely redone, yeah, you're looking way north of $75,000. After that, I'd have to get up close and personal to figure out the cost.

Macbook Air, 13", 512GB solid state HD, 8GB RAM. Faster than fast. Almost 9x faster than a 5400rpm HD. A hair over 2 lbs. 10-12 hour battery. It's amazing.

If it's on a decent substrate with no major bulges or delams, Chicago Stucco would probably be in for a recoat and out looking neat and clean for about 10k. They're up to about $25-30k for the full tilt recoat and repair on a big old 4 square River Forest or Oak Park style.

What's the substrate? Wood or metal lath, terra cotta, 1x6 sheathing with the canvas and felt thing....(?)...

Nothing. Time Machine makes a mirror of the drive. Plug in the new machine, click restore, choose the backup drive, hit OK, go get a slice of pie and coffee, come back, like nothing ever happened. Except the new machine is about 8 times faster; it's unbelievable.

Been using laptops since the first Powerbook 100, never a hiccup. I'd always chosen when and where to get the new machine. Until yesterday afternoon. Come home, open it up my trusted friend......dead. Deader than dead. But I've got my Time Machine backup. Spent the last night and into the morning resurrecting my operation on a new machine. Don't forget to back up. A reminder......