Tom Raymond

No, but you do mine here for emails. Please unsubscribe me from 'Working RE'. Thanks.

It's clearly a mushroom with psychotropic properties, and I think he's eaten a few too many.

The neighbors are pissed. Their lights kept going on and off. Or... Brandon's right and they controlled the exhaust fans. When controls are hidden in closets it usually means that the builder didn't want the occupants dinking with them.

Ptac = package terminal air conditioner, it's all in one box. Split means split, a condenser with one or more mini air handlers. They're brilliant for new builds, but I have never seen a retrofit that I liked the look of. I seriously considered one for my place, but I can get close to walk in cooler temps with 3 little window units that cost less than $100 each. A 3 zone split would have run me $3500 in parts.

You've done enough demo and rework to remove a wall, why not do a little more and run new ducts? It'll cost way less than mini splits or a second furnace. Kurt, Americans are resistant to mini's because retrofits look like ass. Imagine line sets run all over the exterior like a bad cable TV install.

That is a thing of beauty.

It seemed to be working fine. Nothing out of the ordinary when I ...er...tested the facilities. I'm pretty sure the pine tree air freshener was just a courtesy.

This was in a powder room that was tucked into the cupboard under the stairs. It appeared to be an original feature from 1902, both in finishes in the room and the plumbing connections in the basement. There was a light weight bell, for lack of a better word, at the open end. Just how long have AAVs been around? Click to Enlarge 5.13 KB

1902 two story single family, the two pipe steam boiler was replaced with a 2009 Dunkirk natural draft hot water boiler, single zone system with 4 loops, 2" iron feeders wrapped in over an inch of asbestos, 2 per floor. All but one of the radiators on the first floor and a couple on the second floor were replaced with these: Click to Enlarge 13.12?KB A couple of the baseboard convectors had the original radiator covers over them. This one is the lone original radiator in the dining room: Click to Enlarge 11.39?KB For good measure, the tech installed the t-stat in such a way as to guaranty the boiler never shuts off: Click to Enlarge 9.27?KB I can imagine this poor little boiler running nonstop for months trying to satisfy the first floor t-stat on jacket loss, while the paint melts off the second floor radiators. All of the removed radiators had been carried upstairs to the second floor, likely because this is the kind of neighborhood where stuff gets stolen for scrap value.

Well I'm 57 and I melted several hundred lbs of babbit to make barbell weights in my late teens. Touched them plates thousands of times and I'm still here. Is that what happened to my hair? Marc No, but it does lead to impotence. Not popular at the range? I'd consider a different hang out.

I have hydronic heat in the floors of both my bathrooms, the bedroom hall and the kitchen. After months of nice warm floors you really miss them come spring. Don't cheap out on anything you plan to bury in tile. Do your homework and get the best system you can afford.

I'll bet it was a whole lot easier to get it there than to get it out.

I bet you look damned funny on the roof with a caddy!

The aluminum vent strips provide very little net free area per rafter bay. The baffle system used by your contractor is also limiting air flow, and your insulation contractor either crushed or buried them. Someone is going to have to go up there, pull back the insulation, and replace the affected baffles. I don't get why you need a humidifier in a brand new house. Nearly every material in that building will be drying out and emitting gallons of water vapor into the conditioned space for much of the first heating season. While I doubt it had anything to do with the mold in the attic, it is likely to have contributed to mold within the conditioned space. Unless you have as much wood on the inside as there is out, or breathing disorder that is eased by it, turn that damned humidifier off.

Ok, your right. I should have said 'has authority over'. I'd ask them to PFO.

There must have been suggestive language somewhere. It's too big a coincidence that the customary number to *make up* is 6'.

I can't imagine a scenario where an AHJ would have anything to say about 11 year old ducts.

Thanks Bill. I was there for the day job so I didn't get to snoop too much.

Ran across this this morning. I don't ever recall seeing transite used for drainage. Was this common? Click to Enlarge 127.62 KB

I don't see anything even remotely resembling best practice there.

I came across a 25 year old AquaGlas last week that looked like it was brand spanking new. The water temp at the nearest fixture was 105 F. Not exactly a star performer. Your unit is older than Kristen Stewart and younger than Lindsay Lohan. It'll either have a terminal pout (like the AquaGlas) or be tempermental and self destructive. Either way it's long past time for a change.

If you can stomach the cost is a great place for foam, but a buck a board foot is pretty steep for DIY insulation. Skip cleaning it unless it's moldy. Insulate it with glass, it's cheap and it will outperform the rest of the envelope from the sounds of things. Enclose the exterior walls before you place the tub, it's the plenum space under the tub open to the stud cavity that caused that stain.

And for about what it would cost to fix the stucco he'll have the whole mess covered in vinyl.

Why would you want a gutter up there? To keep water off the lower roof? Really?

There's basically two types of low e coatings; a hard coat that is embedded in the glass, and a soft coat that is molecule thick layers applied on the surface of the glass. Soft coat low e is fragile, and when moisture enters the airspace the metals corrode creating spots and streaks that at first glance look almost like mildew. It's broken and needs to be replaced.