Tom Raymond

Ha! That's a hoot. I've yet to work with one that knew what the hell they were doing. The last project I did with an architect was converting the gift shop at the local hospital into a Coffee Culture kiosk. His specs were so far out of whack I had to cut a cabinet in half to make it fit.

Having just been tuned up by the Chiropractor this morning, I'm reminded that it was a 60 footer that did my back in 20 years ago. I don't know why you guys are whining about 40'.[] Charlie, hire a painter!

Isn't there enough crap on the web already? Sorry, that was way to easy to resist.

That's a standard two track low head room setup. The top track isn't too short, the roller is in the wrong bracket.

In a former life, when I installed residential alarm systems, I would jump for joy when I found one of those. They were especially handy when running the door holders for the fire systems in the grand old homes that had been converted into group residences.

...to his tool bag. The guy has no clue.

If I were king, the three or four companies that manufacture vacuums would have been required to install HEPA filters on every vac they make starting around 1980, shotly after lead paint was banned. Then the lead dust would be removed at every cleaning, in nearly every contaminated household. Those unfortunate enough as to live in aging housing and unable to afford new vacuums would not be remodeling and creating large volumes of leaded dust and debris, and the ones who were would be cared for under the then existing HUD program rules. Everyone would have a HEPA vac eventually through atrittion. As it is now, a contractor is liable for all of the dust in the building even though the EPA protocols only require him to clean up what he disturbs. There is no way to differentiate between long standing environmental contamination and what gets disturbed in the course of a renovation, or whether a poisoning is the result of which exposure. Worse yet, the protocols are designed for the hokey cleaning verification procedure, they will almost certainly not produce an area clean enough to pass clearance. To give you an idea of how rediculous the EPA lead rules are; the EPA began requiring the removal of phosphates from detergents at the same time as it banned lead paint yet it continued, until the most recent publication (30 years later), to advise the use of phosphated detergent as the most effective way to clean up lead contamination. Pretty smart, huh?

I checked Wisdom's site a few days ago. The only State that has anything scheduled is Alaska. Let's hope the EPA jumps on clearance, I'm positioned to run with that. Edit: They ain't free. The University is $199 and Cooperative Extension is $195. There's nothing this side of Albany County for months.

Flir has three cameras under $2k, and some really stellar devices around $5k. The cheap one is only 60x60 resolution and probably a waste of money, but the top of the line 'Tool Box' cam is a pretty good place to start. There is free training online and a user forum, but I haven't used either so... Go to the Flir website and see if there is an Open House event near you. I haven't looked in a while, but I would imagine that Fluke has something competitive.

The intent behind the rule is very good, and long over due, but the rule is ridiculous. Honestly I've been waiting patiently for someone to get spanked, it's the only way my classes are going to populate. Too bad it wasn't closer to home.

I had a Ranger once. I bought it new in '90. At 60k one of the damper springs flew out of the clutch disc. The new throw out bearing lasted 5000 miles, the new slave cylinder went shortly after replacing the bearing. When the tranny came out for the third time it was the last. I dropped in a 300HP chevy 350 with a vintage Carter AFB and Turbo 350 automatic. The drive shaft from the '77 Monte Carlo that donated the tranny was fitted with the conversion U joint used by all the Chevy guys that run Ford rear ends and was a perfect fit. A Hurst ratchet shifter, a custom tranny mount, and custom dual exhaust rounded it out. It'd do 130 (almost 60 miles an hour faster than the 4 banger) and still average 19 MPG (the best I ever got with the 4). It was way more fun to drive too.

Just about every one of his 'masterpieces' displays similar disregard to building science. Greycliff, about 20 minutes from here, is in the home stretch of the second multi million dollar phase of restoration/preservation, another phase and several tens of million more are needed to complete it. I recall reading, many years ago, about a house in Illinois that needed structural repair and rework all the way to it's footings, a filtch beam to keep the second floor from falling in, as well as reworking a barrel vault from the top side to preserve the plaster fresco below. His aesthetic is particularly stunning, his structural design prowess not so much.

I do like it, though the play room could use some gaurd rails. Around here the sauna would be superfluous. The attic would excede the sauna temps for at least half the year.

Well; we used IKO, and I left that company in '91 when I fell of a ladder and wrecked my back. Their 25 year shingle generally lasts about 15 years so any of them that are still in service would be mighty thin.

That's funny!

In Richmond my guess would be Southern Yellow Pine. Nowhere near as naturally rot resistant as your English White Oak.

When I was roofer in a former life we called it booking, and only did it on roof overs and only with 3 tabs. It always looked like crap, you could see every column where each installer varied the exposure. I would frequently double nail the overlapped tab since it was way faster than lifting it-I was a teenager, I didn't know any better and the boss didn't care.

That doesn't make it right. If the roofer is too lazy to lay out the shingles right, what else did he screw up.

Lemme guess, they switched to muni water[:-banghea I have a well similar to that in my yard. I'm very tempted to hook it back up, considering I spend as much on filters as I do on the mud delivered by the water dept.

Funny, there are virtually none here.

It's delaminated. It will no longer function as intended. When it breaks The delaminated portion will not remain in place, and if the impact is hard enough it may all fall out. It has failed and should be replaced.

That's how I feel when I see nice places getting 'dozed. Some stuff is worth saving, and some ain't. I bought an old house because I wanted the charm and character that comes with old houses. No one told me that my fuel bills would out pace my mortgage payments, or that I'd be nailing blankets over those lovely old doors to keep out the cold. Wavy glass in slender sash with through mortised muntins pegged and wedged in place are gorgeous, but they belong in a museum-we can't afford to keep them in our homes. Our forefathers were far more innovative and progressive than we give them credit for. They certainly would have used the high performance materials we do if they had access to them. If not, we'd all still be living in caves and chasing our supper with pointy sticks.

This got me thinking so I went to have a look. Seems NADRA is running a little behind. http://www.nadra.org/consumers/deck_safety_month.html

It's very telling that the 'comments' were better written. No surprise that Mike's comment is longer than the article[]

They're a far more graceful solution than that last image.