Tom Raymond

Relax Erby, Winterpeg is probably already as cold as it's going to get in Kentucky this winter.

It's not just the junk mail. The site is ugly and it's difficult to navigate because every page looks the same, I'm not sure I could find my account settings if I wanted to. The only useful function I've found so far is the birthday reminders, there's no way in hell I'm gonna remember all of them.

Or not! My brothers had a friend pass away a year or so ago, every time I log on his page is in my friend suggestions. I find it disturbing, but his page is active because his little brother writes on his wall every day and many of his friends visit it often. I haven't been on in some time, it seems that I get 6-8 emails from facebook for every log in. I'll have to look into the sites on Scott's list to see if I like them any better.

Warehouse fan Richard?

The glass guys are idgits. The fix is real simple; stop making IG units with single strength glass and start putting the low E coating on the inner pane. This ofcourse won't happen because it will cost money to put more glass in a unit and shifting the coating will shift the U factor. Look at an Andersen window for example; small air space, single strength glass, and a U value of .34. A shift of .01 and it no longer meets Energy Star.

I tried to read the whole thing Ramon, but it was a jumbled mess. Every highlighted word had it's info inserted after it rather than off in cyber space as a link [:-headach I will definately go look for the fires though[:-hot]

I was talking to a Certainteed rep recently and he shared a funny story. He had a "thermal distortion" issue on a house in Buffalo where there is nothing but a 12' blacktop drive between houses. He goes out to look and there is a 4-5 foot stripe of melted siding that starts about three and a half up from the ground the full length of the wall. Turns out the neighbors don't get along and the guy next door figured out that the reflection from his car was melting his neighbor's siding. He moved his car up and down the driveway over several weeks so as to inflict as much damage as possible.[] Think I could bounce enough light next door to burn my neighbor's place down?[:-dev3]

When my wife set up her print shop we had a similar issue with the three phase service. Most of her equipment was 208v, but her compressor and folder were 240v. Fortunately the complex was big enough to have its own substation, so the voltage typically measured 210 to 214 volts depending on the demand in the rest of the complex. High enough for the 240v motor loads, and low enough for the 208v motor loads. 110/220 is just stuck in my head I guess.

Ah, the country! Beautiful vistas, fresh air, and 110v service you share your neighbor. 40 amp fuse box right?[]

Video that for us John. I'm sure I'm not the only one that wants to see you lift a full water heater. 40 gallons of water is nearly 350 pounds.

Marc, I just read an article on lightening suppression. The latest opinion is that rounded tips, because they provide more surface area, are more effective than the small increase in charge at a sharp point. All the transmission lines I see are insulated, it must be a regional thing. Bare wire would certainly be cheaper.

I've never seen bare transmisssion lines. Most utilities would fix that here, and some would go so far as to move the transformer. I had a client that built an addition and the overhead entrance was actually stretched tight over the new overhang. When I called to request the entrance be moved so I could install soffit and fascia, they where there the next day and replaced the old over head with over 200' of new triplex, free of charge.

How old is the house? You mention a cistern and I see cast iron drains, but those things don't jive with the poured concrete foundation. At least not around here.

In a former life I did a window replacement project on a turn of the century hotel that had been converted into 100+ subsidized apartments on nine floors. I saw every kind of filth and disfunction you could imagine. My personal favorite was the accountant that had lost his marbles. He wasn't the typical horder, he only saved paper, and his piles were impeccable. They covered every horizontal surface in his apartment with amazingly precise spacing and alignment, yet if you asked him to produce the reciept for some obscure purchase from months ago he knew exactly where it was. This poor man tortured himself for weeks until we finally got past his floor. He had to box all of his papers so they didn't blow away when we removed the windows (and so we could navigate to them). It's a wonder he didn't jump.

You have two estimates, and the more experienced company wants to ventilate? You need another estimate from someone that knows what the hell they are doing.

I'm still trying to figure out how the UPC applies to the retrofit installation of a skylight[]

Interesting. Environmental commentary from a guy that installs mercury amalgam in people's mouths.

Marc, she(?) said it was manufactured in the OP. I don't like them very much either, but that "inferior" standard is there to meet the affordable housing mandate and keep the building light enough to have resonable road handling characteristics. The latter is somewhere near the very bottom of my list of desirable features for a house.

A manufacturer's afadavit is an acceptable alternative to a permanent label. Imagine a several thousand dollar high performance true divided lite patio door with 30 individual 'bugs', it would be hideous to look at. If your interior door is less than 20 years old or so, it is likely a single large piece of glass with an applied wood 'grille' on either side. Interior doors seldom have a 'bug', but if yours does there will only be one. If it is tempered there will be tell tale ripples in the glass. These ripples are often used to advantage on large window walls to minimize bird strikes.

Uhm, Mike is in Virginia. This time of year a jet turbine wouldn't remove the moisture from the bathroom before it condenses. I was in Lynchburg in June. At 90+ degrees the RH was so high, even in my climate controlled hotel room, that I started sweating as soon as I shut the shower off. Possibly before the last drop left the showerhead.

Are you sure it was metal? Some nail flanges include an integral drip cap, but it's a really soft durometer vinyl. Either way there should still be a drip cap above the head trim. Production builders drive me nuts, for about $20 more per window they could have an integral brickmold look J channel. They spent more than that on the wood brickmold, then paid someone to install it wrong, and they still need to buy and install J[:-banghea

Thanks Bill, I just spit coffee all over my laptop.

I'm pretty sure that's how it's spelled in canadian[] We give this guy way too much credit, all that crap on his site came from the minds of the marketing dept at HGTV Cananda. When was the last time you saw him wear a toque on camera?

You watch Fox news? I've lost all respect for you.

Mike Holmes does the 'tissue test'. Hold a tissue up to the fan to see if it has enough oomph to move the tissue. That will tell you a lot[]