Rocon

It depends on the fire wall assembly and the 1/2 inch drywall. Most 1/2 inch drywall is not rated for fire assemblies. If it was 5/8 it is not much of an issue. As I recall in some of the old UBC versions from the 60's and 70's there are some assemblies in the tables that might comply. Do not use an older code that pre-dates the original construction date of the house. One interesting fact to remember when discussing fire walls is that a fire rated assembly has passed the ASTM test once. We do not know how many times it was tested. So the wall you are looking at with ? inch drywall with paneling over it could possibly last 1 hour. But without testing it no one can say.

Except for pre wrapping a chase through combustible materials and enclosed spaces for the purpose of draft stopping and fire protection. Bill has it right the spacer would be installed.

http://brinyte.en.alibaba.com/product/2 ... 8650_.html http://www.dealextreme.com/p/flood-to-t ... 8650-44277

This is fairly common with a particular builder in Las Vegas. Click to Enlarge 52.05 KB Click to Enlarge 45.66 KB

I agree, the trim never seems to work well. Click to Enlarge 72.32 KB Click to Enlarge 76.43 KB Click to Enlarge 76.88 KB

Guys, I am not completely buying into the sulfur or off gassing. The fuzz only occurs on black wires, and it seems only the 12-14 ga. not the larger conductors. Some may say that the larger wires are not copper, however sulfur oxidizes aluminum also. The photos I have seen of homes with the Chinese drywall, they have no visible damage to the insulation. The sulfur passes through the insulation and corrodes the wires along the length of the wires. That is why homes with Chinese drywall cannot just strip some more insulation to expose fresh wire. Additionally in the top left of photo #2, I can see some bright or very lightly tarnished copper. If sulfur was the issue the copper would have a complete black patina, it is next to the insulation with fuzz and should be subject to the same environmental effects. I think it might be wise to look towards the plasticizer in the insulation casing. The plasticizer might be reacting to an environmental issue or it could be something related to the particular manufacturer of that wire. Some more questions I would ask: • Can the wire be identified by any of the casing marks? o If the wire can be identified research if any insulation failures are known. • Could the wire have been exposed to chemicals before installation? o (back of the truck) • Could those wires be/have been conducting too much current?

When I fell out of my chair I think I hurt my spleen.

It just seems so amazing that the owner ignores all the indications that would tell a normal person to rethink their position.

This is some of the best reading ever. http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ng-advisor

As I understand it, these circulators can wear out copper pipes prematurely by "scouring" the pipe with continuously running water, so the timer is also beneficial to the plumbing. Set to be on only during potential use hours. I doubt that these pumps wear out pipes more than others. Could the braded lines wera out faster?... possibly. Typicaly scour occurs when the pipes are not reamed prior to sweating them together.

Yes. Typically they are hard piped in near the water heater in the dedicated return line. This type is for a system that has no dedicated return line. You would see that one flex line is connected to the cold and one to the hot. It uses the cold water side as the return while pulling hot water through the hot line.

How are you folks determining rating? For me it is the APA label which we uncovered at several locations.

Correct, unfortunately there was no plywood installed so I could at least take a swag at how they performed in the same assembly side by side. However on another project where plywood left completely exposed to the elements for two years the plywood was still generally intact. The plywood was no longer viable as a shear resisting structural element. Granted the wetting and drying cycle of exposed plywood compared to OSB in an assembly is completely different. On this project (photos) I saw something that really amazed me. If you look at some of my original photos the OSB is gone but the lumber next to it shows some staining but very little damage to the framing, straps, and nails. Some of the OSB is completely deteriorated between a Simpson strap and framing timber. Somehow I believe that plywood might have performed better. To what degree? Who knows? I must admit that the OSB on the roof (same project as the photos came from) was nearly pristine. With no water introduced the OSB only showed discoloration from heat… Not a problem. The issue I have of soaking OSB in a tub for several months is that just introducing water to a material does not create advanced decay; at best you would find delamination of components. The incipient decay I found is from many wetting and drying cycles. The “washingâ€

Well there were a lot of issues. The project is in Florida so the rain exposure is high. I would include the following issues for allowing water into the framing. 1. The plaster system is a one coat system installed with one layer of WRB. Its total thickness was less than ½Ã¢â‚¬

My photos are of exposure 1 rated OSB installed in 2004. It seems that once the water is introduced to the OSB the lignan breaks down very quickly. The adhesives seem to have very little resistance to moisture.

You will see other issues that contributed to the condition but this is some OSB I found last month. Click to Enlarge 62.59 KB and here is what it looked like on the ground after I removed it with my bare hand. Click to Enlarge 89.38 KB

Usually there is a key cylinder that can be removed from the outside when the door is down. It is typically on garages that do not have access from the house or an exterior door. If the power goes out you can gain access.

The first two photos show light to moderate de-granulation. When you see that look at the gutters and if you see a lot of granules in the gutter you will know. The skrim is just visible at the bottom edges but not bad, and I don’t see any delamination. The third photo shows what happens when a shingle is bent/folded. The shingle above it also looks like it has been folded but the lines are offset by an inch or so. If I was going to guess it looks like some shingles have been removed and reset. If not it is just a fold. Overall the roof probably has 8-10 years of service life left.

Alot of new projects have sprung up in Reno with one coat plaster systems. No one seems to know how to detail them properly.

I'm not so sure that's accurate. I'm not defending design (ugly, stupid), but some of the stuff showing the "symptom" is simple gable end design with eave overhangs. What's wrong with the gable end/eave overhang design? I look at nearly identical buildings all the time where one shows a snowstorm of efflorescence, and the one right next door shows nothing. After detailed analysis, the problem usually goes to some chemical or masonry composition issue. Like Mike said, accelerators seem to be the problem much of the time. The house I grew up in had a brick detail very similar to the photos. Basicaly there was a horizontal shelf for water to land on. two dricks below there was a funny white stain on the brick. Fast forward... today I have a better knowledge of what causes the efflorescence. I agree that the gable end which has very signifficant efflorescence is probably not from rain. The detail I mention is not at the gable in the photos, it is a belly band at the second floor plate +-. This typr of detail could be dealt with by using a through wall flashing below the top brick. When I saw that detail I could not understand why it would be used in the north west.

The symptom is water intrusion, the problem was design, followed by execution.

It also appears in your photo that there could be ridge venting inplace.

I upgraded to the Torch from the Blackberry Bold. The Bold is a good workhorse, compact with good battery life. The Torch offers me a better entertainment function that the Bold did. The Bold has good music and video playback but the screen is small. The Torch has a much larger screen, almost identical to the iphone. This allows me to watch movies, listen to podcasts, or music while I travel. The added feature of tethering to my laptop (providing internet access) and phone at the same time is really helpful sometimes.

More exactly others like them? Since I don’t believe I have ever posted them before.

Mike, I did it in Venice CA several years ago for lightweight concrete floors, as well as podium decks. Wealsoinstalled conrete couters with the same techniques. The floors were ground with the same machines used in Terrazo. And for anyone that has never seen this check out Cheng design (he has a book out that is worth purchasing) and Buddy Rhodes studio (sells propriatary mix) for alot of interesting things. Many things can be added to the mix and ground down. I have seen some showers where the cement is cast into large panels polished and then adhered to the wall surfaces like tile this created a similar look to the earlier photo. http://www.chengdesign.com/geocrete-countertops.html http://www.buddyrhodes.com/ Cheng has videos located her also: http://www.concretenetwork.com/news/ Here are some pictures of one of the floors: Click to Enlarge 36.93 KB Click to Enlarge 36.21 KB Click to Enlarge 26.36 KB For comparison here is one of the unpolished floors: Click to Enlarge 39.34 KB Ramon