tim5055

New question.... Contractor #2 suggested something I have never heard of - using 5/8 marine grade plywood as the backer for the Kerdi System in the shower rather than green board or cement backer board. The Kerdi installation instructions just say "The substrate must be clean, even, and load bearing." Thoughts?

Nice looking shower!

I wish it were that easy.... At each end are doors to his/hers closets. One by the toilet room and one by the existing shower. Contractor #1 swears they can detail it so there will be no leakage. I'm thinking about a variation of John's suggestion, by shifting the shower head away from the window. Instead of having a small bench on each small wall by the vanities, I may put a bench under the window. Contractor #2 shows up Tuesday so let's see what he suggests.. To be continued.

my wife is already doing that without help. She keeps saying, well you spent all that money on the crawl space.......

ceiling is 10 feet. Fixed transom would still require filling in brick outside.... Above the bath is open attic of about 12 feet between drywall ceiling of bath and roof sheathing.

as you point out, a main goal is not to loose the natural light.

interesting thought.......

no surround, it will all be tile walls. I was assuming the wood trim would be replaced with tile. The question is how to seal to the glass block.

Matching the brick on the outside would be difficult. Plus, we really like the natural light as Marc pointed out.

The next project we are working on is a bath remodel. Here is the current layout, but the measurements are not exact and the angled wall is more of a 45, but you can get the idea: We are looking to loose the tub and build a big shower. The small shower area would open up to become additional vanity/storage space that we need. So, aside from the debate over needing a bath in the master bathroom, can you properly detail around a window to make it watertight? Here is the area: The shower would encompass a little more than the area of the existing tub, tiled using Schluter KERDI system. There would be two low walls at the ends of the vanities with benches and the shower head would be where the picture is hanging on the wall. A search here does not reveal a lot of information on this subject, but I'm guessing more negative. Thoughts?? Are we crazy?? Again, I thank everyone for their time and comments!

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read and respond. After moving the sensor to what I suspected was the "wetter" area the RH has risen to 59%. As I suspected I may need to move the air around a little.

No worries Mike, I'm not a mold nut. Probably a poor choice of descriptive words in my haste. This one area of the crawl has a greater population of growing stuff that is black in color. I'm not trying to say it is a specific mold. As I suspected this area has a higher RH, as it started climbing when I moved the sensor there. Maybe a fan is in order to keep the air moving.

Thanks!! Right now the sensor is just sitting on a shelf by the door to the crawl. Prior to encapsulation there was no mold in this area, so I assume my crawl has several micro-climates. I'm moving the sensor to the area that had black mold under the insulation and on the joists and see how the readings change.

Here are the generator interlock kits I found. Thoughts if you find on of these bolted to the dead front of a panel? QO LOAD CENTER GEN INTLK OUTDOOR HIGH AMP Aftermarket Interlock Kits

I guess you can consider me one of the nerds. I purchased THIS weather station as well as an additional temperature/humidity sensor for the crawl. It gives me the information I wanted and allows me to stream it tot he web where I can look at it on my smartphone. As of right now this is what I show (purple is outside/green is crawl)

It will work, but may kill the lineman trying to restore power if Bubba doesn't remember to turn off the main. On a similar note, as I am researching adding the generator to my house I saw an adapter made for certain Square D panels that allows something similar to this installation. It is a two pole breaker that goes in the upper right slots of the panel with an adapter that attaches to the dead front that will not allow that breaker and the main to be on at the same time. Maybe Bubba saw that and decided to copy it.

OK, I have the thermometer/humidistat running in the crawl. It may take a day or two to settle, but what RH should I be shooting for in the crawl? Once it gets there I can dial back the dehumidifier as the dial on it just says dryer with an arrow to the right.

From reading the article it appears that there is money to be made in MA by teaching classes on HI report writing.

Funny you should say this. One of my previous houses had a stain that kept reappearing on a wall in the bathroom. I finally decided to bite the bullet and cut out the drywall to find out what was going on. A plumbing drain ran up the wall and the dry wall installers obviously found the "stud". It had drywall screws in it from floor to ceiling, following the PVC pipe.

It appears to be a USB charging adapter LIKE THESE. I assume the plug to the right is for something else.

I'm already looking for a RF thermometer/humidistat so I can watch the temperature difference between the crawl and the house. I'm told that with "leakage" in the ductwork they will eventually get "close". I'd like to know what close is

Well, I've been watching the dehumidifier and it's pumping out quite a bit of water.

Well, here are the before & after shots. I tried to take the afters as close to where the before shots were made. I'm happy with the outcome and only time will tell if it was a worthwhile expenditure. Watching for the past three days tells me that the company made a good profit. But, would I be willing to do it myself - no. The job took 2 1/2 days. Two guys were there the full time and two other guys were in and out. My best guess is 60 man-hours work. They worked from the time they arrived until they left, no slacking.

Encapsulation work has started. Step 1, close and seal all vents. Each vent closed and a 3" think foam board is cut to fit - then foamed into place. Step 2, Rim joist foamed and sealed around the entire house. Step 3, the plastic is put up on all walls. Several inches of the top of the foundation is left uncovered for termite inspection. The entire job should take 2 - 3 days. I will keep posting photos as they work.

Thanks again to everyone here! I am now connected to the city sewer and all bypassed plumbing reconnected. All funky plumbing noises are gone.