John Kogel

Found this: Call Certainteed Technical Services 1-800-345-1145

Denny are you sure that every fastener goes through the HPlank to the ledger? I would say they need a ledger board or a beam support from below. Ditto Ricardo, 2 minutes in the lead. []

50 foot tall stacks of cedar. Old growth clear cedar that is. That guy is standing on one of the steps to the top, where he would no doubt be guiding sling loads from a big overhead crane. The blurb says they would stack the wood for 9 months. Also mentions a big fire in the 50's. The old general store is waiting for a restoration of the windows, for sure.

Yes this time, but not always. The plywood will hold that roof together,... but how well is the plywood nailed? Can't say.

Those steps for the ladies need a handrail. [] Men were men.

Thanks Howard. Counterflow is no-no, got it. Yes, Victoria had a coal gas plant but you must be an old fart. That was before the Great War. [] Click to Enlarge 11.73 KB Built in 1860. I have seen the old gas pipes in some century old houses.

Sorry, OnAir. That remark about oil was just a general comment from an islander. No natural gas here until 1990 when they laid the pipeline across the Strait. Thanks Howard. There is a version of that furnace that is a downdraft style. Return air enters the upper end and is drawn down through the heat exchanger. That struck me as a good design but what say you? Is there more condensation on the heat exchanger or less?

If they are weep holes, they are there to let moisture out.

I get to reply ahead of Howard The Airco Guru. [] 2 is the month, 4 is the year - 1964 Beatlemania! The design output was 100 BTU/hr and stove oil was cheap.

There is no humidifier, don't need them here. The air is either moist or frozen. The plumbing vent comes up behind the sink in the right interior wall, then crosses over to the roof jack above the left, suspended by the strap in pic3. Yes, warm air could be leaking out around the hole in the wall plate or the pipe itself.

More info? Sure. It was a frigid day, about 2 degrees below freezing with a skiff of snow. There is plenty of soffit ventilation as seen by the baffles, a poly vapor barrier and about 14" of insulation. The upstairs bathroom was quite warm due to a wide open register and like I said, the thermostat down in the living room with a double height vaulted ceiling. There is minimal staining anywhere else, 12 yr old house. Click to Enlarge 44.66 KB Click to Enlarge 49.22 KB Click to Enlarge 56.23 KB Click to Enlarge 31.1 KB

Hello Jim. When the frost or stain is at the baffle openings, yes, it must be coming in from outside through the soffits. But here, there is frost only in these two places, between the baffles but directly above the interior walls. The one truss is also black. So I think there is a poor seal where the walls meet the trusses. The attic hatch is adjacent and needs some weatherstrip, so some warm air is likely leaking in from there as well.

Got some cool pics in this attic. [] The two plumes of frost are at the walls of an upstairs bathroom. This bathroom is not being used, no shower curtain so no long showers, no exhaust fan to leak, just a light fixture on the ceiling that is probably leaking some air. An elderly couple only use the downstairs master bathroom. The insulation between these two frost plumes is wet on top, where you see black on the white fiberglass. Moldy dust, I call that black stuff. The heat pump was going strong to keep the main floor at 68 F. Up in the bathroom, a register is pumping heat in, and a vaulted ceiling above the downstairs living room is supplying even more heat. I think they should pull back the insulation and look for leakage at the wall top plates. Click to Enlarge 53.33 KB Click to Enlarge 51.5 KB Click to Enlarge 55.75 KB

Yeah, Dylan had that problem in 1965. In his room, the heat pipes did cough, the light flickered in the opposite loft, the country music station played soft but there was nothing, really nothing to turn off. Can your lucky tenants control the heat fairly well at the radiators? Can those valves have thermostat controls added?

Thanks, Mark. The story as I understand it is that when inspectors arrived last year to inspect the 100-yr-old building, that elevator, which has a swing door and no safety gate, was locked, supposedly not in use. So after the inspection, someone removed the lock? That is unforgivable IMO.

That happens all the time, even on newer houses with prescriptive venting. I suspect that the air in the attics has never looked at the diagrams, which show how it's supposed to move. Attic venting is a chaotic system. I agree. I'd go on to say that it (proper attic venting) doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot, either. Sorry, Jim M. It may not matter much in your area and it may not matter in many older drafty houses in my area, but in newer houses here it matters a lot. Need examples? I've got the pics.

Or a panic button? Sometimes the phone cabinet is empty, but there's a red button to push. That's so they'll know you're still alive in there. [:0]

That receptacle is for folks who think upside down is better than right side up. It works for either side of the brain, as well as folks that favor the left side over the right. I can think of no logical reason for any of that oddball stuff, except to confuse anyone visiting the house. Just an annoyance, like light dimmer switches without handles, for example. Those are real fun when the bulb is burned out. [:-party] A sliding light dimmer switch the other day, mounted upside down, why? How about the fan that uses a remote, but the remote is nowhere in sight?

In my area they went from copper or galvanized and cast iron to ABS. In other words, 60 years of ABS, no negative issues with it. I only see PVC now that they sell PVC drain traps at the box store.

They do that here too. The power company changes the pole, and they leave phone and cable attached to a piece of firewood. Agreed there is no code issue there. My peeve with the new pole installers is that they pull service conductors up tight with a come-along. About a week ago, I had a house with a bent mast. SEC's pulled tight. Not sure who pays to repair that.

I agree, but this particular beam has a butt splice right there. [] Bolt and glue a 2X sister both sides of the beam long enough to make everyone happy, then 2 screw jacks fastened to the beam and a suitable footing. I would try not to lug sand or concrete. OK, what if it's a chimney foundation? Well then you need to build a retaining wall. Thanks for all good answers.

I agree, but this particular beam has a butt splice right there. So I guess they would need two posts, a long and a short. That's a nifty tool, Marc. Good for checking the mud down at the levee. []

This hole was stable for quite a few years but. We have to be prepared for a tremor now and then in this part of the globe. I was alsp thinking a flood like a broken water main would destabilized the soil pretty quick. Sack-rete poured in for backfill would set up harder than sand, but sand will let the water out. I think pulling some dirt from the surrounding crawl for baclfill would be good. Thanks Jim, I was thinking a reinforced CMU retaining wall, but sandbags would be stronger and really stable. I think a sack of that redi-mix weighs about 80 lbs, tho.

Is there a proven method for repair when fools have dug the soil away from a crawlspace pier block? Click to Enlarge 45.19 KB

Breaking in a new camera, and before clearing the memory, thought I would post this pic. There's enough Amanita pantherina here to kill a small family. Click to Enlarge 112.79 KB