Hello Tim,
A neighbor told me that mushrooms in my yard are a sign that I have termites. Can you tell me if there is any truth in this statement? Thank you,
James
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James,
There is no truth whatsoever in this statement. It leads me to believe your neighbor might have eaten one of them and it is the type that produces hallucinations. Mushrooms are fungal growth that often are based in decaying wood in your yard. The source could be an old branch or a twig. The mushroom is actually the last hurrah of the fungal growth. The mature mushroom cap releases millions of spores so the fungas can continue to propogate.
Termites do eat wood, but they do not produce mushrooms.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
http://premium.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Tim,
How do you lay out drywall on steel studs? Should it be vertical across the studs or horizontal across the studs, and should I stagger the drywall? This is for a basement that is studded with steel and I m very confuuuuuused!!! Thanks,
Holley
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Holley,
The best way to install drywall is horizontally. You should also stagger the seams. Installing it vertically requires that the spacing of the studs must be perfect and they are perfectly plumb. This is much harder to achieve that you might think.
Then wait until you are bending down to tape all of those vertical seams every 4 feet. With 12 foot drywall, you only have to do it every 12 feet. Since you rarely have wall runs longer than twelve feet without an inside or outside corner interrupting it, you might never have that flat seam in a wall run.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
http://premium.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Good Morning Tim,
We are remodeling our 1914 bathroom. At all of our new walls, including the shower, we are applying cement board and ceramic tile.
We have two existing plaster walls on two sides of the new whirlpool tub, do we need to replace these walls with the cement board, too? We have heard conflicting options. One person said that plaster is similar in properties to cement board, and for a tub area, plaster would be fine. We will be applying ceramic tile over these 2 walls.
Jennifer L. Wenger, IIDA
Saint Paul, MN
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Jennifer,
Whoever told you it was OK to apply tile to plaster is wrong. Yes, plaster does have some cement in it, but it is primarily lime. Plaster does deteriorate over time when subjected to water. What's more, if it is applied to wood lath strips, you will have a huge wood rot problem. Finally, I doubt the plaster is in the same plane. The cement board must be in the same plane for the tile to look perfect.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Hi Tim,
I am working with a contractor on a home design where the exterior and interior walls are going to be exposed concrete block and lots of glass here in Florida. The issue that is causing a good deal of heart burn is how to run the wiring inside the block and mount plug and switches. I maintain that commercial building all around town and the world for that matter have wiring run this way with no problem. The builder insists it can not be done. Surely there is a solution to this problem. Is there a specification or documented method for running wiring in block?
Thanks,
John Isella
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John,
That builder is blowing smoke up someplace it should not be. It is absolutely possible to put electric within concrete block walls. The first place to verify this, of course, is with your electrical inspector. Find out from them the approved boxes, methods, conduit, connectors, etc. that should be used with block.
Keep in mind that if the block are laid properly, the cores line up. There is plenty of room to get half inch conduit up and through 6 or 8 courses of block. Is it easy to lift the block up and then down to tread the conduit, No! But is it possible? I have done it countless times.
Do not back off. This builder is lazy and/or takes very little pride in his work.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Tim,
I believe I have a cultured marble whirlpool. It is about 6 years old and has developed a horizontal crack near the base. Is there any way to repair the crack?
Thanks,
Bill Selkirk
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Bill,
You can apply clear epoxy over the crack. Often the crack is just in the upper gel coat, not through the entire matrix of the cast stone. I would closely inspect the crack and try to determine if it is just in the clear coat. If it is, it simply is an aesthetic issue.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Tim,
I am having my first new home built and have seen the concrete slab, and now the blocks were delivered. Before the blocks arrived, they delivered the trusses or rafters and placed them directly on the ground bundled together with metal or plastic straps.
We have had a lot of rain and the rafters have been in a mud & water for about a month now. I am very concerned about the wood and wonder if it's bad for the wood to lay on the ground. Can this cause mold? I have contacted the builder and he seems to feel it's no big deal. Do they usually use pressured treated wood? The builder said the rafters could set out for a long time and exposed to the weather and still would be good to use for the new house. I don't know what to think. What do you say?
Karen
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Karen,
It is a big deal. My guess the trusses were made with regular Southern Yellow Pine, not treated lumber. It is okay for framing lumber to get wet *after* it is erected as it can rapidly dry. You want the lumber to get protected as quickly as possible, but it is not the end of the world if a house gets rained on as it is built. But lumber stacked closely together on the ground is not an accepted building practice.
I have acted as an expert witness in several mold cases and I know for a fact that what your builder has done is totally wrong and against all industry standards with respect to the storage of lumber outdoors. The trusses or rafter lumber should not have been dumped directly on the ground. They should have been placed on timbers so there is no direct contact with the soil. The wood should have then been covered with a tarp much like you see a rain fly over a tent. The sides of the tarp extending out at a low angle to allow air circulation through the stacked lumber. If you drape the tarp or plastic over the sides of the lumber and hold it down with rocks, the moisture from the soil gets into the lumber and causes huge problems.
Your builder has made a big mistake and there is tons of scientific data in the literature to support what I say. Each of the trusses needs to be sprayed with a bleach and water solution the day they are installed. I can guarantee you mold is growing on and in the stack. There is not a doubt in my mind.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
http://premium.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Tim,
We have a black slate floor that we want to lighten up. It's beautiful stone, but my wife hates it. Is there anything we can do to change or lighten the color in a way that won't be a maintenance headache?
Thanks,
Tom Thomas
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Tom Tom,
There is nothing you can do. The color is solid throughout the stone.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Hello Tim,
Can you apply to drywall texture to a wall that has previously been painted or do you need to remove the paint?
Rachel O.
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Rachel,
You can apply the drywall mud to a painted wall. I would wash the wall with soap and water first, rinse it and then let it dry.
I would also seriously consider blending some top-quality wall paint with the joint compound to add extra adhesive qualities. You do realize that paint is simply glue with color in it, don't you? The added benefit of adding paint is that the texture then has some water resistant properties. Without the added paint, the texture is easily dissolved by water. Sure, you can paint the texture after it is up, but that is hard to do!
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Tim,
We are looking for an alternative to PVC for mechanical uses in our "green" buildings. In Florida we can't really use cast iron as we have a low water table and the salt near the ocean fronts will dramatically shorten the life cycle. Are there green alternatives for waste piping, electrical conduit, home vacuum systems, etc. ?
Thank you
Randall Billings
Project Manager
Navo Builders, LLC
Vero Beach. FL 32963
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Randall,
There are no non-metallic ones I am aware of - this doesn't mean they don't exist, just none come to mind. I would think PVC could easily be represented as green. Why? It will *never* wear out. PVC is made one time and there are no replacement costs ever down the road. I realize Mother Nature is not making oil as fast as we use it, but PVC is a great material that can save homeowners long term money.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Hi there Tim,
I just bought a house and there is low water pressure in the kitchen and bath sinks, the tub pressure is great. I have searched online and one common suggestion I've come across is to remove and clean the aerators in the faucets. Well, we actually replaced the faucet in the kitchen (namely because the old one was hideous) so if it was an aerator problem, this should have solved it right? But we still have low pressure in the kitchen sink. I will try cleaning the aerators in the bath sinks and see what that does. Any suggestions? THanks so much!!
Rebecca, Washington, DC
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Rebecca,
That is the first place to look. When you install a new faucet the aerator MUST be off when you first turn the water on to see if the faucet works. If you don't, all of the sediment, flux, copper shavings, etc. in the piping gets stuck in the new, clean aerator!
You can test the faucet now by taking off the aerator. If the water flow seems great, you know the problem. If the flow is weak with the aerator off and the valves fully open, then the faucet cartridge is probably clogged with bits of sediment, flux or pipe shavings. Follow the instructions that came with the faucet to remove the faucet cartridge. You should readily see the debris causing the flow problem.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
HI,
I have been doing landscaping for apartment complexes and many residences for the last few years. I was wondering what to charge per foot for labor for french drain installation. I have a job that would require 300-500 feet worth of drain.
Thank you,
Gerald - Turning Leaves Landscaping
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Gerald,
If you know the time frame it will take, then do your math backwards. Simply calculate what you think it is going to cost you both in time materials and include a reasonable and fair profit and overhead figure. Double check your numbers. Then divide this final by the *actual footage* of drain you need to install. There is an enormous difference between 300 and 500! Go back and find out if it is 432 feet or 388 feet or 504 feet.
Also, start keeping an accurate journal for ALL jobs and do the math each time once you are finished. I want you to add up the exact hard and soft cost to you of what it took to complete each job and have an accurate measurement of how much you installed.
Once you have this, you can start to track the real cost the job should have been bid to you of different jobs. My guess is you will find the smaller jobs will routinely have a higher cost-per-linear-foot because of the fixed staging times to bid, administer, set up and clean up any given job. If you start to do this, you are going to find it is very simple to bid jobs and you will be able to see your actual costs rise by a given percentage every few months because of inflation.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Hello Tim,
We have defective Weyerhauser siding that needs to be replaced. We want to put permanent siding on, and we have been told the siders will put insulation on top of the old siding and then put the new siding on top.
Our concern is possible mold and other nasty stuff that may be lurking inside the current siding that will make itself felt after the new siding is applied.
Should the old siding be torn off, or is it acceptable to put the new on top of the old? Thank you very much,
Mary
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Mary,
The old siding MUST come off. It is non-negotiable. To say the very least, I am deeply concerned you are not using the right people for this job. If they think it is a good building practice to leave the old siding in place, what other things do they do wrong on a routine basis? You couldn't pay me to use the company you are currently talking with.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB
Hey Tim,
I want to replace my old wood windows with all vinyl new construction windows. I'm going to rip off my aluminum siding, remove and replace the old windows, and install vinyl siding. I'd like to use new construction windows because they have the nailing flange and siding channel. My problem is that my walls are about 5 1/8" thick and the closest thickness of window I can find is the standard 4 9/16". Does any company custom make vinyl windows with a custom jamb depth? Are there such things as vinyl extension jambs? Can I use wood extension jambs with vinyl windows? I really don't want to use replacement windows. My walls are - 3 1/2 stud, 3/4 sheathing, and about 13/16 sheetrock.
Thanks,
Ian K.
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Ian,
It is doubtful you will find vinyl windows the size you need. The reason is simple. The vinyl extrusions that are used to create the jambs and sills are made to precise sizes. The cost for the dies to make these extrusions is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It would be insanity for a company to make all sorts of different sizes hoping people might order them from time to time.
All you need to do is make a slight modification inside with clear wood trim to create your own extension jambs. Just paint the wood on all sides and edges before installing it and make sure you use a paint that matches in color and sheen that is hopefully an identical match to the vinyl.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB