Home Building Advice – I’m Happy to Call You
Custom Home Building Advice | The valve on the right needed to be moved down and to the left. The homeowner saved himself hundreds of dollars by investing in over-the-phone home repair advice! Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
Custom Home Building and Repair Advice - I Can Call You
My wife thinks I’m crazy most nights. We sit down after dinner and watch different shows on cable TV. I absolutely love to watch commercials laughing at some and groaning at others. I study them to see how the companies use psychological tricks to ply their wares. Read Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion to see how you're manipulated to buy things and think you might die from an invisible microbe. Psychology is more powerful than you could ever imagine.
Psychology in TV commercials is absolutely fascinating. One commercial, though, advertises a website that claims they can save you money on car insurance. The actor says that $21 billion a year is wasted by USA car drivers on insurance. Here he is:
You might wonder, “Tim, what does car insurance have to do with me, my home, and all the maintenance I need to be done?” It just so happens I’ve been working diligently on trying to solve a vexing problem about what I’m certain are billions of dollars you and millions of other homeowners are wasting each year when you fail to seek out expert home building advice before you sign a contract.
CLICK or TAP HERE to set up a phone call where I can HELP YOU with the best advice when building a home. Or, I can give you the best advice when repairing a home.
How is this possible? Easy. Tens of thousands of homeowners each day invest money in their homes. You decide to either hire a contractor to do work for you or you decide to roll up your sleeves and do the work yourself. The only trouble is you fail to invest the time to find out how to do the job the right way and invest foolishly. You may need the best advice when building a house.
Can't I Just Hope the Contractor Will Do the Job Right?
You proceed hoping everything is going to work out just fine. You hope the contractor knows the right way to do the job. But based on the countless help requests I get each month on my website, I think it’s fair to say things don’t always work out too well. Here’s a tip: You should only hope for things that you can’t control. Fortunately, you can have complete control over the outcome of work on your home.
Hoping a Gas Connection Will Work
Allow me to share with you some of the frightening scenarios I see each day. Overnight, Mike reached out to me because he wants to install a black iron natural gas pipe in his home. The issue is his gas lines are made with soft copper. Mike was wondering what’s the best way to connect black iron with soft copper.
I shared with him that two good friends of mine, a husband and wife, died three years ago when their house exploded from a gas leak. I then told Mike I’ve been a master plumber since age 29 and that what he needs to know requires a short conversation because there’s just too much vital information to transfer to him via email. I needed to know that he completely understood what had to be done so the connection was made safely.
The terrifying thing to me is that he might end up online watching videos that may show the absolute wrong way to make this critical connection. Mike could end up at a website where similar bogus information is published by faceless people. What are the credentials of the people who are creating content you or Mike are consuming?
Should I Read the About Us Page on Websites?
Do you actively think about this when you land on websites? When you visit a page on a home improvement website, do you immediately go to the About Us page to see what the credentials are of the person(s) who creates the content you’re about to base a decision that involves thousands or tens-of-thousands of dollars? If you don’t, you’re making a serious mistake.
Look at the About page on my website. You see a list of my credentials and you see my photo. If you don't see these at other websites, you should be VERY CAREFUL about any advice you get there.
Should A Vapor Barrier Be Used in a Ceiling?
Several days ago, John reached out to me telling me he’s about to insulate the vaulted ceiling of his log cabin. He had questions about a vapor barrier because the contractor he was thinking of hiring suggested one. What could possibly go wrong in this scenario?
For starters, if John or his contractor makes a mistake his entire roof could rot out because water vapor coming up through the house can’t rapidly be shunted outdoors. If this job is not done correctly, and roof ventilation is part of it, a giant mold bloom could develop between the ceiling and the underside of the roof. This toxic mold can sicken him and his family. Fortunately, John did the right thing and talked to me before he made a grave mistake.
Can Deck Beams Balance on Posts?
Here’s another example. Last year, I drove by an old house that’s being renovated just three miles from my home. I stopped to look at the new deck that was being added to the rear of the house. The carpenters just placed the outer support beam on top of two wobbly 4x4 posts. They just installed angled inferior nails from a nail gun through the beam into the posts. Believe it or not, the local building inspector allows this to happen.
I couldn’t imagine a worse connection detail other than maybe using masking tape to hold the wood together. I’d never stand nor sit on that deck. How could this mistake have been prevented?
The homeowner could have hired a structural engineer for several hundred dollars to get the best solution. Or, he could have typed into a search engine: connect deck beam to post hoping he finds the correct answer. Or he could have hired another expert to tell him the correct way to prevent a deck collapse.
You can help me solve this vexing problem of why more homeowners don’t reach out to experts for help them before they waste money or put their lives at risk. Just take a simple anonymous survey I’ve created.
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