Installing Plumbing Drain Pipes

Posted on by Tim Carter
configuration of drain pipes

Installing Plumbing Drain Pipes | This configuration of pipes may look odd to you and you think it’s wrong, but it’s not. There was never a clog here in eight years. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

Installing Plumbing Drain Pipes - It's Somewhat Easy

I’ve been a master plumber since 1981. I’ve always loved doing plumbing because it’s a very interesting three-dimensional challenge when it comes to installing drain, waste, and vent (DWV) piping in a new home or a large remodeling job. Because I was also the lead carpenter and builder on my jobs, I was able to think ahead to ensure that all the framing and rough lumber was installed so it would not have to be butchered to get the pipes in.

Two weeks ago, Amanda, who lives in South Carolina, reached out to me. She wanted to know how she could get money from the original plumber who put in the drain pipes in her home. Amanda got some bad advice from some other plumber or remodeler who told her a toilet drain pipe had been installed wrong by the original plumber.

Amanda paid the new plumber to cut out the perfectly fine pipes and install new ones with more gentle bends in them. What a shame she wasted so much money! She could have spent less than $50 and arranged a simple phone call with me to ask me if she was getting good advice. But that’s water over the dam.

Amanda could have also read my very short PDF document about Best Practices for Installing PVC Drain and Vent Pipe. It's an instant-download product and less than $15! What a shame she didn't know about it as she would have instantly discovered her pipes were fine.

Here was Amanda’s situation. The toilet drain pipe ran in between two floor joists for about five feet. It then turned down using a normal 90-degree fitting, some call it a short bend L, and immediately connected to a sweep 90-degree fitting that was rotated 90 degrees so the toilet waste could continue its journey to the sewage plant running under the floor joists but now perpendicular to the joists.

She was told the short 90 was improper. I asked her if she had ever had a clog in the eight years since the house was built. Her answer was, “No.”

cast iron lines meghan house

I installed this cast iron in my daughter's new home. Those band clamps make it so easy to do! Look in the upper left of this photo and you can see a sweep 90 fitting on that horizontal drain up in the ceiling. If you need help with your plumbing installation, I offer PHONE COACHING. CLICK or TAP HERE to set up a call.

Here’s why she never had a clog. The short 90-degree fitting resembles the exact change of direction toilet waste would encounter if the pipe was connected to a standard tee fitting. Plumbers for many decades have installed horizontal toilet drain pipes that connect to tee fittings. Watch the video below and you'll see this tee fitting about 2:03 into the video.

When you flush the toilet, the water and waste head straight down and immediately hit a 90-degree fitting under the toilet flange. This 90-degree fitting sends the water horizontally towards the tee fitting maybe a foot or two away. When the wastewater gets to the center of the tee, it takes a sharp turn and heads down again. Think of a river going over a waterfall. This is a completely acceptable configuration, after all, it’s worked well for Mother Nature for millions of years.

Tear out the plaster or drywall and you’ll discover this exact configuration in millions of houses and buildings all across the USA. Plumbers have used tee fittings since the early 1900s and still use them today. In fact, I used this exact configuration two years ago when I recorded my video about flushable wipes.

WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO to see this tee fitting. Advance to 2:03 if you want to save time.

In many situations, the vertical pipe that leaves the bottom of the tee fitting is just a vertical stack. This pipe might be 8 or 9 feet tall. Think of a plumbing stack as a chimney. Wastewater goes down the stack as smoke goes up a chimney.

At the bottom of stacks, the best practice is to install a sweep 90 fitting. These fittings have a slightly greater radius than a short 90 fitting. The longer radius is very friendly to drain-cleaning snakes. This is exactly why plumbers have used sweep-90 fittings for decades.

In Amanda’s situation, she had an acceptable piping setup it’s just that her stack was only 3 inches tall! There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve done this before where I’ve had to have a horizontal drain pipe tuck up against floor joists in a basement or crawlspace. I’ve never had clog issues.

It’s possible that Amanda misunderstood the advice she was given or the plumber giving the advice wasn’t clear. All change-of-direction fittings buried under a slab should never have any 90-degree fittings. If you need to change direction under concrete or other buried piping conditions say in a sewer line, you use two 45-degree fittings. It’s a best practice to separate the 45-degree fittings by at least 6 inches if possible. This is an aid to drain cleaning snakes.

You can have a 90-degree fitting under a slab, but it needs to be either at the base of a stack as I’ve already described or it can be under a toilet that sits on a slab. If there’s a clog at these two locations it’s usually remedied by installing a clean-out tee just above the base of the stack or removing the toilet to inspect the 90-degree fitting.

If you want to know more about plumbing drain lines or the mystical plumbing vent lines, I’ve got several videos for you here on my www.AsktheBuilder.com website. Look at the titles:

plumbing videos

Go ahead, use the SEARCH ENGINE here on the site and you'll see the same results below the Google ads.

Just type “plumbing videos” into the search engine up above. If you have questions about your plumbing drain pipes, CLICK or TAP HERE and type your question to me. I’d love to be able to help you save time and money.

If you need me to draw plumbing isometric drawings for you or draw a riser diagram, CLICK or TAP HERE.

Column 1422

Meredith Porphyritic Granite

Posted on by Tim Carter
Meredith Porphyritic Granite

This is but one sample of the Meredith Porphyritic Granite (Mpg). Look below at another one that really shows off the giant phenocrysts of orthoclase feldspar. Photo credit: Tim Carter

Meredith Porphyritic Granite - Most Beautiful Rock in New England

The Meredith Porphyritic Granite can be found in and around Meredith, New Hampshire. I happen to live directly on top of this massive pluton and my college degree is in geology. Some references to this geologic rock formation in the older literature refer to it as the Kinsman granite.

granite rock in NH

This is the Meredith Porphyritic Granite next to my driveway. This is an exposed piece of bedrock that extends miles below the surface of the Earth. Builders and excavators refer to this as a ledge.

When Did This Granite Form?

The granite formed in the Devonian Age about 340-360 million years ago.

How Did the Meredith Porphyritic Granite Form?

The most likely chain of events that created this stunning rock with massive feldspar phenocrysts started with the seafloor being subducted under an old continental plate edge. Keith Heyer Meldahl offers an amazing description of events in his easy-to-read-and-understand book, Rough Hewn Land.

In a nutshell, as the seafloor is subducted under a continent's edge as a result of plate tectonics, about 50-70 miles below the surface of the Earth this thick seafloor plate starts to melt. Seawater is in the rock and some actual liquid seawater under tremendous pressure is pulled down with the seafloor. The presence of seawater lowers the melting point of the rock.

The seafloor starts to melt and giant blobs of this molten rock begin to rise up through the continental crust. Think of these blobs as massive hot-air balloons slowly floating up into the air.

As the blobs slowly rise over millions of years, the chemistry of the rock changes with element substitution. The rock transforms from seafloor sediment and pillow basalt into granite.

The giant phenocrysts in the Meredith Porphyritic Granite attest to how slowly the giant blob, a pluton, rose to the surface. The slower the rock cools and solidifies, the bigger the mineral crystals.

Eventually, through other tectonic events, the pluton makes it to the surface of the earth. A vivid example of plutons, actually a series of them stuck together, is the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.

meredith porphyritic granite

This is a fantastic sample showing the many minerals within the granite. There are small flecks of mica if you look for them. The ruler markings are centimeters alternating white and red. I added the electrical tape on that ruler in 1972 for my Geology 101 class. As you can see, I still have it 49 years later! (C) Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

What Minerals are in the Meredith Porphyritic Granite?

You'll find the following minerals in the granite:

  • large white phenocrysts of orthoclase feldspar
  • plagioclase feldspar - dark matrix material
  • quartz
  • biotite mica
  • and muscovite mica 

The mineral list was provided by Jay Long in his Stepping Stones Across New Hampshire book.

fine grained granite

This is NOT Mpg. It's a different granite. Note how the mineral crystals are so much smaller. You don't see any huge feldspar phenocrysts. There are hundreds of different types of granites that exhibit different colors and mineral sizes. Go visit a shop that sells granite countertops to see!

September 19, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

September 19, 2021 Ask the Builder Newsletter

Ah, I get it. You're standing over there against the wall with Missy, Fran, Sean, Noble, George, and Meg because you just subscribed in the past week. Welcome! I devote this top paragraph to you each week. Thanks for becoming part of my virtual family.

You, though could have subscribed in the past few weeks. Do you remember my August newsletter where I shared getting two glasses of T-Rex lemonade?

It turns out one of my subscribers, Erik Thorson, wrote a delightful song about lemonade! CLICK or TAP HERE to listen to it. It's guaranteed to make you smile.

AstroCrete BWAHAHAHAHA

I ran across an intriguing article in the news this past week. It was about building with concrete on Mars. Astronauts would use all their body fluids to make AstroCrete. Here's a pull quote from the article:

"A crew of six astronauts can produce an estimated 500kg of high-strength AstroCrete on a two-year mission on the surface of the moon, according to the findings."

(There was a typo in that pull quote because the entire article was about building on Mars, not the Moon.)

Since you probably don't know much about concrete, that 500kg number is meaningless to you. 500kg equals 1,100 pounds. One cubic yard of concrete here on our Earth Ball weighs about 4,000 pounds.

So two years for six astronauts to make 1/4 yard of concrete... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This is why you need to be careful about being WOWED by articles like this. For goodness sake, do the math!

It's going to take hundreds of years to build a concrete building up on Mars at that rate! "Tom, you need to DRINK MORE WATER!"

CLICK HERE to read my follow-up on AstroCrete in the September 26, 2021 Newsletter.

Old Blueprints Filled with Gold

Steve is one of my best friends. He lives in sunny southern CA. I go out to visit every few years and was last there three years ago, helping him with his Honey-Do list. We had a blast and recorded, with the help of his darling wife, this video about how to stain Mexican outdoor patio tiles. It's a funny and informative video. I will NEVER make it as a Hollywood actor. Not on my best day.

A few days ago, Steve sent me a link to a curated scanned copy of a nearly 100-year-old builders magazine. It's filled with amazing articles and photos. Here's one you should study:
fireplace blueprint
These three images of a residential fireplace may not mean much to you, but they're filled with gold. The architect who drew these knew exactly how to build a fireplace, firebox, and chimney that will NOT SMOKE.

CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to put flesh on the bones of the above blueprint. I share all the critical dimensions that you can plug into the blueprint. Trust me, you'll want to bookmark the page.

If I were a young architect, and even one that had a few years under my belt, I'd spend two hours a week going over old blueprints like these. Many have details you simply don't find in modern plans.

Get FREE BIDS NOW

CLICK or TAP HERE or Mr. Shovel Man above to get FREE and FAST Bids from local contractors for any inside or outside job at your home.

VIP Fast Answer and Consult Call

The past two weeks, I've done a boatload of VIP Fast Answers and my trademark 15-Minute Phone Consult.

In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm just 2.5 hours away from talking with Cosmo. He lives out in the Pacific Northwest and watched my video series about building my deluxe shed. He ordered a stunning pre-cut shed kit. Cosmo has a few questions about getting the concrete piers at the right height.

Why do I promote these services?

I get no less than TWENTY emails a week from homeowners like you that are in a MESS and need me to throw them a life preserver. They decided they KNEW BETTER and just jumped into a job or decided to TRUST what the contractor told them.

The average cost to FIX the mess they're in is about $2,000.00.

Why not invest $20 or $50 before you get in a mess? Having me advise you is the BEST MONEY you'll spend on your project. Period

Changing Word Meanings

I've been building my Ask the Builder and STAIN SOLVER websites for over twenty-five years. I also work on my ham radio blog and my personal blog.

Did you know that I can go back to one of my old columns and completely change a sentence, delete things I've said, or add content in just SECONDS and you'd be none the wiser?

If you don't have a copy of the original page, you have no idea the content has been changed. It's sort of spooky.

Well, I think this is starting to happen with the English language! If I can do the above with my website, don't you think those that own the online dictionaries can do the same?
close up dictionary page
If I'm right, then it makes sense for you to have one, or more, hardcover traditional dictionaries around your house. It's pretty darned hard to change the definition of a word in one of those!

CLICK or TAP HERE to see the dictionary I use multiple times each week.

Yicky Drain Flies!!!

My friend Jim reached out to me days ago asking about how to get rid of pesky drain flies.

Floor Drain

CLICK or TAP HERE to see the easy easy steps on how to defeat forever drain flies.

That's quite enough for a Sunday.

Peace out.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Organic Cleaner - www.StainSolver.com
RR Telegrapher - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Did you know fresh concrete can BLEED? How's that possible? If you make a mistake, you can RUIN the concrete! CLICK or TAP HERE and stuff a bit more info into those tiny gray cells of yours.

Buy a Hard Cover Dictionary

Posted on by Tim Carter

Buy a Hard Cover Dictionary

It's really easy to change the definition of a word in an online dictionary. It takes seconds. And I know it's happening online.

We can't have invisible people changing the definition of words for goodness sake!

But no one can easily change the definition of a word in a dictionary that's in your house. I'm talking about a real book!

Here are a few great ones. I own this one and use it many times a week:

dictionary cover

CLICK or TAP HERE to order this dictionary.

Do you need a dictionary with larger type to make it easier to read? Here's one:

Webster's dictionary cover

CLICK or TAP HERE to get this dictionary.

 

 

 

Drain Flies How to Get Rid Of

Posted on by Tim Carter
Floor Drain

Drain Flies - This is a typical floor drain. The flies set up camp just under that shiny drain strain cover.

Drain Flies How to Get Rid Of - Easy!

My friend Jim from Cincinnati, texted me the other day: "How do I get rid of drain flies?"

I replied, "Simple..." I then outlined the steps in the text message. Here they are for you.

Step 1: Remove the drain cover and use a toilet brush, liquid dish soap, and plenty of water to scrub the sides of the pipe all the way down to the water level of the trap. If the brush handle is long enough, clean all the way to the bottom of the trap. Add water as you scrub to keep the brush filled with a frothy soap solution. Be sure to clean the drain cover too, including the holes and the underside of the cover.

Step 2: Pull out the toilet brush and pour a gallon of water into the drain. Use a flashlight to see if the sides of the pipe are perfectly clean. If not, repeat step 1.

Step 3: Once the pipe walls, and drain cover are clean, add two tablespoons of chlorine bleach to the water in the trap if you're on a city sewer system. If you're on a septic tank, add 1/2 cup of STAIN SOLVER certified organic oxygen bleach. Each month add a gallon of water to the trap and repeat the addition of the bleach or STAIN SOLVER.

What Causes the Drain Flies?

The drain flies are attracted to the nasty biofilm that builds up on the sides of the floor drain pipe. If you keep the walls and the cover clean, there's no food for the drain flies. It's that simple.

September 12, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

Whatcha doing standing with Emma, Janna, John, Monica, Fausto, and JM? Why of course, this is your first issue and you're all chattering about what to expect! Well, it's a pretty good issue if I don't say so myself!

But what about you? Have you been around here umpteen years like Patrick? Do you remember that column I wrote about building the Dream Garage? Do you have issues getting in and out of your car when it's in the garage? It's impossible for my wife to exit our car in our garage. I didn't build the house we currently live in. CLICK or TAP HERE and immerse yourself in all the things your garage should have.

I Need a Black Paisley Vest - HELP!

For five weekends this fall, I'm helping out the Ashland NH Railroad Historical Society. I dress up as an old RR telegrapher and send Morse code while train passengers visit the restored RR station.

I need a black paisley vest, but have been unsuccessful locating one my size. I'm talking about a standard vest that you'd wear as part of a 3-piece suit. All I see are ones for men who are 5' 11" and taller. All of the vests I see are much too long and would hang down way too low on me. UGH.

If you locate one that will work to these sizes, I'd be MOST GRATEFUL:

Front Length - 21 inches
Back Length - 19 inches
Chest - 44 inches
Waist - 43 inches (odd since I wear size 38 pants)
Rear Shoulder to Shoulder - 16 inches

Let me know if you can uncover where this vest is sold. Thanks! Remember, black paisley.

Howard's Old Faucet

Look at this photo:
old shower faucet
The faucet is dripping and Howard wants to replace the inner workings but has no clue who made the faucet. I don't recognize it at all. There appears to be a logo under the concave part of the chrome trim. Let me know if you know who made it.

This is also a teaching moment. Years ago, I reminded you in a column that when you buy a new faucet or have one installed you should take the installation manual and parts list and put them in a ziplock storage bag. You then tape this to the inside of the vanity in the bathroom or your kitchen sink base cabinet. Do this with ALL fixtures and faucets in your entire home.

Better yet, about five or ten years down the road, purchase replacement cartridges for the faucets while the parts are still available. Put those in a separate bag and tape it to the inside of the vanity or sink base cabinet.

You'll never regret doing this.

FREE BIDS for ANY JOB

CLICK or TAP HERE or Mr. Shovel Man below to get FREE BIDS for any job around your home.
Man Shoveling
Roofing 101 - Don't SKIP THIS!!

Are you getting ready to have a new roof installed? Look at this photo, please. What do you think this is:
DaVinci Roofscapes shingles
Do you know where most roof leaks happen?
Do you know what's the BEST plumbing vent flashing?
Do you know the best skylight flashings?
Do you want a SIMPLE form you hand to each roofer that he fills out so you can see who's the real PRO?

CLICK or TAP HERE to get all the above and MORE.

Brittle CPVC - Ticking Time Bombs

A really good friend of mine, we go back almost thirty years, reached out to me a few days ago. He is also a plumber and was a warehouse manager for a Cincinnati-based plumbing wholesale business.

He's doing some remodeling on a flipper house he bought out in the country. The previous plumber used CPVC piping for the water-supply lines.

Here's what my friend sent,

"I capped some 1/2" CPVC pipe with Sharkbite caps so I could keep a primitive bathroom going for myself. That stuff shattered like glass as I tried to use my battery Dewalt recip saw on it.

I ended up using a hacksaw with a 24-point blade and going very gently to get it to cut without splitting. This house was built in 1988.

The CPVC has had crawl space exposure its entire life, but still I remember 1988 as not being that long ago regarding a site built home. I could snap a piece only 4 or 5 inches long like a pencil."

What's your takeaway here? If you're at all familiar with CPVC, when it's new, it's NOT brittle. You can bend it and it will not snap.

If your home has CPVC water-supply lines, then be sure they're not under any stress and you'll have a flood.

Talk to Me Before not After

Richard lives in Columbus, OH. This is another teaching moment you should never forget.

He emailed me about four days ago and said,

"As part of a recent roofing job, I also had ridge vents installed. I'm now considering whether I have adequate venting in the eaves of the house.

I've found plenty of info about matching the vent capacity of the eaves vs. the ridge vent, but nothing addresses anything like the built-in roof vent. Any suggestions?"

I grinned at my computer monitor and said out loud, "Richard you should have researched this BEFORE you even called roofers to get quotes. You should have read all my roof ventilation columns. You maybe should have done one of my 15-Minute phone calls."

I responded and told Richard to go read all my past work about turbine vents.

Now he has to bring back the roofer to add them. Such an extra unnecessary expense!

That's enough for this Sunday. My health is continuing to improve. My wife Kathy and I beat Covid and have the best natural immunity you can get. WOOT!

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST DARN CLEANER - www.StainSolver.com
Train Telegrapher - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Are you getting ready to have a new roof installed? Asphalt shingles? You'd do well to READ my short expose' Roofing Ripoff book. CLICK or TAP HERE to read the first few chapters for FREE.

Roofing 101

Posted on by Tim Carter
Tim's NH Roof

Roofing 101 - Tips for an Expert Installation | This is my own roof. I hand-nailed each one of the DaVinci Roofscapes virgin polymer shingles that look like real slate. It fools anyone who sees it. They always remark, "Wow, real slate!"  I estimate this DaVinci roof will last 75-100 years. It's definitely a positive asset when I go to sell my home in a few years. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

Roofing 101 - What you Need to Know

I have no clue how many new roofs are installed in the USA each year, but it’s got to be in the hundreds of thousands. Perhaps a new roof is in your future or in the next few years. If so, you’d be wise to retrieve it from my AsktheBuilder website when it’s time for you to meet with a roofer.

Most roofs installed in the USA are asphalt shingles. The reasons are many, but for the most part they’re easy to install and they’re affordable. The issue is the asphalt shingles of today are nothing like the ones that were manufactured even 40 years ago. I exposed the shortcomings about five years ago in my Roofing Ripoff book. You might want to read this short book. It will absolutely put your head on a swivel as to all things asphalt shingle. I discovered while writing the book how to make asphalt shingles last 40, or more, years. It’s all in the book.

roofing ripoff cover

Where do Most Roofs Leak?

If you’re like most homeowners, you wring your hands worrying about leaks. It’s a valid concern! Understand the vast majority of roof leaks on the average home almost always are at a flashing. Rarely does a leak form in the giant open field of shingles.

What is a Flashing?

A flashing is a transitional material that connects your roof to something that’s not a roof. Here’s a short list of where you’d find flashings:

  • chimneys
  • dormers
  • plumbing vent pipes
  • skylights
  • any other vent that is popping up through the roof to expel air from your home

There’s a common plumbing vent-pipe flashing many roofers use that has a rubber boot attached to an aluminum flashing base. The issue is after ten years or so, the ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun cause the rubber to crack and split where it touches the plumbing vent pipe. Water can enter here.

I’ve discovered a better plumbing vent pipe flashing made from powder-coated steel and it has a special siliconized-rubber boot. My guess is from my own testing it might last fifty, or more, years. It’s made by Lifetime Tool. CLICK or TAP HERE to purchase this amazing flashing. It's the one I used in the video just below.

Here's a video I recorded about this amazing flashing:

How Can I Discover More about Flashings?

You can start by reading all of these articles here on AsktheBuilder.com:

Roof Flashing Repair - Not Always Easy

Metal Flashing Installation Tips

Roof Flashing for Bathroom and Kitchen Exhaust Fans - Video Here!

You’d do well to educate yourself using different books, shingle manufacturer’s installation instructions, and even some YouTube videos about how flashings should be installed. Once you grasp this somewhat simple topic, you’ll know the right questions to ask the roofers you’ll get bids from.

Is Caulk an Acceptable Flashing Add-on?

Don’t even think of using caulk on a roof to help seal joints in flashings. Caulk is not a permanent roofing material. Once again, it’s also very susceptible to damage from UV rays. Flashings should be made from metal that you can solder. Copper is an excellent flashing material. Tin used to be used for decades but stringent EPA regulations have all but killed the tin market. Talk to your roofer about flashing materials that can be soldered.

What are the Best Skylight Flashings?

As for skylight flashings, I’ve had the best luck with Velux. They have pre-engineered aluminum flashing kits. The base and head flashings for the bottom and top of the skylight don’t require any soldering. I’ve installed them on countless jobs and have these on my own home and have never had a leak.

What are the Best Nails to Use with my Shingles?

The nails that are used to fasten your roof to your home are extremely important. Once again, read the written installation instructions from the shingles you decide to use. See what nails they require so you maintain your warranty. Pay attention to the length of the nail and how far it must penetrate the wood roof deck. Hot-dipped galvanized nails are the best. The roofer that installed the shingles on my New Hampshire house, I didn’t build the house I currently live in, used nails with a thin electroplating of zinc. Read all about different galvanized roofing nails here.

When I re-roofed my home six years ago, many of the nails I was taking off were heavily rusted. They were only eleven years old! The nails you use should last longer than the actual roofing material.

Should I Use an Underlayment or Watershield?

You may wonder about underlayments or watershields. I happen to live in the Northeast where ice dams are as common as kids swimming in our wonderful lakes here in the summertime. Ice dams can form at any location on a roof, although most do form down at the bottom of a roof where the roof passes over the exterior wall of the home.

I decided for the ultimate peace of mind to install Grace Ice and Watershield over my entire roof. I lapped it up on the sides of my skylights and connected it to my plumbing vent pipes as well. You can’t see any of this as it’s all hidden by the other flashings that cover these roof penetrations. I now don’t have to worry at all about dreadful leaks caused by ice dams.

My best advice is for you to select the roofing material you’re going to use. Do this before talking with any roofer. Once you’ve made your decision, get the full set of written installation instructions from the roofing manufacturer. Read them.

Do You Have a Handy Bidsheet I Can Use to Discover the Best Roofer?

Yes, CLICK or TAP HERE for an instant download bidsheet that will help you identify the most professional roofer to do the work. It comes with a 100-percent money-back guarantee.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local roofers in your city or town.

You’ll quickly discover the instructions are easy to follow and understand. Once you understand how your roof should be installed, you can ask the right questions when talking with roofers. Be sure you put in your contract with the roofer that he’s to install the roof exactly as the instructions say. Period.

This article was featured in my September 12, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter.

 

Column 1420

September 5, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter

Posted on by Tim Carter

I see you standing in the group with Lindsay, Robert, Barbara, Marcia, Mike, and a scad of others. This is your first issue and I welcome you!

This issue, however, might be your 378th one! I've published nearly 1000 newsletters and who knows, you may be one of my first subscribers!

Do you remember the column I did about using the correct gray-colored paint primer? It's pretty interesting when you think about black and white photographs! CLICK or TAP HERE and allow some extra knowledge to seep into your tiny gray cells.

Covid Survivors

This is the first newsletter since the middle of August. You may have noticed no issues were sent out the past two weekends. I contracted the illness, as did Kathy my wife, on or about August 8th. I survived because of the grace of God and the tender care and love I received from Kathy. I know that she alone, with some help from my youngest daughter, ensured my survival.

In the first ten days of the illness, Kathy watched over me like a hawk always looking to see what direction I was headed on an hour-by-hour basis.

She was only slightly ill for 36 hours and nowhere to the extent I was sick. This is why she was able to care for me like a private nurse.

If you want to know all the details of what happened including how we zeroed in on when we were infected, the medications I was taking, and other things, CLICK or TAP HERE.

Roots in Sewer Lines

Look at this simple drawing I made:

tree roots sewer line sketch

While I was recovering from the virus, I received an email from a man who used my method of dealing with tree roots in a sewer line.

He told me my method saved him $10,000. Of course it will!

CLICK or TAP HERE to discover how simple it is to ensure tree roots don't enter your sewer line.

Cincinnati and Chicago Meetups

All good things must come to an end. It's quite possible I'm about to do the last two meetups of my AsktheBuilder career. You may have in interest in attending one.

What happens at a meetup? It's a fun party-like atmosphere. Most of the time the attendees ask all sorts of questions about all the inner workings of what happens behind the magic curtain of Ask the Builder. The conversation is wide-ranging and I'm always very interested in you and your story. Everyone has a story and they are wonderful to hear at a meetup.

The bottom line is an AsktheBuilder.com Meetup is fun!

I'm going to be in Cincinnati the first week of October for my 51st high school reunion. Our 50th was cancelled last year by the governor of Ohio.

If you want to do a meetup while I'm in town, I can carve out the time. It would happen in northern KY at the offices of Bold Homes. The president, Mike Kegley, has graciously offered to host the meetup.

But you MUST REPLY NOW so I know how many might come. The cutoff to keep the event at Mike's offices is eight people. If more than eight people show an interest, we'll move to another location.

The meetup would be in the afternoon for sure. Once enough people RSVP, then I'll figure out the exact date and time.

As for Chicago, another friend has offered up his house for a meetup. He lives in Palatine. He can host about the same number of people. If enough people express an interest, THEN I'll add an extra two days and drive to Chicago from Cincinnati on October 10th or so.

You know what to do. REPLY NOW with all your contact information if you want to get together in either of the two cities. If many decide to attend, then we'll work together on Plan B as to locating a quiet place in each city that can handle the overflow crowd.

Hurricane Ida Takeaways

Hurricanes are big storms and can make for big news. Ida put a few heads on a swivel this past week, especially in the Northeast where it caught many by surprise.

Here are some facts about hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and other natural disasters including widespread civil disorder:

1. Your home and the possessions within your home are the LEAST important asset in your community. This means when a disaster strikes don't count on first responders SHOWING UP at your home.

Why? There might be 1000X homeowners like you needing help for every first responder! What's more, the first responders already have a list of the most valuable community assets. They preserve those first. Guess what? You and your home are at the BOTTOM OF THE LIST. Don't believe me? Ask your fire chief.

2. You may not find someone to do repairs for months. It's the same problem. High-quality contractors will be overwhelmed. You need to meet with neighbors and friends and come up with a plan. Who has what skills? Who has what tools? Figure out how you can work together as a team to do the basic repairs to protect your homes until months later when a contractor can show up.

3. Pre-buy materials. The time to buy that giant blue tarp for your roof is NOT the day after the hurricane. Think ahead. Purchase and store whatever materials and tools you need to SURVIVE until such time as you can get the proper repair work complete.

That's quite enough for my first Sunday back.

Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Best Cleaner Ever - www.StainSolver.com
Morse - Original Digital - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. What do you think you know about making repairs to concrete block or stucco? CLICK or TAP HERE and let me know if you discovered something new. WATCH ALL THREE videos at the bottom of the page.

Tim Carter Covid Survival Story

Posted on by Tim Carter

live free or die sign

Author's Note: It’s not about the virus, illness, nor death. Never was. It’s about the experimental injection. Always has been. Is that the Pied Piper you hear?

Update: August - 2024

The following meme says it all. If you succumbed to the powerful psychology to get the jab, you were taken for a fool.

Your critical-thinking skills may be dull. Let's get out the sharpening stone. Answer these few questions:

What's the definition of the word vaccine? From Merriam-Webster's 11th edition Collegiate Dictionary: "a preparation of killed microorganisms, living attenuated organisms, or living fully virulent organisms that is administered to produce or artificially increase immunity to a particular disease." In other words, the millions of people who got jabbed did NOT get a vaccine. They got an experimental biological agent (EBA). The ingredients in the EBA do not meet the above definition.

What's the purpose of a vaccine?  Why of course, it's to PREVENT you from contracting a certain illness.

Why didn't the doctors and nurses who cared for the Yellow Fever patients building the Panama Canal over 100 years ago die of Yellow Fever? Simple, they contracted Yellow Fever, SURVIVED, and then were able to go about their work saving others. They now had the best form of natural immunity from the illness or a variant/mutation. This is true of anyone who survives COVID. CLICK or TAP HERE for proof.

Why aren't COVID survivors who have far better immunity from COVID, or its variants, than that of the experimental injection given official cards allowing them to do all the things vaccinated people can do? The reason is simple. It CONFIRMS the initial Author's Note above. The COVID response has never been about health. It's all about CONTROL.

If you have an adverse reaction or die from the vaccine, can you recover money from the vaccine manufacturer? No. Years ago the Federal Government granted full immunity to Big Pharma against vaccine claims. They are shifting to making as many vaccines as possible now because they can still be sued for adverse normal drug reactions.

Who is profiting from COVID? Big Pharma is making BILLIONS of dollars because the Federal Government is footing the bill for the experimental injection you might have received. Members of Congress can LEGALLY use inside information to invest in Big Pharma to make TENS OF MILLIONS of dollars on their stock purchases. If you or I did this, we'd go to prison as did Martha Stewart. Yes, I know Martha's time in the orange coveralls was due to her conviction of lying to the FBI. That said, they were interviewing her about her inside stock trading.

How many REALLY died from COVID? The truth is finally coming out. Did you know hospitals were paid BIG MONEY if they claimed patients had COVID, put them on certain meds, put them on a ventilator, etc.? It's TRUE! Go here and if you feel otherwise, debunk what you read.

Back when the Covid-19 news broke in late February of 2020, it took me about two weeks to see through the sham. I wrote letters to the editor of the Laconia Daily Sun. Look them up. I predicted that within months a magic vaccine would be announced. I then predicted that all sorts of future variants would emerge. I predicted that the vaccine would not be enough - that'd you'd require more and more and more jabs. It was so easy to see, to one who's a student of powerful psychology, that Covid was not about your health. It was all about CONTROLLING you. Those pulling the levers are using the most powerful psychological trigger of all on you. Scarcity. They're persuading you that you're going to die - that your life is suddenly SCARCE.

You're being played. Your overlords are constantly moving the goalposts. Don't you see it? Are you starting to wake up? 

If you feel the information on this page will help others, you have my permission to spread it far and wide to all you know. You can link to this page if you produce your own blog or newsletter. Feel free to share it with a newsletter author you know that covers this topic.

The following is the saga of my survival from Covid-19 aka the China Virus. Whether you like it or not, the truth is it originated in China. Many viruses are named for the location of origin, so this is nothing new nor should the Chinese be ashamed unless they created it on purpose in the Wuhan Virology Lab. CLICK or TAP HERE for proof about the origin of the China Virus. This video was made in early 2020. It just so happens in October of 2021, the NIH finally admitted it did fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. Dr. Fraudci, (Fauci) oversees the NIH so you know.

I'm grateful to be able to type and share with you that I'm in the third group - where 99.5% of us that contracted the illness SURVIVED.

I owe my life now to my loving wife Kathy. She alone got me through the illness. Her love and tender care are impossible to measure. Thank you forever, Kathy!

John Hopkins recently published that across all age groups in the USA, the survival rate is 98.4%. Using just a small amount of common sense, you'll immediately realize this number is low. How many people contracted Covid-19 and were asymptomatic, and or, were so mildly affected by it that they didn't get tested? The answer is simple: Hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people.

That's a fact that I feel many are overlooking. Covid is not like Yellow Fever. If you contracted that disease years ago before they knew how to deal with it, you had a 1 in 2 chance of surviving. In other words, the mortality rate of Yellow Fever was 50%. That would absolutely get anyone's attention. But a 0.5% mortality rate? It's almost laughable to wring your hands in fear of dying with such a low possibility.

covid survival rates

When Do You Believe You Were Infected?

I'm pretty much convinced it was Sunday, August 8th at church. My wife Kathy contracted it at the same time because we both exhibited our symptoms within hours of one another. She only leaves the house twice a week, both to go to church. On the other day she attends church, there are but a handful of people at the church and she sits far from them. We know one of the other ushers we had close contact with on August 8th was admitted to the hospital with Covid on or about August 10th and he had been previously jabbed with the EBA. It's also possible the infection came from other EBA-jabbed individuals who could have been shedding spike proteins. Here's another study that may be of interest to you about how EBA-jabbed people are infecting others.

Of course, it's impossible to know exactly who infected us and the actual mechanism.

How Healthy Were You Before You Contracted Covid?

I'd say I'm in good to very good health. I've been about twenty pounds overweight since my late 20s and I've had slightly elevated blood pressure for years. But I have no underlying chronic illnesses. I've never smoked and I rarely consume any alcohol. I don't take any medications. I could easily walk five miles a day before getting Covid.

What Did You Feel Like When You Knew Something was Wrong?

I've been susceptible to the seasonal flu my entire life. Kathy is just the opposite. She's only had mild cases twice and both were when her immunity was down because of being pregnant.

Me, on the other hand, I used to get the flu if someone just looked at me. In my 20s and 30s, I know I got the flu each year. Sometimes it was so bad I couldn't move for days. I have an intimate relationship with the flu and know how it feels early on, as it's raging, and as it goes away.

I know very well the odd feeling you start to feel as the flu digs in its heels in your chest. I started to feel those early signs on or about August 11th. It started with a tiny tickle in the back of my throat that produced a shallow cough. Then each day after that the typical flu symptoms flourished. They were:

  • intense brain fog with the inability to think or make decisions
  • worsening cough with generous amounts of phlegm
  • definite reduction in hearing
  • inability to keep eyes open
  • debilitating fatigue
  • complete loss of appetite - I lost sense of taste and smell about five days into the illness
  • any and all other typical flu-symptoms

How Sick was Kathy?

Kathy was barely sick at all. She just felt tired and a little funky for about 36 hours. After that she just got tired faster each day. I attribute this to her natural immunity to respiratory diseases her entire life as I mentioned earlier.

Did You Go to the Doctor and What Did She/He Say?

I finally went in to see my personal doctor about a week into the illness. I felt horrible that morning when I called for an appointment. The doctor was out so I saw one of his physician assistants.

A different assistant performed the nose swab and within minutes had a positive result. The actual physician's assistant asked some routine questions and then said, "Go home. Take Ibuprofen if you want. Go to the ER if things get worse. Quarantine for 10 days." I was then given the bum's rush out of the offices. I've yet to receive a simple follow-up phone call from my doctor's office to see how I'm doing or even on the same side of the grass. I find that disappointing when you see how dentist offices have no problem calling patients the day before to remind them of an appointment.

What Medication Did Kathy Give You?

The following is from Kathy's fingertips done especially for you and to help save any of your loved ones.

Understand that Kathy is NOT a doctor nor am I. We are NOT offering you medical advice. The following is simply the medication Kathy gave me each day. You can take the list or leave it. It makes no difference to us.

Kathy wrote the following:

Vitamin D3 5,000 IU 2x/day. I used Solgar (cholecalciferol) the form produced by our bodies

Liposomal C (liposomal helps your body absorb entire Vit C)  1450mg 2x/day

Zinc citrate 30mg  2x/day

Black elderberry (an immune booster) 1000mg 2x/day

Cold-pressed black seed oil (another immune booster) 1,500mg 2x/day

For possible blood clots from Covid, I used NattoMax 100mg 1x/day.*** If on blood thinner do not take without consulting your doctor!

Nattokinase is a fermented Japanese food (I knew Tim wouldn't eat it so got the supplement instead). Besides it being a blood-clot dissolver, research has found that it may inhibit the ability of Covid to infect cells. CLICK or TAP HERE to discover more about this.

Melatonin 5 mg taken before bed. Melatonin has been shown to inhibit the Covid-induced cytokine storm which is a severe immune reaction to the disease. CLICK or TAP HERE to discover more. Tim was given this for the first couple of days, but I felt more was needed. I prayed that God would show me what he needed and by the grace of God the next day this popped up:

Zinc / Zinc inophor

Dr. Zelenko uses zinc/zinc ionophore in treating his patients. Zinc ionophores include:

  • Hydroxychloroquine
  • Ivermectin
  • Quercetin
  • EGCG

Tim's doctor didn't prescribe Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin so I got both Quercetin and EGCG. Quercetin is a plant derivative that is over the counter and does the same as hydroxy. Vitamin C is necessary for Quercetin to work. I gave 800mg of Quercetin 2x/day. I found out later that Dr. Zelenko recommends 500mg 3x/day.

EGCG is in green tea. I gave Tim 165g of Matcha powder in capsule form 2x/day. Matcha is a powder form of green tea leaves and rich in EGCG.

This article by a physician explains how a zinc ionophore works. This physician also includes resveratrol in the list of zinc ionophores.

Basically, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, etc. don't cure covid. They make it possible for ions to enter a cell. The zinc ion is what does the job. It interferes with the replication of the virus. In other words, zinc doesn't allow Covid to reproduce. You can see that without zinc, hydroxychloroquine, etc. won't do much for you.

# # # End of Kathy's writing

Did You Ever Go to the ER and get help at the Hospital?

No. It got very close the day after visiting the doctor, but I didn't go because of a number of personal reasons.

The biggest reason was I had a deep suspicion that hospitals were in on the Shamdemic. They were getting paid millions of dollars from the government. I felt they were euthanizing patients an overusing ventilators.

Visitors were not allowed. If I was going to die, I wanted to be at home surrounded by family.

When Did You Finally Start to Feel as if You Had Beaten Covid?

On August 30th, I finally started to see a significant change in my ability to concentrate. I had less trouble keeping my eyes open. I was more alert.

I was well enough on August 31st and just out of quarantine to get a haircut and stop by the grocery store. But that experience wiped me out by the time I got home.

As the week wore on, I got much much better each day. I'm writing this on September 3rd and feel fantastic. Just ten days ago, it would have been impossible to even look at a computer screen much less type all you see above.

On September 4th, I spent 30 minutes cutting some grass. It would have been impossible for me to do that just ten days ago.

Were you and Kathy Vaccinated?

No. We have no interest in being part of a long-term trial using human beings instead of lab animals. Are you aware that prior to Covid, it took between 10 and 15 years to develop a safe vaccine for other diseases?

Did alarm bells go off in your head when magically three different giant competing drug companies were able to deliver a vaccine to the masses within ten months for a previously unknown virus? What's even more astonishing is they were able to roll out vaccines within weeks of one another. What do you think the odds of that are? Seriously, think about that.

Remember, the world didn't even know about Covid-19 until February of 2020. Didn't it cause you alarm that a SAFE vaccine could be delivered that fast? Yes, some will say that they had been working on the vaccine for years before. But what about long-term TRIALS?

Do you think the drug companies had some sort of inside secret information for years before that allowed them to discretely work on a vaccine? How else would they be able to cut years and years off the development?

Are you aware vaccinated people, you could be one, are now contracting Covid? Is the vaccine you took defective? Is it not really working?

And then there are booster shots. What other vaccines do you know about that require periodic booster shots?

Finally, are you aware that the drug companies have no financial liability to you if you die or have an adverse reaction to the vaccine you allowed to be injected into your body? The Federal Government granted the drugs companies full immunity from lawsuits that might pop up from consumers like you. Doesn't that deeply trouble you?

The drug companies, because of this blanket immunity from financial loss, are now shifting their focus on making hundreds of new vaccines instead of traditional drugs. You can still sue them if you are harmed by a drug they make. This vaccine push is all about SWEET MOOLA.

This troubling factoid that the drug companies have no liability bothered Kathy and me. If you gulped the Kool-Aid distributed by your news sources and allowed yourself to be injected with the experimental biological agents(EBA) - you realize they're not true vaccines, right? - we wish you the best and hope you have no long-term ill effects. Why were you in such a rush to be injected with an EBA when the survival rate of the illness is SO HIGH? What were you thinking?

Right now, we have the highest-quality immunity you can get. Our own bodies have generated a defense against Covid that's far superior to the EBAs you might be hoping work for you. Mother Nature has been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years.

Were You Afraid of Dying and What About All Who Have Been Sent Back to Heaven Because of Covid?

Whew, you saved the biggest and most complex question for last!

Call me crazy, but I don't dwell on death. I have friends who have a debilitating fear of death. You may have an enormous fear of death. This fear you may harbor is tied directly to the most powerful psychological trigger of all - Scarcity. This is why it's so easy to control what you do. Your fear is consuming you and ruining your life.

If you want to read a life-changing book about psychological triggers and how easy it is to control all you do using them, I suggest you read Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion ASAP. Re-read that title again! Leaders and others in positions of power are constantly manipulating you using this psychology. They persuade you to do things you'd otherwise not do.

I guarantee you that if you read this book it will change your outlook on Covid and how you process the information you put into your brain from ANY source. You will be stunned how easy it is for others to play you like a fiddle. I know as it happened to me for years! But not anymore. Once I discovered HOW they were controlling me, I was able to instantly turn off the triggers.

You can get anyone to do or say just about anything when you invoke the Scarcity psychological trigger. It's why we waterboard prisoners. We make air SCARCE (death to follow shortly) and all of a sudden the bad guy starts singing like a canary.

If you're afraid of dying, then you'll do whatever others want you to do even if what you're doing is not backed by any science whatsoever. That's the extreme power of psychology. Its power is far beyond anything you can comprehend.

In the case of Covid, people in power and positions of authority (news anchors and paid pundits) have taken this invisible virus and whipped you up thinking you're going to die (scarcity).

This, in my opinion, is why you don't hear much in the news about all us survivors! The numbers at the top of this column show you quite clearly that the chances of you dying if you contract Covid are extremely small. Period.

As for all who've died from Covid, I feel sorry for those they've left behind. I know all about sending people back to Heaven. It's never easy. Sooner or later each one of them that died from Covid was going to die as death is guaranteed the second after each of us is born.

Here's a fact you should really dwell on in my opinion:

All of us are given by God a finite amount of sand to put in our hourglasses. We don't all get the same amount of sand. When your hourglass runs out of sand, you can't flip it over and start again. That's a great line from Kenny Chesney's Don't Blink song. I urge you to listen to it.

The last 90 seconds of the Titanic movie years ago made a powerful impression on me. If you saw the movie, you might remember just before Jack dies freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic water he tells Rose to do all the things they talked about on board the Titanic before it plunged to the bottom of the ocean. The camera pans across her nightstand showing photographs of all the things that Rose ended up doing. She lived her life to the fullest.

That's how I personally approach life. I try to fill each day with gusto as the old beer commercial would say. I try to do different things and not mope around thinking about dying. Maybe I'm strange. If you think I'm strange, it doesn't matter to me.

The movie Little Big Man also made an impression on me about death when I was in my 20s. In the movie, Chief Dan George tells the young Dustin Hoffman, "If you're a true human being, any day is a good day to die." I didn't quite understand that line at the time, but I soon got my head around it. Your goal should be to become a true human being.

So there you have it. My hourglass is not yet empty nor is yours. You have a chance to change your outlook on many things should you have the interest. Start by reading the Influence book. I'm here to tell you it completely changed my life when I read it.

If you disagree with anything above or what I wrote upset you, I'm not particularly interested in engaging you in a discussion. I've found that most people are so ground into their thinking about topics it's impossible to have a fruitful discussion. Even more so, how can you have a respectable discussion when two, or more, different data sets are being used? If I have one set of data completely different from your data, how can we possibly discuss something? It's like speaking two different languages.

Your data set is the information you absorb into your brain from whatever sources you use to discover anything about any topic. For example, you may get your weather forecast from a place that uses one type of modeling prediction software and I may get my forecast from a place that uses software that generates entirely different modeling projections. No wonder the snowfall forecast, rainfall amounts, cloud cover, etc. don't match up when we compare our WX forecasts! This same issue happens with EVERY TOPIC.

Now, speaking of increasing the amount of data in your data set, do you have the courage to watch a video? I guarantee you'll be disturbed after watching it. If you don't have an open mind, please don't watch this stunning video. Be brave. Watch this video.

I've adopted this let's-not-talk-and-stay-friends posture because Covid has polarized just about all in the USA. Everyone has an opinion about all aspects of Covid. Opinions in a respectable discussion are like bringing a rubber knife to a gunfight. Facts trump opinions all the time. You want to bring facts to a discussion if you want to carry the day.

Bottom Line: Stop wasting your time, stop being played, and get out and enjoy life! For goodness sake, sand is running through your hourglass even as you read this!