Patching Plaster Walls

Posted on by Tim Carter
Patching Plaster

Because of the depth of this hole, it will require two or more applications of patching plaster. PHOTO CREDIT: Amy Caroli

Patching Plaster Walls

DEAR TIM: My husband and I are trying to restore our apartment in an old prewar building. The walls have small to medium-sized areas where some of the plaster is missing and there are numerous jagged cracks in the walls. In some areas I can see down to a rough, sandy brown-colored plaster. Do you think we can repair these defects on our own using skim coat plaster or other tools? All of the paint came off the walls easily to expose the original white-plaster walls. How hard is it to work with plaster? Amy C., Brooklyn, NY

DEAR AMY: My biggest concern at this point is that you may have created a serious health issue in removing the paint from the walls. Because of the age of the building, I would be willing to wager significant money that the paint you removed contained lead. If this is so, there may be significant amounts of small lead paint chips in the rooms and significant amounts of visible or invisible lead dust in the rooms.

Before you do any plaster patching, I urge you to rid the rooms of any residual lead. If you try to vacuum up chips or dust, you must use a special HEPA filter-equipped vacuum cleaner. Some tool rental stores rent these. Change and wash the filter regularly and dispose of the wash water down a toilet. Mop the floors and wash down walls making sure to change the wash water regularly and dispose of the contaminated water down a toilet. Obtain all approved cleaning procedures and cleaning products from the EPA's website: http://www.epa.gov/lead/.

I think you can successfully patch the plaster if you have some patience and a fair amount of hand-eye coordination. To obtain professional results you will need to practice and use the correct products. Many old plaster patching jobs fail because people use the wrong materials for the job.

Do not use the common drywall joint compounds you often find in home centers. These products are only meant to be used with paper-faced drywall. They bond poorly to traditional plaster. Plaster patching must be done with patching plaster and sometimes plaster of Paris for the best results. You can achieve moderate success with setting-type joint compounds and these might be a good product to use to practice your repair techniques.

Setting-type compounds are powders that mix with water. The water starts a chemical reaction that causes invisible crystals to begin growing. These crystals interlock within the coarse open plaster to create a strong bond. The advantage to using this material is that it is often sandable. If you make a finishing mistake, you can sand down any excess material. Traditional patching plaster and plaster of Paris are not sandable.

Before applying any product to the walls, they must be clean and free of any dirt, grime or grease. All loose plaster must be removed and all cracks should be enlarged so that the top of the crack is at least one-quarter inch wide. If at all possible, try to make the bottom of the cracks wider than the top. This will take extra work, but the patching compound will interlock into the old plaster like a dovetail joint once it hardens. Slightly dampen the areas to be patched with water just before applying any patching compound.

The trick to patching plaster is to start with small holes that are no bigger than two inches in diameter. If the hole is deeper than one-half inch, then only fill the hole halfway with patching material. The patching material may harden within several hours and then you can mix new material to finish the job.

Use regular drywall finish tools to work with the patching materials. I prefer to use different knives, my favorites being five-inch, ten-inch and twelve-inch flexible broad knives. These tools held at a 30 degree angle to the wall allow you to spread the patching compounds much like you spread icing on a cake.

Both the setting type compounds and the patching plasters can be finished with a sponge as they harden. Professional plasterers will often use a small amount of water on their trowels to make the setting plaster slick as a piece of glass. It takes great skill to perfect this method. You can try to do this as the compounds set, but you have to time it just right.

The best way to practice is to mix some of the patching plaster and use it to fill a small hole that might be hidden behind a piece of furniture once the remodeling is complete. Use your drywall knives to apply the compound and get it as smooth as possible with little or no excess on the wall. Make sure you use a knife whose blade is longer than the hole is wide. With the blade spanning the hole, make repeated light strokes over the wet patching compound until no excess material collects on the knife blade. If you press too hard, you might create a slight depression in the patched area.

Use the sponge to wipe any excess patching compound off the adjacent, sound plaster. As the patching compound gets quite hard, gently stroke it with a damp sponge to make it smooth.

Column 603

Box Gutters

Posted on by Tim Carter

Box gutters can be found on many older homes, multi-family dwellings, old stores, factories, etc. They were by and large one of the most popular rain collection devices built into and onto structures built between 1880 and 1925. Box gutters date back much farther than 1880, as they can be found on very old buildings in both the USA and Europe. These time-tested gutters are still being built and re-built today.

A box gutter does not hang onto the edge of a roof or on the edge or side of a house as many modern pre-formed metal gutters do. A box gutter is actually built into the bottom of the roof or into the roof overhang. The foundation of most box gutters is wood that is then covered with thin sheet metal such as tin, copper, lead, stainless steel, or some other metal that will not readily corrode.

The shape of the box gutter is created by a skilled carpenter as the shape and slope of the gutter is completely controlled by this craftsman. The sheet-metal trades person follows and simply shapes the metal to match the wood gutter.

Tin-coated steel is perhaps the most common metal used for box gutters because it is affordable, is easy to form and solder. Copper would probably be the second most-popular metal to use as it is very easy to bend and solder. Copper also has another advantage in that once installed, it never requires any maintenance. Tin-coated steel must be painted immediately after it is installed and then repainted every 8 - 10 years after the original installation.

Here are the specifications I would include in a contract:

  • All wood that forms the gutter must be in good condition and securely fastened. Replace any and all rotten wood on re-lining jobs.
  • The wooden structure that creates the gutter must slope to the outlet hole in the lowest point of the gutter.
  • The slope must be uniform and designed so that once the gutter is lined with metal and all seams are soldered, water readily flows to the outlet hole and puddling is minimal.
  • Use 40-pound tin-coated steel or solid copper roll.
  • All seams where one piece of metal connects to another must be constructed with an interlocking-S seam. The width of the interlocking-S seam shall be a minimum of 3/8 inch.
  • All seams shall be lightly tapped flat, but not so flat as to impede solder from flowing into the hidden areas of the seam.
  • All interlocking-S seams shall be soldered and the molten solder once hardened, must be thick enough that it completely covers and hides the interlocking-S seam.
  • If tin-coated steel is used, the tin must be carefully cleaned with rags soaked in mineral spirits or paint thinner. All mill oil and all soldering flux must be removed from the metal before a special metal primer is applied to the tin-coated steel. A finish coat of paint must be applied within 24 hours of the primer application.

Roof Truss Substitution

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: We just put a contract in on a new production home in central Oregon. The builder is quite reputable and builds homes from $200,000 custom homes up to $2,000,000. We loved the model home and bought one just like it. We realized some of the finish options would be different, but yesterday when we toured the jobsite, we found a fairly significant structural change in the home that caught us by surprise.

The model home featured a vaulted great room with 2-foot transom windows above a sliding glass door to the back patio. However, we were told, after our purchase, that the vaulted part of our home utilized more cost[effective manufactured trusses rather than stick frame construction used in the model, which had resulted in a slight reduction in vault height.

We can probably live with the slightly reduced vault height. But when we looked at the home, we were surprised to see that the ceiling pitch did not match at the walls because the bottom ends of the trusses are flat for about 18 to 24 inches beyond the top of the header plate at the top of the walls. In other words, the ceiling extends out at 90 degrees flat from the wall junction about 18 to 24 inches before angling up to form the vault.

What do you think of this? Is this common? We could find no reference to trusses of this design on the web, and to us, it looks like a mistake in the framing. Also distressing is that the nice transom window will now be only about 1-foot high and the ceiling about a foot lower. We are distressed, but wondered how much of a deal to make of this. Is this an example of bait and switch with the design standards, or just the way it goes? Becky Kearns, Corvallis, OR

DEAR BECKY: I am at a significant disadvantage since I do not have access to your signed contract, any referenced plans and any written specifications. My experience tells me that the answer is there in black and white.

The truss that you describe is a common commodity. We call them scissor trusses with a partially extended bottom chord. It is debatable whether the trusses save money for the builder as there are some instances where a common-framed roof can cost less than a truss roof.

Look at all of the documents and determine if there is wording that says if your home was to match the model home. Look at the plans carefully to see if the structural cross section shows the roof framing as it is in the model or the way you see it at your home.

The written specifications may also have valuable clues. Look for sneaky language that allows the builder to make discretionary substitutions. I feel this kind of language in a contract can lead to abuse on the part of the builder and agony for the homeowner.

Your only leverage lies in the written documents. There is a strong possibility you are a victim of a bait and switch, especially if the salesperson told you that your new home would match the model home. But I hate to say that it is your responsibility to ensure that what is promised is put in writing.

I urge you to immediately meet with some of the top level management of the builder to discuss your extreme disappointment. If this is a smart builder, he will try to work with you so that you are happy. Make it very obvious that you are unhappy, but under no circumstances should you threaten him. That is very counter-productive. There is common ground and you need to find it rapidly before it costs too much to frame the roof the way you want it done.

Column EM0016

How To Install a Toilet

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: I want to add a second toilet in our house. The existing toilet is on the opposite end of the house. We are on a septic system. How do I do this? I wanted to have someone come in and run the piping from the floor where I want it to connect to the main sewage line leaving the house, but who do I contact for this? I want to do the rest by myself and most contractors don't want a little project like that. Could I do it myself or is it complicated? Angela White, Vancouver, WA

DEAR ANGELA: Adding this new toilet so that it meets the code and works flawlessly for years requires a moderate amount of skill. Many cities and villages allow you to do the work so long as it passes a rough-in and a final inspection. My advice to you is to try to do the job. You can always call for the cavalry if you get overrun.

This new toilet will require a 3-inch waste drainage pipe. You may decide that plastic PVC is easier to work with, but if I was working with you and it was important that the pipe was quiet, we would use cast iron pipe.

The two biggest challenges with the drainage pipe are connecting it to the existing drain line and then properly venting the new toilet. If you can successfully cut into your existing drain line and install the required 4x3 wye fitting, you have what it takes to complete the job.

In case you do get into trouble, a plumber is the primary contractor you will need to bail you out. This assumes that you can do all of the drywall repairs that will be required after the vent pipe is installed.

Column EM0015

Concrete Driveway Apron

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: I am currently building a house and was looking to install an asphalt driveway. Several of my neighbors have done the same and I noticed that they all have installed a 10-foot long concrete apron between the street curb and the remainder of the asphalt driveway that extends back to the house. My asphalt contractor doesn't know why they would have done that. I also checked the covenants just in case I had missed that as a requirement, but found nothing. Do you know of any reason why it is preferred or necessary to have a concrete apron with an asphalt driveway? Christian P., Columbus, GA

DEAR CHRISTIAN: You are one smart cookie to have thought to check your subdivision covenants before you start this job. I know of several people and builders who unknowingly have violated private covenants as well as local government regulations with respect to paving that resides in the public right-of-way.

This thick concrete driveway apron may withstand more abuse from heavy trucks than a traditional residential blacktop or asphalt pavement. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

This thick concrete driveway apron may withstand more abuse from heavy trucks than a traditional residential blacktop or asphalt pavement. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Often people think their private property extends to the edge of the pavement when in fact it may end 15 or more feet before the edge of the roadway. This buffer zone between the end of a building lot and the actual roadway is called the right-of-way. It is often owned by the local, state or federal government or it is protected with legal easements so that utilities can be extended to reach all property owners along the roadway.

The answer to your question is really pretty simple. If there are no specific paving restrictions with respect to the type of material that must be used, you can use either concrete or asphalt. Both will perform very well as driveway aprons so long as they are installed correctly.

The reason your neighbors have concrete is likely the builder felt it would take more abuse from cars and trucks that might drive onto the apron. Vehicles often turn into private driveways so they can turn around to head the other direction. This is a very common driving practice for people who find themselves going the wrong direction on a road or people who passed up a house and need to go back to it.

The hot summer weather in your region can wreak havoc on fresh asphalt from heavy trucks that might drive on your apron. If you pay attention to the asphalt pavement in front of some bus stops in cities, you will see where the weight of the heavy buses actually pushes and stretches the asphalt as the buses break at the stop. This deformation of the pavement will not happen if you use concrete for the apron.

If you do decide to use asphalt, I highly recommend that the crushed gravel base beneath the apron be at least ten to twelve-inches thick. This gravel should be installed four inches at a time and compacted. Extend the gravel base one foot extra on each side of the location of the actual finished blacktop apron. This solid gravel base will prevent chunks of asphalt from breaking off the edges of the drive should a vehicle tire get close to the driveway edge.

If you decide to pour concrete, I would pour the apron a minimum of seven-inches thick. In my opinion, the concrete mix should be ordered at a design strength of 4,500 pounds per square inch which is slightly stronger than the industry minimum strength standard. It would be very wise to include a grid of half-inch diameter reinforcing steel in the concrete apron. This grid is comprised of two layers of steel rods that are oriented at 90 degrees to one another. The rods in each layer should be two feet on center. The steel should be suspended during the pouring process so that a minimum of 2.5 inches of concrete is between the first layer of steel and the compacted soil.

Be sure no water is added to the concrete once it arrives at the jobsite and do not allow water to be sprinkled on the concrete as it is being finished. This added water dilutes the amount of cement paste and weakens the concrete. In cold climates, this weakened upper layer can and does flake off when exposed to repeated periods of cold and warm weather.

Be sure the soil under the apron is well compacted. Concrete or asphalt are destined to fail if they are placed over low-strength soil or soil that has not been compacted. It is also important for the soil to be well drained. Water that saturates soil will cause it to loose strength.

If you decide to use asphalt for the apron, do not seal the asphalt for at least one year. New asphalt is very tender because it still contains lightweight oils that take months to evaporate from the asphalt. Once the oils leave the asphalt, it starts to get very hard. Sealers applied over fresh asphalt can trap the oils and prevent their escape. If this happens, the asphalt will remain soft for a very long time.

Column 602

Roof Trusses and Cranes

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: I am hoping you can help me address a concern I am having with my builder. Being a career military man I have no prior experience in home construction. However, I am planning on retiring in Tampa at the conclusion of my current tour of duty at US Central Command. My wife and I recently placed a down payment on a pre-construction home site with a builder in Pasco County.

Naturally, my wife and I go visit the construction site every weekend to see what progress has been made. A few weeks ago we noticed that there was a piece of particle board used in the framing of the house located at the gable peak above the garage door that has a jagged hole in it large enough for you to put your fist through. It appears as if someone smashed a hole in it with a hammer, and yet the board was used anyway. Since the exterior of the home will merely be stucco, there will be nothing reinforcing the stucco at this particular spot of the house which concerns me a great deal. I also inspected three other homes being built in the neighborhood that were the same model and found that none of the other three had the same damage.

I began sending e-mails to the on-site supervisor concerning the damaged board. This was within a day or two of the board being nailed into place. The supervisor has ignored my weekly e-mails and continues to make progress in the area covering up the board which in turn makes it more difficult to replace.

Yesterday my patience with the supervisor came to an end and I wrote a similar e-mail to the general manager asking for him to look into the issue, and have the board replaced. Much to my surprise he replied as follows:

Mr. Watson,

I reviewed your item of concern. The hole you see in the OSB board at the peak of the gable is a normal construction practice. The framers build the gable on the ground. It is usually done this way. The reason the hole is there is for the hook for the crane. When the framers set the trusses they pre-build what they can and have the crane hoist it up while he is there to set the rest of the trusses.

If you look at other houses with gable roofs you will see the same thing in most of them.

This area gets covered with Tyvek, along with the rest of the gable. It then gets wire lathe and 5/8" of stucco. The hole left from the crane hook does not pose any structural problems and does not require a repair.

I am sorry this was not explained to you when you first brought it up. I will make sure you receive explanations for items of this nature in a timely matter in the future.

Of course, not having the knowledge or experience to know if I can trust the manager's answer above, I am hoping that you might be able to assist me by providing guidance.

Yours in service to our great nation,

James Watson, LtCol USMC - Tampa, FL

DEAR LTCOL WATSON:

In my opinion, the general manager's response was well crafted but it has at least one half-truth in it. My take away from his letter implies that their building practices are indeed industry standards which is debatable. As for a half-truth, I have always felt one is a whole lie.

Let's start with the jagged hole in the oriented strand board (OSB). I am quite sure the hole was chopped by the framing crew so they could indeed insert the crane's sling within the truss webbing. I also agree it is far easier to apply the OSB to the truss on the ground while it is laying flat rather than up in the air in a vertical orientation.

But I have applied sheathing to hundreds of gable trusses myself and I also know it is easy to carefully cut off the top 10 inches of the OSB exposing the truss webbing. This small triangle of OSB can then be quickly nailed in place once the truss is set and braced. From the ground, only a trained eye would see the saw cut line.

Does this method require more work and effort? Of course it does, perhaps an extra minute or two. Would a craftsman invest that time? Undoubtedly yes.

I do not agree with the accepted practice of spanning the void with just wire lath. At the very least a patch of OSB can be installed from the inside face of the truss. This repair will take 10 to 15 minutes, but that is a small amount of time and the penalty should be absorbed by the framing crew or your builder who is ultimately responsible.

In closing I wish to thank you and every other member of the armed services on behalf of my family and myself. We deeply appreciate your service and sacrifice to our country.

Column EM0014

Reflective Foil Insulation

Posted on by Tim Carter

DEAR TIM: Something tells me we are not going to see lower heating and cooling costs for some time. I want to lower both my winter heating bills and summer cooling bills. I have access to my attic space. Does it make sense to install some reflective foil insulation in the attic? Does one product or method work better than another? Leigh O., Tawas City, MI

DEAR LEIGH: I agree with you 100 percent about the energy bills we all must pay. I can't see significant reductions on the horizon because the demand for natural gas, heating oil, propane, electricity, etc. is on the increase on a global scale. In my opinion, we all need to take this very seriously and do our best to conserve lots of energy. One way to do that is to lower the need for energy and reflective foil insulations do a superb job of minimizing both heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

This reflective foil insulation is really a radiant barrier. It reflects a very high percentage of heat back to its source. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

This reflective foil insulation is really a radiant barrier. It reflects a very high percentage of heat back to its source. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Reflective foils are available in many forms and most products used in the residential and commercial marketplace are thin sheets of plastic film coated with reflective aluminum. This technology is not new by any means. If you have cooked food in advance for a meal, you probably kept the food warm by covering it with aluminum foil. As we all know, it does a superb job of bouncing the invisible infrared energy light waves back into the food.

Besides your kitchen, the reflective foils operate in high-tech environments as well. For example ultra-high performance reflective foils keep astronauts alive and well inside both spacecraft and the spacesuits they wear as they float outside in outer space to repair satellites and build the huge international space station. But the reflective foils they use often employ thin films of pure gold which works far better than silver or highly polished aluminum.

The reflective foil products will work great in the winter months, but they perform best in the summer. As the temperature of an object goes up, the amount of radiant energy it gives off increases at a far greater rate. Remember that heat is always trying to move to a place that is cooler. For example, a roof surface that is 150F in the summer transfers much more real heat to the inside of your air conditioned house than the frigid attic gains during the winter when the house is heated to 75F.

Many studies have been conducted by universities and independent government testing labs on the best way to install the reflective foil insulation products. The research appears to indicate that you want the foils as close to the heat source as possible. This means in the summer months the reflective foils work very well when stapled to the slanted underside of the roof trusses or roof rafters.

It is recommended that a gap be left at both the bottom and top of the trusses so air can circulate easily on both sides of the reflective foil. These gaps allow any water vapor that seeps into the cold attic an easy escape route to the exterior of the home through roof ridge vents or via wind-powered turbine vents.

You can also roll out the reflective foil directly on top of attic insulation and get a benefit in the winter and summer. If you do this, be sure the reflective foil insulation is perforated so that water vapor can escape and move towards the exterior of your home.

To watch the entire video, please Click Here .

 

Keep in mind that it is very important to purchase a laminated reflective foil insulation product. This means the foil is comprised of one, two or even three layers of highly-reflective foil. These layers are often separated by thin layers of plastic mesh that creates a tiny air space between the layers of reflective foil. The multi-layered products are immune from any performance loss due to dust buildup. Dust will decrease the performance of single thickness reflective foils.

Be very careful about exposing these reflective foil products to direct sunlight. They are such good reflectors of radiant energy they can melt plastics or possibly start fires. If the foil is stretched tight, it is not a problem. But if the foil droops and forms a shallow bowl, the sun's rays are concentrated just as radio waves are concentrated by satellite dishes many people use for television reception.

This is normally not a problem as most attic spaces rarely receive any direct sunlight. But my house is one of those rare places where sunlight can and does illuminate an attic. I have a small attic window that faces south and the winter sun streams into my attic in the middle of a sunny day.

If you install a reflective foil insulation product on top of insulation, check it on cold days to see if there is any condensation on the underside of the foil. If there is a buildup of liquid water or frost, you need to increase the number and size of the perforations in the reflective foil insulation.

Column 601

AsktheBuilder mp3 Radio Show Dec 10 2005

Posted on by Tim Carter

Each title below is a direct link to a downloadable mp3 file. Just click the title if you want to listen. Right click if you want to download into your computer to save and play at a later date.

The Copyright to all radio segments is owned by Tim Carter. I would love to know what you think of these radio segments.  Do you like them? Do they help you? Have they saved you money and/or time?  Let me know by sending me an email: [email protected]

New Instant Column Notification

Condensation Mystery

Solving Pet Odors

Missing Insulation in Overhangs

Sump Pump

Attic Insulation

AsktheBuilder mp3 Radio Show Nov 26 2005

Posted on by Tim Carter

Each title below is a direct link to a downloadable mp3 file. Just click the title if you want to listen. Right click if you want to download into your computer to save and play at a later date.

The Copyright to all radio segments is owned by Tim Carter. I would love to know what you think of these radio segments.  Do you like them? Do they help you? Have they saved you money and/or time?  Let me know by sending me an email: [email protected]

Tim on WMUB for All Things Considered

Foam Insulation for Cape Cod Home  - Author's Note: See below for corrections to this segment

Fixing a Valve Stem

Saving Money on Heating

A Listener Thanks Tim for his Advice

Do Math for Energy Savings

Jason Swanson - Ryobi Tools

On January 4, 2006 I received a very polite email from  Peter Boyce, a Senior Consultant with Harbinger in Toronto, ON Canada.

He corrected a mistake I made during this broadcast and also made a few other comments.  I do *not* agree with his points about energy savings paybacks. As I have said in other columns, you do *not* save money until such time as the savings on fuel have surpassed the extra money you spent on the upgrade.

His calculations may only do what he says when you get up close to the 50% projected savings. Not all homeowners see that type of savings. As they say in the car industry: Your mileage may vary.

Here are Peter's comments:

  •  Icynene is open-celled spray foam insulation (not closed cell).  During the segment Icynene was referred to as a closed-cell spray foam insulation.  In fact, it is an open celled, light-density spray foam which contributes to its unique insulating properties:  expands quickly to fill every nook and cranny; adheres to and moves with surrounding materials even as they settle/expand/contract to maintain air-sealing properties; the open-celled structure is hydrophobic (resists moisture), yet is semi-vapor permeable (allows any built-up moisture to diffuse out, so a building can breathe).
  • Increasing R-values may deliver minimal and diminishing returns.  According to Fourier

AsktheBuilder mp3 Radio Show Nov 19 2005

Posted on by Tim Carter

Each title below is a direct link to a downloadable mp3 file. Just click the title if you want to listen. Right click if you want to download into your computer to save and play at a later date.

The Copyright to all radio segments is owned by Tim Carter. I would love to know what you think of these radio segments.  Do you like them? Do they help you? Have they saved you money and/or time?  Let me know by sending me an email: [email protected]

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