This is a typical problem a homeowner like you faces. How many things are WRONG in this photo? How do you fix them? What unseen DAMAGE is happening? Do you NEED HELP? CLICK or TAP HERE to tell Tim Carter your problem after taking the survey below.
UPDATE: CLICK HERE to see the results of this survey in the March 28, 2021 Newsletter.
Peeling Exterior House Paint | This peeling paint happens every few years on this cottage. I know as I drive past it after seeing them scrape and repaint it! Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
QUESTION: Help me, Tim! I’m so darned frustrated! The paint on the outside of my home and a shed keeps peeling. Both have wood siding on them.
Every few years I’m out there scraping and starting over. What am I doing wrong? I follow the directions on the label of the paint can to the letter. Is it the paint? Is it something I’m doing wrong? Is it just the weather where I live?
I’m beginning to think an evil hex was cast upon my house by an enemy of a former owner. Please help me because I don’t want to put up vinyl siding to eliminate the paint issue. Debbie S., Waterloo, IA
Do you have chronic peeling paint issues at your home or business? A friend of mine has it here in New Hampshire on some cottages he owns. Peeling paint is a burr under the saddle of many I’m afraid and the causes are numerous. I don’t know that I can cover all of them in the small amount of space provided for this column. Let’s get started.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE PAINT REMOVAL BIDS from local painters.
I feel the best way to understand why paint peels is to step back and think about all the things you know of that are painted but you almost never see them peel. How about your car or truck? What about street signs? What about painted aluminum siding, gutters, and downspouts? How about lawnmowers, snowblowers, and many garden tools you might own?
Do you know someone who has a house covered with fiber cement siding? My house has it. There’s not one place where my paint is peeling. My neighbor’s house has the same siding. Both houses are twenty years old, and there’s not a speck of peeling paint in our harsh New Hampshire weather!
The one thing in common with everything above is the paint is applied to things that are not wood. Wood is a very interesting material but it doesn’t play well with most paints unless you paint it correctly before it’s installed.
Paint peels from wood because wood shrinks and swells. Wood is hygroscopic. This means that water can easily enter wood either as a liquid or a vapor. The issue is when most wood gets wet, it swells and expands in size. Metal and fiber cement siding don’t change shape when they get wet. This is very important.
Now let’s think about paint. What is paint in its most basic form? Paint, for the most part, is just colored glue. The chemistry of most paints is not too far from common white and yellow glue or caulk that you might purchase at a paint store or home center. My original business partner and I used to paint homes in the summer in college. He went on to get a Ph.D. in chemistry where he worked for 30+ years for the largest paint company in the USA. Over the years, he’s taught me much about paint.
Lead paint danger is real. You can get very sick removing lead paint. Read all about lead paint danger here.
Yes, I realize I’m oversimplifying it, but think about paint. It’s made to stick to things just as glue adheres to things. Paint can have all sorts of other characteristics to minimize color fade, gloss, etc. but when the dust settles, its main job is to stay stuck to the things it covers.
Here’s the rub. If the wood that’s under paint moves too much, that is expands and contracts as it gets wet and dries, this movement can be more than the paint can handle. When the bond breaks between the wood and the paint film, the paint peels.
Paint can also be pushed off wood by the vapor pressure under the paint. If wood gets wet and the sun heats up the wood siding, the water in the wood can turn to vapor creating a blister. This vapor pressure can easily pop the paint right off the siding. You can demonstrate this by coating a balloon with a thin coating of flour and water. Let it dry, blow up the balloon and the flour pops off.
Debbie did all she was supposed to by following the paint label instructions. Do you? Do you actually wash the surface you’re going to paint like you wash your car or dishes? You need to rub the surface with soapy water, rinse and allow to dry. Do you scrape off all other loose paint? You wouldn’t put on fresh clothes to go out to dinner after sweating all day working in dirt and grime, right? You’d take a shower. So make sure your surface is squeaky clean.
Painting at the right time of day can play a part. It’s best to follow the sun. This means to paint in the shade, not in direct sunlight. It’s best if the paint dries slowly. Painting on hot breezy days is perhaps the worst time to paint in my opinion.
If you want the paint to stick well to wood for many years, you need to shrink wrap it in the paint. This means you need to paint the wood on all sides and edges. You can pre-paint wood siding and trim with primer and finish paint and then install it.
However, if you cut siding or trim to length, you then need to paint the cut end. Most carpenters are reluctant to do this because it really slows them down and it can be a mess. But the cut end of siding and trim is the place where water enters wood the easiest! These cut ends must be sealed if you want to prevent peeling.
Column 1397
Just as each year spring brings new life, so too with newsletter subscribers! That’s you! Don’t blush. I know you’re a new subscriber. You get a hearty welcome from me and all my underwater allies.
You, however, might be a subscriber who’s seen one previous newsletter or you may have seen over 1,000 - yes, I’ve produced over 1,000 Ask the Builder newsletters. I love you too and I’m glad you’ve decided to stay on board!
Do you remember the video I did about riding lawn mowers? Recently I’ve been getting comments from teenagers who used to watch it as toddlers.
They LOVED what happened at the end of the video. I remember getting emails years ago from some moms who said I made their kids laugh uncontrollably. Watch it yourself and see if you chortle.
Are you tired of cleaning and sealing your wood deck every two years? Here’s an expensive wood sealer that’s not two years old. Look at it peeling!
Just a week ago, I talked to Ed on the phone about it. He's HAD IT with maintaining a wood deck and asked me a bunch of questions about composite decking because he's planning to switch this year.
Would you like scads of FREE gorgeous inspirational composite deck photos? How about FREE easy-to-follow composite deck installation instructions that can save you thousands of dollars? Yep, I thought you’d like that. Keep reading.
Three weeks ago, I asked you one question about your interest in composite decking. You didn't let me down. The results were fascinating and surprised me! I discovered what you really wanted to know about this wonderful product. My three decks and front porch are composite. Trex Transcend® if you want to know the brand.
Guess what? I now have a second survey that allows you to help create the ultimate and perfect outdoor deck material. Imagine that, the dream composite deck material!
I want to know what your vision is for composite decking. Please do me a HUGE FAVOR and take this quick five-question survey. CLICK or TAP HERE to begin.
Not only will you help yourself, but you're also going to help others with your answers. How? Look at the last question in the survey. Yep, it’s time to dust off your magic wand!
Oh, here’s the BEST PART! If you share with me your name and email address at the end of the survey, you’re going to get TWO stunning PDF files. The first one has dramatic inspirational photographs of dream decks. You’ll glean ideas about how to incorporate some features into your new deck.
The second PDF is one that shows you how easy it is to install a top-quality composite deck. I used these instructions to install my composite decking and it still looks like the day I put it in.
TRUST ME, you really need to see these two PDF files.
CLICK or TAP HERE to begin the simple survey.
There’s a new GFCI you should know about. It’s much sleeker than traditional ones and it’s easier to install.
I recorded a video you should watch. CLICK or TAP HERE to see it now.
Virginia is a subscriber to this newsletter. Last Sunday, she took my advice and watched the NEW VIDEO I did about Pocket Door Privacy. Virginia thinks YOU need to watch the video too. She shared this with me:
“I would love to build a lot of pocket doors into my house. I would like to use them for the bathrooms (especially those that are en suite), for the den, the library, and the office. I may even choose to use one for my pantry!”
After watching my Pocket Door Privacy Video, you and Virginia will have all your questions about pocket doors answered.
Are you in need of FREE ADVICE AND BIDS from LOCAL contractors?
Based on the emails and complaints about WAITING TIME I get from subscribers just like you, NOW IS THE TIME TO START THE BID PROCESS. Contractors are busy and you may end up waiting a long time if you don’t get in line!
CLICK OR TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local contractors for ANY PROJECT.
CLICK OR TAP the following links and let me know how quickly you get contacted. I'll bet it's fast.
DECK OR PORCH - Now is the time to get bids!
EXTERIOR PAINTING - GREAT TIME TO GET BIDS IS NOW
WINDOW REPLACEMENT - BRRRR, are yours drafty?
Some meteorologists are predicting this year could be a bad one for tornadoes here in the USA. Do you live in a moderate to high-risk area for tornadoes?
If so, what are you doing now to prepare if one strikes? Have you seen photos of the flattened houses with the owner’s belongings scattered all over the street and in neighbors’ yards? Remember the somber faces of the devastated homeowners in shock? I’m talking about the people you see being interviewed by reporters on your local TV news.
Do you have a go-bag? What about all those things you own that can’t be replaced? What are you doing to PROTECT THEM?
Have you scanned your priceless photos? What about all the papers and drawings you have from your kids’ school days? What about all your other important papers, policies and things that would take weeks to reproduce?
Have you thought about your sentimental jewelry, bibelots, gewgaws, etc. that mean so much to you? Could you grab all these and be out the door in one minute?
This same plan needs to be in place for floods, fires, etc. How many times have you heard that sobbing person on the TV news say, “I lost EVERYTHING…”
You don’t need to lose everything. You can plan ahead, protect these things, and put them in SAFE PLACES when bad weather is forecast.
All you have to do is fire up those tiny gray cells God gave you and engage your critical-thinking skills. Remember just one thing that my daughter Meghan might say: “Excuses are reasons for failure.”
Now you know what to do. For the love of God, STOP making excuses.
When you get things done, you don’t have to offer up excuses.
It’s never too late to discover something new. Take me for example. I’ve never before planted anything from seed and then watched it grow.
But on Saturday morning, March 6th, I planted 36 Rutgers tomato seeds I saved from last fall. I used a very cool little terrarium growing kit.
The directions said it would take a week to see the sprouts and being impatient, I was lifting the lid each day. Just four days in, there was nothing to see.
But on Wednesday morning, I lifted the lid and here’s what I saw. SPROUTS!
HOLY TOMATO - really tomato!
Look below at what happened just 48 hours later. This photo was taken at 6:40 am on Friday morning. I’ll be harvesting delicious Rutgers tomatoes the size of baseballs by next week at this rate! 🙂
That’s enough for a Sunday.
Be SURE to take the short composite-deck survey. You MIGHT be CREDITED with the next NEW INNOVATIVE product or change!
It’s possible NO ONE has thought of the idea you have bumping around in your tiny gray cells. TAKE THE SURVEY NOW, Please.
Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
BEST Organic Cleaner - www.StainSolver.com
Activating Parks AGN - www.W3ATB.com - NEW STORIES!
P.S. Be honest. Do you really know how plumbing vents work? I’m willing to bet you have it all backward. CLICK or TAP HERE and let me know if you discovered something NEW.
Please complete this survey. You'll get two amazing FREE PDF documents if you enter your name and email address at the end of the survey.
Leviton SmartlockPro® GFCI | This is the Leviton SmartlockPro® GFCI. CLICK or TAP HERE to order a case or just one.
The Leviton SmartlockPro® GFCI is a pretty cool receptacle. It's easy to wire up.
It's so sleek it doesn't project beyond the cover plate.
CLICK or TAP HERE to purchase it.
You can put the wires around the screws as normal or slide them into the clamps on the rear and then tighten the screws. The clamp method is much easier than bending the wires around the screws.
The SmartlockPro® does just that - it LOCKS out. If the circuitry can't provide ground-fault protection, NO electricity will flow through the outlet. It fails in the SAFE MODE.
How Do Plumbing Vents Work | Most of the pipes you see in this photo are vent pipes and wastewater never travels through them. You have almost as much vent pipe in walls and ceilings as you do drain pipes! Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
QUESTION: Hey Tim, I had the opportunity to tour a house under construction. All of the plumbing drain lines were in, but I also saw all sorts of other extra pipes that connected to the drain pipes and eventually combined and went up through the roof.
It got me thinking, “What are these pipes and why were they installed?” What’s more, do you think I have these same pipes in my home? It seems like a lot of wasted pipe to me. Sharon A., Lake Wales, FL
You may not have ever been blessed to see what Sharon did. I say this because it can really be eye-opening to see the bones, wires, pipes, etc. in a home before the skin of drywall or plaster is applied. You’d be stunned to discover what’s just on the other side of that smooth coating if you had x-ray vision like Superman.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local plumbers who can do a vent pipe.
I’ve been a master plumber since age 29. When I first jumped into the building business after getting my geology degree in college, I gravitated to carpentry, plumbing, electric, and roofing. All of those things were of great interest, but plumbing cast a long-lasting spell on me. I really enjoyed the challenge of the three-dimensional problem-solving you have to do to run all the drain and vent pipes in a typical home.
CLICK or TAP HERE and I will DRAW YOUR PLUMBING VENT PIPE diagram.
I wondered how it all worked and was lucky enough to work in many old homes where I saw how long-gone master plumbers of old installed giant cast-iron pipes. You often could still smell the oakum oil-soaked hemp used to pack the joints before they poured the molten lead to make the joints water-tight.
It’s easy to fall into the trap thinking that indoor plumbing has been around for centuries. The truth is indoor plumbing is one of the newer innovations in building. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that people made the connection between common diseases and the lack of sanitary conditions in crowded cities. Once this happened, plumbers gained the stature of doctors because they, the plumbers, could keep you healthy by installing piping in such a way as to remove harmful waste from your home.
It didn’t take long for plumbers to figure out something you might have not paid much attention to back in high school physics class. I’m talking about the Venturi effect. When water rushes down a pipe and it passes an empty pipe, the moving water can create a vacuum.
If you don’t install vent pipes at each fixture in a plumbing system, the Venturi effect comes into play. Bad things can happen when you flush toilets, drain a tub, do laundry, etc. The water rushing and cascading through the pipes can suck the water out of the u-shaped traps under your sinks, tubs, floor drains, and showers. When this happens, vermin can crawl into your home, and sewer gas can enter as well.
The plumbers of old quickly discovered a plumbing system needs to breathe in air just like you breathe air into your lungs. You can demonstrate this quickly with a disposable simple plastic water bottle. Fill one of these cheap bottles with water and turn it upside down. The water will glug glug glug out of the bottle. There’s a battle going on between the water and the air outside the bottle. Air is struggling to get into the bottle to replace the water that’s emptied out.
Now do the same thing, but poke a very small hole or cut a thin slit in the bottom of the bottle and turn it upside down. The water drains from the bottle freely because air can enter the bottle through the small vent hole or slit you created in the bottle.
That vent pipe you see on your roof does the same thing as that tiny hole or slit you cut into the water bottle. It’s where the air is sucked down into the plumbing system each time you drain water from a fixture. You can connect all the vent pipes that connect to each plumbing fixture in your home to one simple pipe that exits the roof, or you can have several vent pipes pop through the roof to minimize the amount of pipe you use.
Kitchen Island Loop Vent Sink Plumbing | Eighty percent of the pipe you see in this photo is VENT PIPE! The only part that is drain pipe is that part next to the blue PEX water line. These are the pipes you may not see in a kitchen island that help prevent sewer gas from polluting your kitchen. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
Plumbing vent pipes have to be sized correctly, they need to have a slope to them to drain any condensate back to the drain pipes, and they must be installed with great care. Plumbing codes address all of this and you always want to make sure vent pipes are installed with the same skill as drain pipes.
While on the topic, I’m not a fan at all of the modern air-admittance valves (AAV) that seem to be the belle of the ball. They have moving parts and we all know that things with moving parts fail sooner or later. Traditional vent pipe systems have no moving parts. Period.
I’ve recorded a great video for you that shows all the vent pipes in a new home. I think you’ll be amazed at how many there are and how they all connect to just one pipe that exits the roof in this very large home.
Column 1396
Repair Cracked Backsplash Grout | This is a close-up photo of a granite countertop that’s got a tile backsplash sitting on it. The grout between the tile and granite has failed. What’s the best way to repair this? Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
QUESTION: Hello, Tim. I could use your help. The grout line between my kitchen granite countertop and the tile backsplash has cracked for the umpteenth time. Each winter the crack appears and each year I re-grout it hoping it will be the final time.
Am I using the wrong grout? How would you repair this and why does the crack disappear on its own in the summer? I have the same issue with other cracks around my home that mysteriously open and close depending on the time of year. Gary K., Columbus, OH
I swore off almost all gambling years ago when my wife caught me trying to make double-or-nothing basketball shots with my young son. She made me pay the $100 I was up to when she opened the garage door discovering me frantically trying to make a basket. Of course, he ratted me out because he thought he was rich. I’m pretty certain he still has that money and the shameful incident is brought up with regularity at family gatherings!
That said, I’m willing to bet that you might have a similar issue in your home with cracks that appear in the winter months and then disappear in the summer. It happens here in my own home.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local handymen that can repair the cracked grout.
The source of the pesky cracks is water, actually water vapor. You won’t find these cracks in well-built motels made from concrete and steel. Concrete and steel are very stable and don’t change shape when wet. You find them in houses and buildings built with wood that are located in climates where it does get hot and humid in the summer months.
Wood is hygroscopic. This means that it changes in size in response to moisture content. Think of a piece of wood like a cheap synthetic sponge. When you get one wet, it swells. When it dries out, it shrivels up. The change in size is fairly dramatic.
This shrink/swell issue isn’t as bad in older wood-frame homes. I’m talking ones built using old-growth timber from the late 1800s or early 1900s. Modern framing lumber has been hybridized to grow faster and the light-colored spring-wood bands of wood fibers are much larger than the darker summer-wood bands when the tree growth slows because of the lack of water and oncoming winter.
You’re looking at an old piece of lumber from the late 1800s versus a modern timber. Look at the difference in the size of the growth rings. The light-colored bands are spring wood and absorb lots of water vapor causing the wood to swell. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
This newer hybridized lumber is much more reactive to changes in water content than the wood of old. It swells and puffs up slowly as the humidity rises in your home. Here in the northern hemisphere by the end of August, the wood framing in your home is like your lungs after you take an enormous inhalation of air.
As your home, and Gary’s, transition to January and February, this water is liberated from the lumber and the cracks bloom in your home like flowers in the desert after a 1-inch rainfall. The water in the wood is pulled out by the drier winter air in your home.
In my opinion, the best way to deal with these cracks is in the dead of winter. Gary needs to stop using hard grout and switch to the best caulk with the most elasticity. This characteristic is often called out on the label of the caulk. You'll discover high-quality caulks at a home center or large hardware store.
Remember, the more expensive the caulk is, almost always it’s a better product. Why? In these cases, the manufacturer puts in better ingredients that almost always are more expensive.
Large deep cracks might have to be filled with a foam backing rod before you install the caulk. You’ll probably end up using a water-based caulk and as these dry and cure, they shrink. You minimize shrinkage by minimizing the amount of caulk you use.
Gary needs to carefully scrape away all the failed grout. The granite top is pretty hard and very scratch resistant. That said, I’d use plenty of water and a new stiff 1.5-inch putty knife with a sharp edge. I’d get the countertop wet and slide the knife across the grout much like a snowplow pushes snow. I’d angle the tool so the grout is pushed towards the tile.
After going about an inch or two, I’d use a damp sponge to pick up any of the grit the putty knife loosened. You don’t want to grind that grit into the granite. I’ve never had issues getting up old grout from granite. The polished granite surface usually surrenders the grout with minimal work.
You do the same process to remove any grout from the vertical tiles, but it takes far more patience and skill. Work slowly and use a deft touch. Great lighting will aid the process. Feel free to use a child’s squirt gun to rinse grit down onto the granite top. Imagine you’re a dental hygienist for a day. Think about that. How cool is it to have one of those tiny fancy squirt guns they use to rinse teeth?
Once you have the grout all cleaned off, slide the tip of a paper towel into the crack between the tile and the granite to get liquid water that’s hiding in the void. Once you have all the water out, allow the crack to dry for 48 hours before caulking. I have a great caulking video on my AsktheBuilder.com website to show you exactly how I get a smooth joint each time. You should watch it.
Column 1393
I’ve been told my newsletter is one of the quirkiest ones around. If this is your first issue, you get to be the judge and jury. Often I start off with a subject that has nothing to do with home improvement. Today is one of those days. You’re about to meet Jason who I saw as he was walking along Lower Bay Road. I headed to the grocery store and he was headed to work.
You can see sunrises like this driving along that road here in central New Hampshire.
You, though, might have been a subscriber for 269 moons, maybe more. Do you recall that video I shot for Channel 9 news in Cincinnati, Ohio? Ron Fischer was the videographer and it was one of my first videos for the TV station. CLICK or TAP HERE and tell me if you think you’re a sissy.
Be SURE TO SCROLL DOWN below the video to see the BEST drill bits.
Has it happened to you? It’s like falling in love. You know it when it happens. CLICK or TAP HERE and take a dip in the magic waters of synchronicity. I fell under the spell of this elixir this past Wednesday morning as I drove down Lower Bay Road.
A few days ago, Wayne reached out to me.
He wrote, “Have you thought about doing articles for AsktheBuilder.com for people who are considering replacing or installing a new heating system considering the influence of some people who are doing some things promoting the Green New Deal?
I live along the coast in Massachusetts above Boston and need to replace my oil-fired hot-air furnace in the near future and am thinking that a heat pump might be a good alternative.”
What do you think I told Wayne? Do you think heat pumps are the bee’s knees and the best thing to use in all climates?
CLICK or TAP HERE and pay very close attention to what I say about the balance point.
Have you discovered you need more privacy in your home because more people are home more often?
I recorded a NEW SHORT VIDEO that you should watch. It's guaranteed to inspire you. CLICK or TAP HERE to watch the SHORT VIDEO.
Are you in need of FREE ADVICE AND BIDS from LOCAL contractors?
Based on the emails and complaints about WAITING TIME I get from subscribers just like you, now is the time to start the bid process. Contractors are busy and you may end up waiting a long time if you don’t get in line!
CLICK OR TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local contractors for ANY PROJECT.
CLICK OR TAP the following links and let me know how quickly you get contacted. I'll bet it's fast.
DECK or PORCH - Now is the time to get bids!
EXTERIOR PAINTING - GREAT TIME TO GET BIDS IS NOW
WINDOW REPLACEMENT - BRRRR, are yours drafty?
One of my best friends from college is Phil. He and I met in the summer of 1972 on a two-week geology field trip to the Southwest. We still stay in touch.
We were the primary drivers of Big Red along with Steve Bernius, I believe. Phil’s sitting in the passenger seat in this photo and that’s me with the golden locks at age 19 ready to jump in and drive Big Red towards the extinct Bandera Volcano.
Phil has lived in east Texas for decades and has been giving me periodic updates about the frozen waterlines and misery people are suffering.
As of a few days ago, he said there are still thousands of homes and small businesses without water. Not only is it an issue of overworked plumbers, but there's also a shortage of repair parts.
As I wrote in my national column about this dreadful disaster, almost ALL OF THIS MISERY could have been prevented. It’s shameful.
STOP! Did that sink in about the shortage of repair parts? What should you do now to be prepared at your home if something breaks during a disaster?
Even if you’re not going to install the parts, wouldn’t it be nice if you had them on hand? You’d be empowered and might conjure up the courage to reach out to me for help or watch a few YouTube videos to get your life back to normal.
Peer at this photo of Kevin’s tile floor:
Do you know what’s going on? What caused this to happen to the tile?
CLICK or TAP HERE and I GUARANTEE you’ll be blown away.
Who would think a geologist would be the first person to ask about the real CAUSE? Yes, Dr. Huff, I did pay attention in Clay Mineralogy class!
That’s quite enough for a Sunday.
More tips coming your way next week!
Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Spring Clean with - www.StainSolver.com
Virtual Hamvention Speaker - www.W3ATB.com
Do It Right, Not Over!
P.S. Did you put too much trust in the contractors you hire? Do you think it’s dangerous to do that? No matter HOW you answer those two questions, please read this column and ask yourself, “How many Sebastians are there out there?”
Roy is a subscriber to my FREE Ask the Builder newsletter. On March 7, 2021, I shared in that newsletter a synchronicity story about me and Jason.
Roy was kind enough to grant permission to me to share his life-saving synchronicity tale.
Here it is:
Several years ago, before cell phones, I drove to Kearney, NE one year to help with a high school academic competition. Well, this particular year, I was driving down I-80 at about 4 a.m.
As you can imagine, there was hardly any traffic at that hour. I passed a car, which appeared to be abandoned, on the side of the road. When you're driving 55-65 mph, a car parked on the side of the road goes by pretty past.
However, I felt like I had seen something or someone IN the car, even though it was pitch black/dark out. I had to decide whether to keep going or to turn around at the next exit, which was several miles down the road.
I believe the Lord was telling me that I needed to go back. So, I drove a few more miles to the next exit, turned around, went to the next exit past where that car was, turned around again, and headed to their car.
When I pulled up behind the car, I very slowly walked up to the car, since I had no idea what/who I would find. I had NEVER stopped for this kind of situation before.
I came up to the car and knocked on the window. This was winter and it was probably 10-20 degrees outside.
The person in the driver’s seat very slowly cracked the window. What I saw amazed me! There were four adults, a baby, and a dog in that car!
I had a Chevy Cavalier (4-door) at that time. I asked if I could give them a ride. They were very hesitant, but I told them I could not leave them in the cold!!
Due to allergies, I told them I couldn’t take the dog, but we squeezed the five of them into my car and headed down the road.
They asked me to leave them at the next exit at a gas station. As you probably remember, gas stations were not open 24 hours a day a lot back then. This was the early 1990s. I told them we probably wouldn’t find one that was open.
So, I asked them where they were headed. They lived in Kearney, NE! I couldn’t believe it. When I told them I was GOING to Kearney, THEY couldn’t believe it.
They accepted my offer to take them all the way home to Kearney. Then, they told me they had been stuck there for 4 hours. A tow truck had come but didn’t have the necessary equipment to tow the vehicle AND take the passengers, so they were waiting for another tow truck and someone to pick them up.
One hour after waiting, they no longer had heat in the car. So, they had been in the 10-20 degree temps for over three hours when I pulled up.
So, we had a nice long, warm, chat for the three-hour drive to Kearney and left them at their house. They were so grateful. I was so happy to be of assistance.
It was one of a few miraculous pick-someone-up stories that I have had the blessing to be a part of.
I always think, what if I had not listened to the Holy Spirit guiding me to go back and check the car?
I tell people, sometimes you have to listen and act on that still, small voice…
Your story inspired me to tell you mine!
God bless,
Roy
NOTE from Tim Carter: My good friend Tim Lewis, DVM, is quite sure the dog survived. Tim grew up on a farm and told me, "Cats, dogs, etc. are tough. They can survive brutal cold if you just get them out of the wind and they have water every few days." Roy told me the next day the car was gone on the side of the road so the dog was only in the car maybe six or eight hours alone before the tow truck arrived.
Fix Smoking Fireplace - This may look to you like a well-built fireplace. You’d be wrong. It was built by a buffoon. Copyright 2021 Tim Carter
QUESTION: Tim I really need your help. I just moved into my new home and have a smoking full masonry fireplace. It’s 55 inches wide and has an arched opening that’s 33.5 inches at the peak of the arch.
It looks like regular brick mortar was used with the firebrick. For whatever reason, it has two flues and a damper on each one. It smokes like an old steam locomotive sending clouds of choking smoke into the house!
Cracking a window helps but doesn’t solve the problem. Should there only be one flue? Should I only open one damper? What’s wrong? Tim Y., Broken Arrow, OK
When I opened Tim’s email and saw his fireplace photo, I exhaled a heavy sigh. I was flooded with a range of emotions. Frustration, sorrow, mild anger, and sympathy were at the top of the list. It breaks my heart to get bad news like Tim’s knowing that it’s so easy to build things, even fireplaces, that work perfectly. The science of how fireplaces and chimneys work has been known for hundreds of years.
Read my Fireplace Design and Dimensions column to understand why Tim's fireplace is smoking.
CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE BIDS from local fireplace experts to see if they MIGHT be able to fix your smoking fireplace.
I want to take this opportunity to once again plead the case for you to lobby your local school board to bring back vocational training in both grade and high school. In my opinion, it should be mandatory and all boys and girls should be exposed to the same learning material each year as they move through the 12 grades. We need to expose students about how houses work and the right way to do things because they're all going to need a roof over their heads as they grow older.
The vocational training not only will help give young people confidence about how to do minor repairs and talk intelligently with contractors, but it may also prove to be a springboard for those that might want to work with their hands in a rewarding life-long vocation. We must have new young people entering the trades each year. This is just common sense. Let’s expose the trades to children and allow them to see how rewarding it is to absorb this valuable knowledge.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and deal with what should have happened at Tim’s house as his fireplace was built. I’m sorry to say that Tim’s fireplace is the absolute worst job I’ve ever seen in my career. It was destined to fail from the get-go.
The Brick Industry Association (BIA) has published clear and concise pamphlets for decades that show exactly how to build a residential wood-burning fireplace that will never smoke. Not only do these pamphlets cover the sizing requirements, but they also go into great detail how to properly size the flue and match it to the height of the chimney.
It’s important to realize the size and shape of the firebox are directly related to the width and height of the opening to the fireplace. You can’t just guess as did Tim’s mason. As crazy as this sounds, Tim’s mason created a firebox that had two short stub walls that projected back into the firebox, then the two walls went off at 45-degree angles to meet at a hard 90-degree corner in the rear of the firebox. It’s no wonder smoke billowed into Tim’s house.
The shape and size of the firebox critical, but what you don’t see above the firebox is even more important. The shape and size of the throat of the fireplace as well as the design of the smoke shelf is of the utmost importance to ensure all the smoke and hot gases go up the chimney rather than roll into the room.
What’s sad about all this is that you with just moderate hand-eye skills can build a non-smoking fireplace using the easy-to-understand information available for free from the BIA. It’s maddening that anyone would have a smoking fireplace when you think about how the technical drawings, specs, etc. are all readily available.
No. Regular brick mortar should never be used to install the special firebrick in fireplaces.
Let’s talk about the use of ordinary brick mortar inside fireplace fireboxes. It’s a mistake, plain and simple. The firebrick used in a firebox is special refractory brick meant for high temperatures. It’s quite possible the temperature in a roaring fire could exceed 1,000 degrees in certain situations. Normal brick mortar is not made to withstand this temperature swing from room temperature to 4-digit temperatures.
Fireclay is the best thing to use to create thin joints between the firebrick. Fireclay is a special fine clay you mix with water to the consistency of a thick gravy. Skilled masons carefully dip the edge of a firebrick in this to apply the perfect amount of fireclay to each brick. The joint between the firebrick usually ends up no wider than 1/16th of an inch.
CLICK or TAP HERE to have this fantastic fireclay delivered to your home.
With the wet fireclay on the edge of a firebrick, the mason then presses it against another one and the fireclay creates a fireproof bond. This fireclay is not much different than the clay my daughter uses to make pottery. she fires this clay in a kiln that reaches temperatures in excess of 2,100 F. It will easily withstand thousands of fires over decades of use without crumbling as ordinary brick mortar will.
I’ve created a special page on my AsktheBuilder website sharing all the BIA information with you. CLICK or TAP HERE so you can have a non-smoking fireplace:
Column 1395
Subscribe to the FREE Ask the Builder newsletter to receive professional advice for your home. Complete the form below and each week you'll get:
Unsubscribe at any time. We respect your email privacy.