Check for Crowns in Lumber

Posted on by Tim Carter
lumber crown

The crown of a piece of dimensional rough lumber is the upward arching curvature you see when you look down its narrowest dimensional edge.

 

If you visit your new home construction site, and overhear parts of a conversation among the carpenters, you just might hear them discuss crowns. Your first inclination might be that one or more of them are members of a royal family. If that mental image doesn't connect, you might think one of the crew has some expensive dental work in their immediate future. But my guess is they were talking about the lumber with which they are working.

Traditional lumber floor joists and wall studs are rarely perfectly straight. Most of us wish they were straight so that walls and floors would be in the same plane. This would make the installation of both floor and wall cabinets a breeze. In fact, just about every finish material applied to a wall, floor or ceiling benefits when the framing members are in the same plane.

What is the crown of a piece of lumber?

The crown of a piece of dimensional rough lumber is the upward arching curvature you see when you look down its narrowest dimensional edge. To see the crown of a common 2 by wall stud or floor joist, you drop one end of the board on the ground and pick up the other end. Rotate the piece of lumber so that the 1.5 inch wide surface is pointing to the sky. As you orient your eye, so that you are looking down this finished edge towards the ground, you will almost always see some amount of curvature. It is possible to have a piece of lumber that is perfectly straight or one with very little curvature, but they are few and far between.

How do you install lumber with a crown?

As carpenters build a floor or a wall, it is important that they pay attention to crowns. You want the curvature or crowns of all pieces of lumber in a wall or a floor to point the same direction. In the case of floors, you absolutely want the crowns of the joists to point to the sky after the joists are nailed in place. When walls are framed on the ground or a subfloor, carpenters often do the same thing. When the wall is tilted into position, the wall may have a very slight hump in it as the crowns face out instead of inward.

What is the maximum acceptable crown?

Some lumber may have excessive crowns. In my opinion, a 16 foot long floor joist should have no more than a one-half inch crown. You measure the amount of crown by snapping a chalk line from the two ends of the floor joist along the wide flat face of the lumber. The chalk line, when stretched tightly, represents a perfectly straight line between the two top ends of the joist. The lumber that exists above the chalk line is the crowned aspect of the lumber. Use a tape measure to determine the extent of the crown.

Crowns can create an issue if a severely crowned floor joist is installed next to one that has no or very little crown. As you walk across a floor, that has been framed in this manner, you often can feel the actual hump in the floor. Professional carpenters will always check each joist or wall stud for the amount of crown and mark them. The lumber that has severe crowns can be cut into shorter lengths and used for blocking or short structural header beams above doors and windows.

What are alternatives to lumber that is crowned?

There are other products your builder can use to eliminate crown problems. Engineered floor trusses and engineered I joists can be used. The floor trusses are made in a similar fashion to roof trusses. These are often made at the factory with a crown built into the floor truss, but once the floor is covered and furniture put into the room, the trusses are meant to flatten out to a large degree. The good news is that each separate floor truss has the exact amount of crown built into it so humps are a thing of the past. Wood I-joists are made with no built-in crown. Floors built with them are as flat as a tabletop.

If you want perfectly straight walls, your builder can order engineered lumber wall studs or use steel studs in critical locations. Straight walls are a must in bathrooms where tile will be installed and any wall that will accept cabinets and countertops. The framing carpenters can easily incorporate wood blocking between the steel studs. Many specifications require that a screw penetrate 1.5 inches into solid lumber in order to deliver a sufficient amount of holding power. The wood blocking meets this specification.

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Wallpapers

Posted on by Tim Carter

Farmcrest wallpaper

 

Wallpapers

 

Can you remember the last time you walked into a home that really put your head on a swivel? I mean a house where every room seemed to have a look and feel all its own. I would be willing to wager a pint of the finest mocha chip ice cream that one or more of those rooms had wallpaper on the walls. The more model homes I tour, the more I realize builders and decorators sometimes forget the ambiance and flavor wallpaper can add to otherwise flat and painted walls.

Are you wallpaper-selection challenged?

Wallpaper is available in so many patterns and styles that you are sure to find something that really gets you excited. But some people, such as myself, are wallpaper-selection challenged. I look at patterns in wallpaper books and think some are too busy or the pattern is far too big. Fortunately, my lovely wife Kathy has the gift and talent to pick papers that are not only gorgeous, but the scale of the print and pattern is perfect for the room.

Take for example our entrance hall. I built a Queen Anne Victorian style home and Kathy found a large print paper that matches the time period to a tee. The actual pattern is so large, it didn't even fit on the sample page of the pattern book. But the wallpaper manufacturer had a large photograph of a finished room within the book to show what the pattern looked like on the wall. I would have never picked the pattern. But on the wall, the print is simply breathtaking. Guests who come into our home for the first time are always complimenting this wallpaper. When was the last time you got a compliment on your painted walls?

If you feel you can't make a great choice for your own home, ask for help. Many wallpaper stores have employees who have vast amounts of experience selecting papers. Some even have photo galleries of completed jobs in your area. If they don't have the photos, the professional wallpaper hangers who install the paper almost always carry with them a photo album of premiere papers and jobs they have completed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local companies that will hang your wallpaper for you.

Will hanging wallpaper ruin your walls?

All too often people back away from wallpaper because they feel it will ruin the walls or will be impossible to strip or modify at a later date. This is all true if the proper preparation steps are ignored by the builder and installer. The single-most important step to follow when installing wallpaper is to paint the walls with a special primer-sealer before the paper is installed.

Many wallpapers have strong adhesives applied at the factory. These adhesives can actually penetrate cheap wall paint and grab onto the paper surface of the drywall. The special primer-sealers made for wallpaper do not allow this to happen. Failure to apply the special primer sealer causes thousands of people to suffer each year when they strip wallpaper from walls that were not sealed correctly. As the people strip the wallpaper, large pieces of the drywall facing paper also come off. The special primer-sealers are affordable and can be applied as the base coat to a wall before regular paint is applied. Be sure to do this in all rooms you think might get wallpapered in the future. If you want to wait and apply the sealer the day before you wallpaper, that is fine.

A vast majority of wallpapers come pre-pasted from the factory. The instructions often outline ways to dip the paper in a container of water to activate the paste. I have found that brushing on a clear wallpaper paste activator is a far better method. The activators ensure that wallpaper paste stays on the wallpaper instead of being left behind in the dipping container. I have also discovered that the activators, when used in conjunction with the special primer-sealers, increase the amount of time you can move and adjust the wallpaper once it is applied to the wall.

To make sure your wallpaper is as smooth as a piece of glass once applied to the wall, be sure your builder scrapes down the walls to remove any small pieces of debris that got stuck in the paint or primer-sealer. To ensure the wallpaper is bubble-free, book the wallpaper. Booking paper simply means to fold the paper so the back of the paper touches up against itself. Let the paper sit for five or ten minutes before applying it to the wall. This waiting period allows the paper to expand. If you apply the paper to the wall before it expands, bubbles can and do form under the paper as it grows on the wall.

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Bricks

Posted on by Tim Carter
gold brick in a brick wall

You can clearly see the gold brick.  Photo credit: Threasa Brown

Brick is a popular building material for many reasons. If you purchase a high quality one and it is installed correctly on your new home, it rarely, if ever, requires any maintenance. The multi-color earth tones of brick add vast amounts of character to many architectural styles. Brick's dense composition helps to protect the inside of your home from the unwanted noises of everyday life that often overflow from the city and suburbs and into your private part of the planet.

How do you properly install bricks?

But what is involved in making sure the brick is installed correctly? The building code speaks to this question, in some respect, but if you want great results your builder and bricklayer have to spend more time and effort than the code requires.

It is impossible to cover all of the important bricklaying steps in sufficient detail in this short column. Entire books and countless technical booklets have been published describing the process from start to finish. But suffice it to say, there are some basic things that must be done to insure the brick performs well and the inside of your home stays dry.

Are brick homes waterproof?

Brick homes are by no means waterproof. The industry has known this for years. Water can and does seep through the mortar joints where the mortar touches the brick. Water can actually pass through certain brick or ones with cracks in them. Water infiltration is worst during storms where wind and rain pound one or more exposures of your home. The force of the wind actually pushes water deeper and deeper into the wall until it appears on the back of the brick and runs down inside the wall cavity.

Since we know water gets in the hidden wall cavity, your builder must make sure it never contacts anything made from wood. This water is the necessary missing ingredient that can trigger mold growth and wood rot. The first step is to make sure the house has a water barrier installed that shields the wood framing and sheathing components from water contact. Windows and doors that penetrate these membranes must be flashed so that water can't get behind them.

metal flashing

Metal Flashing

 

Additional flashings that integrate into the brick must be installed under the first course of brick that sits on top of the foundation. This continuous flashing must extend up the wall of the home and behind the water barrier that keeps the water off the wood framing. Where this flashing wraps around outside and inside corners, it must be fitted, trimmed and sealed so that water can't leak past it at these critical locations. This same flashing material must be used below and above each window and door of the entire house. The flashings need to project out past the face of the brick approximately 3/8 inch so that water can drip off and drop to the ground. Weep holes should be spaced no greater than two feet apart at any location where flashing is placed under a course of brick.

Sand and Brick Mortar Close Up of brick

Brick Mortar

 

A task as simple as adding mortar for the next course of brick is very critical. The bricklayer must not apply too much mortar. When the brick is placed into position, mortar oozes out around the base of the brick. The bricklayer can easily capture and remove the excess mortar on the front side of the wall. But it is impossible to get the mortar that droops down in the void space between the back of the brick and the frame wall. If this mortar falls off and drops into the void space, it can begin to collect and block the weep holes that allow water to escape from behind the brick wall.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local companies that will install or repair your brick work.

This excess mortar can also touch the frame wall part of your home and create a bridge. Bridging is bad because it can create a transfer spot where water jumps from the back of the brick to the frame wall of your home.

Another important aspect is the simple tooling of the mortar joint. Different mortar joint styles exhibit vastly different waterproofing characteristics. The most waterproof joint is the common concave joint that looks like a person rubbed their thumb over the wet mortar. Specify this tooling style on your new home.

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Door Hardware

Posted on by Tim Carter
kitchen pantry door close up

This is new door hardware that looks like old. The latch is mortised into the door. You lock it with a skeleton key!

There are countless decisions a person has to make when they decide to throw a skin into the Build a New House game. Paint colors, carpet, tile, cabinets, appliances, trim, wallpaper, etc. The list goes on and on. But unfortunately, some builders don't offer choices, or limited ones at best, when it comes to door hardware. By door hardware, I mean both the door knobs / locksets and the hinges for the door.

The house I grew up in was built in the 1930's. The door knobs were clear crystal and the actual hardware was a full mortise mechanism that used a skeleton key to lock and unlock the doors. This hardware still functions perfectly in that home. You can buy door hardware that will last generations or you can buy some that lasts for several months or years. You should be given the choice to choose hardware that can add value to your home as it ages.

What are the differences in styles of door hardware?

There are vast differences in quality and styles when it comes to door hardware. For some production builders, hardware is a place where they can save large sums of money in an effort to keep their sales price low to lure you into their model home. The problem is, this low-cost and low-quality hardware can cause you headaches not too long after your warranty expires.

Visit a home center and I guarantee that you will find a door knob set for under ten dollars. In fact, you can find them on sale for less than seven dollars. The surface looks shiny and the device will open and latch a door, but for how long? These pieces of hardware are made in foreign countries and are considered a commodity item.door lockset

There are different levels of quality and a higher cost associated with each level when it comes to door hardware. The next level is one where you can get a door knob set for approximately $20. These locksets and door knob sets are just a slight improvement over the lowest cost item. They work, but don't expect more than three to five years of service from these hardware sets.

If you start to budget $40 to $50 per door for hardware, you start to get a respectable mechanical device that will be trouble-free for many years. Both traditional round knobs and lever handles are available in this price range.

The next level starts between $70 - $80 per door. Now you are beginning to enter the upper levels of the door hardware atmosphere. Buying a door knob set in this category is like flying first class in a B-777 from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, where the $7 sale lockset is a raft with a cloth sail.

Need help with your door hardware? CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local companies that can install your new door hardware.

You can buy even more expensive and higher quality door hardware. As crazy as it sounds, you can spend $150 per door and go as high as $2,000 per door for custom hand-cast designs made by European craftsmen.

What about door hinges?

Don't overlook door hinges. All too often pre-hung interior doors come with commodity machine-stamped hinges. Often these are brass-plated steel. These hinges do work, but they are not well-engineered. There are higher quality stamped hinges that are solid brass. Accent kits can be added so the hinge pins have a traditional ball look or a Victorian finial. I happen to have theses highly-polished solid brass hinges with the finials in my own home.

The best interior door hinges are ones that are extruded. This is a more costly manufacturing process, but the precision of the final product is magnificent. These hinges will provide years of trouble-free performance.

You don't have to be a lottery winner to be able to afford decent door hardware. I urge you to visit a true hardware store that just sells locksets and hinges to get a real feel of what kind of quality and style can be had for a given price range. You may be surprised to discover that door knob styles and finishes exist that you have never seen. What's more, they may be within your budget. Be sure to make this very important trip.

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Stop Roof Leaks with Flashings

Posted on by Tim Carter
roof flashing

Roof Leak Flashings - A vast majority of all roof leaks are at flashings. This is a base flashing where a lower roof ends against a second-story wall.

Roof Leak Flashings - Yep, That's Where You Look First.

You undoubtedly expect many things when you move into a new home. Fresh paint, trouble-free plumbing, new fixtures and a dry environment are surely high on the list. But you might be surprised how many new homes develop roof leaks in a very short amount of time. Unless you have nerves of steel and a tall ladder, I doubt you'll have the chance to get up and inspect your roof during the walk-through inspection. You might simply hope the roof is okay.

How Can I Inspect My Roof?

It is possible to inspect the roof. You can hire an independent roofer or a certified whole-house inspector to check out things you can't easily see. This individual should have the equipment and the experience to quickly see if the roof and all of its components are installed correctly.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local roofers that can inspect your roof and stop leaks.

What is a roof flashing?

A roof flashing is a material that connects your roofing materials to something that's not your roof. Here are examples of things that are not a roof, but have flashings around them or next to them:

  • plumbing vent pipes
  • chimneys
  • exhaust vents from a furnace
  • skylights
  • dormers
  • second-story sidewalls
  • valleys
  • etc.

What Does a Flashing Look Like?

Watch this video to see the most common flashing there is. Every house has one of these and some houses have more than one:

What Material is Used to Make Flashings?

Flashing material can be made from many things including tin, copper, galvanized steel, lead, aluminum and even rubber. The most common place a homeowner sees flashing is at a plumbing vent pipe. A chimney poking through a roof always has a flashing around it. Skylights always are surrounded by flashings.

Do You Have More Information About Flashings?

Yes. CLICK or TAP HERE to discover more about metal roof flashings.

What is a Counterflashing?

A counterflashing is a secondary material that overlaps a lower flashing that's weaved into the roofing material. You'll find these counterflashings around chimneys and skylights in almost all cases.

Frequently you will see triangular pieces of metal that are actually mortared into the chimney. These are just one part of a complex set of metal pieces that weave into the roofing materials and the masonry chimney to form a watertight connection.

Are Flashings Found Where a Roof Butts Up Against a Wall?

Another common flashing location is anywhere a roof butts up next to a wall. For example, your new home might have a single-story garage connected to a two-story house. Look closely where the shingles touch the house and you should see flashings. If the house has some sort of wood or vinyl siding, these siding materials will lap over the metal flashings. This method of construction produces leak-free performance as well.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local roofers that can inspect your roof and stop leaks.

Are Plumbing Vent Flashings Simple?

Plumbing vent pipes also have a simple flashing that slides down over the pipe that sticks up through the roof. Be sure to watch the video above showing how to install a plumbing vent-pipe flashing.

Typically newer flashings of this type are equipped with a special silicone-rubber collar that fits tightly around the circular plumbing vent pipe. This flashing lays over the shingles below the lower half of the flashing and the upper half of the flashing is covered by the roofing shingles above the flashing.

Do Skylights Come With Flashing Kits?

Yes, certain skylights have factory-built flashing kits that are superb when installed according to manufacturers' instructions. Velux was the leader in this area beginning back in the 1970s. In my opinion, Velux skylights come with the best flashings and you'll never have a leak if you follow their installation instructions.

They will keep out the worst driving rain and keep any room leak free. These factory-built flashings require no soldering or caulk to provide years of leak-free performance. I have five of them on my own home and have installed hundreds of others.

What Do You Use To Make Your Own Flashings?

I prefer to use flashing materials that can be soldered easily. Tin-coated steel and copper meet this requirement. Tin-coated steel used to be available in different weights: 20 and 40-pound. The 40-pound tin has more tin coating on the pieces of steel.

However, stringent and oppressive environmental requirements have all but eliminated sources of tin-coated steel in the USA. This is a tragic loss as I feel there's very little solid evidence that the lead is as big an issue as it's made out to be. I'm not trusting of the science behind these restrictions. The old cynic in me thinks that some group or politicians are profiting from these harsh restrictions for a time-tested material used on roofs for centuries.

Understand that the led in the flashings since is not exposed to the atmosphere because all tin flashings are painted. What's more, lead is a natural element found in nature on its own.

Is Copper a Great Flashing Material?

Yes, copper is perhaps the best flashing material. It doesn't require painting, it's easy to bend and form, and it's extremely easy to solder. Copper flashings can last up to 100 years.

You can purchase very thin copper that will protect your asphalt shingles from deteriorating. CLICK or TAP HERE to purchase this thin copper.

I made this discovery when writing my Roofing Ripoff expose' book.

roofing ripoff cover

This is the cover of my Roofing Ripoff book. CLICK on THE IMAGE NOW TO ORDER IT.

Can I Use Aluminum for Flashing Material?

You can use aluminum for certain flashings. It's a great material for step flashings that weave into shingles.

The biggest issue is that aluminum can't be soldered. Some incompetent roofers will CAULK aluminum flashing, but this is a mistake. Caulk is NOT a flashing material.

Can I Use Aluminum Against Brick or Stone?

No. Never use aluminum in contact with brick or stone.

Be sure your builder does not use aluminum flashing material in contact with any masonry walls or chimneys. The alkaline chemicals in the masonry can corrode the aluminum over time. Aluminum is also very difficult to solder or weld. Beware of roofers or builders who install aluminum and then caulk corners to make a leak-resistant joint. There are no caulks that will provide the same trouble-free performance as solder.

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Handy Tools for Your New House

Posted on by Tim Carter
Assortment of Hand tools

Handy Tools for Your New House

If you are buying or building a new home to get a respite from repair or other projects around the house, you are dreaming. I am quite sure within the first 30 days you may find yourself doing any number of things that transform a new house into a comfortable home that fits like a glove. If you are interested, I will share a few of my secret tools that are tucked away in my toolbelt. More than once these special tools have saved both time and money - two very valuable commodities in this day and age.

Tools for Carpentry

When I am involved in either rough carpentry or even finish carpentry jobs, you can bet you will find my wood rasp in use any number of times during the day. This rasp looks like a fingernail file on massive doses of steroids. Wood rasps are made using hardened steel. Mine is eight inches long and one inch wide. It has two cutting surfaces on each side - coarse cutting teeth and fine cutting grooves. One surface is flat and the other is slightly convex.

wood rasp

This wood rasp is a 4-way, half round, half flat file. Click the image to purchase this item.

A rasp comes in very handy when you want to remove splinters from a saw cut or quickly ease (create a slight round profile) a sharp edge. I frequently use it to trim away wood on the cut edge of a miter joint on woodwork. Removal of this wood allows mitered trim to fit perfectly on wall surfaces that are not in the same plane. You may need to trim a small amount of wood away on a shelf that is not fitting well into that slightly out-of-square corner. There are hundreds of things you can use a rasp for.

Magnetic Pickup Tool

magnetic pickup tool

Click the image to purchase this item.

Can you remember the last time you assembled anything? If you are like me, a screw, nut or bolt gets dropped and is sucked by a mystical force into the closest furnace duct, crack or crevice. It can even be a small screw that drops inside an appliance. My telescopic magnetic pick-up tool saves the day each time this happens to me. When not in use, the tool shaft collapses just like a common radio antenna. If you don't have this tool, you should get one immediately.

basic tools home repair

These are just a few of the basic tools you’ll need to do home repairs around your home. Photo Credit: Tim Carter

Mini Tubing Cutter

If you are an ambitious do-it-yourselfer, you may jump feet first into adding water supply lines to a new sink, maybe a forgotten hose bib or even an ice-maker supply line. Plumbers often install water supply lines close to floor joists. A standard tubing cutter can't always be rotated a full turn in these tight spaces, but my miniature tubing cutter can! This little tool is only one and one quarter inches square and cuts both one-half and three-quarter inch copper tubing with ease. The best part is they are affordable.

mini copper tubing cutter

Here's the magical tool. It's the absolute BEST mini tubing cutter I've ever used. Click on the image to purchase this mini cutter. (C) Copyright Tim Carter

Do you like to use drywall screws to assemble pieces of wood? I do as screws seem to hold so much better over time than a standard uncoated nail. You can get nails that have glue or ribbed shafts that hold well, but often there is no substitute for a screw. Screws look best when the heads are flush with the finish surface or slightly countersunk. I have a set of special Phillips head screw bits that are also countersink hole creators. The bits actually have cutting edges on the sides of the four tip blades. The steel is hardened and makes perfect countersink holes each time. Without this hole, you can snap the screw shaft or worse yet, strip the wood by over-driving the screw.

The Plumb Bob

I saved the best for last. My four-inch long brass plumb bob has its own private compartment in my toolbelt. I have all sorts of levels, laser levels and even transits that can create level and plumb lines. These are great tools, but accidents can cause them to get out of adjustment. The last time I checked, Mother Nature's gravity is perfectly aligned.

Lazer Plumb Bob logo

Click on the image to get your own Plumb Bob.

A plumb bob can be used to create perfectly plumb lines for any number of jobs. If you create a right triangle from the plumb line, you get a perfectly level line. Who would think a simple piece of metal could produce such precision?

If you don't have these tools, you may start to accumulate them. There is no doubt in my mind that you will smile each time you use each one. Those who view your technique and results will think you are a genius.

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Patio Design

Posted on by Tim Carter
finished paver patio

Patio Planning -  Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

Patio Planning

I have had the pleasure of spending time on many different patios in my lifetime. I have sat on ones that were 5 feet deep by 6 feet long and have strolled around one that was 1,200 square feet. With a little thought and creativity, a patio can be an outdoor room that is as inviting as any interior room of your home.

The first mental obstacle you need to overcome is the one-patio-is fine approach. Some of the most delightful backyard living spaces are those that have more than one patio. These peaceful platforms are interconnected with private walkways and if done properly, each separate patio can have its own identity and feel. There are two patios at my own home and the lower patio is oriented to take advantage of a completely different backyard vista.

What goes into planning a patio?

There are quite a few things you should consider when planning a patio. Two things that I consider are the primary visual assets in the backyard and the compass direction. You may be lucky and have a view of a pond, meadow or a valley. But you could also be looking directly into someone's back yard. If this is the case, the primary patio view might become the back of your own home. When this happens, you might heavily landscape the rear wall of your home and incorporate a water feature that will lull you into a state of complacency on a mild summer evening.

Sun vs Shade on the Patio

Think about where the sun rises and sets. How much natural shade will be available when you decide to relax on the patio? Will you be suffering because the patio is unshielded form intense solar rays? Can you re-orient the patio to take advantage of shade from a tree or a part of your home? You can always create shade or partial shade with shade shelters and a plethora of different plants and trees.

Once you know where you are going to place the patio, it is time to make it the right size. Undersized patios are built each day by both builders and homeowners alike. I see patios on a regular basis that only have room for a small table and perhaps two or three closely spaced chairs. If you plan to entertain, be prepared to build a patio that has a minimum of 400 if not 500 square feet.

The best way to size a patio is to buy the furniture that will be used in this outdoor room. Take delivery of the furniture and actually place it on the grass or ground as you intend to arrange it on the finished surface. Sit in the furniture and make spacing adjustments so no one person violates the personal space of another. Use spray paint to carefully mark the outline of the patio directly on the grass or ground. Be sure to allow at least 16 inches behind and on the sides of furniture that is next to the edge of the patio. Be generous with your markings. You will never regret the extra space.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local companies that can plan and install your patio.

If you want a really interesting patio and have the space to do it, try to create a few planting beds within the patio. You can purchase dwarf trees that grow only 10 or twelve feet high that provide filtered shade in daylight and interesting geometry at night when lit with an upward pointing landscape light. Abundant seasonal flowers in the planting beds add color, depth and fragrance.

Don't forget the water feature!

My favorite patio amenity is water. Ponds, fountains, even streams running next to a patio add pleasing background sound and motion that can induce a trance in the most stressed-out person. The old real estate saying "Nothing enhances the value of real estate like water." holds true in this instance as well. A water feature that is incorporated into a patio sets it apart from all those that lack this creative twist.

The material used to construct the patio can have an enormous impact on the final look. Concrete can be colorized and imprinted with patterns. Brick, flagstone, slate, tile and other materials can also be used for the patio's surface. All have different colors and textures. The really creative designers can mix and match materials to create a stunning look. Don't be afraid to experiment with different materials. Simply make sure they can withstand all that Mother Nature will throw at them before you take delivery.

Read my Sizing Decks or Patios Column for more tips on getting your patio the proper size.

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Storage

Posted on by Tim Carter
attic truss design creating roof room

This is an attic space in a new home. Most builders would have used standard trusses and wasted all this space. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

Do you have enough storage?

I don't have any hard scientific evidence to support the following statement, but I will bet tomorrow's lunch money that it is right: Most people who walk through model homes do not think about all of the stuff they have crammed into their basements, garages and attics. New home shoppers do look at closet space to see if a house will have enough storage space for everyday use. But keep in mind that I am talking about bulk storage space in new homes.

It has been my experience that people discover on move-in day they forgot about all of the extra things they own. Some items never make it to the new home and is sold or given away, But that which is transported by the moving company often ends up covering the floor of the garage or basement because shelves or other storage solutions were not built or provided for by the home builder. All too often I have had to build shelves after the fact and sometimes there simply was not enough space to house all that needed to be stored.

How can you create extra attic storage space?

There has been an active trend for some time to build homes with fairly steep roof pitches. A vast majority of builders do this using common trusses. Trusses are wonderful building materials but the average common truss creates a waste of space above the living area. The complex pattern of framing members in each truss creates a web of wood in the attic area once all of the trusses are in place. What's more, the average common truss is not engineered to carry any more load than the ceiling below and the roof above.

Your builder can order special attic trusses that have the same outside shape as a common truss but that is where the similarity stops. Attic trusses that are installed side-by-side over a spacing of 20 or more feet create huge wide-open spaces that resemble a traditional attic. These trusses are engineered to support the extra weight of stored items or a full living space. All that has to be done is add wood flooring if you want to use the space for storage. The home designer or architect also needs to provide a convenient staircase to access this space.

Create storage over your garage

Builders often forget about the extra space that exists above the typical garage. Special storage trusses can be used over garages that provide a five or six foot tall head height in a space that might be ten feet deep and is as wide as the overall garage. Because of the limited ceiling height of storage trusses, building codes typically will never allow a space like this to be converted into a living area. But the wide open space allows you to easily walk around slightly bent over to access stored possessions.

High-quality pull-down stairs can be installed to access these garage storage areas. It is also possible to build a traditional staircase to access this storage space above your cars. If your builder supplies these trusses for you, be sure he has the drywall hangers space the screws in the drywall on one foot centers along each truss. Doing this minimizes the chance of the drywall falling on top of your cars over time. Walking around in the storage area can cause drywall to pull away from the trusses if it is installed with a minimum amount of fasteners.

garage storage shelves

Traditional shelving installed in basements or out in garages should be done before you move-in. Take an inventory of your possessions and see if you need special height shelving for larger items. It is always best to keep things off basement floors in case of minor flooding or water seepage from rainstorms. Shelving accomplishes this goal. Save waterproof plastic buckets with lids and use those as excellent floor-storage vessels.

Use turbine vents to control attic temperature

Certain possessions can be ruined by extremes of heat and cold. Think about what you might store in your attic or storage area above the garage. At the very least, be sure your builder installs several wind-powered turbine vents in the roof within these spaces. These spinning vents do a fantastic job of pulling cooler outdoor air into the attic spaces while they exhaust stifling hot air. They also exhaust humid air that might otherwise condense on objects during colder weather.

roof turbine

This turbine vent spins with just the slightest breeze. It is but one tool to use when you want superior attic ventilation. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

Valuable items stored in your basement can be placed in large plastic tubs that have snap-on lids. These products will keep water off of your items in case a plumbing pipe bursts, a drain pipe leaks or a air conditioning duct drips water. These plastic storage bins come in different heights so you should be able to maximize the storage space between shelves. My wife uses bins like these to protect her sentimental Christmas tree ornaments.

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Dual Purpose Drain Tile

Posted on by Tim Carter
drain tile installation

The builder is doing just about everything right installing this drain tile. Photo Credit: Tim Carter

Drain Tile

I often think about how blessed I am to have worked on older homes long before I started building new homes. Frequently, I would have to excavate next to an old home if I were building a room addition or fixing its old foundation.

Often I would uncover the original drain-tile that rested against the footer just below the foundation wall. The pipe was very unique as it was 12 inch long four inch diameter orange vitrified clay pipe. The individual pieces were just butted up against one another and a piece of thick roofing felt paper was placed over the top of each of the joints.

Rest assured your builder is not going to install your drain tile in this fashion. Newer products and installation methods are available that allow builders to install foundation drainage systems that will work perfectly for many years while providing you will tremendous peace of mind.

What is the purpose of drain tile systems?

But many builders fail to realize that draintile systems can serve two purposes. First and foremost they are supposed to collect water and pipe it to another location where it can be transported away from the foundation. But some new homes have shallow foundations that are just four or five feet below the surface. These can often be found in houses with a walkout basement, those that have a crawlspace and under most attached garages.

How can drain-tiles help in times of a drought?

Draintiles installed next to the footers in these shallow foundations can be used as water injection systems in times of drought. In fact, it is not a bad idea to use draintiles systems in deeper foundations in houses with full basements for the same thing.

The heavy clay soils found under many homes in the Midwest can shrink and swell depending upon how much water they contain. In times of extended drought, some clay soils can shrink to such a degree that the foundation and footer can fall. If the movement is uniform under all of the footers at the same time, then a foundation may not sustain any damage. But this is highly unlikely.

Imagine if your builder were to extend several vertical pipes up from the drain tile system to the grade level around your home. These pipes would connect to the draintile piping with standard tee fittings. Placing a garden hose into the vertical pipe would allow you to add water to the clay soil right where it is most needed.

What is the proper components for a drain tile system?

To maximize the benefits of this water injection system the draintile system needs to be installed with care. If at all possible, try to make sure the piping rests against the footer as opposed to resting on top of the footer. I prefer to have one or two inches of coarse 1 inch or greater diameter washed rounded gravel placed between the soil and the bottom of the drain pipe. If your builder uses plastic draintile that has holes punched in it, these holes should point down not up. If placed up, smaller pieces of gravel can clog the holes. What's more, if the holes are up, it is very hard for the water to get into and out of the pipe.

CLICK or TAP HERE to get FREE quotes from local foundation drainage companies.

The draintile piping should be installed fairly level. It will still drain water just fine if level as it is simply acting as a conduit for water movement. Since water seeks its own level, the water trying to get away from the foundation will flow out of the pipe or towards a basement sump pit with little effort.

Installing the draintile nearly level is the best way when the piping will function as a water injection system. As the water flows into the level piping, it travels rapidly to all parts of the system. This ensures that the clay soils are wetted at or about the same time.

In times of drought, you are simply trying to trick the soil around your footers and foundation. Since the soil can't see the sky, it doesn't know if it is raining or not. This soil simply wants to maintain a fairly constant moisture content so that it doesn't move up or down. Your builder can give you this ability with just a little bit of extra effort and material.

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Home Plans

Posted on by Tim Carter
SamplePlan Shed Plans Tim's

Home Plans - This is a sample blue print for the Carter Shed.

Home plans are the core documents that communicate what the home owner wants and what the builder needs to build. Without great house plans, a new home construction project can quickly become a sea of confusion, frustration and arguments. Many people think that house plans are just pretty pictures and floor plans, but believe me, they serve a far more important purpose.

Can written plans help resolve building disputes?

Can you remember the last time you were involved in a dispute over anything? Chances are you prevailed if you had some form of tangible written evidence, photograph or object that proved your statements were true. But all too often people argue about spoken words that frequently turn into broken promises, simple misunderstandings, or worse yet - deception. This misery takes place everyday in the residential building arena. Homeowners get into heated disputes with builders and remodelers about any number of issues.

Why do you need good plans?

The sad fact is a vast majority of new home construction disputes can be settled quickly and efficiently with crisp plans and specifications that are developed long before the first spade of soil is turned at the jobsite. There are many reasons why good plans and specifications never get developed. Often the customer is unwilling to pay for the time and effort to produce the documents. Another common reason is the homeowner looks at a set of blueprints and thinks they are sufficient. Without ever seeing a first-class set of prints, I can see why they might feel a deficient set will make do. After all, if they are good enough for the building department then they must be good enough for all involved.

Sample Blueprint

Discover what should be included on your blueprints and the amount of detail required. Click on the image to get a Sample Set of Blueprints from the AsktheBuilder Store. These details samples will show you want needs to be included in your blueprints.

Perhaps a few examples of dispute issues might convince you that you need top drawer plans and specifications for your new home. Imagine if you will a discussion between you and your builder about crown molding. You say you want it in all downstairs rooms. The builder agrees and draws one simple squiggly line on the plans in the cross section and adds "Crown Molding" with an arrow pointing to the line.

Months later while walking through the house as the finish work is being completed, you see a small and simplistic paint-grade crown molding that is barely noticeable up in several rooms. You grumble and wonder why the carpenter didn't install the two piece stained oak crown molding you "thought" you mentioned to the builder.

As you walk into the bathrooms upstairs you shake your head and wonder who in the world put the toilet paper holder on the opposite wall from the toilet. It is barely reachable. Fortunately the carpenter who installed it walks in and you ask about the placement of this fixture. He simply states that is where he always put them. Need I go on?

Should the plans show locations of electrical outlets, switches and the toilet paper holder?

The failure to develop good specifications and plans can also lead to cost overruns and a limited product selection for your finishes. A great set of plans includes numerous interior elevations that show you in two dimensions what a wall will look like when it is finished. These elevations can be as detailed so as to show exact locations of electrical outlets, switches and yes, toilet paper holders. New computer software allows architects and designers to show these in three dimensions as well.

Knowing what you are going to see before it happens can often prevent costly change orders. Many people are unable to visualize what something might look like looking at a simple floorplan. Elevations help solve this problem.

Why are all details needed on the blueprints?

Plans and specifications that do not include the actual selections of all fixtures, cabinets, tops etc. can cause you problems if you try to decide what you want during construction. A builder may ask you to go to the tile store 6 weeks before he needs the tile. But once there you fall in love with a special order tile that take 10 weeks to get. Who will pay for the time delay should you decide to order the special tile?

There are hundreds of scenarios that can be described. But one thing is for sure: Detailed plans with clear and precise specifications that outline each and everything you want will save you if push comes to shove. Time and again when I consult in the forensic construction expert work I perform I find that a great set of plans that were ignored by a builder or sub leads to their capitulation if the dispute is headed for a courtroom.

How would you like me to build your new home? It's probably impossible for me to fit your job into my schedule, but I will gladly share hundreds of my tricks and building secrets with you and your builder. Check out my New House Specifications.

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