What I'm Seeing Now

Anytime you start a big project, it is important to keep first things first!

Safety first!

Whoa! Everything but the knee pads?  Where are the knee pads?

Whenever you are involved in a project, there are always obstacles to overcome. As I was laying this flooring, I noticed a hole in the floor! I think it was supposed to be there.

There was cold air blowing out of it.  Yepper, supposed to be there!

Actually, in this project, there will be two HVAC floor registers. While there are a variety of ways to cut out the flooring to accommodate the register over the space, you have to be careful not to cut into the metal opening.

I decided to use a tool I had used many times in the past to cut openings for drywall. But I had never used it to cut into hardwood flooring.

Time to try it out! Porter Cable calls this a “Cut-Out Tool.” I have always referred to it as a “zip tool.”

First, I tried a couple of test cuts to see if I could control it. And I could. So I cut it out.

You can see how not parallel to the wall this opening is. When there was carpet there it was not noticeable that the opening is not very square to the wall. But with the straight lines of hardwood flooring it will be easy to see how the register does not align with the flooring! It would have been very difficult to cut the opening in a manner that was not straight with the metal opening but straight with the lines of the floor. You can see how it looks when it is all said and done!

No, I did not work with all that “safety gear.”

Yes, I do work with very, very good knee pads.

Believe me – you have to!

When a roof abuts anything, there needs to be some sort of flashing to prevent water from getting between the roof and what it abuts.

On a recent inspection on a one-year old house I noticed something missing.  Flashing.  I looked everywhere.  Still could not find it.  I called, held up a box of treats, called and called and no flashing showed up anywhere.

I looked around the neighborhood.  There were five other houses like the one pictured here.  Only one had been flashed correctly.

That is more than disappointing.

What you are looking at is a roof that was completed before the brick work.  Sometimes, often, well usually,  the bricks are installed first, but not in this case.  These shingles actually extended under the bricks!  After the mason was finished placing the bricks along the roof line, the roofer should have returned to install flashing.  He probably didn't because it would have required cutting each shingle to fit flashing underneath.

Properly done, there were be "step flashing" installed under each shingle, starting from the bottom and all the way to the top. 

Then that flashing should have been sealed against the brick.  They usually use a black tar material.  But that can look a bit erratic and unsightly.  It's unsightly appearance can be corrected.

On top of the erratic step flashing is installed a counter flashing.  This would be a solid strip, cut to fit appropriately, which begins at the bottom and runs to the top.  The counter flashing leave a nice straight line, and actually adds another layer of protection to the step flashing.

When done, the two together provide a very good water seal. 

In the case above there was no such seal, as you can see.  Inside this roof the ceiling forms one of two very  pretty cathedral peaks in the master bedroom.  What do you suppose we saw inside?  Your guess should be staining and evidence of leaking.  And this after only one year.

Of the other five houses in the neighborhood, only one was done correctly, as I said.  One looked just like this, two had step flashing only which had not been glued to the brick (!!), and one, interestingly, had only counter flashing, which did not even reach the shingles!  On that one not even mortar was placed to fill the space...  I was tempted to knock on their door, but withheld. 

Keep in mind, this is a one-year old neighborhood.  The builder's supervisor was there every day and never noticed this?  Not to mention the county...   Paaaleeeeease...

My recommendation:  Always have a home inspection before the final walk through of a new home.  This is the kind of thing that a home inspector would have caught on that inspection.  Don't buy the builder's line that there have already been many inspections on your home before your walk through and that the supervisor is there every day to make sure things have been done correctly.  There is no guarantee that they have been!!

Personally, I usually have more problems on brand-new homes than on older ones.  FYI

A picture says a thousand words.

Look carefully!

I will have to supplement this picture with a conversation I had just the other day.  I arrived at my inspection and discovered a crew "remodeling" the house. 

It was purchased by an investor who is fixing it up to flip it.

The work was well underway.  I looked briefly at the balcony and went right inside.  I was met by "the crew."  My conversation went something like this:

Me (in italics): What's going on with the balcony outside?

The Crew:  It was an old balcony that leaked into the living room.  So we are replacing it.

(What you are looking at above is plywood with about a 2 degree slope.  There is a dimple in the middle of it which will create a puddle about the size of a beach ball.  There is no flashing at the edges.  There is no gutter above the balcony.  Presumably a railing will be put on later...)

But you have already repaired and painted the living room ceiling. 

We wanted to get it out of the way when we painted the rest of the house.

But you aren't finished with the balcony.  Why isn't it going to leak now?

Well, first we put down Tyvek and that's water proof.  Then we put shingles on top of that (you can see them carefully wrapped over the edge). Then we nailed down the plywood real tight.

The plywood you have there isn't meant for that kind of application. How are you planning to protect it?

We have this.  (He holds up a bucket of roof tar, ONE GALLON!!)  That will keep it dry.  Then on top of that we are putting pressure-treated deck wood for the people to walk on.

Are you professional roofers?  (I asked that knowing they aren't)

No, but the guy in charge is.

____________________

I have to say, the rest of the house was just as impressive.  New roof, new kitchen, new baths, new receptacles, new light fixtures, fresh paint, new carpeting, and a new deck yet to be built out back - wow, the works! 

And no permit to be seen anywhere!

Have you mentally counted the number of nails through that balcony roof yet??  What's the over/under on when it will begin leaking??

My recommendation:  When your clients are buying a flipped house, try to find out who the contractors are, their experience and licenses and whether a permit was pulled to do the work.  If not, be very, very careful!!

Hopefully, when Juliet stands on the balcony to call Romeo, she won't be standing in a puddle in the dimple!

It's days later and I am still working on the report...

When you are installing tongue and groove flooring, it is important to know a couple of things.  Like:

1.  Which is the tongue and which is the groove.  And...

2.  Which side to drive the nail through. 

I like to look for the obvious.  First, may I recommend a nearby mirror.  Look at your tongue.  You can borrow Pythagoras's glasses if you need a close up.

That thing sticking out is the tongue.  Now look at the flooring.

One side will have a groove.

One side will have a tongue.

The next thing you need to do is figure out how they fit together.

A special hardwood floor brad is driven  through the tongue and into the sub floor.  The brads are about 2" long.  They secure the flooring very well.

The next piece is tapped into place beside the first.  The tongue fits snugly into the groove and

veeola!

the tongue from the first holds the groove of the second.  Then that second piece is nailed in the same fashion, holding it all tightly together.

It is a very secure system.  It is precisely manufactured.   It represents someone thinking out of the box and putting an idea into common practice.

You can see some of the flooring beneath the prop that I already laid.  It is tightly fit, side to side and end to end.

Speaking of the end, what do you do at the end next to the wall to snug the one piece up against the one before it?

There are various tools and techniques.

One would be with a flat nail remover, wood bender and Z-shaped (to quote Mrs. Gilleland) metal thingey.

They can do damage not only to the flooring but also to the wall, unless you are very careful and experienced.

I found the tool to the right in a catalog.  I bought it anticipating this job. 

It is called a LAM HAMMER. 

To see it you might not know what it is or what it does.

I can tell you - it does it great!

You want to leave a small space between the flooring and the wall.  That allows for expansion and contraction, drying and humidity - it allows the wood to act like wood.  That gap also allows the fleas, ticks and assorted arachnids easier access to the interior space and to you and the animals, but that is another story altogether.

That small space will be hidden under the quarter-round shoe molding anyway, so it is not a problem to leave a gap there.

The Lam Hammer needs only 3/16th" between the floor and the wall board for the 90 degree flat end to fit. 

The white plastic circle holds the hammer's end at exactly 90 degrees and the rod parallel to the floor.  It damages nothing.

The yellow section is metal and slides back and forth against the nut.  That pulls the flooring away from the wall and snugs it up to the piece before it.

At the end the sections fit exactly together, no gaps.  And, I think it goes well with the pink.

If you look closely, you can see two brads through the tongue near the end of the flooring between the yellow striker and the end of the wood.  There is another brad just to the left of the handle.  Oh, obviously the Lam Hammer was used to snug the wood together BEFORE the floor was nailed into place...

There will be more tools in the posts to come.  Each is for a specific purpose and will be handy for the job at hand.

Yes, I gave Pythagoras back his glasses.

The entry to the living room abuts the hallway hardwood floor, which was installed when the house was built 10 1/2 years ago.  That being true, the first course has to be very squarely laid against what is there.  If it is not square, the new does not abut properly to the old, AND, very importantly, when I get to the far wall of the dining room the last piece of flooring will have to be ripped at an odd angle to fit.  That will not look good.  If the quarter round at the bottom of the floor molding is not parallel to the new floor the job looks unprofessional.

There are two advantages to starting square to the entry:

1.  The flooring will draw the eye into the living room.

2.  The planks will be perpendicular to the floor joists below.  If I select the wood carefully, each plank will have at least one brad into a joist.  That will make for a stronger, and probably quieter, floor.

At 3.25" wide, I figure there will be 133 planks, or courses, between the living room wall and the far dining room wall.  So, if the first course is not square at the beginning, it will be way out of square at the end.

How to you start with a very square edge?

I checked the yellow pages, under "Square," and called the number.  Someone named Pythagoras showed up.  A nice fellow, but oddly he only speaks Greek.

He was very likable, despite the thick glasses and pillow under his shirt.

After much arm flailing and hard to understand words, I got him a pencil and paper.

He loved the pencil! But he drew a box, then another, and then another.

I labeled them and he didn't like that.  He understood the A and the B, but not the C.  So how did I know there was no C in Greek?  Anyway, he was showing me that I can square the first plank with a careful measurement.  This is exactly how decks are squared against the house.  Carpenter's use this technique all the time.

After he left, I began to square the first piece.  You have to play with it for a while.  But, sooner than you think, you will get something that looks as good as mine does! 

There!! Nailed it!

Well, you can see that nothing is nailed yet, but obviously this will be one square floor!

I worked at it for a while and was proud with the final result.

A few courses later and veeeoola! 

I think it worked out.

So, the moral of the story is:  When you are feeling pressure and hype over a project, remember to --

hypotenuse!

When I wrote that out for Pythagoras he didn't like it either.  It seems there is no x or y in Greek.

That's OK.  I didn't understand much of what he said either. 

IT WAS ALL GREEK TO ME...

That, my friends, is the old and the VERY SQUARE new.

And Pythagoras?  I let him keep the pencil.

The first step when installing hardwood flooring is to remove the carpeting.  Imagine my surprise when I found this underneath!  It looks like some kind of padding.  Come to think of it, that carpeting did feel kind of soft.  This stuff is really, really spongy!                                                                            

So I had a couple of ideas.

The problem with hardwood flooring is that it is so, well, HARD.  There's just no give to it.

Maybe it could be softened a little bit, like that carpeting was!  If the new floor had a little bounce to it, I think, it would be so much more comfortable.  And that pesky, um,  hardness would just disappear!

And who wouldn't like a little bounce in their step?

Look at it!  This stuff is already stapled down and ready to go!

What a nice surprise it would be for my wife to come home to hardwoods that weren't so hard!  What do you think?  That leaves me with some decisions to make. 

How about a little poll?

Should I:

1.  Go for it?

2.  Lay the flooring vertically?

3.  Lay the flooring horizontally?

4.  Surprise me...

You might be asking, "Jay, are you serious?"  Or, "Jay, vertical or horizontal to what?"  And good questions those would be!  Well, stop thinking and start feeling!  Just let the vibes flow...

How about YOU surprise ME...

Oh look, a truck just showed up and there are two very large men in white coats outside!  Just a minute, I have to get the door. 

Don't go anywhere.  I'll be right back.

Last Saturday I had an inspection with someone who is buying the house he has been renting.  No Realtor, no lawyer to review things, just a deal between my client and the seller.  Not my recommended approach, but to each his own.

As always, I ask people how they got my name.  Usually I am referred by someone, a realtor or another client.  He said, "Checkbook dot org."  I had never heard of them!  You have to subscribe to get into the information, but you can find references on people from virtually every trade as rated by the people who used their services.

He said, "A lot of people only put in negative comments to steer fellow subscribers AWAY from bad contractors.  You can rate the tradesmen with different smiley faces.  Your listing was very unusual.  You had ALL smiley faces!  And people left comments along with their emails so they could be could be contacted.  That is unusual too."

He logged on and showed me many pages of comments about me!  I did not know this was out there.  The comments dated back to 2002.  One, dated 7/14/2008, said, "Extremely valuable person to have when buying a home.  Looked at every nook and crannie and found some very problematic issues.  Saved us from buying an inferior and falsely advertised home."  And they left their email.

It impressed me that people would take the time to say such nice things.  He is right, usually people only put forth that kind of effort to say something negative.  And they feel justified in doing so!  When they take time to compliment another it really says something, at least to me.

My recommendation:  If you are pleased with a service and have the opportunity to publicly praise it, do so!  It really makes someone's day...!

It's that time of year again. Every year my wife and daughter go to Maine to visit a friend. They stay a couple of weeks eating blueberry pancakes and lobstah. I stay home.

There is a purpose in staying home - it is my time to improve the house. Over the years, I have done many home improvements while they are away. It is the best time to do them. My deadline is pretty specific. I have to get done before they come back. Why? Because my wife has no idea how torn up the house gets while I work. It is best she not know. Ignorance is bliss. She comes home to a finished project and all is well.

This year my project is putting hardwood flooring in the living and dining room. Why do I do it myself and not pay somebody else? One, because I can. And I am real good. Two, I am never happy with someone else's work. I prefer not to deal with that disappointment. I will include you in on my project.

Here is my palette:

That is the view of the living room.  This is my palette.  This photo was taken very early this morning.  The furniture was removed yesterday and is in the dining room, basement and family room. 

And yes, the walls are bubble gum pink.  Why?  You would have to ask that.  Well, many years ago we bought an antique Persian carpet.  The living room - its colors, furniture, everything - was built around that carpet.  Everything in the room was purchased or selected to complement its colors.  The room is all antiques, except for a grandfather clock, which imprint you can see in the corner.  It has taken a long time to find just the right thing(s) for the room.  It involved many decisions.  And those are executive decisions.  They are not for me to make.  I am the grunt, not the decorator.

This won't be easy.  I do this in addition to the 15 or so hours daily I devote to my occupation.  My wife doesn't care about that.  All she cares about is the deadline. 

The clock is ticking... wish me luck!

When people call me for a one-year warranty inspection, I always recommend they add a thermal-infrared image examination to it to check insulation.  That is really the main reason I recommend IR as leaking usually isn't a problem they haven't already discovered. 

During this particular exam I found water getting behind gutters, into the interior where stucco meets vinyl siding or faux stone and in the bases of porch columns.  While none of those things is terribly unusual, it is important to try to find out why water is getting in. 

Well, a drip edge is really needed on most any roof.  It is intended to prevent water from wicking back under the shingles and soak the sheathing, particularly where there is not much slope to the roof.  This builder dutifully installed a drip edge all around the roof.  However, it seems his roofing contractor is in the habit of not extending it all the way to the ends. 

Water is getting behind the gutters at the edges where large holes have been left for it.  Water uses the most convenient path provided it.

Just under this location, and at the opposite end of this porch, are columns.  You can see the top of one at the bottom here.

There is also stucco siding (synthetic stucco), which needs to be sealed carefully where it abuts anything.

This next photo might give a hint as to why water may be getting into the interior walls and columns.

I would assume the faux stone (and siding, not pictured here) were installed prior to the synthetic stucco.  Those gaps simply have to be sealed.  There is a special sealing caulk that installers use.  It could be that all over the house, where such large gaps were left, the installer intended to get back to work after lunch, or on Monday.  But it is obvious he never did.

This is the smallest gap left on top of the columns.  On a couple the gaps were 3".  Well, THAT is a convenient path for water to flow!

Before I got my ladder out of my back pocket to make sure, I already knew where the water was getting in.  But I wanted to be sure, and take a picture.  Or two.  Or thirty.

My clients always ask the same question, "Is it supposed to be like that?" or "The supervisor told us that those gaps allow it all to breath."  Well, no.  At this house, the damage is done and obvious as to why.

My recommendation:   Agents should recommend a final inspection to your clients on any new construction.  It is amazing the kinds of things I find on a final walk through.  It is also amazing to me how a supervisor can be on site for 100 or 150 days and not find the things I come up with in a couple of hours!  These are problems that home inspectors would find on a final walk-through inspection.  And that BEFORE the damage is done.