* Forced air: This is the cheapest way to install a heating system with the poorest way of heating the objects in the house. With some manual and electrical parts running the system.  When the furnace fan turns on it blows cold air for a couple of minutes until the ductwork gets warm. Then it delivers the needed warm air for warming the ambient air in the room. Once the room temperature is reached, the air passively warms the items in the room. Starting with the ceiling and upper walls of the room working its way down to the floor.
* When it comes to cooling the forced air system works the best. I takes a powerful fan to drive the cold heavy air to the top floor allowing it to cascade downward cooling the item’s it come in contact with. This means the floor will be the first large surface to be cooled than slowly it works it’s way up to the level of the thermostat. You will still have a lot of hot and humid air at the ceiling if the heating contract did not install a high wall return air duct.
*  It’s also the best and I think the only way to really clean the air, removing air born allergens out of the air. You can use secondary air filtration units but the biggest one I’ve seen only does 1 room at a time trapping a person with allergies in 1 room or in 1 area of a house. Using a high quality air filter on your furnace (they can be Paper) about 5” thick do a great job of cleaning all the air for the entire house.

* Hot water heat: Is a good way to heat a house. With a boiler you convert fuel into hot water. With this type of system you can do multi-tasking of different types of jobs at the same time.
* Such as using radiators to heat the air, in-floor heat to heat floor surfaces such as front & back entry floors to melt the snow and evaporate the water or heat the bathroom floor and even heat the sidewalls of your shower to make your shower a better experience for you.
* With in-floor heat you can heat the basement floor that is the hardest surface to heat, while using hot air blows above the floor it will never actually heat the concrete floor. But having the pipe in the floor, the floor becomes a large radiator heating the room, making the enjoyable, instead of saying well we have a basement. Whats so nice about in-floor heat you have no moving air or cold drafts moving across the floor.
* The next area to heat with the hot water is the garage floor your car will love it the snow and ice melt off of it quickly taking with it the salt. Using a forced air blower in a garage is nice but the floor all ways stay cold and if you in your garage a lot you differ projects on till the warmer months of the year.
* And finally you can heat your driveway and sidewalks, think about you newer have to lift a shovel again.

Let’s look at the actual working of installation of said law, install a 6-mill poly on the dirt before you lay out rebar or wire mess. The steel being inserted onto the concrete keeps 1 the concrete floor from cracking, separating, shifting, or shrinking 2. It reinforces the floor incase the dirt under the floor settles. Rebar comes 1/2” x 20 feet long and is heave and flops around like a fish out of water. You will have a number of holes in the poly liner before the rebar is laid out and tied together.  If you use wire mesh this comes in rolls of 5 foot wide x 20 inches diameter about 100 foot per roll, when you unroll this little monster it acts like a slinky wanting to recoil the only way to straighten it out is to flip it over and re-bending it by hand. Resolutes at each end of 1 row you have just punchered the poly membrane 10-12 time.
The code says you must take a new piece of poly and over lap the hole by 1’ on all sides no a basement of 22 x 38 (24’ x 40’ House) a minimum of 120 holes. Now its time to pour the concrete (concrete is a mix of sand small rock, portland and water) you can install it 2 ways; wheel barrow it to the location and dump it, or you can pump it in with a large pump truck add $800.00 to the bill. Did you fix all the holes the wheelbarrow made and the guys pouring the floor, well that’s a radon leak.
After the floor has harden up you walk around the floor sealing all joints between the floor and wall and floor and any protrusions through the floor. About 1 –2 years after the house is done because you chose not to install reinforcing in the floor your floor have at least 3 and up to 10 large cracks big enough to put a tooth pick in it. Oh that’s right you laid carpet on the floor you’ll never see the cracks where the radon is getting in the living space and where Johnny and Amber likes to play and sleep on the floor.

Let’s look at the collection and exhaust system. Remember in this collection area there is standing water as well as an electric pump to pump out the ground water. Facts undisputed radon gas is heavier than air. So radon gas builds up in the collection tank it never leaves the tank and the vent pipe because it’s to heavy now the ground water comes into the collection tank what happens to the radon gas it rises and falls according to water level in the collection tank.  In fact the radon gas in the tank will increase in the parts per million making it more toxic I feel bad for the plumber that must change out the sump pump, he has to get down in there to fix the problem.  Note when the radon gas moves up into the exhaust vent, it’s now looking for an easier way out, that crack in the floor has a lot less pressure and a bigger area to expand into.   Solve the problem (the states view point) Just add a fan and blow the radon gas out of the house. The problem is it does matter how small or big the fan is if there is no air coming in to the drainage system you will never blow any air up the pipe, let alone radon gas which is heavier than air. The state say’s all you need is a small fan, may be rounding about 10 minutes per hour. 1st the state don’t have a clue how much air in cubic feet of air per minute or per hour is going to ventilate the radon gas from below the floor to solve the problem.

Let’s say it’s possible to vent this gas out of the house, well you don’t want to see the pipe from the front side of the house, let’s vent it on the back side of the roof, great or is it. On the backside of the house are the following screened, porch, deck, sand box, swing set, and other toys to play with. Radon gas is heavier than air it’s pumped on to your roof and taken away with prevailing winds and if there is no wind it rolls of the roof and into your backyard.  Looking down at your house from the sky we see the following a pipe sticking out of the roof with no cover over it and you can not cover it by law, that means when it rains water goes down the pipe so what it goes into a sump tank if water can go down so can cold air in the winter time, when this happens it will freeze the surface water in the sump tank or the ground in the collection area and if there fan is installed water will be dripping and getting the fan soaking wet. Well we no longer can use a cheap fan we must put in a stainless steel fan with a concealed shaft with a water bypass system in it. ”$” Now to make this system work we must bring in air into the drainage system. We cannot take inside air just for the fact if the power went out the radon gas has an easy way back into the house. We can us outside air it 20 below or greater in the wintertime freezing the sub soil under your floor and leaving the opportunity to heave your footing.
The only air available to you is in the new law that no one has thought about, you must have an exhaust fan run 15-20 minutes per hour. Blow this air under you floor and the radon fan pumps the radon gas filled air out of your house.  Now you are running 2 electric fans and praying the power never goes out.

Or Just excavate and other 24” lower and install an angled concrete slab 4” with rebar cover with epoxy paint than build on top of it for your house the radon gas will come in contact with the lower slab and slide upward to the surface level on what ever side you choose to bring it to the surface

Adding more insulation on the exterior of the wall if done right will save you a boatload of money. On the exterior of a building you best results are going to be from a rigid insulation board. There are at least 2 types 1st is just an insulation board and the 2nd has aluminam foil on both sides you must choose according to the siding you want to install as to what insulation board is best. For example; horizontal cedar lap siding does not like aluminum for behind it. Before installing any type of rigid insulation on to an exterior wall surface you must make a way for the water vapor to escape to the outside air.

I recommend 1 product “mortairvent” Made by Benjamin Obdyke, it’s only 1/4” thick installed over the tarpaper, than you install you insulation board next and finally your siding. It’s made of woven plastic with enough rigidity to keep 1/4 inch air gap to allow the water vapor to escape either by going down the wall to be vented at the foundation line or vented at the soffit line of the house.

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of roofing.
A. Protect the house from falling shingles.
B. Remove all shingles, tarpaper, and roofing nails/staples.
C. Check roof sheathing, it may need to be re-nailed or replaced.
D. Note roof boards are not a uniform surface therefore the shingle company will not warranty and type of shingle on this surface. You can cover the board with 1/2” plywood than you are better off. And a warranty.
E. Remove all the siding that sites on the roof, (Where a wall surface stops at the roof) about 2’ up from the roof.
F. You are required to install an ice and water barrier on the roof at least 2’ up the roof past the outside wall line.  If you have a 2’ overhand on the house with a 4/12 pitch roof a minimum of 4’6” Ice shield is required. If you have a 12/12 pitch roof
a minimum of 5’2” ice shield is required.
G. I also run ice and water shield up the valleys and along all roof all edged where
flashing tins are used.
H. Install your valley tin next. Only use minimum expanding metals in the valleys never use aluminum any where on the roof.
I. After the metal valleys are installed, cut a piece of ice and water shield down the center install 1/2 of it on each side of the metal valley over lapping the metal by 3”. This is where most roofs start leaking; remember to start at the bottom when installing the ice and water shield.
J. Remember you get what you pay for I have use many brands of Ice and Water shield. The only one I now use and is the best is called “Grace” It bond to the roof decking but after many years it’s still pliable not brittle in other words it’s still sealing the roof decking from the water above.
K. Next cover the entire roof with tarpaper even the ice and water shield. Reminder ice and water shield will have water beading up on the topside of it. It’s a water barrier therefore you must remove the water from the underside of the shingle to do this install 1 layer of 15# tarpaper. This will wick the water out and allow the shingles to stay dry, making them last a lot longer.
L. Now you are ready to shingle the roof keep your lines straight both left and right as well as up and down. The shingle manufacture says to nail the shingles with 4 nails this will keep the shingle on the roof for winds up 60 miles and hour. If you use 6 nails per shingle you have greater holding power and can get a deduction on your insurance policy for a better job.
M. Going to a laminate shingle is much better than a 3 tab shingle because of how they are built and again some brands are a lot better than others I use Certainteed Land mark series with great results.
N. Make sure they don’t trash your yard, plants or bushes. Make sure they pick up all the nails; they will get all the debris.

With this information and reading your contract you should be able find a go contractor.

Now with insulated flex pipes the air moves swiftly through the pipes with little to no hindrance the pipe walls are made of a spiraling piece of wire in beaded in the poly tubes pipe wall than covered with insulation and a 2nd poly to keep the cavity air space that the pipe is passing through. Sorry to say the inexperienced installers use this ductwork a lot and in places that it was not intended to be used. Granted this pipe is very flexible but bending the pipe in a hard 90° or even 180° and/or squeezing it down to fit a 3.5 inch space cavity. When the inside pipe measures 6” and the out side measures 8 1/2. A 6” round duct has 28.26 Cubic inch of open area when you crush it down to 3 1/2” on the exterior; the interior only has 5 cubic inches of open area. The bad thing about this ductwork is if too much air pressure and vacuum is used in the pipe run and the connections come apart and contracts to the vacuum side of the cleaning.

When you need this type of ductwork cleaned, many things can go wrong 1 the joints can come apart. The compressor hose can puncture the inner poly wall of the pipe, or if there is a restriction in the pipe and there is debris in the pipe it could clog. Remember these entire ducts are running in concealed spaces between your ceiling and 2nd floor or your basement ceiling and your main floor. If they disconnect there is no way to re attach them with out remove 1 of your finished surfaces.

Awning; With this type of window the operating devices are located at the bottom of the window that makes it easy to operate. These windows are hinged at the top and swing outward. The problem is that the kitchen countertop is 36” tall than the window is about 24-36” tall. IE the top of the window is between 5’to 6’ off the floor so when you are looking out the window at the sink all your eyes are looking at the top of the window jamb, you must duck to look out the window.

Glider; With this type of window the operating devices are located half way up the window that makes this window hard to operate when you lean over the sink and faucet.

Casement; This is a great type of window the operating devices are located at the bottom of the window that makes it easy to operate, also if the wind is coming from the left and you want to bring the air in open the right window and it will hook the wind and bring it into the kitchen.

Double Hung; This is a good looking window but it has a draw back you must on unlock the window, the lock is half way up the center of the window opening it from the bottom is adequate again the sink and faucet is the way.

Hopper; A hopper window is a cool design of a window but it swings and tilts into the room in the swing mode the window can not open the faucet is in the way.

Transom; Having a transom window over the regular kitchen window is great unless you have a ceiling under 9’ again the bottom of the transom and the top of the regular is in your line of sight.

Having it warmer also helps your vehicles start faster as well as better engine oil viscosity, because the engine block is starting warm.

Using a compact ceiling gas heater works great. We have installed several of these units. You can bolt them to the roof framing members and or floor joist system. You can mount them up tight or drop them down to a lower height if you have a 9’- 14’ high garage ceiling. By installing the unit at the back of the garage and blow air cross the garage to the far front corner this will get the greatest way to stabilize the temperature in the garage. This will also dry your car off and the floor. By keeping your garage temperature at or above 38° you should never have the garage floor flaking or popping of concrete from the winter weather.

This furnace also can be vented both out the wall and/or through the roof of the garage. Giving is a way to really maximize your opportunity for the best installation.

Low Maintenance
Permacast columns are cast from a proprietary fiber-reinforced polymer composite with exceptional strength-to-weight characteristics and requiring minimum maintenance. They are weatherproof, insect-proof and highly durable. They look best painted, and repainting when the color looks out of date.

Low Maintenance
PermaCast columns are cast from a proprietary fiber-reinforced polymer composite with exceptional strength-to-weight characteristics and requiring minimum maintenance. They are weatherproof, insect-proof and highly durable.

Capitals & Bases
Tuscan style capitals as well as the five differenttypesof ornamental capitals also follow the guidelines of Greek and Roman architects. Attic bases, copied from those of ancient Attica, are also available.

Plain & Fluted
Permacast columns are available plain or fluted in the widest variety of sizes in the industry. Deep, sharp flutes and smooth, easy to finish surfaces set Permacast apart from wood columns.

heat loss calculation we can look at the different types of fuels vs. the costs of a geothermal system.
But before we can start we must enter some of the basics:
#1 the location of the house for the average winter low temperature.
#2 the location of the house for the average summer high temperature.
#3 what do you keep your thermostat at in the wintertime.
#4 what do you keep your thermostat for A.C. in the summer time.
#5 The Calculation is written for 67° ambient temperature.
#6 in your area how many heating degree-days are there in Mpls. there are 8000.0
Duluth 9818.0
#7 in your area how many Cooling degree-days are there in Mpls. there are 743.0
Duluth 180.0

#8 what is the efficiency of your furnace
#9 what is the Seer rating of your Air Conditioner.
Now with these parameters plugged in the numbers than tell a story
In the
There are 3 heat loss charts for 1988, 1998, 2008 the first line down is the cost of the fuel the 2nd line is the if your furnace is running at 100% Eff. The 3rd row down is per year to heat the house. The 4rth row is the cost savings per month if you have Geo thermal heating installed instead of the fuel you have. But notice the 5th row down this one is important, this tell you if you are a wise steward of you money. If the pay back in years is 10 years or less you could save a lot of money. In 1988 if you had an Electric furnace and changed it in 88 by 1997 the system would have been paid off and today you would have $37,015.00 more in your pocket. This price is based on the electric price in 1988 and we all know that the price has risen for electric energy. In the 2008 Chart look at the pay back on all 4 types of fuel. The price of LP gas is 4.03 dollars per gallon now, and is going up – I heard it could reach 8.00 per gallon by spring. If it only goes up only an additional $2.00 it will cost you 1500.00 per month on a budget, can you afford it.

Yet with construction there are always rough weeks were we have to work 60-80 hours and other weeks there is no work. On the average we work 35 hours a week because of this the office overhead has a shortfall of funds Taking money out of the owners pocket lowering his wages.
With the way the insurance companies are paying out funds to get theses houses fixed. Good contractors will not fix insurance claim houses, leaving the door open for poor quality and scam artist contractors willing to do these jobs. Hugo city hall is very upset about the poor quality of contractors working in their city. They can’t figure out how to get a better caliber contractor to do these jobs.

#2 If a person needed to add and outlet on an existing circuit and opened up and an existing outlet box cover and saw the white wire he would automatically think black with black wire, the white with white wire and ground, with ground wire. 98% of the time you would be right, but if the white wire is not labeled properly in the panel as a 220-volt, at the same time the outlet box is also improperly labeled you would cross wiring a 110-volt appliance with 220-volts and burn it out that is if it doesn’t start a electrical fire.

The 3rd problem is this panel is a 2nddairy sub panel. When you wire a sub panel the neutral wire must go to the neutral bar and the ground wires must go to the grounding bar. They cannot be mixed it the law.

On this next photo this electrical panel was done properly. The high voltage lines are labeled properly as well as the 220-volt circuits and the neutrals and grounds are supported properly.

A cheap exposed tread system looks like this photo. What makes it look cheap is the skirt board. The reason is that it does not match the baseboard joining up with it.

If you have to put in an inexpensive knee wall over a handrail this is a quiet but elegant way of going about it.

If you have a smart carpenter use a 1”x 8” board and a piece of 5” tall base to make a custom make skirt board. Join them to together with a biscuit jointer and glue. Than run it through a surface planer and bring them down to the same thickness. A few minutes of light sanding, and your new skirt board is ready to be custom cut.

Not only can it be custom cut into the base, but you can make it follow up the staircase to the 2nd floor enhancing the look of staircase.

Osha requirements for a stairway;
From a design standpoint, the specified design loads (e.g., normal live load and moving concentrated load of 1000 lbs.) must be placed where the maximum stress is experienced by the individual structural components of the stair system.

Looking at a framing section of a stairway the sawtooth cut boards are called stair jacks. Looking closer at a jack the deepest cut of the notch for the step into the jack to the bottom side of a jack if your using a 2” x 12” will be 3 1/2” to 4” of uncut material is equal to a 2” x 4” with this understanding we can calculate out what a 2” x 12” stair jack system can carry. With all lumber we do not measure the length of the steps from the top to the bottom but instead from the front edge of the step to the load bearing point that supports the top of the step. A wall height of 8’ and a floor joist of 9 1/2” will make the run of the stairjack 12’5”.

A single 2”x 4” spanning 10’2” can only carry 10 Lbs. per running foot times 3 jacks a total of 300 Lbs. Nailing a 2×4 on the side of the jack doubles the working load to 600 Lbs. But on the problem above we are short 2 1/2 feet. Going to a 2” x 14” stairjack will leave a 2” x 6” amount of material left this will carry a 20 Lbs. 12’9”
With 3 Jacks the total dead and live load for this stairway is now 12.75 x 20 x 3 jacks= 765Lbs. adding 3- 2” x 6” on one side of the Jack doubles the load 1530 Lbs. This is now a legal working stairway for wood steps.

The problem now comes in when the homeowners want stone on the treads and risers. The weight alone is 32 Lbs. per SF or 1153.1 Lbs. for this stairway. And it only leaves 377 Lbs. for live load. Changing and using a LVL or a micro laminated beam works much better. Using a 1 3/4” x 14” LVL beam with a 12’9” span will carry 68 per SF. X 3 Jack you a total working load of 2601 Lbs. this passes with flying colors. This gives you a live load of 1448 Lbs. Or in other words, you can have 6 adults sitting or standing on the stairway for a group photo and it will not wince.

Columns make a person take note of their surroundings that something has in the past, present, and/or near future will be happening in this place.

Going back to theses homes I have installed these columns, It bring me back to the meeting that I had attended in these rooms over the years.

Installing cheap columns or ones that are improperly built cheapens the room, which sends a massage to the people coming in seeing them actually ignore the fact columns are there, even thought they have to step around them as they walk through the house.

Think long term 5 ,10, 15 ,or 20 years and/or 2 or 3 different types of jobs or hobbies you might have in the future.
You may spend 10 minutes and up 2 hours a day in this prep room. Doing things right in this room will set your mode for the rest of the days you live in this house.
Thing to think about when you design a bathroom;

Number of people needing to use this room at the same time; 2 or 3 kids, a couple, 2 or people staying over IE relatives and friends, room mates, etc.
With these things in mind your now ready to start answering questions.

a. Think about cleaning
B. Bathing
C. Midnight strolls
D. Getting your makeup on
1. Lighting
2. Putting on makeup
3. Storage
4. Accessibility to storage, and left or right handed people
5. Accessories- hair driers, curling
6. 6. Room accents

We had some fun with personal area we installed quarter sawn white oak with accent walnut strips in the corbels, top rail of the panel system and the desktop edging.

The picture you are looking at is not mold but instead it’s dirt. In this photo this house has hot water heat. There is no air filtration system in this house, as small dirt particles migrate into the wall mounted radiator (baseboard heat) heats the air as it passes by but the dirt is charged with static electricity than the particles are carried up the wall with the warm air. This is where the charged particle bond cooler parts of the wall. The framing of the house keeps the sheetrock cooler directly in front of the studs in the winter and warmer in the summer. This also happens with electric baseboard heat. Using an air purifier such as a Honeywell 17000 HEPA Quietcare Air Cleaner works great removing all the particulate in the air.

The 1st element is copper, and then 2nd element of brass is zinc. The amount of zinc varies between 5% and 40% by weight depending on the types of brass required.

EPA
“The 1991 rule aims to minimize lead and copper in drinking water by reducing water corrosivity. Lead and copper enter drinking water primarily through plumbing materials. Exposure to lead and copper may cause health problems ranging from stomach distress to brain damage.”

“Everyone must absorb small amounts of copper every day because copper is essential for good health. High levels of copper can be harmful. “Breathing high levels of copper can cause irritation of your nose and throat. Ingesting high levels of copper can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Very-high doses of copper can cause damage to your liver and kidneys, and can even cause death.”

“A wide range of clinical symptoms have been associated with zinc deficiency in humans (Abernathy et al., 1993; Prasad, 1993; Sandstead, 1994; Walsh et al., 1994). The clinical manifestations of severe zinc deficiency, seen in individuals with an inborn error of zinc absorption or in patients receiving total parenteral nutrition with inadequate levels of zinc, include bullous pustular dermatitis, diarrhea, alopecia, mental disturbances, and impaired cell-mediated immunity resulting in intercurrent infections. Symptoms associated with moderate zinc deficiency include growth retardation, male hypogonadism, skin changes, poor appetite, mental lethargy, abnormal dark adaptation, and delayed wound healing. Neurosensory changes, impaired neuropsychological functions, oligospermia, decreased serum testosterone, hyperammonemia, and impaired immune function (alterations in T-cell subpopulations, decreased natural killer cell activity) have been observed in individuals with mild or marginal zinc deficiency.”

“Lead does not noticeably alter the taste, color or smell of water. The effects of low levels of lead toxicity in humans may not be obvious. There may be no symptoms present or symptoms may be mistaken as other illnesses. The only way to know the concentration of lead in water is through sampling and laboratory testing which is described in greater detail in a subsequent section.”

Another job site the homeowner had a new roof put on 6 months earlier and had the attic reinsulated. The first cold morning about –15 below 0 with a hot shower the ceiling fan started dripping water. So he called out the roofer to fix the problem, it was not the roofing but instead the exhaust fan piping again was not insulated. While the high humidity was being blown out and the metal piping was below 0 the humidity was condensing rapidly on the piping, then run back into the ceiling fan, through the vent louvers and end up dripping to the floor.
You have to insulate the entire exhaust vent to the exhaust point.

The answer will move to action. A person will breathe in and vent per breathe 1/2 liter in quiet breathing to 6 liters or 1.58 gallons per minute.

Each person takes between 4 and 10 million breaths per year. The max volume of air that we take in and breathe out is called vital capacity. It’s about 4800 ml or about 5,000,000 gallons of air.
Each day, a person takes between 11 thousand to 28 thousand breaths per day per person or in other words about 13,698.6 gallons.

Calculates to 1,831.23 cubic feet per person must come into the house per day.
With this understanding, by tightening up our houses we need to bring in fresh air or we are going to poison our selves with our own exhaust air (CO2).

Installing an air exchanger into a new home is not an extra item that the state is forcing on us to do, but instead it is for our protection.
Having the Air Exchanger running 1 minute per hour per person in the house plus running it to remove humidity in the bathrooms while showers or hot tubs are running help stabilize the humidity in the entire house.

Location of the deck is very important.
Are you trying to use this deck for multi purpose or a single event place?
Example: Do the kids play in the back yard and you use the deck as an outpost watching the kids?
Or do you sun bath on the deck and need a little more privacy?
Do you like or hate the summer heat?

Is the deck next to the driveway, and all your friends migrate to the deck. Or is it a private getaway four the 2 of you.

After answering these questions you will see an Idea immerges as to the kind of deck you are looking for.

An other example; If your a party animal your going to want to barbeque on the deck with extra seating as well as a lot of accent lighting around the deck to call the bugs away from the guest with see through rails to the other parts of the yard. Installing steps or a stairway to get to the lower yard helps cut down on traffic thought the house.

Where if it is just for the 2 of you your going to want it a little smaller size deck with romantic accent lights and no steps to the ground and may be a more defused viewing area though the railing system.

Load bearing walls exceeding the 9′ height fall under a new law. The higher the wall, the better quality the wall this may mean thicker the studs.

Included in this new law you no longer can use Utility grade, Standard grade, No.#3 grade or Stud grade lumber of any species are not permitted. The change in law is because of wind resistance against the exterior tall walls.

Using a better species of wood than SPF (Spruce, Pine, Fir) will make a stiffer wall. SPF is the cheapest wood species that you can buy.

Classification of common grade lumber. Common grade boards generally contain more knots than the select grade. Common grade is divided numerically from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best in appearance. No. 3 and No. 4 common grades are most frequently used for such applications as sheathing or sub-flooring.

Lumber grade numerical system changes title when it is shipped to large discount stores. Having changed to names the consumer has know idea what he or she is buying. Changing the name the discount stores are able to sell more product to unsuspecting customers.

Economy is the lowest grade available. This is usually junk wood, damaged material taken off of railcars. You can get a lot of twist, wane, and huge loose knots with economy grade lumber.

Utility is the next grade up in quality from economy. The discerning consumer can usually find a few useful pieces of lumber at this grade. One of the functions in large commercial lumberyards is buying utility grade lumber in bulk and upgrading it to ‘stud’

Stud grade, as implied by the name, is the most common grade used to build the framework of houses. Thus, the electronic device used to find lumber under drywall in a house is called a stud finder. Since the primary purpose of stud grade lumber is to hold up a house, very little twist is allowed, although you can have large amounts of wane and large knots.

Standard and better grade is similar to stud grade. The difference between the two is not so much in the size of the knots or the amount of splits or wane allowed, but in the fact that standard and better grade is used for lumber that is 12 feet and longer while the stud grade is used for 10 feet and 8 feet pieces in grading.

No.2 and Better grade. This grade usually allows for smaller-sized knots and a minimum of wane and splits.

An even finer quality of wood is 1 and better. This is the crème de crème of lumber and should consist of small, sound and tight knots, only inches of splits, and practically zero wane.

Above 1 and better is select grade lumber. This is an even higher quality than 1 and can be used for high-end decorative purposes. Examples of this would be western red cedar, spruce shiplap, and tongue & groove wall paneling. Having mentioned that as an example, great effects can be had using lower quality cedar as paneling, incorporating its defects to achieve a western, weathered look.

These foundation walls were built good but they were not designed for your soil type and/or hydrostatic pressure of your lot.

In the 2nd picture it shows that wall is buckling inward, with a closer look a the picture we see 3 problems.

1. The ground is almost level with the top of block wall. This creates other problems that we will talk about on another post.

2. The yard next to the house is flat- when it rains where will the run off go?
If the soil you have is poor or unsatifactory; silty clays, organics, or peat,etc. these types of soil make great lakes, they don’t drain, they pond. Because there is no place for the rain water to go then it seeks the next available spot -loose soil. This type of soil has a lot of voids or air pockets. Every house that has frost footings and /or a basement has loose soil from 2′ and up to 8′ away from the house. The rain water runs into the soft soil and around the foundation of building. This inturn compounds the problem pushing hydrostatic pressure on the foundation walls.
3. Remember the wall has a horizontal crack it now lets water into the house

1. Remove the dirt next to the house
2. Push the block wall straight
3. Install 3/4″ Rebar in block and fill the block with concrete
4. Install a drain tile system
5. Water proof the wall with Black dog Waterproofing system
6. Put a Geo grid system to keep the dirt from mixing into the rock
7. Install any size rock from 3/8″ up 1 1/2″.

With box cabinets you have face frame of 1 1/2” wide per box, when you join 2 boxes together it becomes 3” wide with a vertical seam between all the boxes. Custom cabinets have face frame of 1 1/2” –2” wide allowing more room for access as well as wider drawers.

Most box cabinets have a 1/8”-1/4” overhang on the face from the cabinet box. This makes it hard to put crown molding around the top of the cabinet, as well as toe shoe around the base cabinet. These box cabinets have no extra material to custom fit the boxes to the wall. There will be a gap between the back wall and the cabinet. If the person installing the cabinet followed the bow of the wall now the front face of the cabinets are no longer straight. Installing a counter top on these boxes will have to custom made to get a big enough overhang on the counter top to make it look good. If there is a bow in the wall this could be hidden with custom cabinets.

The only time a box cabinet looks above average is when it has a full over lay door covering most of the face frame.

All the quality in box cabinets is located in the appearance of the cabinet, not in the operation, structure, or functionality.

1. Using the house wrap only works when the humidity level is below 17% this is the level the framing (wood and sheathing) has to remain at to keep its structural stability. At higher levels of humidity in the stud cavity on exterior walls with cool evening temperatures, condensation forms on the exterior wall sheathing, runs downward to the sill plate and starts the decaying process. If the wall sheathing is porous enough to allow the humidity to pass through, and with drop in outside temperature the humidity will condensate or freeze on the back of the house wrap.

2. When moisture level exceeds 18% in the lumber and the temperature is above 40° fungi begin to inhabit the wood.

3. Where water is present bacteria can grow, when the bacteria reacts with the nails rust forms. Nails holding the framing together start to rust, more the bacteria the faster the stability of the structure is affected.

In my personal opinion House wraps causes more problems than they solve.

This closet was designed for more internal storage, but it uses up 18 square foot of floor in front of the closet that cannot be used for storage and or any thing else.

Installing Lockers in the same place where you would put a closet, it will hold more items as well as being able to organize your items or your kids.

A walk-in closet laid out right yields more and better quality storage as seen in the next 3 pictures.

The foundation wall and the framing walls was set at 12″ apart. Adding the siding to both the garage and the addition walls, the space between is now 9″.

The house’s foundation was down 7′, while the garage only had a floating slab. To get the foundation in, we had to dig down 7′ and remove the soil. The soil we were digging in was sand. Digging this close to the garage the sand under garage will slide out fast and up 7′ away from the garage under mining the garage, then the garage floor will break, this will bring the broken slab and some of the garage wall framing into the excavated hole. to solve this problem we built a shear wall to hold sand from shifting and sliding, keeping the garage safe.

The house was built in 1950 on a nice lake. The new owners decided to remodel it before moving in. We updated the whole house from electrical,plumbing, heating, phone, security and millwork.

We make our own pillars to fit each house. Buying factory pillars the heights are wrong for the jobs as well as are the fluting. factory flutes are done with a tables saw blade instead of a router giving a shallow look (cheap look).

On this photo we are building up the bases of the pillars.

Applying crown and bed moldings to make up a 6 ply cornice look.

The final look of the front entry with a siting bench.

We changed the location of the sliding glass door and the kitchen sink window. Then we flipped the kitchen layout to flow better with more storage.
There was a large footprint for the kitchen but no storage or ease of operation. People visiting had to pass through the cooking area to get to the dining table.

To the right of the kitchen sink is the dishwasher with a wood door panel to match the cabinets.

The center island has a built in microwave on the right around the corner on the right there is a built in bookcase. The center door has a 3′ drawer that hold 3 -13 gallon garbage cans with 2 recycling bins left the kitchen sink for glass and metals.

The kitchen, and bar sink are cast iron w/ a gray porcelain finish. We also installed a secondary Reverse osmosis water system to the refrigerator, kitchen, and bar sinks for better taste, as well as no impurity in the water.

When making meals in this kitchen, everything is ease to get to with plenty of storage for food, supplies, as well as decorations for any type of family get together. The layout of the kitchen makes it ease to be involved with family whether there in the family room or in the kitchen.

Standing by the patio door there is plenty of room in the cooking area of the kitchen for 3 people work as well as 4 to sit at the upper level of the island and 4-6 more at the table. What a great place to entertain guests.

The 2 apartment buildings were built in the mid 60’s. They had flat roofs that were leaking badly the owners needed to do some thing. A new flat roof would cost the same price as pitch roof with shingles, but the didn’t want a standard 2′ over hang.

We came up with a 6′ over hang with a Frank Loyd Wright Look to it by installing custom gutters built at a 45% angle on the faces as well as the exposed facisa board was rotated at a 45% angle.

On the under side of the overhang known as the soffit we install steel sheathing 24′x 30″ grooved soffit panels w/ baked on paint for a symbol of quality showing the area they the owners take pride in their buildings.

On the roof it self they wanted to draw more attention to the building, so we striped the roof with lighter shingles and hip lines.

If you would like to look at the project it;s located in South St. Paul south of 494 and 1 block west of Concord St. Just on the other side of fury motors (auto dealership) and can be seen from the freeway.

The first picture is the old deck.

We removed the decking and enlarged the size of the main deck. The decking is ironwood that comes from South America. The rails are iron pipe 2″ top rails and 1″ lower rails that can be painted or copper cladded.

When using cedar decking the cedar looks dirty and unfinished, even though you stain and treat it. You don’t want to use treated lumber for decking or rails because the wood is treated with copper arsenic, that will pass through the skin into your body. I’ve built decks out of Trex decking, but the decking is unstable, in some cases it has expanded so much that the deck looks like a lake when it rains. Also trex molds you have to clean it yearly, but you can not use a power washer. So I’ve switched to Ironwood for decking with great results.

Answer

I’m assuming that the house has a go air conditioner with the power to drop the house temp and to maintain it at 72°F when the outside air is 110°F . This problem occurs mostly when the inside temp is at 72° to 95°, if so than what is happening is to much humidity from the outside is coming into the house though Fresh air intakes(makeup air) for the appliances and or exhaust fans as well as an air exchanger. What is happening with the Air conditioner it sounds like it is to large of a unit. When the air conditioner runs constantly(45 minutes per hour) it has the ability to remove the water from the inside air. But if the AC unit only runs 15-25 minutes per hour and make up air coming into the house, this excess hot air coming in to the house brings with it a high concentration of water in a vapor form.

Now the hot air carrying humidity is in the house it rushes to the ceiling , while the AC unit is running dumping cold air into the house. ( A quick lesson in physics; Hot air is light and rises and cold air is heavy and drops to the floor) As the hot air looses its temperature it must loss volume of water its holding to do this it has to condensate on something cold. In a house it is the A- coil inside the furnace. but if the temp inside the house is already cool and the AC unit is not running the A-coil in the furnace is warm now the air has to find a cooler surface to condensate on. In this house it is the floor next to the exterior walls because gravity is holding the coldest air at the floor line. The exterior wall location is because the heating and cooling supply ducts have already dispensed the cold air there now making condensation.

The solution
1. Run 1-3 dehumidifiers I now they are ugly and noisy
2. Down size your AC unit and install a 2nd AC unit in the Attic for 90° + days this will allow you to run your primary AC unit in your furnace longer and remove the excess humidity from the house.
3. If you have a air exchanger run the fresh air through a dehumidifier before bringing the air into the house. You can do this with any fresh air intake flex tubes.
4. Keep the house doors shut as much as possible A max. of 1 door opening per hour, 10 second open.

The siding is not the problem. the house wrap is not helping. In hot climates you must protect the house (wood structure) from excess humidity. That means you must seal wall sheathing surface with something that will not allow moisture to pass through even if the siding is nailed on. that means all nails and nail holes must be sealed. Than a layer of moisture control fabric must be installed that removes the excess humidity. tarpaper works best. The insulation with the paper on it is not good because it has the ability to hold the humidity in the stud cavity. In hot climate locations fiberglass, or mineral wool insulation is great because air can pass through the insulation allowing the stud cavity to dry out. Do not use poly on the inside walls in a hot climate because you will trap humidity in the stud cavities and will rot out your structural walls.

1.The code requires 8″ of separation between the outside ground line and any type of wood product. The top of decoration rock is called the top edge of the ground line. In Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin there will be many houses that are going to be rotting away in the rim joist area.

2. Look how the load of the floor and wall is putting all the weight on the outer edge of the foundation wall making it act like a hinge point, Having a uniform load on the total thickness of the foundation wall makes it 4 times stronger. When you back fill against the foundation with poor drainage soil with no way to remove the hydro static pressure (ground water), you have made an easy way to have your foundation wall to buckle. If you look you will see before it buckles it will bow or crack horizontally and or diagonally.

There is always a better way to build, in this photo the main floor walls are pushing down on the outer edge of the foundation wall and the floor is pushing down on the interior part as well as holding the wall from being pushed inward.

This air carries high a volume of humidity with the air, and as it comes into the attic, if the temp is below 32° it freezes onto the underside of the roof sheathing and the trusses.

During the spring thaw, it compacts the insulation, sags the sheetrock ceiling, and stains the ceiling.

When the humidity level is high it enters the edges of the roof sheathing, swelling the edges giving the look of big rectangles on the roof. If the back side of the shingles get wet then the shingles curl.

The exterior of the house must have air, trees overhanging the house stop air movement and keeping the humidity level very high.

This will cause the roof to fail 5-15 years earlier than it should.

Raw sewage (black water) flows from the house to the first of 2 septic tanks. The weighs are trapped in this tank where they brake down. Once the liquid drains 2 a 2nd tank and some heavies or sediment was able to leave the first tank the 2nd tank catches it. When the liquid leaves the 2nd tank its now call gray water ready to the drain field.

When entering the drain field the gray water runs through the lateral pipe to each of the drain beds equally. Each bed has 4″ pipes with about 2 -1″ holes every 6” allowing the gray water to spread into the river rock. Where the drain field does its work is not in the rock but on the edge of the rocks and the meeting of the sand a 1/8″ membrane is formed that eats the bacteria out of the water.

Once your drain field is installed do not hurt or damage the edges of the sand and rock bed of your drain field.

The first picture is on a bridge looking into the living room.

The second picture is looking from the home office into the arboretum.

The third picture is looking down in to a water fall system and ponds.

You are looking at 2 cross sections as to how to build a frost footing.
The first picture shows how 98% of all house frost footings are installed. With this type of design there are some problems.
1. Where there is a 42” frost footing required the install 1-7 1/2” high footing 4- 8” blocks which = 40” with mud joints 41 1/4”. If they install a 1/2 high block the total height is 44 3/4” no problem except the code requires the grade height to 8” lower than wood framing and or wood siding. Making the frost footing only 41 1/4 with a high block and no wood siding. But you house has wood siding and no half high block the frost footing is now 36 1/2”. So in picture 1 the water is up to the top of the soil on the exterior. When it freezes in the winter we know water will expand and increase its mass crushing the insulation decreasing the R-value and allowing the water to freeze to the footing, which will move it, laterally inward or vertically which ever is easier.
2. As the temperate of your frost footing drops in the winter your concrete slab will also reflect how cold it is outside.
3. The Rigid foam insulation must be covered because the ultraviolet light from the sun will break down the insulation most contractors cover it with aluminum sheathing. Aluminum and does not like concrete or salt, it will corrode and eat the aluminum. Yet they pour concrete up against the aluminum shield and don’t tell the owners of the houses not to salt their sidewalks.

In the first hours of interviewing home building contractors, this is the time to ferret out if the contractor, is out for his wallet or to gain a friend. Remember once you sign a contract with him/her, the working relationship will late up to 10 or even 12 years. The house may be done in 3-6 months, but the warranties and call back could be a nightmare.

Looking for alternative ways to keep plumbing prices down. One way is to install Wirsbo water supply line instead of copper.

Yes copper is great easy to repair, add on to, or even change the design of plumbing as it is being installed. But the price, its great if you are Bill Gates, or a basketball player in the NBA. But for the rest of us there are alternative types of plumbing supply lines.

The Wirsbo system in some ways better than copper.

When water freezes to ice water expands 10% than when it is a liquid form. When water freezes in a cooper pipe it will split the length pipe to relieve the excess pressure. While on the other hand Wirsbo piping is designed to expand 200% larger than the water volume at 100 PSI meaning that it Wirsbo pipe will not fail.

The two draw backs of using Wirsbo piping new tools and instructions for installation you must learn. 2. Wirsbo unlike copper or Iron pipe doesn’t conduct electricity through it, you will need to run a ground wire back to the electrical panel and find a 2nd grounding location–like one of the following a cast iron well pipe, a 5/8″ or larger rebar which is barried in the concrete foundation of your house.

What is nice about Wirsbo there is less hot or cold transference throw the piping intern bring hotter water to the sinks and showers faster than with metal pipes.

Gypcrete is a lite weight cement mix which uses gypsum instead of sand and a high quality Portland mix making gypcrete.
In commercial applications Gypcrete is used as a sound deadener and a fire retardant between floors.

In a residential setting it is normally used to cover over infloor water heat pipes.

The gypcrete companies can pour the gypcrete at a minimum of 1/2”. A good thickness is 1” or more, this includes pouring over all types of pipes. (know this there is no law to protect the homeowner about gypcrete). Gypcrete must have a load bearing floor under it to support it, and the finished floor and it live load (furnishings and people). If you are installing the gypcrete 1 1/2 or less – it must bond to the structural floor below. If you need insulation under the gypcrete, install the insulation than install 4’ x 16’ wire panels with 6” x 6” grids anchored to the floor below the insulation with the anchor not less than 2’ square on center. The wire mesh helps stabilize the gypcrete and keeps it from braking up in the future.

Fireplaces are designed to make you comfortable in the room. Its like a feeling of what you would like and then actually have it built in the room for maximum relaxation and enjoyment.

The modern truss is built with less lumber and poorer quality of wood than 40 years ago.

In early to mid 80’s something new was happening to the houses.

In the dead of winter the building contractors were getting complaints of cracks on the top floor of the house where the walls meet the ceiling, and only on interior walls.

If the trusses went front to back the cracks would be the worst in the center following the center wall left to right, and the crack at times were more like gaps 1”– 1 1/2” the industry was troubled by the problem saying that the contractors was putting to much insulation in the attic causing a large fluctuation in temperature in the truss members it’s self making the truss to pull the bottom cord of the truss up by it’s self.

The truss manufactures remedy was to go in and lag bolt the truss down to the top plates of the interior walls.

The next year the cracks and gaps were gone Great- hold that thought, then the calls were coming in that the walls were not nailed down to the floors and you could see under the wall into the next room.

Trusses are very powerful pieces of engineered wood. They have lifted walls and pulled the nails with the walls.

The truss manufactures remedy was this time not to nail the sheetrock to the truss within 16” of the wall but instead put block on top of the wall between the trusses and nail to them instead.

The result is every year your trusses flex up and down making the sheetrock and insulation to do the same. Down the road you will find nail pops on the ceiling from 12-30” out from the center wall and your sheetrock will be sagging.

For my business I solved the problem by having the trusses designing then having the truss manufacture up size the top cord of the truss by 1 size larger board.

Example if the trusses called for a 2×4 top cord I required a 2×6 top cord for my needs, the cost was about $250.00 per house but no more call back.

So in retrospect what has happened to the truss industry they are trying to keep the price of trusses down and using cheaper quality wood.

Don’t worry the truss won’t fail it’ll just cause headaches and problems for the contractor and you the home owner watching the contractor scratch his head not knowing what to do or how to fix it.

The result of that is any standard framing wood touching treated will start rotting on contact.

To solve the problem the code is requiring a barrier between the treated and any framing lumber.

Another problem also has surfaced galvanized metal and the treated lumber is also reacting to each other, they say having the nails double dipped in galvanization will solve the nail problem, to solve the joist hangs you must put a barrier between the treated lumber and the hanger on all surfaces.

Minnesota Law is requiring a air space of 1 1/2” between the rim joist board that bolts on to the house there recommendation is to put 12-16 washers on each lag bolt as spacers to keep the treated rim from touching the wall framing.

The problem with that is a 16’ long board has 12 bolts sticking out with 144-192 washers hanging on this bolts and your trying to attach them all at once. Not happening.

Instead use 1 1/2” Galvanized steel square tubing the height of the rim joist tack it on to the rim, this will be much easier to install and provide a wider surface contact with the wall framing.

Now it time to install your decking remember your treated boards will rot wood if you are using cedar, cypress, or redwood, IPS use must put a barrier down over the top of the joists before you lay the decking.

Trex decking and other types of composite decking have different requirements for example Trex’s needs the joists spaced 12” on center, and you must space the deck board1/4” apart because the Trex board over time swell over 1/8”.

Cedar, Cypress, or Redwood, IPS board need to be sealed with a sealer or a solid color stain to keep them looking go and to keep them from weathering and firing up.

IPS (iron wood) boards are great. They come from South America, and are very strong, in the 1900 they used to make ship bottoms with this type of wood.

This type of pine from Australia bonds great with the concrete making at a good product.

For me there has not been enough time to prove the quality of the material being used for siding. Back in the 60’s we thought masonite siding was great stuff, but in turn the masonite if not painted on all surfaces sucked up water and started rotting.

With masonite you had to keep it painted 5-7 years keep it 4 to 6 inches from any wet surface like the ground, patios decks and roofs.

There are also look alike hardy board siding not made from the Australian pine, it doesn’t bond with the concrete and it doesn’t, can not, or will not perform to the standards of What Hardy board’s system can.

Using wood for siding has been used for hundreds of years. But it been in the last 25 years we’ve learned a lot about wood siding.

On all wood siding before installing seal the back side of the siding keeping moisture from migrating into the siding.

Next when installing the siding use 15# tarpaper behind the siding, (note not house wrap) this will remove the moisture from behind the siding.

When choosing a fastener know this cedar, redwood and treated lumber don’t like galvanized steel nails they will eat the nails, using a stainless steel nail with the barb rings is a great choice for years of holding power.

Try never to paint the wood but instead use a solid color stain it will bond better and last longer. Always use a non-latex based caulk for caulking the joints.

When you build or remodel your house if you place is located where are no trees than using cedar would be ok, woodpeckers love cedar if your lot or close to trees try using Cyprus wood this type of wood will last longer but costs a little more.

Choosing a type, and color of siding of a house is not what you should be thinking.

Instead you should be asking questions as how doest the siding perform in the elements?
What type of mattnace is there?
For my location what type of siding is the best?
Does color have an affect on the siding?
What are the special properties to this type of siding?

The builder has an objective in mind to channel you in to choosing siding that his sider is good at installing. For him there are less callbacks to him about the siding and that is all he cares about.

Most builders and siders have no clue of the properties of the different types of siding available. You have to do your own research, and than you have to force the builder to do it to the information you have learned.

The most popular siding being sold is vinyl because it’s cheep.

Did you know that Vinyl building products have an expansion rate of 1/144 or in other words from winter to the heat of summer it will expand 1” in 12’.

Knowing this lets look at installation if you were to nail the siding tight to the wall sheathing the siding could not expand or contract but instead it would ripple and pop loose from the interlock of the lower piece of siding.

If the sider nails it to loose the wind will make it slap against the wall sheathing, creating wear markers where it was nailed and eventually break.

The darker the color of vinyl the more it expands, and as for using it for soffits (the flat spot under the eve’s of the roof) it sags in the summer.

If you have a driving rain the rain is driven sideways across the siding and is blown into the corner or j channels and runs down the wall sheathing.

Vinyl siding is very forgiving in the hot afternoon sun if a kid throws a ball or a bat at it, but weed weeps are wicked to it. When the weather changes and is cool out side the vinyl is vulnerable to hail rocks from lawn mowers or bumping up against it at cold temperatures.

But that is why siding is installed for to keep this from happening. In my opinion this is a very poor product.

Carpet- installation time 1-3 hour per room all you need to do is vacuum. If your family members do not like to take their shoes off this is not a good choice.

The carpet will remove any thing on the bottom of shoes and gravity will migrate it into the weaving of the carpet. Dog and Cat love to claw and chew it.

If you lay the carpet on a concrete floor and you have high groundwater the carpet will act like a breeding ground for mold and other insects. Warm to the touch, very bad for allergies.

Ceramic floor- installation time 2-4 days after 6 weeks you must seal it. Watch what type of tile you pick out

1. The glazing hardness the harder the better, and have them prove it to you as to the hardness. They will use different types of diamond scratches.

2. Next try to get a tile made of a cream color clay tile. I’m not talking about the finish you look at but the backside of the tile. This type of tile cut easier with less brakeage in installation as well as later.

3. Look for a textured tile for wet areas incase of slipping and falls. If the tile is sealed yearly it is the most durable against any type of ware cats, dogs, kids etc. Cool to the touch

Concrete floors- installation time 1 day than you have to wait 30-60 day before sealing it no paint taping compound, oils etc. until it is sealed properly.

Again it must sealed yearly it is the most durable against any type of ware cats, dogs, kids etc. Cool to the touch
Stamped (stained)
Exposed aggregate

Stone floors – installation time 2-4 days after 6 weeks you must seal it. Watch what type of tile you pick out. Look for a textured in wet and dry conditions and how the stone changes in color.

In wet areas like the back door area I recommend a honed finish, the stone is cut sanded smooth but it dull to look at, good for areas with sand and dirt will not show scratches.

A high polished finish is great if there is no sand, dirt or water. It will out last any type of wood floor you could install.

If the stone is sealed yearly it is the most durable against any type of ware cats, dogs, kids etc. Cool to the touch

Sheet goods (vinyl’s) – installation time 1-3 hours per room you will need a sponge to scrub the printing off the sheet good.

The good thing about sheet goods is that when you spill any thing it sits on the surface of the flooring.

Bad new is any thing can cut it from moving a refrigerator in to it place, to accidentally dropping a knife; a dog can claw it up. It has about 10-15 year wear life.

Wood floors-installation time 5 days for a floor of 350SF you will need to recoat the floor every 3-5 years. Sand, dirt, and dog claw will scratch the floor. Warm to the touch.

Example a 24’ wide house with standard trusses have a uniform load of 1400# every 2’ on the load bearing walls.

Now if there is a girder on the front of the house to have a gable end look over the front entry. The span is 20’, at each end of the girder is a load point of 7000# (note-a heavy duty pickup truck weights 6000#) we have to solid block this load down to the concrete foundation with the right type of blocking.

Next we have to look at how the floor was constructed. The front foyer of the house is open to the 2nd floor ceiling and it also has a load bearing beam sitting at the same location as the girder truss 9’ above it.

We have an office and a family room in the location where this floor load is.

The office takes up half of this area, knowing this we can calculate the load as follows 17# dead load over the entire floor with a live load of (150# for the office 50# for the family area=) 100# per SF The total load of the floor is117# per SF or 520 SF x 117= 55640#.

This weight is being transferred to the front and back of the house on the back it lands uniformly on a 6” framed wall, no problem. While the front load of 27820# is divided in 1/2 for 2 load points of 13910# + the girder truss load of 7000# which is a total load of 20,910# there is no wood stud that can take that type of load.

But yet builder and building inspectors let the builder get by with just putting studs under the load.

What should have been installed is a steel post rated for that type of load. Then the load must be brought down to the concrete foundation.

Putting wood blocking the floor joist for this type of load will only crush the blocking and it shall fall.

Lets look a living room, it has a large rug, 1 large couch, 1 love seat, 2 chairs an old style piano as well as some tables lamps books etc. the items listed is called live load because it can move into different parts of the house.

Lets look at the floor, it consists of oak wood floor, and under this floor is a sub floor. These to floors are called dead load they cannot move.

The room size is 144 sq. feet with a total live working load of 5760# we have over 2200# of furnishings lets say its Christmas and time for pictures 20 Light weight people have just overload the floor system.

But that was just for a couple of minutes well lets look at the dining room for 2 hours you have overload the floor system in there.

Lets look at the office paper is a lot heaver than people, a small 2 draw filing cabinet can hold up 960# of paper + he cabinet.

Most people have a few large filing cabinets as well as desks and chairs, printers, copiers.

The minimum for home construction is 40 live load, and for an office is 150# live load so by putting an office on a wood floor system is wool fully over taxing flooring system.

Look a baby grand piano it ways over 1000# setting on 3 points on the floor than add people around the piano and again you over taxed the floor.

Now your loads and what you are going to use the rooms for before building house.

Trusses give you a basic frame work to build from Trusses in and of them selves are great for a track house slap them up and install the roof sheathing than your off to the next job site.

On a custom home trusses are like a beams we use for a bridge it in no way follows the finished shape of roof structure.

Example if you want a pan, barrel or even a vaulted ceiling a lot extra framing must be done to get the finished look.

As is true on the exterior, they don’t make dormers in trusses or any type of valley all these types of decorations are all hand framed above the trusses.

The draw back with trusses they don’t give you a perfectly flat surface to install your roof sheathing or sheetrock onto. The most trusses very 1/4”-3/8” while I’ve had some come out that were off by 3/4”.

Now what can we do by code we can not cut them so we have to strip the rest of the trusses up to the height of the highest truss. A lot of extra time because some one was lazy at the truss plant.

The truss plants say there is no deflection in there trusses.

But I’ve seen on a 26’ girder truss holding up a hip set, have a deflection of 1/360 or over 3/4” pushing the interior wall down that had no load bearing below them cracking the sheetrock and racking the interior doors to the point I had to cut the top of the door so it would close.

The nice thing about hand framing you have flat surfaces to work with you can modify and rafter, or roof jack as you go.

The down side you are limited in span as to thickness of the lumber that’s being used.

First lets look, does it fix in the opening from the finish floor 2nd floor to the finished floor on main floor (using an 8’ wall 9 1/2” joists carpet on 2nd and 3/4” wood on main floor sets the actual height of the stairs the code requires the tread height not more than 1/4” different in all the treads) the stair rise max. height set by the code is 7 1/2”.

Did the draft’s man draw in 15 rises, and 14 treads. The rise works out to 7.17 or 7 5/32” now lets see if the stairway hole is long enough, The code requires the tread to be 10”that make the rough opening 11’0” this size will just make the minimum head room height on the stairs.

Next let’s look on the print how wide is the stairway from wall to wall (the width) the code requires a 3’0” clear opening. This means you must frame the walls at least 3’1 1/4” for sheet rock and taping compound.

If the handrail is not removable than you must add the space from the wall to the rail plus the rail to the framed opening.

If the stair way has 1 or more landings or turns it’s in your best interest to make the stairway 8”wider to bring furniture and bed frames and mattresses up and down the stairs.

Another area you have to watch for is if there is a wood or stone nosing even carpet wrap under the balusters on the sides of the stairway if its on the side of the fixed hand rail you can ignore it.

If it’s on the other side of the stairway you must frame the walls wide to account for the 3’ clearance.

Why the 3’ clearance 1 haling in refrigerators, laundry equipment need the room as well an ambulance stretcher in case of an emergency.

Framing- When framing a stairway the landing at the bottom of the stairway as well as any 90°angle platform on the run of stairs must be at least as long as it the stairway is wide this is code.

Many times I have come to houses 1 and 2 years old and going down stairs to the basement and land IE concrete floor from the stairway to the concrete wall dead ahead was 30” or less this is not legal.

If the stairway from Sheetrock to Sheetrock measures 36” then that is what is required at the bottom of the stairway to the wall.

Next the code no longer allows the builder to hang the stair jacks on plywood they now have to be installed with metal hangers (like a joist hanger).

Using poor quality wood like spruce, pine or fir will in time create squeaks in steps; using a plywood beam like a micro-lam will stop these squeaks.

The building contractor’s framer sent him a certified pre-lien notice in the mail so he call the contractor to find out why he had received this in the mail.

The contractor said to him that the building contractor’s lien waiver supercedes all lien weavers of the subcontractors.

Needles to say he had to pay the contractor and then he had to pay some of the contractors that the contractor did not pay.

The electrical contractor came over to his house a month and a 1/2 after he was done and asked him to sign a statement; the statement was a contract that was backdated 2 months earlier, because the building contract did not pay for work rendered. So the homeowner paid twice.

Concerning Lien Waivers: According to Minnesota law, Minnesota statute 514.011 must be included in all written construction contracts. The notice must be written in 10 point bold type and contain the precise language of the statute. The statute is as follows;
Statute 514.011 NOTICE

(A) ANY PERSON OR COMPANY SUPPLYING LABOR OR MATERIALS FOR THIS IMPROVEMENT TO YOUR PROPERTY MAY FILE A LIEN AGAINST YOUR PROPERTY IF THAT PERSON OR COMPANY IS NOT PAID FOR THE CONTRIBUTIONS.
(B) UNDER MINNESOTA LAW, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO PAY PERSONS WHO SUPPLIED LABOR OR MATERIALS FOR THIS IMPROVEMENT DIRECTLY AND DEDUCT THIS AMOUNT FROM OUR CONTRACT PRICE, OR WITHHOLD THE AMOUNTS DUE THEM FROM US UNTIL 120 DAYS AFTER COMPLETION OF THE IMPROVEMENT UNLESS WE GIVE YOU A LIEN WAIVER SIGNED BY PERSONS WHO SUPPLIED ANY LABOR OR MATERIAL FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND WHO GAVE YOU TIMELY NOTICE.

There are many ways to look at windows.

How does the window perform? Lets look at the exterior of the window jambs and sashes what are the exteriors made of;

If wood is the wood treated,
Wood wrapped in aluminum are the aluminum joints on the sash sealed or just overlapped,
Any type of metal wrap such as Aluminum Copper, Bronze, is there a thermo break in the jamb and in the sash,
Vinyl window have unique problem Vinyl expands in warmer temperatures making them hard to operate with darker color vinyl only magnifies the problem.

Does the window have a built in flashing at the top of the window allowing moisture coming off the siding, and diverting it over the face edge of the window.

In most cases when a metal window fails it because the bottom frame of the window has no downward taper to the outside or in time the frame cups allowing water runs to the window sash instead of off the jamb and dripping to the ground.

Does it keep the weather out? Wind rain and thermo transfer. First look at the 5 different types of windows the worst type is:
5# glider window there the window slides left or right these windows tend to leak the worst. 4# is a single/ double hung window these windows slide up and down.
3# are awning type windows they are hinged at the top and open only 1/3 from the bottom.
2# Casement windows are a pretty good window system they are hinged on the left or right and open wide.
1# Fixed window is the best for sealing but not operable.

A lot of windows fail because of bad weather stripping. The stripping must be continuous with no breaks or lose ends. Like on a casement sash the weather striping wraps the edge of the window very few window manufactures even joint the weather striping at the corners.

How do the windows act or interact with other architectural elements in the room or on the exterior view of the house. Most wood windows use pine jambs and sashes that when stained, stains darker than the window trim around the window the wallboard.
2 window manufactures uses fir instead of pine so when it stains it looks like the oak trim around the window. Making it look great. Some manufactures use vinyl on the inside if the vinyl is white it tends to have dust and dirt attracted and bonds to it, making it look dirty all the time.

Windows operating over its lifetime depends a lot on the homeowner. When you paint or varnish you must remove the windows from the frame then you can paint properly and get a better job.

If you have a glider or a double hung window that is sticking spray some graphite or silicone spray on the tracks.

This condition was and is being caused by no insulation on this area. With no insulation in this rim joist and the warmest air in any area is located at the ceiling. This air also has the most humidity in it.

When the air migrates across the ceiling to the out side wall 2 thing happen.

The 2nd thing that happens is it starts a thermo train where warm air rushes to the exterior wall, it cools and drops to the floor, then the air migrates across the floor to the center of the house where it’s warmed back up.

Warm air being lighter than cold air it moved back up to the ceiling and the process starts all over.

Adding insulation to the rim joist slows down the thermo train. If you install the wrong type of insulation you will cause a lot more mold and rot and invite many different type of bugs to live with you.

The worst type of insulation is porous type (fiberglass, cellulose, mineral wool etc.) If this type is to be used install a vapor barrier on the warm side of the insulation to keep any humidity from getting into the insulation.

Vapor barrier can be 6-mill poly — insulate, caulk all surfaces with a polybutylene caulk this stays soft than apply the poly over it and staple the poly in place making a perfect seal. Do this to all rim joist areas.

Vapor barrier can be foam board — insulate, cut the foam board to fit snug in each rim joist space then caulk all edges of the foam board.

Another way of getting around the problem is to insulate the rim from the outside. This only works in new construction while building.

Move the rim joists in 2″ and install a 2″ foam board and then sheath over it. The drawback is you must install solid material where you are going to add a deck or other structural framing.

Another type of insulation that can be used is Icynene this you can by on E-bay or hire a contractor to have is sprayed into the rim joist cavities.

This type of insulation will not allow the humidity to pass through it making it great for this type of application.

This will happen at the top of all the walls and under all the windows as well as where wiring is run through the wall, the wiring holds up the insulation from settling
downward but below the wiring there again is no insulation.

Using an Open Cell insulation this sprays in place and bonds to the studs wires and wall sheathing locking it in place.
The only draw back with Open Cell insulation is trying to fish wire into new outlets it’s hard to do.

While fiberglass is easy just move it to the side pull the wire into place and install your electrical box, O by the way installing wire this way losses all you r-value in that stud cavity by moving the insulation you have created a void on the one side and on the other side you have pushed in to much insulation and have less R-value.

What is R-Value and what R-Value do I need?

Insulation is rated in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value, which indicates the resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. The R-value of thermal insulation depends on the type of material, its thickness, and density.

In the case of Icynene these are the facts:
Thermal Resistance R 3.6/in x thickness of stud
2×4=12.6 2×6=19.80
Heat flow reduction through 1.0″ = 72.7%
Heat flow reduction through 3.5″ = 92.2%
Heat flow reduction through 5.5″ = 95.0%
Heat flow reduction through 10.0″ = 97.3%

What does this mean?
Example-Look at your living room wall let’s remove a 14″ x 14″ piece of sheetrock & poly on the insides and on the out side let do the same size and location, remove the siding and wall sheathing so on both sides of the wall we can see the insulation.

Now lets say it’s —2° below 0 and on the inside it’s 7° degrees.

Standing out side dip your hands into water and place them on the siding just above the hole how long will be able to stand there before your hands freeze?

Lets do the same with a house made of Icynene Insulation. Again how long before your hands freeze?

A Fiberglass insulation — Never and instead your hands should be dry in under 6 minutes at —2° below °. Above the hole the temp should be on a calm day about 5°

A Icynene Insulation- in about 30-40 Seconds major frost burn should start.

The deference is that fiberglass insulation slows the air movement down inside the stud space while Icynene creates millions of little air pockets but not allowing them to move.

Fiberglass insulation with out poly and/or wallboard on the in side and wall sheathing on the outside is really a very poor type of insulation in and of it’s self.

2. A pneumatic nail gun that can shut 2 1/2″ trim nail with a round head this is important a T style nail brakes the thinner trim boards and has no power to drive the nail through sold hardwood. I recommend Senc Finishing Nailer Model 1Z0001N

3. A pneumatic pin gun SENCO SLS18 18 GAUGE 1-1/2″

4. A bottle of Titbond 2 Glue

5. An orbital sander (Porter Cable Quicksand® Random-Orbit Sander)
Now with these tools you have a good start on doing a great job.

Always glue your joints and keep a wet rag with you o wipe off extra glue.

Let’s say you just finished installing casing around a window. Ok it time for the nail set, counter sink all the gun and hand nails.

Lets go back with 150 grit sand paper and sand all the trim and joints this causes the stain to penetrates evenly with less splotching across the entire trim board.

Take out an air chuck and blow out and excess dust in the nail holes and off the trim board.

If there are any nicks of dents in the millwork it time to fix them with Lacquer base wood putty let hardens and re-sand.

Trimming it’s self is fun and challenging there a good trimmers, incredable ones and there are hacks which most of us won’t even let them people frame their so bad.
Trim must be installed super tight fits in all joints corners and seams, remember there is still moisture in the wood still leaving it and as it does so the material will still shrink.

This is why a new house has more millwork cracks at the joints, corners and seams is because the wood in the wall framing is still wet and has not dried out.

When it does the wall thickness will shrink leaving gaps behind the trim and sheetrock surface.

It’s not a bad trim job but instead the contractor was in to much of a hurry to get the house done and did not take the time required to dry the wood framing out before insulating walls.

This is another reason you have sheet rock nails popping in your house. Remember this the dryer the wood the stronger it is.

It holds nails better if it is dry and more weight.