Robert Butler, Montreal, Canada Home Inspector

Just a Little Puzzle.

OK, just a little puzzel? This is the puzzle from Sunday's blog.

The idea was to come up with the name of the town "where the title of these blogs comes from,... figure out the name of the 'little mill town'."

All the clues are in the first sentence "Long ago and far away on the western shore of an eastern island province there was a little mill town."

And you are given this hint: "Of course using goggle is allowed."

I did make one error. I should have said 'google maps" specifically.

So use google maps look at the eastern provinces.

Where? Canada, the USA doesn't have provinces.

So use google maps.

Scan those eastern provinces that have western coasts. There are't that many. Especially island provinces.

I'll give you another clue: Look for a place at the head off the deepest bay (longest) you've ever seen.

Well, Well,Well.......................three holes in the backyard #4 (surprise!)

Well, I wasn't planning a 4th in the series but I had stuff left over. And I have a little puzzle (at the end).

The earlier blogs in this series discussed blog writing (#1), blog commenting (# 2), and reblogging (#3).

Well, now I want to draw your attention to another little gem in the AR arsenal and that is Invite Others.

Invite Others can be found 6 up from the bottom on the left side navigation column of your My Home page. Go there by clicking on Invite Others and you are presented with a form and an explanation of what to do.

Here you type in the invitee's name and email address and write a short email inviting them to join AR. The people you invite should be those you know and are open to this forum and the possibilities provided by the AR network.

This is for 2 reasons, one being that we want to build a strong active network in AR and the other is the incentive that as your invitee builds points you are awarded bonus points to the value of 10 % of their earnings.

Some people do a lot of point collection this way. In some areas Active Rain is well known.

Here in Quebec it's almost a secret because large numbers of people in this industry work only, or primarily in French and to the rest it has a clearly non-local flavour. Real Estate is a always a local knowledge business.

I'm relatively new to active participation in the 'rain' and I've only made 4 distinct invitations but this is something I plan to do more of, nor really for the points, but to build up a Quebec and local Montreal presence in AR.

This has the potential to stimulate business amongst us and raise the profile on line. But of my 4 invites ,2 have not responded and 2 have joined. One of the 2 joiners simply signed up and did nothing else so zero points have accrued.

The other has accrued points and this is an agent that I know well and work with. I'll be able to mentor and guide her to an active participation in AR. This is why the recommendation is to invite people you know.

I missed mentioning it before but there is a list (on the right of this page) that shows you who (what type of business) can be invited into AR.

Invite Others has the potential to generate a lot of points but more importantly if you invite people who get involved and participate then that grows the AR network into a strong and bright future. Yea!

SO Blog Writing, Blog Commenting, ReBlogging, and now Invite Others; Thats' 4 great tools for building your brand here in Active Rain and on line. All have a value associated with an incentive points system which is effective in creating a positive supportive community environment in Active Rain.

The Puzzel:

Long ago and far away on the western shore of an eastern island province there was a little mill town. That little mill town had a local business called DB Ltd. And DB Ltd ran an ad on the local radio station that played 'forever'. (Maybe it only seemed like it.)

It went like this "Well, Well, Well..no I'm not talking about the three holes in the back yard", "No" it went on, "I'm talking about whatever special deal DB Ltd had that week." And then it finished up with " And you can thank DB Ltd for another Well made commercial".

N.B.: DB Ltd. is a contraction of the real name to protect the sensibilities of who ever might be bothered by it. It has no bearing on solving the puzzle.

" Ch Ch Ch Changes"....Don't Always Improve IT (Your Roof, Your House) .

The Roof View

Here's a view of a 'flat' roof that has been shown on some of my other blogs.

Flat roofs are not actually flat. They either slope to a central drain or drain to one edge.

This angle is gradual so the drop from the high part of the roof to the drain is not much. Here it is about 6".

Thats fine when it's just raining and there is no blockage of the drain(s).

Blockage from debris is only a concern if you have large trees nearby and even when you don't, you equip it with a wire bulb strainer and check it several times a year.

Parapet Wall Detail

This is not a typical roof vent . It is small and built into the parapet wall and the opening is close to the roof surface.

This is not a concern in light rains, but when there is a real downpour any debris blockage at the drain will cause water to pond and back up on the roof surface.

In winter with snow and ice built up on the roof any drain freezing or blockage will result in back ups that will be up to those vent openings in no time.

Typical Gooseneck Roof

This is a typical gooseneck roof vent. It is shaped that way to shed rain but allow air to move in and out of the roof space. This is actually 3 times higher in space above the roof surface than the vent shown in the parapet of the photo above.

So What is the significant change here?

For that look at the first photo. We see a chimney that has been abandoned and capped with that big mounded piece of concrete. That's fine but what it tells us is the the heating system of the building has been changed and the chimney is no longer needed.

That part is ok, but what does that change mean to the roof. Well it means there is no longer an almost constantly warmed masonry mass in the centre of this roof keeping the components from freezing, most significantly the drainage piping of the roof drain.

Now that drain is liable to freezing and blockage for much of the winter season. Just a result of the heating system change and the chimney being capped.

Now what happens when the drain is blocked? The water stays on the roof and freezes into thicker and thicker lenses of ice plus snow as the winter drags on (Winter always drags on doesn't it?).

But when we start to warm up towards spring, the drain remains frozen under ice, while snow melt water and rain accumulate on the roof. On big roofs that can cause structural damage.

But here our concern is the water that gets backed up and drips into those low parapet wall vents. That water soaks into the brick wall layer and does the damage we saw on a previous blog.

Also with about the same amount of flooding the water is bypassing the edge of the membrane at the front wall (where there is no parapet wall). The water runs through the soffit overhang and into the front wall of this building. We saw this shown here with theses two clues.

When the chimney was operating it and the area around it was constantly warmed and kept the nearby drain open and functioning to clear the roof of any water accumulation, therefor there was less ice. Water getting up to the vent edges or the front limit of the roof membrane would have been a rare occurrence. That was part of this buildings systems.

Every time you make changes the other components and systems are affected.

So changes may make sense but there can be aspects that are not considered, and those can cause damage as we see here.

If you are in the Montreal area and want a professional consult before making changes to your property please contact me for a quotation. I can also direct you to associates in other areas as well.

I Know Better, But Poof!...There It Was....Gone !!

I'd spent over half an hour fleshing out this blog I'd started. There was some kind of twitch on the screen. Poof, it was gone!

I mean GONE. No back arrow, no undo, no restore button.

I reached for them. Of course they weren't there. Why?

I wasn't working in 'Word' or some other text processing program.

What was I doing? I was composing right here on the screen in AR.

How many blogs have I read where we've been advised to write in a text processor and copy it to AR when we are ready, for just this very reason.

Well here's another one!

Do you think I'll ever get it back? NO

Will I be able to put all those phrases together that I though were so well done? Who knows , maybe If I really work at it.

Will I write better, second time around? maybe, who knows.

Would I rather not have to? Yes,pleasegodamen.

Will that happen? NOPE

So take a lesson from this not so wise but experienced one, moi.

"Faulty Towers".....Funny, Faulty Decks.........Dangerous !

Faulty Towers was a hilarious British comedy. it was a sit-com staring one of the founding members of 'Monty Pythons Flying Circus'.

Faulty decks though that's a different kind of story, and if you are unlucky it's appearing on a balcony or deck near you.

Take a look at the example below and remember just because it's been there for a while doesn't mean that it always will be (there).

At 'A" you can see the short remnant of the original cantilevered beam built into the original floor framing of this building. The joists of the current construction are sistered onto either side. This is nailed with 4" common nails, not galvanized.

"B" Is the top end of the diagonal brace, a 4 by 4 bracketed by the sistered joists mentioned above. The same type of nails are used, but smaller ones.

"C" the base of the same diagonal brace is set into a shallow pocket in the cement bonded stone foundation wall. There is a horizontal steel pin, basically a spike nail pining it from moving.

So whats wrong with that you say?

Well: Nails are just pins that lock things in place . The weight transfer has to be wood resting on wood.

Nailing wood the side of another wood member without notching it in to support it from underneath means the weight transfer is being done on the nails. Nails can not resist the stress over time.

They seem to work when everything is new and tight. Then things get a bit loose and flexible. For a while there is a little 'wow' deflection felt. It can last for years. You'll even forget about it. "Oh, it's OK, it's aways been like that".

The nails loosen from wood shrinkage, wood degrades from water exposure and nails rust, loose diameter and loose their hold strength.

Then one day it's not OK. gravity wins, you loose.

At 'C' water collects here, keeping the wood wet, slowly rotting and the spike nail rusting.

To be safe:

A and B have to be bolted though with non rusting blots that pass through all the wood members and clamp them together. The number an spacing have to be staggered to prevent check splitting down the length of the grain.

C needs a rust proof bracket that holds the wood brace end off the stone to allow it to dry after rains and holds it securely on the stone foundation with through bolts. Lag bolting and cinch anchor bolts cannot be guaranteed to work on all kinds of stone.

Now look around the corner to this part of the structure:

Here we see some of the more common problems with decks.

The ledger board (against the wall), has no flashing and only has two (E) lag bolts set in mortar.

Now look at where the joists join onto the ledger (D). You can't see the nails because they are very small. There's only 5 of them and they are not galvanized.

To be safe; The ledger board has to be solidly attached. That means at least 5 bolts in this much space.

Ideally the bolts should be through bolts but if the stone is too friable then shorter lag or cinch anchor bolts can be used provided they are doweled into the stonework with epoxy. Of course they have to be galvanized or made of non-rusting alloys.

I've seen some amateur use of tapcons here (cement or masonry anchoring screws). They should never be used - they have even less shear strength than nails. They fail by just breaking off. The metal is not strong enough.

The ledger has to be flashed to keep it dry or wood rot decay will be a problem. Don't count on pressure treated wood to be sufficient. Remember you are not building for the weekend or just the next ten years, you're building for forever.

Lastly; Joist hangers - the proper type will not rust and each joist will be secured with 14 nails not not just 5 'toed' nails.

DO NOT use screws at any structural joints including joist hangers or any other bracket that transfers weight.

Fire code requires that all structural weight bearing or transferring joist brackets (and other similar hardware attachments) be only attached with nails (not screws or ring shank nails). This is for the safety of firemen so that when floors burn through, the joist and other horizontal timbers be allowed to release and fall without pulling down the walls on top of the firemen. Screws disrupt that release.

So if you're looking at property anywhere in the Montreal area and you need a full inspection............