Weird things this week.

[William J. Decker]

OK, a few random photos from my week (last week).

1) The new model of pitch pot or tar pit roof flashing. Cool. A masony downut that you caulk the bottom of and fill with polyurethane caulk. Easy to install (and therefore used, properly) and really good for sealing roof line pentrations.

2) Nature adapting. Saw this on the wall outside of my daughter's Recruiting station. Strip mall with an exterior EIFS wall. The roof overhang soffit had a small gap (about 1 1/2") between the metal soffit and the EIFS. Some small birds (Sparrows?) found this out and chipped away on the EIFS, making a hole big enough for them to pass, and pulled out the styrofoam and brough in nesting material and have build their nests behind the EIFS (3" space).

3) Now, the cool one. Client called me because they were getting water leaking from the can lights in the living roo,. Above was the 2nd floor, with the exterior wall moved back so as to provide for a 4' balcony outside the bedroom window. He had multiple contractors and roofers out, but they couldn't figure it out.

So, being smart ;^#] , he called me. I figure out that the water was condensation because the ceiling insulation was Kraft paper vapor barrier with fiberglass, with the Kraft paper facing down (onto the ceiling). The problem was that the space between the insulation and the decking was "outside", but the rest of the ceiling space was "inside" (i.e., between the 2nd level floor and the 1st level ceiling) while the space between the 1st levvel ceiling and the roof deck above (toward the front windows) was "outside". There was no barrier between these tow spaces.

Recommended that the ceiling in this area be removed and the underside of the roof deck area be sealed with open cell foam, as well as putting a vapor barrier between these two areas.

So, the contractor removed the ceiling.

Low and behold, what I thought was a masoney building (brick exterior, with the rear being split faced block) was actually a wooden framed house with brick and split faced veneer.

But, when looking at the side wall area, I found out that the wooden framing had NO sheating! They just used a house wrap product between the wooden framing and the masonry. The coat hanger was inserted through the block cracks and came out the side wall on the exterior.

So, the codies never caught this. The assessor has this listed as a masonry structure, not wooden framing.

Plus, they installed a steel girder (to support the 2nd rfloor exterior wall brick) directly onto the top plate. The other joists were OSB I joists.

So, that was my (last) week.

Enjoy.

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

Picture of the brick veneer?

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by jhagarty

Picture of the brick veneer?

Nope, sorry.

[Jae Williams]

#3...about the veneer.

Everything is what it is...until something goes wrong and there's a problem.

Then it gets opened up and...how 'bout that?...it ain't what it is and that's what caused the problem.

It happens every day in every town in the country.

Last week he was washing dishes at Joe's Quick Lunch...and today he's a code inspector for the city.

My, my...