Now, I have to admit that, as a matter of self preservation, the CSLB is always on about fraud. But we’re now into the realm of ridiculousness where these transient operators are concerned.

In their article, the CSLB tells the story of one group from Connecticut had been cited by SWIFT twice and was still operating, with cases pending in eight California Counties. They also had cases pending in other States!

The “company” would show up, offering to a paving job at deeply discounted prices because they had left-over materials that needed to be used. Then, once the job was started they’d find reasons to charge more. (That’s called “low balling”. See my related articles: Fast Talking Sales, Picking the Right Remodeling Bid, and He Can’t Do It For That.) They also required prepayment — money which was quickly turned into cash so the customer couldn’t get it back. And of course, the materials used were so substandard that they broke down in a matter of days.

Wild Fire Victims Beware

Up here in Humboldt County we have over 1,400 forest fires burning; there are also fires burning in other parts of California. If your home has been damaged or destroyed by fire, be smart about who you hire to repair the damage:

• Stick with your local contractors. You don’t know who that “Fire Recovery Construction” company from SomeTown VA really is. They may be great — or they might be a Transient Operator!
• Ask the local hardware store about the company you’re looking to hire. Granted, they don’t know everybody, and just because they don’t know them doesn’t mean they’re bad, but it’s a good place to start.
• Look for the license number. Every legitimate California contractor is required to display their license number on all advertising — including their company vehicle(s). If it’s not on their truck (maybe they just bought a new one), ask for a business card, or better yet, ask to see their “pocket license.” Every legitimate California contractor is issued a credit card sized license card. If they can’t produce their pocket license, be worried!
• Check the license number here to make sure it’s a real license, and not a fake. If it’s a fake, and this company is trying to pass themselves off as a licensed contractor, let the CSLB know here.

I really hate to be this way — I really do. There are lots of very good individuals out there who do good work who are not licensed. And in the end, regulation and bureaucracy only breeds more of the same, inevitably costing you, the consumer, more money.

On the other hand, it makes me sick to see how some people will behave and treat their fellow man. It’s what causes all these rules and regulations in the first place. And it’s in cases like the one above that the regulations do work to help us all out.

So be careful! And good luck getting your home rebuilt quickly, competently, and at a fair price.

Technorati Tags: Contractor’s State License Board, CSLB, Humboldt County, Wild Fire Victims, transient operators, illegal contractors, unlicensed contractors, California wild fires

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It’s finally happened! BernzOmatic has finally released a recyclable line of fuel cylinders they’ve dubbed the Fat Boy™.

I mean, I don’t know about you, but for me, dealing with spent propane and MAPP gas cylinders has just been a pain. You’re not supposed to throw them into the trash, though many people do. And you can’t put them into the recycling bin, because even though you’ve used all the gas, they’re still under pressure and explosive. Technically they’re hazardous waste — though in all honesty, the vast majority have ended up in our land fills.

Up until now, the best I’ve seen anybody do with an empty propane cylinder is to (illegally) refill it and reuse it until the seals gave out. But you’re not supposed to do that either.

Finally addressing growing environmental demands of professionals and do-it-yourselfers, BernzOmatic developed what it’s labeled its Green Key® technology. It allows consumers to completely discharge an empty Fat Boy™ cylinder. Empty cylinders can therefore be taken to the local recyclers.

Another bonus, the Fat Boy™ is bigger than the old cylinders. You, like me, have probably seen folks screwing their torch head onto those larger camp stove gas cylinders. Well, that might slow down some as the Fat Boy™ gets into the distribution stream, because it contains 20% more fuel that the old tall, slim cylinders. Another, more dubious bonus, the Fat Boy™ is 25% shorter than the old cylinders, to allow “greater accessibility in tight spaces,” a company press release said.

Well, maybe. A loss in height means an increase in girth — doubly so because it holds more fuel. So what’s lost in one dimension will no doubt be gained in another. We’ll have to see.

The Fat Boy™ is apparently not yet in full roll out, though I gather the company will do so soon. I’ve asked a rep to send me a Fat Boy™ to try out. If they do, you’ll be reading about how well it worked in the field right here!

Technorati Tags: BernzOmatic, Fat Boy™, propane torch, MAPP gas torch, recycling

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The Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association (PPFA) has listed some of the characteristics that make PEX both popular and positive from both the consumer’s and installer’s point of view:

• Its high temperature capability, up to 200° F
• Its High pressure capability/stability
• The smooth walls provide excellent flow characteristics
• Its quieter than PVC or copper
• There’s less heat loss and condensation
• Because it’s a tubing, it allows flexibility for design
• It has a proven long life, rigorous certifications, and is highly tested
• It doesn’t corrode
• Unlike copper, it doesn’t develop pinholes
• No build-up inside
• Its secure and simple, but reliable fittings reduce the possibilities of leaks
• It’s lightweight, easy and safe to transport and handle
• It comes in long coils, and is therefore efficient to install, and joints are reduced
• It’s clean and safe to work with, unlike copper which requires flux and solder, or PVC which requires glues that produce toxic fumes

Why then, you ask, can’t we install it in California?

The Official reason is “environmental review.” But the fact is, PEX has already undergone an independent review — and passed! And because it passed, it’s already been approved by the four major model code standards, including the one just adopted by California itself in January 2008!

So the problem here really boils down to nothing more than politics. PEX is so easy to install you can do it yourself. The Plumbers Union is understandably not happy about that! (Which is also why until recently the only fittings available for PEX had to be installed with special equipment only licensed plumbers — not general contractors, not members of the public — could buy through special outlets.) And it’s plastic, so environmental groups weren’t happy either, despite the blatant reality that we have yet to develop any better environmentally friendly products through which to pump our water. But we decidedly have quite a few worse options. (PEX can be made from recycled grocery bags.)

Back to our story: The PPFA filed suit in 2001 and obtained a court order that basically said what everyone else had been saying for years: PEX was safe to install, so allow it to be installed already! The result: For almost 3 years PEX “was code” and was installed across California.

Then, in 2004 an appeals court reversed the ruling. Suddenly, PEX was again “not code” and couldn’t be installed. Ironically, during that brief three year period all kinds of rumors began to crop up about PEX. It was claimed, for example, that PEX pipes leech methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and benzene into the water, that PEX prematurely decays and then ruptures, and so on. I’ve even heard rumors that PEX will break down if exposed to chlorine treated water, and urban tales of “catastrophic failure” in homes where PEX has been installed, causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

None of these rumors have been found to be true.

PEX tubing bearing the marks “NSF-61″ or “NSF pw” — i.e. tubing rated for domestic potable water use has been tested by NSF International, an agency with a 60 year history of successfully protecting public health, and was found to meet the health requirements of NSF-61 and the long term strength and quality control requirements of NSF/ANSI Standard 14.

In other words, it’s at least as good (safe) as the alternatives.

(Warning! If the tubing has the mark “NSF rfh” it is only rated for radiant heat, not for potable water.)

Now… Let’s get real! If PEX weren’t safe, could it have possibly been approved by all four major, independent, model code standards — and California’s own CPC? Not likely.

The sad irony that this seven year (and counting) fiasco has cost California home owners and tax payers millions at the expense of its bloated, self righteous bureaucracy. And to prove precisely what?

In May (May 2008) the California Department of Public Health decided the rest of the civilized world was right after all. It proposed an Amendment to the 2007 California Plumbing Code, removing its restrictions against the installation of PEX “for occupancies regulated by The Department of Health Services.”

The public comment period closed July 7th. The regulations may not be approved for another 18 months.

What have they proved? You decide.

Technorati Tags: PEX tubing, California Building Code, International Plumbing Code, ANSI International, Uniform Plumbing Code, National Standard Plumbing Code, California Plumbing Code, California Department of Public Health

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It has been a couple of years since I had any time off. I really didn’t even realize it until I was sitting around a camp fire on Wednesday night wondering why I was so tired I didn’t even want to get up out of my chair to go to bed. We like to go camping a few times a year, but last year my wife was down with a staph infection, so we couldn’t get away.

Anyway, it was nice to get away for a few days. Watch the puppies play, listen to East Fork Creek babble by, and in general do very little. Made for a nice change despite the nearby forest fires. It was kind of smoky there a couple of mornings, but it never lasted for more than an an hour. Then the breeze would come up and blow the smoke away.

Now I guess it’s time to get back to work. I’m supposed to have the Cove House construction documents completed and ready for filing by the end of the month.

Technorati Tags: camping, vacation, construction documents

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This is my first project in this area of the county. It’s over a hundred miles from my office (one way!). I was told when I started that they kind of had their own rules in that area, and boy ain’t it the truth! I’ve been around the area all my life. In fact, when I was a wee lad my dad and I used to hunt just a few miles away from the northern edge of the development area. It’s a beautiful area, which is probably the only reason they get away with some of the stuff they do:

• Utilities hookups: $36,000 (recently up from $15,000), and for that breath taking sum they won’t even provide a construction drop for your contractor! If PG&E did that, they’d have the PUC down on them so fast their head would swim.
• Setbacks: The standard 20 ft, but there’s a twist. Off street parking within the setback doesn’t count as “off street” parking. They claim that this is a California Coastal Commission rule, but that’s bogus. Drive through any housing project in the coastal zone (there’s one less than 5 years old in Fort Bragg that’s so close to the ocean you can hit the surf with a rock) and you’ll see a 20 ft setback with cars parked in the driveway — in the 20 ft setback.

  I’d never heard of such a thing. But I’ve worked with enough bureaucracies and elected bodies to understand what they’re doing. They’re almost childishly transparent about it: They want the property owners to develop the right-of-way adjacent to their property at their expense. That way the county doesn’t have to pay to pave it over. So, if you pave the county’s right of way adjacent to your lot, that automatically meets the requirement. If you try to avoid that by parking on your lot, they admit they’ll be very picky. And since fighting town hall, so to speak, is a lot more expensive and time consuming than paving sixty odd feet in front of the property, they get away with it. The City of Fort Bragg did the same thing to my grand parents in Fort Bragg back in the seventies. It made residents pay out of their own pockets to put in sidewalks adjacent to their property. Side walks that had to be built to City specifications, of course.

• Community standards: All cities have some kind of set of standards how a home must look. They don’t want a three story four thousand foot McMansion being built right square in the middle of five a hundred one or two story, two thousand square foot suburban project. But I’ve never been asked to take pictures of all the houses for several blocks around the building site, and to fill out a form describing each house. Most building and planning departments actually know what’s in their jurisdiction. That this one doesn’t… Well…

On other fronts, the “design” part of the job has turned more into “modify”. The client found a stock house that they really liked, but they wanted to make some changes to it. And of course, meeting the above requirements (the parking silliness, mainly) has caused some other changes, as has the site and the local weather.

First, in order to meet the height requirements the roof had to come off. The roof shown in the picture is an 8/12; we replaced it with a 4/12, which is fine for this area. That also means the little dormers came off. The client doesn’t want a fireplace, so that’s also gone. And though it’s not really clear from the picture, the ground floor garage is cement posts separated by lattice. That would work for someplace like Florida, but we needed a walk out basement, we needed four parking spaces beneath, and we’re in the middle of a temperate rain forest. So we’re re-doing the foundation to hold the bank, and pushing the garage out to the edge of the porch on both front and back. Of course, since we’re opening up the garage for parking, that also means changes to the floor joist system. It has to be able to span the entire building without any center support.

So far it’s been a really fun project. On the one hand, blatant attempts to pick the tax payer’s pocket for more money than we’ve authorized always annoy me, and bureaucratic requirements are often silly (and sometimes expensive). On the other, I’ve done my time, know how the system works, and enjoying shepherding projects through. The design changes have also been a lot of fun. Even the architect that did the stock drawings is interested in the changes I’m making. The plans are old (designed to 1991 UBC standards), and some of the changes we’re making are green, which he is also interested in.

As we get a little further along on the interior changes and I’ll show you the before and after.

Technorati Tags: design build, California Coastal Commission, new construction, building standards

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When [building] code enforcement goes a-roaming, with guns and backup, what’s it really after?

That was howThe North Coast Journal’s Heidi Walters opened her article Fear In The Hills back in April. The article covered an incident back in February when:

. . . a convoy of Sheriff’s deputies and a county code enforcement officer wandered up and down the private roads and into yards, surprising the rural residents of homesteads scattered among the trees.

They were armed with flak jackets and carried automatic weapons and marched all over people’s property like they were some Nazi gestapo or Soviet government troops, storming all over the southern end of Humboldt County.

You could make the argument that the whole fracas started a month earlier when code enforcement got into it with some residents of a place locals call Yee Haw up near Trinidad, who live in what they call “free form” houses. Naturally, the hard workin’ bureaucrats saw it as their business to “get the buildings, water and sewer systems permitted and up to county codes.” In fact, they issued them an eviction notice. (North Coast Journal Codes, Damned Codes, Feb. 28, 2008)

Of course, the gestapo had its reasons. Like all good bureaucracies, its really looking out for its citizens. In an article published on March 25th, in the Redwood Times Claude Young of the Administrative Code Compliance section of the County Counsel’s office explained that “bringing houses into compliance with building laws will stabilize property values.” And of naturally, “the county will have to begin enforcing the new fire safety standards developed in the wake of the San Diego fires.”

Ever notice how there’s never any lack of creativity when it comes to a bureacracy finding reasons to justify their jobs and their budgets, or ways to spend your money for you?

Down in the Shelter Cove Development Area the County Planning Commission found a really nifty way to pick new builder’s pockets by making it nearly impossible to meet the off road parking requirement without paving the county’s road right of way adjacent to your property — at your expense, of course. If you do that, you’re almost guaranteed to meet the parking requirement even if the right of way isn’t technically big enough to do so. But if you try to meet the requirement by putting all the parking on your property, the Planning Department is very open about the fact that they’re “very strict” when it comes to measuring spaces.

Now, as a professional builder I fully understand the need for reasonable rules and regulations that ensure that I and others in the profession build you a safe and quality structure. But we’ve gone way beyond that. Building codes and inspection requirements are now more about turf protection and job justification than they are your safety or my quality of workmanship.

This point was made very well twenty years ago when Strong-Tie lobbied the (then) UBC over the improved safety of its connection hardware over the old toe-nailing method. Fire departments all over the country went ballistic. Metal heats much faster than wood. It gets so hot, in fact, that it burns the ends of the frames off, destabilizing the structure must faster than nails driven into wood that are therefore protected from the heat of the fire by the wood. Well, the firemen lost. And many good firemen lost their lives as fire science experts struggled to come up with new methods of dealing with buildings constructed using these metal joist fasteners that are now literally the standard in the building industry.

Now this isn’t to say that all the regulations and codes are bad. Of course they’re not. Like most things, it’s a mix of good honest public servants trying to do their best for society and greed and turf driven people and corporations who are only out for themselves.

In any event, the results of this rather crass attempt to raise money for the county by harassing citizens who are harming no one has led the Board of Supervisors to create a task force that’s held a number of hearings on the issue. In fact, as of today, according to the Eureka Reporter, they’re still holding hearings.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and we’ll get back to where we were a few years ago: Building officials and code enforcers and building professionals all on the same page, trying to design and build you the best, safest building we can.

Technorati Tags: building codes, building code enforcement, regulatory abuse

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I have been working on The Cove House since the end of February (among other small jobs) and have been hoping to get a post in here about it. But on the personal side, my 91 year old Grandmother has been terminally ill the last few weeks. Today I got word from my father that she died. And while this was not unexpected, it has been something of a distraction.

A few weeks ago she was taken to the hospital after suffering what looked to be a stroke. It turned out a brain tumor had progressed to the point that it was interfering with — well, I guess just about everything. She had sat in her chair at home for hours before remembering she had a life line button that would bring the ambulance forth-with.

Thankfully, with medical attention she was coherent enough to make her own decisions about her future. The doctor offered her the usual unpleasant choices when cancer is at work. She flat refused. At 91 she wasn’t about to try and hang on just for the sake of hanging on when the best of prognoses were gloomy.

Not 48 hours later she had a massive brain hemorrhage that left her in a semi-conscious state. At 9 pm last night she finally got her wish. Peace and release.

Gwenlynn (Gwen) A, Wyant-Matson 1916–2008 :: May you rest in peace, Grandma.

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Now, keep in mind that these are stock plans, so you’re not going to find plans on their site that use green building methods such as structural insulated panels (SIP) or insulated concrete forms (ICF), or even engineered lumber (which usually requires different frame spacing to be an affordable option to sawn lumber). But that doesn’t mean stock plans can’t be “greened up” in many other ways. In almost any house you can:

• Choose any of several types of recycled and/or natural fiber insulation.
• Choose an energy efficient heating and air conditioning system (HVAC). (Here on the North Coast, install a high efficiency wood stove, which has a carbon neutral footprint. See my article: Is Wood Heat Green?)
• Choose energy efficient windows, and get the type that open so there’s good natural ventilation.
• Choose low VOC or no VOC coatings. (I really don’t recommend the all natural paints made from flax and what not because they don’t hold up at all!)
• Choose flooring systems made of natural, or sustainably grown materials.
• Install an on demand water heater, rather than a tank style water heater.
• Install a rain water recovery system. In fact, while you’re at it, capture all the drainage water from the property and use it in your garden.

There’s a lot that you can do on a budget, even with stock house plans, to build green. And it all starts with picking an appropriately sized house. You might want to give The House Plans Shop a look see before deciding which stock plans to buy.

Technorati Tags: house plans, green building, ICF, SIP, engineered lumber, high efficiency wood stoves

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Introduction & Safety

To Strip or To Sand — That Is The Question
Both have their advantages and disadvantages; both have their place.

Stripping: First, there’s nothing even remotely green and environmentally friendly about chemically stripping a coating. While there are lots of strippers out there, the only ones I’ve found to be worth their time and money are pretty noxious. Some (like the one I’m going to introduce you to below) are down right dangerous!

That said, stripping is sometimes the only viable option for a work piece. Strip sanding that venerable old table might be quick and safe and easy on the environment, but it will also rip the patina right off the table. That venerable old table will look like it just came out of the factory. That’s probably not the effect you want.

Also, sanding an antique will ruin its value as a collectible! (I don’t recommend antique refinishing as a do-it-yourself project. If your appraiser says it needs to be refinished, take it to a professional furniture refinisher.)

Finally, for detailed pieces, sanding the finish out of all the little nooks and crannies is virtually impossible.

Sanding: If the work piece is fairly simple (like our table) strip sanding is a fast and safe solution — assuming you don’t care about the patina. In fact, with a good strip sander, you’ll be done before you’re through cleaning up after your first coat of chemical stripper.

Sanding is really the only way to make a work piece “look like new.” As a furniture refinisher I had jobs where, because of the detail, I first had to chemically strip the work piece to get all the old finish out of the crevices, and then sand it down because the customer wanted “that new look.”

Sanding strips the old patina off of the wood and opens up the grain. If you look at a piece of wood that’s been sanded under a microscope you’ll see little fibers standing straight up, ready to receive and absorb the new finish.

A Few Words About Safety
Most strippers that are going to get the finish off for you with a minimum number of applications are pretty toxic. You’re going to want some safety gear:

• Chemical gloves. Most strippers use solvents that are readily absorbed by the skin, and you’re going to get some stripping solution on your hands. Count on it. You can either get the surgical style nitrite gloves (they’re the green ones) which are great for fine work, or the orange dish washing style gloves (just make sure they’re chemical safe). In the pictures below you’ll see I’m using the latter.
• Saftey glasses. Remember, no matter how “safe” or environmentally friendly the chemical you choose is, it still has to be strong enough to destroy the finish you’re stripping. It’ll do the same thing to your eyes!
• Good ventilation or a respirator. The VOCs in some of these strippers (including the one I’ll introduce you to below) are so potent that breathing them will make your lungs hurt, and make you sick in short order. If you can’t work outside, wear a respirator.

Speaking of respirators, those paper masks are worthless for this kind of thing. In fact, they’re worse than worthless because people use them for all kinds of things for which they were not designed.

Those paper “surgical masks” were originally designed to keep the water vapor of the surgeon’s breath inside the mask, not to protect the surgeon from the patient. On the job site they’re classed as “dust masks”, meaning they help protect you from saw dust and so on. But they’re not even designed to be used around fiberglass, never mind asbestos or paint vapor.

At right is a picture of my mask. It’s one of the models made by the Mine Safety Appliance Company (MSA). Obviously, since I need my mask to work in a lot of different environments, the filters on this mask are good for everything from toxic dusts (including asbestos) to chlorine and sulfur dioxide environments. You might not want something so complete, but you’ll at least want one that’s rated for paint vapors.

How do you know what your mask is rated for? Well first, it’s not the mask, it’s the filters on the mask. On my mask, the filters come off. I can put a lower rated filter on the mask if I want. In fact, I can put a filter on the mask that won’t protect me from the paint stripper VOCs. So if you borrow a mask, check the filters! Make sure they’re rated for the environment you’re going to be in.

In the picture at right you can see the label on the bottom of the filter. The bottom half is green and shows the filter part and lot number. The red top half says “GME-P100″, meaning the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has approved the filter at the P100 level.

In general filters come with one of three different ratings:

P100: Particulate filter; 99.97% efficiency level effective against all particulate aerosols.
N95: Particulate filter; 95% efficiency level effective against all particulate aersolols free of oil; time use restrictions may apply.
R95: Particulate filter; 95% efficiency level effective against all particulate aerosols; time use restrictions may apply.

To help you remember the filter codes, “N” means No protection against oils, “R” means Resistant to oils, and “P” means Proof against oils. The number is the percentage of protection afforded by the filter. So an N100 would provide 99.97% (or better) protection against all particulate aerosols that are free of oil. In general, the “N” and “R” filters are designed to last one work shift (8 hours continuous or intermittent exposure) and then should be changed. The “P” filters should be changed when it becomes difficult (more difficult, actually) to breath.

Below the P100 rating on the filter label is a list of what the filter is effective against. My filter says: “P100/OV/CL/HC/SD/AM/MA/CD/HS (escape)/FN/HF”. Again it reiterates that it’s a P100 rated filter. Referring to the table above, we can see that my filter is rated for OV=Organic Vapor; CL=Chlorine; HC=Hydrogen chloride; SD=Sulfur dioxide; AM=Ammonia; MA=Methylamine; CD=Chlorine dioxide (escape), meaning the filter is only good for escaping from an environment poisoned by chlorine dioxide and cannot be used for working in that environment; HS=Hydrogen sulfide (escape), again only for emergency escape of the environment.

As a final note: Respirators are not military gas masks. They are not design for environments so toxic they’re immediately dangerous to life and health! NIOSH publishes regulatory data on maximum workplace concentrations for all the chemicals listed above (and more, actually). Those are the maximum concentration levels in which these types of respirators are designed to protect you. Exceeding that concentration level is not only stupid, it could cause you permanent lung damage or be fatal!

In practical terms that means: Open the doors and windows in the area you’re working.

The tools and Chemicals

The tools you’ll need for your job depend on the complexity of the work piece and the wood it was made out of. I’m simply stripping stair treads made of redwood, so I really don’t need a great plethora of tools for fine work. For this job I’ve chosen two different sized putty knives, a 5-in-1 tool, and steel wool (not shown). I’ve also got my cat’s paw handy because there are nails sticking out of the treads that I’ll need to pull as I go along. Rags are also essential. Don’t bother with reusables. Once contaminated with chemicals they have to be thrown away, so stick with the disposable paper type.

If you’re working on something more complex than flat stair treads you’ll also find dental tools handy for gently scraping finish out of grooves and other hard to reach places. (Available at Harbor Freight for a few dollars, amongst other places.) Tooth brushes and/or acid brushes are also helpful for detailed work.

There are lots of chemicals on the market to choose from. For this job I chose Greens. The blue can on the left is a “semi-paste”. Jellied chemical that not only sticks to vertical surfaces (which I don’t have), it also evaporates more slowly and so keeps air away from where the chemical contacts the paint for a longer period of time. The can on the right is the liquid form, which penetrates the wood better, and is also handy for cleaning tools. It also evaporates quickly, and so is not as useful for “heavy” stripping.

The downside to Greens is what also makes it so useful: It’s powerful and it’s dangerous! Greens chemicals have no antidote and no thinner. Which is why I spent so much time on safety. If you get it in your eyes, you’re going to lose an eye. If your skin is sensitive and starts to burn, it’s just going to burn (and turn red and all that stuff) until the chemical evaporates — which takes about 15 minutes.

So if you decide to use Greens, please use appropriate safety gear and be careful.

Stripping

The first step in stripping is to clean your work piece of dirt and loose debris. The second is to apply the first coat of chemical. At right you can see me applying the first coat of Greens semi-paste with a chip brush.

Put the chemical on fast and even. Going over and over the area with the brush only breaks the chemical bond between the stripper and the finish, preventing it from working. Quickly coat a workable sized area (one tread, in this case) and the leave it alone. Let the stripper do it’s thing.

It could take quite some time — as long as 30 to 45 minutes for some products — for your stripper to loosen the paint. You’ll know it’s done its thing when the finish is all crinkled up. On this job Greens cut through most of four coats of old paint in about five minutes. Whatever you do, don’t let the chemicals dry on the finish. This, in fact, is the best sign of a poorly designed product. It evaporates before it loosens the paint. That said, if you’ve got a known good product (like Greens) and it’s not doing a good job, recoating is appropriate. Use the same technique as the first time. Put it on evenly and quickly and let it sit.

Once the stripper has loosened the paint, scrape the bulk of it off with an appropriate tool. Since I’ve got a nice big, flat surface, I’m using a four inch putty knife to do the rough work. Clean the scraped up finish off your knife with your 5-in-1 tool. I usually line a paint roller tray with rags and scrape the goo off into it.

Use smaller tools to clean the spent chemicals and loosened finish out any crevices and detailed areas before proceeding. Don’t hurry and apply another coat of stripper before removing all of the first application. Not because you’ll hurt something, but because you’ll be wasting your time. The fresh chemicals won’t be able to reach the left over finish, and so will do virtually nothing.

Take your time. Clean up after your first application, then move on.

On this job I had to apply two coats of the semi-paste to get all the crusty old paint off. But because I did a good job of cleaning up the first application, the second coat cut through the remaining paint almost as fast as I put it on.

Now it’s time for the finishing touches.

I’m working redwood. Redwood is a very soft, porous wood — as are all the conifers (fir, pine, cedar, and so on). Believe it or not, it’s harder to strip a softwood than a hardwood. First, the stripping chemicals are so strong they soften the fibers of the wood. You can’t use detail tools like dental tools and hard bristled brushes on soft woods. You’ll simply cut into the wood without removing any finish. Second, the pigments from paints and stains penetrate the grain and wood fibers, “bleaching” them to the color of the pigment. Unless you sand away the bleached wood fibers, you’ll never get rid of them, no matter how many chemicals you use. (Actually, that’s not entirely true. For white woods you can literally “bleach” the wood back to something resembling its original color, but that’s a different article.)

After the second coat is scraped off I do even more detail work than I did after the first coat — including back scraping with my 5-in-1 to get all the gunk off the wood. Note the angle I’m holding the 5-in-1 at. The last thing I want to do is cut into the wood. Also, you can’t see it, but beveled edge of the tools is facing away from the pull — again to help prevent cutting into the soft wood.

Now I’m down to the wood itself. There’s almost no paint left sitting on the surface of the wood. So now we turn to the liquid. Pour it on, swish it around quickly with the chip brush and let it sit for a few minutes. Then it’s time to scrape it off. Notice in the picture how it’s really a mud. The Greens liquid is literally pulling the paint (the primer coat) from the wood fibers.

All that leaves is the stuff deeply ingrained in the grain and the fibers. More liquid Greens is applied and is worked in with the steel wool. I’m working softwood, so I have to be careful to go with the grain lest I scalp the wood. The picture at right shows what the tread looks like after I’ve thoroughly scrubbed it with the steel wool.

Once this last coat is worked in it’s wiped off with the rags almost immediately, pouring more Greens liquid over the surface to “lift” the gooey grime off the wood. Finally, I apply Greens directly to the rag and go over the wood to lift the film away. Then the work piece is left to dry.

The picture at left shows the finished stair tread (and my tools and rags). Note the “bleached” center of the tread where people have been stepping for a hundred years (that’s how old these stair treads are). Another characteristic of soft woods is that as they wear they “open their grain”, which just makes them wear faster.

On the other hand, the property owner wanted the antique look, and that’s certainly what this will be after a good quality oil finish is worked into this aged redwood. (If it was me I’d put tung oil on it, but I’m not the finisher on this job.)

Enjoy your stripping and refinishing projects! (And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write.)

Technorati Tags: paint stripping, finish removal, safety, respirators, chemical stripping

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And for good reason.

Design/build is a very different animal. Even if you’ve had a home built before, and so are familiar with the standard architect/design and construction contracts, design/build can seem as mystifying as it is attractive. The advantages:

• Design/build is usually a “turn-key” operation. Your building project is overseen by an architect or general building contractor who acts as your representative for the whole project: From earliest conception to handing you the keys.

  That can take lot of stress out of what is, for most people, a very stressful project.

• Because the project is under one firm’s management, the entire project is streamlined, which aids in budgeting control and time management.

  This reduces costs and decreases the amount of time it takes to deliver the project.

• You don’t don’t have to shoulder the burden for making decisions you might not feel comfortable with: Like selecting a good builder or plumber or making the testy bureaucracy come to the table so you can get on with things.

  Your design/builder is (or should be) a professional. S/he knows how the system works, and knows whose going to do a good job building your new home.

How A Design Build Contract Works

Unlike a standard construction or remodeling contract, where the contractor is handed a set of construction documents and asked to quote a price, the design/build project starts with no more than a budget and a conception. The conception is often no more than sketch drawn on a napkin over lunch. The purpose of the design/build process is to turn that napkin drawing into a finished project for the money in the budget.

To do that, the design build contract talks about phases of work, and uses control documents to allow you and your design/builder to manage each phase of the project with respect to the budget.

The first phase is the design phase: Here you and your design/builder turn your dreams into construction documents. In this phase your design/builder will be estimating prices for you from well known statistical data. Your design/builder will also be working with the various regulatory agencies to make sure that their requirements are met, and that there are no road blocks in the way that will prevent the project from ever seeing completion.

In my contract I call the first step in the design phase “project feasibility”: Can we build the house you want to build? Are there any impediments that will either be too costly or virtually impossible to remedy? Questions I like to answer for the customer before money starts being spent on designing a house that can never be built!

In design/build, project progress is usually controlled by a document called a “Notice To Proceed”. This is a document usually given to you by your design/builder, which you have to sign, that gives him or her your authority to proceed with the step. Along with the Notice To Proceed there is also usually some requirement that the design/builder provide you a budget estimate of what that phase of the design process is going to cost.

Personally, I break things up into three phases: Feasibility, design, and production of the final construction documents. That way, at any point along the way, you can stop if you need to. If fixing some site problem is going to bust the budget, we’ll end up stopping in the feasibility phase. If I can’t seem to get the floor plan to look like you want, we’ll never get past the design phase. You’re free to hire someone else to move the project forward. But if we make it through the first two hurdles, then we’re ready to nail down the final construction documents needed to begin construction.

Which brings us to the construction phase: In a linear sense, once the construction documents are completed, your design/builder will ship the plans off to the various suppliers and trade contractors who will be building (or bidding to build) your home.

In practice, the design/builder has usually already been talking to vendors and contractors about the project, so much of the preliminary budgeting and bidding work will have been completed by the time the building department signs off on the final documents.

In any event, when all the bids are in and the prices are known, your design/builder will present you the final price and time line for construction. This is usually done in the form of another (the last) Notice To Proceed with construction. This Notice To Proceed will look the most similar to a traditional construction contract, containing, among other things, the progress points at which you’ll be required to pay preset amounts on the project.

Until eventually you’re writing that final check and being handed the keys to your new home. Project, and contract, complete.

Things To Watch For

Unlike regular construction projects, your relationship to your design/builder is going to be a lot more intimate. There’s going to be quite a bit of back and forth as you make the hundred or so decisions that only you can make about your new home. At the same time, you need this person to be able to tell you when something just isn’t going to work for one reason or another. So your design/builder needs to be someone with whom you can develop a good working relationship.

It also needs to be someone who will treat you fairly. Be wary of contracts that lock you in early. I have heard that new AIA (American Institute of Architects) design/build contracts apparently make you pay a severance fee if you decide to let the architect go prior to completion of the project, for instance. This locks you into a relationship with a person you may hate to death, or forces you to pay a healthy fee to get rid of the git!

At the same time, realize you need to treat your design/builder fairly too. It’s unreasonable to expect your design/builder to put a month or more of time into initiating the construction process, lining up subcontractors, vendor pre-construction materials orders and delivery schedules, putting together a construction schedule so the subs know when they’re expected to appear and so on, only to then be told you’re letting them go. Many design/build contracts, including mine, do expect some compensation in that eventuality. But that’s very late in the process. And long before all that pre-construction time gets invested, you should know whether you want your design/builder actually building your house, or whether you want to put the project back on a more traditional design/bid/build track and look for someone else.

Make sure your contract keeps you in charge! I can’t emphasize this enough. Don’t be bamboozled by some fast talking contractor or architect. This is your home and your money. Certainly there are rights and commitments on both sides, but in the final analysis your design/builder is, or should be, working for you. The contract should reflect that.

In the same vein, don’t ever sign a contract that locks you into your design/builder’s schedule. The schedule should be something worked out between the two of you, and documented via the supplementary documents attached to the Notices To Proceed as circumstances and conditions dictate.

Finally, maintain your self awareness: Building a new home is more stressful that most people realize, even using the design/build method. If you need a break, don’t be afraid to tell your design/builder you want to put the project on hold for a few weeks while you take a vacation. (Don’t over look the fact that your design/builder might need a break too. S/he’s only human, and burn out is as common in construction as it is in other high-stress jobs. But they probably won’t ask. You’ll have to “recommend” it.) If you need to sign a change order to make that happen do it! Believe me, in the long run, losing a month to take a breather will seem a small price to pay for the increase in quality and satisfaction you’ll have with your new home.

Good luck with your design/build project!

Technorati Tags: construction contract, design/build contract

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