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Noodleface

Noodleface

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The front walkway got poured today. They leveled it and it was then that I realized my stairway probably isn't 100% level. I think once it's covered it'll be fine.

They still need to power wash and seal it, which will make it less dirty looking.
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C

Captain Suave

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Captain Suave said:
Last year we renovated one of our bathrooms and moved the washer/dryer into it. Now we're demoing the old laundry area off the kitchen where there were some known leaks (prior to my occupancy). Turns out the water caused the ends of the floor joists to rot off to the point of floating, along with compromising a 4x6 beam that spans a gap in the foundation. Looks like I get to have fun jacking up the house and replacing the beam, then beefing up the floors. Whee!

(None of this was visible from the crawlspace as the rot was all top-down and the visible surfaces appeared solid.

View attachment 543309
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Progress photo. Had fun jacking up the floors and wall. New beam, double width to better pick up the joists on both sides. All bug/water damage removed and portions of blocking/sill plates replaced. Compromised joists doubled from beam to piers with new material. Tomorrow we do similar treatment for the joists from the other side.

The floor in this room is noticeably sturdier just walking into it. Turns out it's important to have your joists actually sitting on something solid. Whoda thunk?

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mkopec

mkopec

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Kajiimagi said:
All I remember was a very intense system to replace power lines from creosote to treated, this was in hurricane country in the US south. I don't really recall why. I remember when we were young + stupid we rolled the bottom of one of those power poles to the middle of nowhere and set it on fire. Took forever to start then wouldn't go out. Now that you mention it, I believe the place I have now had RR ties but the sun had obliterated them. Don't recall what they were made of.
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Its because the old style treated wood was leeching arsenic into the soil around it. They were blocking off entire playgrounds at schools and parks around here and I looked it up. There was this one HUGE ass playstructure, prob cost like tens of thousands of dollars funded with private moneys in the 70s all made out of the old treated stuff it was amazing, all tore down. I mean, we all grew up with it and we seem fine, right? Anyway they spent millions around here to replace all those playgrounds made with the old type treated wood to new metal and plastic shit.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Those wooden playgrounds were castles for us kids… the junk now is pathetic.

My church and preschool had an awesome one. It had a huge wide slide we could fit like 4 kids side by side, so many epic times on that.
 
ToeMissile

ToeMissile

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Siliconemelons said:
Those wooden playgrounds were castles for us kids… the junk now is pathetic.

My church and preschool had an awesome one. It had a huge wide slide we could fit like 4 kids side by side, so many epic times on that.
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There are some pretty great ones around here, but they’re definitely on the newer side.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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mkopec said:
Kids dont play outside anymore anyway. They are too busy on their parents tablets and smartphones.
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We force our son out of the house daily. Thankfully we have 4 nice playgrounds < 5 minutes walking from house.
 
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ToeMissile

ToeMissile

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Vinen said:
We force our son out of the house daily. Thankfully we have 4 nice playgrounds < 5 minutes walking from house.
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We keep screen time pretty low. They'll get to watch some shows saturday mornings for a bit. Or if they're visiting grandma, she of course turns the tv on for them when they ask. Sometimes on the weekend we'll do a 'movie night' which is basically them getting to watch something while they eat dinner. I do notice a positive correlation to tantrums and screen time.
 
Foler

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I have a family member with a 3.2k sqr ft house here in Florida in which they had the roof redone maybe 6 years ago.

Ever since then the humidity has been screwed up in the attic and house.. Attic is not air conditioned. The former roof had several exhaust fans which this roofer didn’t put in. I confronted the roofer about the issue and he was a complete ass and told me to F off.

The family member got a second opinion from another roofer who installed a ridge vent. Well, if you walk in the attic and wipe your hand on the interior of the doors in it you can feel the water from all the condensation…

The doors in the air conditioned portion of their house have also swollen so much they are starting to jam…

Any suggestions on next steps? I’m thinking I need to get another opinion from a new roofer and look into having exhaust fans installed as a first step. I’ve order humidity sensors to deploy to measure/retain humidity data to evaluate efficacy of fixes.

Other than ridge vents and exhaust fans, is there anything else that can be done? A whole home dehumidifier is on my list as a last resort because it won’t solve the humidity issue in the attic (no ac there)
 
Palum

Palum

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Foler said:
I have a family member with a 3.2k sqr ft house here in Florida in which they had the roof redone maybe 6 years ago.

Ever since then the humidity has been screwed up in the attic and house.. Attic is not air conditioned. The former roof had several exhaust fans which this roofer didn’t put in. I confronted the roofer about the issue and he was a complete ass and told me to F off.

The family member got a second opinion from another roofer who installed a ridge vent. Well, if you walk in the attic and wipe your hand on the interior of the doors in it you can feel the water from all the condensation…

The doors in the air conditioned portion of their house have also swollen so much they are starting to jam…

Any suggestions on next steps? I’m thinking I need to get another opinion from a new roofer and look into having exhaust fans installed as a first step. I’ve order humidity sensors to deploy to measure/retain humidity data to evaluate efficacy of fixes.

Other than ridge vents and exhaust fans, is there anything else that can be done? A whole home dehumidifier is on my list as a last resort because it won’t solve the humidity issue in the attic (no ac there)
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You know they can put fans on the roof or in gables right?

Also soffits but not sure if the roofer changed those.
 
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Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Every ridge is mostly vented in Florida, full soffits that are vented… i have 1 attic fan- kick on once the attic is like 100 or something.

Is there no insulation? On the “floor” of the attic?

The roofing in Florida is very different than up north- watching videos on building small houses up north, the roof is so simple compared to the vents, soffits etc etc we have because its so darn hot.
 
Haus

Haus

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Foler said:
I have a family member with a 3.2k sqr ft house here in Florida in which they had the roof redone maybe 6 years ago.

Ever since then the humidity has been screwed up in the attic and house.. Attic is not air conditioned. The former roof had several exhaust fans which this roofer didn’t put in. I confronted the roofer about the issue and he was a complete ass and told me to F off.

The family member got a second opinion from another roofer who installed a ridge vent. Well, if you walk in the attic and wipe your hand on the interior of the doors in it you can feel the water from all the condensation…

The doors in the air conditioned portion of their house have also swollen so much they are starting to jam…

Any suggestions on next steps? I’m thinking I need to get another opinion from a new roofer and look into having exhaust fans installed as a first step. I’ve order humidity sensors to deploy to measure/retain humidity data to evaluate efficacy of fixes.

Other than ridge vents and exhaust fans, is there anything else that can be done? A whole home dehumidifier is on my list as a last resort because it won’t solve the humidity issue in the attic (no ac there)
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OK.... From my experience (and doing some AC work as an apprentice/helper when I was in my teens) You have a combo issue here.
  • A lot of humidity in the attic. (Can't solve this unless you move the house out of Florida)
  • Temp differences which cause condensation (cooler vents, or cold air getting into the attic causing large surface/air temp differences)
  • Not enough airflow through the attic to pick up and remove moisture
First point, well.. unless you're gonna move out of Florida crazy humidity is just part of the game....

Addressing the second means better insulating what is cold to lower the surface temp differences. This usually means better insulation around ductwork in the attic (thicker and better sealed), And better insulation between the ceiling and attic air space. Is the current insulation rolls, spray in shredded, or spray foam?

Sounds like you're already taking some steps to address the third. As mentioned, with a ridge vent you have to have good soffit vents along the outside and clear air paths from them. Check that, add soffits as needed. Next step from there is to add some kind of active air mover. You can get bonnets now that have solar panels on top and use those to actively pull air through, not incredibly hard to install can be a DIY project or should be simple for any competent roofing/AC person.
 
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Lanx

Lanx

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Foler said:
I have a family member with a 3.2k sqr ft house here in Florida in which they had the roof redone maybe 6 years ago.

Ever since then the humidity has been screwed up in the attic and house.. Attic is not air conditioned. The former roof had several exhaust fans which this roofer didn’t put in. I confronted the roofer about the issue and he was a complete ass and told me to F off.

The family member got a second opinion from another roofer who installed a ridge vent. Well, if you walk in the attic and wipe your hand on the interior of the doors in it you can feel the water from all the condensation…

The doors in the air conditioned portion of their house have also swollen so much they are starting to jam…

Any suggestions on next steps? I’m thinking I need to get another opinion from a new roofer and look into having exhaust fans installed as a first step. I’ve order humidity sensors to deploy to measure/retain humidity data to evaluate efficacy of fixes.

Other than ridge vents and exhaust fans, is there anything else that can be done? A whole home dehumidifier is on my list as a last resort because it won’t solve the humidity issue in the attic (no ac there)
Click to expand...
you don't need a whole house dehumidifier, just get a 4k stand alone unit w/ a hose and turn it on and let it drain for a few weeks
 
C

Captain Suave

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Foler said:
Ever since then the humidity has been screwed up in the attic and house.. Attic is not air conditioned... Well, if you walk in the attic and wipe your hand on the interior of the doors in it you can feel the water from all the condensation…

The doors in the air conditioned portion of their house have also swollen so much they are starting to jam
Click to expand...

Sounds like the bigger issue is an insulation/sealing problem. You shouldn't be getting enough leakage in or out of the conditioned portion of the house to cause that kind of condensation, or get enough moisture in the primary volume to warp the doors (assuming the AC is running). Secondary issue, as Haus points out, is venting to stabilize attic humidity.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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Yeah im not sure thats the case if the problems only started with the roof being redone. Seems like a big coincidence, right? The roof should have a ridge vent but also vents along the soffit, so a constant flow of fresh air is pulled in while the hot air is pushed out. I would also reccomend an actual fan up there on one of the roofs ridge sides with an auto tep turn on. I have one which is set to 135F.

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Aside that I dont know, maybe its an HVAC issue too. One of the primary uses of an AC unit is to pull all the humidity out of the house.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Noodleface said:
I got one!
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yea you got a ton of algae, i'm guessing cuz thats the dark shaded side, when i helped my neighbor clean his house for sale i just followed some directions
bleach
driveway cleaner

didn't work so, then i got this 30second cleaner, all that algae just fell off
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i have a foam cannon so i just mixed a bit of it in, it could reacht he 2nd floor fine, 3rd floor, would be an issue
 
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