Peter A. Klein's Blog, page 8

Warning: Contracting Without a License

One of the reasons I wrote 15 Steps to a Successful Remodel, was to prevent people from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous contractors. Recently a friend was put in that position by Quick-Dry Flood Services. For a some very simple work after a plumbing leak, they tried to charge an exorbitant fee,

Out of Commission

No new blogs for a couple weeks as I have to have a couple medical procedures upcoming.

Stay well.

On the Road Again - The Worst Airports for Delays and Lost Luggage

There are many ways to rate an airport. We could rate them by friendliness, cleanliness, speed of service, and canceled flights, to name a few categories. Currently, I suspect fliers want to know if their flights are on time.

Delays

I recently read an online article about the worst airports in the world, for delays. The airport with the worst rating for delays is Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Pearson’s poor performance was verified a couple weeks earlier by an article in the New York Times.

On the Road Again – Entertaining Yourself While Flying

Being a passenger on a flight to anywhere provides you with free time on your hands. So, what do you do with that time? Hopefully, something quiet.

Since we each have our own internal clocks, metabolisms, and routines, the same activities will not work for every passenger. Let’s look at some things that might fill the time for you.

15 Steps – Working with Wayne: Construction in the 1970s

This week you will get a chance to see what home construction was like in the 1970s. Most if, not all, of these anecdotes took place in and around Palm Springs, California. In case you are unfamiliar with Palm Springs, it is about two hours east of Los Angeles, in the Coachella Valley. It is desert. Wayne and I met on some job and wound up working together for several years.

When Wayne was first starting in construction, he worked for a company that set the forms for pouring concrete. In most of Southern California, homes are built on a concrete slab, basically a three- and one-half-inch layer of concrete poured over the ground (after the lot has been levelled.) Until the concrete hardens, it is held in place and shape by the form boards. The form boards are pieces of lumber built into a shallow box to hold the wet concrete in the desired shape.

On the Road Again – Enjoy the People You Meet while Traveling

Traveling puts you in contact with people you would never meet at home. We have all met folks we have found to be “not our kind of people.” For example, on a recent flight I was seated next to a woman who not only laid claim to the armrest that was between us but tended to elbow me as she changed position.

On the other hand, travel has also put me in contact with some wonderful people. Some of these encounters were enjoyable for a brief period. Others have developed into long term friendships.

15 Steps – Construction Inspections and Inspectors

While there are some exemptions, most remodels require a building permit. Just about every building permit requires one or more inspections by a building inspector employed by the authority issuing the permit. (In some cases, the inspections are subcontracted to an independent company.)

The inspections, coupled with the permit, are in place to make sure that the remodel is safe. Building codes have been with us, in some form, since Babylonian times. In the United States, permits became more widespread after the citywide fires in Chicago and Boston in the 1870s.

15 Steps – Did Your Home Inspector Miss Something?

15 Steps – Did Your Home Inspector Miss Something

When buying a home, having a home inspector do an in-depth inspection of the home is a good idea. Many home inspectors have experience as general contractors which gives them a vast knowledge of how residences should be constructed and what to look for.

Home inspectors are not infallible. In his article, Six Details A Home Inspector Might Miss, in the Home & Garden section of the San Diego Union-Tribune on June 11, 2022, Hunter Boyce lists the following:

Dangerous DIY projects
Cracked pipes
Damaged appliances
Corroded air conditioning
Damp decks and porches
Leaky faucets

Let’s look at each of this items.

Some Do-It-Yourself (DIY) are beyond the limits of many homeowners’ knowledge and abilities. Are you comfortable buying a home in which the homeowner, not a contractor, installed a new main electrical panel or worked on the gas piping? Probably not. Not only are there questions about the workmanship, but have appropriate permits and inspections been obtained? Very dubious.

Cracked pipes are harder problem to find, since most piping in a home are not visible. The waste and sewage pipes are much easier to inspect than the pipes that route water to the various sinks and plumbing fixtures in your home. Plumbers may use cameras to look for cracks, tree roots, and damaged pipes in waste and sewage pipes since they have a larger diameter. Had this done where I live. Got lucky. There are no cracks or leaks and the technician find a clean out that had gotten buried.

The damage to appliances may not be easy to detect. The home inspector is not going to run the dishwasher, cook a meal, or do a load of laundry. The inspector may only to find damage or inoperative appliances when the appliances are in use.

Corroded air conditioning, Boyce points out, may not be detected if the inspection is done in cold weather. In many units, the system may be damaged if the temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Conversely, if the inspection is done on a blistering sweltering day, nobody will want to evaluate the heater(s). For these situations, ask the inspector before the inspection, how they plan to work around the issues.

Damp decks and porches pose their own problems. The problems vary depending on the materials used to build the decks and porches. A friend of mine, who is a contractor, got a job to relace the wood decks and stairs for a large condominium project. There was a great deal of dry rot. The structural integrity was in question in several of the decks. With metal decks, rust can be a problem.

Leaky faucets could be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The inspector should plan to check every faucet, sink, tub, shower, and appliance that is hooked up to water to make sure the water flows into the plumbing fixture, such as a toilet, but the water also drains as it should. A leaky faucet may indicate that the homeowner was lax about maintaining the home, which should point to a more in-depth inspection.

A cursory home inspection does you, the buyer, no good. You want a home inspector who has the knowledge and experience not to miss any of the above items. They should also be knowledgeable about the neighborhood. For instance, there is a neighborhood in San Diego County that is known for houses to have cracked slabs, which can damage walls, plumbing, and many other parts of the house’s structure.

For more information on remodeling and maintaining your home, please read 15 Steps to a Successful Remodel.

On the Road Again – Travel and the Unknown: Be Patient When You Travel

On our recent trip to the Great Lakes, we flew from San Diego to Toronto’s Pearson Airport. The plane arrived at the gate in Toronto about 19:45 (7:45 PM). As soon as the flight crew was ready to open the door, they announced that only passengers with connecting flights could get off the plane at that time. About half an hour later, the rest of us were allowed to leave the plane.

It was a long walk to immigration. Then we got in line for stage one of the immigration check. The first stop was for a computerized check to see if we were the same people who had boarded the plane. That line took about an hour.

On the Road Again – The Resurgence of the Ugly American

Reading William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick’s The Ugly American was a depressing experience. I mentally told myself that I did not want to be that sort of person. I feel I have comported myself well when I have traveled. I certainly hope so.

For those of you who have not read The Ugly American, Goodreads summary reads, “The Ugly American is a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer that depicts the failures of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia.” While it focuses on the diplomatic corps and Southeast Asia, the ugly American, in my mind, came to mean any American who behaves poorly when traveling out of the United States.