Be Back Soon

Have not posted in a while. It might be a few days. Working on some sever maintenance and doing a little web development for a friend :)  Ha za!

Lead paint in the US vs. the rest of the world

I just thought Id post a little information on lead paint since I am forced to comply with the new lead laws and certifications required to perform work on homes built prior to 1978. Though paint companies knew about the dangers of lead in paint (which causes irreversible brain damage in children) as early as the 1930s, the United States did not ban lead paint until 1978.   Paint manufacturers, knowing of the danger,marketed their products as kid-friendly and safe in America, while providing Europe with lead-free paint and protecting farm animals from the effects of lead poisoning.  The paint companies, fully aware of the health effects, profited immensely from their deadly paint.  Moreover,  most of these companies are still in business today  and continue to profit from their past misdeeds.   At the same time, many children live in pre-1978 housing and are therefore tragically at risk for lead poisoning.  State and local governments have borne substantial costs enforcing safety measures that protect children from being poisoned. It just amazes me at what companies will be okay with just to get a little more profit. Selling it to our own people and having a  different product for the rest of the world.

SNOW

Well back outside today. I know this pic doesn't do this justice but the mailbox post is 4 1/2 feet high.  I'm going out to do estimates today because I had to cancel them, after spending 5 hrs digging out of snow yesterday. Really sick of snow I hate it. I'm seriously thinking of moving out of state to warmer climate.

Properly installing step flashing

Before installing your step flashing, you should first install the drip edge. The drip edge must be installed before you roof or apply the step flashing.

Step 1 - Corner Flashing

Step flashing is not a hard process for you to complete. In fact, it can save you money if you are having your roof re-shingled. If you choose to rip off the existing shingles, you may want to tackle this as well. The first part of installing the step flashing is the installation of the corner flashing. You will start by snipping one of your pieces of step flashing at a forty five degree angle. You will want to place the lower portion of the step flashing against the roof and the other edge goes around the corner edge. Nail the piece of flashing in place and lay some caulk around the edges.

Step 2 - Step Flashing

Now that the corner flashing is installed, the first row of shingles should then be ran. After your shingles are laid down, you can than begin to lay your step flashing. You should place the next step of flashing approximately 1/4 inch above the next row of shingles, which will prevent the flashing from being seen. After you have laid down your first row of step flashing, you will continue this same process until you reach the top of the roof. You will not need the caulk until you begin installing the step flashing at the top of the roof, known as the roof peak.

Step 3 - Roof Flashing

After you have completed the flashing up to the peak of the roof, it is then time to install the flashing on the roof peak itself. You must first design a piece of flashing that will fit on your peak. Once you have customized a piece of flashing for your peak, you can then nail it in place and put some caulk along the edge of the flashing as well as run it along the wall. You will then continue this same process as you go along the peak of the roof. Make sure that your caulk beads are straight and even so you don’t have excessive drippage. After you have completed running your roof flashing, you are now ready to allow the roofing company to come in and run the rest of the shingles although considering what you have done so far, shingles are very simple.

500 an hour

Just got paid $500 for one hours worth of work. Why cant all jobs be like this?
Also unrelated.I finally watched Zeitgeist for the first time. I was just wondering what everyone else thought of this. I thought it was a good film but should have been compacted down to about an hour and a half. 

 

 

Painting a wall mural

 The process of painting a wall mural used to be done directly on the wall. But for several reasons we have begun to paint them in house.  The first is that a customer looking over your shoulder and watching all day is annoying. The second by doing in house allows customer to remove it if selling or for other reasons. The new process involves measuring the area of mural. Cutting raw canvas to size. Wetting the canvas for shrinkage. After drying a coat of gesso is applied as a base. The next step is to paint the mural. Allow 1 - 2 weeks to dry. Roll it up and deliver to the house. We then rough it into the area and make all nec. cuts. We then use wallpaper adheasive rolled on the wall and back of the canvas. the canvas is slid into place and rolled to smooth and remove air pockets. We then trim off the access on all sides, replace trim, outlets and caulk where needed. The painting can then be removed carefully at a later date or left.

Should I wear pants today?

Well slow season is here. January thru march there is no work in michigan . So while I wait around for work to show up I'm going to see how long I can go without leaving the house or putting pants on. Today will be day one. I hope i wont need to go to the store (I'll have to send my wife)

State of Michigans empty gesture to small business owners?

The state of Michigan just received millions of dollars in federal aid to help small business in Michigan. What it about?  The aid is for small business loans. What is the scam? In order to qualify for this "small business loan" you have to be able to have capital in the amount of 10x the amount of the loan requested. So if I wanted a small business loan funded by the govt. for 10,000 I would have to have 100,000 to back it up. Why would I be trying to get a loan if I had an extra 100,000 laying around. Its just one more tactic of manipulation. All a voter will see is the headline of  "michigan funds new small business loans to stimulate the economy" and will feel all warm inside that our state is back on the right track. But will never read the fine print and understand that small business owners will never get this money because large corporations are the only ones to have the capital to get these loans. So in short business as usual. Destroy the middle class.

Home office pc (tax write off for me!)

I know alot of people do not like lights but if its the same cost as a shitty black part well then I'll take the lights. Also have a shitty hp laptop, alienware m17 laptop and another pc. This pc case is hand made based off of mountain mod case that I did not want to spend $400 on.  I just used aluminum angle iron, plexi and rivits from lowes cost about $ 80 to build the case. Here are the specs:

  I7 950 running @ 4.85 ghz
 gigabyte ex58 extreme board
 12 GB ocz gold ddr3
 2 sapphire hd 4870 toxic incrossfire oc-885 and 1387
 2 raptor 150's in raid
 2- 2 tb hd's
 xspc reservior and pump
 1200 wt power supply
 enzotech sapphire rev2 waterblock
 black ice gt stealth 360 radiator
 hybrid northbridge waterblock
 windows 7 x64 / ubuntu dual boot
 **** removed water loop from gpu's and returned to stock to get better cpu cooling, really was not improvement over stock heatsinks anyway.)****

ICE DAMS

 A reminder to make sure you remove ice damns after a heavy snow.An ice dam, on a smaller scale, is a problem of house and building maintenance in cold climates. An ice dam can occur when snow accumulates on the slanted roof of a house with inadequate insulation and warm air leaks into the attic at penetrations for plumbing stacks, wiring, chimneys, attic hatches, recessed lights, etc. These warm air leaks are known as attic bypasses. Heat conducted through the insufficient insulation and warm air from the attic bypasses warms the roof and melts the snow. Meltwater flows down the roof, under the blanket of snow, onto the eave and into the gutter, where colder conditions on the overhang cause it to freeze. Eventually, ice accumulates along the eave and in the gutter. Snow that melts later cannot drain properly through the ice on the eave and in the gutter. This can result in:

• Leaking roof (height of leak depends on extent of ice dam).
• Wet, ineffective insulation.
• Stained or cracked plaster or drywall.
• Rotting timber.
• Stained, blistered or peeling paint.

Under extreme conditions, with heavy snow and severe cold, almost any house can have an ice dam, whereas a house that is poorly insulated with attic bypasses will have ice dams during a normal winter weather. Giant icicles hanging from the eave are one indication of a poorly insulated attic with many attic bypasses.

Although high snow levels along with extreme cold weather is generally considered the highest potential risk conditions for ice dams to accumulate, standing snow is not even a required prerequisite for ice dams to form. It takes very little actual moisture to form ice dams.

2nd floor laundry install

Just finished a 2nd story laundry. the customer wanted stackable washer dryer in a laundy room on the second floor. We first disconnected old washer dryer in the base ment and capped off all pipes. Now the fun part access to plumbing  was not accessible from shower access panel on 2nd story bathroom where the new washer dryer setup would go. The ceiling of a 1st floor half bath needed to be removed for drain access. We ran 220 line for dryer from basement to 2nd story and installed outlet. Had to run 2 inch pvc washer drain pipe to main stack from new water outlet box on 2nd floor. Tapped into water lines in the ceiling we removed and connected the new drain. We tapped power for washer off a converted switch box. Instead of reinstalling the drywall ceiling that we had removed for pipe access, we installed a cedar with some crown molding and added a bath fan (which is in the pic because I thought it looked different). Now the new front loader washer and dryer are in an unused closet in the 2nd floor bath, which is on the same floor as the bedrooms (saves walk up and down 2 flights of stairs).  I originally quoted 2 days but as always took a week.

Michigans continued competency scam and renewing my builders license

Michigan has enforced continued competency classes and hours to renew your builders license. What a joke. It is to make sure your up to date on your knowledge. To get licensed you have to pass an exam pay 200 and your good for 4 years, then you pay 20 bucks and renew. Now it has been cut down to 3 years and $211 to renew plus you have to accrue hours by taking refresher classes which of coarse are hosted by the state of Michigan at $159 a class. So I'm up to $370 now to renew. Wait whats this I need the new state building code book which I can only get online at, you guessed it, state of michigan website. Well that wont cost much. What? $89 plus shipping. I'm up to $460 now. Wait why do I even need to have the code book? I don't. Michigan cities and townships have individual codes that you can get a list of at their building code dept. So the code book I HAVE to buy is useless. So Ive gone from a difference of $20 to $460. I had 10 employees,3 trucks and a trailer 5 yrs ago down to 2 employees(me included) 1 truck and a trailer. My income has fallen 67% in last 2 years because no one is working in Michigan and there are no jobs.  I have to bid jobs at 50% cost to stay competitive. So the state of Mi. has no money, so to get it they squeeze every last cent out of everyone to get it.

So i attend the 3 hour class today to show I still understand how to build a house which Ive been doing every day for the past 20 years and have not forgot since yesterday. I go into this with a positive attitude. Maybe I'll learn something new. I get coffee and donuts sit there falling asleep for 3 hours and I have to take a test on what was discussed. All the test material is written on the board in the front of the room which I am told I can use if needed. So I copy everything directly off board onto test and get a certificate of completion. What a joke. It is just for the money. There is no continued competency. They should just raise the price of renewal to $460 and not waste my time and try to disguise it. But I guess that extra money they get will cover the cost creating more un-needed govt jobs.

Superb Owl

Well another shitty superb Owl. Spend 2 hrs of pregame watching propaganda on how great it is to be american for the rest of the world to see. Then watch a boring as fuck game with a million commercial breaks that all sucked. Half time show was unbearable (switched over to the puppy bowl). then had to watch another boring half of football. I think this will be my last super owl. Last good football games are on championship weekend. Well I may watch one again when the lions play in one but Ill probably be dead before that happens. Being in Detroit sucks.

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Busy

just busy redoing some websites get back with everyone soon!