Raleigh, North Carolina.  More People Are Getting All Steamed Up!  What are they so hot about?  A steam shower - of course.  It’s a great way to chase the aches and pains away.  It takes about twenty minutes to get a “steaming” that will turn you into a lump of silly putty.  Wait a minute!  Think of all the water you are wasting!!  Not at all. Twenty minutes of steam only uses about 2 gallons of water vs. 50 gallons for a shower of the same length.  Furthermore, with a steam shower you don’t have to wait for a sauna to heat up and after you have done your imitation of a lobster in a pot you can simply turn on the shower for a quick cool down.

You can transform your shower into a steam shower or install a steam unit made specifically for that purpose.  A steam shower stall/unit is typically 4×5x8, is covered by ceramic tyle and has a 7 kilowatt, or larger, 220-volt generator.  A touch of the unit’s digital control starts the steam process.  The generator is filled with a gallon of water and an electric element heats the water.  Steam from the generator goes through a pipe to the steam head and the steam head fills the stall/unit with steam.  The steam is never above 118 degrees Fahrenheit.  As I said, you can use your existing shower stall as a steam unit but it will take considerable re-doing.  THe moisture a steam generator produces will work over your shower stall and, for that matter, you entire bathroom big time if the work is not properly done. 

What things have to be done to set up a proper steam unit? The wood framing has to be protected.  You staple sheets of 6-mil plastic over the studs and joints.  All edges should be overlaped at least twelve inches.  Next, you seal the seams between the concrete backer-board panels with mesh tape and thinset.  The entire backer board must be covered with a waterproof membrane.  There are two suggested ways of doing it.  One is to embed flocked polyethylene sheets in wet thinset.  The Kerdi membrane by Schulter Systems should do nicely.  A second way is to roll on two coats of a liquid polymer.  A good product for this purpose is Laticrete’s HydroBan.  You then do the usual tile and grout job.  Note: If you are using any stone you will need to seal it with an impregnator and re-treat it every couple of years.  Finally, you seal around anything that goes through the tile (i.e. the shower head, steam head, valves and steam controls) with O-rings or gaskets.  These are usually supplies by the manufacturer.  Oh yes, if you don’t provide the ceiling with a little slope the condensed steam will drip on you.  While we are at it, with regard to your regular showers let the fan run for a few minutes after you are done.  It will help keep moisture from accumulating and is another way of being kind to your house and your pocket book.

“Great!  I’m sold.  What does it cost?”.  A system, new stall and door plus installation should run in the neighborhood of $2,500 to $5,000.  Like an automobile that may only be the base price.  Here, also, there are “goodies” you can add.  Music, special lighting, a pump for aromatherapy (no, I’m not kidding) can add another $2,000 to that figure.  Who manufactures these unit?  Try: Amerec - amerec.com - - Mr. Steam - mrsteam.com - - Steamist - steamist.com, Thermasol.com or Wasauna.com.  Wasauna lists some 32 units ranging from about $2,699 to $4,999 (not including special sale prices, etc.).  Some of the units are 2 perosn, some include a sauna as well, some are a shower and tub combo.  In this day and age you can pick your poison and someone will provide it. 

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: MarvMax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Mortar Holds The Bricks And Stone Together.  When you want to put some bricks and/or stone together all you do is mix some sand with lime or cement, throw in a little water, mix it all up, slap it between two surfaces and that’s all there is to it.  Right?  Well, not quite.  If you are building a home you had better have a brick or stone mason who knows his trade if you don’t want instant disaster.  However, that’s a top for another post.  What I want to concentrate on here is mortar.

Over the centuries masons have used materials and mortars that have provided a varying range of hardness.  Soft mortar requires re-pointing from time to time as does hard mortar depending on use and weather.  One of the problems you can have if you use a mortar that is too hard is that the stone or brick can be degraded.  But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Masonry mortar can be Portland cement or limestone based.  It can also be a combination of the two.  THe mixture masons used for centuries was basically a mix of one part lime and three parts sand.  Furthermore, down through the centuries mortars have been formulated from so-called natural cements.  Natural cements are deposits that contain clays and impurities that cause them to get hard under water.

The first commercially made hydraulic lime was by Joseph Smeatong in 1756.  During the lime-burning process he added clays and ash to create a natural cement.  What we know as Portland cement was patented in 1824 by Joseph Aspdin. Portland is a hard hydraulic cement that meets the needs of the building trades.  It sets up harder and more quickly than lime cement.  Lime mortar sets up slowly, can take months to cure fully and doesn’t have nearly as much compression  strength as Portland cement.

Masonry mortar must do several things:  (1) It has to work rather like the oil in your car’s engine.  Oil lubricates the metal and allows the moving parts to work together without creating so much friction that your motor burns up.  Mortar, in effect, acts as a lubricant between the brick or stone it is bonding together.  As it cures it spreads the the weight of the stone or brick over the total area of the stone or brick below.  (2) The next thing it has to do keep moisture and wind away from the what is behind it.  (3)  Assuming what is behind it is the inside of a home, it has to allow water vapor from interior space to pass through to the outside.  (4) Finally, it has to be softer than the stone or brick it holds together and needs to flex as the brick or stone it holds together expands and contracts.

The age of a building determines the mortar a mason uses.  For example, brick used in buildings prior to 1890 tends to be soft.  Brick produced after 1890 was harder.  Use of of Portland cement commenced in the 1870’s and replaced lime mortars.  From around 1880 unit the second world war mortars contained both lime and Portland cement.  After WW II most masonry cements were Portland cement and sand with no lime.   With stone it’s harder to figure out whether to use a hard or soft mortar.  For the most part hard mortars are used with hard stones.  A mason trying to match mortar used in an existing home must try to determine when the home was built and, if possible, test a sample of the existing mortar for hardness.  He is left with only a guess he will usually tend toward a softer mix.

NOTE:  A time when you are very likely to get involved with mortar is when you are asked to select the color of mortar you want to use with the brick and/or stone you have or are selecting for a home you are having built.  If you have had more than one home built you know how important this is and how much thought goes into it.  If it is your first time, the time and thought it takes will surprise you.  Your builder will recommend to you a company he usually uses to supply his brick and a company he usually uses to supply his stone.  The company that supplies the stone will usually have cribs of stone for you to look at, stacks of various kinds of stone to look at, wall samples for interior uses (such as fireplaces) and a zillion folders of stone (especially manufactured stone) for you to select from.  His brick supplier will not only have many photos of homes that have used various kinds of stone but sample boards you can view and compare.  Color samples of the mortars used will also be there for you to select from.  They  should also be able to not only show you photos of homes in the area that they have supplied the brick and mortar for but their addresses so that when you have picked out several brick and mortar combinations you can drive by and see how they actually look.  

John Fish (919) 696-3474  Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  It’s A Cover-up And Everyone Knows It!  Wherever you go the plastic housewrap used to cover homes is flapping in the breeze.  If you take note of it at all, most of it seems to say Tyvek.  I venture to say most folks don’t know what it is or, for the most part, what it does.  The outside, or shell, of a home protects those within its walls.  But whatever that shell is (brick, wood, stucco, etc.), it has to function in harmoney with other components of the home to protect the home against moisture penetration.  Whatever siding is used, it is porous.  There are many laps, joints, and connections in it and back of it that water and air can get through.  Water that seeps through can cause wood to rot, mold to grow and lowers insulating values.  Less energy efficiency means higher fuel and air conditioning costs.  That’s where housewrap comes in.

Housewrap comes in various types and it serve three purposes: (1) - It creates a second weather barrier behind the siding.  It keeps rain and other moisture from getting to and penetrating the sheathing  (2) - It is a vapor-permeabler membrane that provides the reverse function of allowing moisture that is in insulation and framing lumber to get out  (3) - It is an air barrier that helps prevent air infiltration.  The bottom line is that it is used to protect the wood framing and reduce energy costs. 

On a windy, rainy day water adheres to windward areas.  Porous materials, such as masonry veneers and stained wood clapboards, absorb water.  Materials such as vinyl and aluminum and newly painted wood do not.  None-the-less, the water film adheres to all kinds of siding.  Water moves up, down and sideways according to the speed and direction of the wind.  It moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas.  The area behind a wind-blown wall surface has a lower pressure than the exterior area.  The pressure difference sucks water inward through any crack or hole it can find.  If there is no building wrap the wood sheathing will wick the water up an - voila - wood rot.  However, just using housewrap is no guarantee of total protection.  It must be integrated with the flashing, properly layered, overlaped and taped to get a complete and effective system accomplished.  Caulking around windows and joints is supposed to solve the moisture penetration problem but it doesn’t.  For example, the shrinking and swelling of wood corner board will eventually fail at bonded connections.  Vinyl moves, caulk (in time) fails, and so caulking is not the answer.  An expert in this area of keeping water and air out, Paul Fisette, says that of the three types of weather-barrier systems (Sealed-face method, rain-screen approach and redundant-barrier system) the redundant-barrier approach is the best and most cost effective.  Quoting directly from an article he did in 2001 he said, “The redundant-barrier works well for the vast majority of homes built today.  And this system has the advantage of being familiar to builders.  Basically, putting tar paper or approved housewrap on the exterior walls before siding is installed is the first tep to build an effective redundant-barrier system.  Proper installation is required to make this system work.  You must design a drainage plane that keeps water out!  When water penetrates the siding, it must have a clear path to follow downward.  Water must remain outside of the protective wrap.  Be sure that tops of windows, doors and penetrations are flashed properly.  All water must be directed outward.  Also, we must choose materials that are capable of providing the protection we expect and need.  The barrier should be resistant to liquid water and air infiltrationl while being permeable to water vapor.” 

Determining the product to use and installing it properly is the job of the builder and isn’t necessarily an easy one.  There are many housewraps available and they don’t all provide the same function.   While the American Society for Testing and Materials is in the process of trying to standardize tests for these materials they have not yet finalized them.  However, Permeance ratings determine a material’s ability to transfer water vapor.  The higher the permeance number is the more permeable the material is.  Building codes specify a weather-resistive barrier to equal or exceed grade-D building paper.  That paper has a permeance rating of approximately 5.0.

According to independent tests conducted by Mr. Fisette the housewraps that best resisted water infiltration and permitted water vapor to evaporate were Tyvek Home Wrap, R-Wrap by Covalence Coated Products, Typar and the traditional old standby #15 felt paper.  While the #15 felt paper scores well and costs less, most builder prefer the plastic housewraps because they are available in a number of sizes which makes installation faster.  Other factors come into play as well.  For example, the type of siding used.  With vinyl siding a smooth-faced housewrap is recommended.  With tightly fastened board siding a furrowed rain-screen housewrap is recommended.  With stucco a housewrap specifically designed for it is recommended. 

Industry experts say that housewrap that is poorly installed causes more problems than it solves.  They also say that properly selected and installed insulation is even more important than housewrap and seeing to that comes before the selection and installation of the housewrap.  Another very important factor is properly used housewrap seam tape.  It helps stop air infiltration and preserves the integrity of the housewrap during construction.    

Mr. Fisette says that he has Felt paper on his own home and if he could choose between felt and housewrap he would still go with felt because he the feels that, under certain circumstances, it outperforms housewrap.  Mr. Fisette’s recommendations are: * Always use housewrap  * Determine if climate requires a vented rain screen or redundant barrier system  * For redundant barriers I would choose Tyvek, R-Wrap or 15-pound felt  * Tape all seams in barrier  * Protect all flashings with overlapping wrap  * Avoid use of caulking, concentrate on developing an effective drainage plane.  * Protect all penetrations with appropriate detailing.  * Prime all surfaces of wood siding (back-priming before applying top coats.

You might well say, “Whether I buy or build I expect the builder to know these things and I am stuck with what he does.  Since I am not an expert in these areas and don’t have the knowledge or time to determine whether he is doing the right things or not this is information is of little value to me.”  For most of you this may well be true.  However, the more information you have about matters such as this the more useful your conversations with the builder and/or his subs can be.  Yes, in this day and age we become more and more specialized and seem to have less and less knowledge about the things of everyday life we should have some knowledge of.  Thus, for those of you interested in widening your horizons, this is for you.

That’s “a wrap” for 2007.  I would like to wish each and every one of you all good things for 2008.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com  Website: www.JohnFish.com

Durham, North Carolina.  Durham’s Cree, Inc. Leads The Way With LED Lighting.  In my posts concerning ways to save energy I have had relatively little to say about LEDs (light emitting diodes).  At the present time they offer long term savings and other benefits for lighting parking lots, large parking garages and commercial buildings.  By the same token bulbs and fixtures for the general public are not all that common and are far more expensive than most are willing to pay.  The incandescent bulbs you are used to are just now starting to make way for the longer lasting fluorescent bulbs.

LEDs, however, have a lot to recommend them.  They use about a tenth of the energy of comparable incandescent bulbs and a third of the energy of similar fluorescent bulbs.  They produce very little heat so there is no need for expensive air conditioning units to cool down rooms.  Furthermore, they don’t contain hazardous substances and thus are friendly to the environment.  Also, household LED bulbs screw into standard ligh bulb sockets.  Lighting consumes 22% of the electricity produced in the U.S.  Within 20 years, widespread use of LEDs could cut that rate in half which is equal to 500 million barrels of oil.  California and Canada say they are going to ban the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012. 

The director of marketing at Cree says that during the last two years diodes have doubled in energy efficiency and brightness and that the company now produces bulbs that have a warm light similar to incandescent bulbs.  The price of LED bulbs has been prohibitive for any widespread use by consumers.  However, they have steadily declined in price and industry officials claim that within a year LED bulbs will be make sense, price-wise, for individual consumer use.

I have had a very small LED flashlight (the small seed shaped item at the bottom of the photo below) on my key chain for two years.  It has proven invaluable for showing dark areas of homes such as attics and crawl spaces and is a life saver when trying to find keyholes during after dark showing.  When I purchased it, it cost $20.  The covenience alone has been worth far more than the cost to me.  I got it at Brookstone.  Whether they still carry them or not I don’t know.  To view it full size click on the photo.  To come back to this page click on - Back.

HASENTREE - Continued from yesterday’s post.  The mainfloor master bedroom has a coffered ceiling, fireplace and a private but expansive view of the pool area and golf course.  The master bath is so opulent it almost beggars description.  A stone fireplace with sit-down ledge, open shower stall, two private vanities, vaulted ceiling with wrought-iron chandelier are just a few of its features.  European castles may have been considerably larger that this home but they didn’t begin to have its comforts and conveniences.  To view the photos below full size click on each one.  When ready to view the next one click on - Back.

John Fish (919) 696-3474  Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com  Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  LEDs By Cree Inc. Saves City $2,800.  It is encouraging to see that there are programs that save money rather than lose it in cost overrides.  The program in question in Downtown Raleigh utilizes 141 LEDs in a downtown garage that saves the city through lower electricity costs.  By the seventh year the $42,300 cost will start to provide savings.  At the south end of Fayetteville Street another garage will also use LEDs.

To view this photo  please click on it.  To return to this page click - Back.

John Fish (919) 696-3474  Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com  Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Fake Stone Or Real?  Most people can’t tell the difference. 

NEW CASTING METHODS.  New methods of casting have given manufactured stone a natural look that’s hard to tell from the real thing.  A mixture of concrete, small stones and color pigments are poured into detailed rubber molds.  While the resulting texture and colors look like natural stone they are only surface deep.  Cuts need to be hidden along mortar lines to assure a realistic appearance.  Concrete stone colors are not just the grey, tan, brown and black of the past.  Now there are reds, greens, purples and blues that give a homes’ exterior more life and interest and provide much more latitude in the colors that can be used for wood trim and windows plus matching with the roofing material of choice.  If you add to this the difficulty many areas have in finding quality stone masons, the realtive ease of application of manufactured stone, the publics appetite for the for the product and the locations within a home it can be used in as well as outsife you come up with a very winning combination.

PRICE AND WEIGHT.  Manufactured stone and brick are about the same price.  It is about half the price of natural stone and about half the weight.  Because it is lighter in weight it is easier to move around where it is produced and in the locations where it is used.  The warranty for the product that is offered by most companies is 50 Years.  Since it is concrete it can take any type of weather you can throw at it.

USES for manufactured stone, other than for the exterior of a home, include kitchens, bathrooms, columns, hot tubs and indoor and outdoor fireplacesc.  As an exterior siding it is, in fact, the fastest growing of all exterior sidings.  The growth rate is quoted by industry sources as fifteen to seventeen percent in each of the last five years. 

APPLICATION.  Manufactured stone is installed in much the same way tile is.  It can be applied over block walls, concrete, plywood, rigid-foam instulation or OSB. If you want the stone exterior look without the natural stone exterior cost you should contact one of your local companies that sell the product and ask them for a list of homes they recently supplied manufactured stone for.  Drive around and see them for yourself.  I think you will find that they look like the real thing and not like some kind of cheap imitation.

SOURCES.  Here are a few of the many companies that produce manufactured stone:  Arrowhead Stone Mfg. - www.arrowheadstone.com,  Artistic Stone - www.artisticstone.com,  Centurion Stone Products - www.centurionstone.com,  Coronado Stone - www.coronado.com,  Crown Hill Stone - www.crownhill.com,  Dufferin Stone - www.dufferinstone.com,  Eldorado Stone - www.eldoradostone.com,  Environmental StoneWorks - www.estoneworks.com,  GAF Materials Corp. - www.gaf.com,  Halquist Stone - www.halquiststone.com,  Hammer Stone - Www.hammerstone.net,  JR Stones - www.pierresjr.com,  Mountain Stone Products - www.mtstone.com,  Owens Corning - www.culturedstone.com  Petra Stone - www.petrastone.com,  River Valley Stone - www.rvsproducts.com,  Stone Warehouse - www.stonewarehouse.net,  Sunset Stone - www.sunsetstone.net,  TriLite Stone - www.trilitestone.com 

To view the photo below full size click on it.  To come back to this page click - Back.

John Fish (919) 696-3474    Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Green Is The Name Of The Game.  In the building and buying of homes there is more and more concern about building “green” homes and using ”green” products.  Making homes more eco-friendly in every way is a serious matter.  Even countertops can be an item to be considered when you “think green”.  Coverings Etc., a Miami based company, is producing “green countertops” that are composed 80% of recycled materials such as glass, granite and marble chips that come from the manufacturing of their other products.  They take these chips, add a cement binder and vacuum-compact the mixture into slabs that are smooth on the top and bottom.  The result is a non-toxic, non-pourous, mold-resistant coutertop of high quality.  They indicate that all that is needed to keep these coutertops clean is water and a mild detergent.  They come in 36 colors and in thicknesses of 3/4 to 1 1/4 inches.  Cost?  About $7 per square foot.  They also make a product called ECO-TERR which is tiles they make for flooring that are made the same way.  For more info. try www.coveringsetc.com or give them a call at 305-757-6000.

John Fish (919) 696-3474     Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com    Website: www.JohnFish.com