Cables, Coffee, Cycles, and Cocktails

[rockhound]

On 2/24/2019 at 12:18 PM, USNRET said:

A gift for installing an new drive in a friend’s laptop. Tried at his house and actually like it better than Weller 12. 
https://www.frdistilling.com/tx-blended-whiskey/

 

 

This is my fav for the price it is very ahrd to beat.

[CECAA850]

4 hours ago, Tarheel said:

Air quality , mold and moisture content of wood structure. Here in the humid south hot air seeks cold and travels through air leakage to the crawl space. A normal air leaking house will exchange all air in the house in an hour.  It pulls air from many sources including the crawl space.  A stack effect, mold and air are pulled up through the house all the way to the attic.

So the remedy is to eliminate the water source, stop air leakage by encapsulating the walls and floors with a heavy duty 10 mil material, and then condition the air.

Energy efficiency, while not a priority, is a side benefit.

I've always wondered if there was an advantage to building with a crawl space as opposed to a slab.  Slabs don't have those type issues.

[JohnJ]

40 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

I've always wondered if there was an advantage to building with a crawl space as opposed to a slab.  Slabs don't have those type issues.

But if you happen to need a plumber to get deep into things excavation isn't required when you've got a 16" crawlspace!!

[CECAA850]

43 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

But if you happen to need a plumber to get deep into things excavation isn't required when you've got a 16" crawlspace!!

Pretty much everything built here is on slabs.  It's really not an issue.  Of course there can be exceptions to the rule but for the most part it's not a reason to put a house up on stilts.

[Ceptorman]

Certain parts of the country, a slab works better, especially for HVAC. But most of the country will benefit with a crawl space. A slab home is cheaper to build.

 

Radon is no joke, it's the number 2 cause of lung cancer, and easily preventable when a new home is built.

 

A little moisture in the soil will help stabilize a house. Some houses in the south where there is very little moisture actually suffer from faulty foundations....the soil has no strength.

[CECAA850]

59 minutes ago, Ceptorman said:

But most of the country will benefit with a crawl space.

What are the benefits?  I've never lived in a house with a crawl space.  When I was growing up our house had a cellar.  Since I've been in the south, all our houses have been on slabs.

[babadono]

My house is on a slab out here in CA. Even my daylight basement is on a slab. But I made sure when I built they didn't put any pipes in the slab. Can you imagine the builders to save money put pipes in the slab and then let the homeowners remove their flooring and jack hammer the slab to fix a leak? Or they seal off the pipes that leak and THEN put the pipes overhead. I put them overhead from the get go. When they leak(knock on wood) I'll just have drywall to fix.

[CECAA850]

12 minutes ago, babadono said:

Can you imagine the builders to save money put pipes in the slab and then let the homeowners remove their flooring and jack hammer the slab to fix a leak?

The incident of failure is very low as long as it's installed correctly.  As long as the soft copper is properly insulated from the concrete it'll probably outlast you.  Of course now they use Pex but I'd isolate it from the concrete as well.  Underground (under slab) water pipe can not have any joints or connections in the runs.  The chance of a leak above the slab is greater than under the slab.  Your waste pipe is under the slab. Does that keep you up at night?

[babadono]

Builders out here tell me that with our water that the little particles (microscopic) ping off the inside walls of the copper pipe and eventually rub holes in the copper. I insisted and paid extra that the plumber use the thicker pipe(type L or M I forget which is the thicker wall). Also out here the ground shakes quite often and this has a tendency to break pipes

If a little of my waste water leaks into the ground it don't bother me much, with septic and a leach field it's all going there anyway.

[CECAA850]

3 minutes ago, babadono said:

Builders out here tell me that with our water that the little particles (microscopic) ping off the inside walls of the copper pipe and eventually rub holes in the copper. I insisted and paid extra that the plumber use the thicker pipe(type L or M I forget which is the thicker wall). Also out here the ground shakes quite often and this has a tendency to break pipes

If a little of my waste water leaks into the ground it don't bother me much, with septic and a leach field it's all going there anyway.

K is the thick stuff.  Pex would probably work fine out there even with the funk that you guys call water.

[babadono]

Hey! that's hot and cold running funk

[CECAA850]

11 minutes ago, babadono said:

Hey! that's hot and cold running funk

Until it stops up your check valve

[babadono]

Check

[richieb]

58 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Your waste pipe is under the slab. Does that keep you up at night?

 

=== Yes, there have been a time or two when my waste pipe has kept me up at night — Thanks for asking — 

[babadono]

Thought you were in Norway.

[Ceptorman]

2 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

What are the benefits?  I've never lived in a house with a crawl space.  When I was growing up our house had a cellar.  Since I've been in the south, all our houses have been on slabs.

A crawl space home is easier to build if the land has any slope to it. A crawl can raise the house, so water or moisture won't enter the house. Easier access to water, drain, HVAC, and electric lines. Adding any service lines (cable, speakers) will be easier. Wood floors are easier to walk on the concrete! 

 

Around here, more buildings are going to slab floors, especially commercial.

 

Slabs have benefits also.

[JohnJ]

This entire section of town built 5 miles outside the city limits in 1960 has crawl spaces and cellars depending on ? Some split levels with 4k sq ft have the crawl space, our neighbor with 1100 sq ft has a nice basement, it is on a hill. Our yard is level pretty much with a crawl space I could get under when I was skinny. Good homes, just not a lot of perfectly squared whatever to be found.

Red clay is what is everywhere and there's no escaping it!!

 

I did not see slabs here until the early 80s when I was framing and builders put up homes for the USAir people that came in droves in Pineville. Used that awful T-111 siding too, brick homes were going up in the custom builds then.

 

Cut 9000 sq ft of weeds this afternoon, scalped the yard at 2.5" Will spray weed-b-gone in a minute, put out more seed in six weeks when the soil is warm enough, missed the fall window.

This never ends since I first replanted after the Hugo debris sat there for 11 months and killed the St Augustine that was so nice.

[Tarheel]

Know what you mean John.  102" of rain drowned my St. Augustine.  Just resodded the front yard.....back looks okay.  Thanks for reminding me I need to throw out some preemergent weed killer.

[CECAA850]

1 hour ago, Ceptorman said:

A crawl space home is easier to build if the land has any slope to it. A crawl can raise the house, so water or moisture won't enter the house. Easier access to water, drain, HVAC, and electric lines. Adding any service lines (cable, speakers) will be easier. Wood floors are easier to walk on the concrete! 

 

Around here, more buildings are going to slab floors, especially commercial.

 

Slabs have benefits also.

So do they drive pylons or just set it on blocks?

 

EDIT, chainwall?

[Ceptorman]

1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

So do they drive pylons or just set it on blocks?

 

EDIT, chainwall?

A slab floor usually floats on top of compacted gravel. Where the interior walls are they will pour a concrete slab below the slab, or just pour the slab thicker in the areas that need to support more weight. The higher end builders will place a 2" thick piece of Styrofoam on top of the gravel, directly underneath the concrete. That keeps any frost or moisture from wicking through the slab, a vapor barrier would go on top of the foam. 

 

The better pole barn builders will add that Styrofoam to just the outside 16"-24" of the slab, to keep the frost away.