Category Archives: Water

Toxic attitude

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Buildinggeek

  The picture above tells a sad tale. A tale of bad project management, dispirited workers, and poor results for building occupants. I should note that I was the first person to access that space on the left in the … Continue reading →

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Rubble, Rubble, Toil and Trouble*

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Buildinggeek

Here in New England most of our older houses have rubble foundations. Rubble foundations are uncut stone, often called field stone. Even the best builders of rubble foundations had spaces between the stones that essentially connect the soil directly to … Continue reading →

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Oh, that’s gonna smell…

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Buildinggeek

  Sometimes you just get a lot of the same thing around the same time. The past couple of weeks it’s been the wrong way to insulate concrete walls. Out of the three instances recently, two were a bit, shall … Continue reading →

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Short thought on a long sentence

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Buildinggeek

  “Where a preservationist might insist that broad expanses of decayed original plaster be repaired or restored with new material mixed and applied according to traditional recipes and finishes, a renovator would more than likely remove the plaster entirely, replacing … Continue reading →

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Old houses are like old people. You can learn a lot from them.

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Buildinggeek

One of my indulgences is taking time to look at a detail in an old house and trying to get into the head of the craftsman who made it. I can’t say that every try is successful, but when I … Continue reading →

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How wet is too wet?

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Buildinggeek

Is your house wet? Is it just damp? Or, more to the point, is it wetter than it should be? If you have standing water anywhere in your house it’s too wet. That’s pretty easy. A leaking roof, water on … Continue reading →

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And One To Grow On

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Buildinggeek

I love water. I’ve got a nice glass of water on my desk right now. Without water you don’t have life in any sense that we earthlings would recognize. Unless you have a vacation home in another star system I … Continue reading →

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