The idiots that built our house decided that water management wasn't even a suggestion, it was to be completely ignored. As such, I have had to repair massive amounts of stuff due to rot and more rot from water.
We have a walkway that is 4 feet wide and goes from ground level at the front door that then turns into a raised walkway starting at the end of the driveway, goes across the front of the house and then down the side for 90-100 feet or so.
I'm buried so I hire a contractor to rebuild it. Watching him and his brother work is sad, entertaining, infuriating and frustrating all at the same time. On one section of the deck where the fireplace juts out onto the deck, we sistered the existing cantilevered joists and had to block around the fireplace to deck juncture for plywood backing. I explain to Brother that it has to have blocking, point, and I think he's got it. About 30 minutes later, I look and he has one block cut 24" long to go down the end, but the joist bay is too narrow to get the nail gun in and or swing a hammer.
He starts 4 nails and says he is going to bring back a palm nailer after lunch. They leave for lunch, I hop on the ladder with my screw gun, some construction Torx drive screws, pull his nails, run the block in where it goes and then have my help cut and toss me the next 4 that go across the long face of the fireplace. We get all of them measured, cut, and installed in less than 10 minutes.
Yesterday, they had 3 sheets of 3/4" ACX ply to cut and install. I explain again that I want it to overhang the rim joist continuous by 1 1/2" because I want the top edge of the belly band fascia to be nailed in place at the top edge through the ply. It took them 7 hours to cut and run the ply. It is literally a 2 hour job.
It is getting done they way I want it (mostly) but it is beyond painful to both watch and pay for.
Across the front, we had to form and pour some Sonotube column bases. Nothing extreme, just basic 12" round columns on a smallish footing 18 x 18 x 18 with about 1-3' of exposed column. The first one in line was 3'. Brother and boss ignored me when I said the form has to be braced off, mix, pour, float off the top, call it good. They grabbed the Fast Set mix. Brother mixes, poured and I caught him slapping the sides of the form and shaking it apparently to get the mix to settle. They left for the day and I tossed a level on it to check plumb and the form full of set up concrete wiggled. I pushed it over by hand. The lack of bracing, rebar, and his shaking snapped off the column where it met the footing.
We have a walkway that is 4 feet wide and goes from ground level at the front door that then turns into a raised walkway starting at the end of the driveway, goes across the front of the house and then down the side for 90-100 feet or so.
I'm buried so I hire a contractor to rebuild it. Watching him and his brother work is sad, entertaining, infuriating and frustrating all at the same time. On one section of the deck where the fireplace juts out onto the deck, we sistered the existing cantilevered joists and had to block around the fireplace to deck juncture for plywood backing. I explain to Brother that it has to have blocking, point, and I think he's got it. About 30 minutes later, I look and he has one block cut 24" long to go down the end, but the joist bay is too narrow to get the nail gun in and or swing a hammer.
He starts 4 nails and says he is going to bring back a palm nailer after lunch. They leave for lunch, I hop on the ladder with my screw gun, some construction Torx drive screws, pull his nails, run the block in where it goes and then have my help cut and toss me the next 4 that go across the long face of the fireplace. We get all of them measured, cut, and installed in less than 10 minutes.
Yesterday, they had 3 sheets of 3/4" ACX ply to cut and install. I explain again that I want it to overhang the rim joist continuous by 1 1/2" because I want the top edge of the belly band fascia to be nailed in place at the top edge through the ply. It took them 7 hours to cut and run the ply. It is literally a 2 hour job.
It is getting done they way I want it (mostly) but it is beyond painful to both watch and pay for.
Across the front, we had to form and pour some Sonotube column bases. Nothing extreme, just basic 12" round columns on a smallish footing 18 x 18 x 18 with about 1-3' of exposed column. The first one in line was 3'. Brother and boss ignored me when I said the form has to be braced off, mix, pour, float off the top, call it good. They grabbed the Fast Set mix. Brother mixes, poured and I caught him slapping the sides of the form and shaking it apparently to get the mix to settle. They left for the day and I tossed a level on it to check plumb and the form full of set up concrete wiggled. I pushed it over by hand. The lack of bracing, rebar, and his shaking snapped off the column where it met the footing.
