Vulgar, indecent, illegal (though probably is), don't apply to a child, but filthy, disgusting, unsanitary are not out of range for this, um, unbridled "activity", imo. Speaking of perspective -- now that we know how acceptable this is, and to mothers of the many, many young children around -- can you imagine just how much of this stuff is around? The multiplier effect is not a pleasant thought. That's why there are laws for dogs. It is filthy, disgusting, unsanitary. And it smells. At least you asked, ms-thrifty. I agree, to at least hide behind a bush if you must, lol. P.S. I don't think it's an unreasonable leap to think that where the urge is to defecate, that is probably happening too. This post was edited by snookums2 on Mon, Aug 5, 13 at 13:33

First mastic and flex is not against code. Second its pretty bad when you ask specifically for a better install and get this install and a line of bs. First picture..well it is what it is. there is no use to install mastic tape over mastic. paint on mastic is fine..when it is applied to where the leakage areas are. I can't really figure out what they were doing. Mastic should be where the duct collar is installed on the plenum, and then where the inner liner of the duct is installd to the duct collar, and again when the outer liner is secured and mastic seale it to the plenum. They used a lot of mastic on the duct itself..why? was the duct in bad repair? if so, why not replace it? Picture two..ducts condensate in my hot humid climate where they touch each other. and also where they lie on or are buried in insultaion. (and R-6 duct is code here, R-8 in many other areas)..I haven't seen black duct in years. Ducts should be strapped with duct strapping with no more than a 1" sag per 4' section..this is the instruction in each bag/box of flex sold. Picture three..actually isn't so bad..at least they didn't tap a duct off the end of the hard duct. but again the mastic is all over the duct itself. Personally I would do it this way..cut lock tie on outer jacket, mastic seal inner liner to duct collar and then duct collar to hard pipe. install another lock tie to hold the insulation jacket tightly to hard pipe and mastic the jacket to the hard pipe insulation. also pull the whole shebang back towards the left and stratighen out that big curve in the only new duct they installed. you won't get good air flow with that as it is. see about that bend in the duct lying on the insulation at back left looks restrictive to me. I think its a less than average install. if this is their best..they need some education in their field. you realize that usually the guy installing and sealing the duct is the low paid one on the job, the new guy. while the unit is running to feel around the duct connections to the plenum and hard pipe plenum. if you can feel any air leakage..call them back. you can have your ducts tested for leakage with a duct blaster and test air flow with a flow hood. call around to see if anyone offers this in your area, get a price. tell original installer to pay for the test hand have someone on hand to seal all leakage found. most duct systems have 25 to 30% leakage, some much more. the answer is not to install a larger unit but to seal duct leakage to 5%. larger systems cost more upfront and more to run every month. why pay for air leaking into the attic?? best of luck

Thanks for the comments. You may be right that I am overreacting, things definitely started on a sour note, so maybe I am more sensitive than normal. Our project was not a cost plus 10% basis - it was fixed price for the job. I've never heard of cost plus 10% for anything other than designers, but perhaps it varies in other areas of the country? When the GC bid on the project he went to great lengths to tell me how much attention he pays to details and how other poeple are sloppy, but he takes great pride in making sure everything is done to the highest quality. Well that may be true, but I wouldn't know as we have been dealing with his sloppy subs throughout the project, not him. Then there was the fact that his partner offered us $4000 for our old kitchen and then decided he didn't want it after all as soon as it was demoed and all the pieces were sitting in our living room. As we are in a city row home we had no where to store anything and the impression we got was that he hoped we would just say take it for free to get rid of it. It defintiely put a bad taste in my mouth. He ended up taking it away and storing it in the house he had been going to put it into and we were able to sell it as a package on craigslist for the same price - could have got way more if it had been here and people could have come and viewed it. I will also say that having done many projects with different GCs I have never had one who was present less than this one, and given the number of problems we had with the project I do not think this is ok. It's one thing to trust your subs, and another thing to leave it to the home owner to have to spot and address every mistake made by the subs with no presence from the GC at all. It was very stressful for me as I am always the one who was home and always had to point out when things were wrong.... which I think is the GCs job and why we hired him. Also for the record I have requested a list of 'additional charges' several times, and haven't received anything - this may also have contributed to my frustration over hearing that the remaining couple of small things which we discussed from the beginning were now going to be an 'extra'. It makes me worried about what to expect when the bill finally comes. At this point I just want to pay for what we need to pay for and be done. It's a shame, we gave our last GC so many referrals, but I just don't know that I am comfortable referring this crew. I know some of his clients hire him on the basis that he does all the work personally. I guess we should have just done that. Live and learn.

Kroopy - I don’t think I’m the one taking that phrase “my kids are #1” literally, I think it’s the parents that use that phrase to justify dumping their SO whenever their child snaps their fingers. I don’t think any reasonable person is going to be upset if you have to cancel a date because a child is sick. However, using that line every single time your child has a temper tantrum and doesn’t like that you’re giving someone else and not them your undivided attention 24/7 is wrong. You’re going to raise a child that thinks the world revolves around their every whim and not only does that hurt your relationship with your SO, it’s also harmful for the child as well. What raises a red flag for me, is a person that is always proclaiming their kids are #1. I mean, if you have kids you don't have to remind anyone your kids are important, that goes without saying. I've never had to tell my BF that my kids are #1 or that they come first. In the two years that we've been dating I've only had to cancel a date one time because something came up with my kids, and I never had to justify myself to him. And there's been times when my BF and I had plans and my daughter wanted me to take her somewhere at the same time. I had to explain to her that I already had made plans with my BF and I would take her the next weekend where she wanted to go. It's really all about balance, which I'm sure anyone would agree is reasonable. To unilaterally say my kids come first, all the time, is just not reasonable or realistic and it seems the ones that are always saying that line are really just using that line to make their partner feel guilty for daring to ask that they give a little attention to the adult relationship. It’s just something for the OP to look out for. Like you said, it may apply in this situation, it may not, but the OP should keep in mind what is reasonable and not feel guilty for asking that her BF put her first some of the time as well. This post was edited by Amber3902 on Wed, Aug 21, 13 at 11:17