Poor Construction
shanna409
last year
Can any professinals tell me if you would consider this poor construction? This is at a luxury residential high rise. Theres more examples but you get the gist I hope.
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Ally De
last year
shanna409
last yearRelated Discussions
Noisy Neighbor or Poor Construction?
Comments (6)I actually heard the lightswitch turn on, then the toilet seat go up or down the last time I checked, it's not the easy to deliberately make an excessive amount of noise with a LIGHTSWITCH! So you're right, the building is not going to help mask any noise. But...you were asleep until the music went on, right? Music late at night is a no-no, and if they get evicted for that, you don't need to feel guilty. True, perhaps they might have gotten away w/ low-volume music in a different apartment building, but they just have to cope w/ the bad-construction problem as long as they live here; they cope by not playing music at all when it's late, perhaps. But you should NOT be complaining about other noises--walking (as long as there are carpets, and unless you feel it's extreme stomping), toilets flushing, and maybe even the squeaking. Some noise, you can't control, and if that level of noise leakage bothers you, YOU will need to move to a less noisy building. It sounds like, until the music woke you in the middle of the night, you might have otherwise slept through the lightswitch, toilet, etc. Maybe even the squeaking. So they DO have an opportunity to keep the noise low enough for you to put up with it--as long as they're not playing music in the bedroom at night. They may *think* they're playing it low enough, but if lightswitches are coming through, then they really can't have ANY music after 10pm. And I'm wondering--what wakes you? the music? Or walking? Or something else? And how long have you lived there, and have you always had a problem w/ noise? Bcs if a previous neighbor lived peacefully above you, then the building's not the problem (even if it's not helping much). If you were on nicer terms w/ your neighbors, you could perhaps make a pact w/ one another that you won't flush in the middle of the night, if that's one of the things that wakes you. Or you could perhaps say, "I noticed last night, when the music woke me up, that part of the problem is the BUILDING, and I could hear all these other noises. So that's an indicator that the music can't be at ANY level after bedtime, even if in another building you were able to play the music at a low level." Best of luck. Maybe now that you've realized how easily noise carries, you'll find it easier to be sympathetic toward the folks upstairs, realizing that it's not their general crumminess so much as it is the situation you both are living in, w/ an unforgiving building. And understanding that they perhaps are feeling frustrated because here they are, threatened w/ being evicted, and all they're doing is normal life. Perhaps you'll feel less under seige from them; it's not good for you, to be angry at the people over your head all the time. And maybe you can be more sympathetic to music at other times of the day, like 8pm, or something, when you're not trying to sleep at 3am. but frankly, anyone in an apt. who turns on music at 3am deserves to get evicted. Not at 8pm, perhaps, unless it's really, really booming. But after 10pm, sorry, no music....See MoreKerdi/Redguard Substitute for Quality Construction?
Comments (11)I don't know of anyone cutting corners or anyone who does shoddy work that then goes and spends money on Kerdi. The only people I know that use Kerdi are actually the higher-end guys. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a non-topical membrane shower. The only thing I'll caution is that the biggest sin I see these days is people still putting the floor membrane flat on the subfloor and then installing the deck mud preslope on top of the flat membrane. That without a doubt is not only a code violation, but it bad bad bad construction, and it's probably the number one killer of showers these days. Kerdi versus redgard, I prefer Kerdi. With Redgard I worry about mil thickness, I worry about pin holes... With Kerdi I have no worries. As far as a DIY book not having Kerdi or other topical membrane instructions, that's no surprise. They are usually years behind the times. Here's a fairly detailed instructional thread if you need ideas. Is Kerdi or Redgard overkill? I'll break it down into a couple of areas: 1) In new construction, thermal envelopes are much tighter today than they were 20 years ago. We have vapor barriers that are integral to the entire house, not just stud bay to stud bay. We have house wraps to help. We have windows and doors that are foamd in instead of gaps stuffed with fiberglass. We have cellulose and foam insulations instead o ffiberglass. Because air changes per hour have been drastically reduced, we have heat recovery ventilators to bring fresh air in the house while conserving BTUs. We soimply have tighter houses. As houses get tighter, moisture control becomes more important. That's why controlling moisture at the source is more critical. Kitchen vents, bath vents, minimizing moisture driven into and through the wall assemblies. Ths is where topical membranes like Kerdi and Redgard excel. 2) Older construction? Envelopes are leaky. fiberglass insulation that allows air to blow right through. The wind blows outside and you feel the draft around windows and electrical boxes. The thermal envelopes are so leaky that there are significant air changes per hour through the house. This allows any moisture that is created in teh house, or that gets into the wall assemblies, to zip on out. All that air movement, while resulting in high cooling loads int eh summer and high heating loads in the winter, prevents moisture from doing any damage to the house. So if moisture were to get into a wall assembly, no worries, because depending on the season, it'll dry to either the interior or to the exterior. So in an older leaky home, moisture control isn't necessarily as critical as it would be in a new tight home, so in an older home a Kerdi shower might be "overkill"....See MoreDesign thoughts? (mudroom/entry remodel)
Comments (4)Better check with the city before you go too far. I doubt a shed with no foundation can be directly connected to a living space and still be to code. If it's really an enclosed porch then that makes more sense. In that scenario, you build an enclosed wrap around porch with room divisions and in the front you can use that as the mud room. The bulkhead is tricky. you could replace it with a hatch in the mudroom but then you would not have outside access to the basement. If its just a service crawlspace, no big deal but if you use that area regularly, it would be a pain to relocate to entrance....See MoreFinding the right architect
Comments (8)Before we hired our own staff architect, our company worked with a variety of architects and designers. We engaged a very talented residential designer (B.S. in architecture from Penn State, but unlicensed) named Stephen Whitford to design one of them. He honed his skills while working for a design/build company in Lancaster, PA and then set out on his own. His office is in Reading, PA. I suggest you give him a call. I doubt he's a member of the AIA. Our architect isn't. If you confine your search to AIA architects and firms, I suspect you'll miss out on a number of architects--and an even greater number of residential designers-- who focus on residential work....See MoreAlly De
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