How to prevent Mold from even starting to grow in your home.

[johnfrwhipple]

There are countless ways of preventing Mold from taking root in your homes walls and floors. Mold needs moisture to grow quickly and spread rapidly. Remove the Moisture from the start and your part way there in your quest for a mold free home.

How do you remove the moisture? Good Question...



The easiest way is to spend time searching out all of the "Plumbing Failures" and all the "Tile failures" and reading up on all the common pit falls. There are hundreds. Ensure none of these happen and your ahead of most "Job Sites" here in Vancouver.

Tough to do and tough to inspect. If your sitting at your computer and reading this post of mine you might be planning your own reno. Perhaps you plan to pipe it yourself. Plumbing should be done by "Plumbers" not "Handymen", not "Accountants", not "Tile guys" and not by anyone who has not gone to school and spend years of supervised work in the field...



Take a look at these two common failures. They where in the same home and I troubleshooted them both in 2 days. 3 men - full days to only start the repair for 2 common plumbing mistakes...

Imagine this was your kids "Rec Room" and you send your kids down each day to suck up some fresh mold...

Hire a plumber. Hire a Pro. And avoid these simple mistakes...



A Gear Clamp and piece of rubber does not make a permanent repair! Ever... This repair looks to be caused by the low voltage wiring installer and must have held strong for about 10 - 12 years. "It's an easy reapir - we do it all the time..."

Don't let your subs do this type of repair. Make them add it to your invoice if they do and ask for a 25 repair warranty... Instead ask them to call a plumber and have the plumber bring or make a repair coupling and fix it right...


Here is one of my favourites;



Lets just keep adding fitting until we get it close! This Kitchen Waste line held strong for about 10 - 12 years and then failed. Why. I believe it was from the Roto Router Dude when he snaked the line some 3 years back. I think it failed because the pipe was secured with an off cut of 14/2 ground wire and that the fittings where all "Fudged" not one making nice contact.

So if you look at this backwards. Remember that the work that gets down today needs to be able to be "Serviced" or "Snaked" tomorrow. Looks easy doesn't it. Some glue. Some ABS or PVC.

It's not. This is a highly skilled trade and one that takes years to learn.

Flood these vent and waste lines out. Pressure test your work. Ask this of your crew. If they don't want to. Find a new crew.

My thoughts.

JW

[Ian Gills]

Where to find pros? That's the question. I've never been able to find a licensed plumber or electrician in America that didn't take a short cut. I've tried the Yellow Pages. Local firms. Word of mouth. The works.

They never do anything dangerous like in your pics but often things that are still not strictly to code. For example, not using banded couplings on waste pipes above ground and using the ones for below ground instead. Annoying things like that. Laziness. Not being bothered to go to the van to get the right part.

And always things that require me to fix them afterwards.

That's why I DIY now. I got fed up with fixing other people's mistakes.

So where are these pros we hear so much about?

I'd love to find one.

[geniescience]

moving air stops mold from growing. Get an air current moving and no matter what the RH is, mold won't grow.

[dlarrivee]

Where to find pros? That's the question. I've never been able to find a licensed plumber or electrician in America that didn't take a short cut. I've tried the Yellow Pages. Local firms. Word of mouth. The works.

They never do anything dangerous like in your pics but often things that are still not strictly to code. For example, not using banded couplings on waste pipes above ground and using the ones for below ground instead. Annoying things like that. Laziness. Not being bothered to go to the van to get the right part.

And always things that require me to fix them afterwards.

That's why I DIY now. I got fed up with fixing other people's mistakes.

So where are these pros we hear so much about?

I'd love to find one.

Every one of your posts is annoying to read.

If you don't like America, go back home, it's simple.

[Cookie]

I really like some of his posts, and he keeps people on their toes. Geez, can't we just be nice and get along. It is Xmas.

[Ian Gills]

Every one of your posts is annoying to read.

If you don't like America, go back home, it's simple.

That post had nothing to do with America.

It had everything to do with where to find a pro here? The Yellow Pages perhaps?


If you can't find a pro, DIY, it's simple.

[johnfrwhipple]

Finding the Pros...

I have struggled as well in the past and of late of found a real Gem in "Glenn". My new favourite plumber. Glenn and I have been working together for a number of years and done some crazy High End and Low End stuff...

When I'm asked or in need of a new Pro I do the same routine.

Hit the wholesaler in that trades business and then ask for a few names. Hit another wholesaler and another and cross reference this list. Usually a couple of names over lap and that's where I start. I found Glenn off of a sticker on the hot water tank - they had done some nice clean repair work a year earlier and I was getting level 2 service from my existing plumber of the time.

I can usually tell really quick if I guy gives a shit or if he is just riding the clock. I like to map out the Scope of Work onsite and I spec the job for my plumber and don't let my plumber tell me how it is going to go down. When I'm wrong - and often this is the case, we re work the scope of work. But Glenn knows we will be flooding the drain lines. He knows that the water lines will be pressure tested and that I will be a royal pain in the backside. He prices the job based on this and away we go.

Glenn never fail to amaze me with his mad skills! He likes to complain and say this and that - I like to say "Stop It. - It's Easy!". He says it can't be done and then proves himself wrong job after job after job.

That and the every client loves him!

I would plug their company name but that might hurt my response time...



An overnight solution...



In one evening the bucket filled about a 1/2" (5 Gallon Bucket). This is a lot of water in a year!



I was sure the low voltage guy hit it from the back side...



I was wrong. Hit with a nail or screw face on...

Merry Christmas.

JW

[Basement_Lurker]

Hey John, I'll see your hose clamp repair, and raise you with this: