February 24, 2015 AsktheBuilder Newsletter & Tips

I was up 90 minutes before sunrise today. Ideas were bursting out of my head. It was minus 14 below ZERO, so I started a nice fire in my office fireplace.

Spring is coming soon, and I've still got a boatload of wonderful seasoned oak firewood, so I figured I might as well enjoy it.

Yo! There are some very informative Q & A's this time at the bottom. They absolutely could save you time, money and frustration. Some have great product suggestions in them!

CRACKING POPS from DECK and ROOF!

I've been getting lots of emails from people where it's cold. They're worried their houses are going to fall down around them.

I'm afraid to say it's possible. Look at this photo I grabbed, with attribution, from the Concord Patch website.

I've not been to this person's house here in New Hampshire, but I suspect I know what happened.

The weight of snow and ice pushes straight down on a roof. This creates enormous shear forces at the bottom of the roof rafters where they sit on top of the exterior wall.

The rafter wants to kick sideways and outwards to relieve the stress. The ceiling joists, or collar ties, form the bottom part of a three-sided triangle and are the primary structural member that holds the roof rafter from kicking out.

Well, I'm sure the inspectors are going to discover that not enough nails were used to connect the ceiling joists to the roof rafters and / or the nails were too small and / or the roof rafters and ceiling joists were not nailed properly to the top wall plate.

What does all this have to do with CRACKING and POP sounds from your roof or deck?

Read this column of mine to discover what's going on.

Spring in CA, AZ, FL and ????

Believe me, I realize it's Spring in some parts of the USA. You may be one where it's always summer as I have quite a few subscribers who live near or on the equator.

My daughter Meghan moved to California last summer as her husband got a dream job as a programming manager for PayPal. They live just south of San Jose.

She's constantly telling me about how sunny the weather is and how warm it was each day during this past winter. Bah!

If you live where it's already Spring, then you want to know all about my Stain Solver. It's a great Certified organic deck cleaner. You can use it to clean patios, boats, anything outdoors that's water washable.

It's safe around vegetation and will NOT HARM plants.

It's safe for composite or treated lumber, cedar, IPE or any other hardwood decks. You just need to be careful using it on redwood. Sometimes it can darken redwood.

In fact, it's great to use on teak patio and deck furniture.

Check out Lori's teak bench she cleaned with Stain Solver! Read Lori's short story and look at the AMAZING Before photo! CLICK HERE to see it.

BUY Certified Organic Stain Solver NOW!

Winner of Limestone Wall Build Game!

Congratulations to Carl Cohen of South Weymouth, MA.

He was one of 40 people that guessed correctly the decade, 1890's, when the limestone wall was built in that fun game you played in the past two weeks. I used random.org to randomly select Carl from the 40 correct entries.

I want to give a huge shout out to Bonnie Speeg, an avid historian, who lives in Cincinnati. She dug deep into the literature to discover when that part of Cincinnati was developed.

The photo was taken on Lyon Street, just about 150 feet east of where it intersects Clifton Avenue.

Here's a graph showing you the results of the game. You can see how many guessed like you did!

ALERT! I'm going to have a very fun game for you on Friday. I'll give you a CLUE now so you don't get frustrated:

railroad amphibian