Setting Sail

High summer is supposed to be a slow, lazy time, so what are we doing sweating in the sun under the sagging awning of a dilapidated building on a Central City corner? Making dreams come true, that's what.
We have been tremendously busy this season with the Magazine Street renovation and the constructing of a soon-to-be magnificent art gallery on Freret Street, in addition to other bits and pieces of work, trying to stay cool, and hand-feeding a baby pigeon. So we thought we'd buy an enormous warehouse space, whip it into shape, and use it as a workshop and storage space, with rooms to rent out to other like-minded craftsmen and -women. It needs a lot of love, but we see potential.

The layout of the building is ... odd, to say the least. The front seems to have been a bar, with a storeroom or two,possibly  a wet barback area. But that's maybe 1/3 of the total space. Going deeper into the building, you can see the ghost of walls where there were clearly a number of rooms nestled behind the bar--tiny, functional rooms, with a high window, jailhouse-style, and barely room for more than, say, a mattress.

It didn't take long to learn that we are the proud new owners of the former Dreamboat Inn, a 1970s-era semi-notorious tavern and good-time fleabag love motel with back rooms randy customers could rent the by the hour. To fill out their tax forms, no doubt. We are very excited to own this tawdry piece of New Orleans history, and to bring a little life to a neglected Central City corner.

Old studs vs. new studs

Here's a pair of photos I could go on about for hours:

 


In fact, I'll probably make several posts about them.  The upper one there is a 2013 #2 SYP KD-HT treated with "Frameguard", a piece of drop from a current project.  The lower one is a circa 1850 longleaf pine from our house.

From our viewpoint as carpenters, the two boards can be compared in terms of stability, resistance to rot and termites, strength, ease of use, and cost.  Now, as an old-house junkie and aspiring craftsman, I have a strong preference for the old stud -- bordering on bigotry against the new.  But I have to admit that there are some ways in which the new wood outperforms the old.

I'll get to that eventually.  For now, just have a look at the end-grain of each board (that's where you see the growth rings, not the side of the board).  The new stud is cut from smack in the middle of a young tree, whereas the old is from an undetermined corner of a very old tree.  If each ring represents a year, the new stud was chopped down when it was under ten years old.  The other was...  I don't know, I stopped counting at forty-five.  Also, note how close together the rings are in each.  The younger tree grew at a tremendous pace compared to the old one.

The size, number, and orientation of the growth rings determine how boards perform in the categories listed above.  Which I'll get to soon -- it's daylight, and time to get to the jobsite.

The difference a few mils can make

Now, I am a fan of the reusable grocery sack, and countless other items that are just plain better made with something besides plastic.  But in some cases, a sheet of plastic can't be beat. Below are two photos of concrete floors.

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The photos were both taken within a few minutes of each other, within a few yards of each other.  Both are indoors, the left on in our shop, the right in the new apartment-in-progress.  What's the difference?  A six-mil sheet of plastic under the concrete on the right.  It rained a lot the past weekend, then turned quite warm and humid.  I can't explain the physics of it, but the damp in the soil under the slabs is sweating up through the concrete without a vapor barrier under it, while the other concrete stays dry.  Conclusion: use plastic wisely, in the right places.

A Year and A Third??

So it's been a while.  All apologies to everyone who keeps track (Mom).  Honest, it's not because we've been lounging around living off our lottery winnings.  We've done quite a bit of work on this place:

That's the little apartment in the back of our house, occupying the up and downstairs section of the old Slave Quarters.  

And this place, we've done quite a bit of work taking it from blight to almost beautiful:

Plus this former messy storage area, now a halfway-finished apartment in our downstairs:

And, of course, the girls, the five young ladies new to our family:

And, most importantly, this guy:

That's Morris, who joined Kerby & Company in October 2012.  (He's getting ready for a wedding in that photo, but he does always dress better than us.)  Morris has the reins of our sales and financial departments.

More on all the above to come.  Thanks for looking.  Jeff K

Link to good advice on roofs

Have a look at "Martin's Ten Rules of Roof Design", over at Green Building Advisor.com, for some solid, practical advice on how creating durable, functional shelter.  I especially like numbers 2, 4, 7, and 9, and the section titled "A preemptive comment directed at indignant designers". 

A roof is, after all, the most essential component of a house.  Why risk compromising it?

I'll add one point to those in the link above.  The roof on this pictured building is superior to most of the roofs in your neighborhood in at least one way: nobody is under the impression that this roof is forever.  Anyone can see that it will need regular maintenance.  Unfortunately, too many people I know get a roof, they think it's a done deal, and they never think about it again.  Until it fails, sometimes catastrophically, thanks to lack of maintenance. 

Water management, big and small

Last Saturday, Jackson and I participated in a workshop focused on water management that featured presentations by several area experts on urban planning, hydrology engineering, environmental science, and building science.  

Ramiro Diaz of Waggonner & Ball Architects described the work their firm is doing to imagine and plan for a wholly new way of handling and living with the enormous quantities of water that surround our city all the time and fall on us in storms both small and -- cross your fingers -- large.   They are developing the concepts that resulted from the Dutch Dialogues, a partnership of "Dutch engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, city planners and soils/hydrology experts and, primarily, their Louisiana counterparts."  The gist of Dutch Dialogues, and Mr. Diaz's subsequent work, is to find ways of increasing the city's capacity to detain water and remove water and reducing the long-term costs of drainage, all while using the drainage system as an asset to the community, rather than their current status as invisible or ugly. 

Louis Jackson of CDM described the work he is doing under contract with the City to assess and propose ways of increasing the capacity of the current drainage system.  A major part of his project has involved mapping the city's existing drainage on a block-by-block level and modeling how it would perform in storm events of various intensities.  The long and short of his conclusions thus far, paraphrased: bigger pipes, more pumps, lots of money.

Jennifer Roberts of Bayouland RC&D presented the environmental impact of drainage water on the Pontchartrain Watershed as a whole (it's polluted, but progress is being made), highlighted major sources of pollution in drainage water (oily & littered streets, soil runoff from construction sites, pet- and human-related bacteria), and described how citizens can help improve our watershed in their own homes and neighborhoods (keep storm drains clear, and don't dump your trash/paint/crawfish boil down them; reduce or slow down runoff from your property).

Steve Picou of the LSU Agcenter discussed some of the primary ways of reducing and slowing runoff, as well as a few other water management issues for homeowners: keep water away from your foundation and out of your house; reduce impervious surfaces like large, circular concrete driveways; include gravel in your landscaping; and plant rain gardens.

A local organization called Groundwork NOLA specializes in helping people set up rain gardens, as part of their larger mission for "sustained regeneration, improvement, and management of the physical environment by developing community-based partnerships that empower people businesses and organization to promote environmental, economic and social well-being". 

This Old House magazine offers a variety of tips and plans for installing your own rain management system: link.

Hire EPA-Certified Contractors

There are numerous reasons to think carefully when hiring a contractor.  Liability issues.  Reliability.  True knowledge of a craft.  Real value versus initial cost.  Proper tax filing and employment policies. 

This morning's Times-Picayune points out another reason: 60% of New Orleans homes and yards have dangerous levels of lead.  Link.  When you prepare to remodel or repair your home, be sure to ask your contractor whether she has been certified by the EPA to protect your family and your neighbors from the dangers of lead poisoning. 

Learn more at the EPA's web site for the Renovation, Repair, and Painting law : Link.

By the way, it is a federal law that your contractors follow these regulations.  Add it to the list of laws being skirted or broken by that cheap guy with a pickup and a couple tools.  Please, think carefully when hiring a contractor.