Construction Informer

As I was writing this post, Josveek Huligar weighed in on the radon and granite topic with a very long comment. That comment is available for reading here.

Huligar is associated with the NSRA (National Stone Restoration Alliance) and is understandably miffed about recent news reports claiming that granite poses radon risks. So much so that from September 6-8 Huligar was having a piece of radioactive granite installed inside his home. The event was on live web cam (don’t you just love this new technology). At about 6 pm on 9/8 the plan was to test the radon level in the home. Also at this site you can view some great pictures of granite slabs that are being tested for radon.

While it is clear Huligar went to a lot of time, trouble and treasure to pull this off I don’t see how it could confirm there is no radon threat from granite. Not everyone’s home is like Huligar’s, or built on top of the same type of material, or made of the same things and with the same level of tightness, etc. And while the granite sample is representative of a granite slab bearing the highest radiation, the amount used is unique to this home. At best, this will prove that the particular piece of hot granite installed at Huligar’s either increased the home’s radon levels, or didn’t.

For those of you who need to catch up on this ongoing story you can find an older post here that gives some of the history going back to 1995. In July 2008 the Marble Institute of America (MIA) issued a press release ostensibly quoting the EPA that granite countertops cause no significant health risk.

Now, in view of recent media coverage MIA continues its insistence that granite countertops pose no health threat related to radon. The latest release names numerous studies showing:

No scientific evidence exists to suggest that granite countertops are a source of meaningful exposure to radon.

And later:

This study is consistent with all the studies we’ve conducted in the past, which have found that granite countertops pose no health risk.

As I’ve followed this unfolding war of words I wonder why MIA isn’t listening to what some people are saying. Instead it blames “the media” for fabricating information. From my readings the questioners of granite safety are not concerned with “meaningful exposure,” it’s about any exposure at all. How much exposure to radon is acceptable to a mother or father with children? That probably depends upon how much they trust the EPA’s assessment of what an acceptable level of exposure is, and how much radon exposure their particular home generates. Some people may feel that there is no acceptable level of radon exposure. Are they incorrect to feel that way?

The results of exposure to most substances aren’t really known for lifetimes. So to say there are no health risks associated with granite could be similar to someone saying back in 1940 that there were no health risks associated with smoking cigarettes.

But to focus on the big picture, this whole debate isn’t just about granite. Rather, it’s about how the pursuit of profits compels the sale of products without knowledge of the long-term consequences that will result from their use in particular situations. So it comes down to the buyer being aware, and of course that implies them having enough information to be aware.

Rather than repeatedly claiming there is no risk associated with granite in the home the industry might serve itself better to present the latest evidence it has and then let the potential buyers make up their own minds as to whether or not the level of risk is acceptable. Because, there is a risk. There is always a risk.

Time and time again we relearn things. For a very long time buildings that were built in southern climates came almost automatically with wide verandas and wrap-around porches. One of the main reasons was it kept the sun off the sides of the building in the summer and made the structure cooler.

Of course those verandas took up a lot of room and they were a lot of maintenance. So, once air conditioning became affordable and the need to cram more and more structures on less and less space superceded thoughtful development, the verandas and porches disappeared, often being replaced with anemic-looking overhangs at entry points to the buildings.

Now, there are a bunch of buildings sucking up gobs of electricity in order to stay cool. When you add in the pavement and concrete that was lavishly poured in around these structures you have some wonderful heat sinks that require more and more electricity to keep them habitable.

So it isn’t surprising that the verandas are coming back, but these are not typical verandas. Carrying with them all the same benefits that might have been used to sell verandas 50 years ago these new verandas, called awnings, are cropping up everywhere. They are coming in an amazing array of styles, many looking a far cry from an RV awning – although there are those as well.

As these pictures show modern awnings offer some eye-appealing options. It may offend the architectural sensibilities of some I suppose, but for those paying the electric bill it might be time to give pragmatism its due weight. You can find out more at PAMA.

Builders of homes and condos in at least one market are trying out lease-to-purchase offerings to spur sales. According to a Business Journal report three builders are hoping to clear out some of the 20,300 new homes in the Atlanta metro area. Elsewhere one builder has skipped lease-purchase and moved directly to renting some of its new homes.

Even investors who had purchased large numbers of homes during the boom times with the expectation of flipping them are turning them into lease and rental properties. According to an article in the Dallas News there are some high-end homes that never were lived in going to the lease and rental markets at prices of $4500 and up per month. At the same time new tract homes are also being turned into rentals. One marketing person in the Dallas market claims 90 percent of her calls are from people wanting to lease. And that’s just a plain lease with no purchase option at the end of the lease term.

In North Carolina at least three different developments are advertising lease-to-own homes. In this scenario a non-refundable down payment that is credited to the purchase price is collected at the time of closing. Purchasers who fail to purchase the home at the end of the lease loose that down payment.

Now, there is a whole movement behind this effort. One such multi-faceted entity that has sprung up in Dallas is called Community Empower and it bills itself as “America’s fastest growing homeownership network.” What exactly is the network? Basically it appears to be a number of lenders including Citimortgage and Wells Fargo, along with some mortgage insurers, home builders, investment bankers and a team of “counselors” that are all ready to get people back into home ownership through the lease-to-own route.

Basically this is kind of like home ownership on training wheels. People qualify for the lease-to-own program and get into the home under a lease with no down payment. Then, over a period of 18 months they are enrolled in the entity’s “Score Manager” program that helps them to improve their credit rating so they can assume the mortgage at the end of the lease period. There’s also a “nominal” assumption fee when they take over the mortgage.

This looks like a win-win for everyone except there is no detail about what happens if the people don’t manage to improve their credit ratings. As these schemes proliferate across the country I guess we’ll have to wait for the headlines a couple of years from now to find out just how that will turn out.

Will they read: “Lease-To-Own Home Ownership Programs Achieving 95 Percent Mortgage Turn-Over Rate;” or “Lenders, Builders and Insurers Petition Congress for Help With Mounting Housing Crises.”

If you are in the remodeling business you are probably seeing an increase in requests for estimates to turn attics and basements into living spaces. Case Handyman and Remodeling Services, LLC recently reported these as home trends for 2008. Some of the uses the company cites for attics include bedrooms, play areas and guest suites.

Down in the basement things get a little bit livelier with people opting more for things like home theaters, game rooms and spaces for entertaining.

No doubt some of this renewed interest in creating living spaces out of areas that are typically overflowing with junk is because of the slump in home sales and the growing realization by many that they’ll be in their current home longer than they may have originally planned. One big source of delay for some homeowners may have to do with the junk since the time to sort it all before determining its final destination might not be readily available.

If you are doing estimates for this type of work and you see a mountain of stuff that has to be moved before you can begin work you should probably be including some words regarding your start date relative to homeowner responsibilities in your estimates, bids and contracts.

Other kinds of things that I can see being even larger issues here though include structural considerations, both visible and invisible, and weather.

When it comes to other areas of the house Case says soaking tubs, walk-in closet suites, faux stone on the exterior and skylights will all be in higher demand. The company also points out that longer commute times are driving more people to work from home so home offices are in vogue. These are not your simple desk and file cabinet offices. Case says they feature custom cabinetry, the latest in audio/video connections, task lighting and communications equipment to keep the homeowner in touch all the time. Oh and yes, anything green is also driving purchase decisions.

Not long ago someone else’s oversight combined with my own to add headaches and cost to a small project. Unfortunately the lesson learned is one we humans seem to just keep re-learning, over and over again: Don’t make the same mistake twice.

I was replacing a 40 gallon water heater with a 20 gallon model. There’s only my wife and I now in the home and we just don’t use enough hot water to justify keeping 40 gallons hot all the time. If I’d had my druthers I’d have done a whole-house instant heater, but that’s a whole other topic.

When I got to the part where you hook up the electricity I hooked the black lead from the wall to the black lead in the tank and the white lead from the wall to the white lead in the tank. I switched on the breaker and was pleasantly surprised to find I hot very hot water in just about 10 minutes! Amazing I thought. They must have improved the efficiency of the things! Then a couple of hours later I only had warm water!

I checked the breaker and found it had tripped so I reset it and went back to the heater and tested the voltage across the two connections on the element. It read 240v (give or take, you know how those readings fluctuate). So, why did I have a black and a white wire and 240v? It’s supposed to be black and black, or black and red.

A quick check of the specs on the new heater showed it to only required 120v so with a black and white wire combo that’s what should be there. I opened the panel box and low and behold found the white wire from that lead connected to the breaker and not to the neutral bar. Voila! There was some black tape clinging not-very-well to that end of the wire.

So, I removed the white wire from the breaker and connected it to the neutral bar and went to the store and got another water heater element and replaced it since I had burned out the other one.

The last person who worked on that appliance should have wrapped some black tape on that white wire to signify it was a power lead. But also, I should have checked the voltages of the wires I was connecting to the new appliance. All the established good practices in the world cannot make up for people who don’t follow them. And that’s one of the reasons people continue to get hurt around electricity.