five drillbits later...
Sep. 26th, 2011 11:09 am...the water heater is now attached firmly to the wall. So is about half of one of the drill bits, but we're not going to worry about that.
Meanwhile, I've been sponging the first scum of mold off the basement ceiling beams (eew) and just looked up climate data for BWI-- apparently August was the 5th wettest month on record, and the wettest this century; September has been wetter so far. (Average precipitation for Baltimore since they started recording it in the 1870s is around 3-4 inches a month, pretty consistently. August had almost eleven inches of rain by the official count, and I don't know what it's been at BWI, but right here we've had over 12" so far in September.) We've also broken three specific-day records, one per hurricane & one on Friday, all of which were set over 60 years ago. Admittedly, the specificity of all this is a bit silly, but the point is that it has been stupidly wet since they pulled the back of the house off, and until it dries out enough to backfill & then pour the basement floor, the basement is still kind of open to the weather. I'm about ready to go out there with a shovel and do it myself, although it's supposed to be dry after, well, tomorrow. Of course, they said that last week, too, and then we got another 3" of rain.
Once everything gets closed in long enough to let the dehumidifier do its thing (and oh, it's been trying!) we were thinking of doing a coat of kilz2 primer on the beams & everything but looking at it, I'm wondering if there exists mold-stopping finish of some sort, that would seal everything up without covering it in pigment. Anyone know of such a thing?
More later on things other than stupid house stuff. Really!
Meanwhile, I've been sponging the first scum of mold off the basement ceiling beams (eew) and just looked up climate data for BWI-- apparently August was the 5th wettest month on record, and the wettest this century; September has been wetter so far. (Average precipitation for Baltimore since they started recording it in the 1870s is around 3-4 inches a month, pretty consistently. August had almost eleven inches of rain by the official count, and I don't know what it's been at BWI, but right here we've had over 12" so far in September.) We've also broken three specific-day records, one per hurricane & one on Friday, all of which were set over 60 years ago. Admittedly, the specificity of all this is a bit silly, but the point is that it has been stupidly wet since they pulled the back of the house off, and until it dries out enough to backfill & then pour the basement floor, the basement is still kind of open to the weather. I'm about ready to go out there with a shovel and do it myself, although it's supposed to be dry after, well, tomorrow. Of course, they said that last week, too, and then we got another 3" of rain.
Once everything gets closed in long enough to let the dehumidifier do its thing (and oh, it's been trying!) we were thinking of doing a coat of kilz2 primer on the beams & everything but looking at it, I'm wondering if there exists mold-stopping finish of some sort, that would seal everything up without covering it in pigment. Anyone know of such a thing?
More later on things other than stupid house stuff. Really!