We tackle some of those bigger questions! We start out discussing what to look for to see if a wall is load bearing. Can you remove it and who should you call to find out the final answer? Then we talk about some of the toxic projects in your workshop. You might be surprised at what some of these might be. All that and more in this episode.

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[00:00:23] And that's one of those things that were inspections. Great example, 1950s home. I've been working with my brother out on the coast. When we got to the electric on it. This, we were pulling out the drywall that was wet. We saw where the electrician in 1954 when they ran out of wire going to another run, they buried it in the wall.

[00:01:03] They're your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality. To find out more, head to pyramidheating. com. Oregon CCB 59382. Welcome to the round the house show. The next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G. Wow. I can't believe we are running into the last half of July.

[00:01:40] We've got almost 500 videos for the television show now. On the YouTube playlist. And so there's so many things for you to find right there, all in one place. Today, I wanted to talk about project questions and stuff that might help you through your next project. And this is one we had come into via request.

[00:02:17] Hey, I want to make this kitchen into an open concept. Take out that wall, all of those kinds of things. Hey, I want to move this wall three feet this way. I want to make this room bigger. All of those things come up. And the question always is, is this wall load bearing? So the first thing in what is a load bearing wall load bearing wall is what's carrying the structure or carrying some weight of the structure above it.

[00:03:01] So if you're in a single story house, this is what I would recommend first. And if you've got a basement or a crawl space, this is where you can take a look. So let's say you want to blow out that kitchen wall. The first thing I want to do. Is figure out where that is in relation to your crawl space opening and get underneath it because one of the things that will make it load bearing is that load transferred all the way down to the ground below.

[00:03:49] I look at it and go, all right, there's one check mark. Maybe that is load bearing. And so if that wall is carried all the way down to [00:04:00] the soil and into a footing or something like that, or into a beam that goes over to it, that could be load bearing. So the next thing I want to do is take a look up above it.

[00:04:33] That's holding up the roof system. And that could be load bearing. Now it's even more important if you get up there and all of a sudden you see that the ceiling joists are basically seamed on that wall. So if it comes over 10 feet. And you've got another 14 feet beyond that. And that is the seam between those.

[00:05:17] Ceiling joists, or if you're, let's say your roof system is going crossways, then those exterior walls that that's resting on is where that load is, but really, when it comes down to it, guys, this is where you need to bring in that structural engineer. This is where you need to bring it in and have them take a look and tell you.

[00:05:57] And that's where you start getting answers, right? That's [00:06:00] where they start saying yes. And then you want them to calculate that beam. Cause here's the thing. If you're going to be pulling building permits for this, where in most places in the country, they're going to require that they're going to require here in the U.

[00:06:32] So if you have that crawl space, for instance, they're going to come in there and say, Hey, we need to put different size footings in down below to carry this new load because maybe they're not big enough. And that's one thing that we see. With many older homes and what new building code is, they come in usually and say, wow, we need footings much bigger.

[00:07:15] And unfortunately that came down to the second floor. So this was a, a two story home with a basement. So three floors of living space, we actually had to go down into the finished basement, tear the flooring up and pour much bigger footings to carry that load all the way down just to finish that top floor that was storage space like many 1920s homes.

[00:07:56] And that was good enough. And the builder didn't [00:08:00] really need to have permits. And that's one of those things that were inspections. Great example, 1950s home. I've been working with my brother out on the coast and here in Canada beach. I've been working on it with him out there. When we got into the electric on it, this, we were pulling out the drywall that was wet.

[00:08:41] They, they didn't even put any access to that. It was just a connection buried in the wall. And so many times, older homes, and for the people out there that go, they sure don't build them like they used to. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. Many times, that old house isn't going to meet building code currently, because [00:09:00] it's just not built strong enough to meet current code.

[00:09:25] Now, when we come back, I'm going to talk about a few other things are just as important as. Is this a load bearing wall and we'll do that just as soon as around the house returns. Don't go anywhere

[00:10:08] today If you're catching us on the podcast internationally, thanks for tuning in today. If you're listening to us on the talk media network, on one of our stations that are across five time zones in the United States, I appreciate every one of you tuning in. And that is why for our podcast listeners, we will say, welcome back.

[00:10:42] Today, we've been talking about project questions. And the first one here, what is load bearing? And of course the engineer is the one that has to give you that final answer, that structural engineer. But some of the things that you need to be careful with, and we were just talking about load and making sure that that was taken all the way down to the [00:11:00] ground.

[00:11:19] So if we're putting a shear wall in many times, what that is is we've got a wall that has plywood or OSB before it's finished. And there's a certain nailing pattern to keep that wall stiff so it doesn't rack from side to side. And that is going to be like the backbone of the house. So these are things that you really need to make sure.

[00:11:56] And that's why that engineer is always good to go in there and make sure [00:12:00] that it's good. And make sure that it's done correctly because I have gone in many times where we've opened homes up. We've done some changes on stuff in the 70s and 60s, and we've had to come in with steel frames or moment frames to hold things together.

[00:12:35] Now, when people are putting beams in, I have seen some crazy, horrible wrong ways of doing it on YouTube. I saw one guy who's a pretty big DIY influencer out there and I'll say influencer, cause. Guess what? They didn't do this right. They needed to take out a wall in their, probably do a video on this one of these days.

[00:13:25] Hurricane straps are meant to keep the roof together. It's not meant to hang something from those are meant to keep the roof from lifting off, not to hang up a ceiling system down below it. So clearly the wrong use of brackets. Clearly though, not engineered solution. And of course they made a DIY video and tell you how to do, can remove a load bearing wall, which is really horrible.

[00:14:11] The extreme is I've seen people doing stuff in basement walls where basement walls have collapsed in. In theory, you could have a partial collapse of a house. Most of the time it's going to tell you things beforehand, but all of a sudden doors aren't opening and you get real big structural issues. And if there's a floor above many times, you'll see, why is that tile breaking up in the bathroom and things like that?

[00:14:50] Something's moving around. So it's something to be very careful with. So this is where again, talking about projects, making sure that you've got that [00:15:00] structural engineer is part of the process on this, but you can bring over friends, you can bring over experts. You can bring over that, but there really is only one expert.

[00:15:25] So make sure you got that dialed in. I wanted to talk here. About toxic stuff in the shop and toxic things around the house on these projects and stuff that can really be a problem for you. And the first one is just many of the chemicals that we store. And this is, we talked about this in our indoor air quality thing, but be really careful with the chemicals you're storing in an attached garage, basement, that kind of stuff.

[00:16:12] Now, in my area, before 2004, basically, I have to test materials that are certain before I can take them to the landfill here. So in my area, I can't take roofing felt period. They won't accept it. If I have any kind of a like a vinyl or a linoleum type flooring or glues, Drywall, drywall, texture, drywall, mud, those kinds of things before 2004, I have to have it tested before I take it down to the landfill has to be tested in my house.

[00:17:07] Those tiles right there at nine by nine, most of the time are going to be asbestos filled. Not saying the 12 by twelves aren't, but nine by nines almost always were because those were a premium flooring. So that's a big one right there. That black mastic underneath many times is toxic as well with asbestos and other chemicals.

[00:17:46] Is that stuff can stick in the air in the house for years to come. So you can get multiple exposures well beyond you. Hey, I tore it out and got rid of it. You could have that hanging in the dust for the next handful of years. And that's just going to give you multiple [00:18:00] asbestos exposures, which that can get you on a, in the hospital or.

[00:18:23] So when in doubt, have it tested. You'll be much happier. All right, we come back. I'm going to talk about one that we haven't talked about for a few years in the show here. But some of the most toxic stuff in your shop could be the wood you're working with We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns[00:19:00]

[00:19:30] We talked about that earlier. If you're just joining us and we've been talking about toxic projects, and this is another one that we've got to be really careful with. Toxic wood and wood allergies. And there is a huge one here and I'm a person. I totally get this. This is something that I have run into and maybe it's because I've done enough projects out there, but I'll be out working.

[00:20:15] But here's the thing. Excessive exposure to certain kinds of wood dust can cause some serious ailments, including bronchial asthma, rhinitis, which is a constantly running noise nose. And then you've got a hypersensitivity pneumonia, for instance, organic dust, toxic syndrome syndrome. That's a big one.

[00:20:54] Some woods, like for instance, you, for instance, act as sensitizers. When first used, there's no [00:21:00] reaction, but after you working with it over and over again, that user becomes sensitized. So each contact with the wood becomes a pretty bad allergic reaction. Now you'll see this many times with an auto body shops.

[00:21:43] One of the things we really need to be careful with You And this is something that, uh, you don't think about, but it really causes a problem. So microorganisms in bark and fungus can induce bronchial asthma, allergic dermatitis, rhinitis, those kinds of things. In North America, maple [00:22:00] bark strippers disease is due apparently to the, to the, to a mold basically.

[00:22:28] You got to be really careful with those. Another one should be treated with caution. Larch, walnut, oak, beach, you and pine. So these are all things we got to be really careful with and make sure that we're not creating too much dust. And this is something that you got to be really careful with because. If you have maybe that workshop in the basement and that dust is getting upstairs, that can be pretty, pretty big deal.

[00:23:15] We're using dust control, that kind of stuff to make sure that I want you to be able to do these projects for years on end. So just make sure you're following all those and then make sure and wash and shower frequently, wash your work clothes. And I would wash these work clothes in different than the rest of your laundry.

[00:23:57] Any of those things can also create [00:24:00] that kind of stuff. So be very careful with that. So let's talk a little bit more about toxic wood here. I want to talk about just basically the list and I'm not going to get down into each one of these cause that would be some really boring projects here. And we're going to not going to go down this whole thing like an encyclopedia because guess what?

[00:24:38] Soft maple may affect lung function. And that is the dust. Same with hard maple. So a hard rock maple, be very careful. Some of the ones here that, uh, there's a lot of different ones here on my list that I'm working down, you know, like a Rhodesian teak, uh, respiratory inflammation, irritation. Now, common one, yellow birch, [00:25:00] dermatitis, respiratory problems.

[00:25:24] Cocobolo, Sensitizer, Irritant to Skin, Nose, Throat, Nausea, Wheezing, Chest Tightness, Headache, that kind of stuff. So, Tepeli, which is a mahogany type product, Skin Irritation, Sneezing, Blue Gum. Dust, you're getting where I'm going here guys, so look up the woods you're working with. This can be something that is pretty rough, and I just want to make sure that we're all staying very healthful and making sure that we're being careful.

[00:26:14] When gay is another one. I love working with one game. Blenders go septic irritation of eyes, skin and respiratory system, dermatitis. Giddiness, drowsiness, visual problems, stomach cramps, sensitizer from the dust and the wood. So you see where we're going here. This is some of this stuff here is really interesting to work with.

[00:27:02] So take a look guys go on the list here. I will post this page up on social media here this weekend. So you can take a look at it. It's really, really good. It's a really good story here that they did some serious work on. That's from a website. Would you choose really good information? Did some research to find out where we get the best of that information guys.

[00:27:43] So once you guys tune in, in the show all the time, once you guys to have fun working on woodworking projects. In doing the stuff you love, but there's also some health hazards that just want to make sure that you're not jumping in and, and thinking about it going, Ooh, got to be careful with that. [00:28:00] So, all right, guys, be careful out there.

[00:28:23] Send it a message over, head over to around the house, online. com. We've got a whole thing right there. And that's cool thing with that is, is over and around the house online. You can send me a message. You can give me a call in the studio. You can be a part of the conversation either way. I want to hear what you've got to say.

[00:29:08] Welcome back to the round the house show. The next. Next generation of home improvement. We've been talking about project questions. Is that wall load bearing? We started talking about toxic stuff that was in your garage, maybe that woodworking project you're working on. And so there's so much more stuff here I want to talk about.

[00:29:39] If you put stuff together out there, I'm not going to give you any ideas, but you know that there's some dangerous stuff when you start mixing stuff together. So make sure you're storing it correctly per the manufacturer's recommendations and out in a shed or something, not attached to your house. So that way, if it is off gassing, you're not having to deal with that.

[00:30:19] And that is one of the nice things when you have a project is that maybe you don't need that big, huge, massive table saw hanging around all year round. Maybe you just need a small one. And then when you have that big project, head down to your favorite tool rental store and get something bigger, use it and then return it back to them.

[00:30:58] Sometimes it's just easier [00:31:00] to rent the tools you need for the time and then go after it. I don't have a massive air compressor. I have a lot of the smaller ones I just don't need one But when I do need one I go rent it because it saves me a ton of money And it's one more thing that I don't have to store So take a look at tool rental is a great way on those projects to be able to save a little bit of money Buy it When you need it many times, if you're using it once or twice a year, might just be easier to rent it.

[00:31:45] That is money that I'm just literally throwing away. And so that means I need to build another shed. I've got one out back and I'm going to have to do another one here just because it will be cost effective. If you're spending 150 bucks a month, it doesn't take long for that to make [00:32:00] sense to go, Hey, maybe I'll invest in a years, go build myself a shed.

[00:32:26] Like in my area here, if you're building a new deck. If it's under 30 inches high permits, not needed. I'm good. Same with a deck cover. If I'm going to build a cover, if it's under 200 square feet and it's built in a certain way, I don't need to pull a permit for it. That's great. But if I'm building a deck, that's 36 inches high where I need a railing and some stairs, probably I need to pull full building permits for it.

[00:33:15] And worldwide. And I know here in the U S there are some cities, some counties, some states, some townships that are using satellites like Google earth and other paid private organizations that have their own satellites to be able to tell who's done a roof, who's done a deck, who's built stuff. And they can go back 10 years and see what you had.

[00:34:01] That could get expensive because they have satellites to be able to tell you what you did on the outside of the house. Now, the other thing I've seen too, is they have gone on and pulled up listing information from other websites. So maybe they jump on Zillow or Redfin or realtor. com and your pictures from before that complete remodel are hanging up there.

[00:34:45] Now, in my state here in Oregon, If you're an unlicensed contractor, woo, they have people driving around searching for you, they're following people out of lumber yards. They are on the hunt for unlicensed contractors, which is awesome. Go after those guys. [00:35:00] I'm cool with that, but the building department, not really, but here's where you get nailed.

[00:35:22] A number of years ago, it was a project I was working out in Seattle. Well, an architect, I'll leave it at that. He was doing a full condo renovation. I was the kitchen and bath designer for it. He had me doing his kitchen about design. He was doing the big architectural spaces in there. And so this was drafting This was a long time ago hand drafting.

[00:36:23] And I tell you what, if you want to see somebody get an example made out of them, it was ugly and it's not that they were doing things wrong. It was when you're in condos, for instance, and that's what this was. There are codes in condos that are different from homes. And in homes, we could use ABS pipe or PVC pipe.

[00:36:59] So [00:37:00] just be careful out there. I would say pull permits when you can, and I get it for some of the dumb stuff. People go, ah, it's not worth it. I get it, but technically you should be pulling permits when you need to. I'd tell you not to, but more importantly, this stuff is there to make sure that one, you don't burn your house down to, you don't ruin something with bad plumbing code, electrical code violations, structural, all those kinds of things.

[00:37:40] So I really want to make sure that the people out there are doing these things correctly, pulling the codes and an electrician. I paid an electrician to come in and do my electrical. Panel in here because could I have done it myself? Absolutely. But you know, something sometimes when it comes down to what's my time worth, and do I [00:38:00] want to make sure that it's done correctly, especially when I had a panel that was about ready to catch on fire, it was good to know that all my electrical was done correctly and it's safe.

[00:38:28] So that way, if you go to sell it down the road, somebody comes back and goes, wow, this wasn't done correctly. You're not going to have to do it twice. And right when you're trying to sell something, nobody wants to deal with that. And so there you go. Just be very careful guys. I want to make sure that you're protected your family and the other people around you.

[00:39:08] Yeah. New stuff is expensive out there, guys. It is adding up. All right, guys, that wraps up the first episode of around the house show. If you want to catch the second episode, catch the next one on the podcast or on the radio show. Thanks for tuning in to around the house.