All Forum Posts by: Kurt F.

Some of the above advice sounds it's for keeping tenants and/or swapping rule breakers for better tenants, but is this is this actually your goal, @Clay Manship  -- ?  Or are you just needing them all out for an overall rehab?   

8 pages...  what a beatdown...  Martin may as well have posted a thread called "BP is Bull"...

@Loren Thomas  -- Seahawks, that must be the name of your company?  ;-)

Interesting process on the countertops....looks great!  Ya know, in the age of "all things I touch shall be granite", I really enjoy seeing some low-budget / great outcome innovation.

@Dell Schlabach --- hey, I appreciate you posting the long explanation....thanks!

Couple things...........Yes, your new product will need to meet codes.  But I think most of the posts may be too fixated on the codes.   Codes don't make or break new technologies -- new products are tested and proven to meet code every day, but very few are breakthroughs -- and none are breakthroughs because of meeting the code.

The other thing I'd mention carries some irony on a site like BP, and that's the power of the real estate market itself, and it's effect on new products.  Long story short, there is a huge amount of real estate investment that is made up of nothing more than typical US homeowners.  Their house is typically THE biggest thing they ever spend money on.  Their futures depend in significant part on the continuing value of those houses.  Few individuals within this process are looking to upset the apple cart in any way.  Innovation and new technologies always seem to interest people, but in the end only in passing, as very few are interested enough to bank their futures upon the shock of the new. 

My point is, real estate is in part a safe and generally successful venue for long-term investment largely because it moves and changes at a glacial pace.  A 3D-printed house will fascinate the masses, but the line to buy such things has historically been conspicuously short.   

None of this is to say that you can't innovate, but I'm not sure I'm hearing a grasp of what you're up against...........  The building inspector is not your main obstacle.   ;-)

No.  The last BOCA code book was published 15 years ago in 1999.  It's only  legacy code now. 

ICC now reigns most everywhere:  IBC, IRC, etc, etc,. 

From @Kyle J.  's posted link:

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How did you assess this?  Is there a base shoe? -- if so, did you remove all of it, or at least in multiple random places?  If it's tight to the wall everywhere, then yes, that's likely the culprit of the buckling.

As for cutting the gap...   First -- how much flooring are we talking about?  Is it everywhere in the house / apartment, or a single room...?    The multi-tools are great, and for some of the tight work around tricky ins and outs, they're about all you've got.  The hitch is that while they make a nice cut, they are relatively sloooooow....I would not want to cut along every wall in every room in an entire house with one.  See ya next spring. 

 There are some other options like a toe kick saw that are like a small circular saw of sorts and cut flush right up to a wall -- so if you needed a 1/4" gap, you'd measure the saw kerf and use a temporary spacer strip sized to the thickness of the difference.  If the kerf was 1/8", you'd use a 1/8" strip.  This may be a rentable tool.   

@Dell Schlabach 

Dell -- good to hear you've had good luck with the quikrete leveler.   Here's my question / comment -- I've seen the leveler applied and it's always been very "liquid" and applied with a squeegee...   hence the 'leveling' descriptor as it seeks it's own level.  Which, in Sol's case would make a level sidewalk -- but he'd have no positive drainage pitch -- so he wouldn't  solve his problem completely.

This stuff dries so fast, too -- I think they recommend doing like a 12'x12' area at a time due to the quick drying and also due to the relatively small amount that you can feasibly mix up at one time.

So, per your suggestion to Sol on building up one side, have you been able to mix the stuff thick enough to create a positive drainage slope of a couple percent or so?  Also, have you ever tried it on concrete that's in really  rough shape?   I know the manufacturer's data / disclaimers -- you need to maintain joints, cracks may reappear, etc. -- I'm just interested in your firsthand experience with the stuff.   

Congratulations @Joshua Dorkin 

I like the phrasing to the effect that you've made the business of real estate transparent -- man, that says it all. 

And thanks for daily education venue!