Is it me or is there a rash of things catching fire??

[toggleswitch]

It really bothers me to have to see these places. Saddest when avoidable.

Anyhoo... please be reminded to wash the dryer's list screen with soap and water and the electronic feelers/sensors as appropriate as well. Dryer softer sheets wreack havoc on these.

 

[petek]

I was shocked when after we moved in here and set the washer/dryer up I looked in our dryer and found that nearly all the 50 or so little exhaust holes on the back of the drum were plugged solid with a coating of lint.

 

[lightedcontrols]

also remember....

.....that this country is suffering the HIGHEST number of mortgage forclosures in history. Could this have anything to do with the recent spate of fires??? In the town of Welch, W. Va. where I was born, when the mines closed and people couldn't pay their mortgage, LOTS of houses cought on fire. The insurance companies paid, and people just left in droves. I'm really NOT surprised to see all the fires of late. Mark

 

[gadgetgary]

Not to mention micro-fiber articles don't allow the use

I use these towels for cleaning. No chemicals(Yay for the enviornment)....water only.

And absolutely no chlorine bleach or fabric softener when laundering.

 

[toggleswitch]

Proving once again that shorter and smaller can be better th

Attention California:

My understanding is that earthquake damage is not covered unless you have special insurance.

Fires due to earthquakes however.........

I wonder why so many dryers move to the middle of the room during (just after?) an earthquake and happen to snap their flexible gas connectors.

http://www.aurora-il.org/fireprevention/community/gasconnectors.asp

 

[exploder3211]

Wow.. I like the softner for the feeling of them.. Only use em on towls and only a little bit.. We only have one micro fiber item in the house. Thats scary about the kid and lighter, it would bother me seeing the after math first hand. Yes i ment *heed*... Oops.. Still getting used to typing on the replacment computer.. Grrr.
I also use chlorine bleach on whites and color safe cholorine bleach on everything else. I also have a medicated acne soap that discolars my towl once i get out of the shower so that gets bleached as well.. Wow...

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks for the link, Toggle. I will be replacing all the flex connectors on the older gas appliances in this '41 home ASAP.

Regarding the earthquake coverage in California, yes, it's true. You can buy such coverage for an extra premium. The deductable however is, by law, very high, something like 15%. I have not purchased this coverage in the past, prefering to put my money, time, and energy into making the home more earthquake-safe.

My understanding is that without this coverage, no damage resulting from earthquake is covered. That would include no coverage for fires resulting from earthquake damage.

 

[tolivac]

WOW!the pictures of that home with the vinyl siding is scary-but lets face it vinyl siding is inexpesive for builders,easy to install,and weathers better than wood or hardboard siding-and the mild climate in NC is condusive to its use.In colder-harsher areas-it cannot be used-extreme cold will cause it to crack-esp under impact.You can crack it if you threw a snowball at it during a 0 degree or below day.I could only figure the wiring to the HVAC unit must of overheated when the unit went to aux heat mode.That would be when it pulling the max current.and being that its a PATIO community-and I knew of someone that moved into one in my area recently-fortunately the homes are brick.Little vinyl.I don't like patio communities-very tiny lawns and front-rear porches-little privacy-you have to make sure your blinds,shades and curtains work!There was a vinyl sided home in my area whose siding melted when the owners started a very hot leaf-pine straw fire to dispose of their lawn rakings.Good lesson here to get a shredder-mulch it in place on the lawn or haul it to the dump.another reason the vinyl is used here is the humid conditions rot wood VERY rapidly.

 

[toggleswitch]

O I C.

Rich, my understanding was that regular homowners' insurace covers fires. Even due to earthquakes. I guess this is a "technicality" that either way would have huge consequences.

My sister's brand-new Pulte house (a nationwide builder of stick-built homes) uses propane for heating, hot water, dryer and cook-top. I was impressed with the underground-tank, the piping, the safety valves etc. Basically MUCH safer than a huge propane tank up against the house. The new corrugated flexible connedtors used as a main and the maifold where individual gas-lines branch off was very new to me. I found two leaks in the piping that my sister and her family did not notice for over a year. You'd think they'd have sent around a worker with a gas-leak detector (hydro-carbon sensor) just to be safe and protect themselves from lawsuits. At first even I thought that the smell of the house was the drywall compound ["mud", if you will] or other construction materials outgassing as expected. You see propane smells different than natuaal gas. It smells "marshy" [OK WHO farted again?]so it was not immediately recognized.

Perhaps this gas leak explains the brain damage in that house.(You know, the type my sister was BORN with. *LOL* Ducks and runs).

 

[toggleswitch]

Get a (Hercules) Grrip!

~I will be replacing all the flex connectors on the older gas appliances in this '41 home ASAP.

Please be reminded that on these connectors there should NEVER be any pipe-joint compound between the end piece and the connector itself. Thses are milled to perfection to form a flared seal on their own. Of course the threaded house piping to which the nipple of the flex connector attaches connects should get some.

IIRC gas pipes should not get teflon tape. A tiny piece can block the gas orifice.

http://cloroben.com/products/thread_sealants.html

 

[exploder3211]

FYI Toggles:

Guess who Built these homes???? Pulte did!!! Whooosh!

 

[toggleswitch]

I"ve got GAS!

uh huh, Someone is not working those pipes and nuts correctly. Some things have to be finessed.

 

[abcomatic]

Toggle, a question for you

My house was built in 1897, a wooden frame, 2 story Queen Anne (ok, watch the queen part)lol, lol with a full basement and full, walk up attic. I believe houses of this time were built using ballon construction. Is there anyway that i can tell if mine was built with that type of construction? My brother is an electricain and we have re-wired 90% of the house. We were pulling new wire down from the attic and couldn't get it past about the center of the outside wall. He thought that I may have fire stops? Does this ring a bell or not? What is your opinion on knob and tube wiring? Thanks kid. Gary

 

[toggleswitch]

Not famliar with balloon construction. I could use a lesson in it myself.

Fire stops? Can't say.

Frequently there were horizontal "studs" between the vertical ones, which may actually BE fire stops. I thought they were to keep the studs straight (*GULP*) and to support them.

Knob-and-tube wiring is the earliest form. And it is fascinating to see in a museum or as an education. In terms of tody's home I think you are very wise to systematically eliminate it.

Sorry to be of such little help. I am sure someone of greater wisdom, competentcy and famialrity with construction techniques will chime in.

 

[polkanut]

My parents home which was built in 1922, and ours built in 1925 have fire stops. I had never seen them before we rewired our home. We have an addition on the back of the house that was put on in '62, and it is constructed just as solid. The only way you can tell it's an addition is by looking at the foundation, old=stone foundation, new=cement block. We had a 60amp service with fuses and knob & tube wiring, upgraded to 100amp with breakers and all new wire throughout. The insurance inspector was so impressed with the work that we got a discount on our homeowners policy without hesitation.

 

[petek]

Well I did a little google on balloon framing and the key difference is that there is no separation between floors since the outer wood frame is built of solid length timbers from foundation to eaves rather than todays standard of 2x4x8 framerworks. So the firestops were installed at the floor level (in the wall) to slow down any fire using them in a chimney like fashion between the different floors of the house. This style of building disappeared along with the disappearnce of timber in such great lengths though it was good for electricians etc because the wiring could just be fed straight up/down thru the walls with nothing blocking the route, before installing the firestop.