Failure to Provide Lead Pamphlet Lands
Builder in Lawsuit
Offcuts
Resources
New Orleans Carpenter Weathers the
Storm
Big Stink Develops Over New Septic
Systems
Florida Roofers Lack Comp Coverage
Even Tupperware Can't Fix These Water
Problems
Renovation contaminates 80-year-old
home with lead and asbestos
The EPA has proposed a penalty of up to $27,500 against a
Norfolk, Va., contractor who allegedly failed to give a
homeowner the "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home"
pamphlet when remodeling an 80-year-old home. The EPA says this
is the first time it has enforced the rule (effective June
1999) that requires remodelers to provide the pamphlet before
disturbing more than 2 square feet of paint in a house built
before 1978 (see "Lead-Safe Remodeling," 9/04).
The homeowners, Leonard and Margaret Bentley, also claim that
renovations done in 2003 by contractor American Dream
Consultants contaminated the house with lead and asbestos.
According to the Virginia Department of Professional and
Occupational Regulation (DPOR), one of the Bentley children
showed elevated lead levels in his blood a few months after the
work began. This prompted an inspection in December 2003 by the
Norfolk Health Department, which advised the family to evacuate
the house and dispose of what the EPA says were "thousands of
dollars of contaminated belongings." At the same time, American
Dream was ordered by the health department to clean up the lead
and asbestos, but the company did not perform the abatement,
nor did it return to complete its contracted work after the
homeowners paid another contractor to clean up the
property.
The Bentleys filed a civil lawsuit in June 2004 against
Millennium Quests Inc., which is the parent company of American
Dream, and against Mark Askew and Tonya Copeland, principals of
American Dream. Although the Bentleys were recently awarded a
$1.3 million judgment in the case, according to the
Virginian-Pilot, Millennium Quests and Mark Askew subsequently
declared bankruptcy, and the homeowners have received
nothing.
In separate, state court criminal proceedings, American Dream
pleaded guilty in April 2005 to noncompliance with the
abatement order.
Also in April, the contractor was fined a total of $8,000 for
five violations relating to the Bentley job, and had its
contractor's license revoked by the Virginia DPOR. Three of the
violations carried $2,500 fines: negligent contracting, which
resulted in lead and asbestos contamination; unjustified
cessation of work under contract; and criminal noncompliance of
the abatement order. As an interesting footnote, the company
also was fined $200 for not including two required provisions
(cancellation rights and contractor license information) in the
contract, and $300 for not obtaining written change
orders.
Meanwhile, according to the Pilot, the homeowners had to sell
the house to pay their bills. Apparently, the children are
doing fine, though they will need to be watched for lead- and
asbestos-related conditions.
— Laurie Elden
Offcuts
A revised version of California's Title
24 "Building Energy Efficiency Standards" took effect on
October 1, 2005.
Though the new residential lighting
standards apply to the entire house, they are especially strict
in kitchens. For example, contractors could comply with the old
standards simply by installing one fluorescent light on a
separate switch at the kitchen entry; under the new rules, they
are required to calculate the total lighting wattage installed
in the kitchen and make sure at least 50 percent of it comes
from "high efficacy" sources like fluorescents. Incandescent
and low-voltage fixtures are still permitted but they must be
offset watt for watt with high-efficacy lighting. As a
practical matter, this means that recessed incandescent
fixtures can no longer be installed in kitchens, and the use of
track lighting and low-voltage cable lighting will be severely
limited.
It might be rocket science after
all,
according to a recent New York Times article paying
tribute to the inventor of the metal truss plate: "Before the
use of connecting plates, roofs were often constructed not with
trusses but with individual rafters, a process that required
highly skilled carpenters, precise cuts, and a difficult
procedure called toenailing, in which nails are driven into the
lumber at a sharp angle."
As part of ongoing negotiations with
historic preservationists,
a developer in Cobb County,
Ga., has agreed to set aside an acre of land containing two
Civil War fortifications. According to the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, the fortifications — unique
triangular structures known as shoupades — were built by
the Confederate Army during the Battle of Atlanta in 1864. The
property also is home to an artillery construction called a
redan, which was designed to support the infantry. The builder
has agreed to give historical groups a chance to buy an
additional five acres surrounding the structures — land
that, in the midst of a development boom, promises to be
pricey.
Some GeoDeck composite decking and railing products
that
were manufactured between April 2002 and October 2003 are
deteriorating after being exposed to high temperatures and
sunlight. Kadant Composites recommends that consumers check
their decks for visible cracks and use a fingernail or credit
card to see if the material scratches easily. Also, the company
notes that uninstalled pieces may still show the manufacturing
date stamp on the cut end. Builders should call GeoDeck
customer service at 800/545-1710 or visit
www.kadantcompositesrecall.com for
replacement if degradation is found.
Canada is actively seeking to export more
softwood to China
in response to continued U.S. tariffs
on Canadian lumber. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that
when Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin met with Chinese
President Hu Jintao in September, the two leaders discussed
increasing trade between their countries. The talks included
softwood, but Canadian lumber traders remain skeptical that
exports to China are going to increase significantly in the
near future.
New Orleans Carpenter
Weathers the Storm
When restoration carpenter and JLC author Michael Davis went
to bed on August 29, just 15 hours after Hurricane Katrina
struck, he thought his New Orleans neighborhood near City Park
had come through the Category 4 hurricane with only minor
damage. After all, earlier that day he had been out cleaning
sidewalks and removing debris from the storm drains on his
street. But when he awoke the next morning, his street was
under water — tangible confirmation of reports he'd heard
that many of the pumps used to keep the city dry were not
working and that the storm had damaged a levee protecting the
city. Though his home, like the others on the street, is on a
small berm a couple of feet above street level, he could tell
it wouldn't be long before the rising water started spilling
into his basement apartment.
After wading out into the street, he moved his van to higher
ground several blocks away and slogged back to his apartment,
which was by then filling with water. He gathered his tools and
piled them on improvised tables made from scraps of plywood,
drywall, and anything else he could find. Much of his equipment
was stored in a steel job box that capsized while he was
emptying it, soaking many of his most expensive tools. He spent
the next five days disassembling and drying tools, salvaging
whatever personal belongings he could, and helping his
neighbors.
Occasionally, Davis listened to a battery-operated radio,
though the broadcasts weren't very useful. "Most information we
had about other parts of the city came from word of mouth, but
it was definitely more accurate than what we were hearing on
the radio," he says. People who stayed behind on his street
helped each other, and in the process, Davis met some of his
neighbors for the first time, despite living in the same
community for almost 10 years. To survive, folks did what they
had to, he says: "I saw people passing the house with shopping
bags filled with water and groceries even though the stores
weren't open, but everyone was quiet and civilized, and there
wasn't any other way to get food."
Davis was the last resident on his street to leave. "I was
waiting for the water to go down so I could drive out with my
tools and some of my stuff, but things weren't getting any
better and the National Guard members and police were by this
point really encouraging me to go," he says. On September 4, he
was evacuated by helicopter with five other people; they were
taken to the New Orleans airport, where he boarded a plane to
Montgomery, Ala. From there, a cousin gave him a ride to Baton
Rouge, La.
Most of Davis' relatives displaced by the storm reconnected at
his mother's home in Monroe, La., where Davis is temporarily
staying at a Holiday Inn. A couple of days after a family
member signed him up for FEMA aid, he received the $2,000
promised to hurricane evacuees. Family and friends outside the
Gulf Coast region have offered Davis carpentry jobs and places
to stay, but he would prefer to return to New Orleans. "I don't
think many of my current clients had their houses flooded, so
I'm hoping to go back to work soon," he says.
He and members of his family have rented a storage locker near
his mother's house and plan to recover the salvageable items
from their homes as soon as the authorities allow them to
return. His home, he says, isn't habitable, but he maintains
his optimism: "I was trying to leave that basement apartment
anyway; I guess Mother Nature just speeded it up for me a
little bit."
— Patrick
McCombe
Free Connector
Training for Contractors
Recognizing that a product is only as good as its
installation, Simpson Strong-Tie Co. has developed a second
free training kit for builders. "Introduction to Joist and Beam
Hangers" comprises a training video, an instructor guide, and a
student guide, plus a CD-ROM version of those three components.
The 16-page student guide summarizes key points covered in the
video, and concludes with a 10-question quiz. The instructor
guide consists of two pages of suggestions for running a
training session, an answer key for the quiz, an attendance
form, and a job-site inspection form. Everything in the kit is
supplied in both English and Spanish. To order, go to
www.strongtie.com and click "training," or
call 800/999-5099.
Big Stink Develops Over New
Septic Systems
Residents of several new subdivisions in booming Loudoun
County, Va., a semirural area about 25 miles northwest of
Washington, D.C., are reporting problems with their on-site
sewage treatment systems, according to a July 17 article in the
Washington Post.
Developed as an alternative to conventional septic systems for
areas with marginal soils, these advanced systems feature an
array of filters, pumps, blowers, and computerized controls to
scrub effluent clean enough that it doesn't require the
bacterial action of a conventional leach field. But for
affluent homeowners more familiar with the flush-and-forget
mentality of suburban sewer lines and centralized treatment
plants, the new systems are causing more than a few headaches.
Unpleasant odors are a commonly reported problem, and frozen
and cracked pipes, clogged filters, damage from construction
vehicles, and even simple electrical short-circuits have
resulted in backed up or overflowing systems that have spilled
raw sewage into the yards of several million-dollar
homes.
County officials investigating these complaints say that
homeowners unfamiliar with the limitations of alternative
septic-system designs contribute to the problem with their
extravagant water-use habits — multiple daily laundry
loads, for example, and reliance on appliances like garbage
disposals and dishwashers that process large amounts of water.
Builders who have installed the systems in their developments
blame the problems on homeowners who don't maintain their
systems, or who ignore system alarms that warn of excessive
water usage.
With the strong national housing market, development pressure
will continue to increase in rapidly disappearing rural areas;
currently, one-third of all new U.S. homes are being built with
a traditional septic system or other on-site system. In areas
like Loudoun County, where the housing market is particularly
hot, builders will continue to take advantage of new (and
expensive) individual sewage treatment system designs so that
they can develop land with marginal soils that would be
unsuited for conventional septic designs. But as more problems
like these surface here and elsewhere, it's clear that builders
of homes with these sophisticated septic systems will need to
do a better job educating their clients in their use. —
Andrew Wormer
Florida Roofers Lack
Comp Coverage
Some 60 percent of all roofing contractors in South Florida
unlawfully neglect to provide their employees with workers'
comp insurance, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported in
July. In a state where roofer and contractor workers' comp
premiums are among the highest in the nation, many roofers
apparently decide to opt out and hope they don't get caught
— despite the fact that the Division of Workers'
Compensation has stepped up enforcement over the past year and
regularly issues fines of up to $100,000 to violators. When
state and local investigators conducted a two-day sweep of
South Florida construction sites in July, they issued more than
100 stop-work orders.
The region has seen the price of a new roof double in the past
year, since four hurricanes wreaked havoc throughout the state;
roofers blame high workers' comp premiums for the price
increase and complain that the premiums make it difficult to
make a profit. Still, it's the workers who pay the biggest
penalty when businesses don't play by the rules, say worker
advocates and code officials; as chief investigator Ron Lewis
of the Palm Beach County Code Enforcement Board says in the
Sun-Sentinel article, "These guys just want to work and support
their families, but if something happens they've got nothing."
— Carrie Braman
Even Tupperware
Can't Fix These Water Problems
How leaky can a 5-year-old house get? Apparently leaky
enough that its owner decided to tear it down and start over.
In a July 24 article, the Naples Daily News reported that a
Florida man recently did just that with his $4 million,
5,000-square-foot home, citing problems with a second-floor
deck that allegedly allowed water to leak into the home and
saturate the floors, walls, and ceilings underneath. The
homeowner is suing the original home builder, who in turn
contends that the problems actually stem from renovations
performed by other contractors less than a year after the home
was completed.
While searching for the source of the water, which had allowed
more than 300 gallons of water to collect in an elevator shaft
and had caused extensive mold throughout the house,
investigators found a number of Tupperware containers screwed
to the framing and drywalled over. The homeowner claims that
the containers are proof that the builder knew about the
problems even before the house was completed. But according to
a former company employee, the Tupperware — intended only
to temporarily protect the home's floors during construction
and to make sure that any existing leakage had stopped —
was accidentally left behind. "If we had known that the leak
was ongoing, we would have also known that the leaking water
would overflow the Tupperware containers," said the employee in
an affidavit.
In the meantime, the original home builder is suing a number of
the home's subcontractors, as well as the contractors who
subsequently were hired by the homeowner to work on the house.
But determining just who is at fault will be difficult, thanks
to conflicting testimony from all parties involved in the case
and only a vacant lot left behind for evidence.
— Andrew Wormer