Perhaps the most persistent conversation involved in this construction process, other than the money one, is that about mold.
Everything is based on whether or not mold will form. Even our electrical inspection failed the first time because the electrician used a ribbed plastic tube to encase the condensate from the air conditioning unit. The ribs could conceivably hold minute droplets of water which could then turn into mold. It had to be removed and the lines encased in a smooth sheath.
At the end of the installing the wall insulation, Pat asked Jim if he were going to put the plastic sheeting over it as he did in our home twenty years earlier. Nope, that is old thinking. Water may get trapped in there and create mold. The big debate over whether or not to use cellulose was if it would eventually compress, creating pockets in which mold could form.
A house needs to be seen as a living organism. And I think I means it needs to breathe. This modern craze of ,creating a thermal envelope to my way of thinking, seems to simultaneously be creating perfect places for these tiny mold spores to hide, breed, create bacteria and eventually do some sort of cross-species contamination and eventually kill the creator who is also the mortgagee.
And then where would we be?
I agree that a house/building needs to breathe. I have never understood the craze of a few years ago of constructing buildings which had no windows that would open!! I guess it was in the name of energy efficiency but a lot of those building went on to be "sick" buildings later on.
ReplyDeleteNice still life of the fruit and cheese. BB
Thank you, It was either this picture or one of Egon from Ghostbusters, the "spores, mold and fungi" man.
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