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Solar preheat Here in Florida, and in Arizona and other places with high insolation levels, there are a lot of solar preheat setups, with attendant gains in energy conservation. The good news here is that the initial outlay is usually reimbursed in the first 10 to 15 years, and maintenance is...

condensation Condensation inside walls tends to be a problem here in Florida because of our superior climate. As in hotter and more humid. You can find more ways for structural rot to start here than anywhere else I've ever been, and people here use T111 ply siding on a lot of houses, so...

Yeah, partly because of inclusions. It would be hard to get that close to the ground, too. I'd use a grinder, myself, it's fast.

Actually, pipefitters did use lead-and-oakum, but then the lines between pipefitters and plumbers got blurred sometimes. Pipefitters used to do all the piping in factories, for example. It's certainly true now that plumbers would be the only ones using lead and oakum, if they still are. Any...

Hillbilly burn blanket I've used an old cookie sheet, but don't tell your wife it was my idea. I'm the cook at my house, and if somebody used one of my sheet pans for that, I'd be a little grumpy. However, I'm also the plumber, so I talked myself out of getting bent out of shape about it...

If you've got a side grinder with a cutting wheel, I can't see an objection to cutting it off flush; you should also be able to cut it with a soil pipe cutter, though not as close; and lastly, a porta band will cut it, if you can get the blade angle right. The side grinder's easiest, but watch...

Also from the point of view of function, the longer the run of duct is, the more lint build up you'll get. You might have problems with NFPA, on that issue, but the office copy is in another guy's office.

Do contemporary plumbers use lead-and-oakum much? The pipefitters went to no-hub or neoprene, various new technologies back in the '50s, largely for speed reasons, and I did a few joints when I was a pup, but I haven't seen a new one in a while. I understand lead-and-oakum is still code in New...