I have bought a new Meritage home in Katy. Im recently divorced and this home is important to my 17-year old son and I. But, I do have a few problems…
#1) The roof has areas of rippled uneven shingling (See inspector report)
#2) Any pest control ideas for a new home. Should I fill in the gaps in the attic; if so, how?
#3) The house creaks a lot since I moved in (November); but, when the furnace turns on the registers transmit enough clicking and cracking to keep me awake at night.
Gary
Tom’s Answer:
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Tom: And depending when it was put on. If it was put on in cold weather and we finally get a hot summer, it will flatten itself a little bit. Most of the time when you see that lateral is because the decking is sagging in between. If it’s horizontal from side-to-side, then it’s usually the tar paper that’s buckling up underneath there. I’m not sure what the spacing is on the rafters, what the thickness is of the decking, and whether it’s plywood or an OSB but most …
Charlie: I bet you dollars to doughnuts, it’s OSB.
Tom: If it’s OSB, that’s very common. In fact, when it does, if it does flatten out even more, you’ll end up seeing the edges of the OSB. You’ll be able to count how many sheets of OSB are on there. It does mirror through quite regularly.
Charlie: You’d call that postage stamping or something where you get that kind …?
Tom: Window framing.
Charlie: Window framing, that’s it. It was one of those. All right.
Tom: We don’t talk about postage. You know, the price is going up now.
Charlie: Yeah. (Laughter.) Cause God knows the cost of maintaining your house only goes down with time.
Tom: Yes.
Charlie: “Any ideas what I should do?” he writes about pest control. “What’s reasonable to expect? I don’t want to get ripped off. Is there … ? Do I really need to hire somebody or can I do it myself?”
Tom: I don’t think you should do anything at all if you don’t have a problem. I am an anti-poison kind of guy. I don’t have a pest control service at my house. If there is an issue, I’ll deal with it very quickly. One day we got bees in the house, so I had to kill them. You know, if it happens, it happens. To do a poison all the time, all you’re doing is poisoning yourself, your yard, your pets and your family.
Charlie: All right. His last question, and this is really the best of the three here. He says, “When I moved in in November, I heard a lot of creaking. But when the electric furnace turns on, I feel like my house has advanced arthritis. Every register emits so many clicks and cracks that sometimes it wakes me up.” He says, “The house is still under warranty and we had an inspector review the house three times.” The house is important because it’s all they could afford. He wants to take good care of this house. Any advice for him on what these registers situation is, Tom?
Tom: Well, for rattling you can change them to one that doesn’t have moving parts. That could be one thing. The other thing is on furnaces, sometimes the fan speed’s set too high and it becomes really noisy. Have him look at lowering the fan speed if that’s what’s waking you up at night. As far as …
Charlie: [word 02:15] rattling you mean, when the fan hits …
Tom: Yeah, they’ll rattle. And they expand and contract. If they’re metal, they’ll expand and contract because you’re heating them up. You could maybe go to a plastic one. There’s different types of materials you can use if it’s really bugging you. You can try it in your bedroom. Just say change one and if that is the fix, you can do it throughout the house. But all home make noise. It’s just the way it is. This gentleman has a new home, but if he has kids (laughing), that’s going to be the least of your worries.
Charlie: (Laughter.) Well, Gary, God bless you. We hope it goes well. We love you, buddy.