Here is a problem that is specific to where we work, and that almost nobody connects to the symptom. Modern lighting is electronics. An LED head has a driver. Low-voltage track has a transformer. Both are rated to operate within an ambient temperature range, and that rating assumes a normal indoor environment. An attic in the Inland Empire in August is not a normal indoor environment. Unvented attic space here routinely runs far above the outdoor air temperature, and the elec

Drainage contractors sell pipe, because pipe is a visible, billable thing. Grade is dirt moved around, and it is the better first answer far more often than it gets used. Grade does not clog. It has no moving parts. It does not need to be cleaned out or replaced. And it is the only drainage tool that works without anyone remembering it exists. The number that matters at the house The residential code expects the ground around a foundation to fall away from the structure — a m

Landscaping and hardscape get designed by different people, or by the same person at different times, and they are treated as separate systems. They are not. Every tree and every shrub in a yard is slowly interacting with everything built around it. The damage shows up years later, and by then the cause is thirty feet tall. How roots actually lift concrete Roots do not push concrete up by force of growth in the way people imagine. What happens is that a root grows under a sla

Fences fail from the bottom. The boards outlive the posts, the posts outlive nothing, and when a fence goes over in a windstorm it almost never breaks in the middle of a panel — it goes at the ground line. Which means everything that matters about a fence happens in a hole that gets filled in on day one. The two ways a post fails Wood rots at the ground line. Not below it, where there is less oxygen, and not above it, where it dries. Right at the transition, where the wood is

An irrigation leak is one of the few plumbing problems that can run for months without anyone noticing, because the water goes into the ground and the ground is supposed to be wet. The first sign is usually the bill. The second is a patch of lawn that is greener than everything around it, or a soft area that never dries out. The good news is that a buried system gives up its secrets in a fairly orderly way, if you work through it before you dig. Step one: is it the irrigation

An outdoor fireplace is the tallest, heaviest, hottest thing in most backyards. It concentrates a lot of weight on a small footprint and then cycles between ambient temperature and several hundred degrees. Those two facts explain essentially every failure we are called to look at. Failure one: the footing This is the most common and the most expensive. A masonry fireplace needs a footing designed for its weight, thick enough, extending beyond the structure on all sides, on so

Structural water damage is not an event. It is the end of a process that has been visible for years, in small signs that look like cosmetic issues. This is a walk-around you can do yourself in twenty minutes, twice a year. The best time is the day after a real storm, because that is when the evidence is fresh. Outside: start at the base of the walls Soil or mulch above the slab line On a stucco house there is a weep screed at the bottom of the wall — a metal edge that lets mo

There is one distinction that makes drainage make sense, and once you have it the rest is straightforward. Is the water on top of the ground, or in the ground? Surface water is fast and it has volume. Subsurface water is slow and it saturates. They need different equipment, and most disappointing drainage jobs are a subsurface solution applied to a surface problem, or the reverse. Downspout drainage — start here, always A roof is the largest water-collecting surface on your p

Collecting water is the easy half of drainage. Catch basins, pipe, trench — that is plumbing, and it is solvable on any lot. The hard half is the sentence at the end: and then it goes where? On tract lots in Corona, Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, where grade differences are small and houses are close, that question is where most drainage projects actually get decided. The grade you are supposed to have The residential code expects the ground to fall away from the foundation — a

French drains have a reputation problem, and it is deserved. A large share of them stop working within a few years, and homeowners conclude that French drains do not work. They work. What fails is almost always one of three things, and none of them is the pipe. What a French drain actually is A trench, a perforated pipe at the bottom, clean drainage rock around it, and filter fabric separating the rock from the surrounding soil. Water in the soil moves into the rock because t

Let us start with the thing contractors say and homeowners do not believe: all concrete cracks. It is true, and it is not an excuse. Concrete shrinks as it cures, it moves with temperature, and it sits on ground that moves. The question is never whether a slab will crack. It is whether the crack is cosmetic, whether it is going to get worse, and whether it is a symptom of something underneath. Here is how to read yours. Crazing — a fine web of shallow lines Looks like a dried

A paver patio that is going wrong tells you exactly what is wrong, if you know how to read it. The pattern of the failure points at the cause, and the cause decides whether this is a weekend repair or a rebuild. Almost none of these are paver defects. The pavers are usually fine. They are being moved by something underneath them. Read the pattern It sank in one spot, with clean edges A localized dip with the surrounding field still flat usually means something under that spot

A wired doorbell is one of the simplest circuits in a house, and it is also one of the most commonly misdiagnosed — because the part people replace first is almost never the part that failed. If you want the straightforward installation walkthrough, that is in simplifying doorbell setup. This one is about the circuit and the three failures. How the circuit actually works Three components and a loop: A transformer, wired into household power somewhere out of sight, stepping th

Don't be a DIW...(Do It Worselfer)... At some point, even the most serious professional needs help, it's construction after all, and construction is not something that it's done alone. It's much worse for a DIYer. In bathroom remodels, there are some simple DIYer tasks that can be done by yourself and sometimes relying on little help from your spouse, kids, friends, and neighbors... ...but the fact is that you will run into situations in which a Pro could solve easily. The F

Video of Balcony collapse in Malibu, CA. This could be 100% prevented with preventive maintenance and an annual structural assessment.

Air conditioners, furnaces, and heat pumps are also known as HVAC help regulate the temperature in your home and make it more comfortable. To ensure that your heating and cooling systems remain effective and efficient, regular maintenance is needed, filters replaced, grills cleaned, etc... Preventative checkups and maintenance prolong the life of your systems. That is why warranties are only valid if you performed the required maintenance! Maintenance requirements vary depend

Learn How Building Permits Made Easy Solving The Real Problems Renovations without permits can become a real headache. That is why we felt to make a video to address a real problem, which is - - why we have unpermitted structures and how to make building permits easier to get! Can People Build Without Permits? Why do people try to build without permits? If you live in Los Angeles and the adjacent cities, the short answer for the first question is NO! You cannot build structu

Everyone knows that when the spring arrives, its time to make the maintenance needed in your Home Spring tips Replace your furnace filter Clean the kitchen exhaust hood and air filter Check your electrical system Always have a multi-purpose fire extinguisher accessible. Make sure the light bulbs in all your fixtures are the correct wattage Review your fire escape plan with your family Consider installing a lightning protection system on your home Protect all your electrical a

This blog post explains how slow hot water happens in the first place and how to prevent it from happening if you are building or fix it .

Here is the number that should decide how you think about retaining walls: saturated soil weighs far more than dry soil, and water trapped behind a wall adds a pressure that grows with depth on top of the soil pressure the wall was designed for. A wall engineered for dry backfill and then subjected to a saturated one is carrying a load nobody designed it to carry. That is hydrostatic pressure, and it is the leading cause of retaining wall failure. Almost every retaining wall