[00:00:00] Intro: It's

[00:00:06] Intro: around the house.

[00:00:08] Intro: See, here's what I do. Usually when I walk into a house for instance, and this is, this is some good information. I'll walk in as a designer there. Oh, we're gonna blow this out and do this. It's like, all right, well, let's explore this real quick. So what I typically do is say, Hey, is there a basement down below?

[00:00:23] Intro: If they say yes, great. I go down below and see, is there a wall or a post underneath where that wall is? So I figure out where the wall is upstairs. Mm-hmm I go down below and figure out where that is. And if it's an unfinished basement, it's so easy. Cuz you can see if there's anything that's carrying that load.

[00:00:40] Intro: If it's just normal floor choice and there's not a beam or a post there, that's a good sign.

[00:00:46] Intro: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know,

[00:00:51] Intro: but we've got you covered. This is

[00:00:54] Intro: around the house.

[00:00:55] Eric Goranson: Welcome to around the house with Eric G and Caroline beam. This [00:01:00] is where we talk home improvement every single week.

[00:01:03] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us. We got a great show ahead. Hello Caroline. How's it. On the other side of the country.

[00:01:10] Caroline Blazovsky: Hello everybody. How are you so much going on?

[00:01:13] Eric Goranson: Oh, man, this is gonna be a great episode. And we've even got one following this. That's gonna be absolutely amazing where we're taking it outside. But today let's talk about in this least first couple segments, toxic wood.

[00:01:30] Intro: I ,

[00:01:32] Caroline Blazovsky: that's pretty funny. I actually learned something in this episode. I did not know this. And I mean, I sort of knew it, I think in the back of your mind, you know, that woods can be very aromatic and we're talking about all kinds of lumber mm-hmm and the types of lumber that you use. But I didn't really think.

[00:01:49] Caroline Blazovsky: To this extent that we, you would have to be this careful when you were cutting lumber or storing it or

[00:01:53] Eric Goranson: whatnot, you know, I've been a woodworker over the years, not like had the huge full wood shop, but working in cabinet shops and [00:02:00] stuff. As on the design side of things, there are some woods that you just don't use because it can be a problem.

[00:02:06] Eric Goranson: And some of it can make you pretty sick. It's just. Same with like auto body. If you've got an auto body person that's working in an auto body shop, you can become sensitized to those auto body chemicals. So maybe you're doing all of a sudden one day you can be allergic to lacker thinner, which is what you clean a lot of stuff with.

[00:02:28] Eric Goranson: And then you're kind of outta work. Mm-hmm so it's one of those things. If you didn't wear your respirator over the years, many times, boom. There's one day you wake up and you're sick. You can't get anywhere near it.

[00:02:42] Caroline Blazovsky: Do you know that I dated someone who actually became allergic to the pizza dough flower?

[00:02:48] Caroline Blazovsky: Wow. So their father was owned pizzerias and he had worked in a pizzeria his whole life. And then halfway through, uh, working there, he developed this, I guess, an allergy to the flower, you know how you throw the pizzas [00:03:00] around and he couldn't be around it anymore. Yeah, couldn't do it.

[00:03:03] Intro: Same thing, huh?

[00:03:06] Eric Goranson: Interesting. Yeah.

[00:03:09] Caroline Blazovsky: And now we've got the same thing with wood, but woods these aromatics that they put off or VOCs, yeah. Volatile organic compounds can be highly toxic. So let's kind of dive into the types of wood and the ones that we should stay away

[00:03:22] Eric Goranson: from. Absolutely. You know, and it's funny. You know, wood can be interesting when you're making sawdust, right.

[00:03:28] Eric Goranson: And it's depending on, you know, how your body is sensitized to this stuff. So if you think about wood, you've got different ways of working with it. Maybe you've got something that's very raw, that's not dry. So maybe it's a tree that you cut in your backyard and you're gonna, you know, get a, a mill and cut it up into pieces and dry it out many times that.

[00:03:50] Eric Goranson: You know, cured or RI like kiln dried wood is gonna be more likely to be, to cause a sensitive area with you than not [00:04:00] because many times, uh, you can have like between the bark and the wood, there can be, you know, things in there that are allergens that can get you sensitized to that. So that's some of the things you gotta start out with that could be very problematic.

[00:04:16] Eric Goranson: You know, and that kills

[00:04:17] Caroline Blazovsky: me when they're, when you're out and they're cutting up trees and they throw it into the chipper and they start throwing that air, all that stuff in the air. If they chip that fresh wood, oh my God, my eyes start water. And I feel like it's in my throat. I feel like I've got. Some kind of asthma.

[00:04:32] Caroline Blazovsky: Well,

[00:04:32] Eric Goranson: you think about it, you know, excessive exposure to certain kinds of wood dust, you know, that's sawest can cause ailments, you know, like bronchial asthma, you know, a consistent runny nose, um, you know, a hypersensitivity type to a pneumonia mm-hmm and, uh, ODTs, which is organic dust, toxic syndrome, bronchitis allergic dermatitis.

[00:04:54] Eric Goranson: So there's a lot of things, including which is on the very extreme. This is. All the [00:05:00] time, you know, if you're working with it every day, you can get things like nasal cancers are rare, but they can occur. Uh, especially if you're working all the time in a, you know, like a wood shop where you're working in a furniture shop or, or a cabinet shop, you know, maybe not so much as a hobbyist, but if you're a professional, it absolutely can.

[00:05:22] Eric Goranson: And, um, some of the woods like beach and Oak can cause that. Those are common woods

[00:05:29] Caroline Blazovsky: and common. Those are very common. There was one that you had on the list, which I found fascinating, which was like really toxic. You were familiar with it. And you said, oh, this is something you don't wanna work

[00:05:38] Eric Goranson: with. Yeah.

[00:05:39] Eric Goranson: Let's go down this list. And, um, and talk about this. And one thing we were talking about earlier here, just the, to pay attention to is the microorganisms embark. And there's fungus and stuff that are in there. That can be the problem too. So if you're doing a woodworking project and you've got maybe that raw edge on the outside, that has the bark on it, that's again, one of [00:06:00] those things that you gotta be careful with, but here's kind of one general rule before we dive into name by name on this subtropical and tropical woods typically have the more, you know, they have the biggest reaction out of.

[00:06:17] Eric Goranson: So like even Western red, Cedar Sequoia, Redwood, Coca polo, you know, woods like that are the most likely to cause problems where woods from temper climates are much less extreme. So, you know, like large Walnut Oak beach, UN pine. Have a less of a reaction. Cause pine

[00:06:38] Caroline Blazovsky: is so aromatic. Like we know when we test air quality, a pinine, which is involved.

[00:06:42] Caroline Blazovsky: So organic that comes off pine. We can tell when people have done remodeling and things like that, because they'll have a lot of it in the air. Yeah. So these things have these VOCs, but like Redwood throws me because I love Redwood. I mean, I think, and it seems to me, like, I always thought of that as being like a non sort of toxic, [00:07:00] very aromatically benign.

[00:07:03] Caroline Blazovsky: Well, no, let's here. It's

[00:07:04] Eric Goranson: on the list. Think about this. Redwood is used and Western red, Cedar is used for fences and decks, right? It's because bugs don't eat it.

[00:07:14] Intro: So there's something in Redwood

[00:07:15] Eric Goranson: too. You see what I mean? That's if the bugs don't eat it then guess what? Maybe there's a reason we shouldn't shouldn't eat it either too.

[00:07:22] Eric Goranson: Cause if it's, if they're going, Hey, we're not touching that stuff. Hmm.

[00:07:27] Intro: Maybe that's the issue, right? I've often.

[00:07:29] Caroline Blazovsky: I've often felt that way about Cedar closets because it is, it's got an, an anti or an insecticide sort of built into it. Yeah. So I kind of refuse to put it in my home and I know it's Cedar.

[00:07:40] Caroline Blazovsky: Some people say, oh, I love a Cedar closet. I have it. You know, I have multiple Cedar closets. I don't like that aromatic smell that it gives to my clothes, like after I put them in there. And then also I always felt like, well, if it can kill a bug. Is it really good for me to have in the house exactly. On my clothes all day.

[00:07:55] Eric Goranson: So you think about it, you know, you start going through some of the common woods and we'll do this [00:08:00] before we go out to break, you know, like hard rock maple, very common with cabinetry doing furniture. You know, that is something that, uh, just that dust breathing it in can affect lung function. So just something as simple and benign as hard rock maple.

[00:08:16] Eric Goranson: Is is a little interesting, you know, Alder, which is another softer wood, you know, used in cabinetry furniture. It's, uh, you know, 20 years ago was kind of known as the cheap man's cherry, cuz you could stain it to look a lot like, you know, a mm-hmm a cherry wood. But it's common. It's fairly dangerous to work with as a tree, cutting it down.

[00:08:39] Eric Goranson: You have to be careful with it, but dermatitis, rhinitis, bronchial problems, all from Alder sawdust, which I think is fascinating. Yeah. And then when you start getting into these things, you know, and again, some of these things you don't use a lot of, but again, yellow Birch dermatitis, respiratory problems.[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] Eric Goranson: And again, that's a big one there now, boxwood, which is another one. That's a sensitizer. So you get dermatitis, irritant to eyes, nose, and throat. Remember our

[00:09:10] Caroline Blazovsky: friend Nikki Kruger. At Therma store and Santa Fe products, 50% of the air in your upstairs is from your basement. So when you're doing stuff down there, folks, you have to remember, that's getting upstairs.

[00:09:22] Caroline Blazovsky: 50% of that air is coming up and you're breathing it.

[00:09:25] Eric Goranson: Exactly. So that's another one of those. Now here's some of the more exotic woods you gotta be careful with and let's go out to break here first. Got run out. Hey, the Bill's here we come back. I wanna talk about some of the more toxic stuff. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns, why

[00:09:40] Intro: in

[00:09:46] Intro: should be loud. So hot.

[00:09:55] Intro: So.

[00:09:58] Eric Goranson: Hey, I'm Rudy Wade. And you're listening [00:10:00] to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B, listen to my music to improve

[00:10:03] Intro: your home. I hid your life. You got me thinking about the day we move. You have me singing in your head like your family.

[00:10:12] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round, the house show where we talk home improvement every single weekend.

[00:10:17] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us well. During the commercial break, I decided to go out and take a COVID test. Since I had people, I was at my concert with a few weeks ago here. All of a sudden people are coming down with it. Uh oh.

[00:10:28] Caroline Blazovsky: And you do have a look negative today. Yeah. And you do have a sore throat feel a little congested.

[00:10:32] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. Yeah. So we'll know by the end of the show, does Eric have COVID? Well, no,

[00:10:37] Eric Goranson: so far so good, right?

[00:10:39] Caroline Blazovsky: I don't think you've got it. I think he's just got a cold. I don't think so either.

[00:10:43] Eric Goranson: Yeah, but you know, I don't know, and we're not gonna get into the whole COVID debate, but when you got friends and family that have it, that you're hanging out with a few days ago, we're taking a look at Hmm.

[00:10:51] Eric Goranson: Worth taking a look at, well, we've been talking about toxic woods and you know, I love woodworking, but you gotta be a little careful with this. Right. Mm. And. [00:11:00] You and I dove into this off air like last week and we're like, this is such a great subject. Cause nobody

[00:11:06] Caroline Blazovsky: thinks about it. They just, you know, you don't think when you're cutting a two by four or you're cutting down a tree or you're cutting anything that you could be exposed to something that's potentially toxic and chances are.

[00:11:17] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. A one time instance I'm instance is not gonna make you sick. But if you're a continu, you know, someone who works around it continuously, then yes, you gotta worry and take proper PPE.

[00:11:29] Eric Goranson: Yeah. So like, like great example, Coca, which is another exotic wood. It's beautiful. Love it. That sawdust and the wood.

[00:11:38] Eric Goranson: So not just the sawdust, but even touching the wood and working with it as a sensitizer irritant to skin, nose, and throat, you can get, uh, conjunctivitis, nausea, bronchial, asthma wheezing, chest tightness, and headache. Wow. And that's from the dust and contact with the wood. Interesting. [00:12:00] Ebony, you think about Ebony, you know, used dark wood, beautiful.

[00:12:05] Eric Goranson: You know, you can use it in guitars and musical instruments and you know, all that stuff, right? Yeah. That's too true.

[00:12:10] Intro: Manufacturing.

[00:12:12] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Products, irritant dermatitis, conjunctivitis, sneezing possible skin. Sensitizer so there again, you know, these are things that you've gotta be really careful with. When you're out there working now, one of my favorite ones that I use a lot in woodworking is, uh, SAPI, which is a type of mahogany.

[00:12:31] Eric Goranson: So a lot of times you'll see in cabinetry that mahogany with the wave in it, that's got a really cool look. I use that SAPI mahogany all the time in projects. Uh, love it in kitchen cabinets, skin irritation, sneezing, you know, and it's crazy how much of these things when you're doing it. Um, you know, Ash.

[00:12:51] Eric Goranson: Decrease in lung function, you know, and that's a common wood. So I'm wondering

[00:12:56] Caroline Blazovsky: too, like if you have a sensitivity to any of [00:13:00] these woods and you put Coventry in your house, could it cause an issue like we know woods have formaldehide in them all the time, which can contribute. That's a naturally occurring thing.

[00:13:08] Caroline Blazovsky: Like if you have a wood allergy to pine, would you be sneezing?

[00:13:13] Eric Goranson: Probably not just because you know, you, when you, when finished cabinetry is really sealed on all sides. Mm. So it's got a layer of finish over it. So there's not much to that where you would still see that. Now, if you're in there cutting moldings and stuff.

[00:13:27] Eric Goranson: Yeah, absolutely. You could during construction, but after it's done, it's pretty sealed off. If it was finished correctly, there's not part of that wood that's really exposed and you'd have to be really, really sensitive. You're not really touching the cabinetry that much anyway. And the places you are, there's multiple layers of finish.

[00:13:48] Caroline Blazovsky: We are talking, um, in the midweek special. So if you are listening on the radio or the podcast, my mom had an instance where she put in new flooring. And they

[00:13:58] Eric Goranson: got, oh, you just, you just outed there [00:14:00] by the way, Caroline. Cause we said, we didn't say who it was.

[00:14:07] Eric Goranson: let's let's

[00:14:08] Intro: do this. Oh, she's gonna get me. She's going get me.

[00:14:17] Caroline Blazovsky: But she did have an instance. They were cutting all of the wood in her home and she got wood dust everywhere and she woke up the next day, like short of breath. and, you know, and with a big mess on our hands. So this can easily happen when contractors come in to do work, you can end up with a nightmare.

[00:14:35] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Here's another wood that I love working with. Win gay. It. Is very dangerous splinters go septic. Oh yeah. This is my irritation of eyes, skin and respiratory system dermatitis. Gidiness drowsiness visual problems, stomach cramps, and sensitizer. And that's what the dust and the wood you got

[00:14:57] Caroline Blazovsky: me at go septic in splinters go [00:15:00] septic.

[00:15:00] Caroline Blazovsky: And there was something about Doug fur. Wasn't Doug fur. One of the ones that had used that too. Oh my. I'm afraid of wood. Here's one

[00:15:08] Eric Goranson: that I here's one that I knew that I don't, it's a, it's a very exotic wood, but a bur and again, not one, not a common wood that you could get at the home center. That one from Dustin spliners causes vomiting, nausea, GIDE irritation, and the short splinters are nearly impossible to remove.

[00:15:29] Eric Goranson: Oh my God.

[00:15:31] Caroline Blazovsky: See,

[00:15:33] Eric Goranson: so dangerous. Right? Very dangerous. Scary. And again, you know, it's, depending on what, you know, how you're, how you are with this stuff, you could probably, there will be people right now that are listening to the show that are going, I've done this for 30 years and I've not had problem

[00:15:50] Caroline Blazovsky: issue.

[00:15:50] Caroline Blazovsky: Of course,

[00:15:51] Eric Goranson: there's always that. And, and you're a hundred percent, right. I know guys that worked in wood shops for 40 years that had not a single issue with [00:16:00] this, but, and then somebody that works in there for seven could have major health issues. Well at any. So this is not an exact science at any

[00:16:09] Caroline Blazovsky: given time, too.

[00:16:10] Caroline Blazovsky: You can get a piece of wood in your eye. I mean, that I've hap it's happened to me so many times, like a little splinter or just, you know, debris from the wood in your eye turns all nasty and you get conjunctivitis is, yeah.

[00:16:23] Eric Goranson: I mean, I've worked with purple heart before, um, that can make you feel not great.

[00:16:27] Eric Goranson: Uh, that's nasal irritation, nausea. I've had that happen to me, uh, spruce another one, respiratory problems, irritation to nose and. Pine irritant decrease in lung function, allergic bronchial, asthma, rhinitis, and dermatitis.

[00:16:44] Caroline Blazovsky: What's with the dug fur. Cause that's my thing. I'm always,

[00:16:47] Intro: we'll get to that. We'll get to that.

[00:16:48] Intro: We're

[00:16:48] Eric Goranson: working down the list. We're not gonna cut and cutting in line here. So American cherry common wheezing gidiness that explains all the craziness that [00:17:00] happened out in the wood shop at times. ,

[00:17:03] Intro: you know, you Giness, that's like.

[00:17:07] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Might might explain our show sometimes. and then . Here we go. Caroline, Doug fur see dermatitis, nasal cancer.

[00:17:18] Eric Goranson: Think about that. Mm.

[00:17:20] Intro: I use a lot of Doug fur.

[00:17:23] Caroline Blazovsky: How's your COVID test coming

[00:17:24] Intro: over there.

[00:17:25] Eric Goranson: Let's see.

[00:17:28] Intro: Negative. Of course you got a cold. I got a cold. I'm glad I'm, I'll be fine. I'm glad about that,

[00:17:38] Eric Goranson: Doug. First spliners go septic. Ah,

[00:17:40] Caroline Blazovsky: that's the one guys. Don't get spliners. So how do I protect myself? What do I need?

[00:17:47] Caroline Blazovsky: I need PPE. I need gloves,

[00:17:49] Eric Goranson: you know? Carolyn. That's a really good question because safety precautions are big when you're working with wood, you know, and again, that traditional basement woodworking is [00:18:00] not the best place in the house due to, like we talked about earlier, everything going up inside the house mm-hmm but the best rules are working in a well ventilated, well ventilated area with adequate dust extraction system.

[00:18:14] Eric Goranson: So the rules in that are, are pretty easy. But always checked to see what OSHA in your area says is the safest way. There are actually codes for that. So you can follow that. There you go, guys. So be careful. All right. And we come back, let's run out to break here. Carolyn, we come back. Yeah, let's get into the debate of load bearing walls.

[00:18:34] Eric Goranson: Can you open that space up or not? Sound good.

[00:18:38] Intro: Yeah.

[00:18:38] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm both of these topics. I'm learning something. I

[00:18:41] Eric Goranson: like it. All right. We'll do that. Just as soon as around the house

[00:18:44] Intro: returns.

[00:18:54] Intro: Hey guys, you're listening to

[00:18:55] Eric Goranson: around the house with Eric, Jean Caroline, B Zeke sky. And I'm gonna [00:19:00] show you how to shred

[00:19:00] Intro: it out while you're building it up.

[00:19:11] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the, around the house show where we talk home improvement every single week. Hey, if you want to get ahold. A lot of different ways you can do that. Head over to the website around the house, online.com. You can contact us there. We're on social media. We're just about everywhere out there.

[00:19:27] Eric Goranson: So Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. We have our own closed group on Facebook, which is around the house nation. That is where we have a closed group there. So make sure you join up to that. So Carolyn, we're gonna dive into a deep subject that is always a hot one load bearing walls.

[00:19:48] Caroline Blazovsky: And it's always confusing, cuz I like am the type of person that loves to take walls out.

[00:19:52] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm like, God, just take it out. I want open space.

[00:19:55] Eric Goranson: Which could be, how many times do you see that on HDTV? Yes. I mean, it's like, it's, it's like the [00:20:00] beginning of every demo day show, right? Mm-hmm , they're in there with the sled Shaer and the saw all, and they're pushing the wall down and they've got the glasses and the boots and half of these people, you can tell, they don't even know how to use power tools they have in their hands, but that's just what it is.

[00:20:17] Eric Goranson: Here's the problem though, that wall could easily be holding up. The upper floor or the ceiling of that house. And that could be a huge issue. And so a lot

[00:20:28] Caroline Blazovsky: of the criteria that I look at online, so we were looking at like, what they tell you online, don't go buy it because it's absolutely false. Like they were saying, if it runs parallel to your choice, it's okay.

[00:20:40] Caroline Blazovsky: No, it's not. I I've seen it where that is not true.

[00:20:45] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And here's, here's what it is so that you think of load is load is where you have a point that is carrying weight from the top all the way down to the foundation. But the problem is, is that you can have beams that span below [00:21:00] that carry the load that move that over to the side.

[00:21:03] Eric Goranson: So you can have it where it goes over, goes down, goes over, goes down. So you really have to have a full understanding. And the only real way to know if it is truly load bearing is to get the structural engineer involved and have them take a look at it and say no load, but here's the technical part of it.

[00:21:22] Eric Goranson: There's always a little load on everything. Almost always. There's a little bit of load there. Interesting. So here's one of the rules that I have. And again, I've been doing this for years and. You know, that's the common thing is okay. If the, if the Jo, you know, above or the ceiling above runs parallel, maybe, but what can happen is, is that floor joist or anything else up there could have a, a, a wall that's above that.

[00:21:49] Eric Goranson: If you're on a first floor and maybe you've got bedrooms upstairs, right. And you're gonna blow out that wall between the dining room and the kitchen. Mm-hmm , you're gonna open it up. We're gonna have a great room right [00:22:00] here. This is gonna be amazing. Problem is, is you could have a beam upstairs that comes over and lands on that floor joist.

[00:22:07] Eric Goranson: Right? Of course. And that wall is carrying that down to the basement. So, oh, it's running perpendicular. Yeah. It's no problem. Ah, you might have to put a, you might have to sister up that floor joist. It's above it and make it thicker, like a beam to carry the load and move it out to the outside walls. And that's where you need that engineer to specify.

[00:22:27] Eric Goranson: If you can just put up another few, two by tens or whatever you have to do up there to carry that load.

[00:22:33] Caroline Blazovsky: I like to take wall. Does that make sense? Yeah, no. I've taken out the wall between my dining room and living room. I've taken out the wall in the. Basement, which was sort of like a utility room that went into a, like, not a utility room, but a room that was sort of attached to the utility room that went into the living area space.

[00:22:52] Caroline Blazovsky: So I made it all bigger there mm-hmm um, But yeah, it was, I mean, it was kind of complicated and you're relying on the contractor. You're hoping [00:23:00] your contractor knows what they're doing, cuz that's what I did cuz I wasn't really sure it wasn't. Yeah. You know, clear

[00:23:05] Intro: cut.

[00:23:06] Eric Goranson: So here's what I do usually when I walk into a house for instance, and this is, this is some good information.

[00:23:11] Eric Goranson: I'll walk in as a designer there. Oh, we're gonna blow this out and do this. It's like, all right, well let's explore this real quick. So, what I typically do is say, Hey, is there a basement down below? And if they say yes, great, I go down below and see, is there a wall or a post underneath where that wall is?

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: So I figure out where the wall is upstairs. Mm-hmm I go down below and figure out where that is. And if it's an unfinished basement, it's so easy. Cuz you can see if there's anything that's carrying that load. If it's just normal floor choice and there's not a beam or a post there, that's a good sign. Hm.

[00:23:46] Eric Goranson: Okay. There's nothing. That's carrying that down to the foundation down here. That's outta the ordinary. So that's a good sign. And then you have to go up and kinda look in the space above it, whether it's the floor above, or if there's an attic space, you know, many [00:24:00] times if you have an older home, that's like Pret trusses, right?

[00:24:03] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm , you know, the, the trusses with the stamped metal plates on them. That's the ceiling system up there for the roof. If you've got that. You're pretty good. Many times that's designed to span the space up above it, where it gets more interesting is when they framed it, stick, framed it like they did in the forties or the thirties, the twenties, or before that, because sometimes there'll be like one brace that comes down in lands right over the top of that.

[00:24:28] Eric Goranson: Now you got, uh, You know, hundreds of pounds of load versus thousands of pounds of load. I

[00:24:33] Caroline Blazovsky: had to brace, um, a support beam in the attic, which was really interesting. One day my contractor went up there and I can't remember what we were doing, you know, what we were looking for. And he's like, wow. He's like your support beams actually got a crack in it.

[00:24:47] Caroline Blazovsky: And I'm like, oh my God, that was in the, and so he had to, they had to brace that. So that's a good thing to look for too. Like if you're ever up in your attic or places where you can see this type of structure basement too, you know, you should always check out for this kind of stuff, cuz it can happen [00:25:00] over time storms, you know, distribution win.

[00:25:03] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah.

[00:25:03] Eric Goranson: Let's, let's dive off on that for a second. Cuz one of the biggest problems you see out there with load like that is those posts in the basement. So you think about the post that goes up, you know, your typical basement, old basement floor. So you got a wood post that's, maybe a four by four or six by six.

[00:25:21] Eric Goranson: That's holding things up. Mm-hmm the problem is, is that post many times is just sitting there with the ingrained on the floor. That's taking moisture and the moisture is doing what a tree does. Right. Mm-'s sucking that up. Capillary action right up the top. So as the years go by, you don't see it. That post gets weaker 32nd, shorter, 32nd, shorter and weaker.

[00:25:46] Eric Goranson: 32nd shorter. And all of a sudden it's getting shorter, which means you've got now a dip in the floor. Mm-hmm so that's the key right there is to make sure. That, that post isn't sitting down there [00:26:00] with some kind of a, a vapor barrier piece underneath it, it could be a piece of tar shingle. It could be, you know, a piece of tar paper, something to keep moisture from ING up in the bottom of that post orgo steel.

[00:26:13] Caroline Blazovsky: Now, when you go into a basement and you see all of those, you know, usually I see 'em here on the Northeast, but a lot of those metal or steel poles, right. That run through a basement, that's all your support for the first floor.

[00:26:26] Eric Goranson: Yeah, so great example. I think I've talked about this on the radio before we had a house that I was in and they had a sump pump that was pumping that troughing system around the outside mm-hmm and it was faulty.

[00:26:38] Eric Goranson: They'd designed this poorly and it was taking the soil up from underneath the foundation. So if that house would've sank, cuz there was a void underneath the foundation walls. It would've the walls. Would've moved down about a foot, but the post in the middle wouldn't have moved. So all of a sudden it would've pushed the floor up in the middle.

[00:26:55] Eric Goranson: Oh, a foot. So it would've just like been a back breaker, right? Just, [00:27:00] it would've shoved the middle of the house. Would've been like jacking the middle of the house up by a foot. Would've been like a pyramid

[00:27:05] Caroline Blazovsky: shape. Everything

[00:27:06] Eric Goranson: on the side would come down. Yeah. Would've just shoved everything up. Destroyed the house.

[00:27:10] Eric Goranson: Hmm. So that's very key in that. And that's why, you know, when you're talking about posts in a basement, one, you want to have 'em so they're not getting shorter. You wanna make sure if they are, it's not a bad DIY project to replace those. And we can talk about that, but those structural posts are key. And the nice thing is, is you wanna make sure they're fastened down to the concrete footing?

[00:27:34] Eric Goranson: Correct? Because if you have an earthquake or something happen, mm-hmm , you don't want those things to kick out. You want them to stay exactly where they are. And that's one of the things. When you pay to have an earthquake retrofit done in these old homes, they will brace those down to the floor below they'll screw into the concrete.

[00:27:54] Eric Goranson: Fasten there. And then they will Fasten all those floor Joice beams and posts with middle [00:28:00] brackets together. So you have one solid system. So it doesn't, you know, get moved off the foundation. It's interesting

[00:28:07] Caroline Blazovsky: because I think in my attic, going back to this reinforcing of the, of the sport beam, That probably happened from a storm or wind she or something that we had during, I would suspect one of the big hurricanes that we had.

[00:28:19] Caroline Blazovsky: So these, yeah. These things do all kinds of stuff, whether it's an earthquake or any kind of, you know, massive. Um, sheer wind or, or, or a pressure on the house it creates yeah. You know, these structural issues.

[00:28:32] Eric Goranson: Okay. Well, when we come back, let's talk a little bit more about that, and I think that's a good topic to tie into this.

[00:28:37] Eric Goranson: We'll do that just as soon is around the house returns.[00:29:00]

[00:29:06] Intro: Hi everybody. I'm

[00:29:08] Eric Goranson: AMA

[00:29:10] Intro: froms, bam. And you are listening to around the house with. She and the beautiful Caroline.

[00:29:24] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round. The house show we've been talking today. About a number of different topics. We're talking about poisonous wood that we were wood working with. And now we're talking about making sure that that load bearing wall, if you remove it is well load bearing or not right, Caroline.

[00:29:40] Eric Goranson: Right.

[00:29:41] Caroline Blazovsky: Is it okay to take a wall out during construction and how do you know? So give me like a clue if I'm, and I'm chopping away at that drywall and I break through the wall. Is there something I should be looking for or see, that's gonna say uhoh Karen. Don't do that.

[00:29:54] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Stop. Yeah. I wanna talk about this.

[00:29:57] Eric Goranson: This is another thing we'll talk about too, is gonna be some bracing [00:30:00] and stuff and, and tying that down. Cuz we were talking about that before we go out to break. But one of the things that I wanna make sure is is that yeah. That when you're tearing that out, there's a lot of rumors out there. If it's got a double top plate, like two, two by four stacked on top for each other mm-hmm it's load bearing.

[00:30:14] Eric Goranson: No, not necessarily could be that. They just built it that way. Doesn't have to be that they built it one way to be load bearing. I mean, it's, it's a clue. These are all clues, but those are things to take a look at. But many times we have to be careful with is if you start to see like a low a, a, a hallway, like down the middle of the house, right?

[00:30:37] Eric Goranson: You got this hallway wall that goes down the middle of the house, and maybe it stops for a little bit and then continues on in the kitchen. Mm-hmm very easily. That could be two pieces of wood resting on that. And that is that scissor point. That's holding it up. Mm-hmm so those middle of the span walls, you gotta be very careful with.

[00:30:55] Eric Goranson: I've had soffits in the kitchen where they're built down, [00:31:00] be structural. I've had that little pantry cabinet be structural, cuz they had to hide a post and it's in the side of the pantry. So they, oh, let's make a pantry out of it. And you're thinking I'm just taking a closet out. How bad can it be? Well, it can be pretty bad.

[00:31:15] Intro: Hmm.

[00:31:17] Eric Goranson: So really the first thing you want to do is, is have that, you know, have your structural engineer come out and take a look at it. I don't even trust a lot of contractors on it. I will really want if you're taking out a wall that could be structural. I want that absolute. Nope. You're good. Take it out.

[00:31:35] Caroline Blazovsky: And also windows. Like, I like to expand windows all the time and make them bigger. And Eric really made me aware of the fact that, you know, you've gotta be careful when you're doing that. Cuz it's going to change the sheer on the home. It does all types of things. So that guess who I've got in my phone now?

[00:31:48] Caroline Blazovsky: Structural engineer. Yeah. He's on my speed dial.

[00:31:50] Eric Goranson: Cause we got people are going what's sheer. Well, think about it racking, you know like when you, you build a building up or a shed and it's kind of moving sideways where it's kind of [00:32:00] coming out of square. Leaning. That's what shear is. Mm-hmm and so that's what those sheets do.

[00:32:05] Eric Goranson: So the more windows, the more shear. So sometimes you have to put steel in. There's a perfect, I've had to do steel walls.

[00:32:12] Intro: See? So here's just

[00:32:15] Caroline Blazovsky: take stuff out. No, you gotta have professionals to make sure you can do it. No.

[00:32:19] Eric Goranson: And I wanna talk about this here too, cuz this is something that's very, you know, while you're doing these projects, I want you to be putting in the right anchors.

[00:32:30] Eric Goranson: And brackets that would be normally used in code today, like Carolina and your neck of the woods. I would start as I'm remodeling. I would start putting in some of the hurricane tie mountains that you see maybe down in Florida, the Carolinas, right? Mm-hmm so I'm gonna be speaking of Florida, I'm gonna be down for the Southeastern building conference MCing down there, August 3rd and fourth.

[00:32:56] Eric Goranson: In, uh, Kissimee Florida at the Gaylor convention center. [00:33:00] So come down and say, hi, the reason why I'm mentioning that is I'm gonna be talking down there doing a presentation with quick time. Mm-hmm . These are guys that build those straps and cables that hold walls and stuff down during hurricanes. So they actually have a cable that you can string all the way up that wall from the foundation.

[00:33:21] Eric Goranson: It goes in and ties that top plate down and the cable goes down and attaches to the foundation that holds the it's basically a tension tie that holds the top of the roof down onto the foundation. Amazing. So that's where those, you know, those it's like giant

[00:33:39] Caroline Blazovsky: tiedowns for your house. Yeah,

[00:33:41] Intro: absolutely.

[00:33:41] Intro: It's

[00:33:41] Eric Goranson: it's dripping. Yeah. So it goes through it, bolts up, it grabs the side of the truss in your roof. You drill a hole and that quick tie goes all the way down and ties in down below. So it makes it, so you've got something that's gonna be really strong. It's not just that little hurricane clip. That you have, you've actually got a [00:34:00] cable that's holding the whole thing down and you're not pulling that apart.

[00:34:03] Eric Goranson: So it's really a key to providing that structure.

[00:34:06] Caroline Blazovsky: When would you install that? Like if you're putting in windows, taken out a window, like a big project,

[00:34:11] Eric Goranson: or how is that coming? You know, I would do it if I have an exterior wall opened up mm-hmm , you know, if I've got the wall opened up and it's going down to the basement or, or a crawl space, if that wall was opened up with the dry walls out, wouldn't be bad.

[00:34:23] Eric Goranson: I need to put some of those in.

[00:34:25] Caroline Blazovsky: How many do you need, like, say on a, let's say you had a 2000 square foot house, like a rectangle

[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: platform. Let's just say, you know, it, that's hard. It, you really have to engineer that in there. And code's gonna tell you that too, like in Florida, but I would at least want to have it around doors and window openings and in the corners, you know, each corner tying that corners down and then in the middle around doors and openings interest.

[00:34:49] Eric Goranson: That way you've got it. And man, you do that and you're pretty good. You know, that's really gonna hold stuff down. And again, that's gonna help too in a, in an earthquake cuz how many [00:35:00] times do I see with tornadoes? Right? That house gets, you see the house, but it's off the foundation. Hmm. So many homes were built back in the day before 1960s code in most places didn't require you to have any faster to hold the wood.

[00:35:15] Eric Goranson: It was just sitting on the foundation.

[00:35:17] Caroline Blazovsky: I wonder if my house is like that. It's 1960. It's probably sitting on the foundation,

[00:35:22] Eric Goranson: toss a coin. You have a place where you can see up there, it's unfinished in the ceiling, or you can see the floor dress.

[00:35:29] Intro: Mm. I don't know. I'd have to take

[00:35:33] Eric Goranson: a look. Laundry room, utility room.

[00:35:35] Eric Goranson: That's unfinished ceiling. No.

[00:35:38] Caroline Blazovsky: But, I mean, I've, I've been up there. I don't think I've ever looked for that particular

[00:35:41] Eric Goranson: thing in the basement. Take a look up in there, cuz there'll be a, you can put your hand up on the flat wood, which is the seal plate and you'll feel a bolt. Yeah.

[00:35:49] Intro: Oh, I'll have to,

[00:35:50] Caroline Blazovsky: you know where I can look, I have a, um, crawl space under the stairs where you can kind of go through.

[00:35:55] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh yeah. You can see up onto the so plate and all that I'll look. Yeah. I'm just looking for a, I've never seen it [00:36:00] though. Would I notice

[00:36:01] Eric Goranson: it? You won't notice it probably, but you, you know, put a glove on cuz there could be spiders and crap up there, but you know, just reach up there and feel if there's a bolt.

[00:36:08] Eric Goranson: If there's not, then yeah. Then that's just the weight of the house, holding it down to the foundation. Uh,

[00:36:14] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm gonna check it out. I'll let you guys know next week.

[00:36:16] Eric Goranson: Yeah. But then mm-hmm, , that's an easy fix though. You can go through now this requires drywall patching. You can go through and put those hurricane straps, which you bolt into the concrete, into the top of the wood and you can strap the whole house down that lamp.

[00:36:32] Eric Goranson: You know, you see that with, with, with tornadoes, especially, you know, in the Midwest, you'll see houses just completely. They look like they just got picked up and put in the middle of the road.

[00:36:42] Caroline Blazovsky: And you know, a friend of mine just told me today, I was texting with him this morning. They just had a tornado and got substantial damage in Maryland.

[00:36:49] Caroline Blazovsky: You know, these things are happening all over. You know, we used to think like, oh, you're in tornado alley or you're in Texas or Oklahoma or Tennessee, you're gonna get these really bad tornadoes. Pretty much you're [00:37:00] open to this happening anywhere. So it sounds like just good safety.

[00:37:03] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I mean, it just happens.

[00:37:05] Eric Goranson: It just happens. I mean, you take one of these, one of these older homes and they've literally just been lifted up and moved, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, it just wasn't attached to the foundation anymore. So these are things you wanna be careful with. I mean, I'll show you a picture right here.

[00:37:22] Eric Goranson: That's just a, a great example of that. You know, where the wind came through. And literally blew it right off the foundation. And that's only because, oh, look at

[00:37:34] Caroline Blazovsky: that. I had it. Sorry. I had to look at his picture closer. Yeah. It looks like it, it almost looks like you have a garden in front of the house because the house has been moved off the foundation.

[00:37:42] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. So I had to look and this whole, the whole house is in the back of the foundation. But it looks like it's like a Decker porch now.

[00:37:49] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It looks like a Decker porch, but that's the crawlspace. Oh man. So those are serious things, you know, serious things to consider when you're working on the house.

[00:37:58] Eric Goranson: And, and these are things that I want you to [00:38:00] think about while you're taking out walls and doing this stuff, make sure that you've got, you know, add those right footings down below if you're moving stuff, you know, that's part of the process too, is when you get that structural and engineer involved and I just kind of wanna wrap it around this really nicely.

[00:38:16] Eric Goranson: Many times when you have to put a beam in, they're gonna say, okay, you're gonna put a beam, you got it. But then all of a sudden down in the basement, you might have to dig up where that post is now and put in a, a four foot by four foot footing down there to carry the new weight up above. So you might have to do some work in the basement or a big, huge post and, and peer in the crawl space just to carry that load.

[00:38:43] Eric Goranson: So it doesn't ever move. Cuz you think about many old homes that concrete on your basement floor is only inch or two. It could be a rat slab where it's less than an inch

[00:38:50] Caroline Blazovsky: thick. Yeah. Like this picture, he just showed us. You can't see it. You should post this on, around the house, but yeah, it's literally the house has just been moved backwards and you see like, it looks like almost like maybe [00:39:00] four or five rows of brick, you know, it just looks like this really light foundation.

[00:39:04] Caroline Blazovsky: It's like, you

[00:39:04] Eric Goranson: just went out my pop and just tapped. And it's spun out, you know, it's like the house spun off its foundation.

[00:39:10] Caroline Blazovsky: If you're building now. I mean, in these times, I think it would be smart just to have this as a, as an extra added thing. Yeah. I mean, it just doesn't, it doesn't seem,

[00:39:18] Eric Goranson: but Hey Carolina, hear the music, you know what that means?

[00:39:20] Eric Goranson: It's time to go. I'm Eric G. And I'm

[00:39:24] Caroline Blazovsky: Caroline

[00:39:24] Eric Goranson: B and you've been

[00:39:25] Intro: listening to around the house.