Carpentry and your house
hire Carpenters but know facts about carpentry first.
First Carpentry is an art
Here at The Ultimate Handyman, we serve the Los Angeles area as the premier Carpentry experts. If you need any repairs or have any projects that require carpentry, we can help! Rest assured that when you use us you will receive the ultimate service and the highest quality.
Dr. Seuss of Carpentry:
At the risk of sounding like a general contractor version of Dr. Seuss, to validate our credentials, here is a partial list of the work we do.
Floor framing: frame layout, frame construction, termite prevention; exterior wall framing, heavy timber, decks, sheathing, millwork;
Interior rough work: partitions and ceiling joists; backing, blocking, and bases; steel framing;
Roof framing: gable and gambrel roofs, hip roofs, intersecting roofs, shed roofs, trussed roofs, dormers;
Finishing carpentry: railings; pre-finished paneling, board paneling, ornamental woodwork, wood screens and shutters…
Stair framing: stairways and stairwells; stair layout and construction;
In a box, with a fox, with a mouse, in a house (especially in a house)…you get the picture.
our carpentry links:
What causes Dry Rot and Wood Decay:
Carpentry Magic
Starts where?
The first and most important thing to do once decay is discovered, is to figure out where it started.
If it is not wood destroying insects, it is water. So we have to figure out where the water is coming from and fix the leak or water penetration. If it is insect damage, call professional exterminators first!
For water damage, in order to check for the origin of the problem, start by checking for the obvious – roof and plumbing leaks, and missing or punctured flashing.
If the problem is not obvious, look for stains and follow any dripping tracks outside and inside of walls.
Another very common problem, is the size of your eves. Are your eaves wide enough to prevent water from cascading down sidewalls?
In addition gutters are a big culprit. Are gutters poorly maintained or missing?
Damage at the bottom?
Grading create other water leaks inside that create dry rot and other major problems. Do finish grades slope towards or away from the foundation? Are foundation cracks not waterproofed, if not, is it admitting water?
Other reason why carpentry is needed to repair structural or non-structural lumber, is when water pools on or is too close to it. Is untreated wood in direct contact with concrete, masonry, or soil? Check to see if crawl spaces have soil covers, and if venting and/or insulation is present, adequate, and properly placed.
Damage at the top?
The same goes for attics and spaces in between roof and the ceiling of your home.
Other tale telling signs of wood repairs needed:
Carpentry saves structures
Moisture and Water Vapors Cause Damage Too.
Peeling and blistering paint often signal inadequate interior ventilation, or a missing vapor retarder, which in turn creates the ideal conditions for wood rot.
Water stains on framing and sheathing inside walls suggest condensation. Remember that to make the remedy permanent, you’ve got to cure the disease -water infiltration, not just treat the symptoms- mildew, mold, and decay. Find the source of the moisture and seal it!
So keep in mind that the original problem that started it all has to be repaired.
Handling damage right with carpentry:
What to do once the original problem is addressed:
Once the source of water has been eliminated, remove as much decayed wood as it is necessary, Even when its shows to be unpractical and not economical, because you will pay a bigger price later if you don’t.
Ethical handling:
Don’t try to convince the workman to close it back up. It is unethical and plain wrong. These problems need to be addressed for the sake of safety and lives may depend on it. Sell the house to someone who has the money to fix it, but don’t try to hide the problem.
This is especially important with girders, columns, and other critical members whose load-carrying ability may have been compromised. There’s no known way of accurately determining the remaining strength of decayed wood left in place. Sometimes a wood damage requires re-engineering of the entire structure.
Cut back rotted members to sound wood, keeping in mind that difficult-to-detect incipient decay can extend well beyond visibly rotted areas. We call this kind of work exploratory work, where we charge on a time and materials basis.
Alternative repair:
When a partially decayed structural member can’t be replaced, reinforce it with a “sister” anchored to sound wood. Decayed wood absorbs and holds water more readily than sound wood, so let rotted areas of members not removed dry out before making repairs and closing in. Otherwise, you’re just adding fuel to the slow fire.
Carpentry goes beyond carpentry:
More Recommendations:
In damp crawl spaces or other places where water is likely to appear, replace decayed members with preservative treated wood.
The major model building code agencies -BOCAI, ICBO, and SBCCI- require that treated wood be used for sills and sleepers on concrete or masonry in ground contact, for joists within 18 in. of the ground, for girders within 12 in. of the ground, and for columns embedded in the ground supporting permanent structures. In-place treatment with borates. Dormant fungi can be reactivated when dry, infected wood is re-wet. Consider treating infected, but otherwise serviceable wood left in place with a water-borne borax-based preservative that will not only kill active fungi, but guard against future infection as well.
An effective homemade version of Bora-Care is “Borax mixture care”
Borates:
Borates have low toxicity to humans and are even approved for interior use in food processing plants. They don’t affect wood’s strength, color, or finish ability, don’t corrode fasteners, and don’t out-gas vapors. Widely used in treating new timbers for log homes, they’re the preservative of choice for remedial treatment of wood in service.
Because of the decay hazard posed whenever wood bears on concrete or masonry, solid borate rods are often inserted into holes bored near contact areas. Should wood ever get wet, the rods dissolve and ward off infection. Infected wood can be treated with Boric Acid an extremely effective cure for a multitude of problems including control of wood rot in homes and boats and it is natures insecticide for control of fleas, roaches, termites, ants, spiders and many other household pests.
Before you Start:
Before any repairs or replacement of damaged wood is started,
I recommend a through treatment of damaged areas with Boric Acid to eliminate future problems and stop the spreading of the fungi.
Epoxy Repair of Decayed Wood:
other materials used in carpentry
Stabilizing and Repairing:
Sometimes replacing rotted wood isn’t an option. In conserving historic buildings, for example, the goal is to preserve as much of the original “architectural fabric” as possible.
Stabilizing deteriorated wood with epoxy is often the only choice. Epoxies consist of resin and hardener that are mixed just before use.
Liquids for injection and spatula-applied pastes are available. After curing, epoxy-stabilized wood can be shaped with regular woodworking tools and painted.
Epoxies are useful for consolidating rotted wood, restoring lost portions of molding’s and carvings, and for strengthening weakened structural members.
In the last case, they’re used to bond concealed metal reinforcement inside holes or channels cut into hidden faces.
Epoxies aren’t preservatives and won’t stop existing decay or prevent future infection.
They can be tricky to use; follow the manufacturer’s mixing, application, and safety instructions to the letter.
Causes of Your Problem:
When looking for the causes of your wood rot, remember that CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION. Meaning that if the dry rot is right by a pipe, the moisture may not be coming from the pipe, but from the roof instead.
We say this, because we know best. Too many times we learned this lesson. Believe us when we tell you that although the pipe is dry, it did not heal itself, it may be a roofing leak that had time to dry and it’s waiting for the next rain…specially here in Los Angeles. Allow us to do a thorough inspection and when we find the problem, it is only then that we can actually fix it.
After finding dry rot The Ultimate Handyman finds the source of the leak, repairs it and after drying the areas thoroughly the carpentry work begins.
When dry rot is removed, any wood in good condition but stained by fungus are treated with borax-based products to stop future dry-rot if area is ever exposed to moisture again.
We prefer to complete eliminate all dry-rot affected wood even when still serviceable to prevent future spread of the wood-destroying fungi if moisture becomes present again.
Carpentry and science:
Stabilizing and Repairing:
Sometimes replacing rotted wood isn’t an option. In conserving historic buildings, for example, the goal is to preserve as much of the original “architectural fabric” as possible.
Stabilizing deteriorated wood with epoxy is often the only choice. Epoxies consist of resin and hardener that are mixed just before use.
Liquids for injection and spatula-applied pastes are available. After curing, epoxy-stabilized wood can be shaped with regular woodworking tools and painted.
Epoxies are useful for consolidating rotted wood, restoring lost portions of molding’s and carvings, and for strengthening weakened structural members.
In the last case, they’re used to bond concealed metal reinforcement inside holes or channels cut into hidden faces.
Epoxies aren’t preservatives and won’t stop existing decay or prevent future infection.
They can be tricky to use; follow the manufacturer’s mixing, application, and safety instructions to the letter.
Causes of Your Problem:
When looking for the causes of your wood rot, remember that CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION. Meaning that if the dry rot is right by a pipe, the moisture may not be coming from the pipe, but from the roof instead.
We say this, because we know best. Too many times we learned this lesson. Believe us when we tell you that although the pipe is dry, it did not heal itself, it may be a roofing leak that had time to dry and it’s waiting for the next rain…specially here in Los Angeles. Allow us to do a thorough inspection and when we find the problem, it is only then that we can actually fix it.
Cheap But Efficient:
Stylish But Expensive:
But we also build in styles that are not locally available anymore.
We have to bring professionals from other countries to reproduce the style. For this you will have to pay our international recruiter and a hefty travel per diem! But we deliver it!
Certain carpentry projects take months to complete.
Some designers and architects put a lot of research and reading into their work so we can put a lot of sweat and skills into ours.
Some architects know that we cannot find any Chinese carpenters to build in their traditionally native style. But the same architects draw it on plans. This must be because they never put their hands on in their entire professional lives, so when we end up building it for them, we always comment that their ignorance is a bliss for their clients.
Call The Ultimate Handyman for any carpentry work.
When native labor sources are not locally recruit-able, we just look at the plans and our carpenter hatch it out the best they can!
We Know the Formula for Success:
+ 1) Above all, Integrity, Respect, and Honesty on every relationship, because it is what everyone expects on winning partnerships.
+ 2) Also keeping your goals in mind with thoughtful decisions, ethical choices, superior craftsmanship, which will create successful outcomes.
+ 3) Furthermore, utilizing our resourcefulness and responsiveness to achieve your goals is why you will be coming back and referring our services.
+ 4) Finally, we know that outstanding results and your Satisfaction is how We All Win.
Most noteworthy is that our company’s main goal is to provide quality services at fair prices, that way you will be thinking of us EVERY TIME you need these services.
We will get better at it on every job, as we learn your needs and learn to fulfill them as a partner – Because we want to be your partner in success.
- KEEP CONTRACTORS HONEST PROGRAM
Is your contractor playing a game of hide and seek with you? Hiding the work that he knows needs to be done and seeking extra payments when he “runs into it”?
We can help you. On a daily basis we take on projects that contractors have evaluated for thousands of dollars and we have tackled them for a fraction of the price. All done on a time and materials basis.
Definitely, we are a different kind of company, click values on the nav bar and compare with what your contractor is doing.
It is a no Brainer. Call us and give us a chance to prove our value. You will be firing your contractor and never looking back.
Who We Are:
The Ultimate Handyman is a Los Angeles-based Remodeling Contractor and General Contractor that provides Carpenters to our neighbors to complete smaller finish carpentry or trim carpentry jobs and other smaller carpentry repairs in between the bigger Framing and Bigger Carpentry projects.
What we do:
Weather you need estimates or carpentry repairs for several big projects or simple carpentry repairs, our employees are up to the challenge. We have repaired termite and dry rot damage on wood-framed homes, fences, decks and many other elements of dwellings. We have Framing carpenters, Trim and molding Carpenters, Finish carpenters, Rough Carpenters, Millworks installers, wood fence installers, siding installers, door and window installers and many other sub specialties that require several different levels of knowledge and carpentry kills. Save us as favorites, because eventually you will need to find the right fit for your project and we will come in handy, you call us and we send the right carpenter.
When you need carpenters and you are in Los Angeles, all you have to do is call us.
Our professional craftsmen will perform an amazing work and you will be 100% satisfied.
Now, weather you only want to watch a carpentry video, or find out more what carpentry is, or what kind or carpenter you need, you can come back to this website to read all about it or just call us and ask. What is carpentry anyway?
The Ultimate Handyman… this is carpentry.
If you either needed information or knowledge, feel free to call us at 323-651-0635 and we will be glad to send you an expert to discuss your project.
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