March 12, 2011
An honest build is honestly building it right.  It's also honestly specifying materials (lumber grades and dimensions), fasteners, and other specific details of the project to be built. 

For example when a builder specifies "Premium grade redwood", did you know that there actually is no such grade of redwood?  The California Redwood Association has published the honest index of this with their Redwood Lumber Grades and Uses guide.  Several grades would qualify as premium grade redwood such as: Clear Heart, Clear, Heart B and B Grade.  Construction Heart (Con-Heart) would be about as far as I'd push it.  These are the grades of the wood itself.  There are also surface characteristics to consider such as rough or surfaced (smooth), and which is most appropriate for any given component of your project notwithstanding your budget parameters.

Back to the first point of honestly building it right.  Our latest project is the reinforcement and refinishing of a redwood tongue and groove (T & G) horizontal extension atop a concrete wall.  The original builder was either just beginning their career and didn't really know how to do it right; or just did a crappy job on purpose because "the customer will never know"! 

Several design and construction flaws and boo-boos were apparent and subsequently discovered as I progressed through this project.  I wish I took photos in the beginning so I could show more of these betrayals in quality that were passed off to the customer as an acceptable finished product.  According to the Owner's personal assistant this builder: "...wasn't returning phone calls." and "...was very expensive..."!  Just another one of those "Better hurry for that customer check!" and "Build it and run!" so-called experienced, professional builders out there!  All I can say is be damn sure you have an honest builder if you care about the quality and longevity of your project!

Finally the straw that broke the camel's back surfaced at this job.  Okay, I'll take a photo and post it.  Some of the T&G boards were becoming loose.  So as a matter of procedure I nailed them again, but with three or more nails per board end instead of the two, that the previous builder deemed sufficient.  When one of these boards had to be replaced I ripped it off and put a new board up in its place. 

Now here's the surprise!  When removing the nails I found a big difference between their nails and mine!  Look at the photo below and see for yourself!




Which nail do you suppose will hold the boards up better (more strongly and securely, for a longer period of time)?

Their nails were too small for the job, this specific application.  What a difference!  And the cost differential between these two sizes of nails is insignificant.  Ran out of the right size of nails because they didn't estimate their materials accurately and were too lazy to drive the 15 minutes to the nearest Home Depot to THIS jobsite, to get more nails of the right size!  That is my guess which still gives them some benefit of the doubt.

And while we're at it let's classify this piece of T&G redwood in the photo!  This is Clear Redwood.  This can be considered a premium grade of redwood.  It is also surfaced on the visible side as you can see the smooth surface.

In retrospect I wish I had taken photos from the beginning of this project to graphically show just how bad a job this builder had done.  Next time I will.



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