tcianci
Well-known member
All I can figure is that a lot of the people who comment here live in an ideal world that in many cases, manages to skirt the realities of typical building construction and they tend to ignore the more conventional ways that things are done. Not to get on a soapbox, but as a professional contractor with over 40 years of experience, you guys turn a simple construction project into a spiritual quest of sorts. The construction techniques of super insulating, sealing and caulking, wrapping and all of this other new-age hocus pocus typically end up creating a building that appears to be state of the art, when in reality it is a structure that has absolutely no "bandwidth" when it comes to being able to tolerate any failure or degradation of any of it's high tech components, prolonged periods of non-use or insufficient maintenance. Loosely translated, nothing that is being built today is ever gonna make it onto a lovely calendar of antique barns. They simply will disintegrate many years before their old low tech counterparts. Maybe thats not an issue...maybe folks are only looking for a 20 to 30 year service life from these from these structures and then leave them for your kids to tear down or maybe tear them down yourself when they begin to ruin your property value. So, if you insist on foaming and taping yourselves into buildings that are so tight that you measure the air changes in weeks instead of hours, finishing your interior walls with OSB just in case you didn't **** in enough formaldehyde while sheathing the place, research the ultimate heating system that costs so much you will never live to see the payback period over a more conventional arrangement, or installing the perfect floor coating that is sure to make you have a heart attack the minute it chips or scratches... go for it.
On the other hand, Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe GJ is not the large cross section of folks I thought it was.... Maybe it's a hangout for construction and equipment challenged loonies!...people who don't have a life outside of agonizing over the insulation value of a piece of foam about 2 inches by 3 feet on the external perimeter of a stub wall (I'm not making this up). Maybe main-stream hobbyists and DIY'ers don't come here at all? I don't know.
Forgive my rant. There is obviously a wealth of information and product knowledge to be gained here and a new type of camaraderie we experience via the net. Just be aware that there is a spread of personalities here from the ultra-**** pseudo contractor to seasoned veterans to the totally un-initiated newbie, and just because you read it on line, it ain't necessarily so.
Just build the thing, why don't cha, skip the "analysis-paralysis" and have a good time.
On the other hand, Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe GJ is not the large cross section of folks I thought it was.... Maybe it's a hangout for construction and equipment challenged loonies!...people who don't have a life outside of agonizing over the insulation value of a piece of foam about 2 inches by 3 feet on the external perimeter of a stub wall (I'm not making this up). Maybe main-stream hobbyists and DIY'ers don't come here at all? I don't know.
Forgive my rant. There is obviously a wealth of information and product knowledge to be gained here and a new type of camaraderie we experience via the net. Just be aware that there is a spread of personalities here from the ultra-**** pseudo contractor to seasoned veterans to the totally un-initiated newbie, and just because you read it on line, it ain't necessarily so.
Just build the thing, why don't cha, skip the "analysis-paralysis" and have a good time.

