Friday, February 8, 2019: Chiminey Cap

Holy Smoke Chimney Services finally came out to install the cap on our southwest chimney...the one that blew off last Summer.

They did not check with me before they left. Obviously, there is some tuck pointing that is not complete. As long as they guarantee that it will not blow off again, I'll accept it. They decided not to install the first cap they came with because it was the wrong size and they explained at the time that the didn't proceed because they could not guarantee it would stay in place. I will wait to hear from them.

Thursday, February 7, 2019: Deicer Thermocube and Squirrel Chronicles Continued

Last week, I decided to buy and install a Thermocube. This is a thermostatically enabled electrical receptacle. Power to the deicer will not happen unless the ambient temperature has dropped to 35F and it will shut off power when the ambient temperature rises to 45F. This will save energy. The cube is a dual outlet so I put a child guard in the open port. The Thermocube is not weather proof so I also purchased and installed a silicon "rain block" at each exposed plug in point. Since the deicer is plugged into the same GFCI as the pond circulation pump, as long as the waterfall is falling, the silicon seals are working.

While down in the sunroom this morning, around 8:00 am, I got the first motion notification in the third floor eave in the past week. There were actually four back-to-back videos caught. The one below shows the squirrel attempting to get to the bait, moving the cage around. It did not knock the ultrasonic boom box off the top of the trap, as was done once before.

While the boom box obviously did not deter the creature from entering the eave, the creature did not stay very long. Maybe it is working. Another question is whether this was a new animal or was it the one I transplanted over to the Tower Grove Park who has come back?

Wednesday, February 6, 2019: Tile Work

It was back on June 18, 2018 that I first noticed the subsidence of the tiles at the south door of the sunroom and contacted Mike S. He promised to come out and take a look, which he did on June 20. After looking, he promised to be out the following week to effect repairs. There were numerous promises over the next seven months. Today, he finally came and made a repair.

While the slab has certainly settled (Mike estimated about 1/4"), the settling appears to be in the slab and not the foundation. There is no indication of foundation settling at this time. Mike suggested the reason for the broken tiles is that they were more tight communication with the foundation.

He thinks that if he replaces the broken tiles and allow them to "float" independent of the foundation, they will not break again. Hopefully also, the slab has found its "home" and will settle no more. To actually address the settling issue would be a massive and expensive proposition.

We have a lot of extra tiles. Why we have so many, I do not know. It appears we bought about 50% more tiles than we needed. What we do not have is much remaining grout. The original bag of grout has pretty much solidified, although there was enough to grout the new tiles.

If future replacements are needed, the grout used is a Polyblend Sanded Grout and the color is #60 Charcoal.

When Mike reattached the floor molding, he also attached the molding on the left hand side of the fireplace, which was never attached originally.

Overall, Mike was here about 2.5 hours and charged $150.