Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling Author: Visit Amazon's Charlie Wing Page | Language: English | ISBN:
087857901X | Format: PDF
Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling Description
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Hardcover: 498 pages
- Publisher: Rodale Pr; Exp Pro Su edition (July 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 087857901X
- ISBN-13: 978-0878579013
- Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 7.8 x 9.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
June 2000
I have been using Mr. Wing's book for about 9 months for remodeling my house. It is an absolutely indispensable source of information about remodeling or rebuilding. You will easily get your money back from the saved time that this book will provide. It also will provide you with guidelines to check against what the contractor(s) you hire tell you they are going to do. Unfortunately, many contractors are not worth spit and many are dishonest. This book will help you to avoid them.
It is not a perfect book. The section on plumbing, while quite good, is minimal for the remodeler. E.g., Do-It-Yourselfers need more information on how to replace 50 year old(i.e., Cast Iron or Concrete) DWV plumbing and the MAJOR pitfalls of Galvanized piping and items like Drum Traps. It also does not have explanations or formulas for calculating flow rates and pressure for water supply lines. It should. One cannot install an irrigation system or even the house water supply without knowing that info in advance.
The electrical section is missing the worksheets for calculating the house loads, proper techniques for rewiring an old house, i.e., where should all those runs go and how to properly install the wire so that nobody can 'accidentally' pull them loose, and could use more diagrams of wiring techinques for lights and switches. The short section on circuit theory is a joke, I think. Mr. Wing must have felt obligated to put Ohms law in the book. If you don't understand circuit theory and the basics of electrical wiring, do NOT use this book to do your wiring - hire a contractor or go to school for a year or two and learn about them.
Mr. Wing tends toward 'hiring a contractor' to get those jobs done.
This book is a useful reference in some areas for its target readership, which is 'small builders and do-it-yourselfers', though it seems to me to go too far at times and not far enough at others. The span tables for joists and trusses for live loads and dead loads and several different species of wood strike me as overkill, when any carpenter or lumber salesman or building inspector worthy of the name can tell you a safe span. The same goes for plywood and other related sheathing. There's no need to complicate matters with all the arcane ratings and designations put out by the lumber associations. In a nutshell, plywood is either CDX (rough and resistant to weather) or sanded (smooth and expensive) and comes in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4 inch thicknesses.
The section on framing is quite good, with clear illustrations and interesting discussion. The section on plumbing is excellent, covering all aspects in just enough detail; the same goes for the wiring, an area where all too many people fear to venture, though most electrical problems are simple and safe to solve with minimal precautions.
I do dispute Wing's chapter on insulation. He argues for sealing up a house tight as a drum in order to keep every possible BTU inside and hence save on energy bills. I don't think a highly sealed house is a healthy environment, never mind about the many extra hours it would add to a project to seal all the places he suggests. And I was a little puzzled to read that the 'best-performing caulks are, unfortunately, not commonly available'. The choice of caulks, in my experience, is huge, and I've found most of them to perform very well. In fact, I am amazed sometime at the variety and capability of the caulks on the market.
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