Re: House hunting, was [gardeners] Tumbler tomatoes
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 15 May 1998 07:36:03
At 10:20 PM 5/14/98 -0700, you wrote:
>On Fri, 15 May 1998, penny x stamm wrote:
>
>> Kay, what is a 'soil rewetting agent'..? And what name would it go
>> under?
>
>It's basically a surfactant of some sort... a soap or detergent. One
>I know that has been used is sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate, sold to
>the ag chemicals trade as "Aerosol OT" for improving wetting of leaf
>surfaces for pesticide applications, and to the medical trade as
>a stool softener. It's a high grade detergent.
>
>>
>> >
>> >Water vapor coming from inside the house can lift paint too.
>> >
>>
>> That would perhaps account for the painter's comment that the
>> wood behind the shingles may have gotten too wet.....
>
>Yeah, you want to be really careful about that. We just looked
>at a house that (until we walked in) looked ok outside... but inside
>was major a major carpenter ant infestation, and the heat was on
>too high and the roof was too new. Somebody didn't fix the roof,
>the water got into the timbers, fungi and ants moved in, and I think
>the house is basically a write-off. Still, someone did a nice job
>of trying to make it all sweet-looking on the surface....
>
>Then there was the 270 amps worth of breakers in a 100 amp box....
>House hunting was more fun when I didn't know so much...
>
>Kay Lancaster kay@fern.com
>just west of Portland, OR; USDA zone 8 (polarfleece)
>
I hope Steve is remembering to pull a few outlets and switches to check for
aluminum wiring. Some of the older homes still have it and it's a definite
fire hazard due to bimetallic corrosion. We turned down a home we thought
we really wanted down here in 1988 because it would have cost to much to
totally rewire it.
George