| As high interest rates and periods of excessive inflation push new home casts outof reach, many Americans are turning to alternatives. One of the most popular choicesis the purchase and restoration of a "fixer-upper." The end result can be aneconomical and satisfying experience, or an absolute disaster. Much of tile outcomedepends on how well we understand what we are getting into. The trick is to find outwhat s wrong with the house, and then decide if its problems can be corrected at areasonable price. Of course that assumes we are working with a knowledge base that allows us tocorrectly evaluate the building s condition. Yet most of us are a bit deficient when itcomes to passing judgement on the condition of a house. We are also at some dis-advantage when it comes to recognizing design and construction errors that canallow even new buildings to deteriorate. For me, upgrading that deficient knowledge base was a long, laborious, and frus-trating experience because finding the information was difficult. The question to beanswered was: "What makes some buildings vulnerable to insect attack and decay,while others seem to stand forever?" I found the book stores and local libraries stuffedwith how-to-do-it information on carpentry, plumbing, and landscaping, but very littlematerial on the root causes of wooden building deterioration. So the information in the following chapters was dug from the bowels of universitylibraries, and extracted from the minds of professors, contractors, county extensionagents, exterminators, lumber industry executives, and home remodeling experts.And this text intends to arm homeowners with more facts than are normally availableon how insects and decay destroy wooden buildings. This book should also increase the value of your do-it-yourself library collectionbecause it solves many of the mysteries introduced by more technical books on car-pentry, remodeling, plumbing, insulation, roofing, and landscaping. |
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