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Would You Build Your House Out Of Gingerbread?
by Stephen Ruback
The almost universal answer is a resounding no. Yet, that's exactly what we do all over the country. To see the clarity of this concept we need to make a slight shift in our perspective. We think of gingerbread as our food, and something rather perishable when exposed to water. We can benefit from looking at our homes from the perspective of the "enemy." There are hundreds of thousands of kinds of fungi (remember mold and mildew?) so far identified. There are dozens of wood devouring insects.
These happy little creations are everywhere, and their favorite food is cellulose. They love to eat wood, it's their job in life. The only encouragement they need is a bit of water and presence of food to start a feeding frenzy. What's more, they like dark places, like inside wood walls. So, to this multitude of life forms our houses look like a feast waiting for a little water - gingerbread houses.
As if that's not enough incentive, we have learned to grind wood into chips and, using heat and pressure, make big sheets of it, like chipboard and particle board. The process refines the cellulose, making it even more attractive as food. Thus, we build our gingerbread houses, lining the roof and walls with an even more attractive culinary delight.
Not satisfied with this level of culinary creativity, we go even further. We further refine the cellulose into a real taste treat called paper, which is ever so easy on every cellulose lover's taste buds. Then we line our walls and ceilings with this "icing" in our gingerbread house. Now all we need is a little water to complete the banquet. This could be a subtle hint about the importance of keeping water out of, and away from your house.
Here on Earth, water is plentiful. It rains and pours. Wind blows it around, and it runs downhill most of the time. It also seeps into cracks and small openings where it's happy to stay until driven out. It doesn't take much of a hole in the roof, or around the edges, to allow it to creep into our gingerbread houses, activating a banquet opportunity. This illustrates the importance of maintaining a watertight roof and proper flashings around the edges.
Always sensitive to short term costs, most of us cover our roofs with a thin layer of tar and some fine gravel to slow the sun's natural task of degrading the tar. One might think such a delicate protective covering would be monitored closely by each owner for signs of degradation and potentially destructive hazards. Of course, in real life that seldom happens. When was the last time your roof was inspected?
Oodles of folks have covered the outside of their houses with wood. Even worse, there was a cheap rash of fiberboard siding employed. You know the type - that, when wet, turns to fluffy mush. Talk about icing for bugs. Many have chosen brick veneer to hide the gingerbread inside, but guess what? Brick does not make a waterproof wall.
Even if we could make a waterproof wall, it doesn't solve the problem because we are inherently wet creatures. We sweat, and we exhale moist air every time we breathe. We close up our gingerbread boxes to keep heating and cooling costs down, limiting the ability for all that water we generate to go outside.
Just in case this is not enough destructive potential, we have added even more spice to the recipe. We actually pipe pressurized water into the structure through fragile pipes with all kinds of connections and valves. Each of these has their own leak potential and is usually kept out of sight, so we discover leaks by the trail of destruction that follows. Then we run hot showers, dumping gallons of extra water into our gingerbread houses each day.
There are two primary ways we get the water out. The AC condenses lots of the water out of the air and hopefully directs it into a proper drain. The rest goes through the walls as a vapor. Woe unto the wall that is sealed well enough to block this vapor flow. Such a wall becomes a water collector, and subsequent banquet hall. Lots of modern houses have had their walls rot out from the inside because water got trapped and the subsequent feast went undetected. How is your house handling its water? While this kind of hidden damage can be difficult to assess, a powerful technique like infrared thermography may be required.
Plants are nice. We don't usually see them do it, but they give off lots of water every day. They can also trap water in walls when planted nearby. How do we handle this fact with our gingerbread houses? Why, we stick those plants in gay abandon all around the house. Because they are little when planted, most of the time they are put right up against the walls for maximum immediate visual affect. A little experience will verify the fact that living plants grow. Some grow really big. Could that be a problem?
To make the results even more interesting, those who put in the plants usually pile mulch (more food) around them and slope the drainage toward the house, just in case there wouldn't be enough water around already. Then we wonder why we are suddenly faced with a bigger repair bill than expected when some "little thing" needs fixing.
Looking at your house from a different perspective can help you keep your gingerbread house from turning into a bug feast. For best results, be sure your house has plenty of breathing space, good drainage and keeps a tight roof.
Stephen Ruback, professional inspector
Stephen Ruback is a licensed Professional Inspector; member of TAREI and HAR; approved by TREC as a Professional Home Inspection Instructor; is a certified home energy inspector with Home Energy Tune-UP. Stephen has earned a BS in engineering from the Trinity University. He is an author of several books and teaches a variety of self empowerment courses. Stephen can be reached at (832) 489-1071, through his website: www.SRuback.com or by email.