With Storage Sheds, New Hampshire Residents Have to Be Picky

In some climates, even the flimsiest sheds will do the job. All you need is a few sheets of metal to

We custom-built this shed to look like the customers' house.
See the whole album here.

keep the rain off and enough of a structure to keep would-be thieves looking for easier targets. But we don't have that kind of climate here in New Hampshire.

In New Hampshire, storage sheds have to stand up to a whole winter's snow load, year after year. That means your typical pre-built metal shed isn't going to work here. It might last a year, if the winter is unusually mild or you stay home every time it snows to keep it shoveled off. There's one in every circle of friends, though: that one bargain-hunter who saves a pile of cash with a great deal on a storage shed - only to see the roof collapse under the first heavy snowfall.

It's a simple concept, and maybe it should be obvious: Any building in New Hampshire has to be tough enough to handle New Hampshire weather. Here's what you should look for:

• The foundation: If your shed is permanent, put it on a concrete slab with footings that go at least four feet into the ground. That will get them below the frost line and prevent damage from frost heaves. 
• The roof: Be sure the slope is steep enough to keep the snow sliding off, or the whole structure is strong enough to hold it. Think like an engineer. Start at the top and imagine how the weight of snow would be transferred from one part to the next until it reaches the foundation.

You can either buy a shed already built, build it yourself, or have one built for you. Of course, if you're ordering your shed (or a DIY kit/plans) from a supplier outside of New England, you'll need to make sure it's suitable for our climate. Unfortunately, the same goes for local suppliers, and even local builders, as well. As with any building project, there's no substitute for doing your homework and knowing what you're getting.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Spring Maintenance for Your Home or Building

In spite of our recent April snowfall, spring is actually, finally here. While extreme cold and heavy

snow loads are not an issue any more, we do have plenty of other things to deal with, including melting snow and ice, mud, rain, and dampness. Here's a list of places in your home or place of business that may need some attention:

• Roof and attic: Your roof should be inspected every spring, and after the winter we just had, that's more important than ever.
• Windows and doors: Do they still operate freely? Is there any visible damage? Are the thermal panes still intact? Do you need to repair or replace any screens before black fly season hits?
• Basement/foundation: Check for moisture and cracks. In both cases, catching them early is key.
• HVAC: Your furnace should be serviced and your chimney cleaned and inspected during the off-season. Booking those appointments now could save you some headache when things get busy. Now is a great time to make sure your air conditioning system is ready to go.
• Insulation: Even if yours is one of the lucky few New Hampshire homes and buildings that have enough insulation, it could still be compromised by leaks, insufficient venting or rodents.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Before Starting Renovations, New Hampshire Homeowners Need to Know This

When it comes to renovations, New Hampshire homeowners enjoy a lot of freedom to change their

houses as we see fit. But sometimes, things can go wrong.

From time to time, customers. hire us to fix renovation mistakes made by do-it-yourselfers or inexperienced contractors. One mistake in particular can do a lot of damage to your home or building and even make it dangerous to live or work in. To keep from suffering the same fate, you should know about load-bearing walls.

There are two kinds of interior walls in any building: load-bearing and non-load-bearing. Load-bearing walls are also called carrying partitions.They do more than just divide the space in your house into rooms: they form a necessary part of the structure of the building by carrying some of its weight.

The mistake you need to avoid, of course, is removing any load-bearing wall without first making sure it has an adequate replacement to take its share of the weight.

What to do instead: It is not enough to remove the wall first and then replace it with another one. You must make sure sufficient supports are in place before removing the wall. If you don't, one of two things could happen:

• If you're unlucky, part of your house could actually fall on you as soon as you remove the old wall.
• The structure of your house could shift, causing problems such as cracked walls, popped screws, windows and doors that work poorly or not at all, splintered studs, joists and rafters, and leaks in the roof.

Replacement options for your load-bearing wall include:

•  A load-bearing arch. Make sure your arch is strong enough and engineered to fully transfer the weight to the floor.
• A header and one or more posts. Again, make sure the header is strong enough, and you have enough posts.
• A beam. Usually, to be effective, this should be made of steel, but that depends on how much weight it needs to take and how long the span is.
• Another wall. Sometimes, you just need to replace the wall that's already there.

Of all the renovations New Hampshire homeowners like to do themselves, one of the worst ones to do wrong is removing or replacing a load-bearing wall. For this or any other project, make sure you do your homework first or hire a qualified contractor.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Mark J Gordon Construction's New Online Home

We have enjoyed providing this educational blog as a public service, but the About page hasn't been meeting our business needs. We do not want to clutter up this space with too much information about our services, but we have been frustrated at our limited ability to show potential customers what we can do for them. We also think you deserve to have a more complete concept of who is sponsoring this blog.

The solution to all of this:

MarkJGordonConstruction.com

We'd love for you to come over and visit. Meanwhile, we'll continue providing informative posts to help you take better care of your home or workplace.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

This Year's New Home Trends

Back in December, RealEstateBook.com published a list of six new trends they expected to be big in 2015. If you are planning to spruce up your house and put it on the market, these are changes you may want to consider. If you are looking for a change to freshen up your home for yourself and your family, you might consider the ideas.

Here are their predictions:

1. Luxury vinyl tile flooring
2. More painted kitchen cabinets and less stainless steel
3. Maintenance-free countertops instead of granite
4. Cooler bathroom colors
5. Keeping rooms
6. Bigger closets and bathrooms

Read the full article here:

New Home Trends You Should Know About in 2015

Now that we're nearly 2 1/2 months in, do you think they guessed right?

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Did This Winter's Weather Make Your Roof Leak?

A lot of New Hampshire home and business owners have seen their roofs damaged from the weather this winter. Heavy snow loads have weakened and even broken a lot of rafters. Leaks caused by ice dams have created a lot of water damage. And plenty of shingles and gutters need to be replaced.

But none of this is the fault of the weather alone. Believe it or not, a well-built New Hampshire roof can handle the kind of winter we just had with no problem. It's only roofs that were in need of repair, or built too cheaply to begin with, that had any trouble.

If your roof did get beaten up by the weather this winter, the bad news is that it was already not in great shape before the snow came. But the good news is that you can prevent these problems in future years, even if we get the same kind of weather.

The ideal New Hampshire roof has:

 

 A strong structure and a pitch that fits the climate

Have you ever wondered why a Roman villa has a flat roof, but an alpine chalet has a steep one? It's not just a matter of culture. Steep roofs not only shed more snow, but can hold a lot more weight, too. How steep a New Hampshire roof needs to be depends on how strongly built it is. Or, to put it another way, how strongly it needs to be built depends on how steep it is.

Plenty of insulation

No matter how strong your roof is, it still isn't likely to make it through a winter like this one without damage unless it's properly insulated. Roof insulation does more than just help reduce your heating bills and your carbon footprint; it's an essential part of the roof. Inadequate insulation can result in ice dams, excessive icicles, damaged shingles and leaks. And of course, leaks cause their own chain of water damage and rot.

Adequate venting

Leaks are not the only thing to cause dripping ceilings, water spots and rotting in a house. This water may not even be coming from outdoors if your roof is not properly vented. The air naturally has some moisture in it, and activities like cooking and breathing add even more. Without sufficient venting, this moisture will collect and destroy your house.

The Right Way to Handle Snow and Ice on Your Roof

 

Modern roofing materials are manufactured to stand up to decades of rough weather. But they are not

meant to be scraped with shovels or hit with hammers.

Don't try to clear all the snow off: leave half an inch still on there. Asphalt shingles, especially, are very brittle in the winter, and you can easily damage them and create roof leaks. But even if that doesn't happen, scraping the shingles will take years off their life. If you have rubber roofing, then a little hit from the corner of your shovel could gouge a hole. The point is to take most of the weight off and relieve the stress on the rafters.

It may be tempting to try to physically remove all the ice from your roof, but that would tear it up. The best plan of attack is to break the ice off below the eaves to remove most of the weight, and then use calcium chloride to melt channels into the ice and let it fall off by itself. Make sure you are using calcium chloride, not rock salt or magnesium chloride.

When to Call in a Contractor

 

Sometimes hiring a contractor is less expensive than doing the job yourself. For example, Ice dams and icicle clusters can be very heavy and fall in unpredictable directions. Chipping off roof ice is a lot like felling a tree: it takes a lot of training and experience to learn how to control the fall. Not hiring a professional in this case could cost you a window, or even your life.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Should You Shovel Your Roof?

Roof shoveling is a cold, hard job, and nobody wants to do it unless it's necessary. But you don't want to risk having your roof collapse on you, either. So how do you know whether your roof needs it?

There are a few factors to consider:

• The depth of the snow on the roof
• The size of the roof
• The strength of the roof
• The pitch (steepness) of the roof
• Ice dams

Weight and Strength

It's pretty intuitive: how much snow a roof can take depends on how strong it is. Smaller roofs will naturally be stronger, per square foot, than larger roofs. This is because there's a shorter distance between the uprights (walls or porch support posts, for example). So each rafter has a shorter span and can hold more weight per square foot without sagging.

Structural Strength

How much weight your roof can take will also depend on how beefy the rafters are, how far apart they were placed, whether any of them are starting to rot, and whether the house was put together correctly. Modern construction standards call for rafters to be made of at least 2x8 lumber (ideally, 2x10) and be placed 16 inches apart.

Roof Pitch

If you got good grades in geometry, you can probably visualize how your roof's pitch affects its strength. Generally speaking, the steeper the roof is, the more its weight is transferred down to the outer walls. So a steeper roof can handle more snow without endangering its rafters.

Ice Dams

Ice dams can occur when a roof is not sufficiently insulated. Heat leaks out through the roof and melts the snow that's sitting on top of it. That melted snow runs to the edge of the roof and starts to drip off. But since it's no longer being heated, it turns to ice. Over time, that ice can build up and even crawl under the shingles and lift them up. Then when it melts on a sunny day, it usually causes water damage inside your home.

If your roof has an ice dam problem, then you need to remove the snow before it can melt and ruin your roof, your ceiling and more. And, of course, you should insulate your roof or attic to fix the problem.

When in Doubt, Shovel

It may not be fun, but it's easier to shovel your roof when it doesn't need it than to rebuild your house after the roof collapses.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction