13 August 2001
CONDENSATION
Okay, so I just can't help myself. If someone is incompetent and I am forced to be around it, I cannot keep quiet. Even if I'm not the one paying for a job that is botched, and even it only indirectly affects me. What I'm talking about is the ongoing duct repair work (that should have been done by now).
The landlord came down earlier tonight, and I explained to him the mess his handyman had created (insulating a/c ducts with standard wall insulation -- which prompty got soaked and started dripping on the hardwoods, similar to the problem in the first place except originally it was soaking the sheetrock ceiling/wall, much of which has now been removed).
Then, the handyman came, and proceeded to claim he had no idea where the water was coming from (here is a neat word: CONDENSATION). But can he fix the problem with my solution (the right insulation for the job -- a duct insulation with a vapor barrier, something the handyman had never heard of!)?! Oh NO, not that! Not the goddamn RIGHT WAY TO FIX THE PROBLEM. The moron has never even HEARD of duct insulation with a vapor barrier! His solution -- he wants to put some sort of gloppy glue (I'm not kidding!) on the bare ductwork, and then reattach his wall insulation to it!
I looked at him like he was insane. And he proceeded to be rude. Unbelievable!
I don't really even mind rude. What I mind is rude AND incompetence.
Anyway, the landlord kept asking him if he knew of the material *I* was talking about (insulation with a vapor barrier -- duct insulation -- not complicated!), and he kept mumbling something about "vapor lock" (which -- I AM NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP -- is what he has named the gloppy glue he seems eager to us): "Yes, I can reattach the insulation with vapor lock. I don't know where the water is coming from." Repeat several times, and you have recreated the comedy of idiocy.
Now, wouldn't you think if you didn't KNOW where the water was coming from, you MIGHT listen to a possible explanation (CONDENSATION -- big word, four syllables)? And you might figure out -- vapor barrier, barrier to water, on the outside of insulation, just might prevent CONDENSATION?! On very cold ducts? Maybe?
After all of this, the handyman left. He couldn't work tonight (even though we had planned our evening AROUND his being here, since that's what was decided Thursday when he told us he preferred not to work on it over the weekend -- oh no, we prefer to have weekends off as well, so we can sit at home and look at the hole in our ceiling!) and tried to make US feel guilty for pointing out his goddamn mess (after all, his kids are starting school tomorrow, he pointed out. LIKE I GIVE A RAT'S ASS. Yes, I'm a selfish objectivist bastard who wants his ceiling fixed, and fixed right. Deal with it). Unbelievable. All too believable.
What's even worse is I suspect the landlord is going to have him continue to screw with the mess, instead of bringing in an experienced a/c technician, as I recommended. And I'm going to have leave while he is here and go somewhere to work, because I know myself too well, and I won't be able to bear watching him screw up the shit even worse than it is now (with gloppy glue, no doubt! BTW, VAPOR LOCK is NOT glue -- it is a circumstance that prevails in carburetors and other fuel aerating devices under certain atmospheric conditions).
Anyway, instead of working on the dissertation tonight, I spent some time going to various websites and accumulating redundant pages of information on DUCT INSULATION and methods of installation (it has two inch flaps that must be stapled, then sealed, to prevent leakage, which might allow CONDENSATION -- or, water dripping from the ducts) and the necessity of vapor barriers and the like. I'll leave it for the landlord tomorrow.
Not that it will really matter, but acquiring knowledge always does make me feel better. At the start of the evening, I didn't know the significant differences between the Realist and Sociological schools of jurisprudential thought. I still don't, but I am very confident in my knowledge of HVAC duct repair and installation, right down to the Model Energy Code (MEC), 1993 version.
And yes, I DID use lots of CAPS tonight! :)
[Posted @ 11:43 PM CST]