Home Improvement Today?

wet blown in tends to slump and will not billow back up on its own when it dries out , losing its R value

 

assuming they just took the skylight off , how exactly did they assess the condition of the framing or insulation ? Did they go into the attic ?

 

Another good question. They did repairs while I was at work; my family let them in and I don't know exactly what they did. I just took him at his word when he said they checked it out and everything was ok.

Sounds like a good excuse to get a borescope. Anyone got any recs that are decent but not too expensive?

 

Harbor Freight has a borescope with decent reviews. HD sells moisture meters too.

 

I cut 2 pieces of sheet metal and taped it into the box to isolate the intake and exhaust of the fan. The Humidistat (in the basement) now switches at ~25% instead of ~10%. It's not great but at least it's doing something now. I have another humidifier set to 40% that holds around 4 gallons. I used to fill it up every 1 1/2 days. Now it lasts about 4 days before refilling.

 

OK. Paging @Sig45 @OZ-T @Pchop and any other folks.

Here's the question. Would you use a flooring adhesive that is 5 weeks past it's expiration date?


Now here comes the long winded part of it but it is needed to accurately understand my dilemma.

I'm finishing up a addition/full remodel of a custom 3500 sq/ft home. The homeowners are good people and have used a designer and architect that I hope to work with again. During the whole process every issue has been addressed quickly and correctly. The homeowners are hoping to be in the Sat before Christmas. All that's left is the flooring and then me running the base. I can do all that in the time frame I have to work with.

The floor is MSI Atwood 7 1/2" engineered. It's been in conditioned space and it is at the correct moisture content. Two weeks ago I put the order in through my local supplier for the needed adhesive. It just showed up today.

The adhesive in question is Sika T-100. T-100 is a urethane adhesive, moisture vapor and sound reduction membrane. It's all I ever use for flooring and IMO is the best product on the market.

The problem arose when I picked it up. Sika has an expiration date and all 9 four gallon containers are 5 weeks past due. After talking with my supplier there's no way they can get another order delivered within 10 working days.

There is no fucking way I can complete this project with that time frame. There is nobody with in a 4 hour drive that has the needed amount of T-100 in stock and most don't know when they can restock since it's getting harder to get. That leaves me 2 options.

Option one, say fuck it and put the floor down. I've laid thousands of square with this product and know it well. From the one container I opened both a visual and application test passed compared to what I'm used too seeing. In short, it's not obviously "bad".

Option two, return it and use a much shittier but in-stock adhesive. I've used this adhesive before and it sucks. It's not rated as a moisture barrier or sound deadener. It's just a less then average acrylic adhesive.

The installation will be glue down with nailing where needed. There's an 800 sq/ft section that has unconditioned space under it that needs a moisture barrier. It's easy enough to get some RedGard for that section but that labor(time) isn't needed if I use the T-100.

I'll call and ask Sika tech support this same question in the morning but am curious to hear how you guys would handle this.

 

I would probably use it

 

Not a professional but think i am a reasonable guy and sounds like you did the due diligence to run all the reasonable scenarios so if your options are the two above, i would trust you to use the product you know and like more and bump past the expiration date. I’m curious to hear what Sitka says as well.

 

What's protocol in your line or work for asking the customer? Would it be poor form to have them make the choice between pushing back completion or using the product you know is best but has expired?

 

Or see if Sika support has a way you could buy some direct and air freight it

 

Or this. Customer might even be willing to pay for it, considering.

 

That's what I'm leaning towards. If the product looked or spread different then I'm used to I'd be way more wary. As it is, even if it's at 50% of it's best it's still 75% better then the other product. lol

Good point. Didn't mean to come across as snobbish so I changed the OP. Thanks for the input. I'll update once I talk to Sika but I suspect they'll tow the party line and say not to use it. lol

There's no real protocol but I tend to ask homeowners a lot of questions about aesthetic things. Like what color paint, stain, door hardware, yada yada. In this case there's a designer that is handling those things. When it comes to the technical side of the job I hardly ever ask the home owner. I'm the professional and they don't need to know about all the things they pay me to know. lol

 

Why not contact them and get their opinion?

 

I'd go ahead and use it. What's the shelf life of that stuff? 5 weeks doesn't seem that far off. It's glue not a carton of milk.

 

12 month shelf life. That's common from a number of different manufacturers which leads me to believe it's just an industry standard. What the actual usable life is the answer I need. lol

 

How's it look? Did you open one yet?

 

Yep. Looks look it should. Also did a quick spread test on a scrap of plywood and it spread like it should. I'll check that in the AM to see how well it adhered.

 

Given your predicament, I'd probably go ahead and use it. 5 weeks doesn't seem too bad, They're most likely pretty conservative with those expiration dates. It seems like it's not gone bad or been sitting exposed to the elements (freeze/thaw cycles). Given that the product smells, flows and tastes as your accustomed to. I'd most likely glue up a small test piece as a final QC check before running with it.

 

*5 weeks

 

Oops...typo. TY




Corrected.