ShareThisQ. How can I tell if the fireplace doors I have in my new (70-year-old) house are ceramic or tempered glass?A. The doors are most likely made of mica, a natural mineral found in India, China, the United States, South Korea and Canada.Mica is transparent, similar to glass, but not quite as clear as glass. Because of its heat resistance, mica was and is used extensively for the windows in stoves, kerosene heaters and portals to furnaces.Due to its tensile strength, mica can be pressed into flat sheets for use in greenhouse construction or fireplace doors.The mica doors will have a grainy appearance or may have what appears to be small fracture lines while tempered glass will be clear and transparent when cleaned.Q: My husband and I recently took on the responsibility of building a house. We did everything from drainage around the outside of the house, so water wouldn't get into the crawlspace, but now after living there for four months we noted an awful smell in the master bath, and it didn't take us long to figure out where the smell was coming from. We had a company come out and look at the crawlspace, and it said we had a bad moisture problem, and after the estimate to take care of the problem went over $11,000, we were shocked.Can you tell us what some other options would be?A: When you call waterproofing contractors to check the crawlspace, their job is to sell you their product and service, not give free advice.What you need is an unbiased opinion from a third party such as an experienced home inspector or engineer. Try to find a home inspector with building experience, because not all home inspectors are alike and very few will have the experience you require.The same can be said of engineers; some have real-world experiences while others spend most of their time in an office.Odors can be generated by a variety of things other than a damp crawlspace. On more than one occasion I have found where a plumbing vent was not connected or a loose or disconnected plumbing drain allowed raw sewage to leak to the crawlspace floor.Odors can be from decaying cardboard and other construction debris left in the crawlspace or from damp fiberglass insulating materials.Wet or damp fiberglass insulation must be removed and discarded. Minor problems such as these often cost less than a few hundred dollars to repair.Of course, if the crawlspace is flooding, then you need to have a drainage system installed.(Dwight Barnett is a certified master inspector with the American Society of Home Inspectors. Write to him with home improvement questions at C. Dwight Barnett, Evansville Courier & Press, P.O. Box 286, Evansville, Ind. 47702 or e-mail him at d.Barnett(at)insightbb.com.)
Mica is perfect for fireplace doors ... Water problems
Submitted by SHNS on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 13:27
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