Thrashy

Thrashy , 23 days ago

I've averaged about a 4 year tenure at my previous employers -- some a bit more, some a bit less -- but usually with a competing offer or two in that time period that I've used as a lever for a pay raise. Nobody's complained about me being a job-hopper or short-timer.

I have noticed that my two last employers, both large national firms, have moved towards a model of career-tracking with a defined pay structure, similar to government work where different positions and experience levels have a pay range attached to them and you're not able to negotiate out of that range. This has been framed as a protective move against wage inequality suits, but I suspect it's more about preventing employees from negotiating especially high compensation packages. I haven't had it cut against me yet -- in both cases I got a very minor pay bump when my employers actually went out and compared their pay scales to what the market was demanding -- but if enough employers start benchmarking against each other and using that to cap pay, it will functionally become like a wage-fixing cartel similar to what's happened to rent in the last 5-10 years.

Thrashy , 30 days ago (edited 30 days ago)

I think you're okay here -- the code requirement about solid or fully-grouted blocks applies to the masonry supporting the flue liner. What you're looking at in the photo is a decorative brick wrap around the structural portion of the chimney. My main concern would be to ensure that this area is properly capped and sealed so that critters and rainwater can't get into the cavity and find their way further into your home.

Thrashy , 30 days ago

That's true if the right side is a flue, but with neither fire brick nor flue liner in evidence, I suspect it's purely decorative -- I'm interpreting OP's text description to mean that we're looking at one of two lined flues, and one of two unexpected void spaces he found when removing the cap. I don't think the void is actually connected to anything, and instead is just decorative, but if I'm wrong and you're correct, then yeah -- there are more serious issues to deal with here

Thrashy , 2 months ago

Ah, yes, because that one ex-cultist that showed up in the background of every Trump Rally is totally the same thing as Jewish people who don't like it when they're told they are obligated by their genetics to support an apartheid state that thinks it's OK to bomb 100 innocent bystanders to kill one militant.

Thrashy , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

With old masonry wall construction, you need to be very careful about how you retrofit insulation to the walls. Insulating the interior makes it very likely that you’ll have moisture-related degradation of the stone and grout making up the wall, as you’re cutting off drying potential from the interior side of the wall. If it’s possible, insulating the exterior is your best option, otherwise you’ll need to be very conscious about selecting vapor-open insulation and finishes on the interior side, which will limit your options considerably. This article from Building Science Corporation goes over some of the details, and offers some options for interior-side retrofits that might not cause the wall to fail down the road.

Thrashy , 5 months ago

Chomated copper arsenate treated wood has been functionally banned in the US since 2003, and replaced with Alkaline copper quaternary or copper azole preservatives, which are generally safe, though I wouldn’t go eating off a plate made from them or anything. The bigger issure with wood foundations is that even when treated they’re necessarily going to have a limited lifespan – wood still degrades from groundwater contact over time without insect or fungal attack, and water will wash the preservative agent out of the wood over time, eventually letting fungus and termites in.

Thrashy , 7 months ago

I’d only consider the position if I could figure out a way to manipulate the CEO into executing a rugpull that I engineered to my benefit…