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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Oh no, not the mbappe Mpemba effect effect. I refuse to accept that as a real thing, there is just no way the warm water freezes faster. I’ve read dozens of articles about it, eventually finding some that confirmed for me it’s probably just measuring error or subtle differences that aren’t being noticed. But that left me thinking if I had to search so hard for the one article that confirms my gut instinct I shouldn’t lean into it too hard

    Like you have two cups of identical water, eventually the warm water becomes the cold water. If I then use that previously warm water as my cold water and start the experiment over with another glass of warm water, what now? And don’t tell me water has memory.

    My favorite explanation is imagine two cars on a track 100 meters long. The far end is the track is hard asphalt and cars can drive fast. The track gets rougher and muddier the closer you are to the finish line, so the first 50 meters are covered in seconds, the next 25 meters are slower, and the final 5 meters the cars are crawling. You start one car at the 100 meter line and one starts at 10 meters. If you’re observing this race from the top of a 50 storey building above the track, you’d understandably think “wow, that car that started far away was so much faster! For sure it won” even though in the last few feet it was neck-and-neck.




  • How do you define ‘corporate’ ownership? If you can own 100 properties as an individual, does that count as ‘corporate’?

    It’s how you report the income. A corporation pays corporate tax rate on profit. An individual pays income tax. If someone wants to pay the individual income tax on 100 properties, that’s awesome. 33% over 250k. Corporate tax rate can easily be half of that.

    Plus filing your taxes is waaaaaay easier having a corp hold all the assets and generating revenue, and the individual as an employee who draws a salary. If you’re just an individual with 100 properties and you get audited, you’re in for a bumpy ride trying to pick apart personal vs rental purchases



  • That’s what I mean by running some framing horizontally, put a new set of studs horizontally over top the existing studs. Thermal bridging is the ease that the cold moves through your framing. On frosty mornings you can sometimes see where the trusses are on a roof up because the cold moves more easily through the stud vs the insulation. More info on that here. You have 2 options once you install the baffles, either nail a 2x3 directly over the existing rafters to make the wall 1.5" deeper giving room for insulation + baffle, or run the new framing horizontal. Horizontal makes insulating much harder but it gives a bit of a thermal break from the interior drywall to the rafter touching the exterior roof deck.


  • Baffles will do it If you’re willing to do the work, and based on the fact you’re already ripping holes in walls, I guess you might be

    Tear out the wall, baffles against the roof deck in each cavity. At the ridge you’ll need ventilation for the air to escape, ridge venting or otherwise. I’d add 2x3s or 2x4s running horizontally on 16s. You could also just lay them all overtop the existing rafters but if you’ve gone to this point you might as well do it horizontal to avoid the thermal bridging. Laying over top is easier to insulate, up to you. Next insulate, then vapor barrier. I’d use acoustic sealant at the perimeter of your vapor barrier, it’s sticky messy stuff but will help immensely with warm air leakage


  • For example, would something like taking the sheetrock down (see what is behind it) and possibly add some vapor barriers with a thin airgap between the roof and the conditioned space. I guess similar to firring strips?

    That’s pretty much it. If you’re willing to go to the trouble, remove the wood soffit and replace it with vented, put in a wood fascia, tear out the ceiling from the inside, create an airspace that goes right up to the ridge and vents out the top, then rebuild the ceiling

    You want it to go from outside-in: roof deck, ventilation, insulation, vapor barrier, interior finish. How much space you’re willing it lose vs how much insulation and air space is up to you. Again, my experience is building in cold climates, not wet ones


  • Oh it’s almost certainly creating issues by boarding it up, but what’s the point of the structure if it can’t be enjoyed properly? I’m taking this for what it is, a barn/shed and not their primary residence. It’s not worth it to rebuild the whole roof. I’ve been a contractor for 18 years, went to school for it and did some building science so this is very much in my wheelhouse. Between the options of do nothing and have to deal with spiders/cold, or try something and keep an eye out for rot, I say go for the latter


  • Not sure how cold it gets where you are and how much heat you’re adding in, but I’m guessing the reason for the mesh instead of fascia is to give some ventilation to the roof

    Honestly it probably doesn’t matter if you close it up, sacrifice a little rot and ice buildup for your comfort, you said yourself this is just some barn structure, you’re not going to wreck it overnight

    I’m in Canada, up here we like ventilation in our attic spaces to take away the condensation as warm humid air from inside cools where it meets cold outside air, so you’d normally want a vented soffit with a nice air path leading out the top of your roof, minimizes ice buildup.

    For this, you have vaulted ceilings and it looks like basically no space for insulation+ventilation between the inside ceilings and the roof deck, so without knowing your climate or how things are built there I’m betting they saw moisture building up in that eave and removed the fascia to let it breathe

    Close it up if you want, I wouldn’t bother foaming it, and if you notice things are too wet just take the boards off. Again, you won’t wreck it overnight.