The 6P's and Mission Creep
Hey, LJ updated the tool bars. Nifty.
If you've been following Lora on Google+, you know a little about our trevails in lead abatement. Short story - folks from the health department came by and checked out paint for lead levels, and we have some. As a result, the landlord is painting the outside of the house (where the lead paint mostly is). His method lacks efficiency. It is a good example of the 6P's principle (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance), and also a good example of mission creep.
So, here's the saga. Last Monday, he was going to start. He had the assistance of five college students, several of whom had been with him in Costa Rica (an entirely different thing). They showed up as we were leaving the house, two of them in flip flops and halter tops, gazing at the house in wide eyed horror "oh, that's BIIIG." He planned to have the scraping done in one day. Except that, because of the lead paint, he was required to do "wet scraping" - that is, the paint needed to be wetted down first, and then scraped. This is to reduce the amount of dust the scraping produces, and thus reduce the amount of lead in the atmosphere. Even assuming that it would have been possible to scrape a two story house (with attic) using dry scraping in a single day (doubtful), wet scraping seems to result in more paint coming off than expected. Starting at 9 ish and wrapping up at 4 or 5, with a long lunch break and (often) a second break for rain - well. Two weeks later, there's a scaffold bolted to one wall of the house. The back wall has been scraped and painted (well, primer), and the side wall (except for one part, where the scaffold needs to be moved to) has been scraped and primed. The other two sides of the house have not yet been started. The whole operation needs to be done by the end of next week, when all of the workers need to go back to school. So, that's the 6P's - had the operation started earlier, had it been properly evaluated, had a professional been consulted ...
Mission creep - midway through the first day, it was clear that scraping was not getting paint off the window sills in a useful way. Heat guns were purchased. (heat guns = stinky - we left the house for most of the day several times) At some point on the third or fourth day, it was discovered that many of the shingles on the back of the house (the whole house is covered in cedar shingles, which were then painted) were in such bad shape that scraping them was futile - removing them was the thing to do. Oh, and while we're removing things, if THAT awning is removed, it will be easier to scrape the supports. And, really, no one likes that awning, so when it comes time to replace it, perhaps a new awning could be acquired. And then, while removing shingles from the attic wall in the back, the porch roof (upon which the shingle removers were standing) was found to be in really bad shape. It really needs replacing anyway - why not take the roof off now? (Seven layers of shingles on the roof - five layers is the max, according to New York housing codes - and the boards at the bottom were completely rotted) So, yesterday, as painting ensued, they were also re-building the back porch - because once the roof was off, it was clear that one of the support posts needed replacing as well. So, next week, they're going to move to the other two sides of the house - the west side should be fairly simple, since it gets most of the weather, and the paint is peeling already. The front should be fairly simple, because the shingles have been under porch roofs since the house was built (in the 1890s), and so aren't weathered at all - shouldn't need much scraping. Ya.
By contrast, Lora's boss is having essentially the same thing done to her house, which is of a similar size and age. Her contractors showed up at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, were working by 6:30 on Tuesday, and are done with scraping and painting as of yesterday - four days later. Now, it's possible that the siding on Lora's boss' house is less fiddly. It's also possible that the contractors are not scraping as assiduously as our landlord is. But I think the timing is telling - start early, finish late, and the whole job is done more quickly...
We shall not mention the fact that the lead abatement must also address the INSIDE of the windows - specifically, the window wells, where the window rubs against the frame. That job will entail moving furniture and boxing up stuff and us being out of the affected room while the work is being done - and when is that going to start? No one knows.
We love our landlord - he's a really nice guy. The rent is reasonable, he's fairly flexible as to payment a couple of days late, and he doesn't get on our case too much about the fact that we are slobs. Still...
If you've been following Lora on Google+, you know a little about our trevails in lead abatement. Short story - folks from the health department came by and checked out paint for lead levels, and we have some. As a result, the landlord is painting the outside of the house (where the lead paint mostly is). His method lacks efficiency. It is a good example of the 6P's principle (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance), and also a good example of mission creep.
So, here's the saga. Last Monday, he was going to start. He had the assistance of five college students, several of whom had been with him in Costa Rica (an entirely different thing). They showed up as we were leaving the house, two of them in flip flops and halter tops, gazing at the house in wide eyed horror "oh, that's BIIIG." He planned to have the scraping done in one day. Except that, because of the lead paint, he was required to do "wet scraping" - that is, the paint needed to be wetted down first, and then scraped. This is to reduce the amount of dust the scraping produces, and thus reduce the amount of lead in the atmosphere. Even assuming that it would have been possible to scrape a two story house (with attic) using dry scraping in a single day (doubtful), wet scraping seems to result in more paint coming off than expected. Starting at 9 ish and wrapping up at 4 or 5, with a long lunch break and (often) a second break for rain - well. Two weeks later, there's a scaffold bolted to one wall of the house. The back wall has been scraped and painted (well, primer), and the side wall (except for one part, where the scaffold needs to be moved to) has been scraped and primed. The other two sides of the house have not yet been started. The whole operation needs to be done by the end of next week, when all of the workers need to go back to school. So, that's the 6P's - had the operation started earlier, had it been properly evaluated, had a professional been consulted ...
Mission creep - midway through the first day, it was clear that scraping was not getting paint off the window sills in a useful way. Heat guns were purchased. (heat guns = stinky - we left the house for most of the day several times) At some point on the third or fourth day, it was discovered that many of the shingles on the back of the house (the whole house is covered in cedar shingles, which were then painted) were in such bad shape that scraping them was futile - removing them was the thing to do. Oh, and while we're removing things, if THAT awning is removed, it will be easier to scrape the supports. And, really, no one likes that awning, so when it comes time to replace it, perhaps a new awning could be acquired. And then, while removing shingles from the attic wall in the back, the porch roof (upon which the shingle removers were standing) was found to be in really bad shape. It really needs replacing anyway - why not take the roof off now? (Seven layers of shingles on the roof - five layers is the max, according to New York housing codes - and the boards at the bottom were completely rotted) So, yesterday, as painting ensued, they were also re-building the back porch - because once the roof was off, it was clear that one of the support posts needed replacing as well. So, next week, they're going to move to the other two sides of the house - the west side should be fairly simple, since it gets most of the weather, and the paint is peeling already. The front should be fairly simple, because the shingles have been under porch roofs since the house was built (in the 1890s), and so aren't weathered at all - shouldn't need much scraping. Ya.
By contrast, Lora's boss is having essentially the same thing done to her house, which is of a similar size and age. Her contractors showed up at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, were working by 6:30 on Tuesday, and are done with scraping and painting as of yesterday - four days later. Now, it's possible that the siding on Lora's boss' house is less fiddly. It's also possible that the contractors are not scraping as assiduously as our landlord is. But I think the timing is telling - start early, finish late, and the whole job is done more quickly...
We shall not mention the fact that the lead abatement must also address the INSIDE of the windows - specifically, the window wells, where the window rubs against the frame. That job will entail moving furniture and boxing up stuff and us being out of the affected room while the work is being done - and when is that going to start? No one knows.
We love our landlord - he's a really nice guy. The rent is reasonable, he's fairly flexible as to payment a couple of days late, and he doesn't get on our case too much about the fact that we are slobs. Still...