Attic rain, revisited

Every year, around peak winter, there is a story in the media regarding freezing related damage to houses in Calgary. Last year, with the heavy snow pack, it was ice damning on shingles leading to leaks.  This year, due to the hideous month of continuous unseasonable cold (coldest February in recent history with average temperate almost -18C), it is so called ‘attic rain’.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-attic-rain-frost-cold-weather-1.5036581

I didn’t particularly like this article.  First of all, attic rain is a bad name, because it isn’t a form of precipitation or weather, it is the sudden thaw of frost that was trapped in the attic that damages the finished interior space below.  Many serious issues can be caused by this moisture that we don’t need to discuss here.  Another conclusion drawn by the article is something I don’t agree with, that is, the only way to fix it is to somehow ‘reseal’ the vapour barrier in the ceiling so that humidity from the house can’t escape into the attic.  I believe that no matter how well the house is built, some humidity will make its way into the attic.  The natural forces are very strong that draw moist 30 Celsius shower water/air mixture from a bathroom  upward into a - 30 Celsius attic cavity.  That is a 60 Celsius gradient of temperature across a thin layer of poly, drywall and loose fill insulation.  If we are going to use this conventional technique of building, and we will for the foreseeable future continue to, instead of far superior and more costly techniques and materials, we just need to mitigate this attic issue so it doesn’t become harmful.  Each type of building process has some negative aspect to it, and the wood framing style of building common in Calgary has many advantages  vs other forms of building, namely cost being #1.

If the conclusion drawn by the CBC article was true (sealing of vapour barrier is needed), then my own methods of fixing this issue without tackling the ceiling vapour barrier would not have worked.  I built a recent property and noted that the ceiling poly was done carefully, or at least as well as could be done outside of a laboratory, without rips or holes, penetrations that were not sealed, or lack of backing on the joints.  I examined it carefully as leakage into the attic of humidity is a known issue and I don’t want to repeat the mistakes of others.  I also installed very expensive and effective roof vents, the max brand variety, that cost over $100 each, and each unit received 2, more then enough vent capacity.  Despite these efforts, some frosting in the attic was observed during the severe cold (none was observed at routine cold temperature).  The issue was caused (to me, conclusively), by lack of enough air intake into the ventilated roof.  The lack of pathways to vent the roof properly is largely due to city rules about fire spread among buildings, so that in some areas where the roof needs to have perforated soffit to aid in venting, it isn’t allowed.  One simple solution is to add more ventilated soffit the year after a house is finished if attic frosting is becoming an issue.  If that actually works, then I guess you can blame the building code rules for creating the problem in the first place.  Your house may not burn down when your neighbour has a fire, but if it is full of mold, that is a serious problem and hard to fix.  I’d accept a little more risk of a fire that may never happen, then endure the certainty of a roof full of mold and moisture damage.

An even more effective option, if adding ventilated soffit is not working, is to cut in a louvred shutter on the wall, near the roof, and positioned over the top of the loose fill insulation in the attic.  This, in my experience, is what allows enough air to enter the attic to vent it. Most often, the issue is not venting, or allowing the humidity to escape, it is a shortage of input of dry, cold, fresh air.  Once the volume of incoming air is increased, the issue of frosting resolves itself.  Of course, adding these louvered vents isn’t easy in a finished building, particularly a stucco building.  Vents can be the cheap plastic variety sold everywhere, or custom sized and colour matched metal models.  I have used both and both are effective.   

Here is a photo taken from an attic on a recent build of mine taken February 7 2019.  I thought at the time ventilation was more than adequate, however the roof had some low slope areas with low head height inside, and I was concerned those areas may not be frost free.  Sure enough after a couple weeks of super cold weather, I toured the attic and saw more frost than I deemed acceptable, and it was spread fairly consistently over a broad area. Note that some minor frost is likely ok, as it warms, the frost will likely sublimate and disappear out the vents (provided they are not covered by snow and blocked, another common issue).

Note each roof shingle nail collects a bead of sweat from the humidity and then freezes. Over time these could form a mighty stalactite, and when this melts it will definitely leak through the drywall below.  The worst case scenario is definitely no…

Note each roof shingle nail collects a bead of sweat from the humidity and then freezes. Over time these could form a mighty stalactite, and when this melts it will definitely leak through the drywall below. The worst case scenario is definitely not shown here in this image, this would be minor frost buildup.

After reviewing the forecast of cold for the remainder of the week, (little did we know it would be cold for the next month almost continuously without a chinook) it seemed that this situation could worsen.  It is hard to predict how much additional frost would accumulate, and if this would become a problem later.  The decision was made to take some action.  A two part strategy was used, the first was to change some soffit to ventilated from non-vented, and the second was to cut in a gable wall vent.  Lacking time to get a custom made vent, I just purchased the super cheap kind from Rona.  The custom kind are much nicer but these were to be installed in a hard to see area.

These are crude yet very effective wall vents to add to an attic that is lacking intake but has enough exhaust.

These are crude yet very effective wall vents to add to an attic that is lacking intake but has enough exhaust.

Here is recent photo of the same attic following ventilation being added, and was taken after overnight lows approached -30 Celsius.  Note the roof is completely dry and frost free.  No evidence remains of the frost that was there a few weeks previo…

Here is recent photo of the same attic following ventilation being added, and was taken after overnight lows approached -30 Celsius. Note the roof is completely dry and frost free. No evidence remains of the frost that was there a few weeks previously. The bright portion of the photo on the wall is a louvered gable vent that provides the bulk of the fresh air intake to this part of the roof, shown from the inside.

This concludes my observations on the Calgary ‘attic rain’ problem.  Builders are wise to construct simple roof shapes that offer a predictable means of adding intake and exhaust, and prevent ice jams during heavy snow years.  During the siding phase of the building, it is wise to, at low to little cost, add a wall vent (or two). This tiny bit of insurance may save a massive amount of trouble later.  There is no less expensive way to build a house than a wood truss roof with a vented cavity, this style of construction is totally mechanized and perfected by local suppliers with thousands of jobs worth of experience, and it works well if suitable precautions are taken to manage our extreme weather.  For 95% of the winter season, or even an entire winter, inadequate ventilation of the roof may not be an issue, but when you do have that long cold stretch will be when you are least able to manage the problem.  There have been some roofs built over the years, largely inner city multi family projects, with absolutely terrible ventilation performance. I am not sure how these low slope, inaccessible cavity roofs have been repaired.  Costs could run into the 10’s of thousands to fix water damage and the performance of the roof, yet these problems could be avoided simply with a $20 vented shutter from Rona…

Railing install

The railing carpenter is back on site to install the railings.  Further progress is slowing now as we deal with the final details.  

 

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Ready to template for the glass  

Finishing progress

Following a brief but much appreciated trip away from the arctic conditions I returned to much shoveling and two per day blizzards.  Also some construction progress was planned and underway while I was gone.  

Next up is more kitchen trimming and lockout type of tasks, closet rods and faucet trims.  One we get to appliances then we are really close to completion.   

 

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The Richmond semi has some nice hardware and we are finally getting it put in. 

Courtyard33 appeal fails to derail the project - a big win for Marda Loop redevelopment!

Excellent news from the Calgary Subdivision and Development Appeal Board. Here is a link to the outcome of the appeal

https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/absdab/doc/2018/2018cgysdab174/2018cgysdab174.html

Basically the appeal was brought forth for a variety of reasons, mainly minor issues that have little bearing on the success of the project, such as a perceived shortage of bike stalls, or balconies too small. Plus of course the consultation process was not acceptable to the appellant. Where have we heard this before? Is rndsqr to scrap a huge project just to placate a neighbour who doesn’t like their designs, effectively give one person a veto? It is amazing how some individuals consider their own personal needs (or wants) to supersede those of a project that will house over 50 families and businesses, and employ many people during and after construction (during a painful recession even). Some of the appeal doesn’t even have any bearing on a person who doesn’t own a unit in the building. I think the buyers can decide if the balconies are suitable rather than a person who has zero likelihood of living in the building. The buyers don’t need a local NIMBY type to decide for them how they should live, especially in a building where the investment in the public amenity is so large, it needs quite a few condo fee paying buyers to fund and maintain those spaces. Hopefully not too much money or time was wasted on dealing with the appeal. Even better would be to get the appellant to pay the costs of the builder incurred in preparing a legal defence.

Here are a few snapshots of the decision report.

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Hardwood nosing install

With some unexpected delays due to the Chinese New Year happening at the same week we needed the crew we’ve got little progress to report. One of our most reliable contractors is on site installing the hardwood stairs.  At least he’s got the houses to himself and nobody walking around on the stairs that are being finished.  If the deep freeze passes with the holiday then next week will be more productive.   

 

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The painstaking process of cladding the stairs is underway.   

Countertop install

My regular supplier and fabricator of the stone countertops installed the first unit at the Richmond project.  With unit one ready now for hardwood flooring we can start to catch up the finish work on the second side. Having the counters in allows the tile and plumbing work to be completed as well.  This project features an impressive waterfall island with a large leathered granite surface. 

 

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Large mitre cuts in the stone.  

Tiling begins

Last week we worked on a lot of not particularly photogenic logistical stuff and played around with the radon abatement project.  This week we are back at the Richmond project.  Tiling of the showers is now underway and the first countertop install is scheduled.  We’ve got drywall touchups done and the painter booked on the remaining house.  After this wraps up we will be into hardwood and the final finishing tasks.  I’m also at work planning my next few builds, focusing mostly on a semi d plan that is 100% new from our ongoing collaboration with the design team.

 

 

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Fun with radon part 3, the eviction.

It appears my battle to evict the evil radon from the Killarney residence was a success. After a 48 hour resample period, levels have dropped from the 2018 lab tested 248 to 14 Bq/m3. Despite the favourable outcome, some issues remain outstanding and unresolved.     

1.  The 90 day sample is highly accurate yet it reported a significant margin of error along with the analysis, + or - 34 Bq/m3. That margin is much wider than the post abatement result of 14 Bq/m3. I don’t believe my digital device is capable of greater accuracy after 48 hours than the error margin of a 90 day test performed in a lab, nor is a result of negative 20 Bq/m3 even possible. So the sensitivity of the instrument is questionable (but not a reason not to purchase the equipment and do the install).

2.  The volume of flow being discharged out the 4 inch pipe is higher than I would like.  I’m concerned that my heated slab will be having the heat sucked out of it by the depressurization.   That will lose a lot of heat energy over a winter.  The heat loss is beneath the slab insulation (meaning we are pulling the heat out of the earth primarily) but still a concern. 

3.  I wonder about my attached neighbours house. She may be getting a fair bit of her slab depressurized as well due to the footing interconnection. If so one abatement may do the job of two abatement and that’s a nice bonus (because now I won’t have to do hers!). Sampling will need to be done in her side to confirm.   

4. I asked a trained installer to inspect photos of my system. They reported back the abs pipe we used above the fan isn’t allowed.  I think this is nonsense. If the abs pipe is ok to use for underground sewage it can blow out radioactive particles.  Also in the new homes we build we use 4 inch abs beneath the slab as the radon roughin. So it’s good enough below the slab but not ok above the slab?  PVC is much more expensive pipe than cellcore abs.  Two lengths were needed, but that stuff adds up quickly for long runs with many fittings (we didn’t have a long run or lots of fittings but I still don’t see the point of pvc).     

5. Lets throw in a criticism of the government to conclude the post. It is doing a great job of getting the word out about radon.  Yet it doesn’t post a material list and detailed instructions for homeowners.  It would rather hand out light bulbs than subsidize abatement kits for the most at risk families.  I think any home over some high number such as 600 Bq/m3 should get a free fan.  If the government can afford millions of flu shots it could bulk order 100k radon fans as well, and not from amazon.  Right from the factory.  Too many families that should deal with radon won’t, mostly because of the high cost.    

So that wraps up this expirement with diy abatement.  In a future post I will describe the cost in detail.  Figure on an all in cost of 500$ plus some labour from my undisclosed helper.

Here is my post abatement score. Hopefully this is accurate and we’ve succeeded in evicting radon and earned a higher score with spousal happiness.  

Here is my post abatement score. Hopefully this is accurate and we’ve succeeded in evicting radon and earned a higher score with spousal happiness.  

Fun with radon, part 2, the unhappy husband

This post should be titled the ‘trouble with small business cost and pricing structure in Calgary’.  Have you ever encountered a business in Calgary that’d rather take nothing than earn a reasonable profit for a quick in and out job, but less than whatever predetermined formula (high margin) it established for itself?  That seems to describe the radon profession in Calgary to a ‘T’.  Too many small businesses are longing for the heady days of the boom years when a customer would just ask how much and accept whatever sum was requested and hand over the credit card. I think those days are over and not returning.  

After a second $2300 quote for radon abatement (have these guys got together to set prices or is this service really worth that sum?) it became obvious that if it was going to be done, it’d be installed the hard and cheap way (by me).   The rationale for why the fee was so high was never credible.  The first operator appeared to have been using a commission sales guy who’s job was to get into as many customers homes as possible.  He’d get a contract and then sell it off to an install crew and pocket the difference.  Since I don’t need middleman that aren’t wearing a tool belt that didn’t work for me.  Second crew had dubious reasons like a) had to pay for insurance, and b) training and certification cost money too, thus the fee was warranted. My offer to divide those costs by 365 and see what that amounted to per day, which I’d double, a 100% ROI in their fixed cost didn’t get me a deal.  I reviewed the total education component necessary to be certified and it was $2500 plus annual dues.  Not much in business.  My suggestion that home builders have larger insurance bills and overhead than radon guys didn’t gain much leverage in the negotiations either.

My network of contacts in this industry is large and from this I can get a second opinion on cost of service. I contacted a renovator in Colorado who mentioned he’d included an abatement on a house as a deal sweetener.  He said they used to pay $1200 but recently had located a contractor at $900.  I knew this before my second quote was collected. I tried to leverage this into a lower price than $2300, but still more than $1200 converted from USD. If someone in Colorado can do it for $900, the surely someone in Calgary can make a nice living at $1500.  

And then amazon offered free shipping of all the key supplies needed to my do my job, plus an upgrade of a digital monitor for less than $500.  I’d purchase help with the ducting and the pipe supplies locally and with a little DIY we’d be abated.  Is it really that simple?  In the next post, fun with radon part 3, the install (eviction) tale will be told. 

 

 

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thanks amazon, that prime membership is really worth having.  

Fun with radon, part 1, the unhappy spouse

If you want to keep your mate, then you must abate

Radon gas has definitely become ‘a thing’ in Calgary.  With the potential to cause fatal lung cancer, long term residences, particularly those with kids growing up inside, should be sampling.  And of course, sampling itself won’t do anything without following up and conducting the abatement, if needed.  Last year at the family Killarney SW residence, I was politely encouraged to conduct the 90 day sample.  Well, I complied, and the results came back borderline (in my view).  Around here, borderline isn’t good enough, this wasn’t surprising to me either. ‘Think of the children’ and other such comments were uttered.  As winter arrived, polite discussions on abatement degenerated into demands and deadlines.  When deadlines came and went without progress, ultimatums were issued.  That was around the time that it was agreed that I should do something about this radon problem. 

An estimate was requested by Mrs. M from local professional abatement contractor.  Your friendly builder, not one to pay retail for anything involving construction nearly choked on his beer once she shared pricing.  It was assumed (by me) that (actually my assumption was totally erroneous and sexist), being a female, her quote would be more than a male construction company owner, and that I’d surely be able to talk myself into a reasonable price for the work.  Sadly (on the ability to cut the price, not the debunked assumptions on gender based pricing on the job site) it seemed like nobody would budge, not even the second quote was remotely palatable, though I prodded them significantly to drop the price. 

And this is where the fun with radon begins…

206 Bq/m3 is too high. We’d like to see this a lot lower. Watch this site for the next episode of ‘fun with radon’.

206 Bq/m3 is too high. We’d like to see this a lot lower. Watch this site for the next episode of ‘fun with radon’.

Kitchen progress.

We’ve had the cabinet boxes and gables installed.  Doors and remaining hardware can safely remain elsewhere.  At this point in the project there is too much trade damage that can occur on finishing item.   While some of this is unavoidable the amount of damage caused by either total negligence or carelessness is a real problem.   

 

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This kitchen will be ready to template for countertops.  Just need to clear off all those hardwood nosings.   

Hardwood nosing assembly

The part finished interior is also functioning as a warm and well lit place to act as a worskshop for trades to prep.  Right now the hardwood guys are assembling the about 80 nosing pieces.  Sure would be nice if the factory would do this and just sell them to us in a box.  These nosings will be a nice feature of our flooring job and stair job that will start in a couple weeks.

 

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Construction idiots continued - random vandals

This is the latest in an endless continuum of the random idiots that you encounter on the jobsite. The latest project hasn’t been immune to the role of idiots, these idiots seem to appear at the most inopportune moment to cause whatever grievance or harm they can manage to deliver and then they disappear.

Today the construction idiot award goes to some random individual that came off the street and entered into the unit the kitchen crew was working in. He then opened up his tool bag, grabbed a knife and proceeded to slash the fireplace exhaust pipe, essentially decapitating it, and then left as quickly as he arrived. Who was this random fart in the wind? We don’t know, we just pray his foul odour doesn’t return.

The damage left from the random idiot that entered the building and decided to slash the fireplace vent.  Who was this person, what did he want, why did he do this?  All of these questions remain unanswered.

The damage left from the random idiot that entered the building and decided to slash the fireplace vent. Who was this person, what did he want, why did he do this? All of these questions remain unanswered.

Interior door and trim spray lacquer

the painter continues to make progress in the first unit at the Richmond project.  The doors are all sprayed and the closets and trim will be up next.  The lacquer results in a spectacular smooth and durable finish but breathing protection is needed to apply it.  Worth the effort and hazard?  I’m not sure. 

 

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The entire house is now a spray booth.  Another few days and we will move on to the next stage of the project.  

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Closet work.  

 

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And more closet work. This is a lot of effort and labor to complete.   

When City Hall acts fast - any opportunity to fill its pockets

I’ve commented on the absurd manner in which City Hall assesses the value of property in the past. Basically it preferentially treats those in older homes that have likely resided there many years, consuming services, depreciating infrastructure, while enjoying artificial low assessments, and low annual tax bills (that increase slowly and marginally). Yet when it comes to any new development, it appears to aggressively inflate values in such a way as to maximize its annual take. It even now reassesses property extremely quickly and in such an efficient manner it can actually pre-emptively decide the amount of mid stream construction value that has occurred and find a way to tax that too, despite the new buildings are unoccupied and not using any City services. In my case we can’t even get a parking permit for the trades to use the street in front of the building. Yet, we’ve already been hit with a massive reassessment, that isn’t even valid based on the City’s own rules

‘your 2019 assessment reflects the estimated market value of your property on July 1 2018 and the physical condition as of December 31 2018’.

So now the City is hitting builders with large tax increases based on the condition of July 1, 2018 (building was vacant and ready to be demolished), thus worth land value only, and as of Dec 31, the physical condition was unoccupied and under construction. Its market value half built is not great, as the market of buyers for half done buildings is very limited. Regardless the value is supposed to be estimated as of the market in the previous summer.

Typical of how the City can act quickly when it benefits, but when you need a favour or service from the City it takes sometimes months to get anywhere, or you get into the bureaucratic runaround. Somehow that same bureaucracy can act to maximize its take from local businesses though.

City is somehow revising history to increase tax assessments.  maybe it should look at other property that it under assess and hit those owners with large increases too.

City is somehow revising history to increase tax assessments. maybe it should look at other property that it under assess and hit those owners with large increases too.

Weekend prep

The finishers installed the last of the closet built in material and the flooring guys sanded all the seams in the plywood subfloor.  With the sanding and dust removed plus the closets prepped the painter is in a good position to start the spraying of the doors and trim.  

 

Drawers are built in.  

Drawers are built in.  

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Subfloor is sanded and buckets of sawdust removed.  

2018 year in review bonus edition - evaluating the impact of government on inner city home builders

Each year I like to dedicate a special post, one to identify a significant factor worthy of special commemoration. This year, there was no greater factor impacting small business owner home builders than the harm caused by the various governments. Each level of government deserves specific scorn this year. 2018 will be remembered as such a colossal year of government idiocy its impact will linger on in infamy. The repercussions continue to ripple outward as collateral damage continues into the economy and future. So here we go with an evaluation of each of our levels of government.

Municipal - The City of Calgary began the year with an ambitious announcement that Killarney would be getting a desperately needed area redevelopment plan revision…until it changed its mind and decided to merge Killarney with a bunch of other communities into a much broader district level plan. This may be a better approach, but the delay isn’t. This decision should have been made much earlier as each year of delay is causing considerable harm. What has occurred is it is now way easier to rezone tiny parcels, and the building industry is doing this quickly, on only strategic locations. This means irreparable damage is done to streets destined to be rezoned as mixed use medium density redevelopment areas where land assembly will no longer be possible. It appears we are trading long term redevelopment potential for a bunch of scattered fourplex buildings on corner locations throughout the inner city. This is a massive failure of city planning that can only be blamed on the planning department.

In addition there seems to be more discussion on how to raise fees on inner city builders for everything from streetlights to underground infrastructure. There is no credit given for the massive tax increases the city permanently enjoys from redevelopment, nor any political capital to shift taxes in a way that would share the burden of suburban sprawl and congestion caused by the proliferation of new communities. The city has created a scenario where it wants to see more inner city development but it incentivizes and supports the sprawl it claims it cannot afford. The good news is there seems to be a growing awareness that you simply can’t run a city where 90% of development is sprawl, while choking off inner city development with excessive fees and regulation. It is a classic bureaucracy where the left hand is working in a way that undermines the right hand. Can this city untangle itself? It doesnt seem likely.

Finally we heard some publicity on a hushed up third level supposed ‘pension’ program for city executives where taxes are used to fully fund a gold plated scheme to enrich the retirement of already wealthy and highly paid city staff. It is totally unconscionable that taxpayers suffering in a long recession, with no hope of themselves ever getting a defined benefit pension are funding extremely rich benefits for certain staff, plus it does not appear the scheme was ever approved by any council. For these reasons, and others, the City of Calgary gets a failing grade for 2018. (C-)

Provincial - The NDP government always defaults to a nanny state anti business platform on any issue. For this reason alone it gets a failing grade. It is hard to place a lot of blame on the NDP for the pipeline failures, but it clearly hasn’t done enough with its social licence nonsense, and pandering to extreme environmentalists financially supported by those with an agenda to harm Alberta has contributed to the devastating western canadian select values. The massive financial losses caused by the discount on the bitumen product is now large enough the government wants to take the bizarre step of buying tanker cars to ship the product. The NDP gets a D, and hopefully is booted out of office this spring.

Federal - The feds earn the distinction this year of receiving the lowest possible grade, an F. Failure is the key federal strategy apparently. It created an untenable situation where no pipeline can be built anywhere, by anyone, not even itself. How can the greatest authority in the land not control the economic destiny of a country and instead allow judges, boards, and gender appeasement policy to dictate development? All of this has created a market sentiment devastating to the inner city builder that relies in part on buyer confidence to purchase major investments such as houses. In addition to the crushing blows received by the energy industry in 2018 caused by government, the policies brought in to toughen mortgage standards due to bubbles in the distant cities of Toronto and Vancouver (already 1.5 years past the peak and dropping quickly), have really piled on to the softer markets in the rest of the country. Clearly Alberta does not need the feds, and the feds have done massive harm to the business owners of Alberta this year. The liberals get an F and we hope they will be voted out of office this fall.

2019 - the prediction edition

Hi everyone, and happy new year. It is January 1, 2019, a fitting day to publish my annual prediction edition for what I think will or will not happen over the coming year. 2018 was a roller coaster type of year, and this makes it unpredictable, and, sort of like the stock market, what was shaping up to become a great year turned really dismal by the last quarter. In December, as is my usual practice, I will self evaluate my predictions.

  1. Killarney land prices will stabilize and increase slightly - the latter half of 2018 was awful for land sellers. Prices appear to have dropped by six figures. I think in 2019 the prices will recover a little. The heady days of 50 ft lots being sold for $675k will not return, nor should they. Of course a lot of this depends on factors we cannot predict, like government meddling, energy and pipeline related debacles, and market sentiment.

  2. The spring market for new inner city homes will be better than 2018. This seems possible, even in a soft market. The amount of inventory and attractive pricing will draw buyers into the spring market. Overall I expect the market to be a little better than 2018, but certainly below average of the past five years.

  3. Government meddling will be lower than 2018 - 2018 must be the high water mark for damaging government meddling in the housing market. I can’t imagine a year where more government harm is caused to small business owners, if it does get worse, 2019 will be a nightmare. It will be hard even for the deeply incompetent people we have in charge of society to do worse than they did last year, even by accident they should be better. Doing nothing at all would be the path of least resistance for the government, this would be a relief. I also think they may relax some of the arbitrary mortgage rules as a way to placate the industry pre-election. Of course, as an election year, that is a real wildcard, if housing becomes a factor that could sway a campaign, you could see some really bizarre policies or regulations enacted to buy votes. Frightening!

website summary stats - 2018

Throughout 2018 I continued with the regular news page updates (about 175 posts in total which is hard to believe), I shared a lot of valuable info (at least I think it is) on inner city building practices, comical diatribes against the usual villains, and opinion pieces on current events, from my admittedly biased perspective.  Now we have completed the second year of this site and it is time to review the website stats.

6623 - total page views in 2018, increased %12.5 year over year

807 - highest page views in single month (March)

3140 - most popular content page (news, which happens to be the landing page so not a surprise it is the most frequent viewed)

66.6% - desktop viewership, 28.75% mobile (viewers are a very studious group, you’d expect mobile to be the dominant platform)

2018 is now 'last year', and I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to check out my site, left comments, and emailed or called with special requests.  I find inner city building to be a fascinating topic, and it seems like many others do too. I posted a little less frequently in the latter half of the year, and expect this trend to continue. There isn’t a lot of need to post minor construction update photos as I have done a lot of this over the years and any person can look through the archive of posts to find what they are interested in.

I did get sidetracked with a project specific website for live33st.com. This was a fair bit of effort to set up and took energy to manage away from the integerhomes.com page. It was quite successful at attracting eyeballs, in fact it was a tremendous marketing tool in pre-leasing all of the units before it was completed. In 2018 the live33st site received 4113 page views, and in June, the heaviest month for traffic, it had 1089 page views. This is more than the main site has ever had, so quite a surprise. A lot of this traffic was attributable to the rent faster listing that directed tremendous traffic and interest to the site. We learned from this traffic there is a near endless desire for quality new rental accommodation in Killarney, and from the actual build, we learned how it requires an almost superhuman feat to actually get it built and financed as a viable business.

I'll be back at work tomorrow pushing for a productive January to get the Richmond semi-d rolling again, so feel free to stop in and say hi.

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