Avoiding The Snarl

You probably heard that there’s a new law in Portland requiring that starting in 2018, any home that’s sold has to have an Energy Score. Here’s a quick overview of what that means: You can’t game the score. A house’s Energy Score has nothing to do with how many times you flush the toilet or what temperature the thermostat is set to. It’s a measurement of how efficient the home is: The effectiveness of its insulation, the energy efficiency of its appliances, stuff like that. The idea is to give buyers a sense of what it would cost to live in the home.  The score is relative. A house that scores a 4 is less efficient than a house that scores a 5. Since so many houses in Portland were built in the early 20th century, nobody expects a ton of houses to score super well. The requirement isn’t just for houses. It applies to “...any residential structure containing at least one dwelling unit or house, regardless of size, on its own lot.” This includes attached single dwellin...

Danger! Danger! In 1973 the Clean Air Act made asbestos illegal to use for fireproofing and insulating purposes.  Then in 1989 the EPA issued the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule , which was supposed to impose a full ban on the manufacturing, importation, processing and sale of asbestos-containing products. Two years later supporters of the asbestos industry challenged and overturned the ban. It was a landmark lawsuit: Corrosion Proof Fittings v. the Environmental Protection Agency . Bottom line, some small victories for asbestos regulation, but asbestos use is still permitted. As in now. As in still permitted now. I know. You’re freaking out.  I am too. I started to rip up some of the ugly vinyl molding in my bathroom last week so I could put in a real live baseboard and then, because I knew this, I stopped. I took a sample to my local asbestos testing lab and found out that the adhesive that sticks the vinyl molding to the wall contains asbestos.  ...