My New Scuttle Opening Record

[hausdok]

Hi All,

Well, today I broke my own record for getting through small access openings. Remember this 10" by 20" opening?

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I didn't think I'd ever be able to get through anything smaller than that, but today I did; 13-3/4" by 13-3/4". You guys that know me and have seen how, uh, er "husky" I am probably think I'm lying, but I swear that it's true.

I didn't think I could do it either. I dinked around with that hole for about five minutes trying to get through by putting one arm and my head through and kept getting stymied. Then I decided to try it on the diagonal - the opening is about 17-inches on the diagonal - but it still didn't work. Then I thought about when I went through the hatch in that picture, so I put both arms above my head and kind of pulled my shoulders inward and just managed to push through.

Halfway in, my belt hung up on the opening and I panicked momentarily, thinking what I'd look like on the evening news as they cut me out of there, and I was able to reach down reach my belt with my fingers, unhook it and then tuck the old donut in here and there and continue on my way.

Once in, I reached back through the opening for my flashlight, which I'd asked the realtor to hold for me until I'd gotten in, and the client and realtor were standing there with their mouths agape. I joked to the client that I hoped she wouldn't mind allowing my wife to stop by a few times a day to feed me and empty a bucket for me.

Then I went and did the attic and discovered why one should double, maybe even triple, the amount of ventilation into an attic where an EPDM roof cover is installed; the underside of the roof was covered with fungi. I think it was there before the new EPDM roof was put on a few years ago, 'cuz the fungi has moved onto the new plywood decking that was installed along with the new roof.

Apparently, the roofer didn't realize when he'd replaced a bunch of delaminating plywood decking that there is such as thing as incipient rot. He'd never treated the remaining original plywood when he'd replaced that decking and the fungi that had destroyed the original deck had moved into the new decking.

When I left the job I was thinking, "Jeez, if I hadn't been so stubborn and insisted on trying once again to get through that hatch I might have missed that mess and then, a year, maybe two, I'd have gotten that one phone call that I never want to get.

13-3/4" by 13-3/4" - I still can't figure out how I got through that!

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Kyle Kubs]

Well congratulations on your personal best.

But now, be warned, I'll be measuring scuttle openings from now on. 13-3/4" by 13-3/4", I've got my eye on the prize now.

I've amazed more then a few people with the holes I've gotten through, and no, I'm no runt. I even once had a realtor that usually recommends me to her buyers call me up saying the the inspector that just looked at her listing has the buyers scared cause he couldn't get in the attic and could I come over and check the attic for them. Later they called me back and said, OK two HVAC companies have sent out there smallest people who can't get up there, can you do the repair? It wasn't just small, it was a contortion act too. In a closet, over a shelf that wouldn't come out, sheet metal around the opening sticking up 12" to keep the blown in cellulose from falling out and so close to the exterior wall the rafters were sitting on I hardly had two feet over the opening. Blown in cellulose was so deep I had to feel for the rafters, came out of there looking like I'd been tarred and feathered. Never measured the dam thing though so your safe for now.[:-wiltel]

I panicked momentarily, thinking what I'd look like on the evening news as they cut me out of there

[:-bigmout - I hope I have my DVR set that day...

[Jim Katen]

13-3/4" by 13-3/4" - I still can't figure out how I got through that!

Hell, I once made it through an 8" x 14" opening.

(Of course, I was 14 years old at the time.)

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Richard Moore]

...tuck the old donut in here and there...

Are you talking abo...

No, on second thoughts. Nevermind. I don't want to know!