The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
First Aid For The Ailing Houses
BRAZING AND WELDING
Brazing is a process where an alloy, usually of copper and tin, is applied to two pieces of metal that are heated until the alloy flows into a bond with both of them. Usually this is accomplished in much the same method as for gas welding. A torch heats the metal, and a rod of the alloy is slowly applied, permitting it to flow into the joint or crack. A similar method is used for gas welding, but here a rod of mild steel is used, and the weld is far stronger than a brazed joint. With arc welding, a high voltage of electricity is run from the welding rod through the metal to be joined or repaired. This high voltage sets up a strong resistance in the metal, which heats it so that on contact the rod becomes bonded to the metal surface. Welding and brazing require special tools and equipment, not to mention skill in knowing what heat is necessary and how to apply it. Such jobs should be taken to professionals for the best results. Automobile garages and sheet-metal shops have welding equipment, and the cost is usually not too great for home-repair jobs.
SAFETY FIRST
ONE of the most often recommended (and one of the most ignored) pieces of advice is to be extremely careful with household electrical circuits or equipment. To this warning is added the urging of the National Safety Council. They note that each year a growing number of persons are injured or even killed through improper or careless handling of common household electrical appliances. In addition to bodily harm there is the danger that property may be lost through overloaded circuits or faulty wiring.
Every insurance company has some "escape clause" in its fire-protection policies which allows it to refuse payment if an inspection proves that improper wiring caused (or permitted) the conflagration. Take as an example the practice of the hair-raising old habit of putting a penny or a nail under a burned-out fuse. This might permit an overloaded wall outlet (supplying, for instance, a television set, six 100-watt bulbs, and a hand iron) to overheat and cause a fire in the walls. This type of accident would promptly (and justifiably, tool) cancel the insurance coverage under most policies.
Where additional wiring is needed, the home owner should take the safest course and call in a licensed electrician. In many older homes, and many of the homes built under lowcost FHA and GI loans, circuits are adequate for "average" needs. However, as new labor-saving (and electricity-using) appliances are developed, the home owner often exceeds these averages, which were considered adequate when the house was built. This could—and frequently does—result in dangerously overloading the circuits.
