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Phillip J. Norman

1764 Bonniebrae Dr.

Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Phone: (503) 255-4350

email: pjnorman@gmail.com

Bonded & insured, CCB# 165715

Please find the majority of my internet contribution at my blog https://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/ 

If you are a member in Portland, Oregon, check my ratings at Angie's List.

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This site has gotten little author attention, since 2010. Effort to serve public interest has instead been invested in blog http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/. Yet, please find that topics of interest are not efficiently presented, and kept focused on current best thinking, in the blog format.  Beyond both this web site and the blog, I imagine a wiki site with public contribution . For this I have reserved domain energyconservationhowto.com, not yet energized. I ask would-be contributors to contact me.

I am an inventive contractor, primarily installing affordable high-quality attic ladders, with custom safety features, decking and surrounding insulation.  I am happy to be involved with any attic where usability is to be established or maintained, with upgrade to R38+ requirements. I will be involved mainly with the upgrading of existing homes and small business structures. I will work in concert with other contractors,  correcting access deficiencies that impair their work. I have an interest in all measures for energy conservation, but will bid work outside the "Attic Access" focus, only where I have something important to learn or to contribute.

I will work only with practice of full diligence, not permitting burial of missed energy savings opportunities, or hiding safety matters. I will press weatherization sponsors, that diligence as in "sealing," is always expected and rewarded, for any contractor or homeowner. Weatherization up-front financing must support all diligence, including work of electricians, and other skilled trades. My principal diligence will be "sealing" a home in ways that rarely affect outside air exchange, ensuring the thermal envelope is not violated by the like of a drop-ceiling closet. Such matters are always found by sight, down and dirty, digging to flooring even through loose-fill insulation. All diligence must be self-reported, and a contractor not reporting diligence should be disqualified. Diligence usually matters much more than placement  of added insulation. 

I take exception to the notion that "home performance" testing has any value as guide or measure of diligence, and warn home owners to be sure any is done impartially, for a stated rarely-found reason. I feel that citizens are abused by the testing zeal that creates white-collar weatherization jobs in a bubble of equipment sales and training. Incentives not offered for everyone, must not inflate the testing bubble. I maintain a distance from my rebate organization because of this unhappy issue. I will work to overturn testing as a prerequisite to weatherization incentives. Sealing must be done by every contractor, and is done always by visual discovery. A person claiming to do substantial sealing under guidance by a blower door, or that pre- and post-sealing blower door readings measure savings, is misinformed. Little of the savings in sealing are related to changes measurable by a blower door.

I will have a growing list of specialties, including  patching services in drywall, with complex texture blends; and minor patching, with superior crack-repair, in lath and plaster. The patching services grow in part from being called to repair stepped-through ceilings, and dressing of ladder cutouts.

I will manage my business efficiently with creative use of FileMaker database, and offer to share database skills, and grow those skills in cooperation with others. I routinely publish my documents and project photo albums as pdf's, as a loyal user and advocate of Adobe FrameMaker. I have engineering skills including drafting ability in AutoCAD and SolidWorks, and would accept contract assignments in research, analysis and computer graphics. 

Methods Illustration and Exchange: We all want things done professionally (thorough, meeting all known requirements, using best-value materials and most-efficient methods). There will be differences of opinion of what this means. I have my ways, and will offer them as they evolve, wanting feedback and contribution from others. I offer the beginning of a Blog for this, focused on energy-conservation issues: http://energyconservationhowto.blogspot.com/. This blog will also address public policy matters, that can matter more than methods, in the achievement of savings.

I have another blog  focused on plaster patching methods and materials: http://plasterrepairhowto.blogspot.com/, and a blog for product installations, for now detailing only the installation of Panasonic bath fans, http://productinstallationhowto.blogspot.com/.

Please find information focused on attic ladder design and installation at web site r5portals.com. There is a message in the name, that these shall have thermal performance like any good exterior door, where not much more than R5 insulation is a practical maximum. 

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