Torch work in old houses: stick around after you put the torch down
Had a helper sweat a couple of fittings on a boiler near a joist bay in Lodi last week. Nice joints. We packed up, I went back down for a tool I forgot, and I smelled it before I saw it. The old wood and the dust up in that bay had been smoldering the whole time. Nobody got hurt and the house is fine. But here's what everybody on my trucks does now, and what I should have made him do: Fire cloth behind the joint before you light the torch, not after. Wet down old framing if it's dry as paper. Spray bottle and an extinguisher on the floor next to you, not out on the truck. And when you're done, stay and watch it for half an hour. Put your hand near the wood. Look up into the bay with a light. Old balloon-frame houses in Bergen have bays that run open floor to floor. A spark goes up there and you won't see it until it's a real problem. Thirty minutes of watching is cheap. That's the job.