Bain

Jim K. uploaded a similar chart in a thread several years ago. I rely on the thing all the time. Download Attachment: BradfordWhiteDateCodes.doc 20.4 KB

Condensing unit was already replaced four years ago, my brother. I'm not sure how that's going to play out.[:-sonar] The 13 SEER requirement went into effect January, 2006. The evaporator coil should have been replaced along with the condenser. If the stuff is mismatched, the system's an even bigger cluster than we previously thought.

As Kurt can verify, our IL licensing requires us to *describe* things. Yes, I have to describe stuff like flloor coverings. Dear Client, in case you're wondering, yeah, that's carpet down thar. If I didn't have to describe stuff, I wouldn't, and my report would be 10% of the size it is now. I say I looked inside plumbing stacks and the like more as CMA statements; hard to come back later and claim I didn't. And, yes, my software does that for me (software will also say I didn't do something because...like not checking plumbing stacks because I didn't want to fall off the steep roof). Regardless of what you say, I take your last comment as personal and I'm gonna come down there and kick your ass. Got it, RE the first paragraph. I wasn't sure why you'd mentioned the wallboard if you couldn't be sure what it was. RE the last paragraph, you're welcome any time, but I'd much prefer a charred filet and a few beers to an ass whuppin'.

Like Kurt, I'm more of a list and photos guy, but I don't see any egregious problems. It's a personal preference, but I'd like to see more photos. I typically insert 30-50 depending upon the house, and that's what I'm most often complimented on. Too, when a buyer can SEE something, she'll understand it much more readily and quickly. One thing I stopped doing several years ago is adding comments about items that are up to snuff, like, "The interiors of the plumbing stacks were observed. The stacks are in adequate condition, and stack blockage was not observed." I don't know if the program does this for you, but eliminating descriptions of things that are okay saves me a lot of time. Also, why is it necessary to include, "There is a detached garage near the house. The garage wall framing was readily visible. The framing in the garage ceiling was readily visible. The garage floor was readily visible. The garage overhead door is metal. The door has an automatic opener. The opener has an automatic electric eye to reverse the door when an object crosses the door's path. This is a child-safety feature." ( I copied and pasted, hence the formatting.)? I understand about letting people know whether you can see something or not, but who cares if the garage door is metal or wood? If a buyer can't discern something like that, he isn't smart enough to care whether you did. HI programs are terrific, but for me, they tend to add a bunch of superfluous information that renders the report difficult to navigate. This isn't aimed specifically at you, Jerry. It's just an observation.

Au contraire, mon ami........ Don't be dissin' the repetitive motion thing.....if you ain't got it, be thankful. Some things on some folk, other things on others. I had the surgery for a totally compressed carpal tunnel on my right wrist 24 years ago; it was so bad I was essentially walking around like I was a stroke victim. Surgery cleared it up and I've been meticulous since then in what I do with the wrists. Knees are OK; one of my old carpenter mentors yanked me to my feet about 35 years ago and screamed at me to "take care of my knees". I was dropping down onto them from a full standing position to nail baseboard. Ever since his warning, I've taken care of my knees. I've also had the computer mouse thing....I used to laugh at it as impossible, but I'll testify......it isn't. Actually, I was being a little silly and suggesting that, um, despite excessive auto-gratification over the years, my wrist was still working fine. Don't ask why these things enter my mind . . .

I don't believe any of this stuff about repetitive motion. If it were true, my right wrist would have stopped working a long, long time ago.

In my evolution as a ratshit crawling moron, I worked through all the usual stuff, eventually got to "qualified" for a few years, and now just ditched all of it. If someone wants to hire a goofball, more power to them. It keeps work flowing for all of us........[:-angel] Winsome charm and razon sharp intellect is why we all love you, you darling little boy. The learning curve brought me to the same place. The only reason we feel a need to insert these words in front of a (choose any) tradesperson is because there are so many hacks. But . . . there's only so much we can do. I hate to break it to you, but none of the qualifiers mentioned in this thread will actually help a buyer choose the right person for a given job. They'll opt for the lower price, or more likely for whoever is the best at self promotion during a two-minute phone conversation. The only exception is when it comes to further assessing HVAC equipment--like having someone competent pull a blower to check a heat exchanger instead of having a hungover kid perform the same visual that I did.

I told the agent the same thing - the bank agreed to replace it. The reason for the letter is closing is tomorrow at 4:00 PM I don't understand why that's germane. The repair request forms are part of the contract, and are legally binding, so if the bank AGREED to replace the thing, it should be replaced. The negotiations were completed, and a new air-handler was agreed upon by both parties. That's what matters. To heck with the piss-ant HVAC guy.

We all do things differently, but I wouldn't have wasted my time writing the letter. It isn't a debate, and it isn't a best two-out-of-three (vis a vis obtaining another opinion). You've already rendered your own professional opinion, Mike, for which you were paid, and I assume the descriptions and photos were in the original inspection report. Your client knows what you think about the air handler, the bank agreed to replace it, so that should be the end of the story. The HVAC dude WAS NOT paid to offer an opinion. He WAS paid to replace the thing. Replacing that old Rheem benefits your client, and even a nutty HVAC guy can't say that newer isn't better. As far as meeting on site, I wouldn't have done that either unless the HVAC guy paid my hourly fee. There are far too many women I could be chasing around, so why waste time when you know he's not going to cede any ground? 'Course I'm a prick and don't have a lot of friends . . .

Other than the surfeit of grammatical errors, I think it's terrific and there's little I would change. How long does it take you to create a report like this? (I was lying about the grammatical errors, but I hope I got you . . . )

It's a breach of trust. You're a paying customer, and they have no right to use personal information you provide them for ANY purpose other than what the two of you agreed upon.

"Example: PRESENT TENSE: The garage door is one of the largest moving objects in a home. Improperly installed "safety eyes" of the garage door is a main cause of property damage or bodily injury. Testing and monitoring the garage door operating is an important task related home maintenance." How many grammatical errors can you find in the above example from Mike's link? I'm not so sure this dude should give instruction when it comes to writing. "Safety eyes?" Am I pedantic 'cause I call them photo-electric safety sensors?

I've always used Olympuses (Olympi?) for no particular reason. The plastic buttons wear down before the guts do.

Did ventless logs exist in 1957?

Never, EVER, do it again. I'm joking, of course. We don't always get to see or hear what happens after we leave a house. It would be interesting to know how an electrician diagnoses this particular situation, and if he/she has the expertise to suspect and then confirm what Douglas explained, and finally whether the set-up is given a thumbs-up or whether the call is that modifications are necessary.

That makes perfect sense, Douglas. Thanks. Regarding the effectiveness of the grounds, I opted to leave that up to someone else. I seldom refer out to others, but did on this house RE the grounds that I didn't understand.

Hah, that's what I left the NEHA three-day class thinking. The real test calls for the measurement device to be in the house for a minimum of six months.

No armored cable. Just your garden-variety cloth-jacketed wiring.

It was banned here for several years, but now it's permissable, again. Don't know why.

I checked out a pre-1960s house today, and noticed there were very few ground wires on the terminal bar. But when I began checking outlets, many newer ones designed for three-prong plugs were showing positive for grounds. My first thought was that there must be bootleg grounds, but when I removed a few cover-plates, there were no wires at all on the grounding screws. Interestingly, when I began removing the screws that secure the outlets to the junction boxes, the tester flickered and registered open grounds. I assume this means someone grounded (or bonded) the j-boxes to the pipes or something else, and that's why the tester was fooled. I was in the crawlspace before I checked out the interior of the house, but don't remember seeing any dangling wires that might have been used for grounds. IF the junction boxes were grounded, DOES that constitute a LEGITIMATE ground? Or might there have been something else going on that I missed or that I'm not hip to? The photos are a little out of focus, but you can see the wireless grounding screws at the upper rights of the outlets. Click to Enlarge 26.8 KB Click to Enlarge 20.59 KB

I would have said exactly what you did, Jerry. Pull that crap off and try, try again.

. . . in an acrylic shower pan. Never, ever seen that one before. What do you think is behind the lowermost, canted tiles directly above the floor of the pan? That's not a trick question. I don't know. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Click to Enlarge 54.83 KB

Curious. Would you say that it was the additional 1/2 ton of cooling or a higher air velocity at the floor registers that made the house comfortable again? Marc I (think) it was the additional 1/2 ton, as the coil surface is larger, but . . . researching the issue on HVAC forums, I learned that manufacturers can say a condenser and coil are 2 1/2 tons AS LONG as they're larger than 2 tons. Meaning, that if the equipment is 2.1 tons, it's allowable to label it 2 1/2. The 3 ton coil may only be 2.6 tons, but even so, it's now doing it's job. The 2 1/2 ton, original equipment, may have simply been undersized. I honestly don't know.

Yeah, sadly there's a whole lot more to this stuff than sticking thermometers in a couple of registers. Earlier this year, I had a new 2 1/2 ton dual-fuel heat pump installed on my main level. It worked fine on heat mode, but it wouldn't cool the living space when the temperature climbed into the 90s. The system was working fine, but my house, at 90 years old, has all of the registers in the floor since they were installed only for heating. The dreaded stratification t'ing was working in full force. The cold, heavy air was shooting out of the registers, and then being pulled back into the ground-level returns. The ambient temperature at floor level was 68, but 4 1/2 feet higher, where the thermostat was, the ambient was 74. One solution would have been to elevate the returns, but with plaster walls, that would have been a major pain in the ass. I've since replaced the 2 1/2 ton system with a 3 ton system, altered the ductwork a little to provide additional air-flow, and the house is comfortable again. Point being, if an inspector dude had checked the delta on the 2 1/2 ton system, he or she would have said everything was groovy, but then the customer would have wondered why the house wouldn't cool below 76 degrees on a hot day. I'm still not happy with the ductwork, and will eventually get around to partitioning off part of a closet, panning the ceiling joists and getting a higher return, but again, it's never as simple as one would hope it would be.

Actually, that works. But if you don't have the tub full of water or some other heavy weight the tub will get lifted by the foam. Great Stuff. I learned the hard way. I learned the same lesson. When I was a contractor, we installed a steel door in a post office that had 8" x 16" block walls. One of my guys shot Great Stuff into the cavities between the door frame and the block, and the frame, believe it or not, buckled inward. I wasn't there when it happened, but saw the aftermath. It's hard to believe that foam has so much expansive strength, but I now know it does.