Bain

I checked out a townhouse this afternoon that had two 240-volt circuits wired with solid-core aluminum. The seller and her realtor are saying the entire complex is only ten years old(which agreed with the inspection sticker on the panel), but I thought aluminum wiring was banned in residences long before then. My thinking is that the townhouses were originally apartments that some entity bought, partially renovated, and then resold. Clearly my buyer's position would be altered if she's buying a decades-old townhouse rather than a ten-year-old one. I realize there are other ways with which to date the building, but I was hoping to find out about the aluminum wire before I suggested the buyer hire an attorney to perform title searches, etc. Jim Katen, esteemed guru, I'm sure you hold the answer to this question. John

I see panels all the time that contain multiple brands of breakers---all prohibited by the manufacturer. Our city inspectors routinely paste their green (meaning "passed") stickers on these panels, which I'll never understand. The improper breakers typically can be nudged back and forth with a finger, meaning they don't have adequate contact with the bus. This can lead to arcing and possibly a fire within the panel.

Now that you mention it . . . Kurt, are you saying the carbon is sure evidence the Goodman is toast?

Jim, Never think we don't pay attention to your sage words of wisdom. These carbon streaks were found in an eight-year-old Goodman this afternoon. Do you recommend further evaluation by an HVAC person based solely upon the streaks? I realize the photo's lousy, but getting just the right angle, and trying to make the auto-focus adjust for the inside of the burner is a trick I haven't yet mastered. John Download Attachment: DSC01089.JPG 399.02 KB

Mike, You're always so on top of t'ings. Thanks.

Jim, Your photo isn't popping up. Have I stepped into this thread too late to view it? John

I have an '03 Tundra that is magnificent. Plus, because of its weight, it provided a HUGE tax deduction.

I, too, try to avoid inspector speak whenever possible. I mean, who knows what a hose bibb is other than us and plumbers? I call those things exterior water faucets and everyone understands what I'm talking about.

Which doesn't seem fair, but of course you're right. And that's why when I leave an empty house post-inspecton, despite having checked the bathrooms, thermostats,and kitchen(I once forgot to turn off an oven. Sellers looooved that one), there's always that brief moment of dread when I wonder if there's something I've forgotten.

So . . . I fill the whirlpool tub this afternoon, energize the jets, skip down the stairs to make certain there aren't any leaks, but sure enough a long dark streak is spreading across the family-room ceiling. I raced back upstairs, turned off the tub--which was full of that disgusting black brack that tells us the tub hasn't been used in a long time--just in time to hear a female voice shrieking frantically from down on the main level. Oh, did I mention the seller was home? When I got downstairs, her eyes were bulging up at the ceiling, while she repeated, "What did you do? What did you do?" The rest of the conversation you can pretty well figure out. The seller merely glared while I spoke, and for a brief moment, I thought of this forum and what a splendid photo I could upload of the enraged seller standing beneath the soaked ceiling. But I'm certain she was in no mood for posing. Anyhow, I carried on while the seller phoned her realtor, her husband, and everybody else she could think of so she could tell them how the home-inspector dude destroyed her house. I'm not really concerned about liability and, after all, I was there to check for leaks among all else. But I'm sure this has happened to others, and I'm wondering if there's any mystical way of explaining the situation to the seller while also calming him/her down. I don't honestly remember everything I DID say, but I do know it wasn't working terribly well. John

Very cool, Erby. And thanks. I actually was able to answer my own question. The section was R703.7.3 in both CABO and the Kentucky Residential Code. The second sentence reads, "Veneer above openings shall be supported on lintels of non-combustible materials and the span shall not exceed . . ." Do you work in Lexington very often? I see this all the time in Firebrook and Palomar. Every once in while I'll even find a brick missing because it's dislodged and tumbled onto the ground. Give me a call sometime. I'm directly beneath you in the new Alltel phonebook that's just been delivered. Maybe we can even do lunch some Saturday if I'm not working. John

I checked out a two-year-old house last week that didn't have lintels above the second story windows. There was one course of brick between the tops of the windows and the frieze boards. I've seen this configuration on older houses where the bricks can literally be pulled out by hand. I wrote up the lackng lintels as a defect and heard back from the client today that the builder won't make modifications unless a code was violated. I'm wondering if you guys know which section I should be searching in so I'm not flipping pages all night. John

Well, yeah, Troy . . . but what if the sole purpose of said kitchen was to keep the snacks coming at you so you wouldn't miss any plays while watching the Wildcats on your big-screen television? I don't know about your jurisdiction, but ANY inspector around here would give it a pass.

Brian, Careful, there . . . Us UK fans are lurking everywhere.

Hi Troy, I have a question for you. A couple days ago I checked out a house in which the basement had been finished post-construction. The basement contained a full kitchen and a bathroom, so there were seven or eight circuits added to the existing panel. Thing is, the panel was a Cutler-Hammer and the new circuits were wired into Square D breakers. The sticker inside the access door plainly stated that only breakers of the same manufacture could be installed in the panel, yet the inspector pasted his green "basement remodel" approval sticker on it. This is a great forum because the participants for the most part realize they will always have lots to learn. I'm the same way, so before telling my client the panel required modification I phoned a friend who's a master electrician and explained the situation to him. He said you guys don't typically care about those kinds of issues but he always uses appropriate breakers because they're all made differently and can arc if they don't fit properly. The conundrum is, it's tough to make the seller of a house understand that changes are necessary when there's that big green sticker on the panel saying all is fine. What's the proper action in this situation, in your opinion? John

Reeeaally quickly, 'cause it's getting late in my part of the world. Corners, boiled down, what we're trying to tell you is that inspecting a house requires knowledge about multiple professions, trades, and disciplines. You simply cannot--save for schools which train specifically for performing home inspections--obtain a degree or license which prepares you to hang out your shingle in this business. You must be willing to study each of these professions, trades and disciplines for as long as you own your business, if you want to provide a responsible service for your clients. Is a structural engineer taught anything about plumbing or electricity? Does an electrical engineer know the allowable span of a 2" x 10" floor joist? Do you know if a strand of 14-gauge wire can be connected to a 20-amp breaker?

Thanks Jim. I was afraid that was the answer. And I'm glad I didn't stray further and wind up with a handful of little parts that refused to piece themselves back together.

Kurt, man, you are hilarious. And also 100% correct. I frequently have structural engineers defer to me with something like, "You see this kind of thing more often than I do. What do you think is going on?" Experience with building and contracting; knowing how things should be done and how they're typically flubbed, cannot be taught or read from a book. I was in a 150-year-old house a couple of weeks ago and the client hired a structural engineer to have a look around while access to the house had been granted. Everthing was fine, the engineer said, except for the wood shims between the piers and the beam. I pulled him aside and said, yes, they've compressed, but the compression has also reached stasis. Do you really want some buffoon in here jacking up the floor system of a two-story 150-year-old house to replace the wood with metal? Maybe one guy in thirty will actually know what he's doing. The engineer gave me a long look, probably picturing some trogladyte working on the beam with a sledge hammer, and said, "Good point. I think we'll just leave the shims alone." The same house should have had sill plates, too. Do any of us think they should have been added 150 years after the fact? You can't always have the houses mirror the diagrams--or is it charts?--found in textbooks.

Does anyone know how to get to the switch so it can be cleaned and will stop sticking? I've made it as far as the cylinder beneath the bulb. But I'm afraid to mess with the spring-loaded buttons for fear I'll need a special tool to get everything together again. John

I understand your reasoning, Kurt, and I agree. I told the realtor, though, that a plumber should effect repairs today in the interest of prudence, so shutting down the furnace didn't seem like a big deal. The flip side to your scenario is that if something whacky had happened after I'd scooted out the door, I'd also have exposure if someone took the position that I'm the alleged expert who walked away from a potentially hazardous condition without doing anything about it.

That was nothing. Just beyond the corroded pipes, the HVAC guy completely severed a joist to accommodate the flue pipe.

I found this during my morning gig in a three-year-old house. The galvanic reaction has already caused the water pipe to leak. The cast-iron gas line is thicker, but who knows how much damage has been done? I called the listing agent and she refused to allow me to shut down the main-level---in the crawlspace---furnace. I haven't heard any explosions yet, but the night's still young. Download Attachment: DSC00946.JPG 592.62 KB

A house burned down in Lexington a week or so ago, and the fire marshal said the cause was a clogged dryer vent. A sad and tragic event, of course, but also useful to bring up when the realtor starts rolling his or her eyes the second an improper ducting system is mentioned. Mike, what in the world inspired you to walk away from that cabin in Connecticut? Are you quite mad, man!!?! John

And you guys tease us Southerners about OUR pronunciation? I got thrown by this a couple of years ago, too, Donald. Luckily I phoned my HVAC-bail-out friend---who tolerates my insipid questions most patiently---who explained it to me before I made myself look like an arse by writing it up as a defect. It certainly does look strange the first time one sees it, huh? OBTW--Don't you just hate guys like Kibbel--> [:-graduat who're bright, funny, and always know the answers to the questions? John

I, too, would like to check out evap. coils in all the houses I'm in, but most of the coils are heavily taped to prevent air leakage. Are you removing the tape, Donald, and then reapplying it? I can almost hear a fussy seller now, saying, "Well, it was working fine until the inspector dude took it apart." John