Bain

In the interest of fairness--which I typically detest--what happens Jim Dietrich when you come across something out of the norm for which there are no canned comments? A distressed foundation? A strangely framed roof? A family of lizards in a furnace (which happened to me) ? What if you have to type--and proofread and edit--multiple paragraphs to explain to your client what's up with the house? I know that would take gobs MORE time on a iPhone than on a standard keyboard. I checked out the website for the app. There are only two canned recommendations. What if one needs to explain the correct remedy in far greater detail?

Some dumbass f**ked up my sink. (Subtlety is not one of my gifts . . . )

ahahahahahahahaha . . .

What you wrote makes no sense at all.

Go, Marc . . .

Same here. I use a Word .doc that I cribbed from here. It was written by some dude named James Katen. I hope that if I were looking at a shiny, one-year-old heater and thought it was two decades old, some Spidey sense would start to tingle and tell me to take a closer look.

I've busted the company whose sticker is on the furnace cabinet twice in the past month for egregious errors they made. A city inspector had blessed one of the installations and, to his credit, apologized when he was made aware of the flubs. The realtor for both transactions, whom you know, told the HVAC company supervisor, "At least you're an equal opportunity business. You screwed the rich white people in the $500,000.00 house just as readily as you screwed the poor black man in the $50.000.00 house." ahahahahahaha . . . .

. . . would some well-intended but misguided person do this? It doesn't really matter, but sometimes I can't help but wonder. Click to Enlarge 70.12 KB

Just busting your chops a little. And wondering if you're paying attention.

Sharon, I wasn't aware of your impetus for becoming involved in the mold wars till Jim posted the LA Weekly story. I'm not a scientist, either. What I want to know, and what others have been asking, is how much mold is too much, and what, if any, levels are considered acceptable? Property inspectors are exposed to all kinds of yuck--though we try to avoid direct contact-- like animal waste and raw sewage, just to name a couple, and to date they have no long-lasting effects except on Marc. That's a different story entirely, however. I HAVE been in maybe three houses that had mold in the crawlspaces and I suffered almost immediate symptoms. My eyes watered, my throat constricted, and I felt generally nauseated. But . . . I've also been in thousands of other houses that contained mold and there were no adverse--as far as I could detect--consequences whatever. The most recent moldy house in which I felt ill, others in the place--meaning a realtor and two buyers--didn't suffer any symptoms at all. Of course, I had been there for several hours whereas the others were there for LESS than an hour. As some have suggested, maybe it was only MY system that was susceptible to whatever kind of mold was in the house. Jim and Kurt are good guys, but they're also inquisitive. What we're all asking you in different ways is whether there is any objective data that definitively states that X amount of mold spores rocks your system, while another amount is tolerable? That's the most important question and, while your links are appreciated, I can't imagine anyone spending countless hours on a Sunday afternoon trying to locate something germane, and then digesting it and hoping it's understandable. I could swallow a few drops of gasoline and not be affected at all. Downing a whole glass would produce a different result entirely. How much mold is akin to slurping down a glass of gasoline?

Verrry interesting. I had no clue. I clicked on the link for Sharon's response, but just got rerouted to the home page. I typed her name in the search box, though, and found this: http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2008 ... bel_su.php

Anyone who's even remotely in touch realizes that ideology and politics exert far too much influence than pragmatism and facts when it comes to shaping policy on our planet. In my State, a property inspector was hit with a seven-figure judgment because allegedly-toxic mold conditions were supposedly overlooked in a house. The inspector performed a service and likely received several hundred dollars for his time. In so doing, his underbelly was exposed to the tune of a million bucks, not including legal fees. It hardly seems fair, does it? This thread is interesting, but for me, sadly, public perception is more important than fact because it's the public who will be sitting in the jurors' box if I'm ever sued due to a mold issue. That hardly seems fair or reasonable, either, but it's reality . . .

Sharon, Thank you for taking time to explain your positions and answer questions. Please know that while there aren't gobs of responses to your posts, they are being read by many who, like myself, are eager to learn more about mold and its effects on human beings. Connell's views on radon were once challenged by someone on this board, and Caoimhin became exceedingly emotional, and countered with insults and name-calling rather than rationally expressing his differing opinion. You, are a decidedly pleasant contrast. I'm still straddling the fence on this one, but you make cogent arguments and, just as importantly, you're a very good sport.

I wasn't trying to launch into a debate about global warming. I simply wanted to say that there are lots of experts--alleged or not--who have widely divergent opinions about issues that are exceedingly important. It's frustrating, as a layperson, to have to sift through the agendas, money trails, and politics to try to educate myself and discover--hopefully-- the truth.

That really isn't fair, Mark. I assume that like me, you are--mostly--an autodidact vis a vis your knowledge of all things house and construction. Regardless, I would be inclined to trust your assessment of a 100-year-old house much more than I would that of a structural engineer. Are you a weak property inspector because you hold a degree in electrical engineering? Like it or not, science is influenced by politics and money. Look at global warming--or it's relatively newer appellation, "climate change." You can find ten scientists with creds out the wazoo who will tell you global warming absolutely is occurring. But you can find another ten scientists with equally impressive creds who will claim the exact opposite. Look at what happened at East Anglia University, better know as Climategate. The scientists' e-mails were obtained, and demonstrated that studies that didn't support global warming were being withheld, and also that numbers were being monkeyed with to prove global warming exists. Why? The scientists had agendas, and there were gobs of grant money in play. I'm not a scientist, either, but Caoimhin has made specious comments on this board that were outright laughable at times. Don't be so quick to dismiss Sharon, because EVERYONE learns from a healthy debate.

The beads sound sexy to me. Those things have to be handled carefully, though, or one can wind up in the ER.

I took the four--or was it five?--day NEHA class, passed their test, and came away thinking no one really knows what's up with radon and how it really affects us. And a 48-hour measurement period, unless the results are ridiculously high, is pretty much a waste of time and dough for everyone involved. DISCLAIMER: Despite the foregoing, I DO place the Sun-Nuclear, follow the protocols, and pocket people's dough for doing so.

ahahaha to everyone. Jimmy, I was actually being gender progressive by suggesting that MR. Mouse rather than MRS. Mouse was the gatherer and that HE was collecting morsels to spread out on the dinner table.

. . . gnaw the insulation off the hot wire without getting his furry little ass fried? This is not a trick question. Click to Enlarge 72.18 KB

Not at all. A fair amount of evidence shows that exposure to low levels of radioactivity is beneficial. The thought is that it stimulates the body's repair mechanisms. I suppose it's analogous to exposure to bacteria, viruses, and certain parasites. I even read somewhere that it can REDUCE cancer rates because near-constant exposure to radiation kills cancer cells that are in the nascent stages of formation.

I'm a horrible salesperson. "You don't want to buy my widget? Then you're an idiot, and I'm not going to waste my breath talking to you because I have better things to do with my time." Which, of course, is a dopey approach. But I am who I am. I DO have a page of references on my web site, along with several more on my FB page, and then there's Angie's List. As discussed recently in Marc's web site thread, people want to make some sort of personal connection. If there are names and faces who are saying nice things about you, it works to your benefit. I called the people on my web-site reference page and asked if I could use their names. Of everyone I phoned, only one was a non-responder. The gaggle of kind words on FB helps, too. I don't know why, but few people automatically like my page, despite the brief invitation to do so in my e-mail signature. But, sometimes I ask, and people typically sign on. I DO get positive feedback from people who have checked out FB or my reference page. Like lots of other things we can do, there's really no downside. How could having references or testimonials hurt?

Never. That is cool!!

I'm telling you . . . it works. Click to Enlarge 29.38 KB

Marc, you and I had this discussion before via e-mail. Check out any ten HI sites, and you'll discover that the index pages all pretty much say the same thing, my own included. There simply isn't much about what we do that's gonna keep a reader glued to a web page, eagerly devouring paragraph after paragraph. And who--meaning our potential customers--is going to spend 15 minutes apiece on ten HI sites before making a decision about who she wants to talk to? I'll answer my own question. No one. I have a terrific site-tracking program. It tells me who referred a visitor to my site, what page the visitor landed on, and how much time was spent on each page, and well as the time of the entire visit. Most people only look at my index page. The second most-visited page is a link called "Fees," because the visitors are curious if actual numbers are published. They aren't, but on that page I have the screwy photos Ben mentioned, and the last one--which is sort of a non sequitur--hopefully puts smiles on people's faces. I, too, think you should get rid of most of the text and replace it with interesting and/or fun photos. I probably take this approach to the extreme. On my index page, there are photos of me, a hot babe, a German Shepherd, and another photo of the same hot babe acting silly while she checks herself out on the site. I've probably gone overboard, but . . . I suppose a web site is always a work in progress.

That would be Sarah. We took some photos of her checking out my web-site to . . . put on my web-site. Click to Enlarge 31.31 KB