Bain

Marc, I would normally offer up some sort of pithy comment in response to what you said, but since you NEVER seem to understand my sense of humor . . .

. . . did someone think having a valve would make the sediment trap easier to clean or something similarly inane? I've never seen this before. (And if anyone asks whether I noticed that the valve was closed, I'm gonna kick him square in the ass.) Click to Enlarge 31.93 KB

Jim, what's going on in your avatar photo?

A system with dampers is not a two-zone system. As for the deck, the blocks of wood are canted because of the OSB, and the construction adhesive is applied on the WRB. I'm surprised the thrusts of the beams haven't popped the blocks off before now.

Because of you, Joe, I've spent most of the day figuring out how to position my ladder so it would have exactly the precise speed and trajectory to frighten--but not harm--some knucklehead who pulled out in front of me. But now, I realize, my calculations were all for nought . . .

I'm thinking about a used hearse. I'm gonna wrap it with a ghoulish photo of the Grim Reaper, and use all the hyperbole realtors say about me to my advantage.

Under what circumstances did Kurt see Jimmy's back? Or do we even want to know?

I would have probably gone with something lazy like "decorative newel posts."

Oh, no. 10-point Verdana is completely wrong for what we do. I can't believe you made an error of such gargantuan proportion. (Hey, Marc. I'm just kidding you.)

Just one snake, and those rafters are 16" apart. As for why he's there and how he arrived, what I know about snakes wouldn't fill a thimble. The photo WAS a big hit during the talk-through with the client. The realtor said, "That's not a snake." I told it indeed was. She took a closer look and said, "Oh, my God. That IS a snake." ahahahaha.

Very much alive. I'm in a rural area, so it's pretty common. I think snakes actually enter through the walls. There's a big gap around the dryer vent in this house.

. . . I'm just passing through. Click to Enlarge 54.34 KB

I love you all, but this thread amply demonstrates how incredibly OCD WE all are. I mean, really. Besides us, who sticks a hunk of Advantech in a tub of water just to see what happens?

They do the same thing here, only they cover up the yuck--and usually the lintel--with trim coil. I always tell people I have no idea whether water is seeping behind the aluminum.

Maybe it was an ill-conceived attempt to prevent the waste line from freezing.

To me, it looks like the thumb tabs are on the outer piece of metal, so one can align the pointer with . . . something. I have less restraint than Jimmy, and no doubt would have rotated the thing to see what the letters on the inner piece of metal said. And yes, I probably would have broken it.

Separate AC's for separate floors was born of a desire to save energy by shutting off the AC to the bedrooms during the daytime. A single system, if it possess adequate tonnage, can cool both floors just fine. If it's hotter upstairs during the cool season, the ductwork isn't properly sized. Between seasons it may be necessary to leave the blower on or run it intermittently, like my own thermostat provides for, to counter the rising hot air. Marc Perhaps in theory, but not in practice. I've been in too many two-story houses in which the second level was several degrees warmer than the lower level. I've never heard the bedroom scenario before, but I do know that an assembly-line builder in my area, that's in the top ten nationally, began putting two systems in its houses because they fielded a gazillion complaints when they were only putting one system in a house.

Dude . . . rock on.

One system will seldom cool a two-level house or townhome adequately. The returns were installed on the second level to mitigate that reality. As we know, heat rises, so the idea is to suck in the warm air near the second-level ceiling to prevent stratification. Sometimes it works. Usually it doesn't. Tell your peeps what's up, or they'll be calling you in August when the second level is 10 degrees warmer than the lower level.

The eighth photo from the top would be all I'd need to see. Who would buy that piece of shit when the units on both sides are hang-outs for crack addicts and the homeless?

At first glance, one would think the mandates would allow HIs to charge more for their services, but . . . if I were buying a house in Alberta, I'd choose the least expensive schmuck I could find. The 10K is a performance bond, not a fidelity bond. That, and the 1M E&O, pretty much serves as a bumper to bumper warranty. Too, I wonder who makes the call on whether someone failed to do his job or not?

That seems like an understated way to phrase that particular recommendation. I mean, it's not possible to install roofing paper once the shingles are in place. So what you're really recommending is that all of the shingles be removed and new shingles be installed over roofing paper. Right? A roofer reading your recommendation will know exactly what's involved, but a customer might not *get* the rather large scope of work that's implyed by that sentence. Exactly. And therein lies the dilemma. "Screw 'em," sounds good, till one realizes that saying, "Screw 'em," means someone--builder/roofer/seller--is going to have to spend thousands of dollars to correct the deficiency. Those thousands will not be eagerly parted with, and the builder/roofer/sometimes-the-seller will call the AHJ to settle the issue. The builder and roofer, of course, already know the answer. Ultimately, all the buyer and seller hear is that Code Enforcement overruled the HI, who apparently didn't know what he was talking about.

Sadly, it isn't enforced. In Fayette County, anyhow. I've engaged in that particular battle three times over the years, and was shot down by Code Enforcement on every occasion.

I drive by a house every day of the week with a roof that was installed exactly like that, more than twentyfive years ago. It's starting to show it's age, but still looks fine. When my friend (the roofer) and I did it, I told him he was out of his mind and we were going to be back there every year to fix it. Never once got a call. Like so much that we see, some things can be ill conceived or poorly wrought, yet they've been that way for years and have performed just fine. It makes the job tougher . . . seeing something that's dopey or wrong, but realizing, too, that it isn't going to cause any problems.

My brother, Kentucky isn't New York . . . in so many ways. But you know that.