Richard Moore

Besides the fact that it is a wall receptacle and intended to be secured, how about a washing machine hose leaking water onto the floor for a "danger"?

Interesting. I think the same holds true in America for a girl in a Hooters t-shirt.

It was many years ago but, yeah, I did this for the first few Sundays immediately after HI school, with mixed results, most of them bad. At first it seemed like a good way of meeting agents even though I hated the whole concept. The wife also thought I should "get out there" and even made cookies a couple of Sundays...which just made it more cringe-worthy. Towards the end of this period I would keep her happy by going out during the open house time zone, do maybe 1 or 2 meet and greets at most, and then hit the pool hall for the remainder of the time (don't ever tell her that). My experiences during the ones I did do: It was, I think, the second open house I walked into, first Sunday. I politely waited until the lady agent was free, introduced myself and gave her my prepared spiel about realizing that she probably had a regular inspector but I was just seeking info on what she looked for in a HI. (I know, I know! Yuck!) With a straight face and no shame she replied "I don't want one who is too thorough." I didn't bother asking for her card! Most others were a complete waste of time and I'm sure my cards got immediately round-filed even when the conversation went well. Face it, for listing agents, the ones showing the homes, home inspectors are the enemy and a potential obstacle in their deal. They might be buyer's agents at other times but, at this moment in this house, HI's are just future trouble. I had one, just one, good experience and result. The agent was a newbie himself and just babysitting the house for an agent with multiple listings. There was also no traffic in the house. We probably spent almost an hour chatting about everything from real estate to baseball. It was almost a year later when, out of the blue, I get a call from him. He had his first buyer-client, needed to recommend an inspector, and remembered our conversation. Since then he became quite successful, and has probably been my most prolific agent referrer. A good guy, now a team, who actually only wants the best for his clients. So...one out of many. Maybe worthwhile for that one exception, but I absolutely loathed the process. For those still considering doing this, I have one suggestion. Go through the listings and find agents with multiple open houses, and then try to find the homes with sitters rather than established listing agents. You are less likely to get brushed off as an annoyance.

I think Mike O. nailed it earlier. I do have a question...what exactly is a "proactive" electrical service provider? Do they go around knocking on doors, cold call random numbers, leave flyers on the porch or, worse, hang "hey-look-no-one-is-home" crap on your door knob (pet peeve)? Personally, I like my service providers to be reactive, as in: something breaks, I call someone, and they react by coming around and fixing it.

Download Attachment: 101222W089x.jpg 108.61 KB I'm hoping it was meant to mean "position" because I couldn't see anything wrong.

Can you just write "FUBAR" in NY?

'09 Honda Accord?

Not so fast there. Download Attachment: silt.jpg 231.36 KB It's not so much the water as the abrasive silt it carries with it. With the Grand Canyon, as with most rivers, an almost endless supply of silt is carried to it from the banks of stream feeders, etc, especially after heavy rains. And then, as that "slurry" wears away at the rocks those particles are also added to the abrasive mix. If it was just water, then I wouldn't expect PVC piping to last very long. Once the initial loose granules come off (and most of those remain in the gutters) there really isn't that much abrasive material in the water off of a roof. Some maybe in a dusty area, but not that much. Like someone else above, I suspect the damage in Darren's photo is a mostly a mix of overzealous cleaning and, maybe, foot traffic. Same thing. BTW, with those neat arches in Utah. It's wind driven sand, not the air itself, that caused 99.99% of the sculpting. I'm not saying it's the best design in the world, but I don't get exited about it (or report it) unless a downspout is aiming discharge across the shingles...like today's. Download Attachment: 0022.jpg 82.43 KB

Mike, I think they (Transcon) addressed that by using a very open and slim web pattern for the studs. See http://www.transconsteel.com/products/u ... e/stud.asp (BTW...I added a link to your original post as the second one didn't seem to work. Edit this out if you edit that.)

You should be ashamed of yourself for knowing that. No one is supposed to know that. Our Mr. Kibbel is multifaceted. Ooooh, wait a minute...[:-idea]

Kurt, if I'm reading this right there is no really way to tell if it has all been installed properly, even if that's possible, without some very invasive methods. Where it's already gone horribly wrong is one thing, but it would seem that in some instances the problems might not show up...yet. So, how are you handling situations where a client is thinking of buying one of these but there are no obvious indicators?

6 years using the same Telesteps without incident, and I use it for almost everything, inside and out. I don't know if that's unusual or not...just sayin'.

I don't think so. First, I just don't see a sparky stripping that much extra insulation during the initial install. And then, why would there be compression marks on the exposed conductor and how could the set screw be (apparently) bottomed out? There is one other possibility that just came to mind. The sparky may have cut the cable too short to begin with and the marks are from channel locks as he tried to force the wire into the lug. He failed, but hoped no one would notice his mistake. Whatever...I'm confident it isn't properly secured and needs fixin'.

Yeah, "slipped" probably wasn't the best word I could have used. As you say it probably took tension rather than gravity to pull it out from the lug like that.

Thanks guys. It didn't seem right but then I started thinking too much about removing the thing to find the leak. It's a 1968 home but the tub looks to be a lot newer. Doesn't really matter. I'm going to tell them it needs another access (and GFCI).

Today's tiled-in jetted tub had one of those almost inaccessible access holes inside the vanity cabinet, only found after removing drawers. It was at the drain/faucet end of the tub but the motor and associated wiring was out of sight (doubtful there was GFCI in this case). My question is...what do you consider the main purpose of the access to be? Does it need to provide direct access to the motor or is it to disconnect the drain and supply plumbing, so that the whole thing can be lifted out for service, etc? I don't envy the plumber who is going to have to investigate the small, active wet patch I discovered at the ceiling directly below. I hope he is a skinny contortionist.

This, to me, is odd. Rare (for here) exterior 200-amp panel. You can see where the main breaker set-screw used to bear on the SEC before it somehow slipped down. The odd bit is it looks like someone tightened the set-screw all the way down after the thing moved, like that would fix it. The home still had power and I was surprised there was no sign of arcing...yet! Click to Enlarge 84.17 KB

No, sorry, I blew the budget on the whitewalls.

She needs whitewalls. - Jim Katen, Oregon Yep...that would complete her. Click to Enlarge 50.32 KB

Good looking wagon, but spoiled by the stupid rims and low-profile tires.

Check out http://www.rinnai.us/documentation/down ... _EN_FR.pdf , page 28. US installs require 12" clearance to "the combustion air inlet to any other appliance" (30" in Canada). I'd say you have that there, if only just. The other way around, so to speak...because the hot fireplace exhaust gas will rise, it shouldn't affect the water heater combustion air.

Y'know, I don't think I've ever seen gas wall ovens before. Even in an otherwise all gas home, with gas cook-tops, separate wall ovens are typically electric around here. But...I did look up the install manuals on a couple and it sure doesn't seem that any modern unit would have or need an exterior vent. It's an odd set up and I have to wonder if there was something else in that space before the wall ovens. It would seem that if there is anything that actually needed venting then the flue shouldn't terminate right next to the door and opening window. I would probably report it as an unknown, potentially hazardous due to the flue location, and recommend someone find the original install manual.

I thought that all aluminum NM wire had a plastic coating...not the older braided. Correct? If all the wiring looks like the photo, I'll bet the so-called electrician is actually looking at tin plated copper. As Chad first stated, the fact that the stuff in the photo is 14 AWG would rule out aluminum, at least for that cable. So, at worst, there's no way it "all" needs to be removed. Even if "aluminum colored", still gotta look closely at the cut ends. Click to Enlarge 35.06 KB

No ringing bells, or code, but if the connection is made below the outlets at both the AC and furnace, so that there's no way for condensate from one to feed into the other, I don't see how it could cause any problems. It's not like they are both going to be running and creating condensate at the same time. OK...one scenario, I suppose, would be if the termination froze up and then furnace condensate might be forced into the AC? Seems a bit unlikely, but I can see how an air-gap would prevent that. I'm really not helping at all, am I? [:-paperba Anyway...got a picture of the set-up? We are taking about a gravity feed from the furnace and not a pump, right?

My thought on that is that there is no one, particular sewer gas. Yeah, it's mostly methane but who knows what the neighboring idiot poured down his toilet. So I do like the plural in this case. But, as I said, no big deal. I just had a sudden brain fart on the word. Those, and the normal farts, seem to be coming much more frequently as I age.