Richard Moore

Had a "WTF?" moment today. Classic old craftsman (with classic old problems). I came across the porch column in the first photo, then the second, then the main fireplace chimney. All seemed to be "growing" out of a pile of brick rubble. Download Attachment: 080519M012.jpg 218.07 KB Download Attachment: 080519M016.jpg 181.16 KB Fortunately, I was able to get a peek at a gap in one area of a very normal looking brick support column in the middle of one of the "piles". Once I was less concerned about the structure, I was able to step back and enjoy the artistic merit. The home across the street had the same "details". Actually kind of cool looking, but I'd never seen it before. The rest of the brickwork was in good shape, but I'm not sure how I would have reported it had I not been able to see that one center column.

Just got back from the ball game. We lost. I've always been a bit "suspicious" about the 10' rule and how it truly affects drafting, that is unless the return was really right slap bang against the furnace intake. It's just too round a figure, with way too many variables involved. Jim...your point about the registers "resupplying" the pressure to the large area outside the room makes sense and the two units did seem to work fine, door open or closed. No mirror fogging, CO, etc. Which leaves me with the dryer. Your observations about that also have me somewhat turned around. I'm actually now thinking that the room would be better off with a fully louvered door or, at least, much larger combustion air vents. It might not meet the 10' "code" that way, but it would seem to be the best all round solution. I'm guessing the door was often left open when the laundry was being used and probably at other times, nobody has died in the house since 1990 (to my knowledge), and I sure don't want to suggest something that would actually make matters worse. However, I'm also going to be recommending a CO monitor (or two or three).

So...smallish, 1990 2 story on a slab. Natural draft furnace (47K BTU) and water heater are in a small utility room in the center of the house, along with the laundry facilities. The distance from the one return (the other return is at the same level at the other side of this room) to the combustion air vents is about 5 feet and then it would be about 6 feet back to the furnace. A definite problem with the door open but, if the door was weatherstripped and fitted with a closer (it had neither), would the distance be OK at 11 feet total...or do we have a trickier problem here? There really isn't anywhere else convenient to draw the air from or to move this return to. Image Insert: 114.24 KB Can't say I'm happy about the dryer also being in the same small room. No appliances so I wasn't able to test it with a dryer running but the furnace and W/H seemed to be drafting just fine when run together. No indication that flue gases were getting sucked out. Thoughts?

With all the spiders seemingly suddenly dead in their tracks, so to speak, I'd guess the house got fumigated(?). I don't know if that's a common thing up there. I see a lot of crawl spaces. Never seen anything like that. You're sure that they weren't the rare Canadian White Possum Spiders just playing dead? []

Sorry guys. I really wasn't THAT insulted but I had to defend my "group". I do try to resist derogatory generalizations myself as it unfairly characterizes the exceptions (or possibly the majority). It's what stops me from believing everyone in Tennessee is a hill-billy. [] "Call me jaded, but HI school looks like Bizarro school to me." We had a real mix of students and teachers during my classes. A lot of the time seemed to be spent explaining what I thought was the obvious to the section constantly going "Huh?". As for the teachers, Doug was great, a couple of others were OK, but there were also a couple that had no idea how to talk in public. Those were some long days. I don't regret going as the 10% I did learn was useful, but something aimed at a higher IQ would have been less tedious!

"He doesn't say anything anywhere about the panel being required to be close to the meter can..." No, I don't care about the meter being close to the panel. My own runs from the meter at the front of the house to close to the rear, but it's in conduit along the outside. Very typical. My concern is strictly the distance once the "penetration" has been made. Condos??? Well, I'm not sure that is narrowing my focus, but I assume we're talking about high-rises, as opposed to smaller condos. True, the service sometimes enters those along conduit to the electrical room, but that's typically in the common garage, which has it's own fire protection from the living quarters. My problem with the attic or basement in an SFR is the lack of "fire-wall" separation. "...but I don't think it's a hill to die on..." Agreed, and probably not a huge issue if protected in conduit...just trying to understand if it's actually is allowed, 'cos I'm still not sure.

"Sometimes those panelboards will be fed with a conduit that passes through the wall, goes through the attic and then drops down into the house..." Can't say I've ever seen that Mike. Based on my understanding of "the point of entrance" I think I would have to call it as wrong if I did. Isn't the intent to minimize any wiring without OCPDs within the home? I don't see that it matters if it is in conduit or if it's an attic or basement. Inside is inside.

Walter, first of all, I'm not sure what that has to do with Mr Bushart being an unethical, foul mouthed, ass kissing, embarrassment to his organization and HI's in general. I thought this thread was about that particular unpleasant individual. With all due respect, as one of those "average middle-aged guys", I have to object to your jaded generalizations. It wasn't the only job I could get. I thought it was something I would be good at and a good fit for with the "skillset" I had collected over the years. I was "prepared to do the work" and I did go "back to school" although, frankly, after reading everything I could get my hands on before, I actually found about 90% of the classes a waste of time. The shining exception was Doug Hansen day. I know two other inspectors (and their ethics) fairly well. Both are also middle-aged guys who started shortly after me. On behalf of all three of us, I especially find those last two paragraphs kind of insulting. I realize you have probably been exposed to more unethical incompetants than most, and I'm sorry that has been the case. "Most" HIs probably do fall a bit short on knowledge when compared to the absoulute best (Jim K, etc) but I will always have trouble believing that "most" are unethical or dishonest.

I've always read that as meaning the service panel should basically be on the other side of the wall from where the SECs enter and I really can't remember a home where that wasn't the case. Looking at my Illustrated Guide the notes say the length is unspecified but should be kept to a minimum. It also says that some AHJ's define the maximum length (?). So...dunno, but Brandon's 25' seems quite excessive!

Last I saw, copper was hovering just under $4 a pound. But that's the commodity price, presumably for pure copper. I can't imagine the crack-heads are getting more than a $1 when they drag the stuff into their favorite scrap dealer. Talking of those dealers, and not esxcusing the actual thieves, it's those unethical bastards that need to be taken out. If they weren't so eager to "assume" the crazy-eyed guy with an armload of second-hand wire and piping was a legitimite customer, we wouldn't be having this problem. I see some counties/cities are trying to crack down on the dealers and at least requiring ID from people bringing in the stuff but, of course, the scrap merchants are crying foul. I also saw somewhere that 80+% of all scrap copper gets shipped in containers to China. Even though their explosive growth is largely the reason for the huge increase in copper prices and the associated theft, it's hard to actually "blame" the country, but it does somehow add insult to injury to be shipping the stolen stuff to them. My answer, as always, is to start shooting more of society's assh***s, starting with car pool lane violaters and definitley including the metal thieves, but that's just me and my pet peeves.

Mike, the paragraph from the article reads... I'm reading that as the consumers' experience with the "one-stop" realtors is them, the realtors, recommending the home inspector 59% of the time...not necessarily as the consumers desire for them to do so. In other words, I'm thinking that the question was "Did your realtor recommend the home inspector?" rather than "Would you like your realtor to recommend the HI?". It ain't good either way, but there is a difference depending on how you interpret it. I would love to see the actual survey as these things are often worded in a way that tends to slant results towards the preferred answer.

Ultimately one for Bonnie as I don't profess to be an expert, but that seems very awkward and with some "off" punctuation. Shouldn't it read..."However, before you take such a momentous step, we encourage you to look at a sample exam to get a feel for the kinds of questions you will be asked."...? That's as far as I got.

Now, that is one helluva ballpark! Does he work for the government?

See http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/insula ... chure2.pdf . In particular... I believe the problem is that testing can tell that there is asbestos present, but it cannot reliably determine that it is not. Some samples may not show asbestos but it might still be present in other areas or layers. My understanding is that it is best to just assume that it does and take the appropriate precautions. Jim...is that price per square foot or cubic foot?

You might go on to say that although this may be an unregulated area, you are confident that the laws of physics are exactly the same as elsewhere and that any functional and/or safety concern would still apply. Then, what Brian said.

I'm not sure I can buy the "put-on-wet" theory. Even the un-primed stuff is allowed to sit on the house for 90 days and all they warn against is gaps at the butt ends if installed wet or saturated... Image Insert: 29.12 KB Image Insert: 36.79 KB I can't tell if this was the pre-colored stuff, but as that seems to be fairly rare (probably way more expensive) I'm going to assume it was the regular, plain vanilla siding. All Jim's cracks look like they developed, or at least opened, sometime after painting. I'd have to go with mechanically abused material, but I'm just not sure when that abuse would have taken place. Part of the problem is I just don't want to believe anyone would install pre-damaged siding (but I'm probably being naive). Jim...were there any drywall cracks inside suggesting the house getting racked at some point...like someone might have driven a truck into a corner?

Also makes a great flex connector for drains... Image Insert: 120.36 KB

I don't think we would even call it gravel around here. More like crushed rock or the smoother river rock. I'm really no expert on this but I would tend towards something that averages at least 1" in size. And...the pipe lying in the bottom of the trench at the pond should be perforated to allow water to enter along it's length rather than just at one end. What you are creating is basically a French Drain. You can search online for installation advice. Here's a couple of photos.. Image Insert: 84.85 KB Image Insert: 25.52 KB I left in '74 but you are still talking to an Englishman from just outside London. I hope that's OK! []

Paul, What you are proposing looks good...sort of. Depends on a number of factors. First, I assume you can keep a good slope on the pipe all the way to a suitable drainage area? Make sure you use a good size gravel or "river rock". The small, fine stuff probably won't drain fast enough. And then you might want to put some type of fabric over the "gravel" before topping with soil to prevent that soil gradually clogging up the system. You absolutely, positively sure you don't want a pond? I heard they can be very nice with a few Koi...and maybe a little fountain and a gnome with a fishing rod. BTW...was I right about the dogs name?

Nice Bill! I'm presuming you looked that up? Welsh might as well be "Clicking Bushman" for all the sense it makes to your average English speaker and, I suspect, just as difficult to learn if you didn't grow up surrounded by it. I'm guessing that "Bwgan" is actually the name of Paul's hyena...umm...Weimerana. At least half of them are named some derivitive of "ghost" because of the color.

Am I missing something here? It looks like just one solid single bus-bar back-fed by a double-pole 40-amp breaker. That's his main panel? [:-bigeyes I can't see if there's one or two feeders connected to the "main" but it looks like either a 40-amp or 80-amp (2 x 40) 120 only service(?). Oh...hang on...the bus bar is split in the middle???

I believe posting a photo stating that you don't know how to post a photo would be intentional comic irony. Made me grin! [:-slaphap Thanks, Rick!

Obviously, there is some confusion. I had this e-mail this morning... Just in case I was missing something new, I did check out the FHA web-sites and also called a couple of of my "regular" realtors (don't start), which turned up nothing . So, my reply...

Tom, just off the top of my head, I'm fairly sure that any foam insulation is a closed cell type, similar to that used in insulation panels. I don't see how a breather vent would affect or decrease the amount of any expansion. But...I could be wrong. It happens a lot!

Looks like something with no more purpose than to keep it centered in the shipping box. As it's just a "snap-in" plastic cap and, obviously, it doesn't actually penetrate the tank, I can't believe there would be any harm in leaving it there. Besides, it will make a nice handle to drag it out when they replace the 14 year old unit.