Kyle Kubs

Nothing to describe. Their great panels. No issues beyond age and availability of parts. - The houses I've found them in range from the early 60's to the mid 70's

They are about as docile as a woman in her third trimester in August! The docile strain must me a Left Coast thing! We have the famous Red Nuclear Wasp! They have built in tracking radar and they track your every move. Then "BAM" they hit! Download Attachment: Red wasp.jpg 45.98 KB They look a lot like the ones we have around here. Only time they bother you is when you start messing with the nest. I love sitting in the garden and watching them fly around in pairs like little fighter squadrons hunting insects. Hell I try and encourage them around my house... better then spraying pestacides all over my veggies. Whats really funny is when I'm splitting fire wood. Get a log full of termites... I just toss the halves off to the side and within minutes there are squadrons of yellow jackets stuffing their faces & carrying them off. I pull up a stump and watch and they don't bother me at all.

Not on purpose...[:-bigeyes I've had people ask me to write it up. My answer... It's not a structural/mechanical issue and they're not wood destroying insects. If you really want the sellers to remove it that bad, tell your attorney. I really try not to be the laundry list guy, some people can really get out of hand with that stuff.

Ever had that nightmare about falling through the ceiling while inspecting the attic? What could be more professionally embarrising? Well today it happened to the realtor who tried to follow me out across the ceiling joists... I felt bad, he is actually a really good guy. Would have loved to see it happen to one of the know it all, damage control, bastards. Thank god he didn't go all the way through... it was a long trip down to the first floor. After I pulled him out, he pulled a 2" splinter out of his stomach. Download Attachment: DSCN3355.JPG 414.75 KB

Anyone familiar with Pensotti boilers? They are made in Italy. Andrea Pensotti to be specific, distributed by Belcher - Model # is hard to read, Ser. is 151 5079. It has a Riello Burner on it but the box is blue and labeled Circle Combustion. I've only seen one other of these before. So anyone familiar with their dating system? Would appreciate the help.

Where exactly can I get this book? It seems to be out of print.

I'm going to try to keep my reply short. Lets see if it works... GFCI with an open ground is ok and will provide the intended shock protection. Without the ground, to induce a ground fault into, our testers can not make them trip but the test button on the outlet should. And what no one else has touched on, I think (my eyes are getting bleary looking at all this) is that it is fine as long as the receptacle is labeled as ungrounded. I always tell my clients it is ungrounded and will function fine for shock protection but will not afford grounding of appliances that have a three prong plug. As Mike said, so long as you are only plugging in a two prong plug - to a properly polarized receptacle - the two wire is no more dangerous then anything else. I just always advise my clients that using a three prong:two adapter will let them plug it in but will not ground the appliance that needs one to keep it's casing at zero potential. That said -- Electricity & Beer. Oh yes! Jim "With the new GFCI technology, it's nearly impossible to wire one wrong. They won't energize unless the wiring is correct and if they become damaged, they default to the off position." Have they finally updated the standards? If the protection fails the outlet provides no power? About time if they did... Where did you get that from, I need to keep up more on my current (no pun intended) events.

Thanks Mike, That description was quite helpful in putting it in a way that I would absorb. I've thought about buying Mr. Hansens book several times but then decided to put my few spare dollars to other things, mostly because I have a really strong electrical background. When I was just 10 I used to spend my summers rewinding electrical motors and have wired residential houses many times since I was a kid as well as lots of 3 phase work. I guess I started taking the position like I had very little left to learn in that realm. Goes to prove there is always something left. Seems something of a stupid exception though. Like the guy puting in a metal fence or a cable TV line at somepoint in the future is going to know to check and see if the whole electrical system now has to be modified... I made sure to explain in the report that as it currently exists it is fine but the future addition of any metallic path would require modifications that, in this case, would be substantial. Jim - I hope you didn't take my reply to your first post as argumentative or anything of the like... Wasn't intended that way. - Six hours, one basement, 5 crawlspaces, two boilers, two water heaters, four electrical panels, 3 central air units, two attics and a pissed off realtor that didn't want to be there that long = spinning head at 11:00pm - Thanks for the help. Since Mike went to the trouble of explaining what I was doing wrong I will post the pics just for the hell of it. Really like the new look of the site Mike... Oh and Les... If you coil up that 14-2 up and down your driveway on the way to the garage it works great for snow melt. No more shoveling![:-party] Download Attachment: Picture_1.jpg 247.3 KB Download Attachment: Picture_2.jpg 413.62 KB

I did find the exception that Jim was talking about. What exactly consitutes a metallic path & why would it matter? Would this just be something like conduit or are we talking things like a metal fence or something?

Perhaps. If there's no metallic path between the buildings, the house panel can be fed with three wires. The electricican can re-establish his ground/neutral connection at the house panel. The four-wire feed is only required when there's a metallic path (other than the feeders themselves, of course). - Jim Katen, Oregon I'm not sure what you mean about a metalic path. I think you may be confusing the fact that if there is a metallic path (rigid conduit, BX sheathing) then three wires are fine as the metal conduit will serve as the ground path bonding the panels & the grounds all the way back to the service panel. Since the Neutral is a current carrying line it should not be bonded to enclosures once it leaves the service panel and must be isolated from ground conductors that will be bonded to things like the metal cabinets of appliances. Ugg. Every time I try and visualize this parallel path thing my head starts spinning.

Ever see a panel that is just wired wrong, you've flagged a thousand of them in the past for the same thing but everything else is just so perfect that you start to doubt yourself? I was literally standing there wondering if I have hallucinated my way into the twilight zone. The service drop hits the mast on a detached garage and drops into the main panel there. (see first picture) Just a few circuits for the garage and then THREE 4/0 aluminum lines go into PVC conduit, snake around the garage to the opposite corner, out the wall, down into the ground, about 50' across the yard and into and across the basement to the house panel (see picture 2) which is wired as a main panel with neutrals & grounds bonded on the bus bar and no ground path back to the main panel (fourth wire). - Ok this is an easy one... Fundamental... It has to have a four wire feed, But look at this panel, (flawless, work of art, this guy must have used a micormeter to space the wires equally) How can someone who does work like this screw up something so fundamental? And then there is a code inspection sticker on it... Am I losing my mind here? Have I finally breathed in too much funky crawlspace dust? Then the water pipes are bonded to the basement panel and a GEC goes out the side wall and into the ground as if there is a ground rod there, I triple checked, it does not go back to the garage. So, am I missing something? Is there some exception to the rule about subpanels that I am not aware of? Ok, for whatever reason the pictures will not upload, but I think I have described it pretty well.

Richard, Too late for this one I'm sure but try taking photo's of the electrical panel without a flash. You get a much clearer picture without all the light reflecting off the plastic breakers and shiny paint and such. You just have to be able to hold the camera still long enough... Sometimes there is something around you can brace you forearm against. Download Attachment: 12 Horace Rd Jefferson 012.jpg 185.28 KB Download Attachment: 12 Horace Rd Jefferson 011.jpg 182.97 KB

Here in NJ where there is no shortage of houses well over 60 years old we see a lot of this. Tinned copper is actually very common here although almost never shiny even if it has not turned dark it is almost always dull in luster. You can just look at the snipped end of the neutral and see the copper core, or (IF your experienced with electrical work) it's very easy to scrape the tin and expose a little copper underneath. The other thing you might see, although extremely rare is Nickel coated copper that is common in commercial work. Only the hot lead is Nickel the others are plain copper. Due to the additional expense of the nickel you are likely to go your entire career and never see this stuff, but it is out there. So far as the aluminum loomex (cloth insulated) I can't say it is not out there, but I have never seen it.

Oh yes, I see it quite a bit actually. mostly in newer homes (McMansions with two or more forced air zones, Townhomes, the latest trend of adding an entire house onto a small older house...) One of the townhome developments here has all the furnace/air handlers in the attic even thought it is only one zone and there is a basement. For the record, I agree, it's a stupid thing to do. Welcome to the world of... "I don't care how long it lasts! We need four hundred units completed in three months so we have gains to show our stockholders!" If they put an induced draft gas furnace in the attic they just run a metal B vent four feet through the roof right there and they don't need to build a chimney.

Had the same issue a couple weeks ago with a Heil furnace (Heil is one of the many divisions of Internation Comfort) I was able to e-mail them with the model # and they got right back to me with an answer & pdf file of the installers instructions (it was not a sideflow furnace) - If this link doesn't work the way I'm loading it, shoot me an e-mail and I will send you back their customer service e-mail address or the web site. http://www.icpusa.com/default.htm

The panel won't have three rows of breakers... There will be three lines feeding the hot bus and three legs for the hot bus instead of two. Still two rows of breakers, or even just one depending on the panel but every third breaker will be fed by the same leg (phase). Just like when you have a single phase with a double pole (220) circuit, one side of the breaker takes from leg one, the other side takes from leg two, if there was something running 3 phase power it would have a three pole breaker that takes power from each of the 3 sections of the hot bus.

Fundamentally it is all the same as usual except there will be three hot lines coming in instead of the usual two that you would have with a single phase system. From the inspection end, unless you go well beyond normal scope of inspection there is no difference. Unless the new homeowner will be utilizing heavy machinery it won't make any difference to him & he can use it just like any other system. Personally I'm jealous, I would love to put the 3 phase motor back in my 100 year old 20 inch band saw...

Just to add clarity for those who don't know. Wood/cedar Shingles & Shakes are two different things. Shingles are sawn with a perfectly flat surface, usually about a 1/2" at the thickest edge (vary's with quality level) Shakes are split not sawn. They split with the grain very often making them wavy and not at all flat and are usually quite a bit thicker. Bill, as usual, is right. Felt is only required with shakes as with the wavy, undulating surface they don't lay flat and wind can blow snow/water up under them - this also allows them to dry underneath. I would agree wind blown rain is also a problem, snow of course can blow a lot easier, but I think the point Bill was trying to make is that the felt is required not because the shakes aren't water proof, their less prone to water absorption then shingles which are sawn through the grain, but because of the open nature of the shakes that can allow wind to push rain/snow under them. Felt under wood shingles... Bad, way bad.[:-dunce]

Short, sweet & to the point. Pull no punches... And so as not to hijack the original post... Wrong, way wrong. As was said, in a good windstorm that will become a projectile doing damage to the house as it is torn from it and damage to other things it hits along the way. I once saw a picknick table/patio umbrella get lifted from it's base, up over the house and landed half a block away[:-bigeyes Fortunately the steel pole didn't hit anything when it landed.

Kurt, I may need to steel that verbiage for a future report...[:-slaphap

Hey Mike, Cool link. Out here we call it timberframing. Unfortunetley I don't get to see too much of it here, but I am familiar with it. I actually have plans on building a timberframe home for myself "someday" Makes me wonder whats out here that I think is totally common that you guy's would think is odd... 18" cubes of asbestos! thats a new one to me, thank god.

275 gal. of oil in the attic...Ouch No,the storage tank was outside at ground level as is typical. No pump, save the one in the burner that usually does the job. Not really different then having an inground tank that is supplying oil to a first or second floor utility room, as long as the line doesn't lose prime it can lift the oil.

Hey All, Weekend inspection turned up something I have never seen. An oil burning forced air furnace in the attic. It got flagged for several other things, not the least of which was that it was installed horizontal and it was a vertical only, upflow furnace. They even left the oil burner mounted sideways. But as I said I have never seen any oil burning appliance in an attic before and have to wonder if there is a reason for that. I've seen plenty (too many) gas fired forced air systems in the attic, nothing wrong with that, but never an oil burner. I can't find anything in the code about it not being ok and off the top of my head I really can't see anything wrong with it except that it must be a bear to get it primed the first time. Anyone know of other reasons this may not be allowed or is not commonly done?

Bill, I also have some vague memories of something of that nature though nothing to substantiate it with... It may have been one of those proposals that went far & got a lot of discussion but never crossed the finish line or was just a regional modification to the code. To my knowledge if it is as outlined above it is ok. (at least code compliance wise) Or possibly we're both nuts...

Donald York has a dating code using the third letter in the serial # to correspond to a date starting at A - in 1971 and again in 1992 not using the letters I (eye) O (oh) Q U or Z. so the #2 furnace is a 1988 manufacture and the #3 is either 1973 or 1994 (you'll have to use other info, appearence, age of home...) to determine which. Never heard of BDP furnaces up here in the North East so, can't help you on that. Don't see many electric furnaces up here...Whats the life expectancy on them? I'd assume pretty long compared to gas or oil.