Kyle Kubs

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.

Well, we don't frame our floors with joists. . . - Jim Katen, Oregon BTW, my company's name is Benchmark Inspection Services. How do you frame your floors? Timberframing? You guys don't have much in the way of hardwoods out there right? That would be very strange for me. Yes, Benchmark seems to be very popular, but too late It's been established over a few years now so I'm stuck with it at least until I pickup and move to another state.

Jim, that's frightening...even more scary is the fact that I'll probably find myself thinking about it one day. My contribution. If your not bungying your ladder to the gutters before you step off to the roof, your missing a world of comfort. I use one of those heavy, solid rubber jobs just long enough that with enough stretch to get good tension I clip it to the gutter, go around and under the protruting rung that I purposely place even with the gutter and clip to the gutter on the other side. It is like clamping the ladder to the house. Leaving it sticking up 1.5 -2 feet above the gutter I have something solid to hold onto while I transit from the roof to the ladder. Before I started using the electronics, I would set out a decoy radon can in an obvious place and the real one in a more concealed location.

Which one is that? ProNot? I took one of their all day seminars. Biggest waste of my time and money ever. Wrote letters to all involved the next day... No response from anybody.

Now that is one of the neatest regional differences I have ever heard of! Never would have thought of that but it makes sense with all the logging/milling going on. How exactly was the sawdust burned? Pressed into bricks or something, or just loose? The boilers were actually engineered to burn sawdust, not just a coal boiler using a different fuel? Must have been all kinds of ancillary issues with the sawdust and dampness in the basements, wood destroying insects & such??? Out here with Pennsylvania so close coal & slate were as common as dirt. Hell, I have a developing collection of chunks of coal from the shipwrecks I dive... It was either cargo or fuel or both. I still find chunks of leftover coal up in the joists & beams of even finished basements and once in a while find the remnants of the old bins & chutes still in place. Once found a complete coal chute with an intact bin still mostly full of coal... The buyers were talking about tearing it all out to put in a bathroom! I had to talk them out of it, told them that they had a living museum like few others that still exist right there in the home. I hope it is still there. Now you have me wondering what other historical differences there are across different regions...

Exactly... Among other things. The one section is less then 2/12 slope the other is also less then 3/12 putting the valley even lower with the steeper pitche side running right into it. Things you can't see are the lack of ice and water sheild, flashings, drywall screws holding down the stack flashings. It's all bass ackwards. You try to warn people and they do nothing with the information. Best part is we really haven't had any serious snow yet since this was done.

This one was about a year ago and quite unbelievable. Of course the seller refused to fix it & the buyer just said ok & bought it anyway and moved right in... So I get this call a few weeks back from the agent... Kyle, Mr. Kims roof is leaking and water is pouring in throught the ceiling, can you come take a look? (Read, can you come fix it...) I still talk about this one all the time and it just irritates me how this guy flipped this house having done almost nothing to code and just walked away scott free. So I ask the agent, did Mr Kim have a roofer come take a look like I said? Were any repairs made? (This roof needed to be re-framed) Of course the answer was no, and everybody is perplexed that there is water coming in. I remember using the analagy on the original inspection about if it was a used car you were looking at and the wheels were on top... would you buy it? Anyway the pictures mostly say it all. What a waste of brand new shingles. Download Attachment: DSCN2729.JPG 186.89 KB Download Attachment: DSCN2731.JPG 188.31 KB Download Attachment: DSCN2732.JPG 180.51 KB Download Attachment: DSCN2733.JPG 183.52 KB Download Attachment: DSCN2736.JPG 179.62 KB

Lets see if I can add anything useful here, It is really difficult, they are so cool you just don't want to put them down... First I agree with Jesse... exhaust leaks are likely to be significant, those old coal doors don't exactly seal well. I really like your boiler plate (pun intended) also Bill, and Kurt is right also, efficiency is likely around 50% at best, and with todays fuel prices... (how often can you offer a client a near 45% increase in efficiency with a new boiler install these days...) Now to add a few things, maybe. The flu, having been originally sized for coal is likely not drafting very well and probably unlined unless it has been since modified. Was there any kind of draft diverter/damper installed? Any condensation damage near the top of the chimney? Those old gas guns I typically find in a pretty dangerous state, if your standing there when it ignites you may be able to show the client some nice flame blowout. This one is interesting, doesn't look too bad... is that actually a thermocoupler I see? I still find the really old ones with the independent feed to the pilot and no thermocoupler, which usually turns out to be the best reason you can offer to put er to bed. Lastly, depending on the client being one of the new breed of men who probably doesn't know which end of a hammer to hold on to, it's getting more and more difficult to get service people to work on these things, No company wants to put their neck on the block and say "ok, it's good for another year, nice and safe"... Personnally it makes my skin crawl a little seeing the Hydrostat & PRV mounted up there on piping branches. That said, I don't see a pump anywhere... is it just not in the pic or is this still gravity. Was the rest of the house as interesting & free from modern intervention?