Kyle Kubs

Anyone familiar with Circle Combustion Boilers/indirect water heaters? Looking for their date coding info. This is the first one I've seen around here. It's kind of reminiscent of Pensotti boilers from Italy.

Hey Neal, You don't even want to know my response to the "Why didn't you know our insurance company would require this" thing... I'm in a mood and might say something inappropriate. [:-censore I have this .pdf file that I include with my reports. Download Attachment: CASMA - Techincal Bulletin Roof Staining Algae.pdf 81.82 KB The algae is aesthetic only. Tell the insurance agent to go jump off the roof.

Ok, if we're doing the Larry, Mo & Curly plumbing work contest, I just had the prizewinner yesterday. Never would have expected to open this vanity Click to Enlarge 49.07 KB And find this masterful work of art. Click to Enlarge 29.99 KB Maybe that's what it was, some sort of "abstract engineering". Even better, this same handy homeowner did tons of electrical modification/additions including the power to the hot tub and swimming pool.

Here's a couple pics of the last one I saw, a few years back now, that shows the venting. Download Attachment: 009.jpg 188.05 KB Download Attachment: 010.jpg 172.39 KB

Some of them didn't! [:-bigeyes Ed, it looks like where all that refractory cement is applied was probably to seal all the cracks/rot/separations in the heat exchanger, it's right where the welds would typically give way. Those things remind me of Grandma's house in the country in PA. And hers had Army guys too.[:-slaphap

Really? I can't recall having ever seen that done in New England or in Oregon. If I'm recalling right, every time I've ever formed up footings, we set them to elevation and used the top of the forms as a screed. This is what I'm accustomed to seeing. Heck, I thought this was a pretty universal method. - Jim Katen, Oregon Same here.

4200 sq. ft. 2 level house built in 1970. The furnace is in the center of the daylight basement and not fully closed in, so I doubt it. It was blowing like air coming out of a heat register. Very odd.......... I would say you got it on your first guess. The heat exchanger likely has a big hole in it. But, like Jim said, even under the circumstances you describe, if the have the blower cabinet door off while your doing this it could just be drawing from the chimney. How old is the furnace? Where is the fan in relation to the burn chamber? Under or behind? I ask, because I had one with the blower fan in back of the heat exchanger and with the blower compartment open, looking through the fan blades I could see the flames in the burn chamber... and it was only around 10 years old. Unfortunately it's a lot harder to see up through the fan if it's under the burn chamber.

...Walking the dog got a little O2 to my brain ... Kyle-- O2 is carbon dioxide, not oxygen. Unless you want to suffocate, that's not what you wanna inhale![] Kevin, please refrain from answering any further questions before 7:00am or at least your second cup o joe. [:-slaphap

What Richard Said. 24 inches... Wow.

What week is 00? First week of doomsday?[:-bigeyes

They had the washing machine & dryer jammed right up against it, and it was a lowboy, I couldn't get an angle to see it. Walking the dog got a little O2 to my brain and I thought, its probably original, the house was built in 1987 - look at the tag on the lower left, there is a little D86. - It's good enough for me. Thanks for trying.

Ok, I've exhaust all of my secret decoder charts. Can't find Hoyt in any of them. Anyone know there stuff? Before you say it, I don't think it is 2000, it just looks a lot older then that, but I'm listening. Click to Enlarge 43.55 KB And as a reward, I'm going to let you in on the 10,001 use for that magic epoxy tootsie roll they sell on TV. Click to Enlarge 50.34 KB Secure your water pipes to the masonry wall without drilling anything.[:-censore

A place like that on just 1.26 acres? Hell my ranch is on more land than that. "sits high atop the former Lawson Estate grounds" Ah, so if it's like here in Jersey, you now have this mansion, which probably used to sit on 100 acres or so that is now on 1.26 acres and surrounded by a couple thousand popup village looking townhomes.

I've never heard of such a thing and honestly it boarders on ridiculous. You may have misunderstood what he was saying... Absolutely, a house with all 15 amp. circuits is not allowed. As Harold said, certain circuits must be 20amp. but lighting and bedroom, living room, etc... receptacles can be 15 amp with #14. Then again, your in IL., don't even get me started.[:-taped]

Something very odd from yesterday's inspection. Two cables in the main panel, both with a cloth loom sheathing and thermoplastic insulation the Ungrounded and grounded conductors were Copper but the grounding conductor was Aluminum. This is something I've never encountered before. The panel access was very restricted due to an illegally finished basement with a narrow door in front of the panel but the hot conductor was not connected and just hanging in the panel with tape around the end, so I pulled the tape, looked at the cut end and everything and it was Copper. Oddly enough, it was also hot, but no need to get into that. So, am I looking at the Jackalope of the electrical industry? Ever heard of such a thing. The house was built somewhere around 1958 and this appears to be the original wiring but there were only two circuits like this. Download Attachment: DSCN2643.JPG 493.6 KB This second one looked a little different, almost like tinned Copper but again everything on the breakers and terminal bars was copper. Which I could believe more easily with the rag sheathing. Download Attachment: DSCN2646.JPG 407.84 KB The whole panel had a real hodge podge of wiring from regular copper NM with the undersized grounding conductor to this Copper/Alum hybrid to newer NM & NM-B

Tell him to show it to you on their literature.

This statement alone is truly disturbing.

Anyone have any tricks they use on those metal finish, self adhering data stickers that always oxidize to the point where you can't read them anymore? Click to Enlarge 40.54 KB Over the years I've typically given them a good rub with my fingers and/or use my light across the plate and I can more often then not get most of what I need. Sometimes, especially when they are in a tight place my head won't fit, I take a good digital pic and I can typically enhance the hell out of the photo with photoshop to bring it up enough to see but this one is defying even that trick. It seems like the oxidation you get from aluminum or chrome. I was thinking about keeping some chrome polish or toolbox cleaner in my truck. Any other tricks from the sages?

There are more factors at work than what you are giving us. The age of the compressor/condensing unit? Overall condition; Clean, not clogged up with dog hair,weeds, dirt, no damage? Picture? It's kind of hard to evaluate something over the internet... What factors did your HVAC guy tell you made it necessary to replace it? He should be checking the refrigerant pressure, the amount of current the compressor is drawing versus it's rating, noise and delta T. Probably the most important is the current draw and weather it is holding pressure. It may be working better at night just cause it is cooler outside at night and there is not as much load on it.

So I guess this wouldn't qualify? Click to Enlarge 61.18 KB Or this? Click to Enlarge 27.04 KB What's frightening is I didn't even have to look for these, they were just my last two inspections. And yes, that is a gas dryer with the bathroom exhaust fan vented into it.

The mesh might point to EIFS or Polymer Modified hardcoat. If it's EIFS then you should be able to push on it with your thumb and see it move as you compress the foam behind it. If not it's PM. I'm leaning towards PM because of the way it's blistering on the chimney... The moisture is coming through from the flu and messin with it. It's a crap ass job either way.

I had a feeling someone was going to come along and say that. It would probably bother me less if there was a way to get under this area in an unfinished space and see the sheathing, but by it's very nature, it's finished space underneath. This is the first I've seen it configured this way, typically the shed hits the sloped roof several courses down from the ridge instead of right up to it like this.

Hi Bryan, Just food for thought...per your post, how does the 100-amp breaker protect those #4 service entrance cables? Jerry, The breaker limits the amount of current that can be drawn through the service cables by the system, no matter which side it is on. It won't do anything for a short on those cables before the breaker, no matter how improbable but at that point the transformers limit protection should take over.

That was my concern as well. The rain should not give it a problem but with snow sitting up there it can easily turn into one. And if someone gives it a white sealer coat to help it last longer then the snow issue will get worse. Brandon, the 15-20 year life span is what I initially believed also, in broad, general terms, but had done some googling myself and was finding roofers claiming 30 years. I think I may stick with the 15-20 given our climate. Cary, Thanks for the info & diagram. I've never seen one sloping toward the shingled roof unless the design didn't allow any other way. Not sure I would like that if I did.