mommabear3502

You know, if I had the serial number, I could too! LOL, unfortunately the inspector didn't bring that back for me. Oh well.

It's late, my inspector is unavailable until later next week, blah blah blah! Can you guys give me a REALLY rough estimate on this water heater's age by the photo? Download Attachment: FH000007.jpg 55.29 KB

There's got to be a zero missing somewhere in that price. NO way is that only 64K.

I'd love to see the interior of that place.

That does not mean that you have to provide it! It is not possible to predict anything, except the mood of your wife once a month! Keep in mind that it is your name on that dotted line if it does not hold true. Granted that chances of that happing are few, but you just never know. LOL, unfortunately I do have to provide it. It is a requirement of HUD for the MAP program, and it is included in the Scope of Work agreement we have with the client! There are a lot of legal disclaimers in the report absolving us of any responsibility if the components don't last as long as we say they will since I'm not clairvoyant.

Well, this is how we define EUL - if normal workmanship, normal quality of materials, normal maintenance, how long will this item typically last? Yes, it certainly seems like folly to make predictions as far into the future as 37 years, but that's the requirements for the refinance program.

I'm writing a physical inspection report of a nursing home in Maryland that was built in 1989 and has a hardcoat stucco finish. It has a couple of minor cracks that can be repaired but no real problems as far as the inspector (who is actually a 65-year-old architect who has seen just about everything) can detect. He told me that this stucco has a 50-year expected useful life; however, the Fannie Mae guidelines do not give an expected useful life other than painting every 5 years. Just wondering, what kind of experience do you guys have with this? It's pretty unusual for me to deal with stucco so I'm not sure if I should count on replacing it in the next 37 years. Thanks, Vanessa

There are several large areas of damage on each tree. Either there is already a ton of bugs inside the trees or they will easily find their way inside through the holes. Goodness knows they have plenty of holes to choose from. The pic I posted is only a portion of the damage on one of the trees. I'm telling you guys, I've seen woodpecker damage before, but I've never seen anything like this. Oh, and Mel, the home inspector noted damage on the building exterior only. I discovered the damage to the trees a couple days later. The trees need to be pruned pretty badly so the damage to the trees isn't easily noticable unless you lift up the limbs.

And may his arms be too short to scratch.

I haven't tried anything yet because we close on the house today. I thought I'd ask about this now so that I could start off on the right foot. The trees have probably been there since the house was constructed in 1989 so they're quite full and nice to look at. I would hate to have to remove them so maybe I'll try the faux owls and suet feeders. Hopefully the birds don't come back. I live in town where all the houses are practically piled on top of each other. While it may be tempting to pull out a gun and shoot the birds, I'm afraid of accidentally taking out a neighbor unless it's the one who owns the large barking dog directly behind us.

We just bought this house, and the home inspector noted some woodpecker damage to the fireplace's hardboard siding. I also noticed that the little devil had a field day with the 2 Bradford Pear tress in the backyard. I'm not sure if this is an on-going problem or if he's already moved on. Is there a way to discourage them from using our trees and fireplace as a snack bar? Also, is there a product someone here could recommend to cover these holes? There is quite a lot of damage to the 2 trees in the yard, and I don't want bugs or disease to get into the trees through the damage. I've included a photo of one of the trees. Thanks! Download Attachment: PICT0039.JPG 44.44 KB

Ick. That's just wrong. I'm not a girly-girl who is afraid of all bugs, but roaches gross me out. It could be because when I was in college, I lived in a duplex with white trash next door who didn't believe in paying for trash service when they could just pile up the trash bags on the patio.

Could the ballast puncture the membrane? Just a thought.

Yummy! This is on an apt roof in a not-so-nice part of Buffalo, NY. Just wait, I will share some of the really weird stuff I see on a regular basis. [:-crazy] Download Attachment: growth.jpg 95.33 KB

Thanks for all the good input, guys!

So, there's a membrane underneath? Wow, Ol' Carl got it right . . . I should probably buy him a bottle of Dewar's. Thanks for the help!

Hi, everybody! Long time lurker, first time poster! [:-paperba I'm trying to identify the material on a flat roof over an 11-story apartment building in Iowa City, IA. The building was constructed in 1980 with $35K worth of roof repairs in 1991. I write capital needs assessments for an architectural firm in SW Missouri but have a background in English so . . . I'm kind of lost as to what this is. I'm used to seeing built-up, EPDM, stuff like that on flat roofs. I've never seen a tile like this before on a roof. Unfortunately, the "inspector" (I use the term loosely) has no clue about different building systems so his data is completely useless especially since he calls this a membrane roof. Please take a look at the attached photos. If you have some information on this material, I'd appreciate any help you can give! For example, what is it called (generic name rather than a brand name), benefits of using this in Iowa, expected useful life of this stuff, any sort of known problems, and anything else that might be useful. Thanks! Download Attachment: roof 1.jpg 70.95 KB Download Attachment: roof 2.jpg 89.62 KB

Wow, that's an incredible story. How often does something like this happen, I wonder?