jseddy

I'm assuming that's what it is. Apparently there are 4 & 6 gallon mini-tank heaters as well but I doubt they could be hidden within a wall. The current owner didn't install it.

Wasn't sure where to post this. Anyone have any experience with these things? Obviously I'm looking for leaks, but the one I just ran into was installed inside (behind the sheetrock) the wall underneath a basement bar/sink. Temp was running in excess of 130F. and there was no way to lower it w/o opening the wall. Seems like a heating element that hot would be a fire hazard. It's electric and must be tied in to the circuit(no plug or switch). The whole instalation seems wrong to me but electrical is my big weakness I'm working on. Any coments would help.

OK. Looks like you guys might get your "I told you so" ass kicking party early. Just got back from meeting with a member of the OFEE(Organization for Entrepreneur Enterprise), Seems like I've actually got two products on my hands, and in reality, two different markets. Not that it's a problem, but I hadn't considered what I was giving away. I know, ambiguous, and it doesn't make a lot of sense. Just an update.

Mike, I apologize anyway. After re-reading the posts they do not reflect my personality and attitude in any way. They come off judgemental and overly critical, and at the very least, as a new business owner, that can be a self-fullfilling prophecy you don't want. I think my excitement got the best of me. But in the end, if it turns out this is something unreachable for me, far past my range of manageable knowledge, maybe I'll run it by you. See what you guys think.

I've tried to reply 4 times now only to get "page cannot be loaded", so this will be far more concise. Maybe I'll learn to c/p from Word in the future. Kurt, I'll be happy to send you a copy for free if I ever get that far. And you'll all be happy to know if this business model/plan is ridiculously out of reach with what I want to do, what I do end up with I'll make it shareware. First, I agree, that was an unfair comparison of software and was not my intention to offend anyone, so I will edit that out of respect. First lesson learned. Don't belittle anyone or product even unintentionally. Not good karma or attitude and frankly, I'm ashamed of myself for having sounded that way. Perhaps I'll learn my lesson better after I work up my business model/plan and decide to charge $3200 for my product. (see previous comment) Secondly, yes, I may very well be starting a hole too deep to crawl out of, become jaded and quietly go away, or; you all can enjoy watching as my enthusiasm and optimism slowly disintegrate away over time, which as we all know, on the internet, is far more entertaining than the former. At the very least, let's hope you guys get your "I told you so" chance and I become a better HI for it. Third, I'm not alone in this project, so as I'm a "newb", that's not the complete story.

Hi guys. I am in the initial planning stages of designing and developing a new Home Inspection software and business software solution. Thought I'd get some input from you. If you use software reporting, what do you like? What don't you like? What's missing? What would you like to see? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages? If you don't use software reporting, what has kept you from doing so? A little background on me and how this came about. I am an engineer and use design software and engineering software daily. Currently I am a component designer but earlier in my career I worked as a 3-D modeler. Quite by coincidence, I have had the pleasure of being involved in the design and development of each of the very highly sophisticated programs I have used as well as Beta-testing them, making suggestions, fixing/finding bugs, etc. Fast forward today... I recently started researching my own HI business, have posted here on a few occasions. What I've found and as those posts reflect, I have been grossly underwhelemed with what is available on the software front, not to mention what they're charging for it. So initially, I was just going to write up my own report template, but as I got into it, I was considering what I wanted my report to say, how to say it, how I wanted to put in information and where, what I wanted to give my customer as my product and what they should know and have access to. Precisely how was I going to go about doing all this and organizing it? It quickly spiraled out of the range of mear template writing. At this point I cannot tell you how many demos I've tested, had demonstrated for me, researched, yadda yadda, and not one of these comes close to reaching the potential it could be and what it could offer. So, as I said, I am in the initial planning stages and I am aware this may be a 2-3 year ordeal. Thanks for your time. Jeff

I'm being taught right now not to walk the roof. Use binoculars and a ladder to the eves. 6 or 8'. There are various arguments for this including injury, liability if I damage anything on the roof and most roofs here in Columbus are 10/12 or greater.(I know cause I design them) The other arguement is that in the winter you wouldn't walk the roof anyway, but now, in the summer, you are providing a different product for the price. The man is very well respected here, but also he's probably 250lbs or greater. Personally, I have a roofer or framer fall off a roof every month,these are experienced guys, and I have read many of your tales here as well. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I have a 2 day on-site field study for my inspection class. 4 inspections and I'm in need of a hardcopy report form(at least 4). Just found out Tuesday night we'd need the forms. Can't get anything recieved by tomorrow if I order either. (class is Sat. at 8)I could recreate a form from a demo I have but alas I use a Mac and can't run the demo in the first place. Added to that delima, I've got $100s of tools to pick up as well. I'd prefer not to have to blow $80 or more on "practice forms". I had been planning on creating my own forms and using software but I'm new to this and haven't even evaluated that part of things so far. Any advice would be helpful.

Good info Kurt. Do you create your own reports template? Just curious. You seem pretty aware of software. Also (posssibly a different board) how much digital photo dev'ing stuff do you see needs addressed? Obviously anyone can take a pic, but how much further do you see a HI needs to take that within digital development or actual photo taking considering it's a "professionally taken photo". Is this something a HI should just develop as he goes or get some relative experience beforehand? (not sure I posed that ? right. Hope you can decipher what I'm getting at)

I have a full version of Adobe. Will that help?

Yeah, I was looking into that. They have a new version out right now, Filemaker 8. Hmmm. Interesting.

On that note, I guess I'll ask what I was really trying to get at. I'm new to this home inspection game and just getting set up, taking classes, doing the research, setting up the business, etc. I have a Mac at home I'll be using for the business, storing all the data files, email, all that crap. I'm planning on using a small laptop on site and portable printer,cd-rs to generate on-site reports if needed, then load everything to my home computer. Obviously I need a Mac compatible laptop. Can't find Mac report generators. But... Being familiar with computers and software, why can't I make my own report creator? Every demo I've seen looks like nothing more than a template from Word or Excel. Has anyone done this? Bypassed the software on your own? Coming from a good background in design and construction I see these software packages and can't believe they're selling for what they are. Any advice in this area would be welcome as it seems if I want to stay w/ Apple computers it may be my only option.

Here are some simple issues and examples regarding the PC vs. Mac arguement without getting too technical. 1) Microsoft makes software, not computers. Windows XP is installed on thousands of different manufacturers PCs with infinite(nearly)variables in hardware architecture. What RAM? What sound card? Video card? BUS? Processor? Is it a Pentium 3? 4? Which of the 10 available P4s is it? Windows can be running on any of a 100,000 types of computers at any one time. This is a performance issue with code programming. Not so with Mac. Apple makes their computers, decides on a processor(s)usually only 4. 2 choices for desktop and 2 for laptop, drive, 1 sound card, 1 videocard, etc. and design their operating system to take full advantage of the 1 choice it has rather than code for 100 thousand variables. For Mac, there's only maybe 4 at any one time. 2) In Windows, your software can be thought of as a function of Windows. When you install software, it actually attaches itself to operating files such as System32, Winsys, .dll files and those files are required to be present and correct for your program to run.(this is what happens when you open a Virus as well) Often, when you are running multiple programs they are looking for Windows comands at the same time and place, it gets "confused" and you crash. Programs also get tied to other programs , even inadvertantly. Mac that doesn't happen. The software runs semi-independantly of the operating system. It's not directly attached to it. It just provides an "envirornment" for it to function on its own. At worst, if you crash, it only takes the one program. 3) the virus issue in practically nill for Mac for this same reason. Additionally, 99% of all viruses are designed to function in Windows and Internet Explorer. Not applicable to Mac. When you open an email that contains the FU.exe virus file that attaches to your Winsys32 and worms starts pulling in pop-ups from the web... the mac says "what the hell's a .exe? I don't need that, delete." And for that 1% of those viruses on Mac, most are attacking Mac versions of Windows called VirtualPC (allows Windows to operate on Mac) and Internet Explorer. In the same amount of time I've used my PC and my Mac on the same things at home, my pc has had over 100,000 viruses of some kind and needed pro-level support 3 times in 2 years, plus my harddrive wiped out. Not a single virus on my Mac. 4) It just works. You don't need all the support programs. If you want to load photos off your camera it all goes to Iphoto. You don't even need your cameras software. Want to listen to music? Itunes. Movies? Imovie. Dvd? Idvd. It just knows what you're asking it when you plug something in or load something and opens the appropriate application. No need to have stuff like RealAudio, WinAmp, etc. That's just a brief nutshell.

Modular housing has come a long way. I've designed trusses for million dollar and up modulars. In many ways they're more structurally sound than stick homes. The pieces are engineered past code PLUS transport. Framers are notorious for "creative framing" in my area.

Topic creator, You don't mean "fire trated" do you? That's a whole other bag of worms.

Hi guys. New to the board. I am a truss, panel, floor designer(engineer)as my full time profession so I deal with this issue constantly and really can't get a definitive answer myself. CCA process was replaced by ACQ. Here's the problem, the issue of proper hangers and fasteners is highly debateable. Long story short, 2 years ago there wasn't a hanger or fastener available that the ACQ wouldn't "eat" through or corode. I know this due to a litigation my parent company was involved in. Speaking with an engineering representative of one of the largest hanger manufacturers in the country "what's being done about this?" He replyed, "We don't know what to do?" There was no solution at the time. Since then, we've (my company) has been offered product solutions such as "double dipped galvanized" and the like. Our own testing shows improvement but still measurably greater than normal degredation with exposure to ACQ. The supplier says otherwise. Personally I'd expect no less than a 15% loss in typical decking lifetime at best as an example. It's possible I may have missed some things regarding changes in this the past year but I do know our supplier is shipping the same product.

I left Windows XP for Mac. My design firm uses Windows based machines so I'm on them everyday, right now as a matter of fact. I absolutely hate them at this point. I appologize for disagreeing, but IMO windows in no way approches the quality and stability of OSX. There is just no quality comparison. XP is like that drunk uncle who thinks he knows everything and tries to convince you he was a CIA operative, then when you argue, he gets violent and then passes out. From your response, I take it you're under the impression that Apple computers are a thing of the past? Not true. Apple holds a significant market share of personal computers and a huge advantage in the high end, professional design end of things, as well as making the the most advanced operating system available. The Mac is not what people think of 10-15 years ago.

topic. I try and avoid Micro$oft(Mostly Windows) at all times. Mac software seems hard to come by.