Garet

The data plate on newer furnaces also reference the ANSI code, which is updated every few years.

Every one of them will look different, since they are typically installed by weekend warriors with a hand drill. Holes are typically on the side and bottom. Yes it's only going to pump out the volume of water in the sump and surrounding gravel; then it will sit for a period of time while water drains out of the surrounding soil into the pit. Is that what you mean by 'short cycle'? The length of time between pumping cycles would vary greatly depending on soil conditions and geometry.

In my part of the world... The solid ones with drain pipes entering were installed during original construction. The perforated ones with no drain pipes were retrofits, and only drain the immediate are around the sump.

Got any larger photos? Could it be dryer lint?

Is it possible your OLD meter was the defective one, and you've actually been using more water than you thought (or they've been billing) all these years?

Turns out he already has. See June '09 JLC, p19. BTW, he uses the term 'cantilever' when the joist extends out beyond the foundation. (neener neener neener!)

Many building components get different names by different folks in different trades/professions or in different parts of the country. A good example is band joist/band board/rim joist. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in semantics, as Jim's professor did. I've never heard a distinction between these two cases - because in a functional sense there isn't any. Every engineering community I've been in calls both of these a cantilever. For that matter, the term cantilever is even used for a vertical member with lateral loading. But let's set semantics aside. From the standpoint of loads and stresses within the cantilever/overhang, the two cases that Jim & Jim are trying to differentiate are, in fact, exactly the same thing. Even the amount of curvature of the cantilever/overhang portion is the same. The only difference is that the back-span on the longer beam allows some rotation at the point of support, resulting in different overall deflections of the cantilever/overhang portion. The other case is theoretically 'fixed' against rotation at the point of support. In the real world of houses the deflections are insignificant. Also in the real world of houses, the 'cantilever' according to Master Katen's definition does not exist as a practical reality. No one builds that way (at least not with wood) - because they can't! The myriad of equations Jim posted define loads and deflections both in the cantilevered portion and within the span between the supports of the extended version. If you look only at the loads, and look only at the cantilever/overhang portion, that seething mass of mathematics simplifies to the same values for both configurations (as I've highlighted below). The deflections are different (because of the rotation at the support), but the loads and stresses in the cantilever/overhang are the same. Click to Enlarge 116.39 KB When I went through engineering school the 'unforgivable sin' was a failure to draw a 'free body diagram'. A FBD plucks out a discrete portion of a structure and isolates all the forces on it. One of my professors kept a large rubber stamp in his desk drawer that read "Draw a FBD". If a student came to him with a question but failed to start the calculations with the requisite FBD the stamp came crashing down (red ink, of course). Few students made that mistake twice. So let's draw a FBD for both of these configurations. We'll use the case of a point load at the outer end and we'll cut the section a fraction of an inch outside the support. Click to Enlarge 24.58 KB The resulting loads (both shear and moment) are identical in both cases. Since the loads are the same the internal stresses will be the same as well. The same is also true if we apply any other load configuration. In essence, the portion of the cantilever/overhang outside the support has no idea what's actually holding it up. It simply knows that it is being held. Now that we've taken a (long) detour through the land of semantics and engineering mechanics, let's go back to the question at hand, which is "Can a deck safely be attached to a cantilevered floor joist?" Since virtually all decks fail at connections, let's consider how things are connected. The typical band joist is attached to the outer end of cantilevered floor joists only with nails into end grain. Attaching a deck to such a structure (even with lag bolts from the deck ledger into the band joist) would still leave the band joist nails as the weak link in the chain. That's a good enough reason for me to say it's a bad idea. FWIW, the document from Johnson County shows a way to strengthen that connection (Figure 7), but I have not seen that detail elsewhere. http://buildingcodes.jocogov.org/docume ... 20Book.pdf Perhaps we could get Dr. Woeste to offer his opinion?

Back on topic... the NAHB comments are extremely short-sighted. If we'd learned our lesson from the first 'energy crisis', we wouldn't be talking about how to retrofit the existing housing stock to use less energy.

Heck, Jim, I thought that I was the only person who paid attention to that distinction. A tree branch is a cantilever. The portion of the floor joist outside the foundation wall is cantilevered. It's supported only on one end.

AirLock latex mastic. load a caulking tube with it and it works great. I'd never use clear plastic though. Too many things that will grow under clear plastic. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Is this what you're talking about? http://www.rectorseal.com/index.php?sit ... duct_id=85 Garet

Denray, Care to provide the name of a caulking that will stick to poly sheeting? I've never found one. Garet

Why should buyers check up on old permit issues? ...so they don't hit a road block when they sell their house! 30 years ago no one would have batted an eye about a basement finished without a permit, but times have changed. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_12652542 Ironic that this one was initiated by a real estate agent.

Why bother asking? Were you planning on telling your client that it's a good thing to have fungi growing in their house? If conditions are ripe for one type then other types of fungi (that may lead to very different personal reactions) could also grow. Forget the "Is it bad?" question. Tell them to correct the moisture problem, remove the fungi and move on with life.

Maybe because if the old units got serviced the systems would last longer and the manufacturer wouldn't be able to sell as many new units?

I don't see that in Darren's third photo so I wonder if what we are seeing in the first two is a localized...ummm..."repair"? (tough to say that without laughing) It's there, the same as the other photos. Look towards the lower left side.

Lots of patched cracks certainly raises some red flags, especially if you think the patches are recent. OTOH with older houses I expect to see some signs of movement. It all boils down to what you are accustomed to seeing in your area for that type of construction. I wish I could be more definitive for you, but I've found that trying to diagnose structural issues based only on internet photos is a lot like asking a doctor to diagnose a heart murmur by putting the phone up to your chest. There's just not enough information without being there and seeing things first-hand.

When I see ejector pumps I run the plumbing fixtures leading into them until I hear the pump kick on. Probably 1/2 the ejector pumps I find are installed wrong in one way or another, usually related to the discharge pipe. I've never seen one with a discharge pipe larger than 2".

Where a paper wasp nest was pulled off?

Same way the never-yet-lived-in house I looked at today was built in 2007.

If I remember correctly the outer jacket was plastic, but it was several years ago.

Are you happy now? Click to Enlarge 22.98 KB

There's no cut/dried way to answer this, and I've been asking the same question of myself lately. AFCI's can't be installed in all older homes (...unless they're also going to replace the panel). They simply don't make AFCIs for some older panel types, and if a panel is full with 1/2 width breakers there isn't room without adding a subpanel. It's not the same simple solution as GFCI's which can be installed in virtually every older home.

Any idea what this is? There were about 4-5 of them beside exit doors as well as bedroom doors in a 1952 house. The lever with the red label reads "rewind". Pulling the lever with the chain (...which hung nearly to the floor) rang the bell (sounded like an old-time school bell). I couldn't find any other markings. BTW, where's the forum labeled "Identify This Old Weird Thing I Found Today"? Garet Click to Enlarge 22.67 KB

Possibly feeding a subpanel? Things can get strange with additions to old houses.

That is so wrong it's frightening. The WH exhaust vent needs 1" min to anything combustible. Building materials are considered combustible unless they're rated as being non-combustible. PVC is not rated as non-combustible. BTW unless the furnace air intake also originates above the roof, that's a high efficiency, condensing furnace but it's not direct vent. A direct vent appliance draws its combustion air from the same place where the exhaust goes.