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Garet

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Everything posted by Garet

  1. Garet
    That one is going in the file of quotable quotes.
  2. Garet
    Chances are good that Sparky won't have a clue. The voltage drop provisions are an unenforceable "fine print note" in the NEC. I used to routinely measure voltage drops of 10-20% before my Suretest got stolen. My advice is to throw away your Suretest.
  3. Garet
    Edward Robinson Professional Engineering Insp., Inc. Houston, TX 77277 (713) 664-1264 http://www.profengineering.com
  4. Garet
    Well, the key is to find an engineer who actually DOES know what he's looking at! Engineering covers a very broad range. Just because a cut truss hasn't displayed any adverse reactions really doesn't mean much. Trusses are designed for extreme conditions, and may not show any adverse signs until a high wind event or heavy snowfall. Seven years ago my area had a 3 foot snowstorm - more than we had ever recorded since this area was settled. A lot of people were unpleasantly surprised.
  5. Garet
    IRC R802.10.4 Alterations to trusses. Truss members shall not be cut, notched, drilled, spliced or otherwise altered in any way without the approval of a registered design professional. Why would you recommend anything different?
  6. Garet
    You're getting condensation because water vapor in the air is coming in contact with a surface whose temperature is below the dewpoint. You need to either lower your indoor humidity levels or move the house to a climate where it does not get so cold. [] Other than replacing the Apollo system, has anything else changed that could be putting more humidity into the air? More people in the house? Longer showers? Different cooking habits? By any chance did the installer add a humidifier when replacing the Apollo system?
  7. Garet
    Mr. Holmes stated that he probably would have recognized these as being signs of a marijuana growing operation when he was 18 years old. When I was 18 I didn't know what a grow-op was, and I certainly would not have been able to recognize signs of where one had been removed. Apparently Mr. Holmes past history is more colorful than mine.
  8. Garet
    Bussman, Here's a little test you can do to help track down the problem. The next time you don't have hot water, go immediately to the water heater and put your hand on the outlet pipe at the top of the heater. If it's hot then the problem is likely the mixing valve. If the pipe is not hot then the problem is either the tank itself (not likely) or the heating system is pulling heat out of the tank more quickly than it can be replaced.
  9. Garet
    And that is exactly why ground source units are still relatively rare. Tom That, and the enormous expense of installation. FWIW, I've seen exactly 3 heat pumps in Denver in a decade in this business. I've always assumed it's due to cheap natural gas rates because we're closer to the source. Garet
  10. Garet
    If the SOP says you have to describe certain things, and sump pumps are not on that list, then why would anyone expect otherwise?
  11. Garet
    Because they were lazy. The panel got painted unintentionally along with the rest of the wall. The breakers themselves probably got replaced (the close-up shows thinner paint behind them) but that isn't enough. NEC clearly states bars behind the breakers (and the grounding bars) also need to be replaced.
  12. Garet
    M1503.1 General. Range hoods shall discharge to the outdoors through a single-wall duct. The duct serving the hood shall have a smooth interior surface, shall be air tight and shall be equipped with a backdraft damper. Ducts serving range hoods shall not terminate in an attic or crawl space or areas inside the building. Exception: Where installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s installation instructions, and where mechanical or natural ventilation is otherwise provided, listed and labeled ductless range hoods shall not be required to discharge to the outdoors.
  13. Garet
    Not enough information. The only insight I can give you is that 1) construction crews often bury junk underground because it's easier than hauling it off to the dump, and 2) in the 70's many builders were blissfully ignorant of drainage issues. I'm currently in the process of re-grading around my own 1970's house.
  14. Garet
    It's a perfectly fine way of correcting a double-tapped breaker. If the circuit breaker is overloaded that's another matter, but that could happen with one wire just as easily as if there are two tied together.
  15. Garet
    Ummmmm... If you install IWS first and wrap it down the fascia, and then install the air vent on top of it, just how does the air get through the IWS?
  16. Garet
    Back in my engineering days, I spent 5 months in Indonesia, and gradually became accustomed to this mentality as the rule of construction in the big cities. Then I took a trip to a remote construction site in the hills, and watched as a small army of small men used hammers and chisel to turn a field full of boulders into a large pile of gravel. Oyyyyy!
  17. Garet
    10 legs???
  18. Garet
    2006 IRC P2803.6.1 Requirements for discharge pipe. The discharge piping serving a pressure-relief valve, temperature- relief valve or combination valve shall: 4. Serve a single relief device and shall not connect to piping serving any other relief device or equipment.
  19. Garet
    Which electrician isn't going to say that? The one hired by the seller's agent! I've had it happen more than once with FPE.
  20. Garet
    So what's the problem with one of them doing more work and/or failing sooner than the other? Are you expecting both of them to fail on exactly the same day? I've found that water heater failures have so many variables as to be impossible to predict. I find failed units less than 1 year old and I've seen ones a quarter of a century old that have no visible signs of problems.
  21. Garet

    Steel Yoke?

    Garet replied to Garet's topic in HVAC Forum

    Highly unlikely. Oil heat was extremely rare around here and there was evidence of an old coal bin.
  22. Garet

    Steel Yoke?

    Garet posted a topic in HVAC Forum

    Any idea what this is? It's next to the furnace in a 1903 duplex, which originally would have been heated by a coal-fired, gravity furnace. For scale, the yoke is probably about 15 inches across the top. Click to Enlarge 38.65 KB
  23. Garet
    I'd like to study that. Got a reference?
  24. Garet
    If the GFCI breaker failed to reset then it's defective and the homeowner should be thanking you for revealing a latent safety defect. If there are two GFCIs in series then... that's why I stopped pushing the little button on my 3-light neon tester. I got tired of hunting around to figure out where the darned thing had tripped. Instead I push the button on the device itself, then go around to find the places downstream that no longer have power. If I've tripped all the GFCIs I can find and something still has power that shouldn't, then I tell them to have an electrician install more GFCIs.
  25. Garet
    It's a cantilever. (Oh no, here we go again!)
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