mgbinspect

Kinda reminds me of a 70s Toyota truck. Yeah, Datsun and Dodge also seemed to be suffering from that condition back then. I had a Datsun truck with 209,000 miles on it that I really loved, but it was a rust bucket.

'There's no easy way of knowing, but the common gray water system from days gone by would be something like a buried perforated fifty-five gallon drum filled with and surrounded by gravel. I am, however, not eluding to any approved eco system that might be a good thing. This would be a jerry rigged system, which has not been approved in our area for quite some time.

Are you saying that your decks have no attachment whatsoever to the house? What about 2nd story decks? Marc Typically anything above eight feet requires diagonal bracing. It is more work and certainly some minor attachment for taller decks will always be helpful, but I'm strongly in Rick's camp and have been for years. I've seen way too many alleged properly bolted and flashed deck attachments leak anyway. The fewer penetrations into the building envelope the better.

I've never seen anything even remotely close to that. Without a photo I would have never imagined the severity. Talk about a home owner being in denial...

I haven't run across a suspected gray water system in about ten years. This laundry tub is in an attached garage - an addition. The original attached garage was converted to a recreation room. Click to Enlarge 40.83 KB Click to Enlarge 57.25 KB The drain line for it goes directly out the rear foundation wall and turns down through a concrete landing slab. The home is on septic and the main line leaving the crawlspace for the septic tank is at the opposite end of the home. Of course, it could join up with the main drain line headed to the septic tank, but it's not likely, since it means they'd have to run the pipe underground for about forty-five feet. No evidence of a gray water sump was obvious. My guess is that it's just under the slab. The present owner of the home said it made sense, because when they were planting near the deck the soil seemed unusually wet once they got down a bit. The previous seller did other cheesy things like tap a cut off extension cord into the water heater breaker for incoming generator current, so I think a gray water system is a pretty good bet here.

Or, she just didn't want to be inconvenienced. Maybe she's a complete pig - a hoarder. I once had to do a restoration job for a hoarder (that was a joke). There were little foot paths about 18" wide throughout the house. To either edge of those paths crap just went up at about a slope of thirty degrees to the walls - discarded clothing, checkbooks, notices, you name it. All the countertops were buried in these slopes. There was only one uncluttered room - the living room, which was the dog's potty room. They were careful not to mix their crap with the dog's crap. [:-graduat Or.. perhaps the dog was a hoarder too and clearly the "A personality" of the household, since there were about fifty of his processed past meals hanging out in there. I've never seen anything like it, and never want to again. It's real challenge trying to reason and deal with people that are obviously out of their right minds.

I used to get called in all the time by home owners insurance claims departments to figure out the wierd mystery roof leaks. A roof inspection is really incomplete without every effort to include forensics, which isn't possible without a roof framing and related interior surface inspection. It doesn't make sense to bless a roof and without making certain there aren't obvious active stains from the bottom side that aren't so obvious from the topside.

1. Get through the introductions 2. Start the dishwasher and the Cooling systems so it's been running for quite a while before you assess it. 3. Photograph and view each exterior elevation from a distance and view it with binoculars making mental notes of there to give extra attention. 4. Walk every exterior wall and railing surface counter-clockwise around the entire building making notes as I go. 5. Do it again clockwise. 6. Mount the roof if possible. 7. Begin at the front door and keep turning right to walk EVERY wall surface in the joint (I affectionately call it the mouse techique) - testing outlets, switches, doors and windows as I go. I scan each room from the door as I enter and leave. Note: I address systems as I come to them. If you permit your reporting system to dictate how you move through a home youl'l waste a lot of time and effort. Know your form and do systems as you encounter them. Modify you report system layout, within reason of course, to conform to this method and you'll literally flow through a home inspection aving easily 30 - 40 minutes of wasted time and effort. 8. Crawlspace and/or Cellar 9. Present preliminary findings 10. Complete the report at the office and send it out.

Well, Richard, doesn't it seem appropriate that the very first main disconnect on the exterior that I crack open I find the cable to the ground rod completely disconnected. It doesn't even look like it was ever connected. Sheesh. Click to Enlarge 55.98 KB Unbelievable... Hanging my head in shame... What was it Fred Sanford used to say?, "You big dummy!" Well, thanks for the responses guys and the sobering needed adjustment in my inspection proceedure. "There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons." ~Denis Waitley [:-graduat

[:-thumbu] Didn't even know the box stores offered such lists. I don't get out a much. I'm always inspecting by day and writing by night. Thanks Ben. I've got your first lift ticket. That's a promise.

I understand that many, if not most, areas of the country don't expect HIs to provide estimated costs to cure, but here in Virginia, if you like working it's expected. Anyone willing to cough up some current reliable generous pricing for the following: Square foot prices for deck construction with and without rails (got a deck that is such a miserable hack job that total tear off and replacement is the only reasonable option.) My last price was 12.50 SF, but it's way too old to rely on. Lineal foot prices for electric baseboard heating units (pets have destroyed several of them - disgusting.) Speaking of which, does anyone know of an online resource for square foot and lineal foot pricing? Thanks in advance.

[:-thumbu] As Randy Nav so eloquently put it a few months ago here, "Peace n love man.. Peace n love..." The thing I like about most about TIJ is that reason and cooler heads always quickly prevail here - no big cat fights. I know that what you say, Gregg, is the truth. I came to quickly realize during my years in disaster restoration work (late 80's and early 90's) that trying to restore a water damaged manufactured home was a real nightmare. Most of them had particle board as a sub-floor, which is worse than useless once it gets wet. It was pretty much impossible, since all of the structural and partition walls were on the particle board to bring one back to original condition. I'm glad to constantly observe, since those days, real progress in the way they're made. In SOME ways, they're made BETTER than stick built homes. After all, 1. they must be built to survive a trip down the highway to the site and 2. like panelized construction, which I'm a fan of, it's nice when the workers are in a conditioned work environment and have equipment which allows them to cut every component to the perfect length and perfectly square. I know I'm sticking my neck out here but, if I didn't have the time to be out on the job site to baby sit and harass every worker that put a hand on my new construction home, I'd be tempted to believe it much safer to go with a manufactured home for the sake of quality control. But, that's just me (what do you expect? I like my travel trailer too). I don't see a lot to write home about regarding the workmanship of new home construction. Building science, yes... Workmanship, no. The custom Design/Build home builder I worked with used to go so far as to end prime and back prime every piece of exterior wood before installing it. We also had every major sub at the table with us during the design and pricing phases. We'd go to the local Parade of Homes and while everyone around us was mesmerized, we were more like horrified. I'm afraid I got spoiled. You just don't see that kind of attention to detail anymore. I've seen some manufactured homes that I would consider owning.

I took Chrome, for a test fly for about three months when it first came out. It appeared much faster when I first downloaded it. Eventually, I ended up back with IE, partially due to little annoyances with Chrome and partially because some sites I download statements from were only compatible with IE. The latest Explorer seems to work just fine. Recently, I've been trying a new philosophy regarding software - keeping everything in the family (Microsoft). With that in mind, and based upon some googling, I ditched Bit Defender on one machine and Webroot Spy Sweeper with Internet protection (both of which had remaining months left) to give Microsoft's Security Essentials a try. I must say, since I removed third-party security software off my PC, it has been running about as fast as it ever has. Programs are opening pretty quickly and no surfing problems whatsoever. Microsoft's Internet Essentials is very resource friendly and yet gets pretty high marks on protection. I'm pretty satisfied. (I'm not a big Microsoft fan, but I am a fan of a responsive PC. It seems Microsoft is finally getting the message and moving in the direction of lighter more resource friendly stuff, which is all I ever wanted. Microsoft Security Essentials is a two thumbs up in my book, and best of all, it's FREE and updates almost daily.)

I'm lost. Sorry. You're bringing in fresh makeup air - from the exterior? Si?

The thought never crossed my mind, bro. I don't take offense easily. We're cool. [:-thumbu]

My guess is, based upon all the things suggested, that as soon as I convert to a low flow steady stream shower head, conditions will be markedly better after a shower. I'm just kinda curious about the flat paint because of the fact that our previous home never had any such problems with five women taking the typical scalding showers. I suppose, when I think about it, your probably right, Bain. It makes sense that even flat paint surfaces would be pretty moisture resistant. But I might still have fun with the experiment and report back to this thread.

Out here, people sometimes put drywall on the walls & ceilings of unheated outbuildings. That drywall sags, buckles, generally turns to mush. As for the flat paint vs glossy paint issue, I don't know the answer. I think that something is going on though. If you have a shiny wall next to a flat wall, the shiny wall will condense up faster than the flat one. Somehow I don't think it's related to absorption though. I'll have to ponder that one for a while. - Jim Katen, Oregon Yes, now that you mention it, drywall out in sheds and outbuildings does indeed tend to do that - front porch ceilings too. Unconditioned space is not a friend to drywall. That's for sure. I was more referring to sudden and accidental one time or short term stuff. Repeated soakings does destroy drywall. It gets pretty gross. My interest is peaked. It would be tempting to put a piece of drywall in the bathroom in question and compare the moisture readings between the glossy painted and flat drywall surfaces after one of the condensation producing showers. Much of the house still has the same nasty semi-gloss paint, so we'd even have a control. Let's devise a testing procedure and I'll do it. [:-graduat

Drywalled ceilings would sag between the joists before long if they did indeed absorb that much humidity.Marc Now Les may say differently, since he also has done disaster restoration, but I found that only two conditions tended to cause drywall to actually sag downward: 1. ponding water over it, as would occur when a tub or shower drain leaks regularly or 2. through the weight of wet insulation on the drywall. It always seemed that, in general, drywall could endure a pretty good soaking and dry out to be just fine. Of course, I was doing disaster restoration work before everyone began to freak out about mold. Back then, if the drywall didn't change shape, the industry standard in our area was to let it dry, stain-seal it, paint it and go on with life.

It is indeed a curious phenomenon. Regarding humidity, Floriday has nothing on Central Virginia. They're both about as bad as it gets.

So, just curious, does anyone think that flat painted drywall offers any assistance at all or is my theory just plain flawed? [:-wiltel]

Yeah, I'll keep ya'll posted. I think the shower head is the biggest single culprit. It IS one of those very low flow super fine spray shower heads, and it definitely kicks up a lot of moisture. I hadn't really given it a thought, but I plan to change it out this weekend. The guts of the fan are only about 45 days old. I'll check the pipe and destination.

Heaven forbid. I know guys that have fallen. So far, in seventeen years, I've been blessed. I'm an ADD multi-tasking fool, but I never multi-task on a roof or ladder. When I'm actually walking on the roof, I'm doing so VERY carefully, and I'm doing nothing else. If I experience the slightest bit of anxiety due to the setup, I don't mount the roof and accept a look-see from the ladder. It's rarely the height - I've worked on scaffolds many stories tall and do a bit of flying as well. When it comes to actually mounting a roof, sometimes the risk isn't worth the reward. It's day at a time decision.

Nice indeed. A similar product was touched upon within the last few weeks, if it's helpful.

They sure do have a tight beam, Mike. The 1,000,000 CP's are a shotgun approach and has it's advantages. It took me a while to get used to the LED HP's confined beam but eventually I was glad to get rid of the weight and short battery life of the 1,000,000 CP. I carry but one light now for everything, the LED Hi Power and it's great. During inspections, I carry it on a screwdriver slot on my tool pouch. Otherwise, it sits on it's charger on a tool caddy in the back seat, permanently plugged into the cig lighter. It charges whenever the engine is running, won't overcharge and the battery hasn't run down for the first time yet since I bought it several months ago. 2 hr battery life on hi beam, 7 hrs on low beam. Sometimes I have to use low beam in the house or it'll blind me. Marc I just picked up a StreamLight Strion LED light at Batteries Plus. That things rediculous.[:-thumbu]

Not one word of what you typed matters in lawsuits like this one.The case will certainly be educational to follow. I sure hope that, in the end, whatever seems realistic and fair is what happens. It would be nice if fact gets separated from fiction and it doesn't become a matter of the best BSer wins.BS has nothing to do with it; if you have enough money to keep paying a lawyer, you can usually grind the other side down even if you aren't right. When's the last time you heard about a poor person suing someone for mold exposure? Go to the poor part of town and start going through apartment buildings and you'll find building after building with mold growing and people completely oblivious to it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Oh, I whole-heartedly agree. I started to say something smart, like "The rich get richer.", because you're absolutely right. It's sickening. You want to think that the court system is where justice is found, but it often isn't, which isn't very consoling.