mgbinspect

Any thougths on recommending going back with PVC? I believe it's the route I'd go. I don't suppose you have to worry about noise like you would if it was a busy plumbing stack. What's your experience, sir?

Thanks Kurt, unfortunately, this is a really weird building - not Solid masonry and steel bar joists, but a modular building from the 70's with brick veneered wood frame walls and wood joists/rafters (flat) with plywood sheathing. Never seen a commercial building built like this one. The roof slopes up about two feet on a 45 to meet the aluminum cap flashed parapets. The whole systems been leaking badly so there will be sheathing replacement, which I'll plug in @ $125 a sheet. There are three scuppers on the roof that drain through a clearly failing cast iron pipe - bad news. So the roof drainage system really needs to be replaced as well. I'm tempted to suggest PVC, my only hesitation is sound dampening. Any thoughts? The drainage system is really strange. It goes down into the crawlspace, which is a good four feet below grade and drains out of a concrete scupper near the parking lot that is actually above grade - no pump in sight, so you have to figure that the weight of water alone pushed it back up and out and the pipe in the crawl space must always have water in it. Very odd. There are also six packaged heat pumps up there. So, it ain't gonna be easy.

Writing a commercial inspection on a small one story office building - 5000 SF. It needs a roof. I need a reasonable and generous price range for a modified bitumen roof tear off, which will most likely be replaced with a more to date modified rubber roofing product. Not sure what they'll choose, but it would be nice to be in the ballpark with a square foot price. anyone got some recent numbers?

Isn't that the truth... That stuff doesn't even really rate as mortar to a mason. It's like trying to lay brick with miniature concrete. The aggregate is to large and inconsistent - not fun or pretty. Another option similar to Kurt's for the person that wants to avoid mortar matching is Riverton C-81 type N, which has been around as a regular stock mortar at most masonry supply companies for probably thirty years. It's a straw color (a bit too yellow) and when cut with some extra lime or sand buffs out nicely to match, but you have to monkey around with it to get it right.

And, unfortunately, unless you go to the trouble of having the mortar custom made to match, the repair will stick out like a sore thumb forever. Get a coffee can of the sand you intend to use along with a piece of the existing mortar you wish to match. Hand deliver or overnight them to the lab department of a mortar manufacturer. Martin Marietta in Front Royal, Virginia (formerly Riverton Corporation) provides that service and they're great to work with. I'm sure others do as well. They will send you bags of mortar custom mixed, so be sure to order too much, because you definitely don't want to run short. It's best to do this right, which requires considerably more lead time, or not at all. The custom mortar will only be a few bucks more per bag, but the extra time involved in gathering materials, sending them off and waiting for delivery adds considerable time and expense, which need to be taken into account.

Most of the buildings you'll find this condition on pre-date the use of flashings and weep holes over the lintels. It may be helpful to drill a couple of weeps into head joints at the level of the steel, hoping that they may offer some increased drainage (I would). The absolute LAST thing to do is apply sealant between the brick and the steel lintels. The steel is rusting and expanding due to moisture in and possibly behind the masonry. If you apply sealant, it will trap moisture and dramatically accelerate the process. Remove, as best you can, any sealant that is already impeding drainage. Then start studying the wall and roof surfaces above to discover and eliminate any possible paths of moisture intrusion.

This is a perpetual symbiotic relationship complete with doses of education, humor, entertainment and humble pie for dessert...

Make the most of your visits. One never knows what a day holds here. Enjoy...

The thread that keeps on giving....

Greetings earthling!

A musty smell in an attic is a pretty sure sign that ventilation isn't happening as it should. If I understand your post, the baffles that were installed may not successfully overcome soffit vents blocked by fiberglass batt insulation. When I see insulation installed like this, I always call for it to be pulled back to insulate the interior wall and ceiling surfaces only. Not only can insulated soffits cause humidity problems, but it's a player in ice damming as well. The first three things to do: 1. get the insulation completely out of the soffits. 2. make certain that your attic access door, scuttle or folding stairs are well sealed when shut, to prevent heat and humidity from the interior to find its way to the attic, where it will condensate on the slopes that see the least sun. 3. make certain that you actually have functional ridge vents. More than once I've found tar paper under the ridge vent, which a quick glance will easily pass off as the typical black fiber (filter) that should be there. For this reason, it has become automatic for me to scrutinize the underside of ridge vents. Hope that helps.

When I see this, I do always look around to make certain it isn't the result of a poorly ventilated and excessivley hot attic.

Good thinking. One doesn't want to be mistaken for a plumber. [:-graduat

And that's why I went to monogrammed sweatshirts and polos. I can't deal with constantly tucking in either - drives me nuts. [:-thumbu]

Exactly, I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the veteran inspectors here ARE the standard, and could show up in shorts, a polo shirt and hiking sandals, WHICH I HAVE DONE on a 98 degree day - no questions asked. When I think of the associates in my life I consider to be true professionals, the last thing I think about is how they look. It's what they do that has earned them that perception. Once you have a following and a reputation, the only thing left is to keep your edge - don't become complacent. Deliver the goods. But, for me, I like the jeans and sweatshirt, because Richmond is a town of crawlspaces. Probably 90% of the homes here are on them. And, some of them are unbelievably tight - so tight that I must, in some areas, exhale as hard as I can to get through a space and hope I can exhale hard enough to get back out. The old row houses can be pretty close to the earth.

Sometimes, I take my shoes off if the carpet is white - not to impress, but to avoid an irate seller. That's as far as I go. Other than that, I just show up and go to work. In fact, when I used to show up in khakis and a button up shirt, sometimes folks would worry that I wasn't willing to get dirty. Now, it's carpenter jeans and a monogrammed sweatshirt.

That's weird, I see them on about 90% of the homes I do and there's rarely any issue with them burning black like that. When there is, it's usually something that the installer or client did to impinge the flame. The worst ones were those where they were burning propane and they were maladjusted. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike I was thinking earlier when this first posted, I've only seen those vents used on fireplaces venting directly out the rear of the unit through the wall. I've never seen one teamed up with that length of vertical flue. I was wondering if it's a bad marriage and actually not a setup approved by the fireplace manufacturer.

That's probably a pretty good bet. [^]

Wow, You're one old SOB. What's your secret? Do you change into a liechenthrope at night and feast on human flesh? OT - OF!!! M. A misplaced coma, no doubt. You know what I'm saying. House built circa 1880 me delivered circa 1951. Lol.. but, I am hell bent on living to a minimum of 120! Why not? I'm almost half way there with no aches or pains to date - none!... (knock on wood)... Kinda scary, huh?

No doubt about that. I lived in a solid stone masonry Quaker Farm home circa 1880. It took an Ashley wood stove, a Copperclad Cook stove, and two kerosene heaters to keep that place comfortable. 7 - 8 cords of wood a years. The firebox for the cook stove was about the size of a shoe box, so you had to split the wood down pretty small - super high maintenance. I finally converted it to coal. That was anice property, though. THe driveway was almost one mile long and on a clear night, the Milky Way was a stripe that went from horizon to horizon. Miss those days sometimes

(I was trying to imagine the ramifications of a damper on an old boiler with poorly sealed access doors.) I know yours doesn't quite fall in that category, but there must be serious limits regarding which boilers can use those things without CO problems.

It truly is a tough decision. Those old boilers, while less efficient, just never die. I run across old boilers here that are more like Sherman tanks. I especially love the ones with two heavy cast iron doors - one for the firebox that's almost big enough to stick your whole head in there and look around and one to view and clean the heat exchanger.

I'd probably be pretty tempted, as you seem to be as well, with total replacement. I'm no boiler expert either, but there are a ton of them here in Richmond and new replacement boilers I run across seem to be pretty nice, and it's impressive how much smaller the new units are than the units they replace. Sounds like you're already zeroing in on several other benefits in your own mind in replacement.

It has been an interesting and insightful, but wobbly thread in some ways, that probably belonged in the Chat area. It never really centered around green technology or even green living, which, in my mind is really more about conservation than global warming. I personally am thankful that we DON'T talk houses 24/7. I see TIJ as a valuable place to hang out for MORE than simply information and advice. It's equally helpful to relax and have a bit of spirited fun, bantering, discussion, humor, etc both about houses and just life in general with respected peers. It doesn't get much better than that. If you login with rigidly defined expectations, you set yourself up for disappointment. It seems better to simply login with positive anticipation and go with the general flow, gleaning threads for what you need and simply enjoying the comradely. I'll second that. This thread makes me think of a great Rodney Dangerfield line: "I went to the fights last night and a hockey game broke out..."

The thread certainly has proved to be a lightning rod, based upon the number of replies and views.