mgbinspect

I do believe that Caoimhín is from the Emerald Isle. So is my Grandfather - and that means? He likes Guinness! Guinness is way too high on carbs and calories. Pick another. I'm guilty of staying to the light side of all of this. simply because, regardles of what anyone believes, our ability to affect any of what has been discussed here happens where the rubber meets the road....

Getchya Peanuts! Popcorn! Cold drinks! Right here!.. (Actually, I have a brother that has lived down under for 37 years. I thought "mate" is pretty exclussively a down under term...)

"Danger! Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! [:-sonar] [:-propell

Kinda gives new meaning to your icon there, Bill...

(Me too until recently.) did either of you look it up? now I have to do it! Lol.. well no, I just followed Chad's link, but I had noticed a few weeks ago, via my spell-checker that I had been spelling it wrong for too long. However, according to Funk and Wagnals (formerly of Rowan and Martin's Laugh In fame), it is spelled " S U P E R S E D E " No other spelling in the dictionary apparently. And, for the record, I'm not piling up on anyone, especially not Terry. I was beginning to wonder what had happened to him and glad to see someone found his button. [:-monkeyd

(Me too until recently.)

"Danger! Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!" [:-sonar]

Thankfully, I refrained from the infrared equipment and a blower door. Most of the big stuff can be observed without them. It is a shame that in some arenas they're required. It's still nice to help people realize that their habits and lack of attention to details cause them to literally and needlessly throw money up in the air or flush it down the toilet. Why not keep it and apply it to something useful or enjoyable? I've ALWAYS seen the energy assessment as more a financial tuneup than a green effort, and that's always the way I've marketed it - learn about and do what saves you money through reasonable means.

Yup, another link worthy of a parking place in my phone for quick referenece. Thanks!

As I've been listening to this debate get kicked up over the last couple of years in the media, I find myself thinking of the war waged in Gulliver's Travels, y Jonathan Swift, over which end of the egg to crack open. Maybe the the title of the thread would have more appropriately been named the Global Warming fallacy? Again, I'm not, by any means nurotic about green, but it stands to reason that if there are two ways to accomplish a task, the green one will usually be cheaper and/or more beneficial in the end. And even if it isn't, at least it spawns increased deliberation, which is typically good. As one of my favorite and particularly insightful elderly masonry laborers used to say, "I'm here for the reason, not the season." I miss that old fella [:-graduat and all his quips.

Global warming sure is a volatile subject, but right or wrong, it has caused us to become keenly aware of tremendous wastefulness and that's good! I love doing energy audits, because the benefits to my customers are so real. There's nothing quite like delivering a game plan with a client that will systematically reduce their effort and cost to live and help the environment in general do it's thing with less resistance from us. I think if most folks can grasp how wasteful they are and where all that time and money could have gone instead of where it did go, they will care to modify their habits. It's similar to looking back on a smoking habit and realizing that you smoked enough cigs to purchase a Corvette. In my lifetime, the rebound of the Chesapeake Bay and many other rivers and streams is nothing short of remarkable. Richmond, VA, for the first time in decades, did not experience ONE unhealthy air alert. That's surprising progress! I certainly would never classify myself as a tree-hugger, but blatant and careless abuse of the environment is just plain stupid and suicidal. If our personal environment was suddenly reduced to the size of a small glass dome, any one of us would suddenly become keenly aware of protecting it. Bottom Line: Maybe GW is real and maybe it isn't. Should either conclusion encourage us to be more wasteful or care less about the environment we live in? Global warming may be questionable, but wasted effort and money and pollution are all too real.

You know, I have a great little infrared thermometer, that I really need to get in the habit of using more extensively than I do.

I think that sums it all up pretty neatly, and that was my thinking as well. Voids in the insulation really has to be a player... Thanks for finding and responding to this, Tom. Marc - good point.

Tom, I tried hard to find the original thread we had discussed this particular subject and instance on, but was unsuccessful, which is probably just as well since I believe it had become a drift from the original subject. I had the good fortune of stumbling upon this inspection and the photos while addressing a wood boring exit hole in a joist (most likely present before the joist was ever installed in the home), which is holding up a closing. Wheee... Termite guys must be hungry! All that being said, here is a rather unusual observation - not the condensation on the windows, but rather the apparent cause. The condensation was present on only the windows in the front elevation of the home, which had brick veneer. The condensation was limited to the perimeter of each of these front windows. The windows had never been caulked and there were considerable gaps around all of them between the vinyl window frames and the brick. I hypothesized that the gaps were permitting cold air to enter around the windows keeping the glass at the perimeter of each window chilly, which was easily confirmed by a touch of the hand to all surfaces near the perimeter of each window opening. Below are supporting pictures. Photo 38 actually shows a small gap in the interior sealant along the window frame and some minor mildew and discoloration on the painted wood surface. There was actually condensation on the vinyl window frames around the perimeter, which was impossible to demontrate in photography. Of course, this is independant of any discussion regarding the source of the moisture or if it is excessive. Just curious to see if you or others in the brain trust agree or disagree with this theory. Click to Enlarge 33.11 KB Click to Enlarge 38.11 KB Click to Enlarge 35.83 KB Click to Enlarge 22.46 KB Click to Enlarge 47.32 KB Click to Enlarge 30.24 KB

On the bright side, it's creating new jobs - ghost busters, exorsists, etc. Great for the economy... Imagine not being allowed to back out of the contract, because the seller's willing to have the paranormal conditions eliminated. Gives new meaning to a walk-through. The more you think about it the funnier it becomes. Not to mention, unlike us, these guys are practically guaranteed a return trip for the walk-through. And the agreement and E & O? Should be interesting...

NICE! The least they could have done is increase the volume of the pipe as needed. [:-jester] (Jest kidding, of course... ) No doubt there weren't carbon monoxide detectors in the place or they'd have been reporting now and then, I guess?

I'm afraid I can't tell you, because I managed a satellite office and we just shipped such stuff off to the home office in Roanoke, which was about four hours away, to be treated. I actually only went to Roanoke a couple of times, including the day I signed on. I saw the room that first visit - not much of a room, simply a heavy mil clear plastic tent within a larger warehouse, but not how it was produced - no clue. If you know, I'd love to hear what is the norm. I seem to remember an air pump involved similar to the kind found on an air compressor, but that's about all I remember. And, oh yes, it was kind of like a fog when the room was fully pumped up, but I don't know if that was the ozone, or possibly humidity that was added to permit the ozone to do its work. I'm completely ignorant when it comes to the subject other than knowing that it worked. [:-dunce] This was 19 years ago.

Ditto, not an experience you want to repeat. Mine was set up so that I could see the inner pipe of the triple wall while it glowed bright red while vibrating.[:-bigeyes Well, I'm glad I was in my shoes instead of yours, Jim. In my case, it was rather like that vibrating sensation you experience when you're driving down the road and open the right windows to the right amount to get that vibration going in the car, but masonry won't give. In your case, that red weakened metal was being stressed to the max - working overtime. I bet if you could somehow document the stress on the metal experienced by the vibration during that peak demand for oxygen, it would be pretty shocking.

Yup, Kilz is used to seal in the soot (carbon) smell. It is kind of surprising that there is virtually no visible soot or charred material. We actually had an ozone room for treating furs and furniture, etc. It was only done when it was an heirloom or something priceless, because the process is expensive. When stuff from a fire was chocked in that room for a period of time and filled full of ozone for several days, it somehow bonded with the carbon to become something else, which eliminated the soot smell. It worked like a charm.

My pleasure, brother Marc

It was used extensively, I lived in the country then and was planning to build the chimney for a neighbor (rural definition - same town) and when the request came in, I bounced it off of the fellow, who consented. Back then we were all tradesman and farm hands who worked a whole lot less during the winter and were consequently cash-poor each winter. Wood was free and fallen down everywhere for the taking. So, we all cut, split by hand and burned wood 24/7 all winter. His chimney was worked hard. That's why, in his case, the creosote actually would run down the flue and leach out when he burned too much green wood. His wood stove was in the cellar and heated the entire home. I had a friend that was a member of the basketball team that I played on and sponsored, back then. He owned a huge hog farm and had constructed collection tanks for the waste under and near the pens for conversion to methane. The project was in the infancy stages and I'm betting he was getting huge help from the government in the way of incentives. He was also a whiz with a welder and constructed from scratch impressive "papa bear", we called them, wood stoves out of plate steel. He would incorporate tubes through the upper chamber of the stove to add a blower to the stove. They were impressive. My chimney customer was burning one of these "papa bear" stoves.

Thanks, Michael; that's some useful info. Is a dirty metal flue pipe any less dangerous/less a concern than a similarly dirty masonry flue pipe? Not in my opinion. Creoste collection is flammable and once it's ignited it sounds like the space shuttle is lifting off. I've experienced it. I lived in two 100 year old homes with only wood heat. A chimney fire will scare the crap out of you. The flames are so intense and the demand for oxygen so fierce that the chimney will actually shudder from the vacuum. That's the effect that sounds like the Space Shuttle taking off and I guarantee you it will get your full attention. I was sweating bullets. Fortunately, I had a good wood stove with proper gaskets and was able to shut the stove down and starve the flue fire until the fire department could arrive. A 100 year old log cabin would have gone up pretty darn quick. Flues don't catch fire, creosote does and as I said, it's BAD news. Masonry flues don't usually crack from the fire, but rather from the abrupt change in temperature when they are improperly (quickly) extinguished - like plunging hot glass into cold water. However, I suppose that a stone cold masonry chimney with a ton of creosote in it that catches fire, can just as easily crack. As a matter of fact, should you ever see a chimney with an ominous redish orange glow in the smoke coming out of it and sparks spitting up out of the flue, you're witnessing a chimney fire. The glow is because the entire inner surface of the flue is on fire. I actually stopped to tell some folks that their chimney was on fire, and it was. We waited together for the fire department to arrive.

Do ya think there is a problem with these installed in D.C. right now? Probably not. They just have a little area on the side of the house where snow mysteriously doesn't stay around very long. [] But, I bet water just LOVES running down the outside jacket of the electric main entry cable and into the wall. Brilliant!

It wouldn't be prudent to ever suggest that one scenario requires less inspection. I've found damaged or loose connections between sections of metal flues in pre-fab fireplaces. While I can't offer any scientifically based information, my experience over 16 years as an inspector and 15 years as a mason, has been that the triple-walled metal flue pipes tend to stay cleaner longer. I believe this is due to being round, which is the shape smoke tends to swirl up in, even in square and rectangular flues. The triple layers may also offer some insulating quality that permits the flue to stay warmer all the way to the top, which impedes condensation and creosote collection. Masonry flues tend to be over sized, due to the fact that they are square or rectangular, which permits them to cool down faster. That in turn can permit excessive condensation and creosote collection. I've seen flues that were practically blocked by the honeycomb collection of creosote and soot. But, before they get to that point, all the corners will fill first leaving that relatively round path through the length of the flue. In the 80's, at the request of Dr. Brown of University of Texas' Pyrotechnical Department, I constructed a unique masonry chimney to be used with a wood stove (the study was really based somehow around false advertising, don't ask me how this fit in. I had originally called to bounce a theory off someone in the department and, hence by the end of the discussion, I was helping them out.): It was constructed of an 8" thimble and transitioned to 8" round flue sections, which were not easy to come by at the time. In other words, the aim was to keep the volume of the flue the same from the moment smoke left the appliance until it was released to the air. Round, as mentioned above, is the perfect path for smoke. A large cavity was left around the flue which was filled to the top with Perlite (good to 2000 degrees) as an insulator. I was asked to return to and inspect the flue for several years. For as many years as I inspected it, cleaning was never necessary. Every year it was as clean as whistle, which nails down flue cooling and condensation / creosote collection. If anything, it worked a bit too good as some creosote would leach out of joints near the bottom looking a bit like used motor oil stains in the masonry. So, to answer your question, I think the wise response is to say that every flue that is routinely used should be routinely inspected, but masonry flues will tend to experience higher creosote collection and deterioration.

Glad I'm not the only one. I never locked a door from 1980 - 2006 with no consequences the entire time. I usually left a radio on. Hopefully, if anyone ever entered, they had the impression we must not be gone for long. I finally sold my larger home and moved into a tiny home that was to become a rental, but I liked the size and lacation and decided to call it home. Now, I lock - probably still don't need to, but what the heck.