mgbinspect

BINGO!!!!... [:-party]

When you first posted this, I just glanced at it and thought it was most likely a disconnect for a piece of equipment. Why in the world would anyone put a main disconnect there? Never seen such a thing in my whole career. Odd.

That does indeed look a bit worrisome...

Ours at the airport aircracft maintenance hanger hasn't worked right for about nine months. It's supposed to default to locked in a couple minutes but it's unlocked most of the time. It's neat when it's working, though. Thankfully, one still has to get through an electronically locked gate to get to that door.

I can see that. The slugs I found in the shingles were completely lodged to the rear in the roofing and seathing. I had to dg them out with my Gerber. When I lived in an 100 year old log cabin, as a tenant, on a farm out in the sticks of Loudoun County, Virginia, I used to watch pheasant hunters out in the fields around our home and hear the bird-shot, from missed shots pelt our standing seam tin roof. Happened every season.

I'll second that thank you. Just saved it to my file "HI Reference Room" on my laptop.

Ahh.. memories... I had three .22 bullets enter my home, by a drive-by shooter, aiming at the home behind me where the boy apparently owed his drug supplier a bundle. One passed through the rear hardboard siding, the upper hall bathroom drywall and would have made a paraplegic of one of my kids had they been sitting on the can. It continued on through the closed lauan bathroom door and lodged itself in the corner-bead of the half-high wall of the upper stairway. The other two passed completely through the asphalt shingles, roof sheathing, eaves and drywall of my daughter's bedroom over the garage, to lodge in the drywall on the other side of the room. And, we lived in an upscale community of 3000 homes with 32 miles of bike trails and a 1700 acre lake. Who'd have ever thought? I've also found two stray bullet slugs lodged into roofing on inspections while walking roofs in the downtown area. The freaky thing about that is they weren't level shots. They had clearly come down out of the sky - a missed shot - to bury them self in the shingles. Imagine what that would do to the ole' head bone...

"Originally posted by Jim Baird The trick was not to do but to "not do". Completely mental." Indeed, ya just gotta get up one day and not have a first and then get excited about every minute, hour, day, and month you've triumphed. It quickly becomes an accomplishment you don't want to erase through a weak moment.

Yup a staple here. And the ground wire will be slightly undersized by todays standards.

Yeah, and about half the time when I'm around it, I still kinda want one. I just know better - It's always a tailspin right back into the habit.

I don't really experience any sort of bad feelings towards smokers at all. I'm a big restaurant fan, being single, and up until several weeks ago, cigarettesand restuaraunts were synonimous. But, I DO worry about my #1 son, who smokes newports like a chimney and has a cough. If something happens to him before me, I'll be absolutely crushed. I am afraid for him, no doubt...

I know for each person, it is different. some folks have spoken of severe addiction. For me, it was purely a physical habit - the sensation and the motion - so much so, that I'd find myself flicking pens as if I was flicking off an ash. Quiting for me was always a reprogramming event that began by getting up one day with the resolution to not have another. It usually took an event such as burning a hole in the seat of my brand new car, or lighting a cigarette and instantly realizing that one was already lit and resting in an ash tray on the other side of the room smoldering away. Such moments would make me ask myself, "Who's in control, here?" Then the war would begin. As each day without one went under the bridge, I had a larger achievement that I did not wish to erase by breaking down. It was always months or years later that I would have one again. I suppose the most curious thing is that a great deal of the habit is fueled by a sub-conscious peer pressure - an internal right of passage - toward such images as maturity, camaraderie, deep thinking, all of which, in reality, a mature mind could quickly dismiss as utterly ridiculous - as ridiculous as putting a gun to your head...

Well, Inspecting in the hometown of Phillip Morris, who has actually spun off ownership of cigarette manufacturing to underling companies, I'm reminded of the old joke: where does a 200 lb canary perch? - wherever it wants... It's a funny habit - Never was an addiction to me. I quit cold turkey many times for weeks, months and sometimes years! I finally kicked it for good in 1989. It's a killer, and the older we get, the more certain its lethalness becomes, that's for sure... I believe Mark Twain said it best, "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know, because I've done it thousands of times."

Gee Phillip, It's becoming clear to me that going to another part of the country to inspect homes for a bit may qualify as a vacation for you?

It sure brightens up the attic, too, making inspecting a bit easier. Everything is no nicely contrasted. [:-thumbu]

I believe "Insul-Safe" is one of the 'white stuff', brands and I saw one yesterday that said InsulPro on the certificate. The latter I'm not so certain of, since it was merely a glance and the first time seeing it, but "InsulSafe" is very common around here. And, as stated, it resembles cotton, but is indeed fiberglass.

Bubba's partner in crime. Clearly a Bible Belt partially endearing term for your typical local flunky handi-man with the Midas touch in reverse... [^] In this case, they're the "Good ole' boys" the builder sent to "fix" the floor a couple times with a hammer and a bag of nails, to which Chef, of Southpark fame might have said, "Damn, boy! What the HELL were you thinkin'?" [:-dunce]

If proper room was left at the perimeter for expansion / contraction and the material wasn't fastened to the floor, I can't imagine that being as crucial as it would be with normal T & G wood flooring. Just my guess, but isn't that supposed to be one of the advantages to a floating floor system?

This is the norm here in new construction, which absolutely drives me nuts. I can never get that haunting question out of my head: Where is all the water ending up?..

Well, it's a no brainer that water is getting behind the porch slab. And, once that has occurred, then the whole question of where it's going and how it gets out arises. That's where I go crazy. I don't like to know water is getting behind or under anything, period. The whole idea of drainage planes is an emergency backup system for the "just in case". I honestly have no idea where this water goes, but we all see rotted bandboards and joist ends behind porches like this every day. There's just got to be a better way to do this. As far as clearance between the siding and slab goes, if there was a desirable clearance, I don't see how that remedies or prevents anything without some form of flashing that directs water coming from behind the siding onto the slab while denying water on the slab an avenue behind the slab. I've never understood why this design flaw hasn't been eliminated.

Yeah, I know what you mean about water damage and wood flooring. Every time I ever did a water damage job with pine flooring the buckling was so severe that the first order of the day was to saw out all the buckles in the flooring so folks could at least get around, while things dried out. Then, of course, pine flooring could never be saved. It all had to be ripped out. The buckling was always amazing - four to six inches and everywhere... The funny thing with this floor above is that every time the builder sent skeeta out he nailed some more, which jsut made matters worse.

Yet, still the bigger question remains. Where is water going? What forms of ongoing water damage are possibly occurring? If we aren't going to use sealant, what's missing to prevent moisture intrusion? I always hate seeing these Achilles heels in the exterior. They drive me nuts. What needs to change in the design to completely eliminate the vulnerablility? This is where it begins to become a more difficult question than seems initially apparent. That's why I teed this situation up. I see it as a disign flaw altogether and always have... Is there a silver bullet out there?

Here are three photographs of gaps in the exterior finish of a relatively new home. It's one of those conditions that causes me to have rather convincing arguments, even with myself, regarding whether to recommend sealant or not. The argument can be made: "No don't seal this gap so water can come out from behind the vinyl siding." Yet, how can this occur without any flashing turned out from behind the siding onto the porch surface? A similar argument can be made: "Since concrete is porous and prone to stay pretty damp for long periods of time, sealant will hinder evaporation from the slab." - a reasonable thought. My bigger concern tends to be: "Where does torrential and wind-driven rain go once it enters this gap? What's becoming and staying wet that wasn't intended to?" There may, in fact, be other concerns that I have not raised, which you are welcome to add. I usually feel more comfortable making certain that paths of moisture intrusion, when no known drainage path is present, are sealed. I, therefore, tend to recommend that these gaps be sealed. (especially the gap in the door threshold). So, what do you think? What concerns drive you to lean one way or the other regarding gaps, such as the ones in the photos? I for one look forward to some valuable insights that may persuade me one way or the other instead of being quite as torn as I have always been. Let the discussion begin... Click to Enlarge 47.84 KB Click to Enlarge 49.46 KB Click to Enlarge 27.71 KB

I actually restored a grow house for an insurance company in 1991, after a big bust. They had used black plastic over every window, from the inside, so no one could see in and ran garden hose through the crawl space and up into the different rooms through the floor. No one actually lived in the home during the operation. It was pretty much a ranch style home turned into a greenhouse with grow lights on 24/7 (another reason for the black plastic on the windows). I always wondered how an entire rural neighborhood never noticed or questioned anything. The house, however, actually fared surprisingly well - better than one might expect. We had to replace all the carpet and pad, a lot of drywall and some sub-floor, but when we were done, I'd have bought it without hesitation. This was, of course, before mold was quite the subject it is today (19 years ago), but I honestly don't recall seeing any intimidating fungal growth, which was still always a concern for insurance companies, since it triggers the statement, "ongoing for days, weeks or months.." (Their favorite coverage exclusion clause) I believe the bust happened pretty pretty close to harvest time. Fond memory

BTW, Tom, the joists, sub-floor, header joist and sill plate behind the front brick veneer and under that wicked buckle all look perfecto. No visible or apparent moisture - not even efflorescence on the blockwork... Say, I have never realized that it was common to glue tongue and groove flooring like this. Kinda defeats the whole purpose of tongue and groove doesn't it? Shows how much I know technically about the system. For the most part, it usually falls into the cosmetic department until somthing like this rises its ugly head...