mgbinspect

Watch out, Brian! []

This guy's house was so impeccable it needs a place in the Bachelor's Hall of Fame. [^]

Old Richmond row houses have them quite often. They help avoid the loss of floor space to duct chases. The supply ducts are of 3" +/- If you're sitting or standing under one of the outlets (there are no "register grates" only flanges) it get's pretty darn chilly fast.

Hmm... That's a good question! I can't imagine there's a switch on the garage outlet. Yeah, I was tempted to simply document the condition in the body of the report and not put it in the summary as something needing to be addressed. The house was about 7 years old and immaculate. Thanks for the input, Paul. BTW, I've started running (along with the mountain biking and kayaking). I'm toying with the idea of doing some city 5 K + runs. We'll see... My knees may nix the project. [:-bigeyes

Just wondering how the majority handle this one? There are a couple of nice flood lights in the front yard fed by the proper cable for burial. The wire is in conduit everywhere it's supposed to be. The conduit runs up and along the interior of the garage wall to the outlet (on GFCI) The wire is then connected and properly clamped to a heavy duty 3-prong plug and plugged into the garage outlet. Where do you guys go with this one? I always call for it to be hardwired, but am I being a tad bit picky in this case? I suppose what I wrestle with in an instance like this is: Is this merely a "code" issue or is there a real danger here?

Yup, I don't kill 'em either. I've shared two crawlspaces with snakes. We just had an understanding. STay where you are and you'll live. They did and they did.

Generally, speaking, if their head isn't diamond shaped, they aren't poisonous. We had some water snakes here that were real lookalikes for copperheads and quite aggressive. They had me rattled for a bit. (no pun intended.) [:-angel]

Cute little feller. I remember years ago coming home from the store to find two 5 - 6 foot blacks snakes basking in the sun in our driveway. We lived in a 100+ year old solid stone masonry Quaker farm house and our driveway alone was about .75 miles long. We were renters on a farm with some serious acreage. Our closest neighbor was about a mile away as the crow flies. Closest sleepy little town was about 14 miles away. When I got out of the car and dispersed the snakes, they abruptly climbed a huge spreading tree in our yard, dropped onto our shed style standing seam tin roof of the kitchen addition and disappeared into the stonework of our home... Well, that was comforting... [:-weepn] [:-scared] But, the interior walls were plaster over the stone in good condition and we never saw the snakes ever again. [:-thumbu] [:-yawn] [:-sleep] Come to think of it, we never saw a mouse [:-mouse] the entire time we lived there either. No wonder our "mouser" cats became so lean when we moved there from a 100 + year old log cabin with a cement stucco exterior. [:-kitty] They had some stealthy and formidable competition. [:-idea]

Sick 'em, Mike! [:-gnasher (Mike's previous life... A junkyard dog. Grrr...)

Well, don't get me started on lawyers.. [:-taped][:-dev3] I'm all for tying their tails together and hanging them over the clothes line.

Really? I thought you must be certified to handle refrigerant? I did not realize that graduation from a trade school is not required. That's sobering. Well, then anyone that was in the HVAC trade or owned their own company and is intimately familiar with HVAC systems and considers them self to be a seasoned expert and technician. How's that. [:-magnify

Not a Shakespeare fan, eh? (Me either) Borrring... However, what Polonius said is probably one of the most challenging and beneficial persuits of our lives and careers. The entire world is the beneficiary. "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as night the day, Thou canst not be false to any man." - Polonius (Hamlet) Letting your conscience be your guide ain't as easy as it sounds and can be humbling and costly at times... [:-magnify accepting that we must "trust, but verify" is a drag. As far as these ideals go on HI boards, TIJ proves to be king of the hill. Hey, just for future reference, are there any licensed/certified HVAC Techs (past or present) that are members and regular contributors to TIJ?

Sheesh! That's down right scary.

Not to mention it's kinda comical that a "specialist" is trying to blame a "generalist" for what his fellow "specialist" did. They're the ones that earned the title "technician". It's silly.

Well, just to be clear on my question, sometimes I'll see that the old line set diameters are significantly smaller that the lines on the new equipment and they've just crimped and soldered them. Is that OK?

While we're on the subject, Terrance, you seem to know your stuff. I do get a little nervous when I see that the refrigerant lines weren't changed out and don't equal the diameters of the new coils lines. (Typically they'll be smaller.) I always write that up as needing a look-see by a specialist. What do you think about that?

Well said, Brian! Speaking of miss-matches, the equipment gets better and the installations get worse cancelling all the manufacturer's good efforts and the poor consumer's alleged benefits. HVAC contractors have a huge gap to close, themselves! They're not high on my list these days simply because their shortcomings spell flat out laziness and carelessness. And, you know that the installations on their own homes are perfection. In example: Yesterday's new construction home inspection revealed the HVAC system had: - Holes at the corners of the metal ductwork junctions as round as a dimes! - Gaps around the suction line where it entered the evap coil big enough to plunge your pinky finger into. - Gaps where the blower and evap coil cabinets joined big enough you could see right into the unit and the same where the ducts joined the unit. If a surgeon sewed his patient up like that they'd bleed to death. A boat built like that would sink to the bottom in seconds. It's just downright shameful and inexcusable! I mean WHY BOTHER to show up for work? In fact, please do EVERYONE a favor and DON'T show up for work!

I agree with Chad, Captian and Terrance. I've specifically asked HVAC guys why I sometimes see mismatched coils on coolings systems and they've explained that it was deliberate and calculated. However, they have explained that it should always be (I believe) it was the evap coil that should be larger. (Don't quote me on that part because I honestly don't remember and hope someone will chime int and nail that part down.) For a small period of time I used to actually report mismatched coils until I realized this is beyond our expertise and more than likely the HVAC guy knew what he was doing. (Even though they can't seem to assemble systems airtight worth a hoot.) [:-magnify

You may have something there, Chad! []

Me thinks there's some inside jousting going on?...

Oh, Robc, your question... Typically, it's best to have these joints on the jamb of an opening. That's an area that is most likely to give. That's what they taught in EIFS inspection training anyway.

Yup, and a fire hot enough to melt steel would have melted all of the insulation off the wiring and would have affected all of the buss metal, not just the ends like that. The buss tines would have probably held their shape and merely drooped. And, come to think of it, if it's what Kurt suggests, I sure hope the poor fella survived...

I was wondering. Never seen a 3-coat stucco installation like that. In fact, expantion joints in 3-coat stucco are typically formed by a special pre-formed galvanized metal "W"" shaped strip (it expands and contracts like an acordian) that uniformely creates that break through all coats and the lath.

That's what I was driving at. It it was on all lugs suggesting a "track", lighting just might be the source. A flash fire could not get hot enough fast enough to melt metal in that fashion. Either lightning or some form os shorting like Kurt has suggested. Those are my guesses.

Lightning maybe? What does the rest of the panely look like?