Mark P

I find those crickets around here too, especially in damp / dark areas. If the crawl is bone dry - no crickets.

I'll admit I had to look "arris" up, maybe I'm not the only one so here ya go" "ARRIS: The angle, corner, or edge produced by the meeting of two surfaces; the edge of external angle. A natural or applied line on the stone from which all the leveling and plumbing is measured." (http://www.selectstone.com/glossary.htm)

Yes, there should be some brand of cement board. I can't tell from the pic what the subflooring is, but if it is particle board like you say, the tiles may not stay attached very long.

Dom a follow up question. My home page is made up of 3 documents: header, footer, index. I just edit them in notepad using html, upload them and I guess they are joined together as one source page...? One of the h1 tags is in the header doc Accredited Home Inspection Specialist, Inc. and the other is in the index doc Providing Home Inspections and Radon Testing to Belleville, O'Fallon, Collinsville, Edwardsville and surrounding Metro East Communities Should I still remove the first h1 tag ( Accredited Home Inspection Specialist, Inc.) since when I view the source online all my pages have 2 h1. If so should I replace (h1) with something different so it does not loose the formating? Lastely can you take another look at my key words. I'm not sure about comma (,) placement between city names, and if I have to much, or is there such a thing as to much? Thanks Agian.

Thank You - Thank You - and and as my Japanese wife says Thank you Berry Berry much![^]

Is this them? http://www.ada.gov/smbusgd.pdf

Thanks as always Kurt. Good points / questions. Sounds like one has to do an interview with the new owners to determine their requirements / plans for the property. The only thing I know about restaurant equipment is how to wash it. Back in high school I worked as a dishwasher in a number of restaurants. But since the place has not been converted yet, that should not be a concern. Do you have a learning reference for future use? Do you check for ADA compliance? I saw someone over on the ASHI board disclaims that section and does not include it. Coming up with a revised report format for commercial inspections off the cuff will keep me busy over the weekend. Which leads me to ask: for you others that do commercial inspections what report format do you use? I see in ASTM 2018-01 they have a recommended outline. Do you use this and just write it in MS word? Did you buy a program?... I'm headed down to look at the building now.

A couple times a year I get a call to do a commercial inspection. To this point I have declined. Today I get a call to inspect a building that was a carpet store and will be turned into a restaurant. There is a small apartment in the back. I told them that on commercial jobs I like to take a first hand look at the building before I give a price quote. I’ll go tomorrow. Now this will be my 1st commercial inspection, I’m in my 3rd year of home inspections, with around 600 under my belt. I have read through the old post here on TIJ and what I have gartered as general guidelines for commercial inspections are: #1 get / read and use as a general guideline ASTM E-2018-01 #2 Sub out electrical and HVAC #3 Charge by the hour # Pay special attention to the roof Now looking at the pic on the MLS it looks like an old house turned into business. So I don’t know if electrical and HVAC will be a problem? Are the following items normally included for light commercial inspections: #1 Handicap access, parking, etc. If so where do I find the standards? Are they included in ASTM E2018? #2: OSHA #3 would you recommend a Level II Environmental Site evaluation on this property? Also since there is an apartment for rent attached to the building I was thinking to make it 2 separate inspections 1) commercial 2) home…? Any suggestions / advice will be greatly appreciated Image Insert: 11.82 KB

If you e-mail the company they will send you some samples and literature.

There is probably another electrical box in the house... did you see one?

I'll jump in here and say you can't be on the fence when it comes to these issues. With FPE I use to "recommend further evaluation by a qualified electrician", but after one-on-one questioning with several electricians, it turns out many of those I have spoken with have no clue about the history of FPE Stab-Lok panels. Next time you run into a sparky at a job site ask him his opinion of "FPE Stab-Lok". Also Walter, Kurt and others have taught me to not soften up issues that may come back and bite us. We are all guilty of it at some point, and it is what they teach us in the HI schools, but it is not fair to our customers and it will get you in trouble. Remember you are giving your opinion and if someone else disagrees well that is their opinion, but in this case there is a lot of data to back up the opinion that FPE Stab-Lok panels should be replaced. I now put the following in my reports. "Major Concern / Safety Issue: The main electrical panel was manufactured by Federal Pacific Electric "Stab-Lok" the breakers are considered a latent safety hazard by many professionals because they can fail to trip in response to over-current, leading to electrical fires. I strongly recommend a qualified electrician replace this panel. There is an abundance of information on “FPE Stab-Lokâ€

Hi Dom, If you get time would you please take a look at it www.ahis1.com and provide any feed back. I’ve made most of the optimizations tips you have articles on over at http://www.homeinspectorpro.com/ - I think? Except for “Insert free content the harder way (more effective)â€

Could be low refrigerant, could be a severely clogged filter, could be something else. No need to speculate in the written report cuz you don’t know for sure. What you do know is it needs to be evaluated and serviced by a qualified contractor. I usually tell them verbally it could be x, y, or z, and the technician will determine what is going on. In the written report I just say the line is icing up which is an indication that the unit needs serviced….blah blah blah

hehehe[:-slaphap

I have my brochures in most of the local real estates offices. I go by every 3-4 months to check on them: move them in front of my competitions, replace them, etc. I have found them to be a worth while marketing tool. I also have a website and biz cards. That is all the advertising I pay for. Word of mouth by providing quality inspections and reports is free – yet priceless. Around here many of the realtors hand out 2-3 brochures to their clients to pick from. Some realtors hand them a list of names, other just say let me call so-n-so. Anyway your brochure needs to catch the eye, so they will pick it up – get rid of the ugly neutral background. My background is a bright blue. Just like when you go to the store to by something your eyes is drawn to the packaging – then you pick it up and look at the details. I believe people want to hire people. So I try and make my adds personal. I write in first person, have my picture on my brochures, cards, so people know who they are hiring. I want them to know they are hiring me, Mark A. Perry, a friendly guy they can trust and speak freely too, not some company. Don’t be too serious. I’m in my 3rd year now and in my experience people say “get Mark Perry for your inspectionâ€

Oh yeah that is what I meant. thanks Tandem, tandem tandem - okay I think I've got it - tandem, tandem, tandem Thanks also Kurt and Bain.

I'm not sure if "Dual breaker" is the correct term, but it is a breaker with 2 individual single pole breakers in one So a few years back someone bought this house 5500 sqft house and needed to upgrade the electrical service. The panel that was installed is not big enough for all the circuits so a number of these "dual breakers" were installed and even some of them are doubled taped. I understand that a larger panel should have been installed and the sparky wanted to save a few bucks by putting in this box and using dual breakers and double taps to make it all fit. I guess my question is are the dual breakers Kosher?

Is it venting vertically or horizontally? We don’t have oil furnaces in my neck of the woods, but I’ll give this a shot. If it is venting horizontally it is supposed to be a high efficiency (92%+) furnace and one pipe brings in combustion air and the other is the exhaust vent. If it is truly efflorescence it is caused from water coming through the wall leaving the mineral deposits behind, which is the definition of efflorescence. So the real question is where is the water coming from? Now if it is venting vertically and the white deposits are on the exhaust pipe itself it is not efflorescence at all. One of the byproducts of combustion is water vapor, if the water vapor is not making it outside and runs back down the exhaust pipe, it leaves a white residue when it dries. This is a sign of a problem with the furnace exhaust because not only is the condensate corrosive and will damage the equipment, but the other exhaust byproducts are not making it outside too.

I’m sure someone is going to blow me out of the water for saying this, but I would not make an issue of it. You have an equal amount of force being exerted on both sides. If there are no other symptoms (bowing, cracked joist, sagging, etc) I would not even mention it. If there are some problems that could be attributed to the roof framing I would mention it. I do find it odd that the rafters change for 2x10 to 2x12 and the 4th and 5th from the front of the picture look like they may have been sistered or doubled up, I am interested why that is and seeing more pictures. Was this an add on garage?

I frequently use some variation of the following. “Safety Issue: The door between the garage and the house is not a fire rated door and should be replaced with an approved door that is a solid wood door not less than 13/8 inches in thickness, solid or honeycomb core steel doors not less than 13/8 inches thick, or 20-minute fire-rated doors. Also standards require the garage to be separated from the residence and its attic area by not less than 1/2-inch gypsum board applied to the garage side with all the seams taped and mudded. This is to slow down any fire starting in the garage and also to prevent gases/exhaust/smoke from entering the living area. The wall that separates the garage and the house needs to have the seams taped and mudded.â€

Yes, I agree that would be interesting.

Well seriously I would not worry much about it whatever it is. I would just tell them “I don’t know what it is, but I know it is not a problem, if you’re really interested you can try asking the current ownersâ€

It is to rest your foot on while washing the mud from you shoes, or tying up the dog while you wash him

Looks like something from the old TV show My Favorite Martian.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 is a great camera - I bought it at best buy along with a 3 warranty that will cover any damage except complete water submersion. I sure hope I don’t drop it off a roof when it is 2 ½ years old. As far as the arrow goes that is added after the picture is added to the report. My report is written in MS Word so I just use the arrow on the drawing toolbar.