hausdok

In the areas where you guys don't like to see duct board, what do the HVAC guys do about the fiberglass sound deadening inside the plenums attached to the furnace? Around here there is nothing done to seal them away from the interior of the ductwork. They are simply cut and glued into place with the edges exposed. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I must have been that shock you received when you shoved that butter knife into that receptacle. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Why? If anyone wants to read discussions on radon all they have to do is do a search of the forum and they'll find more than they need to about it. If this diverges into a full-blown radon discussion, maybe it would be worth doing. Until then... ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

One of the houses my father bought for back taxes and eventually moved us into when I was growing up was like that. The owner died in her sleep, left no family behind and owed a lot in back taxes. The town sold the house at auction and my father got it for about $6,000 with a half acre of land. When we walked through it, there were narrow pathways through the stuff she'd hoarded and the upstairs bathroom had a couple of 2 by 10's nailed across the door where she'd kept two tiny yap dogs for years. The floor and bottom of the tub was covered with dried dog crap at least 8 inches thick. The old man gutted the house. He backed a dump truck up to the window on one side and then literally shoveled everything into the truck, saving only what he was able to get a few bucks for at the local used furniture shop. Ten days after he'd closed, you could stand on the street and look clean through the open frame. The only thing he left in place was the plumbing, the floor platforms, the framing and the roof with covering. Four and a half months later he moved us into it and got it appraised at $45,000. That was around 1970 - 71. No odor, but it was weird to sit there in what was essentially a new house and realize that just a few months before it had literally been a 2200 sf trash can. This is that house today. Click to Enlarge 30.76 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, That's right. I'm not sure why that's like that in the chart. I've got to go back and do some research. OT - OF!!! M.

Using elastomeric paints over stucco is just plain idiotic; there is no other word to describe it. When stucco systems are specified, it's critical to focus on those details that will keep water out of the system. The system itself is water-resistant and is a drainage system. One of the most important characteristics of stucco is its vapor permeability which allows moisture on the backside of the stucco to dry to the outside of the wall; if you coat stucco with an elastomeric finish and eliminate that characteristic of the system, you've essentially replaced the stucco with a piece of rubber and have turned a water management system that is able to dry to the exterior between rains into a petri dish. Now do you understand why using elastomeric paint (a fancy word for rubber or acrylic finishes that form a stretchable non-permeable membrane over stuff) can only be characterized as idiotic? It's not necessary to paint stucco to keep it water resistant but stucco can be painted with paints that are designed for use with stucco and are vapor permeable. When properly mixed, applied and cured, 3-coat stucco has been proven by the Northwest Wall and Ceiling Bureau - authors of The Stucco Guide - to be vapor permeable but not water permeable. Stucco assemblies are consealed weather-barrier systems. The stucco accommodates moisture intrusion and the water resistant barrier behind the plaster is a drainage plane. Essentially, stucco is a rain screen. NWCB set up a test to find out whether stucco was water resistant and whether a properly applied stucco application functions as a rain screen. Their test used three different stucco formulations on three different panels and they sprayed them each with over 100 gallons per hour for more than two hours. The idea was to create the equivalent of a rainstorm with near-40 mph winds. After two hours they examined the back of the plaster and found no moisture or dampness. Then they sprayed water into the top of an opening in a stucco wall to see whether the wall drained properly. The water drained all the way to the base of the wall and out at the weep screed and did not penetrate the WRB; because, when the stucco cured it caused the WRB to wrinkle and this essentially formed channels on the back of the stucco that allowed the water to drain cleanly to the base of the wall. Now, to answer Marc's initial question he needs to know what kind of "paint" was used, because it might not have been paint at all - it might be a fog coat. Fog coating is a cementitious product used to change the color of stucco. It has to be applied in several light coats; but when done correctly will completely change the color, or even out existing color, and won't harm the system. Real paint on the other hand can damage the system because it doesn't bond to the stucco like fog coating and remain permeable - it forms a film over the surface. You can't simply strip it off with chemicals because doing so can damage the stucco. Probably the only way to get it off in order to fog coat it properly would be by blasting the wall with buckwheat hulls or something else that won't damage the stucco - not an easy process. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I don't think there is a prohibition against it as long as the connections are made with the proper type of splice connector and are fully wrapped. If I get some time later, I'll double-check it in DH's book. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That won't provide you any valuable information. There is no question that the majority of posts are made by those listed on that first page. The software is set up to display names in order that way. What you don't see that I see is that there are typically six or seven folks lurking who aren't members or aren't signed in for every signed in member. Between 4 and 10 new persons sign onto TIJ as members every day. Once they get access to the content in the archives that being a member allows, they are constantly back here reading content. They dig up older posts, post a comment or question and then the discussions sometimes gear up again. The point is that TIJ is fulfilling its mission as a good source for credible technical information and as a place where all inspectors can interact with one another without the constant inspection-irrelevant posts about politics, religion, inter-organizational chest thumping and megalomaniacal braggarts boasting about plans to dominate the entire profession. TIJ is not me, Mike B. or Rose; it's you guys, the members. It always has been and it always will be. It is what you all have put into it over the last 8 years and it is nothing without your belief in and support of the original concept. As long as you all continue to keep this place one of the the most civil, technically relevant and helpful places in the home inspection community, I think we'll be here for years to come. Thanks everyone for making this place what it is. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jim, Sounds like a plan. I can't think of a better one; unless you're thinking of blowing her sky high, I which case I'm your man. A little Det cord, a little bit of TNT, a few sacks of flower and we can implode her like a vacuum cleaner bag. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Just did a search to see how many separate individual threads had activity of some sort over the past 60 days. Unless I miscounted it was 374 separate threads - not bad for a place that, according to some folks is only visited by a half dozen people at most. [:-party] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmm, Well, it's been nearly two months and nary a peep out of Mr. Ferry. I suppose this is some kind of legal tactic - if you ignore it it will go away - or something like that. Mr. Rogers wants to know if Mr. Ferry knows how to spell welcher. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

CWM is crystalline waterproofing material. It's a catalyst. You apply it to wet concrete with a masonry brush and it reacts with the concrete to form water-blocking crystals in the first 3 to 4 inches of concrete from the surface. Xypex is just one brand. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It'll take about an hour for the water to come up to temp. Other than that, no. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

1. Remove the crown. 2. Stip the paint off down to the bare concrete. 3. Repair the joints, soak it down and apply a layer of CWM (Xypex) to it. 4. install counter flashings and then apply a layer of parging to the exterior. 5. Construct a reinforced crown with built-in drip edge and expansion joint on top. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

My wife used to nag me about wanting a BMW -it being her dream car and all. I told her that they are too damned expensive; but, not to worry, I planned to have a double-bed coffin made in the shape of a BMW and see to it that when we die we are each interred in the same box, side-by-side. I was magnanimous in that I said I'd let her be in the driver's seat in the afterlife. She wouldn't go for it; first, she said that one life putting up with me would be long enough, second, she's a born again Evangelical Christian, and since I believe in God but don't believe in the whole concept of religious teachings - ie. Mohammad, Buddha, Jesus Christ, etc. - she says there's no way she's going to be planted in the same box as a heretic, 'cuz she doesn't want to be in the same car when the demons latch their tow truck onto the rear bumper and drag me straight to hell. Guess I'll have to take the driver's seat and find someone else to ride shotgun. Anyway, she foiled my plan nearly two years ago when she and some lady got into a head-on and her Suzuki was totaled. She replaced it with a friggin' X-3. I'm not allowed to drive the damned thing. Oh well, wonder if Jessica Alba or Jennifer Garner will be looking for a ride when they kick? Maybe I could swing by and pick one of them up. [:-dev3] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's one way to get yourself buried without your family having to pay thousands of dollars for a friggin crate. Bet he or she has the plot already picked out and paid for. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez, That kid would be a natural in a crawlspace. Wonder what kind of salary the parents would expect me to pay? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, photos would help a great deal; I'd already figured it was downhill. The epoxy won't do you much good against groundwater penetration. You can use crystalline waterproofing material (CWM - Xypex is one brand) to limit water intrusion on the inside but coating the foundation with asphalt and putting a french drain next to the foundation will be a whole lot of work with little result. Once water is within six feet of a foundation it's pretty much going to find it's way in and a French drain won't do anything but capture surface runoff and won't do you any good when it comes to groundwater. You need to think about staging curtain drains in echlons above the foundation with the last being no closer than 6ft; and then, if water is still getting in, consider excavating around that foundation, coating the foundation wall with a sprayed-on rubber membrane and then putting in a footing drain along with some DeltaDrain membrane. to capture what's gotten past the curtain drains. Start here to begin exploring ways to capture that water before it reaches the foundation: http://www.multi-flow.com/PDF_Documents ... _guide.pdf You can use concrete patching compound to fix that erosion slot but you'll first need to coat the slot with some latex binder. You can also probably wet it down and pack it with hydraulic cement and the HC might lock itself in. Once the slot is filled you can parge the face of the foundation wall to make the repairs disappear. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

How about posting an establishing shot of the whole side of the house and another showing the terrain next to the foundation. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

For sale $1 each - Homes for the ultimate rehab project. Buyer has to be a little nuts and will need to have exceptional skills plus plenty of reserve cash to pull these off. Send your dollar to..... http://www.historicproperties.com/detai ... y=ncotr002 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

There's a ton of houses from the early 20th century here without spread footings; many of them with basements and we have no way to know that they don't have footings until/unless someone escavates around the foundation. It shows no sign of settling or movement? Why not recommend underpinning the foundation as time permits? If nothing has happened to it in 60 years, it's not like it's going to settle tomorrow morning or anything. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT !!! Mike ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Nolan, Thanks for keeping us up to speed. To tell you the truth, when you sent me the email about this settlement, it had been so long since I'd heard anything about it that I'd completely forgotten the specifics. Glad it worked out for the profession. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I've always looked at various service companies that send out single employees to do work at myriads of homes and have wondered how anyone can make an OSHA argument for anything other than hearing and eye protection. Here are a few: Gutter service companies Roof cleaning companies Roof repair companies Satelite dish installers Chimneysweeps Chimney masons Electricians Plumbers Landscaping Alarm system installer Sprinkler system installer Insulation installer Drywaller (These guys stand on stilts fer crissake!) The list goes on and on. I can understand when you bring in a crew of guys and set up scaffolding that they have to stand on and such but I've never understood the argument that these trades, which need to be able to get in and out quickly unencumbered by time consuming paraphernalia that they're supposed to wear or be hooked up to, all need to have the same rules. If a guy can't climb a ladder without OSHA required safeguards why don't painters have the bottom of their ladders anchored in cement and every employee strapped to the ladder with a safety net spread out around the ladder? It's like those arrest gear anchors the roofers are forced to wear when climbing around up there on the roof. First, they have to constantly be aware of where the rope is so that they don't trip and fall off the roof and get to test the thing firsthand and then when they leave the roof they have to disconnect from the anchor and negotiate their way to the ladder without any gear. That doesn't make sense, if they learn to rely on the harness and gear instead of learning to walk the roof correctly, I think they are more likely to fall off the roof when trying to get back to and on to the ladder than if they'd been working without it. Oh, and how do the OSHA guys propose employees are supposed to get onto the roof without anything to anchor to the next time; because those anchors are supposed to be removed and aren't really meant to be left there forever - although they are most of the time. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I'm with Kurt but I take it further; I don't write it unless there's physical evidence of some sort to indicate there was one there that's just been removed; something like a cut discharge pipe or dangling supply line or a bunch of dirt and crap with the clear imprint of four levelers and water stains. I use those indications as the lead in for the comment and proof that there used to be one there. I don't need to tell them to replace it, that's their own decision; they just need to know that there used to be one installed and it's been taken out; so they can make up their own mind. If it's just a clean hole with nothing to indicate there had ever been a dishwasher there I wouldn't even mention it. Why would I? I'm only required to report on my observations of installed components and without proof that one had been installed there is nothing to report. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

My computer is networked to my wifes computer. She uses hers only for watching her videos on Korean websites. Even since I got this guy cleaned out, even if I don't go on the net, it will scan when I boot up and find stuff to remove. Those guys told me that if she's networked to me that whatever she gets I'll get and vice versa. I do remember googling for something one afternoon and suddenly one of the sites I checked out popped what it called a spyware search program up and began installing it on my computer. I sat there trying to X it out for about five minutes and nothing worked to stop it, so I finally pulled the plug out of the wall. I suppose it might have been downloading a virus under the guise of a spyware program and I didn't get it in time, but I don't really know. Their next project for me is going to be her computer. Considering it's a Vista system that's about three years old and has never had anything but the stock virus and spyware programs running on it, I'm guessing that's going to be a mess. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike