hausdok

The wood pecker has to grip the bottom edge of the panel and that places his beak at the same level horizontally. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I googled "How to read Bosch water heater serial numbers" and clicked on the first link and then found 881 on the chart. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I don't need a UV flashlight to find rodents; they leave urine spots, droppings, torn insulation and compacted insulation wherever they go and I'm typically tipped off to their presence by the snap traps, glue traps or bait stations spread around. Mold? It's in 100% of the air we breath 24/7/365. Why would I be looking for it with a UV light? If it's accumulated to the point where I can see it, because of poor ventilation or water intrusion or leaking fixtures or something like that, I'm going to report the cause and tell folks that if they're worried about the mold bogeyman to hire a good indoor air quality firm with a real scientist on staff and avoid any home inspector brandishing an air pump or tape strips, because all the home inspector will do is take their money to tell them what they already know - that there's mold in the air and on surfaces in the house. IMO, only a real mold specialist such as a mycologist or an industrial hygeinist should be dealing with mold issues. Whenever I see something that I think might require a pro, I recommend folks contact Dr. Phallah over at IDEHL (He's moderator of our mold forum here.) and let him tell them whether they need to be nervous about mold or not; and, if so, what to do about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike,

Open the post you want to remove, then click on the X in the box on the far right, put in your password and then submit and it goes away. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nothwithstanding the other comments, which I agree with, a month ago I had a 50 years old house which has been sitting up on shims since it was new. I didn't detect it until I went into the crawlspace. I'd talk to him about replacing the wood shims with the steel shims and using a very stiff mortar mix to grout any gaps between shims under those beams. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I think I was wrong in that previous post. I've found other information on the net that indicates that the 881 indicates January of 2007. Does that fit with what you've got? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, I agree. The heat exchangers on these tankless units are typically either copper or stainless steel so nobody really knows. Did you get a photo of it? The serial number is on the rating plate and the date is buried in the serial number. The FD# merely tells you whether it's approved for above or below a certain altitutude. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Earth to Joe, Earth to Joe, Are you receiving? Repeat...are you receiving? Earth to Joe, Earth to Joe, are you ready to follow through on your pledge, Counselor? FTR, I sent Joey an email separately weeks ago. Apparently he's been unable to find his keyboard. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ok Terrence, you have interesting timing. I got mine in yesterday. Was very excited to see it. I had the exact same thoughts on the picture quality. With the pixel count it should at least be able to have a 3x4 picture with decent quality. I can't see hardly anything with this thing. I'll be calling the manufacturer today to find out if I'm doing something wrong. If not, sending it back. OK, brand name(s) please so that the rest of us can avoid them. Don't suppose you two would like to put your heads together and do a borescope review article for TIJ? Maybe you could get some other manufacturers to loan you samples of their product for a "scope off." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

So, What you are saying is that you do an invasive inspection using special equipment to see into areas that most inspectors otherwise can't normally see. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hell no! It sounds like the contractor used sub-standard fasteners and lath. One Team - One Fight!!! Mike

Hi, I think we're confusing RH with moisture content in wood in these posts. 14%+ moisture content in wood and you're at the cusp of the potential for decay. Agreed, under 50% RH shoud keep it under control if the temp ranges in the attic are favorable for mold growth. Right now, I wish it were 130°F in the friggin' attics. I stopped my office work to take a lunch break and saw on the news where it hit 103°F at JFK in New York. We went 272 days here before temps hit 75° here and it's gotten cool again. My office is on the shady side of the house on the basement level. Despite the fact it's a bright sunny day out, my office is downright cold. I've got the friggin' heat on down there cuz I don't feel like bundling up. Saw an article the other day about folks up at the pass skiing. This place is weird sometimes. End of vitamin D deficiency rant. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

How do you do that? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It's kind of grainy, but she sent me a photo of the leak once they'd opened it up. It looks like they've installed an access panel. It's hard to see where it's coming from. Looks to me the leak is coming from the pipe elbow but it might just be draining off of something from above and dripping off the elbow. She says she's accumulated about 1/4-cup of water since Friday. The spot in the photo is pretty small. Either it's very recent or there was so little that it's simply been evaporating as quickly as it's dripped onto the drywall. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Click to Enlarge 27.08 KB

Didn't you look at the instruction plate undearneath that panel for the name of the manufacturer? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Subscription to the magazine is not free, but free registration allows users access to web content. Uh oh, Hope they won't be invoicing me for all those years they've been sending it to me for free. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You know, that might be just the thing I need to get the Korean Konnection on board, since she's the moisture meister on this team. I warn you though, every School of the House I perform is a marathon; no 2 to 2-1/2 hour inspections here. I've only got two speeds; slow and careful. I'm going to be ordering a new Protimeter in the next day or two; let's see what we can set up. You've got my email, shoot me a message offline. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm not entirely sure that "invited" is the correct term to use; "reluctantly acquiesced" or "grudgingly allowed" is probably more like it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, I just dodged a bullet; more or less by accident. About six weeks ago I inspected a little modern cottage house for a lady. It's on a slab and heated with a bio-radiant heating system with in-wall forced hot air hydronic heaters. The water heater sits in a plastic overflow pan in a closet on the second floor. Whenever I inspect one of those homes, I always tell the client to try and find out where the PEX is located in the walls and ceilings, so that they don't accidentally puncture one of the lines while hanging pictures after they move in; either by talking to the mechanical contractor that did the job or by having a thermographer come out, turn the heat up to full and then scan the walls. Well, she did just that. About a week or so ago she called me to ask for some recommendations and asked me whether I saw an issue with one of my competitors that uses IR technology. I gave her some names and told her that the guy had a good rep locally. Today I got an email. They'd done the inspection Thursday. Everything looked good until they scanned the interior of the pantry below the mechanical room where the IR camera revealed a damp spot. They cut a hole in the drywall; yep, the water heater is leaking above and apparently the pan is cracked under the water heater. She's got a pail catching the drip right now. Jeez, what are the odds that my own recommendation to just do something extra as an optional precaution would accidentally uncover something like this? No indication at the ceiling of that pantry of any issues at the time of the inspection and all of the walls were dry. I did not get up on a ladder to check the ceiling - maybe I should be doing that when there's a bathroom or mechanical room above, but in more than 14 years this is the first time I can remember something like this nearly biting me. She's not mad. She realizes I don't have X-ray vision; but not all clients are so understanding or even want to be so understanding. Anyway, it's got me more than ever seriously considering the leap to IR. Check out the photos below; especially the last three. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Click to Enlarge 13.87 KB Click to Enlarge 21.93 KB Click to Enlarge 18.8 KB Click to Enlarge 9.59 KB Click to Enlarge 19.48 KB Click to Enlarge 20.02 KB Click to Enlarge 11 KB Click to Enlarge 21.99 KB Click to Enlarge 21.16 KB Click to Enlarge 10.95 KB Click to Enlarge 18.96 KB Click to Enlarge 20.65 KB Click to Enlarge 13.4 KB Click to Enlarge 22.08 KB Click to Enlarge 10.96 KB Click to Enlarge 19.86 KB Click to Enlarge 19.25 KB Click to Enlarge 8.93 KB Click to Enlarge 18.35 KB Click to Enlarge 10.19 KB

Screw being the maintenance guy; I'd just like to own the patent on it. Can you imagine the residuals being deposited to that guy's bank account every month? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Flatulence! OT - OF!!! M.

We have an understanding. Clearly that is to be understood. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Go to the experts on metal roofs - the Metal Roofing Alliance. They have an "Ask the Experts Forum" where you can ask questions and post the photos. Once you get the answer, come back here and share it with the rest of us so we'll all get smarter. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, The only possible explanation is that osmeone is a moron. They need to add venting to that soffit. The gable end vent is going to trouble. It won't show up now but it will years from now when some home inspector goes up in there and finds the underside of the roof all covered with fungi and explains that a gable end vent will short circuit the proper flow of air from the eaves to the ridge. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Avoid the cheap Ryobi scan type meter the big orange box sells. The radio function crapped out on my Protimeter SM and I didn't have time to dink around with it so I shot over to the big orange box and grabbed the Ryobi. I does not give consistent readings at all; I can scan a section of wallboard, come back five minutes later and it will indicate something else altogether. Look for a Protimeter SM - Mine is 10 years old and still (though reluctantly) getting out of bed in the morning and doing its job. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike