hausdok

For home inspector work, one can purchase a Windows desktop running XP for about $200 and it will do just about anything you need to do. Why sink money into a machine to try and make XP work when it's cheaper to just replace the box? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Kewl! Thanks, I've replaced it with the Tyvek Architect's Binder. It has descriptions of all of their various products plus the installation instructions. It's much more useful than the wrap guide ever was. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi John, Thanks for informing us about the bad link. What category is it in? OT - OF!!! M.

Jeez, How many times have I gotta say it; the first place you should go for info is the reference library on this site. Go to the library, click on "File Downloads", then scroll down to FM 5-426 - the Army Carpentry Manual - and go to Chapter 10. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jim, If I had seen that, I would have been begging them to give me that old fuse box when the replaced it with a breaker box and remodeled that foyer. Very kewl! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Just a wild guess; but a 3-inch vent is consistent in size from the boiler to terminus. so pressure ranges within the vent are probably equal anywhere along its length. However, when you vent into a chimney using a short connector the chimney flue will be far larger, and can vary in size along its length, so the atmospherics would be inconsistent from boiler to terminus. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I'm wondering why you have a fresh air vent into that area when you have a Category IV appliance that gets all of its combustion air from outside. What's up with that? Is there also a Category I gas water heater in there that needs combustion air? Those white PVC pipes are not "fresh air vents." One is the exhaust pipe for the furnace and the other is the fresh air intake. They meet at a combo vent before it passes through the wall to the outside. If the joints of that exhaust vent are leaking you need to get an HVAC guy out there stat to cement them because condensation dripping out of that pipe means gas is escaping as well. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

This article in HGTV.com is about a zero-energy home built by a builder where the very first bill from the utility showed a $400 credit back to the builder. The builder's secret? Lots and lots of air sealing before insulating the home. To read more click here.

Yeah, Location is going to be critical. The space where that appliance is installed needs to have a volume of about 50 cubic feet for every 1,000 Btu/Hr that the water heater is rated for. In other words, a 45,000 Btu/Hr water heater requires 2250 cubic feet or a room that's roughly 28ft. by 10ft. with an 8ft. ceiling. If you don't have that kind of volume, you need to bring in fresh air from outside. As Kurt has already mentioned, a laundry in close proximity can affect that whole dynamic; so, even if you have air coming in from outside, if that air intake isn't large enough, a clothes dryer in close proximity to the water heater can depressurize the air around the water heater enough to cause the exhaust gases to flow backward into the home. Granted, any back draft caused by a dryer will probably get sucked into the dryer and sent outside, but sometimes when that happens the water heater can't reestablish it's draft up the flue and continues to vent into the home. That's very dangerous. Then what if it's a gas dryer? In that case, you need to add the Btu/Hr of that dryer into your calculations for what type and size of fresh air vent needs to be brought into the home. Want to save yourself all the hassle, as well as some heating dollars? Replace the water heater as well with a direct vent type that has a special combination intake/exhaust vent and isn't affected by dryers or overhead fans. Then, neither of your appliances, assuming that this furnace you are installing is a Category IV furnace getting all of it's combustion air from outside, is using interior air for combustion and there's no need to have open holes through the exterior envelope of your house. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, around here, those systems are utilizing 40,000 to 65,000 Btu/Hr heaters running between 140° and 160° for the heating and then one must go to the nearest hot water faucet, fill the sink and test it to make sure that the mixing valve is only allowing 120° water to reach the nearest fixture. Then, depending on how well the home and pipes are insulated, the temperature at the farthest fixture will be less than that. If that's not going to be acceptable, one could go the extreme route by eliminating the mixing valve above the water heater and installing one at every bath and the kitchen, so that the 140° water makes it all the way to those fixtures and is mixed right there, in order to provide 120° at the tap. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's a roof that I think TIJers would love to inspect. Karen Rotter of Manitowoc, WI is enjoying a new cedar shingle roof this winter that duplicated the thatched-look shingle roof that had been on her home for the past 85 years. Shingle thatching is a technique that's been around for about a hundred years. Back in the early part of the twentieth century we didn't have a lot of thatchers in this country but we had an abundance of roofers accustomed to installing cedar shingles. So, when some homeowners wanted thatched roofs, roofers here tried to duplicate the look of a thatched roof with cedar shingles instead. Most of these old thatch-look roofs are long gone; so, when Mrs. Rotter decided she wanted the same roof she turned to Brandon Bartow, president of Bartow Builders, Manitowoc. Bartow decided that he could duplicate the look but it wasn't easy - he literally had to invent a special press and clamp to form the shingles and then boiled them right there on the front lawn, formed them and then installed them. To read more about this unusual roof cover, click here. (Many thanks to Mrs. Rotter for allowing TIJ to re-print the photo of her house for this story.)

That's not being helpful, Richard. I'd have a different plumber look at it. If the system is set up correctly and working OK to heat the house, but you're having inconsistent hot water issues it probably is a faulty mixing valve. I've heard the same complaint from folks who had hydro systems that were not Appolo units (Bio-Radiant). When they insisted that the plumber replace the mixing valve, all was well again. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Just google the guy Marc and see what he's been saying about home inspectors. I think that if Holmes had his way, he'd write a completely new SOP that required invasive inspections, major disassembly and relies heavily on code. The guy has made a career of bashing others' work, whether it be builders, electricians, HVAC guys or home inspectors - he just constantly bemoans about how hardly anyone, except, him, is competent anymore. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Don't be so sure about that. About a year ago, a fellow up in Canada who is an inspector and an engineer tried to expose some of Holmes' BS and he couldn't get anyone interested. If you google Holmes you'll find the guy's article. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, the interesting thing about Holmes' Insections is that he doesn't do the inspecting. He hired a bunch of home inspectors to inspect in his name. He still gets to spout off about home inspectors as if he actually is one though. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

In this 22 minute CBC investigative reporter piece 4 different Canadian inspectors fail to spot signs of a grow op and Mike Holmes comes in and essentially indicts the entire profession and wants to shut us down and start all over again. To hear more from Canada's biggest blowhard, click here.

Who is P.T.? M.

Jeez, Now I gotta open up the dictionary and try figure out what the hell you just said. OT - OF!!! M.

Maybe it's not the unit. A guy several posts above, who lives in Michigan where winters are colder than they are in Alabama reports his system is heating the house fine. I was cadre at Ft. McClellan for about three years and the house I lived in was cold as hell in the winter - colder than the home I'd lived in when I'd been stationed in Massachusetts - because there was barely any insulation in the walls and above the ceilings and none over the crawlspace. Are the walls and ceiling of the house insulated? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's a pretty old house. Of the thousands of homes that I've done where the roof framing is done in similar fashion - some of them a century old - I can count on one hand the amount of times I've found rafters like that gusseted. Does it always make sense to try and impose modern rules on very old buildings where no issues have developed? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jan 6, 2010/DES PLAINES, Ill. (Business Wire) The American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) has been approved by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) as a recognized accrediting association for its profession-leading Certified Inspector Program. ASHI is now the only accredited home inspection association whose full members have completed a recognized third-party certification process. All current, full ASHI members have met the requirements for this new certification. “The accreditation and certification of ASHI’s processes by a recognized third party is an affirmation of the status we hold in the home inspection profession,â€

Hi, I've seen them a lot in a couple of developments that I've been doing a lot of houses in. It's a category IV - they don't care if a little CO2 mixes with the intake on those because they're sealed away from the interior. Besides they're usually sucking in so much extra air that the amount of CO2 is negligible. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I wonder if Caoimhín can shed any light on this? Think I'll shoot him an email and ask him. OT - OF!!! M.

Nope, I was doing a house for a plumber when he told me about it. Not long after that, I got a call from a realtor I knew, "Mike, I think something is wrong with my house. The wall of my living room feels warm." I went by. Sure enough, the wall was warm. I put my ear to the wall and could hear water running. I got my moisture meter and tested the drywall - it was very wet. "You've got a pipe burst here," I said. "No way," he said. I said, "Let's find out," and I cut the wall open. As soon as I removed that 6 by 6 inch piece of drywall a thin stream shot out into the living room. On the pipe below the pinhole - "Made in Japan." I've been looking carefully at copper pipe in 30-year old homes ever since. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, If it's a 30-year old home it might not have anything to do with the concrete. There was a bunch of copper pipe made in Japan that was sold back around the mid-70's to mid-80's that tends to corrode and develop pinholes. You might have just discovered a batch that's taken longer than most to start leaking. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike