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I realize it's painful, but it simply isn't always about you, Mikey. It isn't?!! When the hell did that happen?!! All kidding aside; I'm glad that Chad got his company highlighted, although I'm not sure about this Cash for Caulkers thing. That's a political discussion we don't want to get into here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez, snif [:-weepn] Not a single plug for TIJ. Grumble [:-gnasher OT - OF!!! M.

Agreed, but I don't really see anything in any code that I can use and I wanted to get an idea of just how much leeway NAHB has written into their standards. This is a 1-year old home; there's no telling what the fine print in the purchase and sale agreement is. OT - OF!!! M.

Sounds like they want an ICC-certified inspector to sign off on every house that it complies with code, yadda, yadda. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I think I can work with that. Thanks a lot. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Thanks. Actually, I see I didn't make myself clear. This is not a siding issue, it's a framing issue that's telegraphing through the siding. I'm actually looking for the wall plane/stud alignment standard if anyone has it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, I've loaned my NAHB Residential Construction Performance Guidelines to another inspector; and, wouldn't you know it, I have an immediate need to know what the standard is for waviness in siding. Had one the other day where when I sighted down the side of the house the wall was unusually wavy and out of plane. It's not unusual here; lots of houses get pretty wet here before they get closed in and after a year or two of drying out there's usually a little bit of movement; however, this house had more than what I'd consider typical so I'm going to have to write it. Does anyone out there have the guidelines and is able to post the appicable citation for me chapter and verse, including the corrective measure. If so, I'd appreciate it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, it has been 15 months since the OP initiated the thread. FWIW, I've inspected some of them and they were performing well and the residents weren't complaining about them. I'm kind of wondering whether the disappointed fellow's system is installed wrong or something. A few years ago I looked at one where the folks didn't know there was an air filter and had never serviced it. The thing didn't provide a lot of heat with a completely clogged filter. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sure, But I'd pronounce that brand name as Dispose - All, not Dispos - ul so, in my head there wouldn't be any confusion. Now, If I went around calling those things Disposall's and writing them up as such, I suppose there'd be grounds for some company to try and sue me for trademark infringement, which is what I think is what happened to Les. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, No, you can post to any thread you want, at any time. However, keep in mind that your response might be too late to assist the original poster. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I doubt it. That never seems to be the case here. Besides, vapor diffusion moves from warmer to cooler and moist to dry - not the other way around. The soil around here is glaciel till and it holds moisture from rains for days in this climate. The foundation walls would diffuse to the interior, even when the outside is well treated, just by absorption through the footings. There seems to be enough latent heat and ambient moisture in crawls to prevent that type of diffusion from happening here. I can honestly say that in nearly 14 years here I don't think I've ever seen a single instance where what you've described appeared to be the case. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ok, Thanks. It's only a guess, but with that kind of elevation behind the home I'd say that the retaining wall contractor has probably put some pretty good drainage behind that wall - otherwise you would have been crawling over a water bed in that crawl. Except for behind those porches, it looks like adding vents won't be too difficult at all. With all the knowledge of building science we have today, what kind of lame brain is still putting in gable end vents along with eave vents and a ridge vent. Tsk. Dirt or stone under those porches? If dirt, you might try talking the client into getting some quarter stone over the dirt under there. I've never been under a porch with quarter stone yet where critters had been rooting around; but I bet if there's just dirt there those porches are going to have the rodent reel tours posting tiny toothpick sized signs around the home advertising the new condo to every critter around. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'd call it a moderate, occasionally humid climate. During the summer, the humidity along the east and golf coasts makes this place seem like Arizona in comparison. There's no point in insulating foundation walls here unless one plans to use the crawl as a plenum and wants that warm air under the floors to heat the floor so that the heat can radiate upward into the living space. When the floors are properly insulated here and the crawls have the right amount of air moving through them, it's typically about 55° in the crawls here except for the coldest days of the year. Don't know why, maybe it's got something to do with the fact that this entire mountain range is nothing but a bunch of old volcanoes strung together and there's still magma under a lot of it. It's a pretty rare day here in the summer when I actually feel all clammy due to the humidity like I used to experience in New England, New York where I grew up or in any of the eastern and southern states where I'd been stationed. I wouldn't call it "humid" at all. A sealed crawl will work pretty well here if the vapor barrier has been put down well. Unless gobs of humidity is evaporating from the soil into the crawl because the barrier is a lousy install, I've found that most floor systems will allow the vapor to diffuse really well; even when under-ventilated. Still, the truss webs are OSB, and if the floor is OSB, I'd also recommend they get vents on every side within six feet of the corners and lots of air in there. The guy that put down that barrier should be slapped upside his head for being too lazy to do a neat job. John, 1/4-inch galvanized mesh not less than about 22 ga. is what you need. It'll keep out just about everything up to the size of a Wolverine if it's installed right. Rob, How close is that retaining wall to the back wall of the house? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, disposal originally was an ordinary word - not a brand name - used in ordinary sentences such as "That's meant for disposal" or "I'm at your disposal." Les, Given that disposal as shown in the dictionary now means a food waste grinder - I just checked my dictionary as well - I think we can stop worrying about being sued by some company that used it as a brand name and call it disposal if we so choose. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Why would he say it was decommissioned? - Jim Katen, Oregon Yeah, I'd never assume that it's a decommissioned tank. A few years ago, the Department of Ecology estimated there were something like 10,000 abandoned UST's in Seattle that still had oil in them. OT - OF!!! M.

Hah! Spend a winter in Amenia; the weather there is freakish. I don't think anywhere else in New York has the kind of snow they get there. Winter of '69 it took two weeks for the snow blowers and V-plows to reach Amenia from the county seat. That valley was socked in like the land that time forgot. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

February 2009, I believe. Does anyone have anything different? OT - OF!!! M.

Part of one of those humongous 50-year old lawn irrigation systems perhaps? OT - OF!!! M.

Hmm, Until now, I'd never thought about it, but somewhere over in my storage I have a periscope that I'd liberated off a Chinese T69 main battle tank in Iraq during ODS in 1991. I don't think it would be much good for this gig though; I don't think it can even focus at the distances we would use a periscope to do a home inspection. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez John, How did you miss this? It depends on local climate. Check out some of the links I posted into that thread. Also, Google "ORNL Heat Pump Water Heater Research." That should pull up one of the papers I saw about efficiency of these units in various parts of the country. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jack, Pick up the phone and do it. Myself and one or two other independents and one or two NAHI guys were invited to a private meeting at the Rainier Club (I think it was) in December of 2005. The local ASHI guys were having a seminar or something and had their pres in town and they had something they wanted to talk about. It turned out that a fellow here in Washington had been waving around a proposed home inspector registration law that he and a state representative were planning to push through. It sucked pretty bad so the local ASHI guys were planning to initiate movement to counter it with their own version. About 20 minutes into the meeting, and after hearing ASHI this and, ASHI that, I finally spoke up and told them that if what they attempted to do wasn't a joint effort by representatives from all home inspector stake holders in the region, plus the independents, because independents outnumbered those affiliated with associations, whatever they did was sure to become mired down in the same B.S. that bogged folks down in New Jersey for so many years. Joe Corsetto, then ASHI Pres, was in the room. He's from New Jersey. He spoke up at that point and said that he agreed 100% - that an ASHI only initiate would probably fail because everyone else would fight it. I think it was Hugh Kelso that chaired the meeting. Hugh said, "Well, who's going to track down people from all of these various entities and try and get them to the table?" I said I would - that's how WHILAG was formed and folks in that group learned to work together pretty well after a few meetings despite all of the caterwauling about which association each felt was better. It was primarily WHILAG that over the next two years got Senator Spanel's two ill-considered versions of her bill shunted into committee or sunrise review and it was WHILAG that she finally called before attempting a third go-ground and who's ideas - born of a group made up of all entities - she finally agreed to incorporate into her bill. With WHILAG's support, her bill finally went through. All you have to do is be the guy who takes that first step. You'll meet a lot of rejection but eventually you'll find folks that, despite their differences, will be willing to put aside that organizational B.S. and sit down and work with other professionals. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It's definitely not dead insects. I was able to blow it up, and though the resolution began breaking down, I'm pretty certain it's Pacific Dampwood Termite Frass. I'm kind of familiar with the little suckers and what their pellets look like; for about two years I had about 5,000 to 10,000 of the little buggers living in a terrarium on my desktop. I don't know squat about any drywood termites, I've never seen one. PDWT frass is distinct and formed - not scaly and irregular like sub frass. Look for some wet wood somewhere above where you're finding the frass. Get a pick and do some pocking around. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Looks exactly like PWDT frass to me. Do they range that far south? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yes, that's correct, as long as they meet or exceed the state standard, but why would one even interject that into the equation? From my point of view, it's nutty for an inspector to advertise that he or she inspects to the standard of some association if the state requires the inspection and report to conform to the state standard. The fact that the report meets or exceeds the state standard should be the only thing that the inspector is bragging about in all marketing materials, because it's the only one that's going to matter if the inspector ends up under investigation by DOL, or, in extreme cases, in court for any inspection done after September 1, 2009. Most buyers don't know ASHI, NAHI, IACHI (formerly NACHI) or AII from squat. They might have read some propaganda marketing piece someplace that told them to never hire an inspector that wasn't a member of X association, but when it comes down to what one must inspect and report, trying to argue with a buyer that the association standard that you use meets or exceeds the state standard is going to sound like you're selling wolf tickets - even when you aren't. It's like a Wyoming resident saying that there is no speed limit when driving through Illinois on the interstate because there is no speed limit on the interstate in Wyoming and the law in Wyoming meets or exceeds the Illinois law - it's bogus. The only standard that counts is the one that the law recognizes, regardless of how good the other standard might be. Buyers do know how to find the state licensing site and the rules there. I know that because more than a few of my clients have already told me that they'd visited the site and we're only a couple of months into this thing. Yes and no. NAHI was started by a bunch of disaffected ASHI guys who used the ASHI SOP as an example of where to start, AII's looks like a tweaked version of both of them and IACHI's is a tweaked version of the other three and even uses some identical language to elements in each. Some of the newer versions of the ASHI SOP have clearly borrowed elements from others'. The Washington State SOP is actually based on a proposed SOP that the Washington Home Inspectors Legislative Advisory Group (WHILAG) drafted. WHILAG is a coalition of ASHI, NAHI, AII, NABIE, WSPMA, WAPI and IACHI members. WHILAG took the ASHI, NAHI, AII and IACHI SOP's, broke them down into similar language and put them side-by-side in the same document to compare them. Then they voted on which one they thought made the most sense from both an inspector's and consumer's standpoint, provided the most protection for the client and was fairest to the inspector. As it so happens, that was the NAHI SOP and even ASHI members on WHILAG agreed with the outcome of that vote. So, WHILAG used the NAHI SOP as their chassis and then built their dream SOP from there, borrowing bits and pieces of other SOP's or completely replacing some paragraphs with those from others, or writing their own parts, until they had what they felt was a good document. When licensing passed here, the changing business practices sub-committee was tasked with writing the state SOP. The committee submitted the WHILAG draft to the full board for comments and the full board agreed that that was a good place to start. At that point, the committee dusted off that document and repeated the process, ultimately coming up with the first draft for a state SOP. From that point on, about 4 or 5 draft versions were brought before the full board were debated, gutted, were rebuilt and then re-gutted and rebuilt again until the board was in agreement that the result protects consumers and home inspectors about as well as can be expected, while still being as fair and equitable as possible. All of the organizational SOP's state that their members must comply with their organizational SOP but they also all state that the inspector must comply with state law. None of them will discipline a member who is following his state law, even if they think that state law is weaker than their own SOP, because that is going to contradict their own rule that mandates the inspector comply with state law; so, again, inspectors in licensing states should emphasize that they inspect to the only SOP that counts - their state's. The code of ethics is also rolled up into the Washington state SOP and the same process was used to come up with that. The one thing that a state SOP does for a consumer is give a consumer something in the way of an enforced standard. Sure, if an ASHI or IACHI guy failed to comply with his org's SOP or COE, folks could squawk about it, but there was no way short of a full blown lawsuit that a consumer could seek to have a sub-standard inspector disciplined for negligence with anything stronger than censure or expulsion from the association; because none of the organizations can stop or suspend an inspector from practicing his craft, fine the inspector or have any other substantial enforcement powers. By creating a state SOP that encompasses the COE, and having administrative procedures in place that enable DOE to officially, investigate complaints, give inspectors an opportunity for a fair hearing and ultimately exonerate the inspector or find in favor of the plaintiff, and when necessary take disciplinary measures that can range from a small fine to a large fine, suspension or revocation of license, or both - all without the consumer or the inspector needing to dump huge gobs of money into some lawyer's pocket - it's a better deal all around. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, There are a bunch of folks in Washington State working their way through that now. As of September 1st, every inspection done in this state must to be done to the Washington State SOP, regardless of an inspectors affiliation with any of the associations. Everyone is subject to that. There are some misguided folks that seem to think that, because they haven't been issued a home inspector's license yet, that they aren't subject to that rule and they are continuing to advertise that they do their inspections to ASHI, NAHI or IACI SOP and they aren't following state SOP. These folks should ask themselves whether an unlicensed driver is still subject to the law if he or she is driving and violates a traffic law. What these folks don't realize is that, since September 1st all of their work is subject to review by DOL and the complaint process for consumers to initiate a complaint against an inspector has been up and running since then. If a consumer makes a complaint about an inspection to DOL, and an investigation by DOL determines that they weren't complying with the state SOP, they may automatically lose any argument they present to DOL. That is completely preventable and unnecessary. Proof-read your sites, Folks, look at those report layouts and start tweaking them, 'cuz DOL isn't going to advertise what the length of the grace period will be. Get it done! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike