hausdok

Yep, So, how do you frame that recommendation? OT - OF!!! M.

OK, So, they are recalled - good catch on Richard's part - I should have thought about that before I'd posted that photo. That's not where I was going with this one. Let's try another brand, shall we?

What else? OT - OF!!! M.

Bingo, Jim! But it wasn't my camera. Two days before the inspection they had an HVAC firm out to check out the furnace. They apparently shoved a probe in there before my own. When I went in there and found that I had one of those "What the..." moments and was scratching my head for a couple of minutes until I figured it out. Can't fool Jim K! Should have known better. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Scenario - house built in 2006. you find these in the panelboard. How would you proceed?

What say you all? I know the answer; just thought I'd stimulate a little chatter here. By the way, I took this with my cheapo HFT HD bore scope camera. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That space between the firebox and the back wall - the galvanized metal you see, is supposed to be where air flows around the box. The heat from the flame heats the air in that space and it rises and leaves via the louvers above the firebox. As that air rises it is replaced by colder air entering the heat exchanger at the bottom. He cut a hole in one wall of the heat exchanger. Why? Who the hell knows but if a client were to ask me what I thought about it I'd probably tell him the guy that cut that hole must be a moron. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ah, The slope was actually kind of tame for around here. Click to Enlarge 39.51 KB Click to Enlarge 51.22 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK, this is a question for you guys that see AC a lot. I always thought there were minimum clearance requirements around these things. Click to Enlarge 37.68 KB What bad things, if any, can happen with this AC compressor/condenser placed right up against the exterior of a home like this. OT - OF!!! M.

Timely response to an 18 month old thread.

Can you post some establishing photos of the furnace that show it's location and the exhaust vent configuration? With that much crud built up on the A-coil it's a wonder the thing ran at all. It must have short cycled like crazy because without any air flowing through it the furnace would have reached it's high set quickly and shut down. Heating a house like that would be like walking five miles while taking three steps forward and two steps back all the way. AC in Manitoba? Whodda thunkit? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Did you see the movie The Hills Have Eyes? That's what the spawn of those folks looks like half a day out of the womb. Better look out. It grows at 100,000 times it's size per day. By tomorrow night it will be dragging you down to the local butcher shop to section you out for dinner. OT - OF!!! M.

We are home inspectors, not macrobiologists. Contact Dr. Payam Fallah at Indoor Environmental Hygiene Laboratories (IDEHL.com). He's been researching mold spore for about two decades.

Jim's photo is one of the more extreme examples but I see something like that, and some that are somewhat less so, pretty frequently around here. Fungi grows on everything around here. That's why I go so friggin' ballistic when I hear folks moaning about "toxic" mold and displaying pictures of a little mildew fungi in a shower. OT - OF!!! M.

Jeez, I can only wish the underside of roofs and the framing looked that good around here. OT - OF!!! M.

My theory, 1. Rodent gnawed through the insulation. 2. The exposed copper wiring was touching the wood and reacted with the stuff used to treat the wood. 3. The corroded wiring melted under load and saw sparks. OT - OF!!! M.

Yep, Got a whole bunch of 'em for free, just for visiting Harbor Freight on dollar day and purchasing something for a dollar and presenting a coupon. OT - OF!!! M.

Dangit, I'm teaching on Saturday. OT - OF!!! M.

20 year old wood windows in my "dry" climate. total of 10 on this house. Some so bad that the framing underneath is rotted and the siding is popping off from under the windows. I agree that some of that shown above is just condensation stains but that stain is a form of fungi. You can have rot there and not even realize it. When I opened the windows in the photos below there was rot in the sills that couldn't be seen from inside or outside unless the windows were opened. Click to Enlarge 29.53 KB Click to Enlarge 34.72 KB Click to Enlarge 32.08 KB Click to Enlarge 40.52 KB

Ah, I see the patent trolls are members of the "mold is gold" crowd. That speaks volumes about their lack of credibility. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... -coverings

Well, it is almost all hallows eve. Maybe it's a spirit trying to communicate. Hey, maybe it was John Crapper! OT - OF!!! M.

The other day I had a house that was a rental property and it had a 45 year old Rheem gas furnace. I took one look at that thing and thought, "Oh brotha!" The inspection was attended by the homeowner's property manager, who watched everything I did like a hawk and every so often walked off about 50 yards got on his cell phone. I asked the buyer's agent what was up with him - she explained that he was under instruction to monitor everything I did because the tenant was concerned about theft and damage to her property. The client was OK with it so I just did my thing. Anyway, I got a new toy about a month ago; a bore scope/camera. Picked it up on sale at Harbor Freight for a little under $200. I'd been seeing the cheap non-camera $99 one for a couple of years but didn't get interested until they came out with an HD version. So far, it's performing as I'd expected a less-than-$300 camera would perform - actually much better, and I think it's already paid for itself in terms of stuff discovered. This seemed like the perfect situation; 'cuz that old furnace, and a lot of other clues, told me the homeowner was pretty tight with a nickel and wasn't liable to believe anything I said about that furnace unless forced to do so. I got out the scope and started from above through the draft hood. After just a couple of minutes I found a hole about a quarter inch in diameter and a broken button between two sections of exchanger in the right chamber. Each time, after I found the defect, I showed it to the client on-screen and then turned, looked at the watcher and motioned with my head for him to come over and take a look. He did so silently. The other two chambers were clean from above so I moved to the combustion chambers below. I didn't find anything in the right chamber or the center chamber but when I went into the left chamber it was all bright blue from intense heating and I knew I was going to probably find a crack. Sure enough, within a minute or two I found an obvious crack about two inches long. After I showed the client, his realtor and the watcher that screen, I put the scope away, threw the breaker on and yelled inside to give Yung the OK to turn on the heat. As we waited for the furnace to come on, I told them, "Watch those three burners as they come on and then listen for the air handler to come on. When it does, you'll see some interesting stuff in those chambers with the cracked heat exchanger but that middle one will probably not change. The agent asked why, but before I had a chance to answer there was a click from the control valve and a second later the furnace came on with a whoosh. I pointed and said, "Just watch." The thing heated up for about two or three minutes and then, just as the impatient agent started to utter something, the blower kicked on and the flame was practically blown out in the left and right chambers and the center one stayed almost perfectly consistent. I turned and looked at the watcher. He had a grin from ear to ear. You could tell he was silently thinking, "Kewl Dude!" A little while later he walked off to make another call on his cell. The client and agent took that opportunity to ask me whether I definitely thought that the furnace needed to be replaced. I said, "That furnace was designed to last about twenty years; it's now 45 years old and it has cracks in it. What do you think?" The agent then said, "I heard that a cracked heat exchanger could poison someone. Obviously this one hasn't done that." I told her, if it were a 19 year old gas furnace I would have told you to think of your furnace as Grandpa - Grandpa is in the nursing home under constant watch. Nobody knows when he'll expire but everyone knows that given the average life of men in his family it's not going to be very long now. "In the case of this one," I said, "you've got a zombie furnace. It died long ago but nobody knew it. Leaving that furnace in this home is like playing with fire - sooner or later, despite the fact it hasn't hurt anyone....yet, it's going to hurt someone. It needs to go." Right about then the watcher walked over and caught the tail end of what I'd said. He spoke for the first time, "Don't worry about the furnace, the homeowner says you'll get a new one of your choosing." That's when I looked at the client and said, "If you don't remember anything else I've told you about this furnace, make sure when you start looking for the furnace of your choosing you use the words "Category Four," Can you remember that?" The client whipped out his smarty-pants phone and started thumbing the hell out of it and responded, "Category IV," you got it." I can't help but think that if I hadn't had that little HD scope and been able to show them such a clear picture of those defects and been able to predict the outcome so clearly, based on those observed defects, that the homeowner probably would have been a whole lot more resistant to whatever I'd said in my report regardless of the age of the furnace. So far, I'm not unhappy with my little HFT purchase, regardless of where it was made. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Thanks to those who responded publicly and via private message. Much appreciated. I was able to cut and paste without spending a lot of time searching around for those cites because you helped. Report just went out via email. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Oil, Crown Freeport (Philly) Model CTPR4, SN 39182R7JK. I would have called them directly to find out whether it's side-wall rated, etc. but by the time I got home it was past COB on the right coast. OT - OF!!! M.