hausdok

Hi, Non that I know of but I haven't searched for any. this stuff is so tenacious and thick that if a post comes right up through it and the stuff is applied to it, I think that joint would be more reliable than one made from flashings. Could be wrong though - often am. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, SilvaWool, no doubt about it. OT - OF!!! M.

That's true; unless you have a pilot-less fireplace without a pilot light, in which case you can't light them up without current once the power goes out - ergo, the batteries. They need a source of current to light the pilot because there is no off/pilot/on control knob on the gas control valve. We see pilot-less gas fireplaces all the time out here. They are equipped with battery holders like that so that when the power goes out owners can still fire them up, but the batteries shouldn't be left in the holder underneath the box. Though I think they'd be a terribly inefficient way to heat a house, they are perfectly capable of providing a substantial amount of heat to a home and they are safe, as long as they are a direct-vent appliance and the front glass seal is intact. The firebox is completely sealed away from the interior like any direct-vent appliance and they generate a pretty strong convective current. Out here, I occasionally see new smaller townhomes where they are the only source of heat for the main floor and the rest of the floors are either hydronic or electric heat. One of these is more than capable of heating a small house. Their downside is that the tray underneath the firebox where the control valve is located is usually ignored when the house is being cleaned; consequently, that area accumulates a lot of dust, and animal hair if there are pets in the home, and when it's finally turned on for winter that stuff ends up being pulled up into the area behind the box, gets scorched, and stinks up the joint. Yesterday, I walked into a brand new 3-story townhome that was heated with a total of 5 Chinese-made electric heaters. One look at those electric heaters told me that it would be hours before that house came up to comfortable temperature; so I checked out the fireplace first and then turned it on and left it on to burn off the new paint smell. Within 20 minutes the temps on the main and third floor were comfortable but that electric heater was still whirring away on the ground floor trying to bring that tiny first floor bedroom up to a comfortable temperature. Dry cells don't like to be kept warm for long. They are filled with either ammonium-chloride or zinc-chloride paste. Short-term heat will partially revive them but long-term heat causes them to start sweating and then the compounds inside will corrode just about any ferrous metal they touch. It doesn't get hot enough under one of these fireplaces to melt that plastic holder or ignite paper, but it certainly gets warm enough to excite a dry cell so much that it will start to sweat. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Tell them to replace the battery box and not to leave batteries in it. The batteries should only be inserted when/if the power goes out and they need to ignite the fireplace for warmth. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I think that Brandon might be referring to the distance from the vent to the conductors at the masthead. From the rust on that masthead, it sure looks like things get pretty hot up there. I can't find any reference to it in my guide from Puget Sound Energy. Was the insulation on those cables or the insulator at the masthead being affected, Brandon? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Mike, I'm curious, you've state it was an enclosed burner/pilot light assembly. By that, do you mean that the water heater is a direct vent type that gets its combustion air from outside or is it just one of the new FVIR ones with a piezo igniter and sight glass with a bunch of air holes or slots around the bottom? Don't let it bug you when some anal old fart like myself snips at something you've written here; it only helps to toughen you up against the inevitable crap you're going to have to put up with from hundreds, maybe even thousands, of manipulative real estate agents, pissed off sellers and intransigent builders over the coming years. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Inscrutable bugs on Beano; I liked that. [] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Google "Watts Floodsafe" OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Why wouldnt a simple strip of foil tape have worked over the first filter? They could leave the tape there and every time they put a new filter in, cut off another strip and place it over the filter. Seems like it would have been every bit as good as anything else you'd described. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It looks like modified bitumen (modbit - usually referred to as a "torchdown") membrane. Anywhere from 15 to 35 years depending on quality and whether it's coated with protective granules or not. It's a "coping" not a flashing cap. The roof membrane is installed over a cants strip and should go up and over the top of the parapet lip and then the coping is installed on top. Google modbit single-ply membrane installation instructions. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

There isn't any concern, as long as it's in an area with sufficient volume to allow that furnace to run properly and there isn't anything else in that area that's going to affect its performance. Just refer to the restrictions in the owner's manual; if none apply, there's no reason to write anything. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I only report what's there and I only report on whether it's functioning when I'm required to. If something is working alright, I have no reason to waste time reporting that it's functional unless I'm required to by our SOP. For example, our SOP requires a comment to the effect that there was a TPR valve and it's associated piping present but it doesn't require me to report whether it works or not. So, I might state in the description of the plumbing components that there was a TPR and discharge pipe present but nothing else is said about it. Similarly, using one of the examples above, we are required to report the presence and functionality of sump pumps and waste ejector pumps when they are visible and confirm that the float switch activates the pump when the sump is dry. Obviously, if I'm required to confirm that something works, I should report whether it works or not in the report. Essentially, if we see certain items that are spelled out by the SOP we are required to report their presence, but we aren't required to say a thing about a system that isn't installed. So, if there are no sump pumps or waste ejector pumps we don't have to say anything about them. With a waste ejector pump, we can test that it works by running a lot of water into the tank and listening for it to come on and then shut itself off; however, we aren't required to open it up to ensure that it's pumping out completely. With those, we just state that one was present and that we confirmed that it came on by running water into the tank. With a sump pump we report its presence but aren't required to touch it unless the sump well is dry. Under that rule, I'll describe a sump pump in the report. If I can safely manually lift the float to test it, without lugging buckets of water into the crawlspace or dragging a hose in there, I will; and then I'll report that it was tested. I'm not required to state that I think it's capacity is sufficient, whether I think it pumps the water out faste enough or anything like that - only that it came on when the switch was activated. If I can't test it, I'll simply report that it wasn't tested because I couldn't safely test it. Maybe a better example is an air conditioning system, because I rarely see those. If there is one there, our SOP requires me to describe the system and its energy sources, operate it and open readily accessible covers to get to it and inspect it's condition, but nothing requires me to say a thing about air conditioning in the report when there isn't any air conditioning installed - not even one word. I'll bet that the OP's SOP says someplace that he's only required to inspect and report on "installed" systems. If that's the case, there's no point in sticking something in the report about stuff that's not even there. My opinion, worth the price charged. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Not sure what post you're referring to; but the fecal pellets left by Pacific Dampwood Termites look just like little hexagonal drums when looked at under a jeweler's loupe. Now that you've got that picture in your mind, I return you to your original thread topic. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nah. I'd wait 'em out and when they emerged, I'd smack 'em with a hammer. - Jim Katen, Oregon LOL, About ten years ago, I was in the middle of doing an inspection on a home when I found what looked like anobiidae frass on the doorsill below a brand new, just imported from California, custom door. As I was standing there pondering the frass and running my eyes over that door, a little black dot appeared and began to grow larger. That's when I realized that a bug was emerging from the wood. I ran over to my car, found an aspirin bottle, dumped it out and then ran back and scooped up the bug. By then there were two or three with fresh emergence holes, so I stood there and collected them one by one until I'd gotten more than a dozen. They turned out to be lychtids, which aren't native to this region. Didn't see any walkers or canes, though. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Boric acid powder, maybe? OT - OF!!! M.

That connection is very typical of 1950's PSE type connections around here. Though their own manual forbids that connection today and mandates a mast high enough to ensure the cables are at least two feet above the roof and the drip loop is no closer than 18-inches, they frequently hook up to those old setups anyway. It encourages the damned cut-rate roofers to continue to renail those stupid mounting blocks and anchors to roofs or just flash and shingle around them. I write them up all the time and I'm sure that other inspectors do too; but until PSE gets serious about refusing to hook up to setups like this the practice is going to continue. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Really? Dang! I've got to watch that channel more often. Mud or ash? It's a long way to that sucker from downtown Seattle; and, since the winds generally blow from the south and west, I'm not sure that ash would reach Seattle since Rainier is southeast of downtown. Then you've got all of the hills and valleys between Seattle and Rainier. Seems like they'd capture most of that muck and slow it down. Of course, they say that Rainier is high enough to create its own weather pattern, so maybe it's possible for an eruption to reverse the normal wind patterns and for ash to come from that direction. In any event, I'm about another 12 miles north of the city and there's a big-assed lake and some pretty damned high hills between me and that sucker. I think if I hunkered down I'd be fine regardless. Unless it dumped into the lake and raised the water level, in which case, I'd have to move my office upstairs or get soaked. Then again, if it were to trigger a friggin' quake, things could get a little dicey around here. The Nisqually quake in 1991 was a sphincter puckerer. I didn't crap for about ten days after that. Putting on my asbestos under-breeches just in case. [:-scared] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

When I get those old Lennox furnaces; if the manual or other documents are there, I usually check out the manual for a publication date stamped in the lower corner of the manual, warranty card, etc.. It's usually pretty close to manufacture date. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

lychtids and annobiidae larvae spend years inside the wood before they mature. You'll only see fresh frass when they're still close to the burrow hole openings. If they've burrowed deep, they can live deep in the wood for years and not show you any outward indication that they are there. Products like TimBor and BoraCare can soak into the wood. Borate screws up their guts so they can't digest their food and they die. Better safe than sorry, no? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Call Jim Renfroe at Wood Care Systems. Tell him what you've got and ask him which potion will work the best. He'll hook you up. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Bill, Yeah, I know what a lahar is. The folks down in Orting have special sirens in their town and have lahar drills all the time. However, it's nearly 100 miles to Rainier from here and there isn't any lahar that's gonna roll this far. However, if there is a super volcano underneath us and it were to blow like the one in Yellowstone did so long ago, I might get a pretty good ride out of it. One can only dream. Yee Haw! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, Looks like lychtids (PPB). OT - OF!!! M.

They have geological history that Mt. Rainier blows its nose about every 600,000 years, give or take a 100,000 years or so, and that it's now considered to be long overdue. I remember hearing someplace over the past weekend (I think it was as I was taking a nappy on the sofa with the television on.) that some scientists are now saying that they've got evidence that Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and Mt. Baker are all interconnected below ground and are all actually one huge super volcano ready to go. If I'm remembering it correctly, there are a bunch of volcanologists and other scientific gurus that think this first group has their heads tucked up their backsides. Sure hope that's the case. Maybe I should invest in a snowmobile suit and an oxygen bottle, so that if it is one big volcano and blows its stack I'll be able to not freeze and stay alive long enough to see Saturn's rings as I fly by with the rest of everyone in the state. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yesterday from the front deck of a house I was doing that overlooks Lake Washington in Kirkland. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Click to Enlarge 8.9 KB

Got that citation? I need to add it to my cheat sheet. OT - OF!!! M.