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Hi Matthew, I think that what you are looking for is here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi JIm, Well, hell, I heard him speak on the subject around 2001. Guess he's changed his presentation since then. OT - OF!!! M.

Sounds like a case of the tail wagging the dog. It should be the North Carolina home inspectors telling the agents what will be in the report and telling the agents, "Get used to it, we don't tell you how to sell houses, stop telling us how to be home inspectors." They tried that crap here and almost succeeded with the first version of the law that the Senator tried to get passed in 1996. We organized, fought them and we won. So far, since passage of the law Washington Realtors (the name of the state's realtor association) is saying that how we run our affairs is none of their business. Guess we'll see as licensing progresses. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

According to a Dr. Antonelli, an entomologist down at WSDA, the brown recluse is in Washington State. It was imported into the state somehow and numbers are growing. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Richmond is made by Rheem so it's in the serial number - first two digits are the month and second two are the year. Your's was manufactured in September 2005. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Joe, Good to hear from you. Are you still Iraq or are you back home? OT - OF!!! M.

Somebody is wound pretty tight today! Jeez, I even put one of those smiley thingies on that response and you still took it as serious. It's time for a vacation, Bro! Comeon out, lets rent some sea kayaks, paddle out to the islands and do some camping. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Exactly what I'd expect from a fellow with that avatar. []

Screw the "points." Jim (Mr. Electric) taught a class at the franchise's annual convention in 1997 or 1998 where he told everyone that if it's 40 years old it's obsolete and needs to be replaced. I've used that recommendation ever since and have never had an argument from anyone about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike That's a stupid statement and doesn't apply to today. In 1997 all 40 year old panels were fuse panels. Just because you haven't had an argument about it doesn't make it so.Well, you're entitled to your opinion but I could counter with just because you say it's stupid doesn't mean that it is stupid. Besides, you are wrong about a 40-year old panel in 1997 being a fuse box. There were lots of breakers around before 1957. A 1957 MagnaTrip would have had breakers for one; a 57 Bulldog would have had breakers too. I know because my father installed one in my home when I was six years old. I sat there and watched him wire it and was fascinated by the push-button breakers and the little yellow boxes with the bulldog on the cover. I know it was 1957 'cuz that was the summer he bought the house and he had to wire it and plumb it before we could move in. The non-argument I'm talking about is with electricians; not a single one has ever said that it was a bad call to recommend replacing a 40 year or older panel. So, how many 40+ year old panels do you see that aren't maxed out or nearly so and have so many issues that it will probably be cheaper to upgrade to a new panel with larger capacity and more bending room etc. than to spend what it will cost to have an electrician dink around adding sub-panels etc.? My answer would be, "Not many." I think that's why Jim recommends replacing them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Screw the "points." Jim (Mr. Electric) taught a class at the franchise's annual convention in 1997 or 1998 where he told everyone that if it's 40 years old it's obsolete and needs to be replaced. I've used that recommendation ever since and have never had an argument from anyone about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Or worse? Wha?!! Oh my gawd! You don't mean something like being forced to kiss skanky Nancy Pelosi on the lips do you? Bleeaaaaachhhhh! Ptui, Ptui. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. Where the hell is the listerine? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

With 46-year old galvanized pipe? Quite good. There's a trick that one can do to try and increase water volume with galvy but it is a little bit risky because you run the risk of clogging the stops; the trick is a flush party. The homeowner flushes the mud out of the bottom of the water heater tank, takes the aerators off of every faucet in the home, opens all of the angle stops to full open and then gets the spouse and some relatives and friends to spread out around the house - placing a person at every sillcock and fixture. On a pre-arranged signal, everyone begins randomly turning the faucets on and off at full volume. This goes on for about 10 minutes. At the end of the process, if the homeowner is lucky they will have broken a bunch of rust loose, flushed it out of the system and manage to increase water volume enough to be considered adequate. If they are not lucky, they end up with a bunch of rust clogging the pipe at the contrictions (stops) and the only way to clear it is to turn off the water, remove the stops, clear the clog manually, and then install new stops. Even then it might not be enough and it might be time to either have the pipe rehabilitated or cut it all out and replace it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

The stops are occluded with rust. Did you take the aerator off and see if it was completely clogged? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, We get some nasty hail sometimes but it's not going to do much to a shake roof. They can take a pretty good beating. OT - OF!!! M.

I can just imagine what myself or Richard would look like tooling down the street with 32' ladders on top of our rigs. So, what do you do when the roof is too high to reach with your 32' ladder? Do you say, "Sorry, I wasn't prepared. I didn't realize that it was 40' to the eaves of this house?" ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It's cedar; the uniform silver discoloration pretty much confirms that. There's nothing really wrong with anything that I can see. Some shakes lift, some don't. Solid sheathing is acceptable in areas with wind-driven snow and I'm pretty sure that Illinois would definitely be an area of wind-driven snow. Cedar breather or battens under the deck over solid sheathing are only required in high humidity areas. Is your area one that's considered high humidity? Sorry, I don't really have any boilerplate maintenance comments for shakes; just make sure your clients understand that fungi will literally eat the roof, so they need to keep it free of moss and that pressure-washing with high pressure (anything over about 100psi) is strictly verboten. In that price point, he probably won't be doing his own roof maintenance, but make sure that he ensures that whoever does the roof maintenance is insured 'cuz those babies are slick when they are even a little bit damp. A shake roof needs annual tuneups; someone literally needs to climb up onto it once a year and replace shakes that slip out, remove and replace rotten shakes, replace ridge shakes as necessary, clean it and then treat it with a real preservative - not some rust-colored dye. Cost of having a shake maintenance company, that really knows what it's doing, maintain the roof over the lifetime of the cover can easily equal replacement cost but can double its service life so it's a wash. The best maintenance company around here used an HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) method of cleaning shake roofs. Take care of it and it will remain leak-free for a long, long time; ignore it, or hire the wrong toadstool with legs to do maintenance on it with a pressure washer and a bucket of rust-colored dye, and it will leak and not last nearly as long as one would expect it to. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Don't recommend it unless you plan to run a board-on-batten pattern. If you prefer the more common batten-on-board look you'd better use nailers. 1. Place a layer of felt over the stucco 2. Install horizontal battens on 16-inch centers with the stucco side of the nailers kerfed about every 6 inches so the cavity can drain. Seal the nailers with some Thompsons or paint them. 3. Seal the house side of the cedar siding, and the battens, with Thompson's water seal or some other kind of moisture inhibitor 4. Apply your siding. Use a strip of Cedar Breather along the top and bottom of the walls to keep out insects and allow air to move through the cavity so the wall can dry out and any vapor diffusion from the house can dissipate. 5. Prime and paint the siding and make darned sure to seal the end grain. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Perhaps our profession should start reporting this thing to hud. I'd suggest that every time anyone encounters a supposedly "inspected" home with such egregious issues that they pen a letter to HUD voicing their concerns and attach lots of photos to it while suggesting that they clean up their vetting procedures. You only have to create the letter once and then you can reuse it over and over and over. If you don't get a response on the first one or two, start sending copies to your local congressmen and make sure that they are shown in the distribution at the bottom of the page. That's sure to get someone's attention. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm thinkin' you're an ass for making me google buprestid larvae. Come on, Bro, Ass? Is that all you've got (snicker). Ex-cop, remember. I've been called things that'd make Hitler feint. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike "Feint"? Don't you mean "faint"? Yeah, dat won. OT - OF!!! M.

Don't worry about it; if I'd wanted it to be in the electrical forum I would have put it there. There's absolutely nothing wrong with responding to articles from the home page. Your responses aren't shown there. Whenever an article is posted to the home page, it simultaneously becomes a forum entry. OT - OF!!! M.

I'm thinkin' you're an ass for making me google buprestid larvae. Come on, Bro, Ass? Is that all you've got (snicker). Ex-cop, remember. I've been called things that'd make Hitler feint. Last Thursday's house, there was an Asian long-horned beetle on the siding. I'm still wondering whether I should have picked up the phone and called WSDA. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I did exactly that this past Sunday with my gorilla ladder but I'd never attempt it with one of those flimsy telestep things. It's bad enough having the darned 300 pound rated gorilla ladder bending under my weight. I can't even imagine what it would be like on one of those things. My knees too are shot. I'm wearing those things that weight lifters wear on both knees now when I'm on the job. They provide a lot of support and make walking much easier but jeez, are those uncomfortable in this heat! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Exactly, It enables the siding guy to install siding down the side of the foundation closer to the ground for esthetics. When it's covered and separated from the ground, it will remain toxic for a long, long time. When exposed to the weather or left to constantly wick moisture from the soil it last about 15 years or so around here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'd go from the second floor deck behind the tree with my shorter gorilla. Of course, you'll need someone on the house side of your ladder holding onto it 'cuz you're going to be near vertical. OT - OF!!! Mike

Hi, I'm going to go out on a limb here and theorize that the manufacturer incorporates the year into the model number. The model is really a 110 and the 5 is pre-placed to represent the fifties. All the factory has to do then is stamp on the last digit as it corresponds to that year. 1957 - That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike