hausdok

Hi All, I didn't post it here, partly because it was pretty graphic, but mostly because I didn't know how to do it, but Jim Simmons (Mr. Electric) sent me a short video showing a guy who was standing on top of a train somewhere in Asia - I'm going to guess either India, Pakastan or Bangladesh - and reached up and put his hand on the power line that supplied juice to that electric train. He was literally cooked from the inside out in about two seconds flat and collapsed on the roof of that train and then his exterior began to burst into flame before the video cut off. About all one can say about electricity is that at least it's quick. I got an email the other day from a group of women contractors. I'm not sure why, but I somehow ended up on their newsletter mailing list. The cover story for their newsletter this month was about one of their members, a female electrician, who'd died recently while standing on some metal scaffolding doing some work on some overhead lights someplace here in Washington state. Be careful out there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Rapper 50 Cent is suing the firm that did his pre-purchase home inspection claiming that they'd underestimated repairs required to the tune of nearly $2.7M. To read all stories on this subject, click here, and here, and here.

Hi Richard, There is a plastic product called Eco-Shake that was invented in the mid 1990's. It's made from wood flour that's been chemically processed to remove the starches and sugars and then mixed with the same stuff they make garden hoses out of. It comes in various widths and 4 different colors and has a Class A fire rating and some kind of outrageous warranty. That doesn't look like Eco-Shake, though. I had them send me a sample back in 1996 and it had a raised cross-hatch support ridge pattern on the back and didn't look like what you've got there. I put the Eco-Shake sample they sent me through hell. I submerged it in water for months on end, then I froze it, and then I tossed it up on the roof to bake for months in the sun and then repeated the cycle. It never lost it's flexibility and didn't degrade at all. Have you checked with that outfit that advertises cut-rate siding and metal and plastic roofing that looks like shakes on the weekly TV supplement in the Times? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Did you know that your non-profit home inspector organization's chapter can announce its home inspector events free of charge in TIJ's calendar of events? That's right, for free. In these tough times, many non-profits are struggling to make ends meet. TIJ is widely read by home inspectors all over the country and our policy has always been to allow true non-profit home inspection organizations, or other event sponsors where we see value to the profession, to make a one-time announcement of their events by posting them to our calendar. Once an event has been posted in the calendar and becomes a discussion thread, those who posted it are free to come onto TIJ and keep up interest by posting deadline reminders and announcement of changes. Let your organization's public relations committee know that posting your organization's events here is an excellent way to spread the word. For more information, contact us via email at: Editor@inspectorsjournal.com (Note: We accept calendar of event postings from all state associations and chapters, ASHI HQ and chapters, NAHI HQ and chapters and AII HQ and chapters; but from IACHI chapters only.)

Hmm, Dunno, but with four sets of handcuffs, one could............... ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's a 2-ladder. Use the 21footer in the basement. Extend the 13footer two rungs on one side and three on the other, close it, push it through and onto the floor with the two rung side down, lean in, open it up and then go through head first walking down the inside ladder with your hands. Come out the same way, turn around, collapse the small ladder and pull it back through. OT - OF!!! M.

Ouch! [b)]

A long time ago. From the 1979 CABO, R-503.8, "Approved corrosion-resistive flashing shall be provided at the top and sides of all exterior window and door openings in such manner as to be leakproof. . . " Ya, but the problem came when they started allowing "self flashing" windows to suffice, and stopped using head flashings. Except that no window manufacturer every "allowed" window nailing fins to suffice and no competent trainer ever endorsed the idea. Who knows who started it; but somewhere there was a fellow that decided that, with a little caulk, the nailing fin would keep out water and he could skip the flashings. Then he taught his "technique" to someone else, who taught it to someone else, who taught it to someone else, who...... The code required flashings in addition to the windows and didn't say anything about self-flashing windows because there never has been such a thing. Self-adhering bituthene flashings weren't really an innovation. Some guy was probably standing around watching someone put Grace Ice and Water Shield on a roof and thought, "Wow, that'd work a whole lot better than cutting those heavy felt splines." He just substituted a different material for a tried and true window flashing technique. Then as time went by, someone, maybe a cousin of the same dildo that decided that the nailing fins were flashings, decided to start leaving out the head flashings and started teaching that to his workers, who taught it to other workers, who taught it to other workers. The ultimate dumbing down when they figured out that they could save an extra $2 per window by eliminating the top piece of bituthene by simply overlapping the top flange of the window and the two self-adhered side splines with building paper and then apply a bead of caulk around the perimeter of the window. Apparently, nobody ever pointed out to most of these ijits that wind pushes water as much as 4 inches up behind siding so the water draining down the paper and hitting the tops of windows wants to push behind the paper anyway. The construction business lost its soul when carpenters no longer insisted on a structured system of apprentices who learned it all top to bottom as site roustabouts and helpers, became journeymen, worked as journeymen for years and later became master carpenters. Now it's a trade populated by glorified do-it-yourselfers with MBA's or construction management degrees who hire the cheapest labor they can find, teach those laborers to do a very limited number of tasks and nothing else - and not well - and call themselves "builders." End of my rant-o-the-day. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Great!!! Send the 90% finder's fee to The Inspector's Journal, Kenmore, WA 98028 OT - OF!!! Mike

In the modern home inspector vernacular, that's known as being somewhat peckish. [:-graduat ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Brad, I'll be happy to order one for you and send it along to you if you like. You can send me a check to cover costs once I know what total cost will be to ship it your way. Let me know if you'd like to do that. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Get 'em while they're hot. CompUsa has a limited time only deal on 1TB Iomega external hard drives purchased online for $89.99 plus $1.99 shipping. How much will a 1 terabyte external drive hold? Think 333,000 hi-res photos, 500 standard definition full-length movies, 250,000 MP3 tunes. Five years ago you would have paid $750 for this drive. Get your entire system backed up really cheap and still have room for years worth of other data. Want to learn more, click here

Hi Les, Mostly because it looks clean and is easier on my eyes. 10 makes me strain to read and 12 seems to be too large. I'm just more comfortable keeping it simple and I figure if I'm comfortable that the cient will be comfortable reading it. OT - OF!!! Mike

11 pt Times New Roman with 11 pt Arial headers. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, My notes reflect two methods for Tappen: Pre-1998 is the last 3 characters for the year and month. 1998 and later is the first three positions are model and series and the next four are year and month and the last five are production code. OT - OF!!! M.

I have installation instructions for L-P siding that go back to April of 1996. Lap siding Nailable sheathing installation A continuous positive vapor barrier must be installed on the inside of conditioned exterior walls. Direct-to-stud installation Unsheathed walls require a weather resistant barrier on the exterior side of the wall (15lb. felt, soin coated paper, or a house wrap material approved by local codes.) Item #9 states A 3/16" gap is required where siding ends at the trim around doors, window, and other openings. Install sloped, noncorrosive flashing behind siding and over horizontal trim and at windows and door locations. (Flashing needs to be sloped to drain water away from the siding.) Panel Siding Item #2 states: A continuous positive vapor barrier must be installed on the inside of conditioned exterior walls. Item #8 states: A 1/8" gap for expansion is required where siding ends at the trim around doors, window, and other openings. Install sloped, noncorrosive flashing behind panels and over trim and at windows and doors. (Use sloped flashing to prevent water from collecting at the back of the panel.) ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, you don't want to install insulation against the underside of the roof unless you plan to turn the area into conditioned habitable space. Lots of old homes are insulated wrong with insulation on the floor of the kneewall spaces and insulation tacked up on the underside of the roof in unheated attics without insulation on the back walls of the kneewalls or in the ceiling cavity below the attic floor. If you only want to use that area as storage space but don't want to heat it, just air seal better and insulate the entire floor of the attic all the way through the kneewalls to the outer walls. If you want to use the attic space for storage, insulate the floor of the kneewall attics, the backside of the kneewalls and then the underside of the roof. You can insulate the underside of the roof with sprayed-on foam, use dense-packed cells or use batting while making sure to leave a ventilation channel above the insulation and ensure there is free airflow from the eaves, through the kneewall attics, above the insulation and out the ridge. If you want to increase the depth in the roof plane, fur the rafters down and use thicker insulation. You don't need to nail SIPs pannels to your roof. In Minnesota, you want the vapor barrier on the backside of the interior space before the insulation, not between the insulation and the cold roof, or you'll end up with a wrong side vapor barrier and moisture trapped in your ceiling/wall cavity - a mold farm. Go to BuildingScience.com, look up the preferred building practices information for your area, study it, study it again and then study it again until you can recite it in your sleep. Then contact some insulating contractors that have a good rep in your area and discuss this issue coherently with them. Asking for information on a forum frequented by home inspectors from all over the planet, many of whom have no experience insulating homes or even an understanding of building science, living in dozens of different climates, used to many different techniques, isn't going to get you really useful answers. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

July 2000. Frigidaire and Tappan are the same. The first three positions are model and series and the next four are year and month. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, yeah, except that a "tic" is an involuntary twitch. When I first read your header, I thought you were referring to some kind of spasm, not an insect; that's why I corrected the spelling. Sorry if it offended you. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yes, there used to be another water heater. Look at the size of that shared vent. It's pretty danged big 'cuz it was sized for two water heaters plus the furnace. This place originally had two water heaters; one went bad so they removed it, coupled the inlet and outlet lines together with a flex connector and said, "We don' need no steenking second water heater." That second flue connector needs to be capped off. Any indication that flue gases are losing buoyancy and are condensing too quickly? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

The new formulation? Would that be the new formulation that they started using in 1990? My how time flies. - Jim Katen, Oregon Hi Jim, Hell, I dunno. There's the older white stuff that I see that's got a different texture and is itchy - kind of looks like poodle hair - and then there's the stuff I see in brand new houses that seems to be lighter and doesn't itch at all. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It sounds like he wants to add a sips deck on top of the existing deck. Sips decks are very strong when splined together properly and they can sustain a lot of weight. They do suffer from moisture issues though if the interior isn't properly ventilated and they aren't sealed well where they're joined together. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, It's loose fill fiberglass. I see mountains of the stuff on a daily basis. The new formulation is the white stuff and it doesn't itch at all. The yellow and pink stuff? That'll drive ya nuts. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmm, Well, once again I've demonstrated how befuddled my understanding of electricity is. I could have sworn I'd popped breakers more than once when using cobbled together two prong extension cords and the hot and grounded conductors touched each other 'cuz I'd been a nimrod and hadn't yet taped up the splices. Guess I got it wrong. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nah, There're plenty of people reading, that I know. I'm just trying to bait folks into discussing things amongst themselves. That's how we figure this stuff out; by talking about it, seeing what works, what doesn't. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike