hausdok

Moisture, but heat helps it along. In climates where there's a lot of humidity, like North Carolina for instance, the stuff will break down sooner under similar conditions than it will in California, New Mexico or Southern Cal where the air is drier. The glue is water soluble in most grades. Keep the plywood damp long enough and sooner or later the glue starts to break down. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

John, Is it possible that all of that staining is along the wall directly behind a concrete front porch and this is dirt and funk that's washed down behind the rim and onto the walls? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I see those once in a while. I think the builders put them in so that folks can put a shelf full of planters out there and have a little garden. I was in one where the homeowner had the little balcony literally overflowing with flowers. You can open up the door and get a good fresh breeze in the room and if you've got a bunch of plants there they help to freshen the air. If you're confined yourself to a home on an upper floor without a yard or deck it's a way to sort of spruce the place up I guess. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I got a cheapo NavMan for my birthday last fall. On about 98% of the jobs, when it says, "Destination on your left (or right)" I can look out the window and see the house number - it's that accurate. However, it does not always take me the "smartest" route and sometimes it send me up a road that's closed off but looks like it's open on a map. It isn't very up-to-date; I'd guess it's about two years behind in its mapping, but it usually puts me in the neighborhood where it's easy to find the rest of the way from there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Are you absolutely certain that the drive hasn't settled relative to the garage slab? A lot of them do. OT - OF!!! M.

What's the address. Vito and Carmine have been looking all over for that guy and are offering a reward. Something about disrespectin' the house Mr. Venichi had for sale. OT - OF!!! M.

More specifically, go here. If you're not already registered as a user on that site, you'll need to register first. It's free and only takes a couple of minutes to accomplish. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nope, Doesn't look like a B-vent wye. OT - OF!!! M.

No, Absolutely not. First of all, if you've got a gas dryer you could aspyhyxiate yourself. Second, don't even think about using anything corrugated with a dryer vent - not even the connector from the dryer to the wall. The CPSC did a study of residential fires in the US from 1994 to 1997 and found that more than 17,000 homes burned due to those corrugated vents. You should use only a smooth-walled metal vent, taped at the joints with no screws and clean the thing out every year. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Why? The seller has no power to do anything more than report them to the HOA and hope that when they get darned good and ready they'll fix them. HOA meeting minutes is more useful. From those, a buyer should be able to see where someone has complained about the HOA dragging its feet over any maintenance issues. A review of the condo charter by the buyer is recommended I'm unclear about this. Exactly who is it that is recommending the buyer review the condo charter? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Looks like granule-coated modbit. Is that going to be covered by those concrete tiles? OT - OF!!! M.

No, that's not what I said. I used to be a franchisee; under that system I had to carry E & O and I had to, by contract, indemnify the franchiser that was getting 10% of my gross in royalties every month. I also had to - by contract - indemnify any real estate agents referred customers to me. In other words, the franchise used the fact that all of their folks had to carry E & O that indemnifies the agent as a lure to coax agents to refer work to their inspectors versus others. It wasn't the customers worrying about E & O; it was the agents who wanted their butts covered. For a weak inspector, E & O might be a good idea; but for a confident/competent inspector who does a really good job, I don't think it's that important 'cuz most claims will pay out around what the deductible will cost you anyway. The E & O carrier actually risks very little unless you do something so monumentally stupid that you need that greater coverage. For the average claim, the E & O carrier is making a profit on your business even after they pay out so calling it a "loss" is anything but in my book. You can tell clients all you want in a contract that there isn't any warranty of any sort beyond X-date; but, if they know you've got E & O, in the back of some folks' minds is the idea that, "Hell, it's no big deal; if something goes wrong I'll demand the inspector fix it. If he balks, I'll insist that he report it to his E & O carrier and I'll tell him that if he doesn't I'll sue him. If he still balks, I'll get a lawyer." Then, when they do get a lawyer, the lawyer calls you up demanding to know whether you've got E & O and with whom. Plenty of folks have come here in the past and told us that when a lawyer called up and found out that they didn't have E & O that the complaint went away. I think the whole idea of E & O just feeds the idea in the minds of the consumers that there's some kind of unwritten guaranty that goes along with the inspection. If you want to avoid ever having a claim, just do the best damn inspection on the planet and the likelihood of it ever happening is practically nil. However, go at this business with the idea that you'll do as little as you have to, and charge as much as you can get away with, and then always inspect with one eye on your watch and the other eye on the realtor, and you'll need the E & O plus the tail coverage 'cuz someday something will come back to bite you...hard. I think it makes more sense for an inspector to put that money aside and let it accumulate interest; a nice government-certificate of deposit or some such. It's been said someplace long ago, maybe it was here on TIJ, that the average claim paid out is between $5k and $7.5. Well, if you put that money aside and then go 10 years without ever having a complaint, you'll have banked between $30k and $40k plus interest. If you then get a complaint, and it only costs you between $5k and $7 to resolve, instead of having spent $30k to $40k, plus the $5k deductible to get that first claim resolved, you'll have only spent $7.5k or less, leaving you with a net profit of $30k+. Insurance companies know this; they're like the dealer at the card table at the casino - they know that the odds are long that they'll get hit with a big loss, and, just like the dealer at the card table, want you to keep right on playing their game. If it were anything different, do you think there'd even be insurance companies? Again, it boils down to your skills, competence and how confident you are at what you do. Do the job really well and you won't have any issues; do it like a checklist totin' buckethead and E & O will only last as long as your first one or two claims before you'll find that the dealer will refuse to take your bets any more. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike .

Your assets are at risk with or without E & O coverage. You still have to pay the deductible, which is sometimes more than what will ultimately be awarded by the insurance company, and if you screw up and notify the insurance company enough times they'll drop you like a hot potato, essentially putting you out of work in any state where E & O is required by law. The best way to protect your assets is by doing a much-better-than-average, complete and competent home inspection. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Going green; it's all the rage. One would expect that with the grim state of the economy that people wouldn't fret about whether or not their home has a few air leaks; however, they do. This two-part article gives some insight into the whole "green" movement and provides inspectors a peek behind the curtain of what an energy audit is all about. To read more, click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

Banks are refinancing homes at record numbers right now as people take advantage of the current low interest on mortgages. Since banks require a home inspection as part of the process, is this a marketing opportunity that most inspectors are missing? To read more, click here.

Homeowners in Florida who fear they might have bought a home with defective Chinese drywall now have something else to fear; individuals going door-to-door who claim to be experts at identifying the product and offer to do "tests" for a fee. To read more, click here.

As the number of foreclosed homes increases and buyers begin regaining their confidence, inspectors in some areas that are hit particularly hard by foreclosures are beginning to garner a lot of work on FHA homes and are holding their own. To read more, click here.

Hi, Yeah, a couple of months ago. Don't remember where it came from; for all I know, I might be violating someone's copyright. Personally, I'm not too thrilled with it; I think the vertical leg of the flashings should be at least twice as long as it is and it should extend behind the wrap. Still, I suppose if the one over the top of that ledger is long enough and extends behind the wrap it should be OK. The last time I built a deck I used the detail in the top picture combined with a flashing over the top of the ledger and large steel nuts, not washers, for spacers between the ledger and rim. Pilot-drilled every hole, sandwiched every nut between washers of bituthene and used bituthene washers under the flat washers under the heads of the bolts. There was no way for water to get behind the ledger; and, even if it had, there was lots of room for it to drain out and allow air behind the ledger to dry it out between rains. Gave it a year to shrink and then went back and snugged up every bolt. OT - OF!!! M. P.S. I see that Tom commented on that same detail while I was typing my response. Tom, I'm originally from upstate New York and the detail I describe above is how my old man taught me to do 'em. Only, he didn't have the benefit of bituthene back when he taught me so he'd go down to the junk pile behind the local truck repair shop and grab an old truck innertube and make me cut out every singled danged rubber gasket to sandwich those nuts and place under those washers. What a royal pain in the butt!

No arc fault protection. Those were put in in the 70's and we didn't have arc fault protection then. OT - OF!!! M.

Looky Here! Rigid siding: Click to Enlarge 79.86 KB Vinyl siding: Click to Enlarge 34.81 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I see something like you describe occasionally; have never had an issue with it. I don't know what brand the stuff was. OT - OF!!! M.

Hey, I've got a great idea, I can go to one of the Harvard U. or MIT sites and coax a few high brows over here to debate building science with you guys and we can go at it tooth and nail. [b)] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez, What a drama queen! [:-bonc01] OT - OF!!! M.

Back in my home town there used to be a guy named Sandy. Sandy lived on a tiny patch of land out in the woods in the center of the Sharon, CT Audobon Society's game refuge. If memory serves, the land had been deeded to the Audobon Society and he'd been given the right to live there for the rest of his days. Every day he would show up in Amenia and hang out in the coffee shop for hours or go up to the post office and sit on the steps with a couple of other old timers. He didn't work but he didn't beg and he always had money. Nobody knew much about him. I remember going to visit him at his place one time. It was a little wooden shack about 8ft. wide by 10ft. long by 10ft. high. He had a kitchen of sorts made out of some old car fenders and stuff outside. He had a fire pit with some logs around it for a living room and there was a really old car, a Ford Model A, I believe, stripped and half buried in the dirt with vegetation growing up through it. There was a one-hole privvy about a hundred yards from the "cabin." I put it in quotes because if you'd seen it you wouldn't have believed that it was someone's dwelling. What's this got to do with cellulose? Well, nothing maybe, except the "bedroom" was the cabin. When he opened the door it was packed from top to bottom with rolled-up newspapers. The door was lined with about a foot of newspapers and in the center, about four feet off the ground, was a long tubular opening 2-1/2 - 3ft. in diameter. It looked like a rustic version of one of those Japanese youth hostels. That guy braved winters with 8ft. deep snow in sub-zero freezing temps in that cabin and never complained. I asked him, "Doesn't it get cold up here with the wind blowing in the winter. He answered that inside with the door closed it was like being buried a mile underground - dead silent - and he slept like a baby every night. I assume he died years ago but I don't think I'll ever forget him explaining to me how newspaper, common cellulose, was a better insulator than the fiberglass my Dad was putting into the homes he was building. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Kewl, I think he'll get that. He stomped out of here all angry at us a while back but I see his IP Address sometimes when he's here reading and lurking. If your in Chi-Town you might have met Kurt. He's been in a bunch of those big buildings over the years. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike