hausdok

Sorry, Just read my own note and see that Nordyne only bought the name in the mid 1990's. Was there an ANSI standard posted on the side of the unit? Those usually show a date for the standard and are within a year or two either way of the manufacturing date on the furnace. The other thing I do is look at the publication dates in the bottom corner of any manuals that come with the furnace or stickers attached to them. They often have a date stamped there - usually something like 5-72 or something similar. OT - OF!!! M.

If you'd searched the site for "Westinghouse" you would have found that immediately under this post in the HVAC forum search results there was this thread, which explains all about the Westinghouse code. That post has a link directly to the furnace age chart that's archived in the HVAC section of the site library and is available for anyone who is a registered member of TIJ to download for free. I thnk that you've got the serial number wrong but one of those letters counts so it's either a 1979 or a 1982 furnace. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

An interesting article at MSN.com finds that a large percentage of homeowners is still not willing to face reality and is pricing homes beyond what they can expect to sell them for in this market. To read more, click here.

An interesting article in Hanley Wood's Remodeler newsletter; remodeling companies that periodically do maintenance checkups on homes. Seems to me, that'd be a natural revenue stream for home inspectors. To read more, click here.

Hi All, Here's another one on this topic. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Richard, Well, after sleeping on it, I think you're right. I can't think of any way that one can add the bottom rod to the ATU system after the fact without opening up the interior wall to be able to install the nut on top of the bottom takeup device. It would be really interesting to hear the builder's explanation of this. How serious it is depends on whether this was only one ATU path or all of them. Perhaps a call to the local code guy explaining what he saw and voicing the possibility that maybe the code guy had missed this and the system isn't continuous might spark some movement. More info: http://www.strongtie.com/products/ats/intro.html ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hah, For the uninitiated, I knew I had a graphic of these someplace. OT - OF!!! M.

Hmm, So, they forgot the rods and then went down to do them afterward? Interesting. Wonder where the local code guys were napping during construction? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I don't think the 21-year old did it; if he did, where's the sawdust? No point in strapping that I can see but there should have been a couple of jack studs added on either side of the rods. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK, I guess I don't understand why you're even wasting mental energy on this; the builder says that room is not a bedroom and the client knows it shouldn't be used as a bedroom. So, unless it was advertised as a bedroom and the client thinks it's supposed to be a bedroom there's really no dispute. Even if it was advertised as a bedroom and the client thought it was, that's got nothing to do with us beyond making sure that the client understands why it shouldn't be used as a bedroom. At that point, the argument over whether it is or is not a bedroom is something for an appraiser and the realtors and the client to work through, because then the home has been advertised with more bedrooms than it actually has. Since the builder maintains it is not a bedroom, I'm guessing that he never advertised it as such. Once I've given the client the information I'm supposed to, I couldn't care less whether the client accepts or rejects some lame argument made by the builder/realtor, as long as I'm solidly confident that the information I gave the client is accurate. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

These guys might be able to tell you something: http://www.nyspestcontrol.org/ OT - OF!!! M.

There are condominiums being built around here with 100 amps systems and houses with 125-amp systems and folks don't seem to be having any problems handling what look to be very normal loads to me. I agree that a 200-amp service provide a whole lot more wiggle room but I don't think it's essential. Heck, FHA just increased it's requirement and that's only 100 amps. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Check with the New York State Department of Agriculture and you'll probaby get a list. OT - OF!!! M.

When a new development is too remote to economically bring in natural gas, and the cost of electricity eliminates it as an option, a developer decides to put in a community propane gas distribution system with a 60,000 gallon tank. To read more, click here or watch the video here.

Hi All, Saw this and couldn't help but think about you all. Maybe the Great Prognosticator can make a killing here. http://propicks.hgtvpro.com/?nl=HGPro_v191p_23 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nothing ventured nothing gained, I always say. To take a shot at winning some free tools, click here.

To watch an HGTV video about an evironmentally-friendly pest treatment, click here.

'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.' Thomas Jefferson 1802

Hoo Boy! Can you imagine walking into this guy's basement? I can understand the frustration of hobby chemists like him but stuff like this would be scary nonetheless. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/86/8645sci1.html ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Every year I teach an Introduction to Home Inspections course to a group of appraisers, property managers, property maintenance, real estate folks, investors and a few wannabe home inspectors. One of my students this year is stymied by our new home inspector licensing law because the course she's enrolled in hasn't yet been approved by the state for credit toward the education requirements. I recommended that she look into this field. I think it's a completely different animal; one isn't looking so much for defects, per se, as for ways to improve energy efficiency. In my opinion, it's quite a bit outside the normal sphere of work that we do. I think it will probably be a new revenue stream for inspectors in some areas, but I expect to see lots of people doing it who've no idea how to conduct a "home" inspection and that's just fine with me as long as they stay out of our field and don't call it home inspection. I doubt that one could make much extra money at it here on Puget Sound; I heard that the utility company is training hundreds of energy assessors in free classes. Each of those that's certified must do x-number of free audits before their course is considered paid for. At some point there will be so many of them around here that one won't be able to swing a cat without hitting one of them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Rich, Yeah, I've run into about half a dozen of those over the years. Funny thing, you never realize that it's skip without a deck until you get into the attic. It's not "easy to walk through" at all. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Isn't there something in the NEC that prohibits overcrowding in the panelboard and says a panelboard can't be more than 40% full? OT - OF!!! M.

Roger that! The second paragraph of the article states that the sellers had said that damage from a 2002 kitchen fire had been repaired "as new." I can't think of anyplace where burnt structural components are considered "as new." If they really did say that, logic dictates that the the buyer must have said something to the inspector, no? I dunno, I've never had a house where there'd been a fire and my client knew about it up front and didn't tell me about it the second I got out of my vehicle. I have found a number of them where there'd been fires and nobody had said anything, though. In about half of those, there was no way that the current homeowner couldn't have known about the fire. Don't know about most of the brethren, but when someone tells me there's been a fire I always seem to spend an inordinate amount of time snooping into all of the little nooks and crannies looking to ensure that the damage has been repaired. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm thinking that this might have been one of those situations where an inspector didn't go into an attic and might have stood in the opening peering around with a flashlight. It's not hard to understand one's duty insofar as seeing burnt structural members goes; you just report it the way you'd expect any inspector working for you to report it to you so that you at least know about it. In the case of a fellow simply standing on a ladder in the hatchway, if you've got an L-shaped house and the damaged area is in the wing of the attic that's not visible from the hatch, you're not likely to see the damage. Then the issue becomes whether you could have/should have climbed up into the attic to see that wing that you can't see from the hatch. If the engineering firm demonstrates that he could have easily done that, because they did it, he might have a hard time avoiding culpability. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Why don't you simply ask the builder nicely to provide you with that particular code citation so that you'll have it for future reference and can avoid that kind of confusion with another builder. Let him find it for you; if he can't find it, he'll realize that he's talking through his hat. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike