hausdok

Hi Chad, Gromicko is a guy who used to install radon mitigation systems in the State of Pennsylvania. He got into trouble when he cheated his customers by not installing those systems correctly. It seems the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, or whatever it's called there, inspected a system, found it to be faulty, and then decided to randomly sample a set number of the systems that he'd installed. Well, not a single one inspected was installed correctly so they suspended his radon mitigation system installer's license and levied a hell of a big fine on him - more than $14,000. Gromicko wasn't going to take that lying down, he appealed it all the way through the Pennsylvania court system,.....and lost. So, after installing many faulty mitigation systems, being caught, fined, taking it to appeal and losing - while all the while those systems were probably harming the health of families and children living in those homes - did he go back and fix those systems or even pay the fine? Nope, he moved to the State of Colorado and claims that he doesn't have to pay the fine. It remains unpaid to this day. What a fine upstanding citizen - NOT - I'm picturing a horse's ass with teeth. Oh yeah, he's also the guy who founded and owns a public relations firm that passes as a home inspection organization which he claims is the world's largest - another lie; anyone with a thimbleful of brains knows that the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors - R.I.C.S. - is the largest organization of home inspectors in the world and has been for more than a hundred years. However, given his track record, I doubt that he cares about the truth. Last I heard, he's living in Ned, CO. Maybe he's getting back into the radon mitigation system business. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmmm, Has Gromicko worked on that house? He lives in Colorado now, doesn't he? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, You're right, it probably won't work but there's not a lot you can do to move an intransigent builder and/or muni. I normally just explain the issue to the client, tell the client that it's my opinion that it won't work and that I'll be writing it up that way, but not to expect the builder to do a whole lot about it, 'cuz it's been my experience that most builders and muni guys think that home inspectors like us are smokin' wacky tobaccy. I tell the client to insist on all of the answers from the builder and muni guy in writing, keep an eye on it if they buy it, and keep their litigation attorney on speed dial for the day that they discover that I was right and the builder and muni guy were wrong. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, I did at one point; however, the last time I downloaded an update and looked at the boilerplate I didn't recognize a whole lot of it. One should expect to rewrite software boilerplate to fit one's own style anyway; just avoid passive inspectorspeak and write like you talk and it usually works out fine. The beauty of IE is that it's designed with the compumoron in mind and it makes it easy to produce a decent report without a lot of agonizing and struggling with how to format it. It's super easy to format it and to make changes to it. Plus, it will kick out a full-narrative for you that might have otherwise taken hours to peck out on a keyboard; or, if you want a semi-narrative format for a report, all yo have to do is go into settings and turn on semi-narrative mode. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Not really, The initial poster is asking about a door that's locked on his own home. I doubt that Richard comes anywhere near this when doing an inspection. If he does, he needs to get back on his meds, stat. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. I find that a good hard and swift kick below the doorknob next to the jamb will often do wonders to open a stuck door.

Inspect Vue? (spit) I'm an Inspect Express man myself. I don' need no steenking inspectorspeak written in passive voice by some wannabe inspector PHD; if I want gobbledygook, I'll write it myself. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Whoops, Guess I need to pay better attention to the thread title. I can split this sucker if you guys want and send all bug comments into another thread. OT - OF!!! M.

My time working in the Antilles (Lesser and Greater, for Jimmy), showed me just how nasty termites can really be. I've watched tropical termites eat treated lumber until there was nothing left. As workers consume enough poison, they fall off and are replaced by new termites, until the treated lumber is gone. We used to have pools on how quick termites could eat a chunk of 2x4 (untreated) tossed into the weeds. We had one chunk get consumed in less than 2 hours. I'd never believe it if I hadn't seen it. Hi, I don't remember where I saw it, but I distinctly remember reading someplace that if you took the combined weight of every termite on earth and placed it on one scale and then took the combined weight of every single human that the termites would far outweigh humans. Apparently, they are the largest recyclers on the planet and are critical to the heath of this rock. Go figure. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK, educate me here. So, for closed valleys, Certainteed really wants the field with the more surface area (draining more water) to extend past the valley and terminate into the field with the lesser water drainage. Correct? In their diagram, the larger field of roof (more water drainage) should be the portion on the left and smaller field on the right? No, disregard the size of any given portion of the roof in the sketch 'cuz it doesn't mean a thing. What's important is which side they've designated greater watershed versus lesser watersdhed. The lesser watershed is not cut and it passes through the valley and angles onto the other roof plane. The the greater watershed laps over the top of that and is trimmed 2-inches back from the centerline of that valley and adhered with mastic. The sketch is correct, they just mislabled the two vertical lines that designate the centerline of the valley and the cut line. Those arrows should be reversed. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, There is no "refilling" them. They are a closed system. If it leaks, toss it and get a new one. OT - OF!!! M.

By AUBREY COHEN - P-I REPORTER Karen Pfeiffer Bush started as an agent with Seattle's Lake & Co. real estate in 2005, during the height of the recent real estate boom. "Things were still really strong my first year," she said. "I started to notice things really kind of slowing down in the summer of '07." To read more, click here

OK, Now I see it. Chad's right, just reverse the arrows. OT - OF!!! M.

I've read it several times and I don't see an issue with the diagram. Guess I'm tired tonight. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Before I'd monkey around with a main line that's working perfectly fine, I'd probably go for one of these and plumb it up into the existing stack. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You soooo funny, G.I. OT - OF!!! M.

Press Releas - Palatine, IL Schneider Electric announces an eLearning Web site that delivers the latest information and professional training on Safety, Codes and Standards, Compliance Issues, Technical Skills Development, Product and Technology Reviews, and General Business Management to electrical contractors. The site —www.us.squared.com/contractor-training— was developed to provide electrical contractors with more convenient, easy-to-use, and cost-effective training, as well as the latest information on new technology and products. “As electrical contractors work to stay competitive in a tough market, Web-based training tools can be a valuable option to help keep themselves and employees up-to-date on the latest information,â€

Hi, Seems like it should be easy enough to confirm; just stop into the orange box, take one off the shelf, open it up, pull out the instruction sheet and read it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. I just came back here after visiting the Square D site. There is a lot of information here about AFCI's, including installation instructions and sheets to help one diagnose why one is tripping, but I saw nothing there anywhere that said that the coiled wire needs to be straightened out; in fact, they clearly show the coil in one of the illustrations. Maybe another manufacturer has that rule but I don't have the time or the energy to go look at them all.

Hi, Well, I'm not so sure that not dinking around with a water heater for 15-minutes to check whether the upper or lower thermostats are working properly is a "less-than-thorough" inspection or not but I think my time can be better spent. Mine is a visual examination of the exterior of the water heater for elevation from a garage floor, proper plumbing, tight connections (water or electrical), signs of leaks, proper sized breakers and wiring to the unit, safe wiring to the unit, disconnect next to the unit or within sight of the unit or with a lockout in the box, proper seismic bracing and blocking, kinked/damaged pipes or connectors, properly insulated connectors, properly configured TPR valve and discharge line, proper/safe gas line configuration with tight connections, the presence of a flue spiral thingy (don't know what the thing is supposed to be called), the proper configuration of the draft diverter, the proper type of vent connector and vent, signs of condensate damage to the vent or water heater, signs of back drafting, plenty of combustion air from the right source, temp setting at no more than 120° on electric or gas water heaters - based on the controls and feel, not on taking the temp with a thermometer - and a visual examination of the burner plate, underside of the tank, pilot and thermocouple. I also quickly explain to the client that he/she should drain the muck off the bottom of the tank once a year and replace the anode rod about halfway through service life (about 5 to 7-1/2 years into the life of the tank around here). I'm not going to then spend more time dinking around trying to diagnose a problem that I think might exist. Why would I; I certainly wouldn't be getting paid to do that? One is supposed to remove covers that are designed to be removed, so I don't see any issue with taking the covers off an electric water heater, checking for leaks around the element bosses, looking for signs of scorched wiring, signs of damage to either thermostat or the rest, and then checking the temp setting, but I think that's where it needs to end, lest you step into the role of a water heater service person whose doing a technical analysis of the device. As far as temperature goes, when I was in the Army those who lived in Government quarters were under standing orders never to turn a water heater up past 125°F because at that temperature a child or a woman with soft skin (or a dainty guy too, I suppose) would receive a 3rd degree burn in less than 3 seconds. If a kid were burned because some GI cranked his hot water up we'd prosecute the troop for disobeying a lawful order. That kind of ingrained the 125°F thing into my head. Ever held your hand under a faucet at 125°F for 3 seconds? It's painful, even for someone with heavily callused hands, so I don't think a thermometer is necessary to know when the water is too hot - Mrs. Housewife or her kid won't have one to test the water. We generally feel the hot water and then start the hot water running in the tub or shower as soon as we enter the bath and then go about checking toilets, sinks, and whatever other fixtures there are for leaks. That pulls a lot of water off the hot water heater. If, by the time we get around to the tub and shower again, the water temperature has dropped a lot, it's pretty obvious that something is amiss - either there's a broken dip tube, there is only one element working or something else is going on, but I don't really care what it is; I'm going to report something is wrong and recommend they get it checked out - no teacup test necessary. Bottom line, if I stick my hand under the hot water at the farthest fixture from the water heater and it's uncomfortably hot it will clearly be hotter - too hot - closer to the water heater. If I've checked the settings and the temperature on the control valve or the thermostats is set to a safe temperature, but it's too hot for me to comfortably hold my hand under, something is obviously wrong. Very simple, no protracted test involved - recommend they get it checked out by a plumber. I think that's what the customer expects to get for what they pay me. Rick, please don't take this the wrong way, 'cuz you're good people and we like you here, but if you think that being on site two hours for an inspection is a long time you need to do some ride-alongs with some experienced/reputable old hands to see how things should be done, 'cuz I think you may be missing some critical steps. I've been doing this 12-1/2 years now and I've never done an inspection in as little as two hours; hell, I did a 353 square foot condo the other day and that took me 2-1/2 hours. Of course, I suppose one could move faster; I just don't see how to do it without skipping necessary steps. Then again, I am the guy who is supposed to be long-winded. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

For me, business last year was up over the year before and this year I'm way ahead of last year's numbers. It's been very steady all spring, summer and fall. The only "marketing" I do is to print my own business cards and inspect like I'm inspecting for the one person on the planet who can be more critical of me than me, my mother. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Uh, It's voila, not whahlah. 'cuz I thought you'd want to know. OT - OF!!! M.

So, instead of having one hole sucking heat out of his house 24/7/365 he can have two? OT - OF!!! M.

According to this article from a Massachusetts paper, demand for energy audits is way up. The home inspection company featured in the story claims that after only three years of doing energy audits they are now doing five audits for every home inspection performed. To read more click here.

Hi Les, You may be right about that but I don't recall it. Still, if he'd gotten the name off of the product he could have looked up the manufacturer's instructions - just about all of them are on the web. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Probably ACM OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, PEX is not UV stable. If it's outside it needs to be wrapped. OT - OF!!! M.