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Hi, Well, at least your wife understands a little bit about what a 2-wheeler is about; mine won't even get on one for a ride. She's terrified of them. Then there's the little bit of family history; my little brother took my Honda 750 into a corner after forgetting to put up the kickstand. He ended up hitting a set of cable guard rails and almost losing his right leg. In the end, he only lost the foot but it's enough to have my wife permanently freaked out about motorcycles. Sigh. OT - OF!!! M.

Nope, That's a Honda VTX1300R. Nice retro look, No? OT - OF!!! M.

Sure, Why not? Kaplan is owned by the Washington Post. They sure don't need the revenue nearly as much as the author does. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Well, I finally found the flash card for the anchient digital camera and figured out (sort of) how to make it work (All except the damned flash), so I'm posting a photo of the two monitors; my old 19-inch wide screen and the wonderful new 22-inch monster that you guys so generously purchased for me. All I gotta say is YOU GUYS ROCK!!! Thanks loads. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Image Insert: 33.83 KB

Hi Randy, The sponsors get upset with me when I moderate topics that I myself initiated. However, I don't see a problem with splitting the topic and leaving the relavent stuff over there and sending all of the irrelavent stuff over here to another forum under a more appropriate thread title. It's educational folks; this is exactly the way they carry on in about 98% of the threads over in the Romper Room. Then they run out, inspect houses, and call themselves "professionals." Enjoy. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

by David Brauner, Senior Broker OREP By now you have probably seen firsthand that prices for most home inspector errors and omissions insurance (E&O) programs are lower than they have been in many years due to the “softeningâ€

Has anyone got one of these yet? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi All, Has anyone run into one of these yet? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yes, it's ok to ask your question here. What you're essentially doing is emulating an indirect water heater system using tempering tanks. You could have actually purchased tanks for that purpose instead of tearing up old water heaters to do it. I looks like you've already figured out the other requirements, so I think that the only question you really need answered is the one about whether you need flexible connectors at the top of the tank, since Oregon is in seismic zone 3, no? Check with you local code guy and make sure that you install T & P valves on those tanks regardless of the fact they can't boil. Jim, Chris, or one of the other Oregon folks will need to help you with the codes 'cuz I don't know which ones they're using down there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. Did you know that there are wood stoves designed specifically to work as water heaters? All you need in addition to the stove is a circulator. You plumb them into the regular water heater tank. They have a radiator in the firebox that's heated up by the fire and then that water is circulated into the water heater.

Mike Holmes is a Canadian contractor who hosts an HGTV series - Holmes on Homes - and writes a real estate column for the Canadian Globe and Mail. In this article, after he'd been inundated with critical letters by home inspectors and thousands of home owners who'd read one of his columns about home inspections, he let's home inspectors have it. To read the article click here.

Hi, My understanding is that a radiant barrier doesn't work unless there is an air space in front of it. In other words, if it is sandwiched between the rafters and the roof deck, it will reflect heat from the house downward but won't work to reflect heat from the exterior back outward and will simply conduct exterior heat - either radiant or convection that heats up the roof - into the attic space and give it off again as convection. My understanding of what they are doing in Florida is they are installing the barrier material on the underside of rafters with the depth of the rafter above the barrier. This way, it can reflect in both directions. In addition to that, there are new metal roofs which use special coatings to lessen the amount of heat they will transfer to the interior of a home. There was also some research done by an entity called the Florida Solar Energy Research center, or something like that, wherein they'd tested new paints that are formulated with microscopic ceramic beads. Apparently, this paint, when applied to the underside of a roof deck or to the surface of a roof slows the migration of heat through a surface, thus slowing solar gain during the day and loss of interior heat during the night when exterior temperatures drop below interior temps. It's funny how much you can control solar heat gain by manipulating surfaces. Back in early October, I went down to Florida to repair the leaking roof on my mother's manufactured home. It was a painted metal roof and the joints were sealed with some foil-faced peel-'n-seal. The roof was dingy gray, although it had originally been white, and during the day she was running the A/C full time to keep the interior of that home tolerable. Initially, I cleaned the entire roof with a pretty strong chemical to strip off the old dingy white paint all the way down to the sheetmetal. Where the sun hit that bare metal, the surface got so hot that it actually started to melt the soles of my shoes. After I'd applied 10-inch wide vinyl faced peel-'n-seal to all of the seams and had rolled them in place, I coated the roof with a fresh coat of a white elastomeric acrylic. As soon as that stuff cured, and I walked on it, the surface was barely warmer than body temperature during the day. I applied a second coat to make it even whiter, and the surface was even cooler after it dried than it was with the first layer. I called her last week to see how she was doing and asked if she'd had any problems with the roof. She told me that it's fine and that her energy bills are markedly lower and the house overall is much cooler inside during the day; just by simply making the roof reflect more heat than it absorbs. I told her to make sure that she has someone go up there a couple of times a year, clean the roof with a mild detergent, and touch it up where necessary. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Randy, I think the answer is yes. If memory serves, it has to be a pair of pigtails; one on the receptacle, one on the box, with a wire nut joining them. I could be wrong on that though; I'm remembering it from a Q & A electrical board from a lot of years ago. I'd probably just write the recommendation to add jumpers and let the sparky figure it out. OT - OF!!! M.

Load testing? That's a new one on me. OT - OF!!! M.

We got a name for the secondary traffic tieups caused by folks looking at bad wrecks. They're called "Gapers Delays". The morning rush hour commentators rattle down the tie ups, and there's always a Gapers Delay somewhere. Aside from the dark aspect, it's kind of a funny term. Bad proof reading is a contributor to the general collapse of intelligent society, near as I can tell. As an ex-cop, rubbernecking aggravates me to no end. If I were king, there'd be a requirement for the first responder on-scene to post a minimum speed limit sign next to the accident and anyone whose speed drops under that would be stopped, cited, and their auto would be confiscated and sold at auction without any right to appeal. Bet that would clear 98% of the traffic jams caused by rubbernecking within ten minutes. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I dunno, it kind of looks to me under magnification that there is a head flashing on top of the windows under that horizontal piece of trim. Tried blowing it up for a closer look but it gets too grainy when it's blown up that far. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's the take on it by some folks in Georgia. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Well, as you all know - since I'd commented on it elsewhere here - it's been vetoed by the Governor. Here's the take on it by some folks in Georgia. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, That's part of the craftsman era building ethic. Bungalows were designed to be low-slung and to appear to be one with nature. Greene & Greene weren't the only architects that built them that way. There are still plenty with clinkers done like this in Seattle although they are slowly disappearing as they are flattened so that a McMansion can be put in to take its place. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, If you're referring to an International Comfort Products unit, go to the library, download the furnace decoder chart there and you'll then have it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

The wall got pushed inward and cracked - frozen fill or clay - they excavated, pushed it back to where it needed to be, backfilled it properly while adding the anchor, and then patched the wall. OT - OF!!! Mike

House Bill 1217, a bill to license home inspectors made it through both houses of the Georgia legislature but was vetoed by Governor Sonny Perdue. As justification for vetoing this legislation, Perdue remarked that there were professional home inspection associations that meet the desired aim of the legislation so he didn't see the need to burden taxpayers with something that could be achieved through market forces. OK Governor, we can appreciate that, but what about independent inspectors? When the so-called "professional associations" can't act professional and are actually an embarrassment to the profession, why should they be looked to as the ones to set the example and why should inspectors be forced into joining them? To read the governor's responseclick here.

Hi Kurt, I think the left coast guys are picturing in their mind a 2 by 8 or 2 by 10 nailed to the end of the rafter tails as a fascia with the top projecting above the surface of the roof. A cant strip is nailed at the inside corner where the roof meets the two-by and then a layer of torchdown is applied against the backside to form the gutter. Then a comp roof is laid in conventional fashion from just above this "gutter" area to the ridge. You're right, there's no such abomination on the east coast, but their as common as fleas on a rat out here. I think the gutters you are talking about are actual gutters that are inset below the surface of the roof such as you'd see on the Gamble House or on many historic properties. I had them on that 14,000 sf $4.3M house I inspected a few weeks ago. I agree with you, when properly made and soldered they'll last practically forever; however, it's the "properly made and soldered" part that's the rub. When the left coast firm that built that house tried to emulate those, they simply overlapped the copper sheathing in the troughs, used sheetmetal screws to secure the overlaps, and then used narrow strips of peel 'n seal to seal the joints. Guess what happened? I referred the buyer to a good custom sheetmetal company that I know that does custom copper gutterwork and doesn't know what sheetmetal screws are. If I ever get around to building my dream home I'll have custom made/soldered eaves troughs inset into the roof like on the Gamble house so that there won't be any ugly sheetmetal hanging off the perimeter of the roof. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Uh,....Chad? Been licking those mushrooms again?

May 13,2008 - Boston, MA FLIR Systems Inc., has announced the addition of two new offerings to its B-Series of infrared cameras for the building sciences industry. The new cameras offer high-performance features at a very competitive price making IR more readily available to a greater number of contractors in the construction and building professions. “We’ve seen the use of infrared cameras increase significantly over the past few years for building science applications,â€

Hi, Well, I've seen quite a few. They're never pretty, but I don't think there's anything "wrong" with those installations as long as the cable is protected from damage. That means either in an approved conduit or secured to the building in such a way and at such a location that it isn't likely to be damaged. Here's Hansen He doesn't say anything anywhere about the panel being required to be close to the meter can (see my previous quote above) - only that one must be careful to protect those cables because they don't have OCPD protection on them until after the panel. Like you, I think it's dumb, and I wouldn't necessarily like to see it in my own home, but I don't think it's a hill to die on 'cuz I think it's allowed. Try narrowing the focus of your thinking; instead of a single-family residence, think of a condo building where the service entrance panels are all grouped in one room deep inside the structure. In those cases, you have heavy conduit passing completely through the building to that utility room. It's the same thing with a single-family home, except that the meter can is on the outside of the building, and the panel, instead of being directly on the other side of the wall from the meter, or ten or twelve feet below it in the basement, is deeper in the structure. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike