hausdok

Nah, I better pass; it's been a slow month. OT - OF!!! M.

Not a bad idea; especially if you've got old lead paint particles ground into the soil around your home. According to the dude who I took lead inspection training from years ago, sunflowers will suck lead right out of the soil. Don't ask me how; all I know it's got something to do with molecular bonding to phosphates. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Man, That's so friggin' kewl! I wonder if I stuck it on the business platinum card if she'd catch it before I had a chance to recoup it? Hmmm. OT - OF!!! M.

Oh, Oh, I get it. Nice one. You got me. Jeez, I'm getting really slow these days. OT - OF!!! M. [:I]

Hi Jim, Out of level or more than 5 degrees out of level? OT - OF!!! M.

It could also be that the owner liked the water heater's efficiency and capacity but didn't like the one at a new home he or she has purchased and swapped them out. OT - OF!!! M.

You've named them. I'll bet you can't find one manufacturer that allows them to be installed more than a few (let's say no more than 5) degrees out of level. OT - OF!!! M.

OK, Quick review: - It looks like any board provisions have been eliminate and now the fate of HI's is at the sole discretion of the Secretary of State. (What's up with that? Were things so contentious and so disorganized there that the pols felt that inspectors just couldn't be trusted to work together? Inquiring minds want to know.) - HI's are not permitted to disclaim liability for any error or omission or to limit their liability to anything less than $10,000 and must have any limitation over $10,000 agreed to in writing in a pre-inspection contract. - Pre-inspection contracts will be mandatory. - Proof of financial responsibility in the form of a $10,000 surety bond or an E & O policy that covers them for not less than $10,000. (Personally, if I were permitted to have a limitation of liability for no more than $10,001, and were permitted to push any claim less than that to a 3rd party arbitrator, which this bill doesn't seem to prohibit, and prevent my report being used by anyone other than my client, which I also don't see prohibited here, I'd probably be happy if there were a means to appeal any decision by the Sec. of State to an arbitrator as well.) - A statement that they've passed a proctored and approved exam. It doesn't say what the exam is - only references an appendix. - Proof that they've joined an association (What's up with that bullshit? Why should a HI have to join one of these soap operas unless he or she wants to?) - Inspectors will be required to comply with whatever SOP or C of E that they must, depending on which association they've joined. - Compared to here, the initial registration will be easy at $400 every 2 years. (Man, did we get shafted! I suppose it's because the cost of everything is so much higher here than in Dorothy land.) Initial cost per inspector with the bond/E & O; exam; fee looks like it could probably go as high as $900 to $1000. So, is this going to set some folks off in Kansas? It should - it looks like a pol without any experience at home inspections will be holding all inspectors by the cajones and able to clamp his fist anytime he (or she) feels that inspectors are screwing up. What would be a shame is if this came about because inspectors there couldn't learn to work together to get the pols to listen to them. When licensing is staring inspectors in the face, all the debating back in forth in the world on these boards will do them absolutely no good, unless they bury the hatchet, learn to come together, and work together to help mold whatever it is the pols intend to throw at them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Apparently, I haven't been keeping up very well with what's been going on in Kansas. A Kansas inspector just emailed me the link to a proposed substitute bill that's just been introduced there and asked me to post it. Apparently, folks in Kansas are dissing each other backward and forward and he doesn't want to have a bullseye painted on his back so he gave it to Mikey because "Mikey will try anything!" So, here's the link for you Dorothy land folk: http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2008/2315.pdf ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Randy, Didn't I sort of cover that in a long tome a few weeks back? It didn't go into all of the details but it kind of covered what went on. I thought that was here but maybe not. It might have been on another board. For several years, I hardly ventured away from TIJ or my forum at JLC but lately I've been slamming around the net outside of TIJ like a pebble in the bottom of a tin can, sticking my nose in where it's not wanted and generally pretty much making an ass of myself. I need to stop looking at forums outside of TIJ; the soap operas are just too damned depressing. Probably the best thing for me to do would be to never visit another forum so I can stay out of trouble. If you can't find that post, and you really have a hankering to know, give me a call and invite me over to the Starbucks by the alley or over to 3rd place books for a coffee and I'll fill you in on all of the sordid little details that really shouldn't be discussed here openly. Really, there were times when some of us just wanted to get up and smack others in the group. I've got about a thousand emails archived and I can tell you that some of them, particularly my own, went beyond being rude; I honestly don't know how we managed to bring 13 of us almost all the way to the end and ended up with 11. Richard Moore can tell you, he was there for some of it. Now the real crap is gonna start; the political jockeying for seats on the board has already begun and I know of two bug-centric guys who are probably going to try and slip onto the board by trying to get the one inspector educator slot that's available. You can bet, with as many bug-centric inspectors in this state that didn't want things to change and who are buddies with Dr. Dan, that there will be plenty more trying for the other slots. The bug guys have held sway over HI's here for so long that I doubt that they're going to give up now. It's going to be a free-for-all and the damned rules haven't even been published by DOL yet. Once that board is seated, the amount of work that they've got to do to make the deadline is astronomical; I wonder if they'll even be able to make it in time for the kickoff for experienced inspectors on July 1, 2009? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Huh, Sounds like another non-profitable hobby (kind of like TIJ) that I probably should get into just to try and do my little insignificant part. I don't have a place for hives, but I suppose I could rent a pea patch or use a friend's back yard if I agree to let them have some of the honey. Guess I need to get on the net and start learning about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sorry Jerry, Can't do it without the serial number. Trane can though - they should know when that particular model and series came out even without the serial number. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Did you check the other exterior receptacles? I occasionally find the GFCI for the garage at one of the other exterior receptacles. Also, look up at the ceiling receptacles in the garage. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Just curious, did a beekeeper come and remove the hive or did you nuke them? I saw something someplace a couple of weeks ago that said that we are rapidly losing species of bees throughout the world due to pesticides and such and that without them lots of plants won't do as well. At the time I thought to myself, "Wow, maybe more folks need to set up beekeeping operations around the world to try and beef up the bee population." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK Joe, I've modified your original post to put it into context. No need for links over to the soap opera. I suspect if you search the archives here you'll find similiar discussions that dealt with lightning suppressors and such. OT - OF!!! M.

Sounds like the situation where you have an electric stove. The burners are 240 but the clocks and other stuff are 120 volts. OT - OF!!! M.

Go here: http://www.carsondunlop.com/OBS/uffi.html Contact them. I'm sure they'll let you copy to Word and reprint it. OT - OF!!! M.

Whoa! My mistake. I don't know what the hell I was daydreaming about when I called those bare wires neutrals. Replace every place I called them neutrals with grounds. Sorry. Sometimes my brain does weird stuff. When I'd typed it, I'd called the danged bars "buses," had caught it, gone back in and changed it. Guess I was too focused on that to realize I'd called them neutrals. I swear, I'm going to start stocking up on Depends; I'm definitely going to need them at this rate. Still, you don't feel that box will go hot if one leg of one of those feeds to the 240 receptacles loosens? Won't that stray current then return via the grounds to the enclosure? Maybe I'm overthinking this - I hate electricity; it's too much like math for me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's not what I see. I see three wires feeding that cable from the top; two hots and a neutral. The neutral bar on the right is bonded to the enclosure with the strap and a green screw. The neutral cables from that cable connected to the two-pole breaker on the left and the two pole breaker feeding that 240-volt plug to the left of the panel are sharing the same bar with the equipment-grounding conductor of that NM connected to those paired 20-amp breakers on the upper right and the grounded conductor was never properly marked to identify it as a hot wire. I don't see any "jumper" Steven, can you point it out to me? It looks like if any of those hot wires were to loosen up that the enclosure and that EGC will end up being hot, no? By the way, for those who aren't aware of it, put your cursor on the photo and click it and it will be enlarged for you. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Washington, D.C./April 1, 2008 - Release #08-235 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Gecko Alliance of Quebec, Canada, today announced a voluntary recall of approximately 1,670 Serenity Spa hot tubs because the hot tub's spa control can overheat, posing a fire hazard. No injuries have been reported, but Gecko Alliance has received 28 reports of the spa control overheating, including one incident of damage to spa equipment. This recall involves the Hydropool Serenity Series Spa hot tubs with serial numbers 01350XXXX through 03210XXXX. The serial numbers are printed on the right side of the spa control. The Gecko spa control(SSPA-1) has model number 0202-205097 printed on it. These spas were manufactured in Canada and sold at Hydropool dealers throughout Northeastern United States in Serenity brand spas from January 2002 through December 2004 for between $3,900 to $8,200. Although hot tubs are not normally part of a home inspection, inspectors are in a unique position to spot these hot tubs and make people aware of this hazard. Inspectors seeing them should advise the homeowners to immediately stop using the hot tubs, reduce the water temperature control to the minimum setting, and then contact Gecko Alliance's Back-Pak support center to receive the free retrofit enclosure kit. The kit will be provided with a full set of instructions. Homeowners should be warned not to use their spa until after the retrofit enclosure kit is installed. For additional information, contact the Back-Pak support team toll-free at (800) 784 3256 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET or fill out a support request form here. To see this recall on CPSC's web site, including pictures of the recalled product, click here.

Wow, That's pretty kewl, Dude! Kurt, Wind dummies have been used for years by airborne forces. Typically a dufflebag full of old harnesses and stuff that the jumpmaster polices up later on. OT - OF!!! M.

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Pr ... Wiring.pdf http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/F ... tSheet.pdf https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/uploa ... ations.pdf

http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?ca ... t%20sheets

Just send 'em here: http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/pollmultimasbestos.html

Mogollon, If you read post #8 of this thread, you'll see where he says that as of the date of the inspection the AC install hadn't yet been completed. OT - OF!!! M.