hausdok

Hi, Well, electric furnaces will last as long as the electrical components are still available from suppliers and there's still someone around who knows how to replace the components. It's possible that you've got an electric furnace which has had a split type central air unit incorporated into it with the compressor/condenser unit outside and the A-coil incorporated into the air plenum above or below the central heating unit. When you're heating the house, the resistance elements in the unit will provide the heat and when you run it in AC mode the resistance elements won't come on and it will function as the air handler for the AC system. It's also possible that you could have the remains of an old electric furnace that's been gutted of everything except the air handler (blower) and a split-type heat pump has been incorporated into the system to heat the house. However, the statement that the AC was only 3 years old, makes it sound like you've got a plain old electric central heating unit with the AC system incorporated into it. If you want to know for certain, you'll need to get someone who understands HVAC systems to look at it - either a home inspector or an HVAC tech. Mike

Mike, You're in his neck of the woods ... let him build a new house and we will all recommend you get the inspection call. [] Now that would be quite a gig!! [:-slaphap Yeah, When I first got into this gig his house was under construction. I told a bunch of folks that I'd love to get the inspection. That's when a couple of folks said to me, "What, are you NUTS! You're a rookie at this. The guy can buy a lawyer with what he carries around in his pocket. Do you really want to take a chance that on such a huge and complicated house you miss something and it pisses him off?" Even as dense as I am sometimes, I was able to see where that probably wouldn't have been the smartest thing for me to do. Now, if he want's to build another one, I'm not worried about it. OT - OF!!! M.

FYI, that photo isn't lap siding. It's only a guess, but it's probably lap siding at the street-exposed side and panel siding on the sides and back and that's how he made his mistake. At least that's the way about 90% of the builders around here do it. OT - OF!!! M.

I didn't watch the video. Why would I care? They guy makes more in one minute off of interest on his assets than myself or my entire family will make in the rest of our lifetimes. I don't begrudge him for being brilliant and making a fortune; I'm just not really interested in what obscenely rich folk do with their spare time. If he wants to do something productive, he can set up a corporation in South America and recruit every single farmer and tribesman living in the rain forests and give them good paying jobs as game wardens and foresters, build them towns and homes, and educate their children, so they'll be interested in preserving that ecosource instead of cutting it down and plowing it under in order to try and scrape out a living at pauper's wages. We all carp about global warning but governments claim they can't afford to do much about it. This guy has enough wealth that he, and others like him, could turn all of these folks slashing and burning into happy employees, reduce the destruction, and actually make an impact on it. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, You, the general practitioner, had referred the patient to a surgeon because you suspected an issue. Now the surgeon says that it's fine and the client is calling you back wanting you, the general practitioner, to assume part of the surgeon's liability. I'd just tell him that if he doesn't want to believe the plumber he should get a different opinion from another specialist, 'cuz there's no way that I have, short of destructive testing and lab testing, to prove the plumber wrong. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, It's a best practice issue. With the advent of nailing fins, a lot of builders got away from using drip caps. Now they use self-adhering bituthene flashings beneath the siding and caulk the perimeter of the vinyl windows; the caulk supposedly being a secondary obstacle to infiltration. The problem, for us anyway, is that we have no way to know whether they applied those self-adhering flashings correctly and in the proper sequence behind the siding. One thing they do a lot here is only use the bituthene at the bottom and at the sides of the window and then they simply bring the building paper down over the flange on the top side of the window and rely on that vinyl nailing fin, the 2 inch overlap of the building paper, and the caulk, to prevent infiltration at the top of the window. It saves the builder about 30% on the cost of bituthene per house and it's really kind of a dumb move because you can't rely on homeowners to reliably check that caulk bead along the top of a window and ensure that it remains intact. Vinyl windows expand and contract at twice the rate of aluminum, wood, and fiberglass windows, so there's a good likelihood that, with that constant movement, the bead will fail and they'll get infiltration if the window is on the weather side of the house. However, again, unless I get into the development early enough to see that is how they've done it, there's no way that I can know whether they used that technique or not. A question - that siding can be used as structural sheathing with nothing more behind it than a moisture resistant barrier. Do you know if they used additional structural sheathing behind it, 'cuz, if they didn't, there's no way they could have flashed it with bituthene, in which case the only thing keeping the water out will be the caulk, as you fear. By the way, after a long hiatus, a lot of siding guys around here have figured out that it would be a good idea to start using drip caps again and we're seeing them on new construction more frequently now than we did, say, 5-6 years ago. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Rename the file by removing the parenthesis from the file name and then re-post it and it will display. You know, you can edit your own post and insert it there. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Russell, Sorry it's taken so long to get back with you on this thread, but I was out of the office all day. Home Inspection in New Zealand and Australia is, in a lot of ways, similar to home inspections here in the U.S. However, unlike American inspectors who open up service panels to inspect the interiors, Australian inspectors aren't permitted to do that. I don't know whether inspectors in New Zealand are permitted to do that. The report format being usedin both countries is essentially the same, though, and some Aussie and Kiwi inspectors actually use inspection programs they've purchased from US and Canadian companies. Here are some good sources for more information: For the New Zealand Institute of Inspectors, click here. For the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors, click here. For the Australians Standards Institute (Aussie inspectors have a national standard and code of ethics) click here. You'll be interested in getting a copy of Australian Standard 4349.1-1995. I bought mine over the internet for about $25 U.S. about 5 years ago. In Australia, Central Queensland University has some distance learning courses for building surveyors and you might be able to get some credit for the training you went through in the UK in preparation for the HIPS debacle. You'll be interested in CA33, the Bachelor of Bulding Surveying degree, and CA 34, the Associate of Building Surveying degree. CA 34 used to be called the Associate in Home Inspection degree. Of course, you don't have to get either of these under your belt to hang out a shingle down there, as long as you meet any local requirements for licensing, but these are some pretty impressive courses. Another association, in Australia that you can look into is the Association of Building Consultants. Hope this helps. By the way, since construction in New Zealand is closer to what we do here than what you have in the UK, you should probably check out some of the free downloads in our TIJ library (The US Army manuals are pretty good) and don't miss this thread which is a bunch of manuals from a New Zealand construction education site. Hope this helps to get you started. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, If it's installed correctly, there probably won't be any issues - at least not within the warranty period. The new composite sidings use more wax and borate is mixed in with the formulation to make them more resistant to rot. I'd be more concerned with the way it's installed, because there are very specific installation rules that most contractors seem to ignore. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmmm, Ever heard of Enron? They're right, you should know better by now; ASHI has absolutely nothing to do with the FPE issue. OT - OF!!! M.

Oh well, If you're going to get in for a penny get in for a pound. Click Here! OT - OF!!! M.

Round and round and round she goes.... Click Here!

Ouch, That's a painful memory. In 1989, I was in the Q course at Ft. Bragg when my roommate tried to get me interested in investing in a company. My response was, "Invest? I can't keep a nickel in my pocket. Why the hell would I want to invest when I understand jack about finances." He told me it was a sure thing, that he'd gone to high school with the dude who's company he was going to sink his $70,000 inheritence into. He suggested I start small - only $1,000 and see how it goes. "Oh yeah?" I asked, "What does his company do?" "They make software," he responded. I said, "Computers? Ain't no way. I'm not doing anything with computers. I bought my kid one of those Commadore thingies and we tried forever to figure that crap out. It's never going to amount to squat for consumer use. Forget it." "It's your loss," he said. The company was Microsoft and his buddy was Bill Gates. I saw him in the spring of 1994 in Korea at the PX in Yongsan. He was still in the Army. "So, hey hotshot," I began, "What are you still doing in the Army? I thought you were gonna get rich." His response: "I did. I sunk all $70,000 into that company and since then the stock has split about 6 times and I'm set for life. I'm still in the army because I love what I do. Where else can I get paid to go to foreign countries and teach folks how to blow shit up? You were an idiot, Mike, you should have listened to me. I toldja I wouldn't let you down." I didn't know what it meant for a stock to "split" but there was no doubt in my mind with the way he said it that I should have listened to my friend instead of closing my mind to his idea. I sorta kinda put my tail between my legs and slunk off. Jeez, if they'd only invent a time machine so that I could go back to that moment knowing what I know now. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I gotta go lie down, I just sprained my brain trying to follow that. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, If memory serves, somewhere on this site is a link posted where you can go to a free database that lists that kind of data. If I were you, I'd do a little bit of poking around and reading at the EPA site. Chances are, the "training" that you'd be paying them to give you is straight off their site and they've just repackaged it in a slick new package. I don't know what to think about their "certification." If they provided really good training on the subject with real tough testing and on-site testing at the end, to prove that you actually absorbed the subject matter and have actually become an expert on the subject, I guess it would be a worthwhile endeavor. However, if they're just certifying you in something that you can get for free of the EPA site and aren't themselves recognized by any national agency, than why would you want to pay them? I used to be a member of the Environmental Assessment Association. I went through about a half a day's training and then took a written test to become certified as a C.E.I. - certified environmental inspector. After I got into the business and realized that everything that I'd been "certified" for had been available for free on the EPA site, and that the "certification" had no national standing, I dropped the CEI from my business card. At that point, it all sort of felt kind of made up. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nope, You're confusing flue size formula with Btu/Hr volume requirements. Jim's right; total the input Btu/Hr of all appliances in the space, divide by 1000 and multiply by 50. That gives you the minimum acceptable volume. For folks back east where they have lots of basements and the laundry shares spaces in the basement with a furnace and water heater, this includes any gas dryer installed in the same space. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Ditto Jim's response. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, And the trend toward smaller continues. Click Here!

Sure, if they derive their combustion air from the interior of the home and it meets the Btu/Hr requirement, why not? Also, I see furnaces and water heaters installed in large garages that meet the minimum volume requirement. I also see plenty of them in both of these categories that don't meet the minimum volume requirements. It's something that we need to be looking at. OT - OF!!! M.

Exactly so. With me, that goes without saying, because my inspections are a walk-n-talk school of the house from minute 1 until completion, so, unless they don't attend, which is pretty rare, they see it, hear it, smell it, and sometimes even get to touch it. The agents who know me just go sit down and wait, 'cuz they know better than to try and argue with me. Not necessarily because they always believe me or agree with me, but because they've learned that trying to get me to say things the way they want is a waste of breath. It's the zoids who don't know me and hang around and then try to interject crap and argue semantics that are the spoilers. I just ignore them, tell the client to get it fixed (he's seen why) and move on to the next item. You just gotta ignore them. You are the inspector and you have to be in control of the inspection if you want to maintain your credibility. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I don't have the reference in front of me at the moment, but I believe that you're limited to no more than 4 NM cables through a single opening before you must derate the cable. About 98% of what we see around here after 1966 is NM cable in one form or other and that would not fly here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Seems to me, it would be a simple thing to put a couple of elbows and extensions on those guys to extend them above the anticipated drift height. I'm not so sure about the exhaust melting the snow. Didn't someone post a photo here last year of a huge icicle that had frozen over the end of one of these things? OT - OF!!! M.

I say screw what the realtors say. They'll say anything to try and get you to change your mind and not write it up. Do what makes the most sense; pull the toilet and replace the seal. The seal ranges anywhere from $.59 to $2. and takes less than 20 minutes to replace. It's not going to break anyone's wallet to check it to be on the safe side. I've had moisture readings on a tile floor around a toilet and no water stains from below and have called it. The listing agent called me up howling and insisted that I had to be mistaken and the plumber who'd installed the toilet a month before told the client I was off my rocker. I said I'd meet the plumber on-site and if that toilet wasn't leaking I'd pay for his time but that if I was right someone was going to have to pay me. The listing agent agreed and he met me there smug as can be. I walked in, scanned the area around the pedestal to show him the meter, walked him into the basement to show him that there was no water stains and opined that there was water there. He said, "Nope, there won't be any water there. Come on, I'll prove it. We went upstairs, he pulled the toilet, and then his jaw dropped when he found moisture outside of the seal area. I held up the moisture meter and said, "Protimeter, never leave home without it." Then the listing agent, red as a beet, forked over $75 for my 10 minutes on-site. Ya gotta stop worrying about what the realtors are thinking and saying, Chris, or you're going to to give yourself an ulcer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, This may sound like a dumb question, but why didn't you just float a level overlay of leveling compound or gypcrete on top of the slab? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, It still might be a little bit high-priced for the OLPC program though. The XO has been a pretty cool deal for kids in developing countries - especially with the deal where "sponsors" can buy two computers and send one, or even both computers, to kids in developing countries for only about $400 total. A while back, Jimmy Morrison and I were discussing ways that we here at TIJ could do that for the kids he sponsors in Africa. For anyone that doubts how effective such programs can be, read this. OT - OF!!! M.