hausdok

It's been more than a week since the N.C. Home Inspectors Licensure Board tabled their planned changes to the way home inspectors report deficiencies to their clients, but public indignation over the proposed change still hasn't died down, as this OPED piece from the Charlotte Observer shows. Score one for the good guys. Other state licensing boards that are lopsided with real estate cronies would do well to look to the tarheel state when they presume to think for the consumer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's some more on the same topic from the same source: To read the entire article, click here

As part of their continuing coverage of a shortage of municipal building inspectors in the Chicago region, a news team looked into one town that contracts all of it's municipal inspections out to a private contractor. To read the entire story click here.

Yes. Whichever distance is shortest. Yes, replace it with properly sized and insulated ducting - preferably metal and not corrugated. If you put it in the roof, have a roofer install the rain cap and have a handyperson connect the duct between the fan and the male extension on the rain cap. If you install it in a sidewall, have a competent siding guy install it and have the handyperson do the connection. Of course, you could always hire the handyperson to do the entire job if you're confident that he or she is actually relatively competent. Many time, I've found those plastic slinkys full of water and sagging so badly between the nylon ties used to hang them that the water had formed a trap and they were useless. Imagine what happens if a tear or pinhole develops. Venting it out the sidewall will probably work as long as the insulation on the duct is at least an R7 and it's a straight run without any severe sags or bends. As long as there's plenty of pitch and you're not likely to end up with it smack dab in the middle of an ice dam in the winter, straight up will be best. If you think there's a chance that you'll end up with ice damming around it or the weight of snow trying to slide off the roof above it might damage it , move it up the roof and make sure the duct is well insulated and hasn't got any sags or kinks in it. Them B mine! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, I don't know how to calculate it, but I can tell you that most HVAC guys around here prefer to tear out and replace the large ducts used for oil heating systems with smaller ducting that's more appropriate for gas systems, so I have to believe that what you want to do seems to make sense. Terry might know. OT - OF!!! M.

Mike B., can you help Steve out? M.

Go here and then do a word search for "furnace". http://www.rd.com/familyhandyman/openLandingPage.do ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Steve, How big is the PDF file? OT - OF!!! M.

LOL, I'm opening a new Caulk n' Sell franchise next week. Anybody want in? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, The contractor is right, a horizontal air barrier isn't good, but it sounds like you don't have one. If you're fighting with ice dams it means you've got a lot of hot air escaping into the attic past that insulation. Jim makes a good point. If you insulate the underside of the roof with icynene and seal the vents you'll turn the attic into conditioned space. As long as it's applied thickly enough, damming won't be an issue. However, if I did that, I'd probably leave the insulation. It sounds like you've got a whole lot of air moving up into that attic anyway via air passages, so there should be enough convective cycling to keep conditions inside that envelope moisture free. Now that you mention that the contractor is planning to use blown-in cells I have to wonder why he'd bother with removing the insulation and air sealing. Cells is an excellent air barrier when applied densely enough and it's chock full of borate that gets all over everything in sight and pretty much guarantees that you won't see any mold growth. Les' suggestion to get Fabry out there is a good one. Just make sure the kids are with Mom shopping or at school at the time. There's no sense in traumatizing them by letting them see his face. They'll have nightmares for years! [:-blindfo ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Eric, Maybe he got what he needed and left. It's not for nothing. This kind of discussion is excellent. Learning how things work in different parts of the continent and why is all part of understanding building science and building science is a huge chunk of what what we do. It's gotta be frustrating for guys with a degree in building science though. How do you tell folks you've got a degree in B - S. [] OT - OF!!! M.

No, he was very vague about the whole thing. the CPSC announcement showed up on the Mike Holt site today. It's no clearer. I guess Holt didn't have any additional information either. I should have tried to contact Square D directly. OT - OF!!! M.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE) Ethix Media announces today that its flagship product Homeminders will be included in Pillar To Post’s new Home Alliance Program (HAP), designed to benefit real estate agents and home buyers and sellers. Pillar To Post, North America’s leading home inspection service, recently launched HAP nationally to help estate agents help their clients, and to guide consumers in choosing trusted service providers. HAP offers a broad array of homeowner settling-in and ownership services and is now complemented by Homeminders’ personalized home management solution. As part of HAP, Homeminders subscriptions will be provided to home inspection customers contemplating buying or selling a home. “HAP is groundbreaking in our industry, and Homeminders exponentially increases the value of this program, both to real estate agents and to home buyers and sellers,â€

I have questions too. Where is the paper? Is it what you see when you go up into the attic? If so, is there another layer of paper on the other side of the batting; and, if so, does that second layer - the one against the ceiling - have a thin black emulsion coating one side of it? Some insulation products from that era had kraft paper facings on both sides of the batting but the paper is only coated with the asphalt emulsion on the vapor barrier side. That's the side that's supposed to be flat against the ceiling in the attic or against the underside of the floors in a crawlspace. Insulation made later, usually has an aluminum foil or emulsion-coated paper on only one side and you should see the insulation, not the paper, when the attic or floors are insulated with that. Well, lets think about that a second. If it's double-faced insulation and the vapor barrier is against the ceiling where it's supposed to be, and the thin, untreated paper is what's been exposed for the past 52 years, how much of a fire hazard has it been? Sure, it'll ignite if someone sets off a spark over it, but so can the wood framing that's exposed. What is the current configuration of the attic? How is it ventilated now? Have you got frieze vents or soffit vents under the eaves or no vents at all? What type of upper ventilation do you have; a ridge vent, some pot vents, or just a couple of gable end vents? Why does he want to pull the insulation out? If you've got paper-faced batts, and the emulsion-coated facing is the side lying on the ceiling, there's no need to pull them out and then blow in insulation; you can blow the loose fill in directly on top, because the top layer of paper, if it's not coated with the emulsion, is permeable and will not trap moisture. If you add a layer of blown-in fiberglass on top of the paper, you eliminate it as a fire hazard. If it is insulation with a single facing of emulsion-coated paper, and that paper is on top of the batting, moisture can become trapped inside the insulation beneath the paper. That's not a good thing and it will only get worse if you add more insulation on top. Around here, the insulation guys either flip that over and place the paper against the ceiling before blowing in the loose fill on top of it, or they slit the paper everywhere with a razor to prevent moisture from being trapped beneath it and then blow in the loose fill on top, or they strip the paper facing off the batting and discard the facing before blowing the loose fill in on top of it. So, again, why pull it all out and throw it away if there's nothing wrong with it and it's still viable? If it's faced insulation with the batting against the ceiling and an emulsion-coated paper facing exposed, it's upside down. Technically, it's a fire hazard, but as I pointed out, how much of a hazard has it really been for the past half century. The real concern is whether it's been trapping moisture against the ceiling. To find out if it's been trapping moisture, look closely at the top facing. Pull a little of the facing away from the top of the batting and look at the insulation side of the paper to see if there's any black emulsion there. If so, lift up the batting and see if the batting feels damp, whether there's any mold on the attic side of the drywall, or there are any water stains. If not, there's probably no reason you can't reuse it. He probably doesn't want to spend time flipping it, slitting it, or stripping the facing off it, so it's easiest for him to discard it. However, you could probably do that yourself and save some labor and material cost. Where you are, maybe, but if you air seal it you'll need to condition the air in there or risk creating a big petri dish that will grow all sorts of nasties that you're not going to want to have under your house. Does it need to be sealed? Why are you considering air-sealing it and what are the current crawlspace conditions - ventilation, insulation type, insulation location, vapor barriers, etc.? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

beagle150 If you want to respond with a quote, you have to place your response below the text that displays in the message composition box after the Once you're finished typing your response, click the 'submit' button below the composition box and the quoted text, plus your answer, will appear. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Rawolf, I've gotten an answer back from my contact. Here's what he says: I don't think I can help much. Mc4 is an add-on to AutoCAD. The program requires users to have CAD and you basically "build" the heat loss off of the construction. It's not very easy to use and not very intuitive. I'm not surprised he has questions. Regardless, my only advice for him is to contact the software company directly and ask them. It's the best way to help him. They will know the software the best and should be able to get him straightened out.id="blue"> Ok, there you have it. Sorry we couldn't do more for you. Mike (Editor)

Hi Rawolf, I think it will be difficult for anyone here to help you, because home inspectors don't do heating calculation or use that kind of software. However, I do know a radiant floor heating expert who might be able to help you. I've sent him an email with a link to your question. Maybe, if he knows the answer to your question, he'll stop in here and answer it for you. Until then, I suggest you post your question on Dan Halohan's forum, The Wall, at HeatingHelp.com. Most of the guys that hang out over there are heating systems professionals. Click here: http://www.heatinghelp.com/wall_forum.cfm Mike (The Editor)

I'd tell them to open the normal Seattle air conditioner or get some blinds to reduce solar gain. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Matt, Well, if you'll be willing to donate the light, I'll be happy to do that with the next sensational photo someone sends me. [] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satel ... 7645509099

If you're doing home inspections in Texas, you'd better be careful, because Texas juries don't play. Coldwell-Banker and a seller definitely learned that the hard way when they lost big time to the tune of $975,000 awarded for damages due to non-disclosure of pre-existing conditions. A Texas couple sued after the walls of their new home began to leak and they discovered that the seller had previously tried to sue the builder for leaky walls, but had never disclosed that fact to them. The home inspector? Well, looks like he survived because the infiltration issues were concealed behind walls where they couldn't be seen and because the seller never disclosed. Phew! To read the whole sordid tale, click here.

Here are some more stories on the topic. The second one has a video. Pretty kewl hat Marion. [] http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/766398.html http://news14.com/content/top_stories/5 ... fault.aspx http://www.charlotte.com/business/break ... 55402.html OT - OF!!! M.

I'd sweep her away and go in. You probably won't find more than one of them in the same crawl anyway. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Paul, Are you sure it's pressure that's low and not low volume. They have a far smaller inside diameter than 1/2 inch copper or galvanized pipe, so flow is going to be restricted. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I'm not sure about this one. If the cord is rated to carry the load and it's less than 4ft. long, I'm not sure that this is prohibited. After all, most of what I've seen does call a water heater an "appliance" and this would be an approved form of a disconnect. However, it has to have a proper strain relief clamp/bushing, which it doesn't. Now, my CodeCheck Electrical, which I admit is dated, does have one entry that you might try to apply: Flexible cords and cables not to be used in lieu of permanent wiring methods [NEC 400-7]. There's enough going on there anyway, with the reduced plumbing size alone, to call for a licensed plumber to straighten that mess out. OT - OF!!! M.