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According to an article in Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com) the state of Florida announced today that it has terminated the My Safe Florida Home contract of Home Inspections LLC., a Madeira Beach inspection firm, for "performance issues". The state of Florida has been conducting reinspections of thousands of homes where free inspections have been performed by sub-contractors such as Home Inspections LLC., and may announce additional contract terminations on Monday the 22nd. To read the entire article click here

Seattle - October 18 Assurance Pierre Thibodeau Inc. of Montreal has recently made some improvements to its errors and ommissions line of insurance products, in order to better accommodate inspectors who are members of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors (CAHPI). The firm, which has been in business since 1995, specializes in E&O and Property & Commercial General Liability insurance programs. According to the firm's president, Pierre Thibodeau, the new program is available only in Canada, extends from coast-to-coast, coverage has been broadened and CAHPI members may now be elibible for lower group rates. For more information, inspectors should visit the firms website or call the company at 866.624.3993 for a quote.

Hi, Sure, it's not like the plastic weatherproof covers on most exterior meter arrays can withstand a lot of force anyway. If it's padlocked and someone wants to get into it, all it takes is a chick cut with a Buck knife or a sharp whack with a hammer to break the plastic hinges. The covers are easily replaced. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, You don't need to padlock it, just use a heavy zip-tie. That way it will keep all but the most determined away from it and won't hinder anyone in a real emergency. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, if you're on DSL I don't think it should be timing out on you. Maybe Mike B. will see this post and can offer an explanation. Is anyone else having problems uploading files? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Bill, It's already in the TIJ library at this link: https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/uploa ... nGuide.pdf I was just trying to force Kurt, and everyone else, to go check out the downloads area. When one is looking for good information about a subject, that's the place to go before posting. By the way, please email me and tell me in detail how you were trying to upload it to TIJ. It should have uploaded. By the way, because you are a moderator, instead of using the "contribute file" button, you could have uploaded it to the Upload Manager and then copied the URL and pasted it. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kurt, Go to the menu bar above and under "Library" choose "File Downloads" and then scroll to the two tile roof documents that we've got in the library. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Notice the variety of materials and methods used to build this facility? It comes complete with incorrectly installed components, as well as controllable drip hoses in the walls, in to ensure a source of moisture. Believe it or not, they designed this to rot and become infested. OT - OF!!! M.

Seattle, WA - October 17th Washington State University is conducting a hands-on wood moisture detection workshop for Structural Pest Inspectors at the WSU Puyallup Structural Pest IPM Facility from 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM, November 9th. The Wood Moisture Detection Workshop is a hands-on course designed to make inspectors more knowledgeable and confident in the use of wood moisture detection devices. Although these tools are in wide use, many inspectors may not know how to distinguish “false positiveâ€

Like I said above, We've been here before. I bet there are at least 40 roof-walking debates in the archive and every one of them starts out and ends the same way. There's no need to kick the horse repeatedly when someone asks a question that's been oft-asked and oft-answered, just refer them to the archive for this kind of stuff. OT - OF!!! M. OT - OF!!! M.

Washington, Oct. 17 The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today told Congress that its members are committed to encouraging greater energy efficiency in housing throughout the U.S. and strongly believe that a voluntary, market-driven approach is the best way to address the nation’s residential energy concerns. “Congress should be promoting voluntary energy efficiency programs, extending tax incentives for highly efficient new home construction and protecting housing affordability from arbitrary building code increases when adopting new energy policy,â€

Hi, Yeah, I can vouch for Big Stretch; that stuff is pretty good. Comes in lots of colors, washes up with water, and it's paintable. Once it cures, you can take a bead half the thickness of a Bic pen and stretch it out to about an inch before it will fail. OT - OF!!! M.

I know, it's depressing. However, I learned long ago that if you don't bring the news into these forums to the home inspectors, a lot of them will stumble onward, blissfully ignorant of what's going on around them, and won't realize that things aren't so hunky-dory until it's too late for them to take measures to ensure they survive this kind of thing. OT - OF!!! M.

NAHB News Release - Washington, Oct. 16th Builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes was further shaken in October due to continuing problems in the mortgage market, substantial inventories of unsold units and the perceived effect that negative media coverage is having on potential buyers, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today. The HMI fell two more points to 18 in October, its lowest point since the series began in January of 1985. "Builders in the field are reporting that, while their special sales incentives are attracting interest among consumers, many potential buyers are either holding out for even better deals or hesitating due to concerns about negative and confusing media reports on home values," said NAHB President Brian Catalde. "Consumers are still trying to sort out market realities and get the best deals they can," noted NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. "Many prospective buyers may very well have unrealistic expectations regarding new-home prices as well as how much they can expect to receive for their existing homes. When the market is in proper balance, people can recognize a good deal when it comes along; at this point, they view a good deal as a moving target." The positive news from today's report, said Seiders, is that builder expectations for sales conditions in the next six months held steady at 26. "Builders believe they are taking the right steps to reduce inventories and position themselves for the market recovery that lies ahead," he said. "Indeed, NAHB's housing forecast indicates that home sales should stabilize within the next six months and show significant improvement during the second half of next year." Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as either "good," "fair" or "poor." The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as either "high to very high," "average" or "low to very low." Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. Two out of three component indexes of the HMI declined in October. The index gauging current single-family home sales and the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers each declined two points, to 18 and 15, respectively, while the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months remained unchanged at 26. Regionally, the West accounted for a substantial portion of the decline in builder confidence this month, with a four-point reduction in its HMI to 14. The Northeast and South each reported one-point declines to 26 and 21, respectively, while the Midwest posted a two-point gain to 15. ##### EDITOR'S NOTE: The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index is strictly the product of NAHB Economics, and is not seen or influenced by any outside party prior to being released to the public. HMI tables can be accessed online at: www.nahb.org/hmi. More information on housing statistics is also available at www.housingeconomics.com.

Matthew, I subscribe to Reeves Journal, Contractor, and Plumbing & Mechanical and I've never read anything about any chemical leaching taking place with PEX. Have you got a reference for that? OT - OF!!! M.

I think it's an old modular telephone plug. The pattern doesn't match anything in any of my charts but I don't have any old charts for telephone equipment. I have a very fuzzy memory of something similar in the abandoned Spingarn mansion where I used to play as a kid. They had those old telephones with the receiver cradle in just about every room. You held the receiver to your ear with one hand, picked up the phone and it's base and held the mouthpiece in front of your mouth with the other and they plugged into wall plugs that looked like weird electrical plugs. OT - OF!!! M.

I dunno, Around here, that might be a 1930's house. OT - OF!!! M.

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Hi All, Although they are not one of TIJ's sponsors, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you all about the CodeCheck sale that Taunton is putting on right now. You can save 20% and should check it out - especially the new CodeCheck Complete, which covers all four disciplines in one volume. Hurry though, this is a limited time offer. To check out the sale, click here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I had it on new construction in August. It was less than 1/16" but, to me, the floor looked like a washboard and I wrote it up. The builder brought back the flooring guy, who admitted that the cupping was excessive and both the builder and the flooring guy admitted that they didn't bring the wood into the home, sticker it, and wait several weeks to allow it to achieve equilibrium with the home's environment before it was installed. The flooring guy has promised that if it hasn't improved to the homeowner's satisfaction within a few months he'll come back, sand the floors flat and then refinish them. Before writing it it up, I'd telephoned the Wood Flooring Manufacturer's Assiation (http://www.nofma.org) and had spoken with their technical experts about the issue. They'd recommended that the homeowner wait a while before attempting to have the floors sanded and refinished, because they'd felt it was going to take a while for the home to lose all of that excess moisture and for the floors to finally reach equilibrium before they could be successfully re-sanded and refinished. Click here for a link to the question on their FAQ page. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

FWIW, The NAHB performance guideline for cupping in hardwood floors is 1/16" or less over a span of not more than 3 inches. We might not think much of it and consider it too much, but there it is. The cupping might change depending on seasonal changes in temps and humidity. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Just search the forums archive for "walking roofs." This is an old thread that reasserts itself about every 6 - 8 months. There's really not much more that can be said than what's in the archives. OT - OF!!! M.

Well, You know how folks are nowadays about making sure that people aren't doing drugs? Well, when they demand that urine sample..... OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Chad, Here's an article from Plumbing & Mechanical Magaz;ine by Julius Ballanco about Pex-al-Pex. To access it, you may need to register for a free subscription on their site. http://www.pmmag.com/CDA/Archives/498ff ... 32a8c0____ ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Thought you all might enjoy seeing some images of Cape Breton in October. OT - OF!!! M.