hausdok

Yep, Yep, it's that time of year again. The season begins The player spotlight.

Hi, I doubt that anything from that chimney is going to enter the home through the ridge vent unless the attic ventilation is completely screwed up and simply isn't functioning at all. When it's working, air flows out of a ridge vent - not in. The whole point of a ridge vent is to take advantage of the low pressure area that develops at the crest of the roof as air passing over the ridge must accelerate - think Bernoulli's principle. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Now he's put up the article with an image gallery. http://ct.zdnet.com/clicks?t=40463852-c ... f&s=5&fs=0 Between these articles and Gary Randolph's, you dudes and dudettes should have some kewl toys to play with. OT - OF!!! M.

An article in this month's Rural Builder may be of interest to those of you planning to sell your company; or those of you who've purchased someone else's company and paid a premium based on the "Good Will" intangible. To read the entire article click here.

Hi, That's interesting. Did they give you a case number? OT - OF!!! M.

Dollars to donuts that stack used to be much higher. Here's what happened: The crown cracked, water permeated the stack and ruined the mortar in the top few feet and made the parapet unstabile. Some enterprising individual said, "Hey, I don't have to rebuild that thing, I can just take it down to good mortar and stick a new crown on it." Write it up as wrong. Don't try to justify it or to figure out whether it should be "grandfathered" - just write it up. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

From memory, a 33' role 9 inches wide was about $33. OT - OF!!! M.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today applauded a new program called "HOPE NOW" announced by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson that will help American families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. The initiative brings together foreclosure prevention counselors, mortgage servicers and other mortgage market participants in an alliance to help home owners who are facing default. It will provide at-risk borrowers the information and resources available in the marketplace that will allow them to keep their home by restructuring the terms of their mortgage or pursuing other options available to them. NAHB has strongly encouraged and supported recent efforts of the mortgage industry to provide foreclosure prevention counseling and assistance to borrowers who have encountered mortgage difficulties. A hotline established to assist borrowers facing foreclosure has been publicized through NAHB's web site (www.nahb.org) and in communications to NAHB's more than 800 state and local home builders associations. The HOPE NOW Alliance will greatly expand the capacity, coordination and effectiveness of existing outreach efforts. "HOPE NOW will encourage many more troubled borrowers to seek out their mortgage provider or housing counselor to help them explore alternatives to stay in their homes," said NAHB President Brian Catalde, a home builder from El Segundo, Calif. "NAHB will continue to publicize foreclosure prevention resources in communities throughout the country. We look forward to working with HOPE NOW to help expand their outreach efforts." #####

Hi All, The original story had some annoying pop-ups, so I've replaced it with a similar story taken from WRAL.com which includes a short video clip. Go back to the first post and check it out. You guys who care to comment now have another venue to comment about the topic. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Wow, Awesome, Gary. I said it before and I'm saying it again...this guy is so smart it's scary. OT - OF!!! M.

Yeah, That's the stuff. I remember seeing the funny Ohio town name someplace when I was doing the job. OT - OF!!! M.

The Washington State Department of Licensing has finally completed their 6 month sunrise review for proposed H.I. licensing legislation in the State of Washington. Key recommendations in the DOL final draft are: home inspector licensing; separation of home inspectors and structural pest inspectors; home inspectors will be able to report rot and conducive pest conditions and recommend appropriate professionals; two year licensure for about $450 for the two-year period; test requirements consisting of legally defensible, proctored, etc. with a Washington State specific segment; six-member board made up of home inspectors; no specific grandfathering, but those in business at the time that licensing takes effect will have two years to take the exam; board will set experience criteria that may substitute for initial training and field work. There's more to the report than just these and these are only DOL's recommendations. From here, the legislators must decide whether to go forward, go back to the drawing board, or chuck the entire idea. Guess time will tell what's going to happen in Washington State. To download or read a copy of the final sunrise review report, click here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

ATLANTA – Providing design guidance on how to achieve good indoor air quality is the aim of a proposed guideline from ASHRAE now open for public comment. Guideline 24P, Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the companion guideline to ASHRAE Standard 62.2, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings. The guideline currently is open for public comment until Oct. 29, 2007. The proposed guideline would provide information on envelope and system design, material selection, commissioning and installation, and operation and maintenance. The guideline goes beyond the requirements contained in Standard 62.2 by providing explanatory and educational material that would be inappropriate in the code-intended standard. Topics addressed in the guideline but not covered in the standard include carbon monoxide alarms, air distribution, better air filtration and unvented combustion appliances. "While both Standard 62.2 and Guideline 24P seek to provide acceptable indoor air quality, the guideline goes beyond by providing additional information for achieving good indoor air quality,â€

This is probably the best idea voiced about the internet that I've heard all year (although I'm still in favor of drawing and quartering folks for punishment for this stuff). Read the article or just watch the video clip below; then take some action. [utube] " type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425:350"> ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Kevin, There was a link on that story that allows you to comment on it. Did you take advantage of it? OT - OF!!! M.

Last month after some hard rains in Florida, some fellow called my 78-year old mother and offered to inspect her roof for free. Naturally, when he came down off the roof, he reported that it needed to be repaired and that if she didn't have it fixed the "leak" was liable to cause "toxic" mold to flourish in her home. His estimate?; $3000. My mother's bullsh*t meter still works pretty well, so she called me. My brother and I converged on Florida to investigate and I repaired the "leak," which amounted to a small crack in the sealant at a roof seam, with $5 worth of material. We then completely cleaned, re-sealed and re-coated her roof for $300 in materials. It's not just in the roofing industry; it's in our business too. It never seems to fail; there's some rain or flooding somewhere and all of a sudden the mold is gold inspection segment of our business slides out from under its rock with dire warnings about how "toxic" mold is lurking in every nook and cranny waiting to wipe out consumers and reduce them to the status of pauper, as one mold "inspector's" cleverly worded press release seems to imply. Have you ever wondered why mold was never termed "toxic" or why fungal growth was never termed "biological growth" prior to the Ballard case and the multi-million dollar settlement that spawned the "mold is gold" rush? I haven't; predators are everywhere. To read more, click here.

According to the Virginia State Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, there are 1,239 inspectors registered as "certified" in the State of Virginia. However, the same article presented in the Harrisonburg Daily News Record states, that registration with the state is strictly voluntary, leaving the actual number of practicing inspectors in that state unknown. This kind of makes one wonder what the actual numbers are in the rest of the country. To read the entire article, click here .

Inspectors sometimes ask what could happen if one's state home inspectors licensure board includes real estate agents and inspectors who seem to curry favor with real estate agents? Well, inspectors in North Carolina can probably tell you; according to an article in today's Journalnow.com, the online partner for the Winston-Salem Journal, the North Carolina Home Inspector Licensure Board has just handed down a ruling that says that inspectors are allowed to report a deficiency but aren't allowed to report what the potential consequences of such a deficiency could be. According to some inspectors who oppose this change, under this rule change, inspectors will be allowed to report that a stairway doesn't have a handrail, or that the home's wiring is ungrounded or is knob-and-tube wiring, but they won't be allowed to report what the consequences of these issues might be. It's an interesting article and it trespasses into the long-established inspection process that we've had in this business for decades wherein an inspector 1) identifies the issue 2) explains the potential negative consequences of the issue to the client 3) recommends the best course of action to the client to improve or correct the issue. Under this rule, it seems the licensure board, which by the way includes real estate persons, wants inspectors to only report the perceived defect and remain mum about everything else. This issue is up for public comment until October 15th. After that, it will go before a state rules commission for approval. Inspectors on both side of this issue in North Carolina are probably looking for support from the rest of us in the profession, so, if you have an opinion about this process, share it with the people of North Carolina via e-mail or discussion boards on the many internet-connected newspaper, radio, and television stations in North Carolina. To read the entire article click here.

Dragging myself up off the floor. Apparently passed out because I was hyper-ventilating after laughing so hard. OT - OF!!! M.

Editor's note: I received the following e-mail commentary from a Canadian reader. It is coming to my attention there are an escalating number of issues concerning exterior envelope failures in terms of water permanence in exterior wall stucco finish assemblies. I may be blowing a horn too late, but the problem persists: In Canada, there appears to be a discrepancy between manufacturer spec assembly and the national building code. Every building paper and air barrier manufacturer I researched on the internet specified two layers of product, not one. The 1995 NBC, still in force in several provinces north of the USA border, does not specifically prescribe how building paper is to be applied for stucco applications beyond it: being required being of a particular type orientation and min. overlap at seams. Part of the problem exists because building paper falls under 9.23.17. 'wall sheathing membrane' and makes no specific exceptions or requirements for stucco. The prescription application makes no reference to 2 layers being required in order to prevent stucco and stucco surfactants defeating the water repellence of the membrane. In other words, if only one layer or paper or olefin building wrap is used, the membrane is prone to capillary action allowing moisture and water to seep through to the wall structure beneath, manifesting in water leakage at wall penetrations and interior surfaces in general. The problem is two fold: 1. builders are using a min. national standard as a justifiable building spec, ignoring manufacturers recommendations 2. the national building code is ignoring a vernacular standard of practice that once incorporated 2 layers of membrane application as a given, while not enforcing the caveat of manufacturers recommendations because they are too numerous to track. The building official is covered in terms of liability because manufacturers specs typically rule unless there is a specific safety alert. The other problem is that when it comes down to the wire, the building official can only enforce the min. standard prescribed in the code and not the manufacturer spec. In either case the consumer, who is our client, is left at the mercy of the builder. Since most inspections take place after a wall is finished, how can an inspector properly protect the client? The codes, on either side of the border, should adjust the wording to include 2 layers of wall sheathing membrane unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise. Inspectors should be aware of this. -- David Stewart B.A., B.Arch., RHI National Certificate Holder GLOBAL PROPERTY INSPECTIONS 213 Clearwater Court Saskatoon, SK S7K 3Y9 tel: 306-931-9995 fax: 306-931-3290 Member CAHPI, SBOA SRAR, CPBH, BBB

Here's one that's in that, "Why the hell didn't I think of that? Damn!" category. Christmas is coming; it's time to start dropping hints to Mama - particularly if this is one chore that you detest. To enjoy the video, click here.

According to an article at Bankrate.com, you have a 1-in-3 chance of losing your house to foreclosure if you got an adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM, in 2004 through 2006 that had an initial teaser rate of less than 4 percent. To read more, click here.

An original 1913 Gustav Stickley. Sigh. Click here. OT - OF!!! M.

Might be a portal into the gates of hell opening! [:-dev3] OT - OF!!! M.

I'm guessing he's referring to ironwood. It's plentiful in Mexico and parts of texas. I remember reading an article about it once in Popular Woodworking, Fine Woodworking, Wood magazine, or some such. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike