hausdok

No, in order for the feed circuit to be protected, the GFCI would need to be at the panel. OT - OF!!! M.

I think it's German. Being a German linguist, I had no problem pronouncing it Kritzer (krit zair). I think the model is Combinex. I googled Kritzer and then air-conditioning systems and found a Richard W. Kritzer listed as the founder of an air-conditioning endowment fund, who is also listed as a Professor at a university in Urbana, IL and the founder of Peerless. Could it be he, or his forebear, that used to manufacture air conditioners in your part of the world? I notice you are in Illinois - maybe it was a local company that never really took off and went national - sort of like Rossoe Heating Systems in Seattle (Great furnaces, by the way). ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Huh?

Hi Scott, When I saw your post above, I thought I might have screwed up and released it too early, so I went back and looked at the original feed I took that from. It was definitely dated July 2nd and marked "For Immediate Release," so, if it was released prematurely, someone needs to talk to the folks at StrategicLee, Inc. or Manning Selvage & Lee. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, No, I don't see a safety issue. It would only constitute a safety issue if the door wasn't properly balanced, there was no emergency release handle, or it was installed too high, and/or the release was installed incorrectly or didn't function as it should. If the door traps someone, one must be able to reach and pull the emergency release handle and be able to lift the door. None of those would be the fault of the GFCI and it would come back to haunt the door installer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Take Bonnie's writing class. You'll be amazed at how she can effortlessly take something which you think you've written so clearly and show you how what you've produce can be confusing or misleading to those who didn't write it. I think the others who are taking her course would agree that it's a little bit humbling but worth it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, it's vented to the outside just like any other FHA gas furnace. As for the "gravity" thing; that's probably a term someone started using incorrectly which simply stuck. If anything, they should be called buoyancy vents. Gravity vented furnaces also include those with inducers, so don't assume that just because it's got an inducer fan on it that it's not a gravity-vented furnace. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I seem to recall that a few years ago an inspector wrote an article about these for ASHI's monthly journal The Reporter. Perhaps Kurt or one of the ASHI brethren could find that article and get permission from ASHI to post it here. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, The codes state that there is supposed to be a receptacle within reach of the opener's cord, don't they? GFCI's are not required where the receptacle is not readily accessible. I've never seen an opener's receptacle mounted where it is readily accessible. Unless they are using an extension cord, which is wrong, to power the receptacle, there's no reason why any competent and reasonable electrician would put GFCI protection on the opener circuit because a) it will be very difficult for the homeowner to reset the GFCI whenever it trips b) the tendency for the things to nuisance trip. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Did you not read this article and see the links in it? https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum ... erms=decks OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Mark, Interesting that its brand name is Empire. It looks like almost a perfect copy of a Williams wall furnace. OT - OF!!! M.

These guys are my heroes. If the cost of lots around here wasn't $150K and up, I'd be doing this too. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Aha, it's the old we versus I conundrum; one of the greatest home inspection report writing mysteries of all time. OT - OF!!! M.

Phew! He made depth before she had a chance to drop any sonobuoys, triangulate his position and drop depth charges. Resume course; mission parameters. OT - OF!!! M.

Just curious, was this system beta tested before they put it in place or did they just drop it on you guys? OT - OF!!! M.

Jerry, Ouch! Passive construction! Whoop, whoop, whoop, DIVE, DIVE, DIVE, bomber Bonnie at 12 o'clock! Bow planes at 20 degrees, hard left rudder! OT - OF!!! M.

So, Mr. qweasdzxc, did you have a comment or a question? I didn't realize that Pennsylvania was in Afghanistan, guess I'll have to refresh my passport for the next time I visit Philadelphia. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Well, first of all, I'm afraid there isn't any Canuck air in Kenmore on the Lake. We're about a hundred miles from Canada and about 2500 miles from Mr. Carson. Second, Alan Carson isn't me. I'm just the Editor here and I posted the article submitted to me for publication. I'm not sure what you meant by "royalty checks." A pre-listing inspection concept works fine, and the NAR actually encourages its own members to do them. However, the reality is that most sellers and their agents just don't want to know what's there and are hoping that the inspector will be a half-blind-checklist-totin' buckethead who'll be so afraid of losing real estate referrals that he'll intentionally forget to mention half the stuff he sees. That's the way it is and it's not likely to change anytime soon. I have to ask you, what kind of drugs were you taking when you advised potential clients to hire an idiot to inspect the homes they were selling? Let's just say that they took your advice, hired morons, and those deals went through with the sellers knowing there was stuff there that was wrong that the checklist-totin-buckethead missed. Do you think that the seller's opinion of our profession will have been enhanced or degraded by that experience? Who do you suppose will come under the gun when the buyers later find those issues; the seller? Hardly, it'll be the inspector, and when word gets around that you gave that kind of advice to a potential client and got him jammed up in court, you'll be the secondary recipient of that flawed approach. I don't differentiate between lawyers and other people; they all get the same inspection - done with my usual near-OCD attention to detail. Over the past 11 years, I've done a couple of dozen pre-listing inspections. I've encouraged the client to leave the inspection report lying there with all of the other information about the house, so that everyone can see it and read it. I tell the client they don't have to fix a damned thing prior to listing it - just make sure that everything in that report is included in the state-mandated disclosure report. I'm told that in about half of those instances the reports sat there unread and in every circumstance the buyers hired their own inspectors - none of whom found more wrong with those houses than I'd found. Almost all of those deals went through fine. In only one of those deals was there a minor snafu. The client told the buyers that he'd set his price based on what I'd disclosed to him in my report. Even knowing about all of the issues, and after his own inspector was unable to uncover additional stuff, the buyer insisted that the price be lowered further because he felt that my client hadn't lowered the price enough. They negotiated a bit and then my client dropped his price enough to make the deal happen. The fact is, he hadn't lowered his price a cent based on my report - he priced it exactly where his realtor and he agreed was the best price. In the end, the house sold for more than $25,000 over what would have been his bottom line. In England, home information packs (HIPS) containing a home condition report (HCR) were supposed to have become law on June 1st. However, over the past year, as the deadline neared, the mortgage lenders, banks, real estate folks, and everyone else who typically makes money off of home sales, began making more and more noise - expressing a lack of confidence in the new home inspection profession in England. Consequently, about six months ago the government gutted the HIP law and removed the mandatory HCR requirement from the process, but left in the provision that said that every home had to have a mandatory energy assessment and that the inspectors would do those. The special interests continued to make noise - saying that there wouldn't be enough inspectors, that they weren't necessary, etc., so that when the deadline rolled around full implementation got rolled back still again and now all of those thousands of inspectors - having spent thousands on government-mandated training - are now up in arms. The whole thing is so convoluted that I've given up trying to report/explain it here. The bottom line is, that strictly from an inspector's viewpoint, a situation where the seller is hiring us is, in my opinion, the golden fleece. If, by law, every home had to be inspected when it were put up for sale, we could rest assured that in times of low inventory our business would still be going strong, because fewer buyers would try to strengthen their negotiating position by going to the table with an inspection contingency waiver. Plus, work for us would double, because people, being people, would still hire their own inspectors, hoping that their own inspector will find something that the other guy missed so that they can force a reduction in price. MOWTPC ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Orlando, FL - July 2, 2007 Eppraisal.com, the home valuation experts, today announced a partnership with The American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), the largest and most respected national professional organization of home inspectors in the nation. Through this partnership Eppraisal.com has launched its National Home Inspector Network where consumers gain immediate access to more than 6,000 home inspectors across North America. Eppraisal.com is a consumer’s first and second step in their process to buy, sell, or refinance a home. With the new ASHI partnership consumers can quickly locate a professional home inspector to provide an evaluation of a home’s physical structure and accessible components of a home, including central air conditioning systems; interior plumbing and electrical systems; the roof, attic and much more. “Before you buy or sell a home, you need to have a clear understanding of the home’s physical condition. It’s the difference between spending hundreds of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars on home upgrades and repairs. ASHI’s network of local professionals includes inspectors with years of experience understanding the ASHI Standards of Practice, local construction codes and state regulations,â€

This one's my favorite ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, This was posted to Mike Holt's forum this morning. Since were're about to celebrate our independence, I thought some here might appreciate it. . ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jerry, Good to see you chiming in here. You should visit more often! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

ROTFLMAO! I just had a mental picture of Bonnie reading that while having a cuppa and choking and blowing halfa cuppa through her nose. Hope you're entering those into Wikapedia, Walter. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You don't really need to even try, Jim. Get used to viewing your food in "exchanges." I'll have to go over to the storage locker to find the exchange guide that the dietitian set out for me in the 80's, but it might be available by googling it. Basically, you want to set up a combination of exchanges for every meal. Once you understand what they are, don't even worry about the calorie counting. From memory: Breakfast was supposed to be 1 exchange of meat, 2 of fiber, 1 dairy, 2 fruit. Example: 1 hardboiled egg or an ounce of meat was an exchange of meat; an English muffin was 2 exchanges of fiber; a half cup of yogurt or 1/2 cup of milk was 1 exchange of dairy; a half an apple, orange or banana was one exchange of fruit. Lunch was 3 of meat, 2 vegetable, 2 fruit, 1 fiber, 1 dairy. Example: 3 ounces of meat or fish; a full cup (8 ounces) of vegetables; a full cup (8 ounces) of fruit; a slice of whole wheat toast; a half glass of milk or some yogurt or ice cream. Dinner was 3 meat, 2 vegetable, 2 fruit, 2 fiber, 1 dairy. Example: 3 ounces of meat or fish; a full cup of vegetables; a full cup of fruit, a slice of bread, 3 Triskets, a glass of milk. A half hour before every meal, drink a couple tall glasses of water. It takes about half an hour for your stomach to decide that it's full. If you do this, by the time you eat that reduced calorie meal your stomach is telling you it isn't really that hungry, so you don't walk away from the table wanting to eat more. You also have to be very strict about making sure that you eat those 3 meals a day. When I did that, I wasn't used to eating 3 small meals. I'd pig out for breakfast and dinner but would have a coffee for lunch. When I got used to doing this, I found that I felt like I was eating too much by eating 3 times a day and I was actually eating less than half (total) of what I'd previously been eating. Google "diet exchanges" and I bet you find some kind of guide to how to figure food exchanges. Once you get used to it, and kick the full-stomach pouch habit (It takes a few days before the craving settles down.) it becomes second nature. Of course, you could always try what Howard Sterns' sidekick, Robin Quivers, has been doing - the Martha Vineyards Diet Detox Diet. I dunno, doesn't sound very appetizing to me. I'm guessing that with my IBS if I try it I'd end up spending 16 hours of every day in the throne room: http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2007/06/2 ... possi.html ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Well, I used to be. However, I'm proud to say that, according to a talking head on another forum, this place is run in such totalitarianism fashion that I'm going to have to assume the title of Dictator for Life. LOL, chubby little Joe B., he's so funny! John could save himself a lot of aggravation by simply purchasing our sponsor's software - Inspect Express - and editing the boilerplate to his own taste. All of the stuff that he's been asking about is already included in there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike