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Hi Chad, Here's how one company helps to save homes. Last year they moved a huge 100-year old craftsman from downtown Seattle all the way to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. http://www.nickelbros.com We've developed such a throw-away society that people don't even think about moving houses much anymore. It used to be very commonplace. Hell, a big chunk of Seattle consists of houses that were moved out of the downtown area in the early 1900's to make room for the Denny regrade project when they cut a huge chunk out of Capital Hill and dumped it into the bay to create a more buildable downtown area. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez Bill, If the town has an interest in preserving it, couldn't they donate a little chunk of land someplace and find a use for it as an old folks day center or something and move it? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's what the appliance was using at the time. The rating is it's maximum allowed rating, not what it will normally run at. Think of it this way - you're car uses the most gas when it's under load, less when it isn't. It's the same with electricity. Put the appliance under less load and it will draw less amperage; put it under mor load and it draws more. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You're thinking of stucco. A bead of caulk is more than you'll find on most older homes where there's nothing. Back in the day, flashings were used above windows and below sills to direct water to the outside of the wall. Caulk would be cosmetic only; and the flashings and sillpan were there to drain any water that passed through the veneer to the outside. Most of the vinyl siding guys use the J-channel without head flashings while using self-adhering or nailed-on splines around the windows behind the fan-fold. However, the smart ones use head flashings. The complex I used to live in was brand new when I moved in. 7 years later, they had to strip off the vinyl siding and do extensive repairs all around the complex because head flashings hadn't been used. Now that they've got head flashings over every window and door, no sign of infiltration in 5 years. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I use IRC 703.8UBC 1402.2 - Penetrations, intersections, projections, windows and doors must be flashed. I consider trim a projection. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, No, you aren't missing anything; I write it up all the time. You're dealing with the old "That's the way we've done it for 30 years" mentality. It doesn't matter that they're lying and that they have no idea how it was done 30 years ago, but it sounds good to them and they use it as a cudgel. Sooner or later, you'll run into code guys who don't say anything about it and then the builder will squawk about how it's passed code. When that happens, call the code guy up, suggest that he's missed something and shoot him the manufacturer's instructions so he can't give it a by. Do that enough, and eventually the code guys start correcting it and with time it will grow. When I first hit this area about ll years ago, head flashings were almost non-existent on even the most expensive homes. I just started writing up homes for windows and doors without head flashings. When builders squawked and said that they'd passed code, I'd tell them that it might have passed code but it failed the common sense test. I think it's had an impact, because where I've done a lot of houses in developments by certain builders I've started seeing head flashings. I'm not saying I single-handedly got people to start installing head flashings again, but I think I helped raise awareness and got some folks to think about the consequences of how they've been doing things. We're fighting a constant war with ignorance and the push to cut corners. In the old days, a master carpenter would teach a young fellow how to do everything from setting up batter boards and shooting footing trenches to roofing. Now, those skills aren't passed down anymore. Many of the people learning building skills now are learning them from folks who didn't learn those skills correctly in the first place and who've figured out some way to cut corners with what they've learned. There is no master carpenter teaching people anymore what the consequences of a screwed up valley, reversed starter course or improperly splined window are. There's only us. If we don't point it out - nobody will. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Those were exactly my thoughts when I read the initial post and before anyone else posted. I figured I'd wait for others to weigh in before I suggested that it's still not too late for you to sign up for Bonnie Trenga's August writing workshop. I promise you, you'll learn something. Some of us who write all the time thought it might be a breeze. Boy, were we wrong. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I give you props for coming on here and I'm glad that you are accepting of the criticisms that you received here. So many time, others who've come here and asked for advice, got their noses out of joint because someone criticized what they'd submitted for others to look at. Others lurk and won't come on the site and ask questions, for fear that they'll be the subject of criticism. What you're doing is submitting to a voluntary peer review - something that a whole lot more folks in this business should consider doing. It's a whole lot better to come here, get one's ego bruised a little bit and learn something that will save one's butt one day, than to end up becoming the subject of a peer review done by someone like Les or Walter in a courtroom, and then to have to sit there and listen to their testimony drive the last nail in the coffin, only because of the fear of getting one's ego bruised. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sort of, Brand new home, basement garage, fully caulked with a nice tight-fitting over head door. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi All, Got a sticky one here. Brand new construction with a Cat IV furnace. By my reckoning, the garage the furnace and the gas water heater are installed in has a volume of roughly 5,184 cubic feet. Using the 50 cf per 1000 Btu rule of thumb, the furnace and water heater together require not less than 6,000 cubic feet, so it's short. However, the manual for this furnace specifies that it be installed IAW the fuel gas table requirements and specifies Table ANZI-Z2223.1/NFPA-54. Has anyone got a copy of this table. If so, what's the requirement going to be for an 80,000 Btu/Hr Cat 1V appliance? Thanks, ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

A Unique Way to Serve Your Profession The Examining Board of Professional Home Inspectors (EBPHI) is now accepting applications for an open seat on its Board of Directors. The term is two years, beginning in January 2008. In addition to other requirements, home inspectors serving on the EBPHI Board must have passed the National Home Inspector Examination (NHIE). To obtain an online application, click here. For additional information contact Cathy Szmurlo, Project Manager, National Home Inspector Examination,800 E. Northwest Highway, Suite 700,Palatine, IL 60074. Phone (847) 298-7750; Fax (847) 705-3814; Email: cathy@homeinspectionexam.org

Hi All, The nifty AO Smith scald chart below was submitted by Brian Goodman, Columbus, MS. He didn't want me to credit him with submitting it. Too modest, I suppose. TIJ is about sharing. When folks share, we oughta thank 'em. Thanks Brian! You're a mensch! OT - OF!!! M. Image Insert: 126.38 KB

This article from Gazette.net, a Maryland online community newspaper, also deals with the pending Maryland licensing. For the article, click here.

This piece from the Seattle Weekly features a look at a sewer line inspection service in the Seattle area. To read the entire artice click here.

Hi, Randy, most of the efflorescence I see I can trace directly to cracked crowns. Where I've had intact crowns and good mortar, I don't think I've ever seen any serious efflorescence. About a month ago I was up on a roof in the pouring rain. When I looked down the stack, there was barely a trickle running down the inside of the stack. However, the water at the back of fireboxes could simply be caused by warm interior air that's condensing on the back wall of a cold stack as it moves up into the stack and then it drains back onto the smoke shelf and into the brickwork. The dampers and stacks are cold, the warm air moving into the flue from the house is laden with moisture. It condenses on the stack and over a lot of years soaks through the stack. It's a theory, that's all. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Exactly! That's what I'm talking about! I don't see the radiant heat striking the floor immediately in front of these things either! That's why I say it's over-stated. I just don't see it happening. It might be fine in theory but I haven't found it to be the case when these things are being used. I dunno about Illinois, but out here practically every home has at least one fireplace and in the new homes they're all gas now. Today's home had three gas fireplaces in it. Those free standing gas stoves have more air moving underneath them than the fireplaces and they're all equipped wih refractory panels that direct most of the heat out through the front so there's relatively little heat behind them, under them or off to the side of them compared to in front of them and the area where you'd want to put a hearth - that 18 inches - it just doesn't get too hot. I routinely have people sit right in front of these things while I'm working and they're fine. They just don't produce the kind of heat that you're envisioning - at least that's been my experience. I've said my piece about it. If you aren't convinced,you aren't convinced. Just don't expect me to every buy off on the idea that I need to recommend floor hearths in front of these things when they'd got a zero clearance requirement. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's a good one. Download the water heater decoding chart from our downloads section and print the chart out on card stock. Then go down and give them a little class on how to use the chart and read those serial numbers. Then tell them, "Water heaters last between XX and XX years around here. Check out the water heaters in your listings and at homes where your clients intend to make an offer. If you find that one is near or older than the maximum expected service life for this region, expect that you'll have to replace it soon. Don't even try and get it through. Be proactive. Take care of your buyer or seller. Let them know that it'll need to be replaced right away, because any competent inspector is going to flag it. That's one less thing that you'll end up haggling over as a result of an inspection." Put them to work for you. It's a whole lot easier than getting into a pissing match over a water heater because it's at 200% of it's expected service life, still isn't dripping on the floor, and the seller is acting like a horse's ass with teeth. I give those things out like they're candy. You'd be surprised how many realtors proudly announce to me how they've 'decoded' the serial number and determined that the water heater is already at or near end of service life. It's kind of like when you give a 3-light tester to the father-in-law that's always hanging around and put him to work testing receptacles. They get pretty wound up with it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, I've inspected a bunch of gas fireplaces and stoves, Jerry, and I can safely put my hand under all of them and feel very little heat. In fact, I can't even begin to count the number of times I've opened up the underside of gas fireplaces and found the manuals lying under them - some of them being many years old, and there's no sign that the paper was overheated. Dale Feb is a really smart fellow and I respect his experience, but my own tells me that pushing a hearth in front/under gas fireplaces and stoves is kind of over-stating the issue. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Apparently Mr. Electric also likes to fish. I just got an email from him. He says, I have to agree, that is one ooooogly fish! Wonder if those things fight hard? Sorry for the thread drift. I now return you to your regular channel. OT - OF!!! M. Image Insert: 15.39 KB Image Insert: 19.93 KB

Well, I'm just down the street from Randy and I don't recommend they put a cap on chimneys. Not because they won't help keep a little bit of water out, but because they just aren't necessary. Probably 95% of the chimneys I look at around here don't have any caps on them and have never had any caps on them. Many of them are pushing 80 - 90 years old and the biggest problem they have is cracked crowns that allow water to permeate the stacks or they're in a serious hurt because they're unlined and someone had been venting either a furnace or water heater through them for decades. The amount of water actually going into the opening of these is very little as far as I can tell. Don't know why - maybe it's because there's always so much heated rusing up through these that a whole lot of evaporation takes place. If people ask me if it's a good idea to add a cap, my response is usually, "It can't hurt," but I don't flog the things. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I don't write them for lack of a hearth extension. They aren't any different than a gas oven in my book. There isn't any hearth or fireproof material required under gas ovens, so why would we need one under these? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, It's there. According to my 2000 CodeCheck it was: IRC 401.3 - Surface graded away from foundation min. 6in/10ft. IRC 4031.7 - Setbacks & clearances to slopes > 1 vert.: 3 horizon. IRC 403.1.5 - Lot slope > 1:10-Foundation stepped or level IRC 403.1.7.3 - Graded site - top of foundation min. 12in + 2% above street drain ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

According to an announcement in the online version of Crain's Cleveland Business, the American Home Inspectors Training Institute (AHIT) has been purchased by private equity firm Riverside Company. To read more, click here.

Sure, the conditioned space is whats on the inside of the insulation. As long as there isn't any ventilation into that area that will cool things to the point where ambient moisture could condense in that area, it should be fine. OT - OF!!! M.

Washington, D.C./June 19th - Release #07-219 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using the recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. Name of Product: Gateway Lithium Ion Battery Packs Units: About 14,000 Battery Distributor: Gateway Inc., of Irvine, Calif. Hazard: These lithium-ion battery packs can overheat, which could pose afire hazard to consumers. This is not an internal battery cell defect. Incidents/Injuries: Gateway has received four reports of battery packs overheating, including minor property damage. No injuries have been reported. Description: The recalled battery packs were shipped as the primary or spare battery pack for some Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks, and are identified by part numbers: 6500760 or 6500761. The part number and "made by SMP" are printed on a label on the underside of the battery pack. Sold through: Gateway's professional and direct distributors and Gateway Country stores nationwide from May 2003 through August 2003. The computers with these batteries sold for between $1,200 and $2,400 and individual batteries sold for between $60 and $90. Manufactured in: China Remedy: Consumers should stop using these recalled batteries immediately and contact Gateway to receive a replacement battery. Consumers can continue to use the notebook computers safely by turning the system off, removing the battery pack, and using the AC adapter and power cord to power the system until the replacement battery is received. Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Gateway at (800)292-6813 between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. CT seven days a week or visit the company's Web site at www.gateway.com/battery To see this recall on CPSC's web site, including pictures of the recalled product, please go to:http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07219.html The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.