hausdok

Hi Jeff, Thanks, I'd never bothered to click that advanced tab to look inside the program, because I'm basically a chickenshit when it comes to computers. I'll have to do that from now on. I just learned the "new" thing I needed for the day. My Dad always says that if you don't learn at least one new thing a day you've wasted the entire day. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Scott, I think brick ties wouldn't be that much of an issue. After all, they do it now with other substrates and house wrap or felt. Since they aren't stapling felt or wrap to this substrate, you've got far fewer penetrations in the substrate than you'd have with previous systems behind brick and most of the water that's behind brick is draining down the back face of the veneer - not the sheathing. Other types of siding applied to the substrate, like clapboards, might be another matter entirely, or, if the wrap bonded to the face of the sheathing works the way it should, might be less of an issue. That's what I'm trying to figure out. With your typical clapboard siding, there're going to be far more nail holes than you'd have with brick, then you've got the ubiquitous staple holes and the siding is physically touching the substrate. Wind-driven water that gets blown up behind claps tends to collect along the top edge of the underlying claps, or adhesion holds it in small gaps between the backside of the clapboards and the sheathing, until it diffuses to the interior and has completely dissipated. With felt, that moisture gets absorbed, substantially increasing the perm rate of the felt, and then the moisture gradually dissipates as the felt allows the envelope to dry to the interior. With wrap, water gets behind the wrap by following the shanks of the nails and staples and then it's trapped there, because wrap allows water vapor to pass but won't allow water molecules to pass through. That's why wrap can be so problematical. Used with wood planking and plywood, wrap has less chance of causing damage, because those substrates are more permeable than OSB and allow that trapped water to diffuse more readily. OSB doesn't. OSB itself is considered a vapor barrier and will remain almost totally impermeable for anywhere from 90 to 180 days, depending on product, before it starts to degrade from moisture exposure. That's where so many contractors using wrap combined with OSB have gotten into trouble. With this product, when the drainable material is punctured by the shank of a nail holding the siding on, doesn't the water draining through the tiny channels in that material drain directly onto the shank of every nail as it finds it's way to the bottom of the wall? It does that with wrap and felt too, but less consistently. So, do the little breaks around the nail shanks allow water into this material, or does the extra wax and the improved polymers used in the Advantech product, which have worked so well for flooring platforms and are a huge improvement over conventional OSB, prevent absorption so well that saturation around those nail shanks isn't a factor? Obviously, these are all questions that the manufacturer should have addressed. However, the track record of manufacturer testing has shown us time and again that they're willing to rush a new idea into production and use it in thousands of homes, using the home-buying public as the test bed, before major issues are encountered with the product. I know it's still too early to tell with this product, since it's brand spanking new. I was simply wondering whether anyone has had a chance to see it up close, and, as Stuccoman asked, am also wondering how they deal with flashing penetrations, etc.. I could have asked this over on my building science forum at JLC, but I asked it here because a few of the regulars over there tend to go off on blanket condemnations of products with dissertations that would make housewhisperer's look short by comparison, and they've worn me down to the point where I'm not willing to wrangle with them anymore. Hopefully, those answering here can be a little more analytical and open minded. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Oh, hell no! We're talking about legal documents here. That's like having an arrested fellow's friend show up at the police station with a piece of paper and state that he can legally waive his buddy's miranda right not to be interrogated without a lawyer present. It just doesn't fly. Well, at least it wouldn't fly with me until I'd had an attorney, my attorney, tell me it would. I don't release the report to anyone other than the client, unless the client has initialed the block on my form that says someone else besides he/she, that the client designates, can have a copy. I've had clients not initial that form and then their realtor called me up wanting a copy of the report and I've refused to provide it until I heard directly from the client. When they get upset, I tell them they can contact the client and have the client forward a copy of the report to them, but without those initials it isn't coming from me. There's no way that I'd use such a bogus document. Now, if that person showed up with a power-of-attorney, that would be a whole different matter. Then I've got something which is legally defensible to fall back on, not some made up document pulled out of someone's butt. I still maintain that it's the person who will be paying the mortgage who is the client, regardless of who's paying for the inspection, so that person's signature needs to be on the PIA. This entire discussion is moot anyway, because what flies in one state won't necessarily fly in another, and what my lawyer says is important here could be insignificant in Chicago, where Kurt's lawyer would have an entire different take on it. That's why Satan made lawyers. Take your PIA to your lawyer and discuss all of these various contingencies with him/her, so that whatever you do will be legal and defensible in your state. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I don't know what I think about it. I didn't spend a lot of time exploring their site for specifics. I'm a little puzzled at why the tape they use isn't trapping the water at the joints. The wrap that's bonded to the surface is designed to drain. Okay, I get that. But then you stick tape over the joint. Doesn't the water then drain behind the tape, unless there's a z-flashing between panels? I got lazy. Instead of exploring their site and doing more research, I just posted the link here and asked the question. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi all, Wondering if any of you have run into this new drainable sheathing system yet. Basically, they've combined Advantech OSB sheathing (Advantech is a very high density and water resistant OSB) with that new green drainable wrap that came out about 3 years ago. This stuff goes on in panels and then the joints are sealed with a special tape and no other wrap, felt, building paper or any other type of underlayment is used. The idea is to skip the underlayment step and eliminate the problems with improperly installed wrap. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, It doesn't matter whether they are new or old. If I see them with unsealed I recommend that the client make it a point to get them sealed. If I find them uninsulated in unconditioned space, I recommend that they get them insulated when possible. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kurt, Here's the stuff I've been seeing around here. Click here ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, This should be enlightening. click here. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Just found this. Paul Fisette weighed in on this at JLC years ago. Just click here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Uh, uh, Please don't. I'm told by Mike B. that we've still got a lot of folks using TIJ that are on dial-up and those big megakilo photos are a constant source of irritation to those folks. Someday, Budda willing and the bread don't rise, everyone will be on cable and it won't be necessary. Until then, please downsize them as far as you practically can without ruining your resolution. I've down-sized 1.2Mb photos to 45Kb and when I've put them side by side I couldn't see any discernable difference, so I don't understand why this is so hard to do anyway. The tool is free at Powertoys for Window and it's a simple two click process. Then delete the big photo and rename the down-sized version without any parenthesis. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's some more info on AFCI's: http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/afcifac8.pdf

More GFCI Info: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/99.html OT - OF!!! M.

Oh! Dang! That's what that is. I thought it was a speaker volume control or something, so I stayed away from it. I've got a volume knob on my desk speakers. I don't need one on the screen. Maybe I'll take a shot at it after I figure out what I can use the RSS thingy for. However, if you all notice that my posts suddenly disappear and you don't hear from me after a couple of months, you'll know that it definitely didn't work and I'm out there someplace wearing a ninja suit and am hunting Scott down. [:-batman] OT - OF!!! M.

Mike B. I hope your reading this, 'cuz I'm hearing a whooshing sound above my head. OT - OF!!! M.

[:-yuck]

Hi, Have you thought to ask any of the guys/gals over on any of the JLC forums? Those guys have seen it all. Bet you'll find someone over there who's seen it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, I remember how proud Mike B. was when he added that and tried to 'splain it to me. That was about 6 months ago. I still haven't figured the #*@!^> thing out. Thanks for the offer. Might take you up on it one day if I can ever figure out how to RSS. Email client? I dunno, whatever came with the computer. MSN I guess, because it's hotmail (or is it MSN Live now, I forget.) I try not to experiment too much, 'cuz when I do I invariably screw something up that can't be reversed easily. The computer sitting over in the corner 9ft. to my right can attest to that. The damned thing got ticked at me one day and just stopped responding to my input. Had to buy another computer. Now it sits there smirking at me going, "Nah, nah! I got yer data! I got yer data! You can't get it! You can't get it!" [:-grumpy] One of these days though. [:-spin] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmmm, Well, I've never looked it up until today, but mine says a surly, ill-mannered and cantankerous fellow - all of which I'd be foolish to plead innocent to. Now, where's my FRIGGIN COFFEE CUP? [:-gnasher OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Scott, Thanks. I'm not sure that I understood all that. In fact, I didn't, but I'm sure that Mike Brown will chide me about it on the phone later and try and make my non-computer-friendly brain comprehend it. Maybe I'll get there one of these days. In the meantime, I just muddle along about 3-4 years behind the techno-curve. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Huh?, Don't expect me to have the answer. I just run the place, I don't know how it works. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kevin, No need to apologize. No harm, no foul. Perhaps Kurt and I should apologize to you. However, we were only trying to help. Unfortunately, we're both curmudgeons, aren't very diplomatic, are clumsy in how we go about it and it sometimes rubs folks the wrong way. Just know that when folks dissect one of your posts here they're only trying to help you, because they see something that could possibly harm you one day or harm another inspector who unwittingly uses it for their own report. I'm certainly not immune to criticism of my writings here. Why do you suppose I practically never post any of my own boilerplate here? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yes, that's what I do.....now. However, I don't have a computer in my vehicle. I originally created the book so that I'd have something to take with me on-site and would have a ready reference available when/if I found something that I thought had been recalled. After a while, that became too cumbersome and time consuming, so I relegated the book to the throne room where I seem to do an awful lot of my reading these days (Time marches on.). What would be ideal would be the ability to download those recalls into a word-searchable database kept on a PDA or a palm type computer. Then all one would need to do would be to pull up the database, put in the brand name of the product and pull up the recall. Heck, maybe it's doable now, but, not being a computer person, I wouldn't know how to make it happen. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Chris, That's why TIJ is here. Jim, Kurt and others like them don't have to help their competition by sharing their knowledge of technical issues or helping them understand how something could be written better. They do it because they really want to help and because doing so helps to raise the skill set within the profession. Helping others is infectious, take what you learn here and spread it around and eventually, maybe not tomorrow but someday, the entire profession will garner more respect, and we'll command fees that reflect what we deserve - not what some real estate person thinks our knowledge is worth. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Terry, I've got some archived here on TIJ and there were some in the old TIJ archives but I'll have to ask Mike if I can still get to them. If not, I can always recreate that archive because I've got a 4 inch thick binder full of recalls dating back to 1997. I'd just have to sit down for a weekend and plug them back in. Now, to address what homnspector just said, knowing about recalls is like visiting TIJ and remembering something that you read here. You either remember it and call it out with a lot of confidence or you suspect there's an issue, because you read about it here, and you tell the client that you'll need to check it out and get back to him/her. Print out the recalls and compile them in a binder. Then, every once in a while you leaf through it to refresh your memory about stuff that's been recalled. Then when you encounter it on the job, or think you've encountered it, you can either: a. go to your vehicle, pull out the binder and look it up to check it, or, b. jot down the info and tell the client that there might be a recall on the product, you'll check it when you get home, and, if it's recalled, you'll include that info in your report. I've done it both ways, but I've found that the second part is easier and doesn't break my inspection flow, by causing me to go to the truck to pull out that 4 inch thick binder and spend time leafing through it. I do carry a few key recalls - dishwashers and stove/ovens inside my clipboard, but the rest are in that book. That binder now sits in the throne room here at home and I leaf through it every once in a while when I don't have anything else to read in there. Want to create your own book? Go to http://www.recalls.gov , click on "consumer products", then click on "product search" and work your way down the alphabetized list. When you get to a category that could be involved in an inspection, like "furnaces", highlight it and then click "find". Then one-by-one print off every recall on that page. You'll find recalls there going back to the 1980's and it will take you a solid two days of work to get them all. I know, 'cuz I've done it and I've got a pretty fast printer. Works fine for me and I don't obsess about whether mentioning one recall means I have to know about every single recall and must look up every product to see if it's been recalled. Humans aren't computers. Most of us don't have total recall, so nobody's going to expect us to know every recall, any more than they'd expect every code official to remember every nuance of every code in every code book, or they'd expect every cop to know every single nuance of every single local ordinance, misdemeanor or felony and every single state and federal law. I know about this kind of stuff. I was a cop for a lot of years and have spent hundreds of hours on witness stands being grilled by attorneys on both sides of cases. Nobody expects us to be automatons. Get that kind of stuff out of your head. It just doesn't work like that in the real world. That's just another home inspection myth. If you avoid providing good service to a client, based on an irrational and unfounded fear of being put on the spot and having to reveal that your not infallible, you're missing a good opportunity to be the best inspector you can be. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

S'funny, The last HVAC tech I talked to thought he was god. OT - OF!!! M.