hausdok

Yep, Randy, I spent a ton of money as a newbie and a franchisee. Hell, I was literally strong-armed into participating in a $2,000+ a year piece of a 3 quarter-column Y.P. add that never got me a single job in more than 4 years and the damned candy used to go for $130 bucks for a box and then I had to spend money on the special little boxes and labels and then label and pack them and then drive them around and drop them off and......bleaaaaccchhhhh! Finally decided that I'd had enough and if word-of-mouth in a people-type business like this wasn't going to support me I didn't want to be in it. I've managed to hang in there another 6 years though without all of that marketing cost. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Wut is this? Pile on the fat guy day? Jeez! Yeah, you're right. I tend to type like I talk though and where most people pause, I don't. Stompin' off now to eat a gallon of whipped cream. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, We had them in Colorado Springs when I was stationed at Ft. Carson, so they do work in colder climates - just realize that once the temperature drops to below about 45°F you're heatin the house with the auxiliary heat source (Ours was gas but some folks I knew had electric). I only see them occasionally here. Not sure why. The climate here is so temperate that you'd expect them to work well year-round. OT - OF!!! M.

$0. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Randy, I think you can certainly point out that it doesn't comply with manufacturer's specs, but it would also be prudent to call or e-mail Hardi and talk to their tech support folks, to see how egregious an issue this is. You and I both know how often we see uneven and crappily installed claps of every sort here and some water blows up behind virtually all clapboard siding, regardless of the amount of overlap. If it's installed professionally and uniformly, there's at least one layer of Class D building paper behind it and the 1/8-inch difference won't void the manufacturer's warranty, it's probably not something I'd go to battle over. Now, if the manufacturer says that it voids the warranty, that's a horse of a different color. You'd be foolish not to report that. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Atlanta - October 26 In the big-energy State of Texas, where else would you expect engineers to seek to emphasize the importance of reducing energy use in buildings in order to achieve a sustainable future? At the 2007 ASHRAE Winter Meeting, of course. Energy use in buildings from HVAC&R and lighting account for up to 40% of a building’s energy use. Examples of engineers’ ability to significantly reduce a building’s energy consumption and footprint on the environment will be demonstrated at a free public session at ASHRAE’s 2007 Winter Meeting in Dallas. Strategies for Low Energy Efficient Buildings will be held Monday, January 29 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Dallas Convention Center. “With the support of building owners, engineers can create green buildings that use energy wisely, provide a productive indoor environment for occupants, and have a minimal impact on the environment,â€

Ouch! That's cold! [:-shake] (pun intended)

Washington DC - Release #07-018 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of 3,000 additional fire suppression system pumps sold under the brand names Goulds Pumps, Bell & Gossett and Red Jacket Water Products. Units: About 3,000 additional units (18,300 units recalled in August 2006) Manufacturer: ITT Water Technology Inc., of Auburn, N.Y. Hazard: A mechanical part on these pumps was not fully secured, which can lead to the pump failing during use. If pumps sold with fire suppression systems fail, the risk of fire damage increases. The pump itself does not pose a fire hazard. These pumps were previously recalled for the same hazard in August 2006. The recall has now been expanded to include additional date codes and the dates sold have been expanded. Incidents/Injuries: ITT Water Technology Inc. has received one report of a pump failing to start during a system test. No injuries have beenreported. Description: The recalled pumps are general in purpose, but are sometimes used in fire suppression systems. The pumps were sold under the Goulds Pumps, Bell & Gossett and Red Jacket Water Products brands. The pumps can be identified by having Model NPE, NPO, MCC, MCS, SM or Series 3530 on their nameplate. Recalled pumps were manufactured between December 2005 and September 7, 2006. They have date code M05, A06, B06,C06, D06, E06, F06, G06, H06 or J06. The date code is the first three digits of the serial number on the pump name plate. Sold at: Pump distributors nationwide from December 2005 through September 2006 for about $800. Manufactured in: United States Remedy: Installers of fire suppression systems will be contacted by ITT Water Technology Inc. to schedule an inspection and replacement. Please contact ITT Water Technology Inc. if you have not been contacted yet. Consumer Contact: For more information, call ITT Water Technology Inc.at (800) 984-9199 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit one of the company's Web sites at www.goulds.com,www.bellgossett.com. To see this recall on CPSC's web site, including pictures of the recalled products, please go to: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07018.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. To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or visit CPSC's web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.asp. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

Hi All, I was just finishing up a warranty report on a 1-year old home and I was struck by the stark difference between this home and another one that I did in that same development back in August. Both homes were built by the same builder - one of the highest-priced and most vaunted builders in this region - and were sold within 3 months of one another about a year ago. The first house had numerous interior finish issues, some structural anomalies, there were some electro-mechanical and plumbing issues and plenty of exterior issues. All-told, quite a few for a new house and more than one would have expected from this builder. The second house, had one or two very minor drying/shrinkage cracks in some drywall mud, a couple of very minor interior finish, exterior and heating system issues, and no structural, electrical, plumbing, landscaping, roof, attic, ventilation, insulation or fireplace/chimney issues. I'm sitting here scratching my head. The only thing that jumps out at me is that the first house was the model home. It was built first and sold several months later, and another home became the model, after a few more were built. Construction is still going on in this development, by the way. It occurred to me that I've seen this time and again in various developments, so I was just wondering whether those of you who do warranty inspections commonly see significant differences from one home to the next in your respective regions. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Thought I'd tell the brethren about this and ask for some assistance. The issue below was what inspired me to run the series of articles by J.D. Grewell and the article above back in July. Since then, things have escalated a little bit. Here's the situation. One year old home is one of more than 75 in a development that are all done the same way in Washington State. I was hired to do a warranty inspection for the homeowner, prior to expiration of the one-year warranty provided by the builder. This is the warranty that builders tell homeowners about here - what they don't tell them about is the mandatory 6-year "habitability" warranty and the 10-year structural warranty on new homes here. The builder bought a custom "framing package" from a lumber company that included specs and stamped drawings from an engineer specifying sawn rims to be used with engineered I-joists. Initially, based upon what one of the builder's employees told me, I'd reported that these were 9-1/4 inch high I-joists, but I was wrong on that point, as I later learned from the builder via a letter after the client asked for correction and was turned down. The joists turned out to be a custom-sized joist made to a depth of 9-1/4 inch, so they'd match the height of the sawn rims, unlike most manufacturers who make them 1/4 inch high on purpose so these can't be matched. There are no web stiffeners or squash blocks under any of the typical point loads. Instead or using I-joists at these locations, the builder doubled up 2 by 10's. Blocking panels are inconsistent. Some are engineered lumber while others are blocks cut from 2 by 10's. Everything is on 19.2 inch centers and walking through the home is like walking on a drum head, everything shakes and rattles. Some unevenness in the floors where some bumpouts have been cantilevered. Again, instead of anchoring the inner end of the cantilever to engineered lumber, I-joists were replaced with 2 by 10's and the transition can be felt when walking across the floor. Where this was done with engineered lumber one doesn't sense a transition. These are two-story homes and the same system has apparently been used between floors. The builder maintains that it's fine, because the lumber company's engineer signed off on it and the AHJ approved it. The engineer says it's fine because the sawn lumber rims will sustain more load than a doubled-up I-joist or APA-rated rim board will. The lumber company says he's been selling these packages like this since about 1990 or 1991 and has never had a problem. APA-Engineered Wood Association folks say, "No way," the sawn rims will shrink - some more than others - and shrinkage of even 1/8-inch is going to place an unacceptable load on the I-joists at the perimeter, therefore the perimeter is essentially, all point loads and everything should have been reinforced with squash blocks to prevent damage to the trusses if/when the rims shrink. The code being used by the locals specifies "used in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions." The sales folks for the I-joist manufacturer say that they've know about this lumber company selling these packages for nearly 20 years but that they haven't the power to dictate how their product can be used by private companies. They say they know that there have been a number of battles over it with some local code officials and it usually manages to get approved, although they are aware of one job that went bad because of it. The chief engineer for the manufacturer says it's wrong, that differential shrinkage could cause some issues, but, like the sales folks, he has no say over the vendor or the end user's use. He defers to his company's installation manuals and the Wood I-Joist Manufacturer's Association's guidance. He points out that they have pre-fabricated squash blocks and a computer program that would have shown the builder exactly where to place all reinforcement to make this work right. He also points out that the lifetime warranty on the joists will be null and void if this system fails because they failed to follow their (manufacturer's) instructions. Their own documentation doesn't even discuss what one would need to do to mix these two together in this situation, and only specifies what types of engineered APA-rated rim board can be used. WIJMA's tech library specifically addresses it in a paper and says it's a no-no. Back to the lumber company - the vendor maintains that APA and WIJMA and the manufacturer only want to sell APA-rated products, so naturally they'll say only engineered rim board material may be used. Back to the engineer who designed the package - he says shrinkage isn't an issue and maintains that APA and WIJMA and the manufacturer only want to sell APA-rated products, so naturally they'll say only engineered rim board material may be used. Paul Fisette, frequent contributor to JLC and head of the Wood Technology program at UMass Amherst, thinks they're playing with fire. J.D. Grewell, thinks it's a nightmare waiting to happen, John Bouldin agrees. To me, it's non-standard construction and at the least, an experiment, and I felt that the homeowners should have at least been informed about it before they'd purchased the home, so I made sure to explain the potential issues in my report and recommended they have it looked at by another engineer, who is intimately familiar with how I-joists are used in modern-day construction, just to ensure that the vendor's engineer hasn't made a serious mistake. Homeowners went back to the builder to demand an explanation and are looking for a warm and fuzzy - either through correction or verification by another engineer. The builder refuses to do either. Since the first one, I've done four more inspections up there and found them all the same. Three were in the same development and one was in a separate development by the same builder several miles away. In the past, I've seen it in other homes in that general region, but didn't realize that it was a standard lumber package sold by a single lumber company - I'd thought it was individual builders screwing up and had reported it thusly. Obviously, this will be the same in every home in that development and this builder has developments all over the county. Now, I see I-joist systems done by other buiilders all the time. In fact, I did a one-year warranty inspection on a home yesterday morning that had 9-1/2 inch I-joists. Engineered rims, web stiffeners and blocking panels of APA-rated materials where needed and sawn-lumber squash blocks where necessary. Floor system was solid, and quiet with absolutely no vibration. Like night and day when compared to these one's. If APA, WIJMA's and the manufacturer's fears come true, and a system fails, one would expect that it's ultimately going to come back on the engineer. One, maybe even two homes, might not be a huge issue, but what if dozens, maybe even hundreds start to fail, the engineer goes bottom-up and the manufacturer refuses to honor the warranty, because of this non-standard "experiment?" Scary stuff - especially for the homeowners, many of whom are Navy servicemen and women on limited, fixed-income budgets. What are your various thoughts? No problem because there's an engineer's stamp? Shrinkage issues are over-rated? APA and WIJMA are just covering their butts and there's nothing to be concerned about here? Have any of you ever seen this successfully done and have plenty of evidence to show that it's not an issue? Or, are the vendor, engineer and builder out of their gourds? I'm being pegged by the builder as the bad guy here, for knowing that it's an atypical installation, making my clients aware of it and recommending that they do a little more homework to ensure it won't be an issue, but, if it looks like it will be, to demand whatever corrections are recommended to them by other experts. For doing that, I've received a cease and desist order demanding that I send letters to my clients retracting what I'd reported and, if I don't, threatening legal action, including seeking an injunction to preclude my dissemination of further "erroneous" information, pending the outcome of a trial. I've obtained counsel and it's being handled appropriately. A future article in TIJ will probably deal with the issue of whether or not a builder has the legal right to try and muzzle home inspectors through legal action vs. simply examining the issues brought before them and dealing with them straightforwardly and honestly in a cooperative manner for the benefit of their buyers. If any of you have encountered a similar issue with an I-joist installation, have had the builder challenge you, because the AHJ approved it and an engineer's stamp was on it, and then had the manufacturer back you up in the same way, I'd like to talk to you about it. Please e-mail me off-line at hausdok@msn.com. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I often see discoloration like that above bathrooms and bedrooms. Lots of humidity in those areas. You'd be amazed at how much water we dump into the air while we're sleeping. Mark, was there a ceiling fan under that insulation that's trying to duct air to the eaves instead of straight up to the roof or perhaps didn't even have a duct attached and was just venting against the underside of the insulation where that black spot on the insulation is? If not a fan, was there a ceiling light fixture of some sort with a leaky base that's allowing air passage? Jerry's right, the underside of the roof over those areas can discolor regardless, but any air leakage makes it worse. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I think they've come a long way in just the past 5 years, but I don't think I'd want to rely on just one tankless water heater, given where they are now. Give them another 5 to 10 years of development maybe they'll be there. I think that you might consider ensuring that your flue is configured in such a way that replacing the water heater in the future with a tankless will be possible without needing to make major alterations in order to up-size the flue for a tankless. Check out A.O. Smith's new Vertex line of water heaters. These were co-developed by A.O. Smith and the U.S. DOE and will allegedly provide 70 gallon performance with a 50 gallon tank, meaning that, unless you've got two teenagers showering at the same time, you'll probably have unlimited hot water. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

From the obvious hammer marks on it, I have to conclude that it's an anvil used for shaping the pigskin segments for footballs. []

Nah, They can move 'em bricks, chimneys and all when they want to. Lookie here: http://www.nickelbros.com/jobsidcustomhouse.html OT - OF!!! M.

Well, With all due respect right back atchya, the SureTest will not trip a GFCI or work beyond checking voltage, polarity and voltage drop without a ground. Without a ground, it's not a whole lot different than the $12. testers that I abhore. I know that because I've been using a SureTest since 1999. OT - OF!!!

Hi, I can't find it in the CPSC archives and my office copy is somewhere in one of these huge mounds of paper in here and I've not been able to find it. However, back in '97 -'98 CPSC made a stink about any type of corrugated pipe and said that it was unsafe, citing a study they'd done of over 17,000 fires that had occurred over a 4 year period in the US that could be traced to corrugated or occluded dryer ducts. That's a pretty strong argument to stay away from anything flexible and corrugated. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Purchase price of the house - $0. Cost to move - Immense. Nice house. Could very well be a wonderful home worth several times what it will cost to move it, once it's on a new lot and completed, but, man, is that ever going to be a tough one! Here's the link: http://www.historicproperties.com/detai ... y=mamou013 OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I'd describe all of these issues individually in my report and then recommend the client hire a P.E. who specializes in drainage issues to design and implement a fix. Engineers are like doctors and lawyers - many have specialties. For instance, I sometimes do home inspections for one who does nothing but failure analysis on large structures. Other engineers usually know who specializes in what in their areas, so one or two phone calls to engineers with very pointed questions will probably net the name of a couple of specialists. They in turn will know contractors, hopefully competent ones, that also specialize in correcting drainage issues. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Kurt, The operative word here is beginner. Make a few calls posing as a new guy just getting into the business and see what kind of quotes you get. OT - OF!!! M.

Kaplan Professional Schools (KPS) and Inspection Training Associates (ITA) have just announced Pay Per Inspection, a new program specifically designed to assist new home inspectors who've graduated from one of the KPS ITA courses to obtain General Liability and Errors and Omissions insurance at exceptionally low rates. Typically, an annual basis claims-made policy with general liability insurance can cost a new home inspector $3,000 or more. This new program allows an inspector to obtain a $125,000 per occurrence/$250,000 aggregate and a one year general liability policy, along with the same limit E&O, for ten inspections, including $210 dollars worth of report forms and contracts, at a cost of $748. 50 inspections will cost $2628, including 50 inspection reports and contracts worth $1,050. According to KPS ITA, once the cost of the report forms and contracts is factored in, the actual cost for coverage for 50 inspections is $1,578 and is much less than any other standard annual E & O policy, enabling new inspectors to use the money saved to pay for tuition at one of the KPS ITA courses. For more information, visit the KPS ITA Pay Per Inspection website.

Nice! Way to go. OT - OF!!! M.

HI, Because it's a four and a zero. nought, naught, ought and aught are all archaic terms for zero. OT - OF!!! M.

Hmmm, Sure sounded like a dig. What's your point? OT - OF!!! M.

Sigh, You have to go to the JLC site at http://www.JLConline.com and then click on Current Issue and then scroll down to the last article there. You can click to view it as a pdf or an HTML file. There's also a link there to view similar files. However, if you are not a member of JLCOnline Plus you may have to pay for the article via credit card to snatch it. Some are free and some require payment. If you have to pay for it and don't want to, you should still check out the link that says 'similar articles' because one or more of those may be free. A JLC Online Plus membership is definitely worth every cent. You get their searchable CD's with 17+ years of articles, you can search their full archive on their site and you are entitled to unlimited free downloads - all for about 30 cents a day. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yes, if a ground fault occurs the GFCI will trip - even without a ground. It's measuring the amount of current carried into and out of the device. If it senses a difference between incoming and outgoing voltage that is beyond the tolerance it is set for, it will trip. Lots of pre-1962 homes have the original ungrounded 2-hole receptacles converted to the 3-hole type receptacle without having added a ground. Placing a GFCI receptacle in the first outlet in the voltage stream, converting all outlets downstream to the 3-pronged type and then labeling them "GFCI Protected" isn't the ideal, but it's better than nothing and a reasonable solution that can give a repair-cash-strapped buyer some wiggle room, by making things safer until such time as he/she can afford to have all of the receptacles upgraded with equipment-grounding conductors. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike