hausdok

Hi, Yeah, it's sistered, so isn't the one directly behind it. That's common as fleas on an old mongrel around here in most of these old homes with the 25ft. long 2 by 4 rafters that are sagging like Aunt Millie's you know whats. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Tom and I must be about the same age. Coming up, I was taught that a purlin was a member attached perpendicular to studs on the outside of the framing structure to which board-on-batten, batten-on-board, diagonal, drop, V-groove, T & G, or panel siding was attached. When used in roofs, they were on the outside of the rafters or trusses and were used to support metal roofing. On timber-frame structures the same thing. In this case, it looks like the idea was to try and distribute the load between rafters, sort of a like a strongback does on a ceiling, but it doesn't look like it would be very effective for that. I see those a lot around here in older homes, but they are usually propped with struts that bear on top of wall plates below. David, If you pass your cursor over "resources" on the menu bar above it will produce a drop-down menu. Choose "Downloads" and then scroll down to FM 5-426, the Army basic carpentry manual. It was written by old-time carpenters and is a great resource. Look to the roofing section - page 7-11 - for an old time definition of purlin. It's over 250 pages though, so you'll need to have a pretty fast printer and lots of paper and toner if you want to print it out. Of course, you could always save it to your hard-drive and not waste the paper. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, When I was coming up, my old man taught me that a strongback was used over wide-span ceilings to stop them from sagging under the weight of plaster and lath or drywall and the insulation above. They were typically secured to the top plate of bearing walls perpendicular to the ceiling joists at mid-span over either end of a room. They usually consisted of a couple of heavy planks secured right angles to one another in an L or T shape, so they'd be as rigid as possible and wood cleats or metal brackets completed the connection to the joists below. Sometimes they'd take the form of a fink or queen post truss that bore the weight on the lowest chord. I see them a lot in older construction but not so much anymore because most everything is trussed these days. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Darren, I suggest picking up the phone and giving them a call. I don't think they're hanging out here with the rest of us. OT - OF!!! M.

Glad you got it. I tried to email it to you but it timed out while attaching and I've got broadband. OT - OF!!! M.

Still More, The first link has a long list of related links. OT - OF!!! M. http://members.rennlist.com/warren/generator.html http://www.baproducts.com/generato.htm

Oh yeah, I'd meant to send you to this article. I wouldn't share it with clients, but it provides a little bit of insight into how these things are installed and how it's setup. http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_im ... 75631.html OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Yeah, though the new codes prohibit it, I find incoming water service pipes made out of copper and galvanized steel in older homes all the time which are completely imbedded in concrete and seem to be fine. Some of those old galvanized pipes are 60 - 70 years old and so fragile on the outside that you'd think that sneezing on them would cause them to rupture, so I don't think it's that much of a corrosion concern. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I see about a dozen a year. They usually have two setups here. The first is a setup with a manual transfer switch that, when switched, kicks off the main breaker and prevents accidentally having parallel operation as Jim describes. The other involves nothing more than a series of toggles and screw-in fuses in a separate panel that's wired into critical circuits in the home. With this setup, you have to first turn off power to the house at the main disconnect and then, after you're sure the main breaker is off, start the generator and individually turn on each circuit and rely on the fuses for overload protection. These bother me, because if the danged thing is running and an uninformed person hears on the radio that the power is being worked on, I can see that person walking over to the panel and throwing that main breaker to see whether it's been fixed yet, without shutting down the generator first. About 3 weeks ago, I saw on the news that there was a lineman electrocuted here but I don't remember the circumstances. My first thought was that someone got hit by one of these generators. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kenton, Looks like you missed this post from last month. http://www.tijonline.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3191 OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Not really, I've got a lot of stuff that I downloaded while I was on dialup years ago. It used to take me 4, 5 sometimes 6 reconnects to get something printed because it would time out. Then I increased the ram in that old computer and bought a printer that did 17ppm in black and white and had a big buffer and life got easier. I was on dialup for a couple more years after that, then I went to DSL and a couple years after that to cable. It was a pain in the keester, but it can still be done with dialup if you've got enough ram and your printer buffer can hold enough of the document. Or, here's a thought, I can email it to you as an attachment. Can your email program handle that? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, We don't use any vapor barriers here in Washington's temperate climate. When it's hot enough to turn on AC, vapor simply diffuses through drywall to the interiors and is removed via the AC. In winter, vapor migrates outward through the drywall and wall cavity to the exterior. No wet wall cavities unless someone was dumb enough to flash windows and walls wrong or put plastic into the walls. OT - OF!!! M.

Lstiburek & Carmody's classic, the Moisture Control Handbook is now available free online as a downloadable pdf document at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory site at: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/fac ... ndbook.pdf This is a 273 page document (22 MB download) so make sure that you've got a fast computer, fast connection and plenty of spare space on your hard drive, or lots of paper, a fast printer and 20 minutes to kill.

Hi, I've had two instances where I found what looked like either dry plaster or gypsum in attics. Never found an explanation though. OT - OF!!! M.

Bootsan, Go to your picture file, right-click that photo, choose rename photo, and then rename it without the parentheses or any spaces like this DSC_002_small then save it. Go back to your post, click on the edit icon and then remove the initial photo and insert the new one and it will display properly. Oh yeah, ditto what these guys said. See a kajillion board feet of HP around here all the time. It takes a pretty good installer to get it flat and most don't bother because the trouble is caused by bowed studs. Unless you can get the builder to remove the sheathing and then take a power plane and remove the crown from the studs (Yeah,...rriiigggghhhhhhttttt. Keep dreamin' sluggo!), it's got to be lived with. OT - OF!!! M.

Agree with the comments above. However, he's probably selling the SS liner and extolling a 50+ year service life. A SS liner costs about $1500 to $2000 here and an ordinary galvanized steel liner costs about $700 to $800 and will last about 15 years. Since the actual cost of the material isn't that much different, the guy installing the liner is benefitting the most from the installation of a SS liner because his profit is far greater. OT - OF!!! M.

So, Looks like they use a 10 year cycle beginning in '71. OT - OF!!! M.

Are you quite sure you didn't misread a D as a zero? D4 would have been April 1974 according to the HomeTech info or perhaps 84 or 94 if it goes in 10 year cycles. OT - OF!!! M.

Done OT - OF!!!

Tsk, Shame. You haven't been paying attention. Go to this thread from several weeks ago and look at my post on page 2. Jeesh, wudueyehaftado? [:-cry] http://www.tijonline.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2981

This is just a guess, because I don't remember anyone explaining this to me, but in my mind the building science works. Woodburning stoves, fireplaces and appliances need a larger flue than gas-burning stoves, fireplaces and appliances. When the wood burning object isn't actually burning any wood, I should think that cold air trying to dive down that big flue could overcome the bouyancy of gas exhaust, because it's at such a low temperature, and cause the gas appliance to backdraft into the home through the woodburning appliance. Any 'sperts out there know if I'm even close? I gotta go. If nobody's answered with a better reason by the time I get back, I'll look it up. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Don't think so. According to my CodeCheck HVAC: No solid fuel and gas in same vent......IRC 2426.5.7.1 and UMC 802.4 It's a few years old so the citation numbers could have changed but I doubt that the citation has. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Yeah, you're right. 4 nails per shingle, an inch from each end and above the slots just below the seal strip 5-5/8" from the lower edge. Kurt's right. You've got the higher ground, just write it and make sure the client understands that you're right and that the client is prepared for that day. It gets pretty windy when it rains in your part of the world. Were those shingles adhered to the seal strip? If not, they should have been hand sealed as well. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Cyndy, I could have sworn I gave you one of those decoder charts at one of our coalition meetings a while back. If not, no sweat, to here: http://www.tijonline.com/forum/topic.as ... ms=decoder to learn how to decode 'em and then download a copy of the chart and print it out on card stock. I keep a couple dozen charts in my car and give 'em to the agents, along with a, "Here, this will teach you how to decipher water heater date codes, so that you can replace those ancient water heaters in the houses you're listing before a guy like me walks in and writes it up - in which case it's sure to cost more than its actual replacement cost." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, What series of shingle was it? Nailing locations vary by shingle. I've got Certainteed's Master Shingle Applicator Manual and under Section 8 - Correct Fastening and General Fastening Rules To Keep In Mind it says: "Fasteners should not go into, above, or betwen the self-sealing strips. If they do, the shingles may not seal properly and will be more likely to blow off. If an occasional nail is out of place, be sure that it is hammered down flush. Generally fasteners should be 5/8" above the top of the cutout." Then the next sentence says: "Fasteners must not be exposed;i.e., visible on the finished roof." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike