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Hi, I've personally never run across one but I believe Chad Fabry has had at least one of these and can tell you all about it. Chad, where B you Bro? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Check this link which shows them done the way you describe. http://tooling.tycoelectronics.com/copalum_home.stm I don't think it's necessary to use any anti-oxidation paste with these. The purpose of the paste is to prevent the wiring from oxidizing and loosening up. These connectors are crimped into the wire with a hand-held press tool and the connections cannot loosen up like connections that are twisted together or are held by a screw. At least that's my understanding of it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yikes, pressure screw type connector. I dunno if I'd be comfortable with that until they've been out for a while. Suppose there's not much I can do to prevent them being used though. Good find. Thanks! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Scott, That's a good idea, let me think about how to do that. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sorry Les, I'll try to behave. This, by the way, is my canine lookalike. I've gained almost all of my friggin weight back. Ha! Just noticed that my avatar is gunning down my alter ego. Talk about your conflicted personality! My apologies Wingfoot, but we've very rudely jacked you bigtime. Just for that, you're entitled to hijack threads from Bain and I one of these days. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Donald, Those are the copalum connectors made by Amp. That's currently the preferred system. See this: http://www.inspect-ny.com/aluminum/alreduce.htm ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

As far as I'm concerned, there's only one - Electrical Inspection of Existing Dwellings (2001 Edition) by Douglas Hansen. Here's a review: http://www.tijonline.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1902 OT - OF!!! M.

That's because you have an open ground and without a ground a tester that uses a GFCI test button can't create the ground fault needed to trip the device. The electricians right. You don't need a ground for a ground fault circuit interrupter to trip - it will trip with or without an equipment grounding conductor connected. You aren't checking the ground, you're detecting a ground fault. Two different things. Use the test button on the receptacle on 2-wire systems to check the GFCI's and only use your tester to verify proper polarity. That's as far as you need to go. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmmm, Have you noticed that they both have the same color fur? [:-bigmout Hah, I slay myself! (I'm real brave when I've got 2,000 miles between me and a potential bloody nose.) OT - OF!!! M.

Yep, See at all the time. As long as the client can walk into the other fellow's yard to turn off power to his/her home (I assume he must be able to if the person reading the meter for the utility can) it's accessible. Townhomes are like condos - one needs to share certain areas and other residents have automatic easements for some stuff. OT - OF!!! M.

Hmmmm, You know what? Scott's right, he does kinda look like Kurt. It's all in the eyes. Sorry Buddy. []

Al said, Hi Al, I dunno, I think that the appraiser in the example below will disagree greatly with that statement and I think his case has set some pretty good precedent for us to protect our copyrighted products. http://www.tijonline.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2540 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I disagree, Copper is used every day in lots of places to plumb gas lines. True, in some parts of the country the code bubbas and the trainers still prohibit it, but that's old school. Gas today is better refined and cleaner. It might be prohibited where you are but a blanket statement that it isn't suitable for a gas application would be an erroneous statement. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmmm, Not sure. Go to the Copper Development Association's website and look around. Bet you can find it there. Here's a snip from one of their pages: Annealed copper tube also offers maximum ease of installation when a homeowner wants to add gas appliances or equipment, such as a gas fireplace. Copper fuel gas distribution systems are approved by national and international building and safety codes, including the National fuel gas Code, the International Mechanical Code and the International Plumbing Code. OT - OF!!! M.

Okay, Here's one for the ex-electricians among you - what's the minimum allowable height for a service entrance panelboard above the interior floor of a home. I ask because I had one yesterday where the bottom of the enclosure is 18 inches off the floor and the top is at 4'4". It meets the minimum clearance requirements for working space but I can't find anything in my references - not even in Douglas Hansen's book - that specifically addresses minimum height. Has anyone ever run into this before and is it even a concern. It certainly seems like it would be, since this one is where a toddler can reach out, pull the door open and start throwing switches anytime. What say the masses? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, That's just it. If the roof is servicable, you won't damage it by walking on it. If a shake roof is in such bad condition that walking on it will damage it, it needs to be torn off anyway. The idea that walking on a shake roof will damage it is just another one of those home inspection myths that's been perpetuated by some trainer who works in non-shake country who is talking about something which he knows nothing about. I say again, take it from someone who lives in shake country, simply walking a shake cover will not damage it, but climbing onto a shake roof without knowing what you are doing or onto one that is damp or slick with algae and it will damage you. The picture below is a typical shake roof for me - walked without difficulty and without damaging the roof: Download Attachment: shakeroofexample.doc 148.46 KB

I've walked on thousands of them and have never damaged one. The only reason I won't walk on a shake cover is dampness or algae - both turn it into a skating rink. OT - OF!!! M.

Yep, Way too much time. You should be out walkin' Dudley (That was his name wasn't it?) before the sun sets. OT - OF!!! M.

Yeah, But according to his post, the manufacturer recommends a 20 amp breaker. If not, whadideyemiss? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Scott, Yes, It's my understanding that they all have to sit for a national exam and that there are a variety of different skill certifications. Unfortunately, it's the people in authority that have cancelled the home condition reports (HCR's). They caved in to the special interests who were squawking about the new "cowboy" inspectors, the delays that the HCR would cause in the sales process, etc.. The litany of complaints about home inspectors was as long as your arm and they hadn't even begun the program yet. Some of those folks have been in school full-time for the past year and have spent more for the education than we'd spend over here for a home inspection franchise. I went over to their forum and encouraged them to start up their own association and start doing independent inspections the way ASHI started here in the 70's, but it's like many of them don't seem to understand how it could succeed. Maybe I'm just not understanding the sales process over there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Richard, I didn't mean that the range was defective, I meant that the breaker must be defective or it should have tripped it (At least in my electrically-challenged head). Guess I should have written that more clearly. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I usually find them bonded to the pad by a huge blob of silicone. Don't laugh, I used this stuff once to reattach a rubber impeller to a steel shaft in a washing machine pump. The danged thing held up until the washing machine wore out! Anyway, I just took a quick glance in my HVAC CodeCheck and didn't see anything. Maybe one of the code gurus with something more in-depth immediately at hand can give you a better answer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, You didn't say whether the AWG was copper or aluminum. The cheat sheet that I have had for the past 10 years says that on a 240-volt circuit a #6 AL cable will pull up to 6720 watts with a 35 amp breaker without problems and a #6 CU cable can pull up to 9600 watts with a 50 amp breaker without problems, so the cables, as you've already stated, aren't an issue. What's happened is that someone has essentially put a governor on that range that will trip and cut off fuel long before the engine reaches maximum revs - if you can understand the analogy. The comment is waaay too techno though. You're client needs to understand the what and why. I had to read that several times to absorb it and I've been doing this 10 years! Oh, yeah, I forgot - I am kind of dense. Sorry. Anyway, my point is that, since you knew that the wires to the range were not going to be a problem, you could have said: The breaker in the service panel used for the electric range is smaller than allowed. This range is designed to draw up to 4,800 watts, which will normally cause a 15-amp breaker to trip and cut power to the range. Since the range isn't tripping this 15-amp breaker, I have to conclude that it's defective. I recommend having an electrician replace it now with a 20-amp breaker, which is the correct size to use for this range. That's what I would have said. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Late eighty's to mid-90's. Did you get a look at the serial number. If so, I can nail it for you. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Bosco, Welcome to TIJ. Yes, you and your fellow UK inspectors are welcome here anytime. I'll visit the link that you posted and I hope that others from TIJ will as well. We've been following events in the UK for months now and we've even run some articles here on TIJ about it. I have to tell you, it's pretty disappointing to see the pols there in the UK cave in to special interests and toss such a carefully thought out program. We've been pretty bemused for months with the near-hysterical doom-and-gloom commentary by estate agents, banks, mortgage lenders and RICS members who're opposed to home information packs (HIPS) and the home condition reports (HCR's) that were mandated by the law. Any seasoned inspector here in the US who read those articles knows that it was just a smoke screen thrown up by those who currently control the real estate market and are afraid of losing some of that control. It looks more and more like the estate agents and the lenders there, like here, would prefer that buyers remain as ill informed as possible about the homes that they are purchasing, so that the sale goes through smoothly and they get their commissions with as little work as possible. Heaven forbid that a home inspector should rock the boat! What's really laughable is the stance that a lot of the RICS surveyors have taken in regard to the training and credential you are working toward. Many of these guys and guys are carping that there's no way that anyone who attends a school full time for 1 to 2 years could possibly be qualified to inspect the condition of homes. Gosh, where the hell have these guys been living for the quarter of a century? For more than 30 years, uncounted millions of homes in this country have been inspected mostly by men and women whose only qualifications were some background in construction (or not) and a week to 10 days attendance at a home inspection school someplace. I've always maintained that home inspectors here should be better educated, but it's a pretty hard sell to the inspecting community when one looks back at how the profession has survived without higher education involvement. I used to admire RICS, and thought that most of their home surveyors were pretty bright folks. No more, after reading some of the trash talk they've thrown at home inspectors in the British press over the past couple of years, I now lump them together with the engineers in this country who maintain that all home inspectors are posers and only they are qualified to inspect homes. It's a crime what's happened to you folks, and the loss of mandatory HCR's is a crime perpetrated on the British public by greedy special interests and facilitated by week-kneed and flaccid pols. It's time for you folks to band together and make the British public smarter about the home inspection process and educate them about how it's only those who are going to make money from the sale of the home who really don't want the HCR's. You need to make them understand how inspections protect them and everyone else involved in the transaction. Don't give up. It's a good thing you're working toward. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike