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Very Kewl, There's a whole lot of fine work there. What ever happened to all of those skills anyway? OT - OF!!! M.

Don't bother John. I took care of it. OT - OF!!! M.

viel = much, many, a lot (das)Geld = Money Das wird viel Geld kosten! - That's gonna cost a lotta money! OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Yeah, I've had one that was literally sloped with a 5:12 pitch from the parapet to the center on all four sides, where a big copper catch basin gathered the water and then drained down through the center of the house via a cast iron waste stack and from there to the sewer. (Older house in a portion of town where there aren't any storm sewers in the street and gutters are connected to the city sewer.) Doing the attic was a royal pain because it was like working my way through the longest kneewall attic in the world. Attic was insulated with sawdust too! How to fix without spending a fortune? Nope, I got nothin'. I'm thinking viel Geld. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! M.

Dunno, Anywhere close to the panel I usually get an FG reading - even when I'm on a floor above or below it. Doesn't matter to me what's causing it. I just pop the cover and report it if it's substantiated. If I don't see anything in that panel to indicate that the FG was substantiated, I don't worry about it and don't even write it up. Works for me. Your mileage may vary. OT - OF!!! M.

Man Chris, You must be brutalizing that pig tail. I'm still on the first one after more than 6 years. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Actually, in my market, I'm down with the first explanation. I get a ton of old leaning unlined stacks on old bungalows here and they all invariably lean to the south where our prevailing wind and rain comes from. It's real common to be able to sink a pick right up to the hilt and rake mortar out on the weather side of one of these weathered stacks and on the other side it will barely penetrate. The worn out/cracked crown are major offenders too. Once they start taking water, it's not long before the mortar starts losing cohesion, softens and starts compressing. Anyway, that's the way it seems to be here on Puget Sound where there's a ton of moisture and it hardly ever actually gets down to freezing temps - even at night. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Steve, A bootleg ground is the easiest thing in the world to confirm. It requires taking five seconds to remove the cover screw, another five to peer into the box with a flashlight to see if there is a jumper or the EGC is rubbing up against the neutral terminal, and then another five to put the cover back on. No, you're not required to do that and it's considered invasive, but it takes only seconds and it keeps you from getting embarrassed or having your credibility impuned by the fact that you might have leaned a little too much on your toys. I do it and always have since I first got my ST-1D in 1999. I've found that the gadget is right about 50% of the time when it comes to false grounds, so I won't trust it completely until I've confirmed the reading. Works for me! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It's glass. It can't burn and it won't melt until it's melting temperature is reached, which is probably not likely with a gas fireplace insert. However, if it's insulation made with urea formaldehyde I have no idea what the ramifications of heating that stuff up are. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's a friggin nightmare and if you don't get it fixed stat you're going to end up with a crawlspace crawling with rot and mold. Jim Katen is probably more familiar with code requirements down there, but if you're in IRC country the builder doesn't have a choice he has to put in footing drains unless the floor of the crawlspace is on the same level as exterior grade, which it isn't, or if it's on well-drained ground or a sand/gravel mixture (IRC 405.1X), which it also isn't. Since you say the soil there is expansive the leaders from the gutters have to discharge a minimum of 5ft. from the footing or into an approved drain system separate from the footing drains (IRC 801.3). It sounds like you should get an attorney to write the builder a pretty strong letter suggesting that if the situation isn't fixed yesterday he (the builder) can look forward to dealing with a lawsuit and a lot of really, really bad publicity when mold develops under the home. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nah, You were clear, I just had my head tucked up my bottom. Go to the links section, click on the link for Texas home inspectors, find your link and then click on the little white paper with the checkmark icon. Edit your link and then resubmit it. If you go there and don't see the icon just shoot me an email through TIJ by clicking on my user name and then choosing the send e-mail icon and tell me what you need fixed and I'll take care of it for you. Ed.

Hi Jesse, Aren't you seeing a little white icon that looks like a piece of paper with a checkmark on it at the top of your post? If so, just click on that and it will reopen the post for you. Make your changes and then click 'submit changes'. Ed.

Thank you. I saw it. I just haven't had a chance to get to it yet. Been out trying to put bread on the table today. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Les, It's interesting that all of these folks are afraid that the 2 by 4 test will damage the door and won't be as safe as the other tests done by holding the bottom of the door because in nearly 10 years of doing this I have never damaged a door by by doing the 2 by 4 test but have damaged a brand new aluminum door by holding the bottom edge at waist height and exerting what was probably less than 15 pounds of back pressure. For its last few inches of downward travel the operator is nearly perpendicular to that top panel and is pushing it from just out of plumb to the full-plumb position. However, when the door is halfway up, the operator is pushing parallel to the line of travel of the door on that top track. Try this unscientific experiment. Release your overhead door with the emergency release handle and place it about an inch and a half above the floor. Then push against that top panel and see how easily it goes to the full upright position and travels that last one inch or so. Now push the door up to waist height where folks usually grab the bottom of the door and leave it there. Climb up on your stepladder and push against the top edge of the door and try to close it using only the amount of force that it took to push that top panel from the slightly out-of-plumb position to the full-plumb position. You'll find that you probably won't be able to move the door without applying a whole lot more force. I think it takes considerably more force to move that door along it's track when portions of it are parallel to the floor than when the door is nearly closed. Force that can probably be measured in pounds rather than the ounces or grams it takes to push that last panel its last inch or so. I believe that if you set the force adjustment with the door at that height, you are calibrating it to need a whole lot more resistance to force it to auto-reverse. I think that calibrating the door with a 2 by 4 means that it will reverse with less back pressure and thus be safer than standing there holding it or checking it above that height. Like I said, it's an un-scientific test. I've played with one of those doors over and over again and from what I could tell the door is always more sensitive when set with the 2 by 4 than by adjusting it to kick back when standing there and holding the edge. It doesn't make sense that one would be more liable to damage the door with the 2 by 4 test than with the other test and it doesn't make sense - at least to me - that it means that the door will more dangerous. I'm not the sharpest tack on the bulletin board and could never profess to be any type of engineer (don't have the math skills) so I have to believe that the engineers who worked for the overhead door companies and collaborated with the CPSC and the UL to come up with this test standard know a helluva lot more about the science of this than I do or it wouldn't have been written into the law. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Editor's Note: This thread was moved here after it was mistakenly posted by Guy Lawrence in the electrical forum. Just wondering what you guys report when the roof is covered with snow. Do you write it off or do you come back after it's clear of snow. If you do come back do you charge a re-inspection fee or not?

Kewl! There's a "submissions" button at the top of the page. Please post it to the "submit articles" forum. It won't show up on the board yet and I'll incorporate it into March's TIJ Update. Thanks! OT - OF!!! M.

Yeah, That makes sense but my solution was to ditch the lightweight aluminum extension ladder and go purchase a pair of L-G knock-offs - Gorilla Ladders - at the big orange box. Those things are heavy as hell and the splayed legs provide really solid footing and prevent 'em from blowing over. It's a problem I never had again after that. OT - OF!!! M.

Okay, It looks like you like to write about masonry. I'm putting together March's TIJUpdate if you've got anything prepared that you'd care to contribute. OT - OF!!! Mike

Yeah, The downspout thing isn't fun. Our eaves are 2-feet deep here. I literally had to hang my 200+ lbs off the gutter at the downspout and then transition from the gutter to the leader by hooking the leader with both feet and then quickly stretching and pulling myself to the wall. All the time, those spikes and ferrules kept whispering, "I'm bending, I'm bending, if you don't get the hell off me right now I'm gonna drop you like Humpty Dumpty. Took me 15 minutes afterward to straighten out those spikes and realign the gutter. Really hairy 15 seconds or so. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Their site must be down. Here's a reseller. http://www.ergo-tech.ca/frame.cfm?WebSi ... egoryID=14

Rule #1: Never go into a crawlspace without a respirator (Hanta Virus will kill you pretty darned quick) and a weapon. I once had the earth floor of a crawlspace and the vapor barrier collapse beneath me and fell into a rat warren. The damned things were pouring out all around me. Since I'm more afraid of rats than death, I damned near had a coronary and went screaming like a banshee out of that building as the rats started pouring out of the crawlspace all around the lady client and the realtor. The lady customer hit me like a linebacker about ten feet from the door and went screaming out ahead of me. Then the realtor came out on the step and began yelling for me to get back into the house and finish the inspection. I think my reply was something like, "Ain't no f*#@ing way I'm going back into that house." He was yelling something about how I'd never work in Seattle again as I left. (She fired him and I did a job for her about six months later. I left a perfectly good, and expensive, scuba light down in that hole but I'm not interested in going back for it.). Rule #2: Never go up on a roof unless someone is standing outside watching you. I once got up onto a two story wood shingle roof and a sudden strong gust of wind blew my ladder down just as it began to rain. Wood roofs are like standing on grease when they get wet. I stood there yelling but the client and realtor were in the back of the house jacking their jaws and didn't hear me. With the roof getting more and more wet and no safe place to stand, I shinnied down the downspout to the roof of a porch and knocked on the windows. When they still didn't come, I jimmied a second floor window and climbed inside. When I walked into the kitchen I hear, "Gee, you were sure up there a long time!" Another time I stepped out onto a roof after only having had about 2 hours sleep the night before. Something happened and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the ground with someone trying to shove a plastic airway down my throat. Apparently, I'd feinted, fallen and broken five ribs and punctured my left lung. The realtor and client had gone inside to measure for carpeting while I was on the roof. They weren't aware anything had happened until a kid passing by saw me on the ground in the yard, knocked on the door and told them there was a bum sleeping in the yard. They said I was turning blue from lack of oxygen by the time I was found. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Spell check will miss those pesky synonyms every time. []

Aw com'n Randy, You mean to tell me you've never done any inter-dimensional travel? Man, I feel duped. I was sure you had, 'cuz it sounded like you and I were working in parellel dimensions. I just wanted to find the portal into yours so that I could come visit and I figured you knew where the portal was. Nuts! Now I'm never going to meet my other self. [:-hypnoti OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, If I were you, I'd still express extreme reservations about that panel and advise the clients that it's better to be safe than sorry. The breakers were only part of the problem with FPE panels. Another significant problem, and probably why there's still reason to be concerned, is the way that the breakers plug into the bus bar instead of clamping onto it like most systems. Douglas Hansen covers that in his paper FPE Panels - Hazard or Hype? that is downloadable here on TIJ at this link. Download a copy and then email it to the client and any realtors involved. Bet when you do that the questions will stop. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Tell that to my Dad. After nearly half a century of knocking nails on thousands of jobs he had to have total knee replacement in both legs. So now he's got one new hip and two new knees and he walks better than I do. Now mine are starting to act up. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check them out. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike