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Yeah, A couple of years ago I inspected a 104 year old craftsman for Dan Wilson a Mariner's catcher. I guess he's supposed to be pretty good and has been with that club a long time and makes some big bucks. Me? I don't follow baseball so I didn't have a clue. He was a very quite unassuming guy with a couple of great kids in tow. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Don, Those are what the Stucco Manufacturers call storefront windows. I'm sending you the details via email. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, Just go to the big orange box. OT - OF!!! M.

Well, The ridge caps will usually wear out before the field of the roof regardless of quality, so from my point of view it's a quibble. So isn't the need to taper the cap shingles. After all, not all manufacturers require that it be done. Certainteed produces the Sierra Ridge shingle, a pre-folded and pre-cut design as well as the Shadow Ridge accessory shingle for ridges. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Rob, Have you checked with the roofer to determine the brand name of this product and then with the manufacturer to ensure that these aren't accessory shingles designed specificaly for this purpose? Certainteed makes a cap shingle specifically for this purpose. It is colored and shaded to match the architectural grade shingles and specifically made to snap off evenly so no cutting is required, thus saving labor. If Certainteed is doing it,you can bet your bippy other companies are too. Hmmmm? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

David wrote: Sure, that's the whole reason that manufacturer's specify bituthene under low-sloped applications. It seals around the nails. Malarkey makes an alaskan shingle which is designed for low slope/high wind applications. It looks like a conventional shingle but is made from modbit. Even malarkey recommends a bituthene ice and water membrane when it's used in a less than 2:12 application. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Rob, Any chance that that area has been completely underlain with some ice and water shield? OT - OF!!! M.

Slow cure icynene injected into the walls. It will stop drafts, provide insulation but won't trap water and will still allow the house to breath. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, That's a hack job. No expansion accessories, in contact with the ground, no casing beads, poorly applied mortar, too close to the roof, needs kickouts, on and on and on. That guy should have his contractor's license pulled. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Sure, it can be removed if it hasn't damaged the cover to this point. Use a pump sprayer to treat it with a 4 gal to 1 gal mix of water to liquid sodium hypochlorite with about a pint of liquid dishwashing detergent thrown in for suspension. Apply on an overcast or cool day so it won't evaporate too quickly. Let it work and then rinse it off with a garden hose. How long it needs to work depends on how long it's been on the roof. Don't get this stuff on the plants or grass around the house or you'll be planting. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Kurt, Here's another one: http://www.permachink.com OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kurt, Best source I can think of is the NAHB's Log Home Council at http://www.loghomes.org . ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Steven, We went you to keep them under 100 KB. Go to the Windows site, click on "powertoys for windows" and download the image resizing tool. Then, go to your photo file, right click the photo, click resize and then choose small or medium and save it. Then make sure your file name has no spaces in it. If you want spaces, use an understrike character for the space. Finally, come back here, click on the edit icon for your post, delete those photos and insert the resized photos. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Bruce, Yeah, that would probably work alright too, except for one small detail - builders around here haven't a clue what a radon mitigation system looks like. They tell us that radon out here on the sound is practically nil and that people here are in more danger of getting sick from second hand smoke, car exhaust and polen than they are from radon. Here, it would be a matter of educating them to understand first what the system looks like and then why they need to have it. Since they've been getting away with open vents and poly for decades upon decade, they'll be pretty hard to convince that it's even worth the trouble to seal them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

And your question would be? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, It has more than one branch circuit so it requires its own service grounding electrode and conductor. [250-32a] Ideally it should be the steel in the walk between the house and the garage or a metal pipe below grade, but if it's only got a water pipe inside the building available, you need to add a rod. Remove the green bonding screw. Install a separate ground bus screwed directly to the panel, move the EGC's onto it. Connect the grounding electrode conductor to it and the SGE. Done. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I have to agree with Jim. I'm in Seattle and sometimes it feels like I literally live in crawlspaces because I've done so many of them. When properly ventilated, even in our wet climate and with water in them, the number with insect, rot or mold issues is very small compared to those that are fine. I'm also not unfamiliar with the sealed crawlspace concept. I've done less than a dozen of those over the years, but all except one were doing great. One done that way was actually 50 years old. The one that wasn't doing so well had some water intrusion through crack in the sidewall and it was like a big petri dish and not doing great. Out here, they haven't been using Jeff Toolie's method of installig low-speed blowers in the crawls to exchange air with the house. They're simply vented up through the floors with metal registers and they allow gravity and natural convection to move the air. It works fine. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Just get Doug Hansen's book and then go over to Mike Holt's forums and review the archives. They've been running a 12 part series of articles on grounding vs. bonding for months. While you're over there, download the US Army's Grounding and Bonding manual. You can find them here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Go to the TIJ home page and read the review of Douglas's book there by Jim Morrison. Better yet, here's that link. OT - OF!!! M.

Yep, myth. Hansen devotes four whole pages to it in his book - history, solutions, inspection guidelines. I was looking at the specs sheet inside a brand new panel in a spanking new house today and aluminum wiring sizes were listed right alongside copper wiring sizes for the 15 and 20 amp circuits. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Steven, For the sake of accuracy, put the idea that it is an EIFS system out of your head and do not call it a hybrid system. It isn't an EIFS system unless there is a layer of EPS foam insulation covering all of the house between the lamina and the sheathing. The lamina will typically be about 1/8 to 3/16 inches thick with fiberglass mesh imbedded into it. If you have wire lath and accessory joints it is stucco - no ifs, ands or buts about it, and calling it a hybrid system is going to weaken your report. What you've got is an ordinary stucco system with styrofoam plant-ons added for detailing - nothing more, nothing less. The presence of the plant-ons and the fiberglass mesh that reinforces the material they are incased in does not make it even partly an EIFS system. The presence of accessory and expansion joints rules out EIFS. EIFS is continuous without interruption. A stucco wall is essentially a rain screen. There should be a double layer of grade D paper behind the stucco, extruded lath and then the stucco, and the stucco should be a minimum of 19 mm thick in your climate. Besides the stucco guide that I mentioned above, let me suggest you also pick up a copy of the Exterior Insulation and Finish System Existing Construction, Inspection, Maintenance and Repair Guide by Robert G. Thomas Jr., and a copy of The EIFS Primer by the same author. Both are published by CMD Associates, Inc., 2030 Dexter Ave. N. #229, Seattle, WA 98109 (206) 285-6811; http://www.eifs.com . Those three books can be considered the bibles for stucco and EIFS systems and if you base all recommendations on their content you'll be on solid ground - not thin ice. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Steven, It's a 3-coat job with plant-ons added. The plant-ons are added at the second coat and the fiberglass mesh is imbedded in that coat and then it is top coated and uniformly finished with an acrylic finish. Very small cracks are typical and not a concern. The accessory joints should be at returns and under every window. There should be wide joints packed with backer rod and tooled at the perimeter of windows and doors. Get yourself a copy of the Portland Cement Stucco guide from the Stucco Manufacturer's Association. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Terry, The absolute best site for that kind of thing is JLC Online. If you're a member over there, you've got online access to every single article they've ever had on the subject. You can search their site for "retaining walls" and you'll find articles for constructing whatever you want and at the end of those they usually reference organizations and other sources of info. It's cheap. At about $.27 a day, including the JLCDRom which they send you, so you can look up stuff without the net, it's the best membership out there. Check it out! http://www.JLCOnline.com ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Look like dobies. Is that a post-tensioned slab? You can find out lots about those on the Concrete Network. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Rob, that's what I thought too when I first read the query. What's the soil composition there? Any bentonite? I've never seen one, but I've been told that in some parts of Colorado, where there is a lot of betionite, houses with basements there have crawlspaces beneath their basement floors to allow for seasonal movement of bentonite that would otherwise cause basement floors to heave without them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike