hausdok

by Mike O'Handley, Editor We've all seen them - the real estate ads that proclaim "Delightful Craftsman-Era Home,""Cute California Bungalow," or "Mission Style Bungalow." However, how many home inspectors actually know a true bungalow when they see one? Sadly, too few. For those who inspect a lot of small, single-family homes, The American Bungalow 1880 - 1930 by Clay Lancaster ($17.95 - Dover Books) can be an eye-opening experience. This book is based on a 1953 research paper done by the author, an architect, and traces the history of bungalows all the way from their origin as small veranda homes for British officers and their families based in India, up through the 1920's when they became the symbol of simple, middle-class living in America. Rich in little-known details about bungalows, including how heavily Asian architecture of the time - mostly Japanese - influenced their design, it breaks these homes down into specific regional types, beginning with native antecedents and then moves through their evolution from the Eastern Seaboard style, westward to the Prairie bungalows, many of which were made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright, and finally to the last phase of their evolution on the West coast, most notably in California. The text is accompanied by nearly 200 black and white photographs, etchings and floor plans - many in great detail - that help the reader to recognize nuances of the various bungalow styles. Once you've read this book, you'll never look at a bungalow the same way again, and the next time someone asks you whether a home is a true "craftsman" or a "bungalow," you'll not only know, but will be able to help them gain a true appreciation for these unique pieces of Americana. Check out ourother news items or visit our forums.

On March 17th, 2004, CPSC issued an alert (#04-099) informing consumers about a recall involving approximately 1,400 wall sconces manufactured by Brass Light Gallery. According to the CPSC release, tie-downs which secure the electric wires to the mounting bracket can come loose, causing the wires to touch the bulb, thus posing a fire hazard. Additional information about this recall, including photos of the sconces in question, is available at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04099.html On March 25th, 2004, CPSC issued an alert (#04-104) informing consumers about a recall involving 13,500 Fedders-made window air conditioners with electric heat. According to the CPSC release, units involved in the recall were sold under the brand name Fedders, Maytag and Comfort-Aire, and pose a fire hazard if the outside fan becomes blocked in heating mode. At the time of the recall, CPSC had already received 10 reports of fires with these units. Additional information, including photos of the units involved, is available at: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04104.html On April 20th, 2004, CPSC issued an alert (#04-122) informing consumers about a recall involving approximately 37,000 Trane and American Standard brand accessory electric heaters used to provide supplemental heat in heat pump or electric heating systems. According to CPSC, wiring in these units can overheat and lead to thermostat fires. At the time of the release, CPSC had already been informed of four thermostat fires caused by these units. Additional information is available at: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04122.html On April 28th, 2004, CPSC issued an alert (#04-127) informing consumers about a recall involving approximately 4,300 Majestic Vermont Castings fireplace remote receivers made by CFM Corporation. According to CPSC, the circuit board in the receivers can overheat and catch fire. Additional information is available at: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04127.html On April 28th, 2004, CPSC issued an alert (#04-128) informing consumers about a recall of approximately 88,000 LP and convertible gas water heater temperature controls manufactured in Mexico by White-Rodgers. According to CPSC, these units don't function correctly, because they open slowly, instead of snapping open to full flow, and this is causing soot to build up in water heater burners, presenting a fire hazard. These were sold and distributed on water heaters from October 2002 to March 2004 and to-date CPSC has received 12 reports involving excessive soot build-up, 8 of which involved minor fire damage. Additional information is available at: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04128.html On April 28, 2004, CPSC issued an alert (#04-129) informing consumers about a recall of approximately 12,500 (3,900 in US) TrojanUVMax® residential water disinfection systems manufactured and sold by Trojan Technologies Inc.. According to CPSC, some of the lamp pins used in these systems are improperly soldered and can cause the units to overheat, posing a fire hazard. Additional information, including pictured of these systems, is available at: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04129.html Check out ourother news items or visit our forums.

Hi Kurt, I checked that out when Dennis R. began using their logo for his avatar. It's basically a bulletin board with over 250 categories of businesses listed. You got on the list by doing a good inspection for someone who subscribes to it. You can't sign up for it, can't join and can't post information about your business. Only their subscribers can. Be glad they are saying good things about you, 'cuz they also list companies that their subscribers think did not provide good service. That list is moving westward but it will probably be a few years before it shows up in Seattle. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, OT - OF!!! M.

See, That's what's so weird. I love snakes, spiders, scorpions and just about all wildlife and they don't really bother me. When I encounter them in the wild, I'm rarely startled. Believe it or not, we had some big timber rattlers on the little mountain behind my home in New York State, and I used to go up there and screw with them all the time and never got bit. There's just something about a rat that flips a switch in my head that says, "Run!" However, put me in a cement block structure with a rat and I'll probably pound my way through the wall to get out. Go figure. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yes, please don't go there. OT - OF!!! M.

Nah, Those channels welded to the side of the sink are for the mounting brackets to slip into. Where're the brackets? Duh! OT - OF!!! M.

As most of you know, I'm less afraid of death than I am of rats. I was once in an unfinished garage, trying to test some water stains on the floor above with my moisture meter, when I glanced over at the area above the wall plate between the joists and was started by this big black rat hanging onto a 220 cable by his front paws and staring right at me. I was so startled I let out a yell, lunged backward and the stepladder and I ended up on the floor with my butt planted squarely in a big oil spot from a leaking oil pan. I was scrambling to vacate the garage, doing an immitation of Carl Louis doing the 100 meter dash, when I realized my client was doubled over laughing and in tears. It seems Mr. Rat was dead as a doornail and hadn't twitched a muscle. Still, it was a good two or three minutes before I went back into that garage to verify what he was telling me. Damn near had heart failure! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sounds like incompatible layers. Someone repainted the doors without sanding them down and re-priming them. The top layer is reacting with whatever is underneath. Lead paint tends to curl up as it peels off. OT - OF!!! M.

Okay, So this past weekend I inspected a 2 bedroom 1-3/4 bath condo for a retired judge in downtown Seattle. Inexpensive $800,000 unit. Found an FPE sub-panel. Warned them about it, provided them with a copy of Sir Douglas of Hansen's excellent paper on FPE panels and recommended that they bring the issue to the attention of the condominium association for correction. I can only imagine what kind of stink this will create, since there are a sh*tload of these units for sale in this building. Download Attachment: 2821_2nd_Ave.jpg 76.11 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I agree with Kurt and Chad. In a hundred year old stone foundation you probably don't have any drains at footer level and you're dealing with rising damp. Better to improve drainage around the foundation and to parge the foundation. The parging will reduce some of the weather exposure and lessen direct exposure of the stone to wind-driven rain and damp soil, while still allowing the stone to breath. If it can't be parged, because they like the look of it, parge it below grade, along with fixing drainage, to slow down the damp. Think about eventually doing some excavation to install decent drainage around the footings. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, He's confused and is mixing apples with oranges. He said, "The effects of condensation don't change depending on who makes the building materials." Well, he's right, but he is referring to vapor diffusion, not condensation. Condensation is a consequence of poorly controlled diffusion. What he is referring to is a poly vapor barrier. Vapor barriers are used to slow/eliminate vapor diffision and prevent water vapor from condensing on the inside of the wall - either at the inner or outer plane - and accumulating enough moisture to foment rot. In cold climates they are placed just behind the drywall on the inside of the wall and in warm humid southern climates they are placed on the outside of the wall behind the sheathing. OSB has such a low perm rating that it is considered a vapor barrier by itself and the combination of poly used with OSB has resulted in some nice, moldy messes in some parts of the country. They don't use poly at all here, because putting it on either side of a wall would cause problems in our climate. Your question, "What if you had one on the outside of the OSB and just behind the sheetrock," would result in a petrie dish where you could grow your own mold cultures for experiments. Don't ever do it. Vapor barriers do not eliminate the need for a drainage plane behind the siding, which is what is being discussed here. Vinyl siding is essentially a rain screen. It allows wind-driven water to pass through and then drain down the backside and out through the weeps along the bottom. The moisture barrier simply protects the underlying sheathing from the direct onslaught of most of that water and allows the sheathing to dry out fairly rapidly once the rain stops. With vinyl you have to be careful to use something that won't bleed or react with the vinyl. Many installers use fanfold foam. Fanfold foam works well behind vinyl, because it can be installed in a drainage plane, goes up quick and doesn't bleed. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

This forum is queried daily by inspectors with varying degrees of skill. Some are former carpenters with decades of experience who can read the framing of a structure like the back of their hands, but struggle with electro-mechanical components. Many are former sparkies who breeze right through the electro-mechanicals on a home, but have a hard time understanding other aspects of a home related to structural, roofing, ventilation or plumbing. The late Wayne Genser was one. Even though Wayne had more than a quarter of a century of electrical work under his belt, he wasn't too proud to admit when he didn't fully understand something about some other aspect of a home and nobody on this board or the ASHI board ever chided him for it. TIJ's whole purpose is to provide a place for inspectors to share information with one another, so that each of us can be better informed, better educated and thus raise the bar within our chosen profession - not unlike Mike Holt's board for electricians. We aren't perfect, but those who hang out here are working hard to be the best that they can be. As most of the posts above demonstrate, inspectors with less experience can come on here, ask a question and will eventually get accurate information, without being belittled. That is - until you stopped by. A while back I inspected a brand new home immediately after the builder had obtained the C.O. from the city. When I arrived on-site, I found a one-day-old sticker in the service panel from the city electrical inspector giving final approval to the electric. When I pulled the cover off the panel, I found one of the SEC hadn't even been tightened behind the lug and two branch circuit wires were simply resting against the screws at breakers and weren't even inserted into the terminal clamps. I made a note of the deficiencies, explained them to my client and went about my business. Twenty minutes later I was accosted by the electrical contractor. Apparently he'd been on-site finishing up in a couple other houses and the client's wife had gone to get him and had asked if he could stop by to correct a couple of issues her inspector had found. Instead of thanking the lady or myself for discovering that one of his guys, or perhaps he, had screwed up, this guy laid into the client's wife, and me, about home inspectors taking the cover off of panels and demanded to know why, if I'd found the deficiency, I hadn't fixed it. My answer, "So, I guess that means that when the city inspector finds an issue you expect he or she to fix it also?" He stormed off in a huff. Not the most professional of fellows. A few years ago, I inspected an 11 year old home for a licensed electrician and found roughly half of the receptacles in the home had open grounds. I was nearly through checking the outlets when the electrician asked me if I had a "real" outlet tester(I was using my SureTest ST-1D). I reached into my tool bag, extracted the $12. 3-light tester, held it up and asked, "You mean like this one?" "Yeah, let me borrow that," came the response. He then went back through the house checking all of the outlets that I'd marked as having open grounds and proudly declared, "There, I knew that gizmo of your's couldn't be right. Every one of those outlets has a ground." "Really?" I responded. "Tell you what. Here's a screwdriver. You're the electrician. How about pulling off a few of those covers and seeing if there is actually a ground present?" He took the screwdriver, walked to the last outlet I'd ID'd as having no ground, pulled the cover off and then exclaimed, "Damn, you were right! The equipment grounding conductor isn't even here. Someone has clipped it off!" I held up the ST-ID and the 3-light tester. "$370. versus $12. Which one would you believe?" and turned around to get back to what I was doing. "Damn, I've got to get me one of those," came the response. I hope you can continue to hang out here and help us out. We can always use the input of a good sparky. I just ask that you keep things in perspective and spend a little more time reading other forums here and gaining a better understanding of what this profession is all about, before you make judgmental statements about home inspectors in general. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike O'Handley, Editor

The very first home that I ever inspected just went on the market here in Seattle. The buyer/present owner - a young lady about 28 - had to borrow money from her parents to buy it. In May of 1996 they were asking $212,000 and she paid less than $190,000. In today's Seattle market, a series of pre-offer inspections will probably be done, a bidding war will ensue and she'll probably get at least $50,000 over asking price. As far as I know, she never lived in it. She had the roof replaced right away, patched a big old hole in the ceiling on the 2nd floor, patched the stucco, put in a new front sidewalk and some shrubs and had the house painted. The kitchen and bathrooms are still vintage early 20th century and the cast iron boiler in the basement is the original - converted from coal to gas and wrapped in miles of asbestos, of course. Tidy little profit for an 8-year investment. You never forget your first time ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Everyone, I just got a PM from Pete that he couldn't get any of those links to work, but I just tried them and they worked fine for me. Is anyone else having trouble with these? OT - OF!!! M.

Yeah, It does look like a granule-coated modbit surface. In which case, I concur wholeheartedly with Jim's assessment. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Good eye Rob, I'd say so. Except, it looks like the outlet from the trap is low enough to ensure that it drains before it gets so high that it is backing up into the unit. Still, not the best photo in the world to use with that article. I wonder if subsequent issues of PM had letters from readers commenting on it? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Pete, You didn't say, but I'm guessing that where you are you're planning on a hydronic heating system, so I grabbed these links for you over at PM Mag: http://www.pmmag.com/pm/cda/articleinfo ... 01dbc.html http://www.pmmag.com/pm/cda/articleinfo ... 01dbc.html http://www.pmmag.com/pm/cda/articleinfo ... 01dbc.html ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Rob, I see gas fireplaces almost daily - as many as 3 in some houses - and have never seen it, not once. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Did you look at the arrangement of the logs to see if they were arranged properly? Some homeowners don't like the arrangement of the logs so they rearrange them and end up impinging the flame, causing it to burn sooty like that. Major no-no. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jim, I don't mean the gaseous makeup of air, I'm talking about the man-made contaminants that we and nature dump into the outside air that we aren't exposed to indoors. We burn coal and oil for electricity which returns to the surface in acid rain and affects the outdoor environment a great deal. Then you have tannic acid from trees and oxalic acid from algae and mosses, plus all of the hydrocarbons from automobile exhaust, none of which you have in the atmosphere of your home. Have you ever noticed that a raindrop or a snowflake tastes bitter? We see copper pipe that is normally less than 100 years old, but other copper inside of older buildings, such as hinges, does develop a green patina - it just takes a lot longer indoors than outside. I think oxidation outside is more prevalent because it's sped up by contaminants in the air that mix with rain and disperse it through the exterior atmosphere more than inside. The Katenizer can probably nail it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I think it has to do with the acids in the exterior air that are there as a result of combustion processes. The copper pipe will turn the same green wherever the acid from soldering flux gets on it and the air around us is heavy with hydrocarbons that contain various acidic compounds. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nah, The Sasquatch rumor got started after I decided to go for a walk one afternoon up in the mountains. Told my wife after that I need to get on extreme makeover or somethin'. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Meant to seek input from the brethren last night and forgot to do so. Looking for opinions or codes re: T & P's from two water heaters piped into a single, otherwise properly configured discharge pipe. Seems to me that if only one valve popped off it would be fine, but if both popped off at the same time it would be like having a reduction in diameter of the discharge line, wouldn't it? My curmudgeon's mind is refusing to lock in on this one. When that happens, it usually means I know the answer, have forgotten it and can't dredge it back to the fore again. What's everyone think? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Way to go Chris, You've obviously established Landmark as its own brand in Anthem. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike