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by Matt Michel PROLOGUE They were a tribe of warriors. They were masters of the horse and masters of war. Through their tactical brilliance, they overcame the inferiority of their numbers to drive the Apache out of Texas and beat back the Spanish. The Utes called them "one who fights me all the time." The Utes called them Comanches. The Comanche warrior was one who fought all of the time. The Comanche marketer is one who markets as fiercely, as brilliantly, and as relentlessly as the Comanche fought. The Comanche marketer is "one who markets all of the time." The Mousetrap Series - Tips 10 thru 14 The Mousetrap Series Continues. The next few tips in the Mousetrap Series relate directly to graphic design. As a business owner you do not need to know everything there is to know about graphic design. You do not need to perform graphic design. However, you should be able to recognize the basics of good design when you see it. After all, it's your money that's getting spent. The problem with small business graphic design, whether it appears in the yellow pages, newspaper ads, direct mail, brochures, flyers, door hangers, trucks, or business cards is that it is: C ruddy R otten A wful and P itiful Since it helps to "see" examples, you might want to download a copy of the "Build a More Profitable Service Business" notes by clicking on the link below. http://www.serviceroundtable.com/Freebi ... p?PCID=295 10. Make Different Stuff Really Different Contrast in a piece adds visual interest. It adds visual interest and makes you want to look at the piece. For contrast to be effective, it must be strong. If you're going to make something different, make it really different. Do not go half way. A little contrast might as well be no contrast. If two elements are the same, make them really different. Make the contrast strong. Make different stuff really different. Add contrast with large versus small type, font type (e.g., a roman font like Times Roman versus a sans serif like Arial), thin versus thick lines, cool colors (e.g., blue) versus warm colors (e.g., red), smooth textures versus rough textures, horizontal elements versus vertical elements, and so on. An easy way to add contrast is with a reverse. Put a dark field behind text you want to emphasize and make that text white. In the downloadable notes, you will see a simple example of a reverse. Note how the reverse makes the card more appealing and more striking. The card without the reverse appears, well, bland. One simple change makes a big difference. 11. Repeat Some Aspect of the Stuff Find parts of your design that you can repeat throughout the piece, whether it's a font, line, graphical element, color, or something else. Whatever you repeat should be visually recognizable without thinking much about it. Repeatability gives your design consistency and unifies it. Without unification, the design may tax the eye and look jumbled, out of place. I've seen flyers designed by some small businesses that use as many as a dozen typefaces on the same piece. Whoever creates these seems to think that each headline had to have a different typeface and point size. The result is a piece that's hard to read and amateurish. In the downloadable notes, there is one side of a three panel technician handout. It shows how one element is repeated, giving the brochure a unified appearance. 12. Put Stuff Near Other Related Stuff Lots of layouts look like someone tossed a bunch of spaghetti at the wall. It's scrambled, with stuff appearing all over the place. It's scattered and unorganized. Add some order to a layout. Group stuff that's related. It makes it easier for the reader. In the downloadable notes, you can see the back panel of a company brochure. One example lists a variety of products and services. The next groups them under classifications. It makes more sense to the reader. The reader doesn't have to work as hard. 13. Align Stuff to Give It a Sense of Unity Have you ever walked into a messy kitchen? Everything is out of place. In graphic design, the messy kitchen look is disordered and hard to follow. Everything is out of place. Create visual connections through invisible lines. In the downloadable notes, the copy on the front page of a technician handout is center justified in one example and right justified in another. The center justified example doesn't work. It bothers you to look at it. Merely by aligning the copy to the right, adding a sense of alignment, the piece is more organized, more appealing. 14. Figure Out a Focal Point and Direct People To It The focal point is the key element of the image around which, everything else should revolve. It's the element that you want people to see first. You should compose a design to direct the eye to the focal point and then have a path for the eye to follow from the focal point. In the downloadable notes, the focal point on this service agreement sales tool is clearly the goofy guy. Yet, note how this graphic directs people up to the headline. If you want to improve your graphic design skills, or simply want to be better able to recognize good designs, visit your local Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore. They will have instructional graphics design books and also example books of award winning designs. A lot of graphics designers collect these books, looking for good designs that appeal to them and fit the needs of a particular project. Browse the books. Learn to recognize good and bad design. You pay a lot of money to get marketing pieces in front of the prospect. Go all the way and practice good graphic design so that the prospect will want to read it once they see it. Since it helps to "see" examples, you might want to download a copy of the "Build a More Profitable Service Business" notes by clicking on the link below. http://www.serviceroundtable.com/Freebi ... p?PCID=295 Source: Comanche Marketing. Reprinted by permission. Free subscriptions are available at: www.serviceroundtable.com -- click on the Comanche Marketing tab Copyright © 2004 Matt Michel

Hi, The panel with the breakers could have been wired at the factory as a main service and be bonded inside. Sounds like it, since the service grounding conductor comes from the panel with the breakers. Maybe nobody thought to ask about what side the service lateral was coming in on, so the utility put in the service lateral with a main disconnect where they thought it would be the most convenient for them. It's my understanding though that equipment grounding conductors and grounded conductors are supposed to be separated past the main disconnect and that the service ground is supposed to be at the main disconnect. If that is the case, shouldn't any bonding strap or screws have been removed and the service grounding conductor moved to the main disconnect and then the main disconnect bonded and the service grounding conductor connected to a driven service grounding electrode? The other thing is the "twisted" connection between a ufer cable and the service grounding conductor. This is the one cable that can't be spliced, so a new cable, long enough to reach the ufer, should have been installed. That's my story and I'm sticking to it 'cuz electricity is my weakest area and I don't know any better. [] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Brian, I think those are all latex, but that is a guess. You could probably go to the EPA site and find out for certain. It isn't so much the paint but the additive they put in the encapsulant that makes it special. They add Bitrex. It's some of the nastiest most horrible tasting stuff you can imagine. A kid comes along, gnaws on a windowsill painted with an encapsulant, and he or she is instantly repelled and bawling because of the nasty taste that won't go away. They should make a salt flavored with the stuff and sell it to parents with obese children. Bet it'd curb kids appetites pretty fast! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's one for those of you who see a lot of concrete tile roofs. I did a $1.4M home the other day that had a concrete tile roof. I can't be certain, but they looked like Monier tiles. The issue was that at all fields of the roof, there were literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tiles with the lower right-hand corners either cracked or broken off. The cracks begin about 1-1/4 inche in from the lower right-hand corner and go diagonally up toward the right edge, forming a slightly arching/irregular hypotenuse of a right triangle about 2-1/2 inches long. Now here's the kicker. These cracks were so consistent that with most you could unplug the cracked corner of one shingle, where the corner hadn't fallen off yet, and plug it into the lower right corner of one where the corner had already fallen away and the fit was almost perfect. So good in fact, that from several feet away the crack was barely visible. The location of the cracks is in the overlap, so they don't allow the roof to leak. However, I'm certain that when you pay this kind of money for a roof you don't want every 3rd or 4th tile damaged. Hell, I would be unhappy with it at 1/10th the cost. This would appear to be manufacturing related - perhaps something related to the mould that these shingles were poured into or a careless worker that is removing them from a production line and consistently setting them the same way every time on the same corner when they are green. Have any of you California, Arizona, Florida guys or gals seen or heard anything like this? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I recently read an article someplace about some spammers who have developed a spamming method of using the MSN messenger and AOL's instant messenger program to send you spam. Ironically, the spam they are sending people relates to a pop-up killer software that is designed to stop the type of program they are running. Someone, I don't remember who, was suing these folks because what they are doing amounts to extortion. I think it really doesn't matter what you run, there will always be some programmer someplace who sees the blocker programs as a challenge and an op to make money. If you want to stay on top of this sort of stuff, subscribe to ZD Net and get their daily e-mails. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It's polybutylene pipe. No if ands or buts about it. Zurn, owner of the Qest brand, does make QestPex pipe, but the PB2110 identifies it as polybutylene. Now that that is cleared up. Get the information you need from pbpipe.com. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Oops, Sorry[:I] OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, If it were an older home, I'd say it sounds like the stems leading to those faucets are occluded with rust. You get less buildup in your main lines and branch lines to baths, kitchen and laundry because water runs through them all the time and scours them. The sillcock stems sit most of the time, building up a layer of crud in them. However, you've got a newer home and that shouldn't be happening. Here's a somewhat hare-brained idea, shut off the isolation valve inside the basement, remove the new sillcock and then open up the isolation valve to blow out any debris that got into the pipe during the installation process and then reinstall it. The other day, I was reading somewhere (Plumbing & Mechanical mag maybe) where a fellow plugged some lines with bread to prevent them from dripping and then forgot that he'd done it. When he was called back to the home later to diagnose the lack of water volume and removed the sillcocks he found them partly clogged with the bread. Whenever I inspect a home, new or old, I'll remove aerators from faucets and then run the water for about 30 seconds or so to flush the crud out of the lines, so I can get a true idea of volume available. With older homes and galvanized pipe, it can be quite an eye opener for the client to see the amount of rust, scale and even sand that gets flushed out of the system. With new homes, bits of teflon tape, black oxide, pieces of plastic, solder, sawdust, drywall muck and even flux get flushed out of the system. New or old, the aerators usually have to be rinsed out. I'd bet that you either have an obstruction or those frost-free bibs are assembled or installed wrong. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, this should come as a welcome surprise to some of you. Mr. Jim Morrison is taking over the task of moderating this forum. Jim is a whole lot more diplomatic than I am and infinitely more patient. So, if he locks your topic, edits your text or deletes your post, don't snivel, 'cuz you'll probably have earned it. Have at it Jimmy. May God have mercy on your soul. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Since most of Ballard's award was thrown out last year anyway, and the insurance company was still fighting the judgement, you can bet she and her lawyers might be smiling outside but are cussing their luck inside. OT - OF!!! M.

Yeah, It's the same here with the NRCA and ARMA. They strongly recommend drip edging at the rakes and eaves of every asphalt roof, but 98% of the roofers here don't use it. Instead, they extend the first course of shingles about 2 - 2-1/2 inches into the gutter where it will get damaged by joe homeowner as he tries to clean out his gutters and eventually result in rotten edges at about 5% of the houses where the technique is used. Is ice and water shield commonly used up where you are? Seems like it would be, given the extreme temperatures and snows. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ouch! Now I see why you use the computer at work to come on here. If she walked in and read that, you'd probably be eating lentil soup from now until the day they plant you. I use warm vinegar to clean pots and pans. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That first one is a good example of how acidic that exhaust is. See how it's eaten up the mesh in that soffit vent? Folks tell me all the time they don't think furnace exhaust is as acidic as I make it out to be. George told me once it wasn't any more acidic than tomato juice. Somehow, I can't envision tomato juice eating through metal like that, but since I've never placed a piece of metal into tomato juice for months on end, in order to find out, I guess I'll never know. The stuff is sold in tin cans though. Hmmm. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Phew, It ain't pretty. However, if the roofer used a full 36inch wide roll of ice and water shield membrane beneath that valley and if that valley flashing is a full 20 inches wide as it should be, it probably won't ever leak. The trick is knowing whether he did or not. That's a lot of ifs. Ouija board anyone? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

External, probably 1/2 inch or 13mm OT - OF!!! M.

I'm talking about the spring steel retaining rings that hold the knobs on their shafts and need a special expansion tool to open and remove. I first heard that expression when I was going through the BOCES course in auto mechanics back in the 60's. The the instructor called 'em jezzus rings. I thought it was a dumb name, but could understand where it came from. After all, certain exclamations just seem to come out of one's mouth when a tiny part suddenly shoots off across the shop and disappears beneath the hood of another car or drops down into the inner workings of an engine. The first time I used the expression to a local parts room guy, he knew exactly what I meant and came back with a whole assortment to choose from. I don't think I've ever known what their true technical name is, although retaining ring seems to fit. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I gotta agree with Chad. I've owned the Cosco brand ladder(It was ripped off.) and now own two of the Gorilla brand ladders. I've played with the Little Giant ladders a lot at trade shows and such and the only difference I really see is that the LG ladders have a smoother finish and were a lot lighter, which is to be expected since they weren't rated for as much weight as the Gorilla brand ladders. Being a little bit of a chubette, I need to have that additional weight. The one thing I am irritated about is the way the danged c-ring retainers are rusting. Chad, do you know a source for some good stainless steel jezzus rings? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

RobC wrote: Well, it's not as simple as that. The AHJ may force one to ventilate the ceiling plane, but it's a simple fact that, if the ceiling/roof plane is sealed correctly and moisture can't get into it, ventilation isn't necessary. Some AHJ's will let you get away without ventilating it, if you prove to them that what you're going to do will work. How often does that happen? Almost never. Very few builders take the time to try and reach that degree of air sealing, although Fred Lugano has had excellent success doing just that in Vermont by dense-packing cells into cathedral ceilings and sealing the ceiling plane completely. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jim, With the noise that the Seattle PI has been making around these parts over vermiculite insulation and other asbestos-containing products, I'd be hard-pressed to believe that mineral wool contains asbestos, 'cuz they've never said that it does and attics insulated with mineral wool here probably outnumber fiberglass and cellulose combined by 2 to 1. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's because it's supposed to be in the UBC and I got it from my CodeCheck Electrical. I notice that in My CodeCheck West it is IRC 422-22a & UBC 422-32a. My 2000 IRC Code check lists it as IRC T4001.5 and NEC 1999 422-32a(?). One of the reasons I won't cite code. Unless you have the one the local muni is working off of, you end up looking like a horse's ass with teeth. OT - OF!!! M.

Oh Brother! Maybe I should create a personals forum just for all of you lovebirds? [}] OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Richard, From everything that I've ever read on this subject, I agree that a fridge is allowed to be on the same circuit as other kitchen appliance circuits, but I don't think it qualifies as a "fixed" appliance, since plugs of 'fixed' appliances must be accessible and not behind (422-8d2c,d). I don't bother to calculate the load that a fridge will apply on a circuit, since most of the time they aren't present anyway and/or I have no intention of pulling them out from a wall to find data plates and taking a chance on gouging a floor with them. If they're on a separate circuit from the GFCI protected circuits, fine, I'm just not going to worry about it if they aren't. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'll be moving all discussiong pertaining to HI licensing to this topic area. Participants are advised that this is just an internet forum. You can't lobby anyone from here, so keep discussions relevant and avoid beating a dead horse and continually repeating the same argument over and over again. Get it said and then let others have their say. OT - OF!!! M.

Okay, here it is. A place where you can discuss subjects involving various home inspection organizations. I'll be moving all such threads to this topic area. This is not a soapbox for an organization to beat it's chest and plaster self-promoting topics that are the equivalent of a press release. It is intended to be a place for the unititiated to ask honest questions about various organizations and receive plainspoken and honest answers. Keep it civil, respectful and free of the conspiracy theories and promotional B.S. that have ruined so many threads on this topic, lest you see it deleted.

Hi All, Mind if a delusional inspector takes part in this thread? Chad, Water moves pretty readily through icynene and it's permeability allows it to dry out completely as well. Closed-cell foam is an entirely different matter. Those can trap water against a roof. One of the contractors who visited my forum at JLC a couple of years ago had to completely strip off all of the sprayed-on foam, reinsulate and replace portions of a steel roof on a large commercial building, because it was badly rusted due to water being trapped above a layer of sprayed-on closed-cell foam. Rob, It is true that some manufacturers won't honor their warranty if the underside of the roof is sprayed, but more and more are recognizing that heat isn't so much the enemy of the roof system as moisture buildup in the shingle media is. It is relatively common in some parts of the country to see icynene used on the underside of roofs. Some builders using it get around the manufacturer's ventilation requirement by using vented nail base insulation, while getting a higher R-value roof, others use a double membrane, venting the deck while turning the attic space below it into a conditioned space. The construction industry is slowly recognizing that a lot of the rules and assumptions involving vapor transmission, heat and cold that they've been living with for decades are flawed - many seriously - so they're trying to catch up. The problems that are being found with these 'new' ideas stem more from installer error than they do from flawed conception. In their rush to get with the program many builders are omitting critical steps. When problems develop, building officials catch the heat, so they become reluctant to allow new technologies and the old flawed ideas continue to be perpetuated. Brian, Spend an afternoon and a pot of coffee checking out some of Dr's Lstiburek and Yost's work at Building Science Corporation's site and then follow some of their links. Keep in mind that some of Joe L's ideas are cutting edge while others are just old science reemphasized, and that anything you do will require a complete understanding of how insulating that roof plane will affect other systems. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike