hausdok

Hi, I used to have one but tossed it a few years ago. About two months ago, as I was getting ready to cut some sheet goods I simply measured the distance from the edge of the saw blade to the edge of the base plate, added that to the length I needed, clamped a straight edge on that length-plus mark with a couple of C-clamps and used the edge of the straight edge with the base plate against it to make my cuts. Worked like a charm. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. If you use this method you have to keep in mind that sometimes you're going to have to subtract that distance and cut the other side of the line, depending on which side works best at the time. Make sure you use flat cabinet type clamps. I know I said C-clamps above but I meant to say cabinet clamps. Those are low enough to stay under the saw's motor as it passes by; C-clamps are too high.

Should have used a tic tracer. It gives you instant verfication with electric radiant heat but waiting for a system to come up to temp takes a while and unless you know where the panels are you could be looking in the wrong place. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

See Kurt? I knew what Occam's razor was but I'm not going to let the Zoid Queen know that I know. Johns new compared to you, kurt. You should have set a better example. Now John's gone and exposed himself. Hope you're happy now; you guys'll look like bookends with your matching lobotomies. Tsk [:-cry] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Occum's Razor??!!! Jeez, Kurt, How many times have I got to warn you. You're a home inspector. Showing any semblance of an intelligence level above oaf is going to get you in a heap of trouble. You're gonna get yourself labeled dangerous. The Zoid Queen has probably already dispatched a crack squad of vegemitazoids to kidnap you, haul you off to the bug house and have you lobotomized before you start giving the rest of us wild ideas. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Loose neutral ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hee, hee, I'm imagining a lady a little freaked out. She drives by the place without looking and then her toddler in a carseat says to her from the back seat, "Mommy, did you see how big the pee pee was on that man back there?" Does she turn around and go back to look or does she get on her cell and start yellling for the police to go find the flasher? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No arguments here, If the house was built before they were required, our law requires that we recommend that the client add them as a preventive safety measure. If the house was built after, we write 'em up when they aren't there. An 88 house without any at the kitchen counter could be a case of ignoring the 1987 requirement for any within six feet of the sink or it might mean the city still hadn't adopted the rule by then. Recommending that all counter receptacles be upgraded to the current standard, which first came in in 1996, is easy to do and you don't have to try and figure out whether the municipality had adopted that rule in 1988 or not. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, might be. I was envisioning something else too. The last one of these Cat IV I had a week or so ago, the inlet was only to the enclosure and not all the way to the exchanger. According to the manual on the unit it was fine. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nah, If there were enough heat there to melt that plastic below that inlet the wiring and other stuff like the mother board would be toast. Someone held a flame directly over that long enough for it to get sucked downward. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Some idiot testing to ensure there is inflow there by putting a butane torch flame above it? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Way too high. Isn't the height limit for brick veneer something like 18 or 19 feet? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Honey bees nest above the ceiling? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ever see the size of the sewer pipes used in most "older" nations? We here in the US and Canada are used to seeing large sewer pipes. In these countries homes are close together on narrow streets where any attempt to lay the large pipe we westerners are used to seeing could result in serious damage to homes. They put down relatively small pipes and if a whole town is dumping paper in those small pipes they get clogged and backed up - especially when they don't use a lot of water for flushing like we do. At least they had paper. Spend some time in parts of the middle east that aren't as modernized as Turkey. You'll find out real fast that visiting a public facility over there is pretty bad. Heck, just reaching around there or through there with that left hand to clean your bottom isn't just gross - it's hard to do - unless you've got really long arms. Then there's the rinsing and cleaning - using that little hose and nozzle next to the toilet that the guy before you had his hand on after scraping his bottom - ugh. All done usually without benefit of even a washcloth or towel. Then you have to get dried off - wut a friggin nightmare! One good thing about it. The first time you experience that your body says uh, uh to doing it again and your butt clams up tighter than Ft. Knox and you find yourself going an incredibly long time without the need to visit a facility. My body would not even send a signal in the presence of a public facility but when I was within a few minutes of a western-style toilet, or even some American latrines, where there was TP, it would throw that switch into fast eject mode and I'd find myself hustling to get in there before the doors opened. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, You'll find that diagram on the next-to-last page of TIJ's furnace serial number decoder. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I think you're talking about Daptex. It's a water-based latex expanding foam that is easier to clean up than the polyurethane foams such as Great Stuff that require acetone to remove. It's designed for air sealing but unlike Great Stuff it won't stop rats and mice and you can't grind it and paint it because it doesn't dry hard. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I wouldn't be as concerned with the brand as with the quality point within the brand. Several manufacturers are offering SBS modified shingles in their upper lines. I'd push for one of those. Yeah, I was going to suggest the Malarkey Alaskan Shingles but I figured enough folks had already chimed in. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Douglas, Yes, I hadn't thought of that and I think you nailed it with the part that says, "Or plastic piping installed within a masonry chimney." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Is that system not a closed loop system with a separate loop immersed in the water of the water heater? Look at the tank. Is there two nipples at the top for a hot and cold pipes and two nipples on the side of the tank feeding the Apollo heat exchanger? If so, there aren't any health concerns because you are not bathing in water that is circulating through the heating system. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I had something similar happen. About a week ago I had a client speak up in front of her agent, as if she were trying to send a message to the agent, that she'd actually been following my commentary here and that was one of the reasons she'd chosen me. Then yesterday's client, a blue collar type from Mexico who the agent had referred to me said that he'd been given a list of five inspectors by the agent but had chosen me only after researching me on the internet first. The internet allows people the ability to check us out easily. The guy who's using those suckup ads that were posted above might be getting referrals from agents and getting hired by folks who haven't yet learned to use the net; but I bet folks who are net savvy are avoiding him like the toady he is. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

How about this one. M1801.4 Space Around Lining - The space surrounding a flue lining system or other vent installed within a masonry chimney shall not be used to vent any other appliance. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That serial number is January 1985. I'd recently found on the net copies of the applicable pages from the Carrier Policy Manual (Appendix A) that explain how to read Carrier's numbers. I've been meaning to update the TIJ furnace chart but finding the extra time lately has been really tough. Here's the link if anyone wants it: http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/attachment.php ... 1295891922 Anyway, Carrier used multiple formats - Ten Digit Alpha-Numeric; 52F Series Nine Digit Apha-Numeric; Seven Digit Alpha-Numeric; Seven, Eight and nine Digit Apha-Numeric; Eight Digit Alpha-Numeric; and Ducane manufactured furnaces used eight or nine digit alpha-numeric preceded by the number 58 and letters with the letter year and month in the last three places, and a ten digit Ducane alpha-numeric system with a six digit sequence number followed by a twi digit year and two digit month. The 7 digit system used letters indicating the month followed by single-digit year. Your's is a 7-digit serial number. They used letters A thru M (Omitting I) for 1970 to 1979 and N thru Y (Omitting O) for 1980 to 1989). So, your's is N (Jan) 5(1985) followed by the sequence number 06851. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You've all got this wrong. Those are left over from the cold war. Back during the cold war every homeowner was issued his/her own surface to air missile system and the government sank tiny missile silos around their homes. The idea was that if every resident of a whole city launched just one surface to air missile at the same time as other residents even without a guidance system they were bound to hit something - preferably incoming pinko commie missiles or planes. Everyone was forced to get rid of them when liberal gun control whack-a-moles pointed out that the constitution says one has the right to bear arms - not just haphazardly launch them into the air without even touching them and without specific targets. Danged bleeding heart commie sympathizers are always ruining all the good ideas! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Are they shingles? Hell, I never bothered to enlarge the photo. If that's what they are, I agree that a roller wouldn't be appropriate. If they are shingles he shouldn't be painting them anyway. They need to be stained or dyed. Paint will just trap moisture in them and cause them to curl and cup.

Erby has the right idea. Concentrate on the client, not the agents. I hardly acknowledge agents' existence anymore and I'm turning away 4 to 5 times more inspections every month than I can do. I get a fair numer of referrals from agents that "get it." I don't market to them, send them thank you cards or do any of the other inane things I was taught to do in order to garner business from them and keep their business; so I have to conclude that the reason that they keep referring clients to me is because they want an honest and thorough inspection. Realtors that know me know that I won't beg for referrals and they know that I won't ever pull my punches to get referrals. They continue to refer me anyway. Realtors that don't know me will often still try to send me signals but I've become very adept at ignoring them when they do that and most of them eventually throw in the towel and go sit down somewhere. Bottom line, I'm grateful for the referrals that I do get from agents; but if agents stopped referring clients to me tomorrow I wouldn't give that fact too much thought and I think they know that too. By killing the deal do they mean telling the unvarnished truth? Not two weeks ago about halfway through the inspection of a POS house I looked at my client and said, "How much patience do you have with things when they break down?" "Not much," he answered. "Are you ready to spend the next few years trying to get this house where you want it to be at great expense?" I asked. "Hell no," he answered. "Well then," I said, "If you've got some running shoes you had better put them on and run like hell away from this deal or two years from now you're going to wish you had." The agent heard the whole exchange. She didn't say a thing but I could literally feel her holding her breath. He mulled it over for about ten minutes while I continued my work and finally said, "Hey Mike, let's call it a day," I'll call you when I find a better place." Inside I let out a sigh of relief that he'd listened to me and was walking away from that nightmare. I collected my fee and left. The next week he found another home and booked another inspection. We are in the business of telling folks things about the houses they've chosen that they don't necessarily want to hear about but must hear about. I don't give two hoots for negotiating skills or balanced reporting. I tell them the truth as I see it and let the chips fall where they may. If an agent doesn't like the fact that I do that, the agent is free to simply open the door so I can do my thing and then the agent can go sit sown someplace and read a book so he/she doesn't have to hear me tell the client about all that not-so-complimentary stuff. We inspectors have come a long way from the days of being the toady. More of us need to start exerting control over our inspections and make it clear to agents that as soon as we pull up in our vehicle we are taking over and aren't there to help them sell the home. Don't let the agents treat you like some kind of consultant hired by them (agents) to explain to the client how good a deal the client is getting. Look the client in the eye; show interest in the client's needs - not the realtor's - and take as long as is necessary to do the job thoroughly and correctly and don't let an agent try to rush you or direct your activity. You the inspector are in control. My standard answer these days when an agent is studying his/her smart phone screen and trying to plan his/her next appointment and asks me, "So, how long do you think this inspection is going to take," is "At least four hours; maybe longer. It could even go as long as six hours; that all depends on the house, the client's understanding of the house and how long it takes me to ensure every one of my client's questions is answered. I have two speeds - slow and careful." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez, Just use a Little Giant or LG clone. drop one side so that the inside legs will be parallel to the face of the wall, open up that window and tie off the ladder to the window frame. Get a handle extension for a roller and paint the danged wall. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike