hausdok

Does the owner have a boat or any equipment that one would occasionaly need to remove the battery from and then re-charge it in the garage? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, that's true; except he's in Massachusetts and the way it's phrased in the manual it looks like Certainteed only allows that exception in the northwest and southwest states of ID, OR, WA, NM, WY, CA, AK, HI, UT, AZ and CO. Immediately after that paragraph the manual goes on to say in a new paragraph that they will allow the limited warranty to remain in force if the shingles have been fastened to an acceptable deck with appropriate roofing nails, even if they do not penetrate to the full depth specified in the instructions, if the following conditions are met: - Two extra nails per full shingle are used (staples are prohibited) and they penetrate into the roof deck at least 5/8" and seat firmly against the single. - Nail placement is in accordance with steep slope requirements in the manual. It goes on to state that the exception only applies to those areas of the roof that span an open overhanging soffit. The way it's written is confusing. I think one could read it and expect that one may use the regular number of shorter nails in the northwest and southwest states listed but extra nails would be needed in all other states - or - one can interpret it to mean that it is only allowed in the northwest and southwest states as long as two extra nails are used per shingle. I bet that manual was edited by a shingle guy and not someone who is a professional writer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

We have mondo deep overhangs here and nails protruding from the bottom are pretty much taken for granted. I agree with Chad; they probably won't pull out, but I'd go easy about making accusations or disparaging comments that can't be backed up. If you don't like 'em, have a false underside installed about an inch below the actual deck. It'll take some furring strips and you'll need to rip some material but it won't be that hard or expensive. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You said that it was designed for that material and that slope by an engineer. I believe that's all you need to make a non-conforming application compliant. Anyone else have other thoughts? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Look for a second GFCI on the circuit. Every once in a while I have a GFCI protected circuit that, when I reset the obvious GFCI, hasn't got any power. Then I look around some more and I discover, usually in the craziest place possible - in the crawlspace once - a second GFCI that tripped when I'd introduced the ground fault into the circuit. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

As I said, I contacted both FHA and HUD and personally talked to folks there about this question. I did it because of all of the confusion over this issue. The FHA folks explained that the list that the only list FHA has is of FHA certified appraisers and that the list that folks are referring to is a list of HUD inspectors; and that they (FHA) don't have their own list. They told me that when folks are referring to FHA inspectors they are actually referring to folks on the HUD list that the search engine you referenced searches. When I asked that person why, if there was no list, there is an application form for the list on their website that says FHI Inspector Roster, they told me that despite what it says the roster is of inspectors on a HUD list of folks that are approved to inspect repairs, etc.. When I contacted HUD, the person there said that there was no such thing as an "FHA inspector" list, that there was a list of HUD approved inspectors. It's confusing, but it is what it is. There is a HUD list, you're probably on it; but, according to the folks I talked to at FHA and HUD, there is only a HUD list. It distinction is probably lost on most folks; but when realtors start calling around looking for "FHA Inspectors" and they don't recommend inspectors who are not on that HUD list to their clients, they could very well be doing their clients a disservice in some cases. The FHA inspector myth needs to go away. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hey Robert,there are a couple lenders/ realtors here in my area that bring this up to my potential clients once in a while. I tell my clients that FHA does not have their own inspectors (and furnish the FHA website that says so) just appraisers and explain the difference. However I tell them they (FHA) does have a 'approved list' and I choose not to be a part of that gov list as it is not mandatory. (to my knowledge) I also tell them I am licensed in WA state to do HI and WSDA licensed to do pest inspections... and do dozens of (very thorough and accurate) inspections for HUD/FHA/VA loans yearly. I also tell them what FHA appraisers look for, and that my inspections have never been a problem, and they can hire any (WA licensed) independent inspector they choose. I usually schedule the inspection at that point, (unless they are looking for the $200 HI special) Jerry BTW on a different note, there are a couple lenders (3-4 times this year) that require the home is termite free, I do not find out until a couple weeks later they require (specific) paperwork, so I have them send the paperwork which I fill out and send back. Good reason for me to keep SPI as I suppose client would have to have a SPI inspection to close the loan. Hi Jerry, I think that there is an error there. Before you posted this response, I'd gotten on the phone and called both FHA and HUD and spoke to folks there. Here's what I learned: - FHA does not have a list of approved inspectors for an ordinary FHA loan, although they do have a list of FHA-approved appraisers which are a totally different animal. - There is no requirement for an inspector to be FHA approved; and, according to FHA, there isn't any FHA approved inspector list anywhere. - There is a HUD 203K consultant roster, and HUD requires 203K consultants to jump through some hoops to get placed on that list. - HUD also has a REAC-trained inspector roster, but these are folks who've journeyed to Washington D.C. and taken a three-day course that educates them about the various requirements for condition of multi-family housing wherein the funds to make the purchase come from HUD. These REAC inspectors can then inspect properties for those folks who've applied for HUD loans. There is no similar requirement for FHA. By the way, all REAC inspectors in this state must be licensed as home inspectors by the State of Washington or they are breaking state law. Here in Washington State, there are a few non-profits that help low income buyers who qualify for their programs with down payments and closing costs for FHA loans. One of these had a requirement that the inspection of any home they were helping with had to be done by an inspector that could show that he or she was a member in good standing of ASHI, blah, blah, blah. That might have been where folks got the idea there was such a thing as an FHA list of approved inspectors but that was not an FHA list - it was the non-profit's list. The Washington State Home Inspectors Advisory Licensing Board recently looked into that list and discovered that some of the inspectors on that list didn't hold current home inspector licenses. The non-profit got a good talking to and has since revised its requirements. Now, any inspector that's on their list must be fully licensed by the state and there is no requirement to belong to any particular association. It looks like it's time to make Washington Realtors aware of this distinction so that agents stop mixing up apples and oranges. On another note; when they called up later and demanded that termite report did you charge them an appropriate fee for that additional service or are you giving away that service free? If you're giving it away, why on earth would you do that? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

So, A question from a fellow whose in an area where folks generally open a window when they need air conditioning; is there not a way to completely flush the old refrigerant, clean the system, dry it and charge it with a different type of lubricant? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, That's actually the logical justification that the bug guys give for why a law was passed here in 1991 that made it illegal for anyone performing any inspection tasks associated with a pest inspection to do so without a pest inspectors license. In a private discussion with me years ago, the late Duane Roundy admitted that they were also trying to limit their competition from the then-growing home inspector field which the bug guys here dwarfed at the time. The problem we had with it is that you couldn't do a home inspection to even the most basic standard because that law made inspecting gutters, earth-to-wood clearance and about a dozen very basic home inspection tasks part of looking for conducive conditions and therefore brought all home inspections into the pest inspection arena and had forced all home inspectors to become bug certified. After 16 years a pest inspection included with a home inspection at no extra cost essentially became the norm and we'd constantly lived under threat of sanctions from WSDA if we'd missed a bug issue while concentrating on the home inspection aspect more than the bug aspect. We pushed to make it legal for home inspectors to simply read the books, take the license test one time and pass it to prove that they knew what wood destroying insects and bugs were, but not to have to get a pest inspectors license. WSDA wouldn't have any of it. We eventually convinced Sen. Spanel that pest conducive conditions and wood rot are ubiquitous here but that the actual number of times we see live insects is very small; and that it made sense to allow us to counsel buyers about pest conducive conditions and identify wood rot and tell them what to do about it, because doing so helps prevent insect issues. Dr. Soumi didn't argue with that logic and by the time the battle over licensing was nearing an end he'd stated that he wouldn't object to us identifying conducive conditions and wood rot, as long as insect issues were referred to a licensed bug guy. That got us out from under WSDA when the licensing law was passed. Personally, I still think all home inspectors should have to read those books, take that written test and do one pass through that bug demonstration house in Puyallup and should then be allowed to call 'em like they see 'em; but I don't see that going anywhere soon. One thing has happened here though; as home inspectors became better at identifying conducive conditions, wood rot and pests and telling folks how to avoid bug issues and how to correctly repair rot damage, the number of bug and wood rot cases dropped and the bug inspection business here got so slim that a lot of pest management firms stopped doing inspections altogether. They didn't realize that when they got that law passed in 1991 it was going to essentially wipe out the bug inspection end of their business. Now that the bug end is separated from identification of wood rot and conducive conditions, I'd think that any inspector holding an SPI license would be sharp enough to realize that he or she should be charging extra for that extra service and extra liability and won't be giving it away. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Go here and look at this guy's setup. It's a free article so just choose either the pdf or html document. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I think he could use the system I've described on one side of a plate exchanger and put another circulator on the water heater side. Perhaps he's using a coil-in-tank water heater so a plate exhanger wouldn't be needed. I'm no expert either; I doubt there are any true "experts" on these systems in the ranks of home inspectors because they'd have had to come from the ranks of the radiant heating installers. With the amount of money to be made installing those systems and consulting on them, why would anyone be foolish enough to jump into this gig? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I've already told you how I think you should configure it. Go to http://www.pmmag.com go to the archive and then search for Siegenthaler and read and absorb every hydronic system troubleshooting article he's written over the past two years and I think you'll eventually figure it out. Alternative, you could simply email the guy a picture and ask his opinion. He might answer or he might respond with something like, "I usually get paid for my consultant work." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Go here, http://www.pmmag.com/CDA/Articles/Colum ... 0000132571 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

The pump is in the wrong place and you don't have any sort of bypass. The system probably exceeds actuator close-off pressure. Put a mixing tee on the inlet side of the pump, connect one side of the inlet tee to the return manifold, the other to a mixing valve on the hot water supply. Put a mixing tee on the outlet side of the pump and connect it to the supply manifold and to the return outlet to the boiler with a bypass line between the return outlet and the mixing valve. Put your temp gauge on the bypass. Water that's returned through the system will be mixed with that coming from the boiler, pass through the pump and then split with part going to the supply manifold and on to the floor loops and part swinging around through the bypass and mixing valve and passing through the pump again. I'd sketch it and post a sketch if I could but the damned scanner refuses to talk to my new windows 7 'puter so that ain't gonna happen. If I boogered this up, don't blame me. I'm not a hydronic systems engineer. Sounds like you should have consulted one before you started. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike .

It's dirt simple, You read a couple of books, take a test that costs around $50 (Not sure of the exact fee today) and you get the license. I think, but am not certain, that they also now require one to go through their test house on the WSU extension farm in Puyallup and demonstrate one's proficiency. Can anyone here confirm that. It's not silly not to have it if you fought like hell to separate a mandatory pest license from the home inspection license and took a whole lot of heat for pushing that separation. Keeping it would have been hypocritical. On top of that, when they were rolled into one most inspectors weren't charging anything more for the combined inspection than they'd charge for any ordinary inspection. Why take on the additional liability without the reward? Some folks have now begun to charge a separate additional fee for the bug end of the job and realtors here are gradually getting used to the idea that they can no longer tell folks to expect that a bug inspection will automatically be included with the inspection at no extra charge. When/if I see that most here are once again charging a separate added fee for doing a bug inspection, I'll renew my license. Until then, the bug guys are welcome to all of that liability with little reward. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Trying to remember. Think I recall seeing a discussion where someone discussed the requirement for a minimum 1ft height from the collar before the exhaust vent on a furnace or water heater is permitted to turn. Anyone recall that discussion or know what the code cite, if any, was? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

All pest control and compliance issues in Washington State also fall under the department of agriculture. The home inspectors advisory licensing board, all home inspectors, and all real estate licensees fall under the department of licensing and a single director of DOL oversees these licenses as well as: Appraisal management companies Appraisers Architects Auctioneers Bail bonds Body piercing and body art Boxing Camping resorts Collection agencies Cosmetologists Court reporters Driver training Employment agencies Employment directory services Engineers Firearms Funeral and cemeteries Geologists Land surveyors Landscape architects Limousines Martial arts Notaries public On-site designers Private investigators Real estate Rental cars Security guards Sellers of travel Tattoos Taxis Telephone solicitors Timeshares Vehicle and vessel dealers Vehicle manufacturers Vehicle transport and disposal Whitewater river outfitters Wrestling ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, I could get all adversarial with my descriptions but it would only get me jacked up by DOL cuz, technically, as long as I'm on this board I'm a state employee - one of theirs. On site after I've found the issue and I'm explaining it to the client, I simply explain to the client that home inspectors in this state are allowed to identify pest conducive conditions and wood rot - and make recommendations for how to remedy those issues - but that if we see live insects we aren't permitted to identify the insects or tell them what to do about the insects. That's when I do what I'm supposed to do, tell him or her something like, "So, if you're interested in knowing what those insects are and what to do about them, you'll need to hire a licensed Structural Pest Inspector." Nothing constrains me from advising the client about what to do about the conducive conditions or wood rot; so, once I've fulfilled my obligations under the rules I simply point out to the client that it's the conducive conditions that leads to wood rot and attracts the insects; so, if they deal with the conducive conditions and repair the rot, by the time they have an SPI come out there might not be much left for the SPI to "identify." When I write the report I take the same approach and describe the issue, explain the conducive conditions that led up to the issue, and simply mention that I saw live insects. I make appropriate recommendations and then I stick a short blurb below that comment advising them in writing to contact an SPI. Something like this example: Blah, blah, blah description of my finding with something simple like, "I found that the rim joist is damp and is swarming with live insects" included in the description. Blah, blah blah why the issue is bad for the house and, if I know, what I think led to the issue (lack of flashings, leaking gutters, etc.) and my thoughts on an appropriate repair approach, or, if I don't think I know, a simple statement that I don't know what caused it. Then something like... Contact a few very experienced reputable contractors to discuss these or other repair options and to get estimates of costs. Make certain that any contractor you obtain estimates from is very familiar with what causes rot, the various stages of rot and how to make appropriate rot repairs. (No mention of insects) Then I add my little blurb... Live insects: Because I don't currently hold a structural pest inspector (SPI) license, I'm not permitted to tell you what type of insects these are or advise you how to get rid of them - for that I recommend you hire a licensed SPI. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Thanks a lot, now I'm gonna spend the rest of my life crapping into a five gallon bucket and then emptying it into a toilet while I'm armed. I've got a sort of...uh......thing about rats. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Scott, No, we can't say what they are doing; only that we saw live insects and we must then refer the issue to a bug guy. It is frustrating. WSDA doesn't care if you'd held a bug license for a hundred years before you allowed it to lapse; if you don't carry an SPI license you aren't allowed to opine as to what kind of insect it is, whether it is or is not eating the house or what to do about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Kenmore, WA - October 19, 2011 At least one home inspector in Washington State is still in business inspecting homes today; and is probably thanking his lucky stars that the licensing law that was passed in Washington State in 2008 separated home inspections from pest inspections and eliminated the requirement for practicing inspectors in Washington State to be licensed Structural Pest Inspectors. According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) website, WSDA imposed licensed suspensions and levied fines for violations of the Washington State pesticide laws and rules totaling $13,325 during the third quarter 2011. Among the concluded cases were those of two home inspectors. Shawn Lipp, Apple Land Pest Control and Home Inspections, Inc., East Wenatchee, WA agreed to pay a $2,000 fine and accept a 10-day suspension of his licenses when WSDA accused him of operating without the proper licenses to make pesticide applications and conduct wood-destroying organism inspections for real estate transactions during January through March of 2011. In a separate case, Gerald Iverson, The Home Inspectors, Puyallup, WA agreed to pay a $200 fine and surrender his structural pest inspector license for five years after WSDA alleged that in January 2010 Iverson conducted an inadequate wood destroying organism inspection and report on a house in Tacoma. Home inspectors who perform inspections in Washington State are permitted under state law to identify and report pest conducive conditions and wood rot without holding a structural pest inspectors (SPI) license. Inspectors may not identify any suspected wood-destroying insects seen and are required to advise clients to seek the services of a licensed Structural Pest Inspector whenever they find suspected wood-destroying insects. Under the new law, any inspector that performs inspections for wood-destroying insects is required to have a Structural Pest Inspector's license and is subject to disciplinary action by WSDA if an investigation determines the inspector had performed a sub-standard inspection. ****

Nah, That's too simple. Have you not seen some of the wild out-there theories posed by home inspectors for stuff? This is one I remember reading someplace. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

My far out theory, They stacked the bundles along the ridge perpendicular to the line of the ridge and left them there overnight. The hot sun stretched them during the day and when they cooled that night they cracked. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It depends, Go to TIJ's library and download FM5-428 - the Army Concrete and Masonry Manual. It's on page 5-42 and 5-43. Click here ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's a tip, use your camera's zoom feature to zoom in and look at stuff more closely; even if you don't take a photo of it. I've been using mine lately to get closeup views of stuff that I couldn't see clearly by some other method. For instance, when I couldn't go up on a really high shake roof because it was raining (stepping on wet shakes is like stepping on grease), and I wanted to get a closeup of the top of a chimneystack, I used the zoom feature on my W90 to put me inches away from the brickwork and was able to clearly see some issues that I couldn't even see with my eyes and couldn't make out clearly using my binoculars. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike