hausdok

According to the Building Intelligence site at http://hisearch.web.officelive.com/hvac.aspx Sears has three types of serial numbers - all different. From 1980 to 1989 Sears furnaces were manufactured by Central furnace. The H indicates the 1980's and the second digit, the 4, indicates the year; so, yeah, it's smack dab in the middle of the 80's and it should have most-probably been retired by now. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nope and nope. OT - OF!!! M.

On Monday, September 5th, Duane Roundy, co-owner of AAA Pest Control in Kent, WA passed away after a long illness. Mr. Roundy was a past Vice President of the Washington State Pest Control Association and participated in several of its committees. He also served on the Washington State Department of Agriculture advisory board that helped rewrite portions of the Washington Administrative Code For Pest Inspections and the Structural Pest Inspection Manual used as the training reference for inspectors in Washington State. He also served as Chairman of the WSPCA home inspection committee and was a member of WSPCA's Wood Destroying Organism Committee. Duane’s 1993 graduation from ITA changed the direction for AAA’s Inspection Division from strictly pest inspection to a combination of pest and home inspections. With over 12,000 home and pest inspections over the past 22 years, his new focus became sharing his experience with those who are developing theirs; in fact, he was one of the original members of the Washington Home Inspectors Legislative Advisory Group (WHILAG) - the coalition that helped to usher in meaningful home inspector licensing in the State of Washington. Remembrances can be made in the form of donations to Spencer’s Wishes, a non-profit children’s charitable organization founded in memory of Duane’s nephew, Spencer Roundy. For more information, please visit spencerswishes.org on the web.

Most of what I see is hemlock and it's only supposed to span 4'. You're allowed to go up to 5' if you use fir. It's never supposed to exceed a 5' span. Of course, I see it done occasionally out in the sticks and across the river in . . . ahem . . . Washington State. Yep, We'uns is uncivvylyzed up he'ah. Wun Teem - Wun Fyt!!! Mike

Check out Inspect Express, It does just about everything you want it to do and it's easy to work with. I know, I'm a computer moron and I've used it since 2002. I helped the developers come up with the format and the overriding criteria was that it had to be so simple a computer moron could use it. It is, cuz I am. I'm still using version 2 and there have been many improvement made since that version. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Thanks, The link is fixed. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sir, Perhaps you've figured out that there aren't too many folks on this forum that believe in the mold bogeyman. We have good cause to be a little bit skeptical of the whole mold is gonna getcha scene that the media has created over the past decade. Prior to the media turning fungi into the apocalypse about a decade ago, we'd tell folks to eliminate the source of the moisture and clean up the fungal growth with some soap and water and enjoy their homes. Ever since the media started making mountains out of mold spore, we've become jaded. I've stored furniture in warehouses and have had it come out smelling musty. A couple of times it came out with a fine coating of some kind of fungi. We wiped it down with soapy water, dried it well and the smell went away. I still spend evenings sitting on the same leather sofa and have never gotten sick from that (gasp) mold exposure. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Thanks, Mike. Seems to me your dog would make a good little door tester. []Hmm, You know, you're right. Peanut is just about that size. The problem is that the tests aren't designed to reduce pressure, only ensure that the door retracts. He weighs about 3 pounds 10 ounces and one of those doors would flatten him like a bug. Click to Enlarge 42.24 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Late to the ball. Everything you need to know is in 16CFR1211 - SAFETY STANDARD FOR AUTOMATIC RESIDENTIAL GARAGE DOOR OPERATORS. These are the testing parameters mandated by the government that the overhead door manufacturers must use and they are not meant as the defacto standard for us; however, at least one of their tests can be effectively performed by home inspectors. Most overhead door operators I've spoken to don't even know what 16CFR1211 is; and of those who do none that I'd talked to had ever seen it. 16CFR1211.7 - Inherent entrapment protection requirements - covers the standard test. It's a 1" high object placed flat on the floor. A 2 by 4, a half-liter water bottle 3/4 filled with water, a maglight all can approximate that test pretty well. 16CFR1211.12 - Requirements for edge sensors and 16CFR1211.13 - Inherent force activated secondary door sensors cover requirements for doors - not just gates, the gate standard is a different CFR - that have a built in force-activated edge sensor. The standard is 15 lbs or less while closing and 25lbs or less while opening. In my opinion, there is no practical way you can test this in the field; not just for the reasons mentiioned by Jim, but because the test is very specific and requires special test objects depending on what type of door one is using, so, just use a 2 by 4 or the other objects I mentioned above and you'll be testing the door about as well as you can under field conditions. 16CFR 1211.11 - Requirements for photoelectric sensors used to state that openers could not be mounted higher than 6-inches off the floor but were revised in 2007 and now defer to manufacturer's instructions. The standard does still require that the sensors detect a white object 6 inches high by 12 inches long placed at three points in the opening - one foot from each end and at midpoint. I think this is an easily done test. A simple plywood stand 12-inches long by 6-inches high painted white can be made for pennies and will look very professional. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ever been doing one of those huge beautiful houses and had the buyer say something like, "We've only hired you because we're hoping you'll find something significant we can use as leverage in negotiations, we intend to tear this house down and build a bigger one." I have; and I actually had to fight the urge to jackslap the jackass. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I didn't have it on my box but I found the link to it: Click here! OT -OF!!! M.

You didn't miss anything; with that handle off there isn't any water flowing into that tank. It will still fill by gravity as water flows into the system from the other tank but the water they are using is coming from the right-hand tank only. If I've got it saved on my harddrive, I'll send you a paper I downloaded from the Rheem site that explains the advantages and disadvantages of parralel and series tank installation and shows how each is done. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Is it going to be underwater tomorrow with this hurricane approaching? OT - OF!!! M.

Looks like this thieving piece of dog meat is going to get what he deserves. OT - OF!!! M.

LANSING, Mich. -- Former NBA player and Michigan State star Jay Vincent was sentenced Friday to 68 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $110,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for his part in a fraud case involving thousands of people who paid to become certified home inspectors. To learn more, click here.

Hi Robert, Here's what probably happened. The crown on the original stack cracked and infiltration turned the top of that stack into an unsteady pile of Jenga blocks. The owner got an estimate, said, "What! That's too G__D____ much to pay to rebuild the top of that stack; I'll fix it myself," and he then went out, bought a bag of Sackrete and set to work throwing away all of the loose bricks and troweling on the existing crown. When he got done he congratulated himself on how he outwitted those crooks who call themselves brick masons. I'd tell 'em it needs to be restored to it's original condition and height. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Beams is good. you been getting any calls, Robert? I've been giving your number out a lot. OT - OF!!! M.

Uh, Strike that. I just looked it over. It's the same sheet but updated. It's the one I've got on steroids. Thanks Randy, Just replaced the one on my box with the updated version. OT - OF!!! M.

That's the same fact sheet I've been giving clients for years. In fact, OT - OF!!! M.

Thanks for catching that. I'll edit and re-post. OT - OF!!! M.

Ah, Mike B. made a comment about my new avatar. Maybe I should change it back. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Today most fib to get in MCSE school and don't want anything to do with the military. In a couple of more generations our military will be like the Dutch army where they allow them to unionize, grow their hair long and smoke pot. Arrgh! There I go off-topic again. Stop it! Stay on the subject of the scumbag Jay Vincent and his proclivity to steal from folks. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Oh, wow! The man across the street from me, as I was growing up, had two Packards - identical and about the color of the online button for our site. He kept them both humming like sewing machines. Of course you know that the WWII PT boats were powered by twin Packard engines!Yep, My father lied about his age in order to get into the Canadian navy in order to get into the fight. They found out he was too young and kicked him out; so he left Cape Breton, went to Massachusetts and spent the war building PT boats in Ipswitch, Massachusetts. That's what got him interested in construction. After the war and until he died he'd always wanted to find one of those boats and restore it, or build himself a full-sized replica, but he never did. That would have been friggin' awesome! Enough! Like Les said, don't get me started! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Grrr, Stop calling my Packard a Studebaker! [:-gnasher ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Johnson says Vincent made one bad decision. That must have been when he defrauded the first guy; however, after that first poor decision the other 17,999 could only have been carefully considered and thought out intentionally criminal acts. I wonder if Johnson charges by the hour or instance for his celebrity testimonials; I know someone in prison who's a lot more deserving of a break than Vincent. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike