hausdok

Check this out: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pl ... 11858.html OT - OF!!! M.

And we'll all be so tankful for it too! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, You're still not using the chart correctly or understanding the above paragraph correctly. It's not 64 plus 7 for the letter G it's plus 6 for the letter G. 1964, 1984, 2004=A 2005=B 2006=C 2007=D 2008=E 2009=F 2010=G 2011=H ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I'm not sure I understand what you are calling wrong - us or the Bradford-White site. If you are referring to our chart and the information listed on it for B-W you read the chart wrong. If the first letter of the serial number on your water heater is a G, our chart says that the water heater was manufactured in 2010. The inspector, and you, made a mistake. Look below and then reread the B-W info on the chart. 2004=A 2005=B 2006=C 2007=D 2008=E 2009=F 2010=G 2011=H B-W uses the first two places for letters that designate the year and then the month. They could have 100 digits and the first two places, the letters, still designate the year and month. It's a simple mistake. I made it myself until I wrote down the years as shown above and placed the letters next to them. Don't believe me? Go to the B-W site. Click here and look for yourself. By the way, tell the inspector to stop by here and download the most recent revisions to the chart which I posted last week. They are here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Nolan, I'd suggest changing the name on your link. There is actually a firm with that name that has nothing to do with the training offered. OT - OF!!! M.

Just finished updating this chart if anyone is interested. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Download Attachment: WaterHeaterSerialNumberDecoder.doc 122.81 KB Download Attachment: WaterHeaterSerialNumberDecoder.pdf 41.23 KB

Sorry, I thought that had become standard practice back east in states where snow falls. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Now Mr. Snell Experts, You know the very well what the answer to that is. Either get in and contribute to the dialog or stay off. We don't appreciate someone coming on here and pretending to contribute to the dialog for the purpose of dropping their link. Mike

Mr. Snell Experts, We don't appreciate someone coming on here and pretending to contribute to the dialog for the purpose of dropping their link. Mike

It needs to be covered and it's not going to stay. Sooner or later, gravity will take over - sooner if there is even one tiny mouse somewhere in that attic. Drywall does, to a certain degree inhibit the movement of moisture through a ceiling plane. probably even more so in your area, no? Don't thay use plastic behind drywall where you are on the warm side of the wall cavity to minimize vapor diffusion into cathedral ceilings? Around here they don't use any plastic barrier. When there's a layer of wood or drywall beneath the insulation and adequate ventilation it seems to work but when there's just the insulation it always seems to be screwed up. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

What Bashing? Nobody is bashing anyone here. If you can't see that, stay off of here. The users of this forum are professionals who often ask very pointed and blunt questions of other inspectors and professional that participate here. Anyone that comes here has to have a thick skin and needs to expect that nobody here is going to lob softballs just because an issue is somewhat emotional. Hand wringers contribute absolutely nothing productive to discussions such as this other than to inject a lot of emotion into the thread and that ultimately detracts from the meat of the discussion. If MrsKramer and Connell, and inspectors here, want to get into a debate about this, fine; but if this thread is going to attract legions of hand wringers from all over the net I'm in favor of the moderators pruning the hell out of it and removing any other posts such as the one quoted above (And this one too for that matter, 'cuz neither is on-topic.). ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Five years from now the kraft paper backing will be covered with drip stains and the underside of the roof will be nice and damp and might even be punky to boot. Can't install that insulation like that. They could have gotten away with unfaced batts but then they'd have to worry about them falling down. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Maybe they aren't liars but simply wrong and they aren't ill. I'm not a scientist - I don't have lots of studies to cite. I only know what I've personally seen and experienced and it makes me doubt this whole toxic mold phenomenon. I had a case a couple of years ago where an elderly lady here in Seattle saw one episode of Extreme Home Makeover where they talked about how an entire family had gotten sick from mold caused by some kind of water leak and how the house couldn't be lived in. She'd had a washing machine hose burst and cover the floor of her basement before it drained out through the basement garage. Based on the sad story in that show, she got worried and hired a home inspector that does mold "inspections," to determine if her home might be infested. The inspector came into her home with an air pump, took samples, told her he'd send the samples to a lab and that he'd get back to her. A few days later he notified her that her house was infested with "toxic mold." By way of proof he showed her the lab results that showed that she had several types of alleged "toxic" mold in the air of the home. She panicked and wanted to know what to do. He handed her the business card of a local abatement company and told her they'd do a good job cleaning up. She hired them to clean up her home. They left, she brought the inspector back and he tested the air again. He reported again that she had toxic mold in the air of her home. She called the abatement company and complained. They came back and cleaned again - not for free - and then she hired the inspector to come back a third time. This time the air in the home miraculously contained zero mold spore. Hmmm. She'd spent $10,000 on testing and cleaning. Several months later, her daughter called me and asked me to go look at the house. She explained that her mother had been complaining of headaches and fatigue and short term memory loss and was convinced it had something to do with mold contamination. I went out to the house and asked her to tell me what was going on. She explained, and handed me the laboratory report. Very impressive document with scary numbers of parts per million and language that implied lots of folks get sick from mold exposure in homes but didn't say that lots of other folks don't. I looked the home over and didn't see anything unusual for an 80-year old home. I did find some black stuff under the floor in the basement and pointed it out to her. She was irritated - the cleaning company and mold guy had showed her that stuff and it was supposed to have been cleaned up she said. I rubbed it with my fingers and then smelled it - coal dust. "Did you ever have a coal-burning furnace?" I asked her. "Oh yes, we had one for years but replaced it many many years ago," she answered. "Was the coal bin where this laundry is now?" I asked her. "Why yes it was. Why?" she asked. "'Cuz, as close as I can tell without having it analyzed, this is coal dust." We went back upstairs. "How long have you lived in this home," I asked this 80+ year old woman. "More than 64 years," she answered. "Have you ever had water in the basement before?" I asked. "Oh yes, we occasionally had plumbing leaks or some infiltration from outside just like everyone else in the neighborhood." "Did you ever suffer any form of sickness during any of those previous incidents?" I asked. "No never," she replied. "Do you realize that the fungi listed in this report is commonly occurring all over western Washington and that it's probably on your clothes right now, in your hair and in your lungs, as it is on my clothes, in my hair and in my lungs, and has been 24 hours a day 7 days of the week since I was born?" I asked her. Wide-eyed, "No, it didn't know that." "Would you agree that we live in a very damp environment out here in Western Washington and that we have the perfect environment for mold growth," I asked her. "Yes I would," she answered. "So why, after living in this state your entire life and residing in this home for more than 64 years did you suddenly become ill after one episode of a broken washing machine hose?" "I don't know," she answered. "Did you feel sick before you received this mold report or after," I asked her. "After," she answered." "Well, don't take my word for it," get to a doctor and have a doctor determine whether you are actually sick from mold or are simply feeling stressed." I left. The next day I got a call from her daughter, "Mike, what did you say to my mother? She's completely recovered!" you're a media person. You should understand that mass marketing of a concept, such as the concept that exposure to mold, any exposure, can make you sick, can probably cause people to believe they are ill when they in fact aren't. About 3-4 years ago, I got a call from a fellow. His wife was complaining about itchy eyes and nose, nose bleeds and headaches. He wasn't. He thought something in his house might be affecting her. I went over there. The house was six months old and he'd never gotten an initial inspection because it was a new house and he'd assumed that everything would be fine. The wife was home. I asked her if she had any known allergies, "Yes, I'm allergic to mold. I was tested when we lived down in California." (And you move to Washington state? I thought to myself.). I checked the house out. The whole house air change system was broken - the timer in the laundry was functional but it had never been coupled to the air intake system on the heating system or to the exhaust fan on the second floor. I decided to check the attic. I climbed up on my ladder, lifted the attic hatch and the smell - kind of like the smell one encounters when one walks into an open pit haylage silo on a dairy farm - rolled out of the attic. It was nauseating and the affect on the wife was instantaneous. She began wheezing and sneezing and within minutes had a bloody nose. The husband and I? Nauseated by the smell but not feeling any ill affects. I went up into the attic, the underside of the roof and framing were kelly green with a nice thick blanket of fungi that was about one-eight of an inch thick. In the attic, insulation batts were blocking air intake at the eaves and they'd combined gable end vents with pot vents essentially short circuiting attic ventilation. You could feel the humidity in that attic without using a hygrometer. The builder came out, removed all of the insulation, had the entire attic soda blasted and treated every square inch of exposed wood with borates. They fixed the ventilation by clearing the eave vents, closing off the gable end vents and pot vents and installed full-length ridge vents and also fixed the whole house air change system and reinsulated the attic. They still live in the house. I was asked to come back there last spring to consult about something else. I asked the wife - who you must remember is allergic to mold - how her allergy to mold has been doing since she'd moved to Washington state. She said she's fine. Go figure. I'm not saying some folks don't get sick from mold; I'm just saying that I think that the whole issue is extremely inflated and distorted by the media to the point where some people, who are not predisposed to illnesses from molds, have become convinced they are sick when they aren't; and that even when some folks have known allergies to mold exposure that they seem to do fine - even when they are living in mold-rich climates. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK, if they lied and it is the secret killer why isn't western Washington state and the rain forest area of Oregon uninhabitable? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Could it be an early form of a heat pump water heater that derives it's heat from the AC system? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I dunno that I agree with that statement, Kurt. I personally don't think casual exposure to mold causes illnesses in those who aren't already predisposed by way of compromised immune system or a known allergy. Hell, if it did everyone in the western corridor of Washington state would be sick; too, those folks down in Oregon who live on the rain forest coast. In our climate, things get moldy fast if one isn't careful to ensure things don't leak and that ventilation systems are functioning properly. We are constantly exposed to mold here and know that mold spore is present 24/7 in 100% of the air that we breath and it has been since our ancestors first slithered out of the water onto land. Fungi is the greatest recycler on the planet. I still can't accept that casual exposure to mold is "toxic," although I've always known - and didn't really need any scientist to tell me, that exposure to chemicals of all sorts is not good. It would be so easy for the scientists who argue against the whole mold is gold dynamic to jump ship and simply change their minds. Why haven't they? I understand that professional pride can make folks do some stupid stuff, but I can't accept that legions of professionals are all part of a great conspiracy to hide the fact that wet buildings make people sick. We all live with certain assumptions and often change our minds about those assumptions when we become better educated; so don't scientists. It's not that unusual to read some article about some new understanding of something scientific and to read where scientists involved say something like, "Based on previous scientific studies we've always thought this, but now we think this." There is no great disgrace in admitting one has been wrong. I don't see what makes scientists that research this whole wet building syndrome any different than scientists researching other fields. Still having trouble ascribing evil motives to the folks who've authored some of the documents she's claimed here are false or deceptive. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK, I get the who; I still don't understand the motivation. This might be true but as a motive it doesn't make sense to me: Why? Why instill bias? Why try to convince folks you've proven that contaminants in water damaged buildings don't cause illness if they do? What is the benefit? What is their motive? Why would anyone, as you allege, want to intentionally deceive people about something like that when folks' health and their lives are at stake? Maybe they did pay them, but how can you know that their motive is what you allege it to be? You've chided Kurt for making assumptions about you - aren't you making assumptions based on your own bias? We home inspectors were telling folks about sicknesses in buildings long before Ballard vs. Farmers and telling folks to take precautions. There wasn't any media-driven mold frenzy back then. After Ballard it exploded. Why? Nothing had changed except someone had won a whole lot of money in a suit. I just don't understand why the Chamber would benefit from promoting a false premise. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

What think tank and what was their motive? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Do the downspout receivers drain to the city storm sewers? It looks like it might be a cleanout used to clear the drain in the event too many leaves from gutters get washed into that system and clog it. When I see something like that, I just walk over to one of the workmen and ask, "Hey, what the hell is that pipe out there?" You'd be amazed what you can find out by asking a builder's crew questions. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Scan your pictures and save them to your hard drive as JPEG pics. Resize them if necessary to get them under 200Kb each. When you name the file don't leave any spaces in the name or use special symbols. This: DamagedRoofTile_1 or Damaged_Roof_Tile1 Not: Damaged Roof Tile #1 or Damaged Roof Tile (#1). Do not use the quick reply box to respond. Instead, click on the 'reply to topic box' immediately below the last post read. Then use the Insert Visible Photo icon below the composition box to insert your photo. Click on that button, browse to the photo on your hard drive, click to upload it, wait for the software to tell you that it's done and then close the sub-window and go onto your next picture. When you're all done uploading all the pictures, submit the post and the pictures should display. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

A home inspection would have revealed that the house had a 500 gallon septic tank when it's supposed to have a 1500 gallon tank? How so? Are you opening up septic tanks out there in Maryland? Out here, we don't do 'em and the septic tank installation companies do all inspections of those systems. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

James, in case you haven't noticed we are in a recession. If this guy wants to replace his furnace he will provide work for a tech, help to keep his local HVAC company solvent, and he'll contribute to the preservation of manufacturing jobs. He'll also save energy, which is good for the economy and the environment. He won't be saving any of his own money, but he will be contributing to the greater good. Advising consumers to not spend money is unpatriotic. [] All true. Jakeb, you should buy two new furnaces. Yeah, but they say good things come in threes. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

More information: http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/ssom ... ed-01.html http://www.shelterpub.com/_shelter/ssom ... ed-02.html http://www.inspectapedia.com/septic/Aer ... pliers.htm http://www.water.ncsu.edu/watershedss/d ... eptic.html http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inve ... e-disposal http://www.ukseptictanks.co.uk/septic-tanks ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'd love to do radon testing, The problem is that I live in an area where the state radiation guy (Yeah, that's right, I said "guy".) says radon exposure is negligible and isn't worth the trouble of testing for. Jeez, with officials like that as friends, who needs enemies? The extra revenue would be very welcome but then I'd get labeled as a money-grubbing fraud. Oh well, maybe I can sell foil helmets to protect folks against alien thought monitoring. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Good point, I've had a few cases where a "compent" contractor had replaced the old concrete crocks and downspout drains around homes with perforated plastic drain pipe and then sworn up and down that his new foundation soaker system was not the cause of the settling flatwork and the water in the crawlspace. Did you check those downspout receivers to see what kind of pipe they'd used? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike