hausdok

Hi Rob, Color doesn't mean a thing. There are three characteristics that you have to have for them to be carpenter ants. 1. Antennae set far back on the head and hinged forward so that they'll be out of the way of the pincers. Looks like you have that. 2. Thorax needs to be smoothly rounded in an oval from the neck to waist - Think of a Harley Davidson Gas tank when viewed from the side. 3. There must be a piatola node at the waist between the thorax and abdomen. It kind of looks like a little shark fin reversed. If you have all three of those characteristics, you have carpenter ants regardless of color. They look like CA to me; the size of the heads on those soldiers is a dead giveaway. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. This is not an official opinion of a licensed pest control guy. The Department of Agriculture for the State of Washington has decided that anyone that doesn't hold a current pest inspector's license - regardless of how long they might have previously held a license - is no longer capable of knowing what the characteristics of wood destroying insects are and therefore may not advise anyone pertaining to WDI.

Find out who licenses electricians in your state. If they have an electricians board staffed by a group of electricians, send them a copy of the photo along with a copy of the letter from the electrician and ask them to profer an opinion. Bet they'll drop the hammer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Our were the black bakelite without a dial. You picked up the receiver, the operator would come on and say, "Number Please?" and you'd give her the number. Ours was 393. OT - OF!!! M.

There's plenty of authoritive stuff at masonryveneer.org How about this? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, it's not a "pump" - it isn't "pumping" anything. It's circulating water. OT - OF!!! M.

Kewl, If a real estate agent started telling me what would be "beneficial" to my success, I'd probably respond with something like, "Thanks. Now, do you mind if I point out to you that if you were to take a commission of perhaps one to three percent less you'd probably have a lot more clients?" ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It looks like someone applied a really thick layer of some type of acrylic or urethane roof coating over a modbit or built-up roof and that the protective plastic layer is now failing. Time for a tear off, deck evaluation and repair and a new cover. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Robert, I'll bet that the opening is slightly lower on it's vertical axis than it's supposed to be. When those things are on, convection pulls a lot of air in at the bottom, heats it and pushes it out across the top of the box. Drop that surround too low in front and all of that heat strikes the back of the top row across the top of the fireplace and heats it. Tell 'em to use the back of their hand placed against that surround as a means to gauge heat. When they can't comfortably hold their hand there after the fireplace has been on for 15 minutes, they need to reach down underneath and crank the heat back. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

If you want to put things in perspective, don't do it with the "no house is perfect" speech; instead, do what I do, tell them at the onset of the inspection to expect their sensibilities to be shocked over the next few hours, tell them that every house is a huge maintenance item that is in constant race with its owners to return to compost. Make them understand that what you find will only be the tip of the iceberg and that unless they are prepared to accept that reality they might just as well stop the inspection immediately, get in their car and leave. I've told plenty of folks to run like hell. I've got to write a memo today to a guy that I told in December to run like hell. I told him in December to get an engineer out and estimated that there would be at least $150k needed in slope stabilization measures behind the home before it would be stable enough to repair the major settling and tearing that's taking place in that structure. He didn't listen to me. In May he asked me to go back and reinspect . I returned to the home to find that absolutely nothing had been done to stabilize the slope or fix any of the structural issues; instead, the insurance company had paid to replace all of the drywall throughout the house that had been damaged when a pipe had broken due to the settling and flooded everything. Since December, new cracks 1/8-inch wide had developed in some ceilings and a 1/4-inch crack had opened up in a basement floor. I fully expect to see that house on the news within the next couple of years when the slope gives way and it rips in half and the back half ends up on top of the house on the slope behind and below it. My memo is simply going to say exactly that, basically, "I warned you in December not to go ahead with this transaction unless/until you brought in engineers to evaluate this site, prescribe corrective measures and had those measures implemented before you agreed to the sale; you didn't listen, now I fully expect that probably in one of the rainy seasons over the next couple of years I'll be seeing your house on the evening news." About a month ago I got halfway through an inspection, turned to the client and asked him, "You got any running shoes?" He replied, "Yeah, why?" My response, 'cuz if you don't want to spend every last cent you'll be able to save over the next ten years on this house, you'd better put them on and run like hell." He nodded, I stopped the inspection, collected my check and left. The realtor looked like someone had kicked her in the stomach; but, since she hadn't referred me to him, knew who I was and my reputation, she kept her mouth shut. He called me back for another inspection about a week ago. I couldn't accommodate him but I referred him to someone who could who will be just as frank with him as I'd been. Hopefully, this will be the one; if not, maybe by the time he finds the next one I can accommodate him again. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Kurt, I see it every once in a while. I've written it up about half a dozen times. Most contractors don't bother to orient it correctly or use the proper termination accessories along the top. What do you want to know? OT - OF!!! M.

No, We don't have powder post beetles in the west - we have death-watch beetles. Powder post beetles are lychtids, which is what he's got there, death-watch beetles are annobiidae - almost identical in size to the PPB, causes almost identical damage but is a completely different race of beetles. It is true; they can mature inside the wood for years before they emerge, but both lychtids and annobiidae can be knocked back using a penetrating borate mixture such as BoraCare that soaks deep into the wood and literally poisons their food source. Well, not poison really - borates give them an impossible case of constipation and they are too brainless to know to stop eating so they continue to eat until they literally blow themselves apart. It requires about 3 - 4 treatments a season to get each clutch of eggs before they hatch and bore too deep. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Not a whole lot. The other day I watched an episode of myth busters where they tried to reproduce a movie segment where a surfboard on top of a ford explorer breaks loose during a 40mph head-on and goes through another vehicles windshield and decapitates the driver. It wouldn't work. The surfboard kept flying off the roof and landing directly in front of the vehicle instead of flying through the air as they'd expected. I don't think it's any more dangerous than 95% of the painters' trucks I see out there with mountains of ladders stacked up on top. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

They look like chairs for a couple of those jackel-headed men that the pharoahs used to guard their tombs. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

TNR 11 point; headers are Bold ariel 11 point. OT - OF!!! M.

To my surprise, I was coming home from the Doctor's office yesterday - an unusually sunny and warm day for this time of year - and I found that this old workhorse is still for sale. They need to park it somewhere else or sell it quickly now that summer is here or I'm liable to bite. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, I think you are allowing the size and type of cable you are seeing to confuse you. What you think is two grounds isn't two grounds at all. your system isn't "grounded" to the water pipe; it's grounded to the service grounding electrode which is the driven rod outside and it's bonded to the water piping in the home. Those are two entirely separate functions. The service grounding electrodes - metal pipes buried in dirt and driven rods - are there to carry outside forces such as lightning to earth. The conductor between the driven rod and the panel is known as the "Service grounding electrode conductor." The connection to the piping inside the house via the bonding conductor is a permanent connection between conductive parts so that any objectionable fault current that's imposed on those parts can flow safely back to transformer via the neutral service conductor. Those are two entirely different flow paths with entirely different purposes. It's easy to confuse the two; God knows, there are licensed electricians that are every bit as confused as non-electricians when it comes to understanding the two. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

We do that here too. Actually, inspectors are required by our new law to recommend a GFCI upgrade in homes without them. That has pretty much eliminated the snarky comments and pushback from agents about "grandfathering" and "it wasn't required by code." Inspectors can simply state, "Hey, don't unload on me. I'm required by state law to recommend that those circuits be upgraded. If you want to take issue with that, take it up with the state licensing folks." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Mississauga, ON, May 31, 2011 In a year in which municipal, federal and soon provincial elections have produced immense leadership and representation change in Ontario, the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors have followed suit and opted for mainly smaller market representatives. Members are also expanding their inspection of new homes and sharing their expertise in new and existing housing stock via a publishing arrangement. To learn more, click here.

Go the menu bar above and choose library. Now choose downloads and scroll down to FM5-428 - the US Army Concrete and Masonry Field Manua. Turn to page 4-46 Figure 4-15 for diagrams of how to form up a set of stairs. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

200 amps is small? Seriously? Why? Not enough to supply power to more than two grow farms at the same time? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

FLUKE is holding two new Seminars in June. The first will be in Bellevue on June 22nd and will cover a combination of Thermography and Vibration Analysis. This seminar will be $100/attendee and will provide a basic introduction to thermography for 3 hours and a primer on Vibration Analysis for 1 hour. The second seminar will be in Bellingham on June 23rd and will cover Thermography in much more depth for 4 hours with a great deal of camera hands on. The Bellingham seminar is in FLUKE’s new Thermal Boot Camp format and will run $100/attendee. For the Bellingham class we encourage you to bring your thermal imager if you have one, and if not, we will be providing a good number of cameras for the hands on portion of the course. Both seminars are offering some freebies to all attendees as well. • Fluke 62 mini IR thermometer ($99 value) • Introduction to Thermography Principles booklet ($25 value) If you would like to register for either, or both of these seminars please email me at doug@psirep.com or call 253-838-9263 and we’ll get you on the list. If you are interested in the Bellingham Boot Camp seminar, please let me know if you will be bringing a thermal imager or if you will need one provided for the hands on portions? These seminars tend to fill up pretty quickly, so please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to attend and reserve a seat. Best regards, Doug Green PSI Solutions, Inc. PO Box 24058, Federal Way, WA 98093 Phone 253-838-9263, Fax 253-942-4700, Mobile 206-510-3262 Find Your Solution at www.psirep.com

Nah, it's simple. Just tent and demolish every structure in the country built before 1983 (We want a cushion there to get those where the paint was left in storage sheds for a year or two before it was used). There will be a massive building boom, heavy equipment companies will need to gear up production to meet demand for their machines, landfills will become as commonplace as pigeons and their operators will be filthy rich and inspectors will have a ton of work to do, everyone will be safe from lead and all of those other environmental hazards those old buildings contain and we'll all be living in housing stock that's less than 30 year old. I say start right now. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. For those of you who don't know me, the above was written with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

I've had a spark shower or two, It's the reason I always tell the client to stand back about 8 to 10 feet when I'm removing a cover. A client getting blinded by a red hot piece of slag flying a couple hundred feet a second would definitely not be good for my reputation. Go to the orange or blue box and pick up some panel screws. When you find those, replace them with proper screws. It takes less time to do that than to write up the issue and you'll be a Dodge Boy for doing it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

This is just a WAG, It looks like he was trying to ensure oxygen for the furnace. The power vent will suck it all out at roof level but if he hangs those near the floor maybe he figures they'll pull air into the attic and then up to the underside of the roof and that will prevent his power fan from causing that furnace to backdraft. (Though that makes absolutely no sense unless we're talking about the heating season and then it doesn't make a helluva lotta sense anyway. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike