hausdok

Because you can "take all combustion air from outside" via ducts, via holes through an exterior wall, etc., and still not be a direct vent appliance. The key to that definition isn't "takes all air from outside" but "sealed combustion chamber that draws all air for combustion from outside." That's not what you said; you might have meant that, but that's not what you said. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, I think we are probably mostly all pretty familiar with DelGreco. He's constantly releasing press releases or inspection articles via eZine Articles or PR Web. These are grab bags for internet content where folks can pick them up for free if they are a subscriber to the grab bag, or pay a modest user fee and anyone googling "home inspection" sees them. Each article drops the name of his company onto sites hungry for content all over the country. I've seen his articles picked up by publications in the southwest where half of what he talked about only applied to snow country or New Jersey but it apparently provided them with content that they needed - either that or they never bothered to read the articles. All that writing has managed to get him categorized as an inspection "expert" by these sites. I'm sure it is good for business and helps to get him expert witness work. Those of you who are looking for a way to get things going a little better could take a page from his book, start knocking stuff out and submitting it to these grab bags. It doesn't cost you anything and it might help you out. Just realize, though, that it probably won't earn you props in here, especially if what you are putting out is the same caliber as some of the stuff that DelGreco's been generating. Whatever works though; it's not like home inspectors have a whole lot of options when it comes to affordable advertising media. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

There are natural draft water heaters that have thru-floor ducting-all combustion air is drawn from outside. Closet locations are closed with a panel, sans weather stripping. Of course I'm referring to HUD Code country. If it takes all of it's combustion air from the exterior, it's a direct vent water heater. - Reuben No, that's not accurate at all and it's liable to confuse some rookies. You can have an inner room containing appliances with air ducted to that room from the outside; however, unless the appliance is a direct-vent type, even though those appliances get all of their combustion air from the outside via those ducts, it does not make those "direct-vent" appliances. A "direct" vent appliance is one where the internal components of the appliance, not the room, are sealed off from the air of the space around the appliance. A direct vent appliance either has a separate intake and exhaust vent that both extend from the collar of the appliance all the way to the outside; or it uses a combination intake/exhaust vent. Sometimes you'll see a two pipe that changes to a combi-vent just before it passes out through the sidewall of the building and sometimes the combi-vent extends all the way to the collar of the appliance such as the way Rinnai's PVC exhaust vents are configured for their internal tankless water heaters. A power-vented water heater, for instance, is not a direct vent appliance unless it gets it's combustion air from outside via an integral intake pipe built into it and its combustion chamber is completely sealed away from the space around it. Some power-vented appliances are configured with integral intake pipes, some aren't. You can install a Category IV furnace configured as a direct vent appliance in a bedroom; however, if you remove the intake pipe and get your combustion air from the interior, as is allowed by some manufacturers, it is no longer a "direct vent" appliance and is disallowed. In that case, it needs to be moved to an enclosure that's sealed off from the interior and air has to be brought into that room through an exterior wall, from the attic or crawlspace or via ducts that end within 12-inches of the floor or ceiling. The easiest way to remember when an appliance is a "direct-vent" is to look at how the appliance is configured and ask yourself whether the interior of that appliance uses any of the air from the space around it; if it does, whether that air comes into that space from a vent through an exterior wall or is ducted into that area, it is not a direct-vent appliance. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It might not be for a dryer at all. There is one large builder here that keeps building homes with half the vents blocked by flatwork. Their cure for this is to install these in crawlspaces and then run a duct to the far corner of the area where the vents are blocked. They seem to think that it will somehow provide enough movement of air that there won't be any moisture issues. Most of the time it doesn't work; in fact, I've found significant fungal growth in a few of them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Fluke will be hosting a thermography BootCamp training class in Bellevue,WA on April 20th. The class is open to anyone who owns or is considering purchasing a Fluke imager; and will be four hours of hands-on instruction with the Fluke imagers with detailed instruction on the functions and principals of thermography. The cost of the class is $100 and includes a Fluke 411D Laser Distance Meter ($99 value) and Thermography Application Book ($25 value). Space is limited so those interested interested in signing up should contact either Doug Green or Jason McGinnis at the numbers below as soon as possible. Doug Green PSI Solutions, Inc. PO Box 24058, Federal Way, WA 98093 Phone: 253-838-9263, Fax 253-942-4700, Mobile 206-510-3262, Skype “dgreenpsirepâ€

Sorry to hear that, Kyle It happened to me about 10 years ago and I didn't even know it until I got a phone call. I'd stopped at a 7-11 way down in South Seattle on the way home to buy a soft drink. Got in my van, drove home and then got a phone call from a guy. He said he'd stopped at a 7-11 and been approached by a kid wanting to know if he wanted to buy some tools. He'd looked them over, seen one of my business cards in the bag and then asked the kid how much he wanted. The kid said $150 and he haggled him down to $100 and got the tools. The guy lived near me, I drove over there and retrieved my tools. Actually gave him an extra $25 as a reward. Kicked myself in the ass for leaving the back door of that van unlocked when I'd walked into that store. Now when I park my truck at one of those places it's always locked, parked where I can see it and I keep one eye on the van, one hand on my wallet and the other hand on my cell phone in case I have to chase some #@%*$^ @*#%^* down and need to call the police. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Another fallacy, Potential customers certainly do not consider all licensed inspectors equally qualified. Seriously, where do you come up with this stuff? Where is the proof of that? We have licensing here too. I'd say that before licensing the field was already very level. There were no standards for inspections, no standards for a report, no requirement for contracts, no requirements for basic competency, and nobody to go to for help if you were a home buyer and got a crappy inspection. Other than an inspector's word and the recommendation one received from friends or a realtor, there was no way to know whether an inspector had ever met a basic level of competency. The profession was already dumbed down and everyone was viewed just as suspiciously as every other inspector because consumers had no way to know whether an inspector could walk and talk at the same time let along inspect a home. Licensing here forced every inspector - the guy who'd been in the business 30 years as well as the guy who'd been in the business 30 days - to prove that he or she could do what he or she claimed to be able to do, inspect homes, by forcing all to, at a minimum, pass a test of basic inspector competency. How does that hurt the consumer? It seems that the consumer benefits from that. That was a starting point but not the end point and consumers I've encountered certainly know that licensing doesn't mean that all inspectors are equal; yet I infer from your statement that when a consumer knows everyone is licensed the consumer apparently loses all motivation to interview an inspector to decide which inspector is more qualified than the next. That is a little bit odd - especially since consumers apparently still choose their plumbers, electricians, architects, engineers, lawyers, doctors etc. by comparing the experience of those professionals and by getting referrals from friends and co-workers. Odd that it doesn't work the same way with inspectors - oh wait,.....it does work the same way with inspectors; in fact, it's been my experience that during first phone contact now consumers are asking more questions than they ever had prior to licensing. If anything, it seems like consumers don't want to assume that an inspector's license means that all inspectors are equal in skill. Then again, maybe we simply have smarter, more discerning consumers out here than can be found where you are. Maybe over there they are all automatons that are easily led around by the nose and deceived into believing whatever they are told. I dunno, I don't live there so maybe I've got it wrong. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, They should have integrated some self-adhering bituthene (ice and water membrane) into the flashings at the transition between the two decks behind the siding. I'd have used coil stock behind the whole thing and spacers like below. Click to Enlarge 79.86 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's the biggest crock of sh*t I've ever heard and it's, frankly, insulting. Maybe you need to get dry behind the ears and spend some time in the business learning what it's about before you start parroting the pablum you'd swallowed in your "school". There is absolutely nothing about belonging to one of the alphabet soup associations that makes an association member any more competent or any more professional than competent professional independents. Put that in your naive pipe and smoke it, rookie. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It's not like I wouldn't love to be able not to have to ever set up another ladder. For that matter, I'd love to not have to bellycrawl anymore crawlspaces and I'd love to have a friggin robot to do it for me. I just haven't seen the machine yet that could maneuver its way through all of the obstacles under a house and do everything that's needed to be done. Nah, the machine I'm going to get - if I ever get one - will be organic with two arms, two legs, the same or better agility than I have, not afraid of spiders or gooey stuff or dark holes or heights and will have hands so it can look behind stuff to see what's going on. Best of all, it will be about half my age and be able to think for itself. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Can't speak for you; if it's me - I'm threading it together and that's what I advise others to do. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Why? What use is it to an inspector if it can't get up under the eaves to inspect frieze vents, if it can't check tab adhesion, if it can't check nail placement and depth, etc.? How does it check for a drip edge? How does it check the condition of a cover under a layer of debris or moss? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, I knew that. It's still the same thing. Install scew-on fittings on both to join them together. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Too close to the building? How many feet away from the building do you usually recommend? I personally recommend that the downspout rejects it's water at least 4 feet away from the building! At least six feet for the reason that Jim cites. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Could that happen if the service grounding conductor was disconnected from the electrode and the house took a lightning hit? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

End the PVC with a screw-on fitting. Put a screw-on fitting on the end of the sprinkler pipe and then join the two using a threaded coupler. If you're connecting a sprinkler system to your house's plumbing, you'll need to install an anti-backwater valve on the system or you could end up contaminating your potable water and making yourself sick. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

According to something I read someplace, bacteria from uncleaned whirlpool tub jets is the #1 cause of staph and mersa infections. We fill them to about 3 inches above the jets and then run them through their paces. I do it specifically to cause the crud to flush out of the system and into the water so that the client can see that and hopefully get a little grossed out and motivated to clean the damned things. Then I tell them not to use the tub until they've either cleaned the circulation system themselves (after finding out how to do it from the manufacturer) or had it done by a professional. Kills two birds with one stone; the client knows that the thing is working and the client knows that the system must be cleaned out. The flooding thing? Yeah, had it happen a time or two. Last time was a couple of years ago in a brand new house. The house was staged and in the dining room below the whirlpool tub with the broken pipe there was a huge gorgeous dining room table about 15ft long. By the time I got downstairs to see what all the yelling was about, there was about 20 gallons of water coming out of the ceiling fixtures and onto that table and from there onto the hardwood floors and from there into the basement. We didn't have anything to soak up the water rapidly so we pulled down all of the curtains used to stage the house and turned them into towels. The agents and clients spend nearly half an hour sopping that water up, carrying those drapes out onto the balcony and then wringing them out before they got all of the visible water mopped up. I've got about a dozen Shamwow-like chamies in my car now. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I see that Jerry has removed the name of the co-compiler of the majority of that - Norm Sage. Figures. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm thinking of an old Cheech and Chong album from '71/'72 where a judge imposes a sentence on a guy which would probably be appropriate in this case, "Bailiff, whack his _ _ _ _ _ _!!!" ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Oh yeah, I've seen it used in lots of places around the US and the planet. Hell, most of the 600 year old building foundations in downtown Zweibruecken, Germany are limestone. When I was first stationed there, I used to walk down the sidewalk and see little piles of powder along those foundation walls. One could brush one's hand over the face of the stonework and the stuff would literally slough off onto the sidewalk. Fast forward to May of 1991 when we returned from Iraq and the downtown area and the former Prince's residence at the center of town were undergoing a massive government-funded preservation effort and the Germans had developed some kind of a method to stabilize the stonework and actually restore it. Somehow they'd figured out how to restore those same foundation walls without actually replacing the stones and the work was so good that the stonework looked like those stones had just come from the quarry. Always wished I'd been there to see what technique they'd used to restore that stuff. I figure they'd probably used a colored concrete technique but never really knew for sure. Whatever it was, it was done well. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I see the stuff almost daily and literally cut and paste comments from one report to the next and then just swap out the photos. As Mark said, no weep screeds and separation from concrete or grade, no casing beads or separation from woodwork. I've noticed a few times where some of these guys have over the past year or so begun to change their procedures; possibly at the behest of the builder or because they'd finally gotten a copy of the MVMA guidelines. I figure it will only take one major lawsuit involving a big development with dozens of homes done wrong for it to hit the news as a class action. When that happens, I bet the installers will get religion really fast and begun studying the crap out of those guidelines. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, That's not what I took away from it at all. I'm paraphrasing, but it sounded to me more like he said that they are often screwed up by homeowner add-ons, which is bad enough, but they weren't designed with some of our modern-day issues in mind; and, because of that their design is obsolete and the breakers are quite possibly likely to literally self-destruct under certain modern issues. Sounds like a pretty good reason to recommend replacing them; especially if they are old. When was the last time Bulldog panels were made and sold retail? I have a basic rule of thumb I go by; if it's a panel that's more than 40 years old it's obsolete and it's time to replace it. That makes it easy to deal with most older Zinsco and FPE panels. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Noodle maker for making homemade pasta. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Faulty smoke detectors - replace 'em. OT - OF!!! M.

I've removed dozens of them, maybe hundreds. I've only ever had one breaker fall out. I turned it off, snapped it back in, turned it on, compiled my laundry list of stuff that was screwed up besides that fact that it was an FPE panel and put the cover back on. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike