hausdok

Weren't required then. Don't know about now. Go to "library" on the menu bar above, use your cursor to make the sub-menu appear and then click on "File Downloads." Scroll down until you find The HUD Code - MHCSS (Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards at 24 CFR 3280). Check out the section of water distribution systems. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Worse than that, if it wears through the roof edge, even without cutting through the insulation, they could end up with a roof leak and property damage. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Agreed, be careful. If an inspector doesn't want to climb up onto a roof to inspect it; that's going to be up to that inspector and nobody else. I'm very expereinced at scaling structures; yet, there's a little voice in my head that tells me when I'm pushing it. Not listening to that inner voice will get one in trouble. Inspectors just need to keep in mind that if they are ever challenged by an unhappy client in court, because they missed something they might have found had they climbed up onto the roof, they need to have made a reasonable effort to meet the local standard of care. If, despite everything else, the locally accepted standard of care by the overwhelming majority of inspectors in a region is to climb up onto roofs and the inspector didn't do that, the unhappy client's lawyer might just have another more-skilled-at-roof-climbing inspector waiting in the wings who will happily sit there in the courtroom and explain how he or she had easily been able to get up onto that roof and find the issue that the errant inspector had missed. After that, whether or not it bites the defendant in the ass will depend on how well that inspector's lawyer can convince the judge or jury that, despite the other side's contentions, the inspector had done everything that he or she could have been reasonably expected to do under the circumstances. Depending on what part of the country one is operating in, and the prevailing attitudes toward inspections and home inspectors, I should think an inspector has a 50/50 chance of walking away unscathed or being nailed to a cross. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I've never had a conflict with the line scope guy. He sees home inspectors all the time; he understands us and we understand him. I often stop what I'm doing for a few minutes to check out his video once he's had his camera deployed for a while. The guy's job is just as important as mine; more important sometimes, and he's a pro and good at what he does. I'm not afraid to recommend folks to him and he's remembered and referred a few back to me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Super Anchors OT - OF!!! M.

There's a subdivision here where the roofers left their anchors on the ridges instead of pulling them out on the last day. Good idea, but somebody's still got to climb up to attach that rope.Hi, They are left in place on nearly all new construction here. Like you have pointed out, they are useless until you get up there to them and by then you've seen everything you need to see and are on your way back down again. I routinely find them left uncovered on new homes and I write it up because the anchors leak if the covers are missing or left off. About 4-5 years ago I inspected 15 eight-year-old homes that Quadrant was forced to buy back from their owners. Of those 15 homes, I found 8 of them with the covers missing from one or more anchors. Of those 8, 5 had seals that were distorted or sun damaged and were leaking into the roof plane below. 3 of those had rot damage to the deck and top chord of the truss they were attached to. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

To me, it doesn't look like a corner has popped off , it looks more like some freeze heave has pushed the wall inward to the right of the corner. I'd sure like to see an establishing shot from about 15 ft. back and then shots from both angles down along the foundation walls right where the brickwork meets the concrete. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Whatever turns you on, Jim. Click to Enlarge 9.58 KB Now that's just wrong. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, Saw the ladder. I'm guessing you went up that like a rock climber with the right hand pointed down the roof and flat on the cover, both soles flat on the cover and with the left hand wrapped under that rake board. That's how I do them. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I've heard them called "eyebrow" vents. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

What about the chart that fellow posted here some months ago? According to that chart: FEDDERS: Through 1977, the last two letters of the serial number show the month/year of manufacturre, beginning with September 1964. Example: xxxxAA = Sept 66, xxxxBC = Oct 68. (The letter I is not used.). Maybe it should have read "The two letters of the serial number" instead of "The last two," if so, that furnace was manufactured in November of 1970. A 41 year old gas furnace? If I were you, I would have said and written something like, "Don't be surprised if this thing fails as I'm backing my truck out of the driveway; it's at about twice its normally expected service life." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jim, I think that Scott Wood has subscribed to this thread; so he should be receiving a notice and will respond. In any event, it kind of looks like a Homesafe has made some kind of a desparate money grab, doesn't it? As Chad pointed out above, their claim is pretty ludicrous; and, if you'll forgive my saying so, seems to be the epitome of greed. Back in 1971, Toyota recalled their 1600 cc Corolla engine for piston ring and valve seal problems and authorized dealers 4.5 hours of flat rate labor for the repair. I worked out a work flow where I could do the job in under an hour and at the height of the recall was knocking them out at the rate of 8 and sometimes 9 a day with a little overtime. I was using the same tools that other mechanics used, I was removing the same parts, I was doing all of the same procedures and to the same quality standards, but I was doing so in a way that allowed the job to flow more smoothly and that drastically cut down on time. What HomeSafe has done is kind of like that; they've worked out a procedure. Trying to enforce it though is just as ridiculous as if I'd gone off to a patent office, had patented my work flow procedure and then damanded money from Toyota, and every other Toyota mechanic in the country, in order for me not to sue them for copying my workflow technique. It's too bad. They could have become famous for developing the residential IR inspection process, and had the prestige of that, instead of for just being greedy. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, Common sense. Back in November when we had that freeze, a bunch of those burst in attics all over the region. Folks around here figured it would never get cold enough to freeze them, so they weren't too careful about insulating them and in some cases didn't insulate them at all. With a 1-1/4 inch water line feeding those suckers, they dump a whole lot of water into a home in a very short amount of time when they burst. Burst pipe = property damage = $$$$$$. Even my math-challenged mind can do that equation. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Dunno, The scientist being interviewed on the news seemed very confident that there would likely be an impact. Might be good surfing! ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm not going to get too excited about global warming. I caught the tail end of a news report earlier this week, and, according to some kind of a scientist they were interviewing there's an asteroid that's going to swing by and pass through our atmosphere in 1024 and then it will be coming back around again in 2036 and they think it's going to hit the planet. I think they said that thing is about 1000 yards in diameter. When it hits this rock, the shock is probably going to make the simultanteous detonation of every nuke in every inventory feel small in comparison. I'm guessing it will end us. Best boogie while we still can. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It was in the bookstore along with all the other books about construction and remodeling. The author was Paul Bianchina. I'm bet Amazon has it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, According to my Illustrated Dictionary of Building Materials and Techniques it could be called either a bracket or a lookout; although it more closely defines lookouts with what we see most here, support for the deep overhanging eaves at the perimeter. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Only if you politicize it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yes, Your son has a right to be proud and you have every right to be proud of him. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I've asked the programmers if there is anything that can be done to ensure consistent speeds instead of the on again off again stuff we're experiencing; but it might simply boil down to a question of the provider's prioritization of assets. If we want faster more consistent speeds we might have to pay the provider more and we probably can't afford to do that without charging a subscription. I've been toying with the idea of a subscription for years; perhaps giving one the ability to see some forums but not to answer to those or have full access without a subscription. That might provide us enough to fund improvements we'd like to make in the site and defend the site in any future legal hassles. So, since there are lots of other free resources out there, do you users think this site is worth paying a subscription for, in order to be up there in speed with the other sites that actually have a constant stream of income coming in, or would you simply go elsewhere? If your answer would be contingent on the cost of the subscription, tell me what you think is a fair price for a yearly subscription access for all content on TIJ. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, Mine is a full-narrative report. I've recently begun adding photos but they only reinforce the narrative. For the 14-plus years of reports before the photos, clients, contractors, engineers and attorneys have said that the narrative descriptions were more than sufficient to provide them what they needed to understand what the issue was and where. it was. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, It's just mineral wool or "rock" wool or "slag" wool as it's called in the trades. It's made from the slag left over after iron is smelted. It's no more dangerous to you than fiberglass. Oh wait, I just noticed, you are in La-La Land. According to the stickers I regularly see on furnaces, fiberglass insulation causes cancer in California so maybe rockwool causes cancer in California too. ASHRAE conducted an extensive study, the results of which were published about a decade ago, and found no evidence that Fiberglass causes cancer. Nevertheless, Californians apparently have a different physiology from the rest of us and it does cause cancer there, so maybe rockwool will cause your arms or legs to fall off. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, When I was learning about cars they would still clean (file) plugs and points and we'd have to realign them with a little tool. I was taught that using an abrasive cleaner, sandpaper or a file would raise tiny microscopic ridges all over the surface; and, as Chad says, would be a temporary fix. My teachers preferred to use a sharp blade to scrape the surfaces clean in one direction only. It worked; not as long as a new part would but it worked longer than sandpaper or a file would. This thread is of particular interest to me 'cuz it looks like I'll be paying for a repair on something for the first time in nearly 15 years. I forgot to turn a furnace back on a few weeks ago and suddenly remembered it at about 9:00 pm that night. I didn't want the folks to be without heat, so I tried to call the selling agent and tell her to tell the homeowner where the switch was and how to turn it on. I got a voice mail but no agent, so I left a message; then I emailed the same message to her. I got a 5-word response back from her iPhone in minutes - "I'll take care of it." The next evening I got a call from the listing agent; he was at the house trying to make the furnace come on - apparently they'd gone all night and all day without heat thanks to the fact that the selling agent didn't "take care of it," as she'd promised. While I was on the phone with him, the agent said that the furnace had suddenly come on while he was jiggling some wires connected to the gas valve. I figured that I must have knocked one loose somehow. He thanked me and I asked him to extend my apologies to the homeowner and hung up. A couple of minutes later the listing agent called me back and said that the furnace had just shut down and wouldn't restart. Thinking it was the flame sensor, I told him not to touch anything and I'd be right there. I got over there and ended up dinking around with it for about an hour before I gave up. It just would not come on - not even for a second - it was like it wasn't listening to the thermostat or something. I put new batteries in the thermostat, checked all connections, checked the flame sensor - even replaced the fuse and nadda. Well, not nadda; I did get a faint flash at the LED on the control board for about 1 second after I plugged in the new fuse; but then the LED turned off again and the furnace went back into hibernation and refused to listen. Knew I hadn't done anything to damage it and was pretty sure that the agent had probably done something to queer the control board, but I really didn't have many options there - it had worked before I'd turned it off and opened it up so there was no way anyone was going to believe me - I told him to send me the HVAC tech's bill. Called the agent last night to find out what the HVAC guy had come up with. Haven't heard back yet. Any ideas? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I've tried to explain this before, Won't waste breath or finger power on it today; the report is a permanent record of what you see, smell, touch and hear at the property. A narrative report is more important to the inspector than it is to the client because it is the inspector's permanent record of what he saw and did. Without proper context, a report heavy on photos and short on proper description cannot tell the whole story. The report could very well be the thing that saves an inspector's ass in court or arbitration when the client or the client's lawyer is trying to show that an inspector didn't do what he was supposed to. Looking at a bunch of checkmarks or 3 to 4 words along with single photographs will only tell part of the story and ten years down the road might be nearly useless to an inspector without something to jog the inspector's memory. I get that folks don't get it, most non-cops don't, but those who do know why a carefully constructed narrative report is invaluable to themselves as a tool. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Nope, I'm not a "big" anything. Junior grade janitor in training who's on probation is more like it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike