hausdok

Seattle weather was hell today. Sunny with baby blue skies and oh so cold - it must have been at least 40°F. Brrrr [] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Out here there are ordinary full-opening actuators connected to timers on our systems. The timer orders up fresh air and the actuator opens the intake all the way. With your humidity, setup might be different. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Guys, There's not much point in going on about it. These aren't real home inspections. These are houses that are hand picked from applicants who send in inspector horror stories to the show's production staff. When the producers think they've found one that will make a juicy story, they pick it and then Holmes and his so-called inspectors get to come in and tear it apart. In exchange, the people that own the house get it essentially rebuilt. I'll bet that this works the same way that the Extreme Home Makeover show works. Once the producers have narrowed down a list of candidates, someone from the production staff and a few of Holmes' construction minions look the candidates over and pick one. Then they spend weeks planning how the show's sequences will go and preparing a script. Naturally, that script must cast us (real home inspectors) in the worst possible light and make Holmes look like some kind of hero. Kurt hit it on the head; it's bombast and drama. Anyone wanna bet that if you turned Holmes loose alone on a pre-sale house under the same limitations that we labor under that he wouldn't find any more or any less - and possibly quite a bit less - than the rest of us? There's a particular horses ass of an inspector in Missouri that challenged Holmes to an inspection contest a few years ago. Holmes turned him down. He probably knows that he'd get shown up on an actual inspection; even by that guy. Still, anything that can draw attention to this profession and the need for its improvement, which most of us will acknowledge is necessary, can't be all bad. I for one am all for the idea of college programs teaching this profession to young people. It's about time that persons entered this program earlier in life than middle age and view it as a lifelong career and a vocation and not just a means to tide them over between their last career and when they decide to finally pull the plug and sit on the porch. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

SooNews Staff for SooNews.ca Monday, January 31, 2011, 9:43PM Mike Holmes got the "rock star" treatment at Sault College Monday with hundreds packing the house to hear about the new Home Inspection Technician program with an endorsement from the popular TV personality. “We are pleased and excited about our association with Mike Holmes in developing and endorsing our new two-year Home Inspection Technician (Co-op) diploma program, which is the first of its kind in Ontario and we are grateful to have the support of the province on this venture,â€

Hi, Yeah, that's a metal roof. Climbing up onto a metal roof is a little nutty; even when it's dry - even for me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, that was the start of that kid's career as a delinquent. After that, every home in town where someone went on vacation (As announced in Betty Toomes' local newspaper column "Around the Town") became the "gang's" target; and liquor cabinets and refrigerators all over town started losing contents. Every once in a while a piece of furniture or an extension cord or a shovel or some phonograph records or an old radio or record player from an attic would go missing. At the same time, on the second floor of an old abandoned hotel that used to be a summer destination for city folk back before the hurricane of '55 broke the dam and Lake Amenia drained into history, a hotel room was being turned into a clubhouse complete with power - courtesy of about a dozen extension cords tied together and buried between the window of that room and Ed Young's barn. They had everything that a bunch of greedy kids might want, sporting equipment, music, bikes, even an old refrigerator stocked with beer and soda and a ton of goodies. The windows were painted black from the inside so that even after dark when fall came and it started getting dark early they could hang out. They lived the life of Reilly for about a year and a half until one of them was picked up by the County Sheriff's for some dumb act of vandalism. Thinking that he was being picked up for the gang's spree, he sang like a bird and heaped the whole thing on the rest of 'em - especially on the kid who was so good at getting in and out without leaving any obvious trace that they'd ever been there. The deputy that picked that kid up just sat their listening and taking notes and couldn't believe what he was hearing. A day later the kid whose father was a contractor had just gotten home from school when there was a knock at the front door - a County Sheriff's detective accompanied by a uniformed deputy had come to call. The boy's older sister, upon hearing the reason for the visit, couldn't believe her good fortune; the little turd was finally going to get "his." She picked up the phone and called her Mom at work and within fifteen minutes his mother was home. The detective then began his questioning. Soon it became apparent to the kid that the detective had done his homework because he knew about every house, in order, and what had been ....appropriated for the club. He had an inventory of all of the stuff at the clubhouse as well as a complete list of who the stuff belonged to. The kid knew there wasn't any sense in lying; so he answered the detective's questions truthfully. About 3/4 of the way through the interval the door burst open and his Dad walked in. His Dad had heard only about half of the kid's explanation when he grabbed the kid and headed for the shed while unbuckling his belt. The uniformed deputy stepped in, "Sir, you don't want to do that. If you do, I'll have to take you in," the father stopped, looked at the deputy, let the kid go and sat down, three shades of red and looking like he was going to explode. The kid hoped they'd haul him off to jail when they left. No such luck. The belt got its exercise later after the police had left. A couple of months later the kid made an appearance before a local justice of the peace who gave the kid probation. "Your Honor, I want him in reform school," fumed the father. The J.P. said, "If you want him in reform school, b]you[/b] put him there; I'm not putting an 11-year old in reform school. "Well, you can bet you ass I'm gonna," said the kid's father. That was the end of the kid's delinquent career; he was grounded, permanently, after that and "sentenced" to work for his father every afternoon after school, every weekend, every holiday, every summer vacation, until he was 18 or out of high school, whichever came first. Now you know the rest of the story. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Del Greco's statements notwithstanding, I doubt if there is any "real" danger of collapse with most older northeast homes. They have very steeply pitched roofs for a reason; so when the snow builds up to a certain point it will slide off the roof. One is more likely to get hurt by ice sickles that break loose from the eaves and fall than the roof collapsing. Still, there are a lot of post-war houses out there with lesser sloped roofs that might be in danger of some damage. I think if those NJ inspectors had thought about what they'd said before they'd said it, they could have presented the issue in such a way that most homeowners of older houses wouldn't have been too worried about it and it would have been the folks with lesser pitched roofs worrying about. I dunno about the rest of you, but when I walk on a snow-covered roof it's usually a pretty solid walk unless the snow is too thin to pack under my feet. When it's too thin to pack, I won't walk on it - then it's like stepping on a sheet of Vaseline. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Ha! I see that Brandon put two and two together before I'd completed typing up my little story. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Look at a neighbor's house for a freshly glazed windowpane. I knew this kid once who was about 10 years old. He and his friends were screwing around having a B-B gun fight in the back yard one summer day when someone's stray shot took out a window on the porch. His Dad had told him that if he caught him "screwing around" and shooting that B-B gun that he'd gotten for Christmas at anything other than legitimate "targets" he was going to take it away. He just knew that if his Dad had known that they'd been having an actual B-B gun fight with those things in the back yard that, in addition to losing his treasured Daisy, B-B welts weren't the only kind of welts he was going to have that night. He didn't have enough time to walk the mile to town to the hardware store and get a piece of glass cut and be able to get home and replace the window before his Mom came home from work; so he was inspired to go out-of-the box for a solution. His Dad was a contractor, so there were lots of tools around and lots of Dap glazing putty. He grabbed one of his Dad's folding rules from the tools in the shed and measured the window frame. Then he grabbed a utility knife and high-tailed it over to the back porch of a neighbor's house. He knew that the widowed neighbor worked and lived alone. Then, with the whole group watching him work, he measured the windows of her 3-season porch at the back of the house and found they were the same size. He then deftly cut away all of the old dried glazing putty, pulled the points and then removed a like-sized pane of glass from one of the porch windows. He was careful to clean up every speck of putty and take the points, so that it wasn't obvious that the glass had been "removed." Lastly, he reached in through the window and adjusted the position of a wicker chair so that it shielded the glass from the doorway into the house. The whole group then trouped back over to his house and everyone watched as he cut out the old glass, pulled the points, reinstalled the points, expertly puttied the window (His Dad had taught him how), cleaned up the slivers of glass inside the porch and cleaned the window so that nobody would notice the greasy fingerprints left by the linseed oil contained in the Dap. "What about painting it to match?" asked one of the boys. "I can't paint it now; the putty is too wet," he replied,"I'll have to wait a few weeks for it to dry out. I think we'll be OK, my Mom isn't likely to come back here and my Dad only comes back here if he's the one mowing the lawn. It's summer and I'm mowing the lawn this time of year." Neither of his parents ever knew what had happened. A few weeks later, just before school was about to start, he got some primer and paint, painted the now-dried glazing to match the mullions and all was back to normal. It wasn't until mid-October that the widowed neighbor called his father to come over and replace a pane of glass that had mysteriously gone missing from her porch. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I write up corrugated vent connectors on the back of dryers daily as "Dangerous dryer duct connectors." I've been doing it ever since CPSC first sent out an alert about them in 1998. You'd think by now they'd get it but realtors still constantly scoff about it when I stick that comment in a report. Real glad nobody was hurt. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I don't know why you would be attempting to replace the anode rod in a 17-year old water heater. A conventional tank type water heater that old is probably already beyond saving anyway. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I don't even go there. Our state law requires that our contracts specify those areas of the home that will be inspected. In addition to that, the beginning of each section of my report has a fine print header that says what I'm required to inspect in that category. The end of each section has a fine print footer that says what I'm not required to inspect for that category. I'm not certain that folks really read disclaimer language very closely; so I make it a policy to sit down with the client before each inspection and summarize my take on every paragraph before the inspection. Then I ask them to read the document. The contract says what I'll inspect, what I won't inspect, tells them what to do in the event that they think I've screwed up and it tells them what their recovery options are. It takes time and I can tell that taking the time to do this irritates the crap out of the realtors; but apparently it's working 'cuz I don't get calls about "Why didn't you inspect this," and the referral base just keeps growing. There are a lot of ways to skin this cat; you've got to figure out what's the best fit for you. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I've since talked with some folks that have used this camera and they termed it, in a word, horrible. One guy says that professional Thermographers refer to it as a "blob" camera. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm thinking poor quality galvanized wall ties that have begun to rust and spall. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Ramon, Thank you for those photos and thanks to the other guys for letting me know about the terrazo. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, I agree with Jim; they've had a leak of some sort. Perhaps a sink overflowed or a pipe in an exterior wall wasn't insulated properly and burst. Whatever it was, they aren't likely to be too forthcoming about it. Lots of times they bring an air duct under a bath vanity, leave it flush with the floor surface and simply screw a register over an opening at the toe kick - essentially making the entire area under the cabinet a register boot. If a line freezes and bursts in an exterior wall of the bath the water simply drains under the cabinet, into the duct and flows downhill to the crawlspace and fills the main supply plenum up until there is enough water that the weight and pressure causes one of the ducts to break or push off it's stubout. They'll have to replace all of the flex ducting. It will never dry out. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Very Kewl! OT - OF!!! M.

Hi guys, Those are both good, thanks. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Quick like a bunny. I'm having a senior moment and can't find the rule in the code that says a water heater vent connector to a common vent must enter higher than the connector from the furnace. Anyone know that one is lcoated off the top of your heads? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hah, Chad doesn't like this discussion or is bored with it, so he tries to make it political in the hope that it will get deleted. Seems to be a trend going around. I've figured out your nefarious plan, Chad. You can forget about getting this deleted. You're going to have to sit there and endure it. [:-dev3] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jim, Your response has me a little confused. You repeatedly refer to a pressure reducing valve and say that the document specs one. Either I'm suffering from dementia or there is nothing on that document that specifies a pressure reducing valve and only pressure relief valves are specified. I agree, the document only requires one pressure relief valve. The diagrams for various options all show a 210 used with a pressure relief valve and show an alternate location that can be used for the pressure relief valve. In that photo posted by the O.P.,I think that someone was trying to copy those diagrams and didn't realize that the second relief valve shown in the diagram is an alternate location; possibly because they'd become confused because the second and third drawings are labeled alternative installation. I think they also didn't realize that a pressure relief valve and a TPR aren't the same device. The whole idea of the 210, as you've stated, is to shut off the gas and a pressure relief valve is required in addition to the 210. Because the tank is in a basement, they don't have any way to drain a TPR valve via gravity to the outside so the alternative is to kill the flame and allow the tank to cool. The 210 is set to open at 210°F. If it doesn't function they still need to relieve the pressure that's inevitably going to occur. I agree, it makes more sense to put it up high so that it can drain to the outside, but it's a last chance fail safe anyway. Around here, plumbers skin that cat differently. They install a TPR high on the line that will activate at 125 pounds instead of the normal 150 pounds. The discharge pipe plumbed from that valve goes outside or to some kind of receptor. They then leave the original TPR that activates at 150 pounds on the tank and end the discharge pipe just above the floor (usually). I think the idea is that the TPR high in the line will vent at 125 pounds regardless of temperature. They know that the temperature sensing aspect of that valve can't function correctly up high on the pipe, but it's only functioning as a pressure relief valve anyway so they aren't concerned with that aspect. However, if that lighter spec TPR doesn't activate at 125 pounds they still have the original TPR which will activate at either of 150 pounds or 210°F whichever occurs first. If that happens, the valve is going to dump hot water all over the basement regardless; unless the discharge goes to some kind of receptor. I suppose if the lighter spec valve fails and the other vents into the home they might justify that by pointing out that they'd done everything that the could under the circumstances, by installing a safety device on the system that was plumbed outside as required by code, but that it had failed and the second device, although it allowed some damage to occur, prevented a catastrophic explosion. After seeing so many critical structural members hacked up by plumbers without any sign that they'd informed anyone about it so that alternative framing could be constructed around the plumbing in question, I've given up trying to figure out plumbers' thought processes. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jim, The watts shuts off the gas and prevents an explosion. However, if the watts fails, they have the other two TPR valves there and they will activate. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Because you don't have three PRV's; you have two plus a Watts 210 automatic gas shutoff valve because that's a basement installation. They've been installed in an alternate configuration because there aren't any side tappings on the tank. A gas pipe is supposed to be plumbed to both sides of the 210 - the one with the green reset button - and that TPR on top of the tank should be in that line to the left of the 210 and it's hole on top of the tank plugged. Then the discharge lines from both TPR's should terminate near the floor. Look at figure two of the attached document. Download Attachment: Watts210Installation.pdf 640.08 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin' ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I still have the Daytimer with the camouflage cover that the Army issued to me in the late 1980's. It has a calander, I can input an appointment, replace an appointment, take notes, etc. very quickly without straining my eyes or worrying about whether I've accidentally deleted something. My cell phone is used for making telephone calls, checking voice mails and checking my email from the field. That's it. Best of all; nobody wants to swipe it. I've forgotten it in restaurants, hotels, convention centers and on jobs at least a half a dozen times and it's always there when I go back or someone has dropped it in the mail to me. I doubt that would happen with one of those fancy new phones. Click to Enlarge 32.13 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike