hausdok

Can't decide whether that crack is structural or strictly cosmetic. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Saw one a couple of years ago in the garage of this big old craftsman-style mansion I did. I figured there was an old underground tank nearby and recommended they get the lot surveyed to see if it was still there. There was a large emblem in concrete above the garage door that I think was the Packard ships wheel emblem. The garage had been heated in the day and there was a large room under the garage that was the "chauffeur's' quarters" and workshop. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I didn't need to see that. Now I know what it looks like when I bend over in front of customers. Maybe if I get some of those long johns with the trapdoor.....

Hi Jim and Dave, I told myself the same thing. The problem is that is a plain rectangle of a room. No mirrors, no panels, nothing. After they left I stayed there for about ten minutes trying to puzzle it out logically. I couldn't resolve it.

Oh Yeah, There it was in the first post. Guess my reading comprehension is slipping. Like Jim says - in moderate contact. How does on measure that? put a nono scale in the butt joint to determine the amount of force being exerted? Hmmm. The instructions do warn you to pay attention to the expansion characteristics when working on large projects and refers you to their thermal expansion characteristic bulletin.

Yeah, thought about that already. Nothing unusual in Google. Thinking back on it now, the hair is going up on the back of my neck. Kind of glad I didn't go into the crawlspace under that thing; maybe I would have found the entrance to hell or something. By the way, price asked for the home is $1,950,000. I'm betting that once word gets back to the seller and the listing agent all hell is gonna break loose. Never a dull moment in this gig.

Hi All, Well, I'd thought I'd seen it all until this morning. Now I'm not so sure. A little back story. The lady called me the other day to schedule this mornings inspection and then called me in the morning yesterday to cancel, saying that after she and her husband had been in the house they had a bad vibe and had changed their mind. About two hours later she called me back and said she still wanted the slot. Since I'd been on a job all morning and hadn't been answering my phone, she was in luck and I hadn't given the slot away yet. We arranged, as we originally had, to meet this morning. This morning, I arrived on time at the site and met the clients and their agent. We all went inside to complete the contract. I was sitting in a dinette at a round little breakfast table with the two clients facing me. Out the window to my right I could see the other wing of the house and the windows of the family room. While i was going over the contract with them, something caught the corner of my eye and I glanced out the window over the husband's shoulder to see the shadowy figure of a man inside the family room. He appeared to be talking on a cell phone or holding his head. He walked to the right in front of the exterior entrance at the north side of the family room and then he turned and disappeared out of the window frame to the west again. I thought to myself, "Huh, why is the owner still here?" then I thought, "Well, maybe it's the owner's teenage son." The clients were Chinese and so was their realtor and there was a little bit of a language challenge. Her English was best, so I'd explain something to them and then pause while she'd translate what I'd said to the husband. I was pausing again when movement caught my eye again, I looked over at the other wing at the family room window where the movement was and there was that guy again. Briefly into view and then back out of sight. I thought to myself, "I'd better find out who that is and what room that is. If it's some kid's bedroom and he's still at home I should probably get in there and get it done first so I won't have to bother him." So, on it went for a little while more and I saw the figure three more times. Finally, both his and her questions were answered and they seemed satisfied. I went outside to get my gear and left them to sign the contract. As I exited the house the sidewalk went right past the window where I'd seen the guy. I glanced in; it was a completely vacant and bare room and nobody was in there. What the f***! I brought in my tool bag and grabbed my clipboard and began jotting down some notes and here came the wife, whereupon I asked her, "Did the owner say anything to you about being home today?" She answered that the owner was out of state, whereupon I said, "Huh, well I guess he left a teenage son behind, huh?" She looked puzzled and asked, "Why do you say that?" I answered, "Well, while I was talking to you two I noticed a guy in this room (pointing at the window) pacing back and forth but now he's somehow gotten out of that room." What was really strange about that was that from where I was sitting I could clearly see the exterior entrance at the north side of that room and the only other entrance was a door to the interior which was closed and which I'd been able to clearly see from where I'd been sitting. They of course wouldn't have sen it because their backs were to it. The agent wouldn't have seen it because he was out in the living room talking endlessly on his cell phone and walking back and forth. She stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes went wide and she said, "You mean there is someone else here? There isn't supposed to be anyone here. Now I'm frightened!" I tried to calm her down and said, "Maybe it was your realtor in there talking on his cell phone," whereupon she went into the living room to ask the realtor. They chattered back and forth in Chinese for about ten seconds and then she turned around and all the color had drained out of her face. She said, "He said he hasn't been in that room at all." I was completely baffled. Then I thought about the landscaping guy who'd been there a little while before and I said, "Maybe it was the landscaping guy walking back and forth across the front yard and I'd caught his reflection in the glass." I decided to perform an experiment. "Go sit there where I was sitting and watch that family room window while I pace back and forth across the front yard," I told her. So, then I walked back and forth across the yard, following the pattern of the lawnmower in the grass. After about five or six passes I stopped and asked her through the window, "Did you see my reflection in that room?" She was even more pale and she just shook her head. Now I was really flummoxed; I'd had both of them right in front of me so it couldn't have been either of them, it couldn't have been the landscaper and it couldn't have been the agent. The house sits up above the adjacent roadway on a steep slope so it couldn't have been the reflection of anyone else unless that person was literally floating just out of the frame of the window I was sitting next to at about 60 ft. elevation above the street. I went into that room. It had a door at either end and the exterior door at the North end was locked from the inside and I'd had the other door in my sight all the time I'd been going over the contract with them. I stomped my foot; slab floor. That's when I realized that I was in converted two car garage and now I understood the newer detached two-car garage. I examined the walls and ceiling; absolutely no way anyone had gone through some kind of passageway. I came out of that room and I guess my face gave away my consternation because now the husband and wife were having a very excited conversation with the realtor and now the realtor looked like he was rattled. They turned to me and said, "Mike, we are very sorry to do this, but we no longer want this house. How much do we owe you for your time?" I was kind of taken aback. I've had people stop inspections for rodents and mold and just plain funkiness but I've never had one stopped because I'd scared the crap out of the clients by seeing something I couldn't fully and logically explain. Since I live only a few miles from the house and I didn't have to fight my way through traffic to get home, and they promised to call me for the next house they find, I charged them $100 for my hour of time. As they were hurriedly grabbing their jackets and other belongings and getting out of the house the realtor explained to me that they'd gotten a bad feeling when they were in the house two days before and that's why they'd initially wanted to cancel. He said he'd talked them into coming back and now, he too, was a little freaked out about the place. I packed my gear and headed home. I pondered that all the way home. There were about five different glimpses of that dude and there was no question that it wasn't a reflection because every time he'd crossed in front of that north entrance to that room the large brass locking bolt on that door had disappeared from my view. He/it definitely wasn't transparent, so exactly what the hell did I see? Thinking about going to see the doc and demanding an MRI to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Ghostless in Seattle Mike

Yep, Woodruf (Can't remember how to spell it)

Hi, The instructions change on almost an annual basis. What year was the siding installed?

A moldy box with wires in it? Just throw it out!

Thanks Brian, I had another job with orange pex-al-pex in it a few weeks ago. That house is a three story townhome that is only a decade old. There was about a foot of PEX from the manifolds in the garage to where it disappeared into the finished ceiling. All tightly sealed in fully-glued foam. I tried to find a name on the pipe but I could not uncover enough of the pipe without damaging the insulation to determine whether it was in fact Kitec although the seller apparently had disclosed that someone else had looked at piping in the building and had said that it was Kitec. Last I heard they were going to check with DCLU and the original builder to find out what it is. I hope you don't mind; I copied and pasted your response above into the email to them and included your email address. Maybe they'll be getting in touch with you. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Miss the hell out of Ma Bell. Life was so much simpler and more fulfilling when we didn't have cell phones constantly interrupting every conversation and when kids played in the yard instead of burying their faces in a 4 inch screen or spent hours killing imaginary virtual foes on large screens. We used to play with cap guns. Hell, if a kid has a cap gun today the neighbors will call the police and complain there is a killer wandering the neighborhood.

My guess is that the butt joints are neither splined, in substantial contact with one another or sealed with caulk and that the underlayment is black building paper - which is very common here - and what you're seeing is some weeping of the paper. If that's the case it might be caused by the asphalt paper weeping behind the siding.

There's nothing else to say. If high-ranking ASHI members/officers are now participating in the mold scam the association has lost its soul and the association, as well as those supposedly ethical officers, is no longer credible as far as I'm concerned. I used to rail at ASHI because they'd looked the other way for three decades while the realtors and lots of so-called reputable inspectors continued on with their wink-and-nod arrangements. It pissed me off that the one voice in the profession that could have kept this gig on the straight and narrow sat by and did nothing. When I spoke out against ASHI for it, I was excoriated by folks in this gig that I know and love. Unable to make a dent in that mindset, I quit ASHI and never looked back. Now I know I made the right choice. As far as I'm concerned all of those clubs are morally bankrupt.

Hi, I interpret it to mean that there must be a hard pipe through the wall of the cabinet of the appliance. The example of a wrought iron pipe from the valve through the side wall is fine but there is nothing wrong with having that flex inside the cabinet as long as what passes through the wall of the appliance is hard pipe or protected. For those who called it a "mess" - well, I guess you aren't in an active seismic zone. Here flex connectors are ubiquitous between the wrought iron pipe and the gas valves. These are used so the supply pipe has some give to it and doesn't snap off at the gas valve during a hard temblor. If you've ever been through one of those with the entire building doing the rumba all around you and the appliances doing their best to do the bunny hop you'll understand what I'm talking about. OT - OF!!! Mike

Just start a fire in the firebox. They are guaranteed to either move out or no longer be a problem if they don't.

Maybe a piece of underlayment got torn during install or was lapped the wrong way. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

As Boss Hogg would say, "You'll in a heap'o trouble, Boy." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Seattle - Feb 7, 2015 A Centre County, PA home inspector is facing multiple charges for falsely reporting results of water and radon tests. According to WJAC 6 News, George Brown Jr., 36, owner of All Systems Inspections, has since 2009 been taking water and radon samples without the proper state certifications; and has been providing his clients with lab reports despite having never submitted the samples to labs. In some cases, Brown reported false radon levels so high that the homeowners spent thousands of dollars to install radon mitigation systems they may not have even needed. To read more click here.

Hi Bill, Who conducted that survey?

We have a ton of fireplaces converted to gas logs out here and I've never seen anyone use one of those on a flue.

Hi Bill, Well, that's your stomping grounds; what's your opinion of the matter - good? Bad? Indifferent? OT - OF!!! Mike

Is this a law or regulation you're talking about? Marc That was the SAG's opinion when he reviewed and tweaked the stuff that the board had written. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jerry, You might be interested to know that the Department of Licensing takes this line with every complaint from sellers, realtors and anyone else who complains about an inspector - even other inspectors - if the person making the complaint isn't the inspector's actual client. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Learn to sit down really quickly. The more surface you can put in contact with the surface, the better. About the only place where sitting down really fast doesn't seem to apply the brakes is on wet shakes and shiny painted metal roofs. Everything else - it's pretty effective.