hausdok

Piece of twine. See the staple holding it to the stud? OT - OF!!! M.

If that system has been in continuous use since the 80's without a plate exchanger to isolate the domestic use water from the AC water, you might have some pretty clogged up coils there. Talk to an automotive radiator repair shop about getting the coils acid dipped and flushed and then consider installilng a plate exchanger and an expansion tank and second circulator on the AC side. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It might have been a furnace guy checking draw at different places in the stack. The gum looking stuff might have been intumescent caulk designed to expand and keep that hole plugged. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Dunno, Do we really need one? OT - OF!!! M.

So, The last day of the course was Wednesday. We started the day with a Commercial Structural session, followed by a discussion of specialized commercial structures and their systems - concrete and parking garages - and then we had a session on interiors and insulation systems. Then it was outside for a field exercise to evaluate a couple of placed on the campus. I should have taken some pictures but didn't. After the lunch break we had a session on commercial plumbing systems and then the last session - electrical systems. I couldn't help but think as we were discussing the differences between residential and commercial electrical how useful it would be to have a book on Commercial Electrical Systems written by Douglas Hansen. The end of the day rolled around and we collected our certificates of completion and signed out. All-in-all, I think it was a worthwhile course. Perhaps a little pricey but one can't fault WW Ashi for wanting to make a little bit on it; after all, they'd organized it, rented the facility, provided the meals, etc.. I don't know if it would have been a better course technically if I'd taken it in Toronto; but add in the cost of a hotel, travel and meals and from a cost standpoint it was definitely a better deal to take it locally. Now it's time to start assembling my team and laying the groundwork for doing commercial jobs. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Phew! Another long day. This morning we had Commercial Exterior Systems and Ventilation Systems and then we went on a field trip/tour of the campus. The Shoreline community center is an old high school that was built in the 50's and was renovatedin the late 80's. We got to tour the boiler room where Garry Allmon, Maintenance Manager - Shoreline School District showed us how the more than 100 water source heat pumps that condition the air in the buildings are centrally controlled by computers. Then Richard showed us the dosing setup and explained some observations about the boilers that he'd make if he was reporting on the school. Click to Enlarge 32.81 KB Click to Enlarge 52.79 KB Click to Enlarge 43.29 KB Click to Enlarge 55.24 KB Click to Enlarge 37.37 KB Click to Enlarge 43.82 KB Click to Enlarge 50.62 KB Garry then took us out to the 4-pipe cooling tower where we opened the thing up and got a peek inside and got an idea how they work and how we'd report on them. Click to Enlarge 45.13 KB Click to Enlarge 86 KB Click to Enlarge 44.13 KB Click to Enlarge 38.55 KB Click to Enlarge 63.62 KB Click to Enlarge 61.87 KB After that, we walked over to one of the other buildings and went upstairs to a mechanical room where all of the heat pac units for that building were clustered together and we learned a little more about how to report systems like that. Click to Enlarge So, which one has the economizer? Click to Enlarge 61 KB After that, it was back to the classroom for lunch and then the afternoon session covered Commercial roofing systems, Inquiries and Bookings, inspection fees, risk management, proposals and contracts and cost estimating. Click to Enlarge 40.54 KB Click to Enlarge 39.97 KB Learning a lot. Should have looked into this years ago. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Homeowner? Hell, around here, that's how a most of these "professional" roof cleaners leave the roofs. You should see what they do to expensive shake roofs. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You did? When was that? Did I answer? Sorry if I'm unable to remember; I'm not real good at keeping track of emails that I answer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Mike I am not sure it made it to you, But I want to really let you know is, I and many others are totally against roof cleaning and pressure washing! In retiring from roof replacement, we are going into roof cleaning and maintenance. RCIA is a forum that is promotes non pressure cleaning methods and the forum owner has been doing it this way for over 20 yrs. We currently have about 1400 members all over the US and some in other country's. RCIA is diligently working to train and educate many roof cleaners the non-pressure way to clean a roof. In essence the one percent you are talking about is really growing. I welcome for you or any other inspectors to give us a look.I think you might be surprised how really involved roof cleaning has become. The link is RCIA RCIA could really use some of the experience's you guys have in educating consumers on the damages caused by pressure washing roofs. In the end your forum and ours seek to permanently ban all pressurewashers on roofs. Thank you for your time Mike, Sincerely, Kim R Hey, Any organization that will work to get the pressure washers out of the hands of the legion of ijjits I see running around here blasting away at roofs with 1000#+ pressure is OK by me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Search for "Type S Edison Fuses" ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Clogged coils? Air filter packed with so much dirt that air can't get through? Circulator is inop? Call an HVAC tech. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, I mentioned this post today at the commercial inspection class I'm attending and the folks there that had one of those acted like it was old news. One guy said something like, "Yeah, they break" and another guy said that they go about a year before that happens. I'll just keep on lugging my Chinese LG knockoffs in and out. They're heavy and clunky but they are really really solid and stable. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Structualbility? Guess that was written in hillbillity. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, figured I'd use the opportunity to play with the settings a little bit and try to figure out what they mean. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I know how you feel, Tom. I hope he'll be OK. I had to postpone last Tuesday's inspection because my back was twisted up so badly. The previous Sunday I'd needed to do some Cirque du Soliel contortionist stuff to squirrel my way into an attic space and two days later I'd paid for it. I sleep four hours a night. Have for decades. More than that and back pain wakes me up. I was in a car accident back in August of 1968 and ended up with four compression fractures in the lower spine. It was a couple of years before I could band and stoop normally again. Since then, there have been many times when I've gone days with chronic back pain. The older I get, the worse it gets. Lately I've been thinking maybe I should consider the route Jim K. took to deal with back pain. Hope the guy will be OK. Do we know if it was a manufacturer's defect or did he overload the ladder to cause that pin to shear? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You did? When was that? Did I answer? Sorry if I'm unable to remember; I'm not real good at keeping track of emails that I answer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I agree, that's why I said I only hate 99.9999999% of roof cleaners. There's a couple of companies around here that use HVLP techniques to clean roofs and they do an excellent job with very little granule loss and without damaging the covers. Whenever a client wants to know how to clean the roof, I tell them not to bother and recommend that he or she call one of those guys. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, Well, I decided to bite the bullet and take the 3-day CDW course here in Seattle that was hosted by the Western Washington Ashi Chapter. Altogether, there were 13 of us who took the plunge. Hope that number won't doom the class. Inspectors attended from Washington (10), Alaska (2) and Oregon (1) Jason Aldrich - Sequim, WA Troy Bloxom - Eagle River, AK Charles Buell - Shoreline, WA Tyler Conkie - Sequim, WA Dan Crocker - Bow, WA Dennis Flaherty - Bellingham, WA Jim Foss - Anchorage, AK Kirk Juneau - Ferndale, WA Cullen MacKintosh - Woodinville, WA Darrell Marsolais - SeaTac, WA Mike O'Handley - Kenmore, WA John Wagner - Bellingham, WA Susan Walker - Portland, OR Day 1 Introduction to the Commercial Inspection Business Business Issues Scope of Work - ASTM STandard E2018-08 Specialty Inspection Areas - Tech Session #1 Fire Protection Environmental Elevators Consultants - The TEAM Commercial Heating Systems - Tech session #2 Commercial Air Conditioning Systems - Tech Session #3 The course is taught by Richard Weldon, one of the partners. It's pretty obvious that Weldon has been teaching this course a long time; because he's very practiced at cramming a lot of stuff into the shortest period of time while hitting the highlights and keying on the stuff that's really critical. Hardest part so far (for me) was absorbing the stuff about all of the cooling systems. We don't see a lot of AC systems in the Seattle region anyway and these systems are so much different from most residential stuff that it's almost unrecognizable. My head feels like it's gonna explode. I'm gonna go read the funnies and decompress now. I've tacked on a few pictures below. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Click to Enlarge Learning about the business aspects Click to Enlarge Richard Weldon at work Click to Enlarge Picking the instructor's brain during the break Click to Enlarge A few of the guys sharing war stories on the break Click to Enlarge Charlie Buell imparting some wisdom to the next generation - or perhaps it was the other way around

Learned everything I know from this guy. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike[utube]" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344">

Hi, My guess is that he might not have come back even if you'd answered. The mission was to drop the link so that it would be picked up by SEO programs. Once the link's been left, why even bother to go back? Alternatively, he might have asked the question with the intent to get a few of you to respond with every solution but his own. Then he would miraculously point you to a link for a product that he sells; hoping that you'll tell others about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Comp or wood shingle? Here I see that happening with shakes and wood shingle but not with comp. Here, it seems to work for 3 -4 feet and then peters out on a comp roof but will keep the roof clear to the eaves on shakes and wood shingles. I think it's got to do with absorbency; the wood cover absorbs the stuff leaching off the copper or zinc but the comp doesn't - at least not what I've been seeing here. I suppose there can be different varieties of mosses and alga that are adapted to various regions that react differently. If there are, I can't imagine what it takes for a roofing manufacturer to reach an acceptable balance. Still convinced the stuff does damage roof covers. Bill, for the record, I hate roof cleaning companies. If I were King of the Planet, the state would issue home inspectors seasonal hunting licenses and allow them to thin out the roof cleaner herd once a year. Every inspector would have a 2-kill limit. Inspectors would be lauded as heroes for doing a service to humanity. [:-devil] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Bill; I don't understand your hate for roof cleaners. What has any roof cleaner ever done to you for you to make the totally assinine and truly non-professional remarks that you made in this post. What puts home inspectors so far above roof cleaners that you think they should be granted the power and authority to "thin out the roof cleaning herd"? Is this just "ones man's biased opinion, or do you really have some kind of bone to pick with the roof cleaning industry?" Your comments could almost fall under "terroristic threatning" under the new laws. Perhaps you should give more "professional" thought to your comments before you make them. I really would like to know your "beef' with roof cleaners. Care to explain? Bill didn't write that; I did. To answer your question; I'd say that's my biased opinion. It's mine. Not Bill's. I have a right to my opinions just like you have a right to your's. That's the wonderful thing about living in this country. What's my beef with roof cleaners? Well, with very few exceptions, most roof cleaners I've seen have their heads stuck so far up their asses that I'm convinced they have to go to the proctologist to get their teeth cleaned. If I had to guess at the ratio of properly cleaned roofs to improperly cleaned and damaged roofs that I see which have been "cleaned" by so-called "roof cleaners" I'd say it's something like 200 to 1. What harm have roof cleaners done me? None, cuz if I saw one climbing up onto my roof with a pressure washer and that glazed deranged look in his eyes, I'd knock the ladder out from under him. Larry, Daryl and Daryl had better stay the hell away from my home with their friggin pressure washers. Roof cleaners won't ever be given the opportunity to harm me, but from what I've seen, the majority of them seem to be completely incompetent. They don't harm me, they harm homeowners by ruining perfectly good roofs. Inspectors are in the business of inspecting homes and roofs and it's our unfortunate duty to have to inform people whenever we find a perfectly good roof ruined by some moron that gets a budgie every time he picks up his pressure washer. Terrorist threat? LOL. You don't like the fact that I don't like 99.9999999% of roof cleaners; too friggin' bad - I'm a home inspector, I know all about getting dissed; and getting dissed hasn't killed me yet. Get over it or better yet, take your pressure washer and give yourself an enema. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Did your flooring contractor bring that wood in, sticker it and then allow it to acclimate to your home for a few weeks before he started nailing it home? If not, it might be a while before things settle down and once the floor has finally reached equilibrium he'll need to sand it down again and refinish it. How tight is the house? How well is the home ventilated? If it's shut up tight as a clam and you've got a family in there pumping more moisture into it, things will probably get worse before they get better. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, The first 8 years I was in this business I never heard a complaint from any clients about their insurance companies refusing coverage. Then, somewhere around 2004, I had a couple of complaints in quick succession from clients who'd been refused coverage because there was K & T in the house. Since then, I recommend they get rid of it or expect either not to be able to get coverage or end up paying more because of it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No trap on the drain? OT - OF!!! M.

Save your picture as a JPEG file, re-size it to under 200Kb and then name it without any spaces or special symbols. This won't work: picture of wires #1(2) This will: picture_of_wires_1_2 Once you've done that, it should upload fine. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Strike that last. Seen the changes I added to the chart? They changed their dating method in 2008 when they bought State. Now the State plant is making most of their residential product and they are using State's numbering method. The first two digits are the year and the second two are the week. That's 37th week of 2010. https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum ... oto&id=131 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike