hausdok

Someone ever lights up one of those nasty things in my house to test my HVAC system and they'll be taking a trip to the hospital to get their lip sewn up. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, They can do air quality, mold, energy efficiency inspection all they want; but they won't be able to do home inspections here unless every one of their inspectors meets state requirements and then the buyer can choose whoever they want to inspect the house; because a contract is required between the buyer and inspector and they can't mandate who a buyer uses for that. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Maybe. After all, Louisiana was initially settled by a bunch of transplanted Acadians from Canada, right? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Betcha we don't hear from her again. She did her job, dropped the link and left. She's probably hit another 50 sites by now. If she doesn't respond within a day or two, I'll delete the post. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Crystal from Louisiana, Welcome. You'll notice that I've removed the link from your post. Sorry, but we don't allow folks to drop commercial links here unless they're of some benefit to home inspectors. Now, if you'd like to discuss home inspections..... ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, That's what I thought. What about a clothes dryer running in a tight basement where the fireplace flue from the basement is right next to the fireplace flue from the living room fireplace and if the flue at the basement fireplace is left open? Seems like then you'd have a big vacuum cleaner nozzle right next to where the smoke is leaving the flue for the living room fireplace. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

MIKE PERRAULT• The Desert Sun • November 21, 2010 Palm Springs-based Environmental Service Professionals Inc. has garnered $150 million to launch a national home-inspection program that company officials say will eventually employ 60,000 veterans across the nation. ESP, an 18-year-old publicly traded firm based at 810 Farrell Drive, will tap funding from a private equity lender to kick off its Healthy Home Mortgage program, said CEO Edward Torres. ESP's annual inspection program would help ensure that potential problems with structures, energy efficiency and mold, air quality and other issues are caught early, said Torres. To read more at The Desert Sun's online webzine, myDesert.com, click here.

Hi, I don't know much about radon systems but I think your theory is reasonable. A fireplace, exhaust fans and clothes dryers in tight houses can make a furnace and water heater backdraft and vice versa, so I should think that a radon mitigation system might be able to do that. The only thing is; if it were the radon mitigation system why didn't it just dump all that smoke outside? Where are the furnace and water heater getting their combustion air from? Is there a clothes dryer in that basement too? Sounds like it's time for a little investigation using a smoke bomb. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, If you're looking for a higher resolution entry-level camera but aren't necessarily interested in getting picture-in-picture, IR Fusion, TwinPix or whatever else it's being called, you might check out the Testo 875-1 (Around $2800). ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Just another day in home inspection paradise. http://www.hermistonherald.com/news/art ... 002e0.html

Hi Dale, 1979? I'm pretty sure that kind of a racist clause was illegal under federal law even as far back as 1979. You probably could have sued and had the whole contract thrown out. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Douglas, Apparently the manufacturers know they've got a problem and they've been developing alternatives. http://www.pmmag.com/Articles/Web_Exclu ... 0000939233 http://www.omegaflex.com/trac/why/learn ... Strike.php http://www.reevesjournal.com/Articles/F ... 0000912699 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Oops! [:-dunce] Thanks, Teach! OT - OF!!! M.

The condensate for an AC is one thing but to discharge waste from a condensing furnace onto the lawn doesn't seem kosher. ? It is, after all, acidic waste water that should be treated before going back into the food chain - n'est-ce pas?Hi Terry, Yeah, I know it's acidic but I don't know how it will affect soil. Acid is, after all just water with a different PH level, isn't it? Anyway, for a lot of years, when people have expressed concern for the fact that condensate is acidic I've simply told them to take a small plastic coffee container, punch a bunch of holes in the bottom with an ice pick, fill it with marble chips and then sink it into the ground where the condensate hits the ground. It's my understanding that the marble chips neutralize the acidity somehow. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. Kind of ironic hearing about concerns with acidity in furnace condensate coming from someone who lives pretty near ground zero of the acid rain wars between the US and Canada. []

Give the cable a gentle tug. That's what I do when I can actually see it. If the first rod is close to where the cable enters the soil, it should not give more than a couple of inches. If it feels firm I make a presumption that it's firmly clamped to its rods below grade. Every once in a while I'll have a cable come right up out of the soil with the clamp attached or without a clamp attached. If it's a short section that just disappeared below grade it's obvious that there aren't two driven electrodes and I write it up. Sometimes the cable will come up with the clamp attached and the end will trail off below grade to the next electrode. If that continued cable feels solid I make a presumption that it's only disconnected from one electrode. I don't dig down to find the first electrode and then try to follow the cable to the second electrode. I'm not about to start rooting around next to the foundation with a spade. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, That's one of the most rational judges I've read about in a long time. For years, it's seemed, at least to my untrained and woefully ignorant mind, that most judges favor the whole idea of a nanny state where they everyone can sue and courts coddle them by handing out candy in the form of business-ending awards. Glad to see that there is at least one judge with half a lick of sense. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, I don't know about your area, but around here the only time that AC or furnace condensate is discharged into a "waste" drain is when it's in a basement below grade level. They almost universally discharge condensate outside onto grade around here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Look at the little pale yellow patches that look like the sketch of a tree that's lost all of it's leaves. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Terry, Thanks, I probably should have gone directly to the evap coil manufacturer's site to see what they say; but this is something that's going to apply to just about any of these and I needed to get it right in my mind so that I can retain it properly. Sometimes, when stuff isn't my normal inspection fare, I only retain part of what I read about it here. Then, when I eventually run into it in the rare situation, such as this one, I end up cussing myself out for not being more interested in the thread where that issue had been discussed. I appreciate the help. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Terry, Yeah, that's exactly how this one is done. I always thought there was supposed to be a separation where that furnace drain meets the evaporator drain. Guess not. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, This is for you guys who regularly see AC systems. I've got a condensate line from a Cat IV furnace joined to to a trapped condensate line from an A-coil downstream from the trap. I seem to recall some kind of prohibition against using the same drain for condensate from both a Cat IV furnace and an AC A-coil unless there is an air gap between the two. Did I imagine that or is there an actual prohibition? I've been digging around but I can't seem to find it. Does it ring a bell with anyone? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Mike, What is Windows 7 UAC and could that be what's preventing the picture drop feature in the new version of IE from working with my computer? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, You've got to figure that spore has had decades to move inward to the structure. Pacific Dampwood Termites love this type of construction. They set up housekeeping in the end of a piece of wood and start moving inward, blocking up the entrances and galleries behind them with their own feces. They'll go until they can't find any more wet wood and then they'll bug out leaving the wood still rotting behind them. The reason that I'd cut it back to the outside face of the plate is that from there Impel rods can be inserted into holes drilled into the end grain of each of those and as they dissolve borate will be pulled into the lumber and kill any spore that's gotten that far. You can still achieve almost the same look with a new roof frame on top of what's there and by installing a frieze over the cut ends at the wall plate and then using strapping and 3/8-inch T & G cedar on the underside of that deep roof overhang. Air leakage up through a roof like that has to be significant and with those single-paned windows and deep overhangs keeping out the sunlight I'd expect there to be cold spots at the ceiling-to-wall joint along the perimeter walls that would provide just enough condensation to keep the spore moving without the borate being infused into the wood to kill it. to stop that air leakage up through that roof plane, I might install an IWS membrane over that old 2 by 4 deck before framing the new roof on top. If I did all that, I'd replace the windows with new double or triple-paned stuff and probably install a whole house air change system because now things would be a whole lot tighter. I dunno; sometimes I over-think things. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That pale yellow fungi spreading its reizomorphs is Poria Incrassata; or, as I like to call it, AIDS for wood. You'd better get a very aggressive borate treatment regimen going there or that stuff is going to continue to move. It's just about the only danged fungi that, despite what the academics say, seems to be able to spread using nothing more than the ambient moisture in the air. Jeff Morrell, a rot specialist/researcher down in Oregon, once told me that when I probe that stuff with a pick I should wipe the pick off with alcohol before I allow it to touch healty wood. I think that's a little too extreme but I got his point. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

True enough, but when that incipient rot finally reaches the interior and interior moisture that's permeating the underside of that wood roof begins to feed it, it's liable to take off like a monkey with a firecracker stuck up his butt. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike