hausdok

Hey, That was well worth the listen. I'd love to hear her take a crack at traditional Irish folks music. Her voice sound's perfectly suited for it. She's awsome. Who woulda thought such a gnarly dude coulda sired such a beautiful talented daughter? Guess miracles do happen! [] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, She did post to Ellen's Business Q & A forum and then you all kind of piled on before Ellen had a chance to even see the subscription alert and respond. Might I suggest looking a little more carefully at the topic next time before hijacking a moderator's thread? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

While that's probably true, it's pretty danged far outside the scope of a home inspection. I think I get the point you're making, but if you're going to say something like that in a report, you might as well include a local crime rate and background radiation summary in there as well. Where does it end? I am content with giving homebuyers a link to whatever the best and brightest at the EPA are saying at the moment when I see something that looks like asbestos. What more can a conscientious HI really do? Jimmy Hi Cuz, The point is only to help client to get real. I actually had a lady once who started staggering like a drunk after I'd pointed out some asbestos floor tile in her basement; she'd been trying to hold her breath so she wouldn't be exposed. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Where does that fact come from? Marc Uh, hello? Earth to Marc,...earth to Marc,...come in, Marc! When all of those brake pads on automobiles wore out over the past 100 years where do you think all that asbestos dust went? Back in the day before they'd realized asbestos caused cancer, where do you think that cloud of dust blown out of brake drums in every auto shop on the planet went? Back before they knew it caused cancer and they demolished buildings with it wrapped around the pipe, where do you think all that dust went? These are just a few examples, I could keep this up all day long. Trying not to be exposed to asbestos fiber is like trying not to be exposed to mold. It ain't gonna happen - it's ubiquitous in our environment. Sure, EPA and the scientists won't come right out and say it; what would be the point of panicking people over something that we caused that can't be controlled? They have a town north of me where asbestos is naturally occurring in the soil and minerals in the land and they say the whole area is contaminated with it. When they'd discovered that, some folks packed up and moved away and left their homes to be foreclosed on. Can you imagine what would happen if folks realized how prevalent asbestos is in the environment? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike I see.... it comes from you. Ok, that's alright. Just wanted to know, is all. Marc From me? Seriously? Do you really think I routinely use 25-cent words like ubiguitous? Here's one of many many many documents that tell you that it's everywhere. http://www.particleandfibretoxicology.com/content/2/1/9 ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Where does that fact come from? Marc Uh, hello? Earth to Marc,...earth to Marc,...come in, Marc! When all of those brake pads on automobiles wore out over the past 100 years where do you think all that asbestos dust went? Back in the day before they'd realized asbestos caused cancer, where do you think that cloud of dust blown out of brake drums in every auto shop on the planet went? Back before they knew it caused cancer and they demolished buildings with it wrapped around the pipe, where do you think all that dust went? These are just a few examples, I could keep this up all day long. Trying not to be exposed to asbestos fiber is like trying not to be exposed to mold. It ain't gonna happen - it's ubiquitous in our environment. Sure, EPA and the scientists won't come right out and say it; what would be the point of panicking people over something that we caused that can't be controlled? They have a town north of me where asbestos is naturally occurring in the soil and minerals in the land and they say the whole area is contaminated with it. When they'd discovered that, some folks packed up and moved away and left their homes to be foreclosed on. Can you imagine what would happen if folks realized how prevalent asbestos is in the environment? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, I've got something similar for the cigarette camera I've got installed in Angelina Jolie's dressing room. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

One would think not but irrigation sprinkler systems are ubiquitous here. I think I once read somewhere that Phoenix gets more rain than we do during the summers. Some builders here begain including fire sprinkler systems about two years ago. Thinking about investing? The market for residential fire sprinklers is jumping from less than $400M a year to over $3B a year in 2011. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's a better question; Do any of you guys ever point out the fact that practically anywhere they are in an urban environment they've been breathing asbestos fibers every day of their lives and will continue to do so until the day they leave the planet? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

2 of my cousins are building good sized houses right now, and potable water flows right through the sprinkler pipes.Hi, Did a pre-insulation/pre-drywall inspection on a new home yesterday. Two separate black poly pipes enter the crawl. The 1-1/4 inch pipe steps down immediately to 1-inch, transitions to PEX and supplies potable water; the 1-1/2-inch pipe steps down immediately to 1-1/4 inches. After that water passes through the anti-backflow device it transitions to 1-inch orange CPVC pipe. Many of the new sprinkler systems I've seen around here use pex to the sprinkler heads but this home used 1-inch CPVC throughout for distribution to the heads. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Tom, Thanks, I grabbed it and posted it to TIJ's library. Folks can now grab it here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Agree, Looks like vermiculite. A macro closeup would certainly make it a slam dunk to be sure, but it certainly looks like it. Did you pick up a piece and compress it between two fingers? Did it compress? I knew about the EPA recommendation. I've been telling folks for years not to mess with the stuff when it's buried under a layer of cells. It's only when some idiot has been up in the attic to do work and has shoveled the insulation over to one side into a pile, mixing it all up and exposing the vermiculite that I recommend they consider re-covering it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I've been seeing residential sprinkler systems around here for the past 3 or 4 years and so far it looks like the guys installing those systems are well acquainted with the concept because the systems I've seen are isolated by anti-backflow valves from the potable water systems. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, No, according to NW mechanical, simply replacing the fittings won't cure the issue because dezincification also affects the aluminum portion of the pipe. Kitec, and most other pipe used for heating is Pex-Al-Pex - it has a layer of aluminum pipe sandwiched between an inner and outer layer of PEX. The aluminum pipe functions as an oxygen barrier and prevents migration of oxygen through the plastic pipe wall - a problem with most hydronic systems installed without oxygen barrier type pipe. According to NW Mechanical, when the fittings go to hell, so does the aluminum layer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Randy, Thanks for the response. I passed that information along and got in touch with NW Mechanical. As soon as they heard that there was no timer, expansion tank or second circulator on the system, their engineer recommended that the system be looked at more closely to verify whether it had been safely installed and to confirm whether it has Kitec pipe, which has been known to fail at the fittings. The buyers scheduled that company to go out and inspect the system for them. In the meantime, the sellers and their agents, being more concerned with damage control of the deal, came back with statements from the local municipal inspector that their town had the "softest" water around and therefore the corrosion issues with Kitec would not occur. NW Mechanical countered with the fact that they've been replacing Kitec piping and fittings with significant corrosion in one local complex and still have another 70+ systems to go. They went out there Monday, looked at the system and then gave my client an estimate for what it will cost to replace the Kitec pipe with new pipe and the water heater with a modern state-of-the-art wall-hung boiler designed for dual purposes like this one where the water won't be mixed. The seller then came back with an evaluation by his own HVAC tech that said that the Kitec pipe and fittings was only right there at the water heater, so all that was needed was to replace that little bit of pipe and then install an exchanger, expansion tank and second circulator on the system and all would be fine. The client did a little digging around to find out who had installed the pipe and to attempt to find out whether all of the piping was Kitec. He discovered that the installer was no longer in business - afraid of getting sucked into Kitec pipe lawsuits perhaps? The seller came back with another assessment from the second HVAC guy saying that even if it were Kitec pipe in the walls, etc., that any leaks would be tiny and wouldn't do much damage anyway and could be easily fixed. The clients have had enough; I got an email yesterday telling me that they'd rescinded their offer, thanking me for the heads up and informing me that they'll be contacting me on the next one. Meantime, there is a 10-year old condominium building in Edmonds with about 14 very expensive condos in it that's got a zincification time bomb ticking. [:-timebm] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, The contamination occurs when water in the heating circuits of the system isn't changed and bacteria growth occurs. These systems cannot be built in such a way that they have constant flow through the heating system. There are a couple of reasons for this; one is that with constant flow through the heating system the pipes and fittings can be damaged by scouring - another is that you'd have heat radiating off the system 24/7/365. Instead of designing them as flow-through systems, designers place the heating loop off to one side of a primary circulation loop and cycle water to the heating circuits only when heat is needed. That means that in an open system ,where there is no separation between the water in the heating loop and the water that you drink, bacteria growth can occur in circuits of rooms where you don't turn on the heat during the heating season and during summertime as water sits in those circuits for days, weeks and even months before freshly chlorinated water is sent into those circuits to flush them clean. Around here, some designers place a programmable 24-hour timer on the system and set it up to circulate water into every one of the heating circuits for about 15 minutes once or twice ever 24 hours to flush out the water with fresh chlorinated water. It works but it means that one is forced to literally heat every room for a short time every day - not really something folks want to do in the middle of a really hot summer. Lately, designers of these systems have been separating the heating circuits from the potable water circuits by installing a plate heat exchanger, a second circulator and a second expansion tank on the heating side of the exchanger. With that setup, when heat is called for one circulator cycles water through the water heater side of the exchanger while the other cycles water through the heating circuits that are calling for heat. Heat is transferred from the water in the water heater side of the system to the water in the heating circuit side via the exchanger and the potable water and the water in the heating loop isn't mixed. With this setup, if the water inside the heating loop is rife with bio-organisms, none of those organisms can spread into the potable water and make a homeowner sick. Homeowners and plumbers that don't understand the basis for this separation and construct systems that mix potable and heating water without timers or exchangers run the risk of making someone sick or, worse, killing someone. The number of folks that are installing these systems and don't understand the basis for why the two sides need to be separated or have timers on them is substantial. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Gee, Just when we thought BUR's were going away. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

WASHINGTON, D.C. - October 26, 2010 The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation GE Appliances & Lighting of Louisville, Ky has announced a voluntary recall of about 174,000 GE Profileâ„¢ and GE Monogram® Dishwashers for a defect that can allow condensation to drip onto the electronic control board, cause a short circuit, result in an overheated connector and pose a fire hazard to consumers. According to GE, the company has received five reports of fires, four of which caused minor damage to the kitchen countertops where the dishwashers were installed and one that caused minor damage to adjacent cabinets and smoke damage to the home. No injuries have so far been reported. The recall involves all GE Profile dishwashers manufactured between July 2003 and December 2005 and GE Monogram dishwashers manufactured between January 2004 and December 2006 and sold by appliance retailers and builder distributors for between $750 and $1400. The dishwashers were sold in white, black, bisque, stainless steel and with custom panels. A copy of the recall notice complete with serial numbers and photographs of the recalled dishwashers is available here. The model number and serial numbers are on the data label on the front left side of the dishwasher tub. The CPSC advises that consumer stop using the recalled dishwashers immediately, disconnect the electric supply by shutting off the fuse or circuit breaker that powers the circuit to the dishwasher, inform all users about the risk of fire and then contact GE for a free in-home repair or to receive a GE rebate of $200 for the purchase of a new GE Profile dishwasher and a GE rebate of $400 for purchase of a new GE Monogram dishwasher. For additional information, contact GE toll-free at (877) 275-6840 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the company's website.

Kewl, I've got abandonment issues. [:-cry] Better get cracking if you're thinking about a Fluke; you've only got until midnight Sunday to purchase if you want to take advantage of that terrific bonus deal they are offering. [:-jump2] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I see these all the time. The electrician pulls the 2-pole breaker, installs a 15-amp breaker, runs a 6-inch hot lead from the 15-amp breaker, splices it to one leg of that heavy cable, wraps the other cable with white tape, splices a while conductor onto the end and connects it to the neutral bus, and then at the other end pulls off the 240 volt plug, splices 14-gauge conductors onto the conductors and installs the receptacle. I'm weak in electrical, but it doesn't seem to me like it would actually harm anything and only becomes a pain-in-the-ass when/if they want to replace the gas stove with an electric stove; at which point they have to reverse the whole mess. By the way, Randy, what would happen if you throw that other breaker? Where does the end of that other cable terminate? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Jerry, What juridiction was it in? It might have been a requirement of that municipality. Most of the time when I see those the plumbers have added a second TPR high on the discharge side under the floors or above the basement wall that opens at 125lbs and have run a drain line outside. Essentially you then have two TPR's and two discharge lines. The plumber's intent is obvious, to ensure that if there is a buildup of pressure that it vents to the outside via the 125lb TPR before it ever gets near to forcing the one on the water heater open. Makes sense, I'd only question it if there was a 150pound TPR on the upper pipe; then I think it would be anyone's quess whether the one next to the tank will open first, the one high on the line will open first, or they'll both open at exactly the same time (which they should if the spring pressure is consistent). Times must be tough for that plumber. he can probably sweat in a TPR and line up high for less than it's going to cost to install a sump pump. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Charlie, I agree, that's why I'd highlighted the part of PPI's instructions that states, "if the local code and manufacturer’s instructions allow." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez Mark, If you're gonna go over there and hang out; please bring some of that knowledge back here so that we TIJ folk can get up to speed on IR too. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, available for purchase but why purchase it when you can download it for free? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

It all hinges on manufacturer's specs. According to the Plastic Pipe Institute design guide: PEX tubing may be connected directly to residential electric water heaters, if the local code and manufacturer’s instructions allow. When connecting PEX tube to gas water heaters, the tube must be kept at least 6 inches away from the exhaust vent of the heater. Flexible metal water heater connectors may be needed in some instances. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Happy Birthday Marc. [:-party] A rotten stand? Seriously? A stand needs to be wet to rot and rot doesn't happen overnight. By the time a stand rots out without a water source getting it wet, they'll be on the 60th water heater since the home was built and people will be making bank deposits with brain waves. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike