hausdok

Hi, I've got two - both pretty basic half-face respirators with P100 filters - AO Safety and 3M. I'll use one until it's time to replace the filter and then I'll switch off until I get around to doing the filters. One of these days I'm going to splurg and get one of those full-face deals like Jim K. said he uses. I saw a Sperian Surviveair mask in an industrial supply website the other day that interested me. If I really wanted to waste money on buying a new tool for safety and comfort, I'd probably combine a helmet with a mask that would keep me sweat-free and my glasses not fogged by getting either a Trend Airshield Pro or a 3M Hepa Airstream. Yeah right, I can see the day I buy one of those and the credit card statement arrives in the mail and my wife reads it. The next day the neighbors would see a very pink hide-looking object nailed to the side of the garage and the trash can would smell suspiciously like decomp. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

When I began the gig I didn't religiously wear a respirator and I didn't have a P100 filter - only the ordinary filter - on mine. About 2-3 years into the job I'd developed a sort of smoker's hack. I went to the doc and asked why I'd developed a hack - I thought I was coming down with lung cancer or something. He asked me what I do; I told him. He then asked me if I wear a respirator when I go into attics and crawlspaces; I told him not always. He asked were those places dusty; I said they were. He said, "Wear a respirator; you've developed asthma, Dummy." I didn't believe him. "Asthma? How the hell could I have asthma? Nobody in my family has ever had asthma; and, other than this hack, I'm healthy as a horse." He replied, "You don't need to inherit asthma; you can get it from exposure to your environment. You go into dusty areas every day without breathing protection and you can't understand why you've developed asthma? Think about it." Then he told me about Hanta Virus. That afternoon I went out and got P100 filters for that mask and I began to wear it whenever I went into attics and crawlspaces - even if for only a minute or so. In less than a month the hack disappeared and I haven't had the problem since. DO NOT GO INTO ATTICS AND CRAWLSPACES WITHOUT WEARING A NOSE/MOUTH RESPIRATOR WITH A P100 FILTER! Want to know why? Google Hanta Virus. A local realtor's son caught it a few years ago when sweeping out the garage. They gave him last rights around midnight of the night that the doctors told the family he was expected to die. Sometime after midnight the fever broke and the next day he came out of the coma. He was lucky; it has something like a 20% mortality rate. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I agree, bumping around a house with a set of tool pouches isn't cool. It's great in a house under construction when you're the person building it; before you have the detail crew come in and clean it all up and patch all of the nicks and dings you and the rest of the crew have made with those tool pouches but it's not cool in someone's house that's up for sale. I've thought about using a Skiller's vest like some do, but I just know that I'm going to damage a tool or myself wearing that thing with a bunch of stuff in the pockets while maneuvering through some tight attic or crawlspace. Plus, what if I were to slip and fall off the roof (been there - done that) and land on one of those objects and drive it through my side. It'd probably do more damage than those 5 broken ribs did. I go in with my Veto Pro-Pak bag, find a convenient out-of-the-way place in a central location, open it up like a doctor opening his toolbag and then I lay out what I'm going to need for the job right there next to the bag like a surgeon preparing for an operation. During the job when Yung or I need a tool we go to the bag and get the tools as needed and the next time we walk by that area we put them back. I don't mind the extra trips to the bag - I can always use the additional exercise. Go to a thrift store and my yourself a handheld 120v. Dirt Devil vacuum, the kind with a cloth bag. They are powerful as hell and have a beater brush on them and are perfect for cleaning up after yourself. Don't even bother getting a battery-powered vacuum - I bought an 18v one for nearly $60 that was reputed to be stronger than anything else around - it can't hold a candle to the Dirt Devil I picked up used for $4. Sham-Wows - very handy; especially when you are testing that whirlpool tub, hear a scream from downstairs, run down and find that there is water pouring through the ceiling below because there is a crack in one of the whirlpool tub components behind the tub where you can't see it from the access door. They soak up a huge amount of water very fast. Don't buy the ones on TV - they're too friggin expensive. Go to the Dollar store and for the $20+ you'd spend ordering a bunch of different sized Sham-Wows from the TV you can get 20 large ones. While you are at the dollar store, pick up a few packages of 60 watt light bulbs for those times when you need one and the only one available has burned out, and grab some AA's for thermostats so you won't have to skip running a system 'cuz the batteries are dead. I don't wear one (been meaning to pick one up) but I recommend you pick up a skateboarder's helmet for when you are doing attics and crawlspaces. Cant tell you the number of times nails from the roof have jumped clean out of the roof plane or beams under the house have detached themselves from the rest of the house and attacked my scalp. Customers are always going, "Oh my God, look, you're bleeding." Blood's not kewl - Yung has gotten into the habit of standing by with a diaper wipe to clean up the blood before I freak people out. Oops, just remembered that Mike is fixated on repetitive motion this morning and that this is major thread drift. Sorry. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

This looks like some kind of boilerplate insert. If so, it's a good illustration of one of the problems with boilerplate - software developers use language that their customers want, and lots of inspectors that see active voice in boilerplate will shy away from a program and tell the developer they don't like the way the boilerplate is written, 'cuz they think passive voice is more professional. The end result is that an inspector that writes in active voice but uses boilerplate will end up with a report that has a split personality, unless he or she is up to completely rewriting all of the boilerplate. It's a lead poisoning CYA paragraph. I wouldn't have used it. If customers want to know about lead and asbestos and that kind of stuff I just say, "Epa.gov, it's a wonderful thing."

Nah, Neutering will do the trick. It'll half labotomize him; plus, he'll no longer stray. [}] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez Les! What's next? Is Jim K. going to show us the hardware they put in his back? Keep it up you guys, I will start talking about inflammatory bowel disease. That's a repetitive motion if there ever was one. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Aw shucks, I was just about to go into a discussion about the great time stealer - inflammatory bowel disease. You aren't much fun, Kurt. You must be getting old. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Cavitation? Did the flow of hot water you were drawing off get ahead of that little pumps ability to keep the line full of water? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well the ledger and hangers are still visible in the video; so it wasn't the ledger that separated it was the joists that either sheared (doubtful) or pulled out of the hangers (more likely). Now I have to wonder whether the inner ends of the joists were rotten or whether they'd failed to use a nail in every hole in those hangers. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

200? Every one of my 253 pounds hates your guts. ONE ECLAIR - ONE BITE!!! Mike

Fox11 WLUKTV - GREEN BAY/Sept 16, 2010 Homeowner Steve Sickler is getting a lesson in saving money by home inspector Doug Meek. Meek is checking for air leaks along the doors, windows and walls. Dark spots on an infrared scan shows cold air from the outside finding its way in, meaning the cost to heat the home this winter will be more. To read more and see the vidio, click here.

Sorry, As much as I want to do right by my clients, I do not intend to get involved in determining who they pick. I know reputable is subjective - that's why I use it. I know that some licenses are a joke and I know that calling someone qualified or certified can mean just about anything. Reputable is as far as I'll go. They can talk to all of those persons that I mentioned, get references and decide for themselves based on that person's reputation with those that tell them about that person whether that person is for them. Nowhere in there did I say I recommend they ask a realtor for a reference; in fact, I pointedly avoid mentioning realtors at all before, during and after the inspection because I want the client understanding that the inspection is my time with them and not their realtor's. Might not work for you, Brother Kurt, but it works fine for me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, I had that parapetitis once; they'd thougt I'd perforated an intestine. [] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

See? Toldja the hot water gurus would come on here and edumakate us. Kurt and John were the two I was specifically thinking about when I posted that. I love it when one of my crappy plans comes together. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I used to use the words licensed and qualified interchangeably; now I simply use the word "reputable." There are licensed plumbers that are anything but reputable and there unlicensed plumbers that are very reputable. There are licensed plumbers that are supposed to be - at least one would think - qualified, but there are also those who are plainly incompetent and the same goes for the unlicensed guys that go around calling themselves that. I'm not going to get into the middle of that. I just tell 'em, "Hire a reputable whatever." When folks ask me how to find one of those, which isn't that often, I tell 'em to talk to friends, relative, co-workers, talk to other professionals they know, such as their attorney, and check out Angie's list. If they work for Microsoft, Boeing or Amazon, I tell 'em to go onto the companies intranet message board and ask their co-workers. I tell 'em to demand references from anyone they hire and to follow up on those references. For me, reputable works. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Benzinga/Sept 15, 2010 The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center is literally in a race against time to help get as many Knauf Tianjin toxic Chinese drywall homeowners identified, in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the metro areas of Houston, and Austin Texas, before time runs out. The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center says, "we feel like we have only discovered 1 in 25 homeowners in the US Gulf States, and we know time is running out." To read more, click here.

Straight.com/Vancouver, B.C./September 15, 2010 By Carlito Pablo, Ed Witzke noted a lot of crappy stuff about the house on Rutledge Street in Victoria in his inspection. But what he observed about the washroom was particularly striking. “A big fat fellow like myself only gets 1/2 bum on toilet seat,â€

Hi Kurt, Thanks for the advice re. the camera, but the issue with me isn't how to go about documenting what I see with pictures, it's all about my weakness with technology. I've actually taught crime scene photography and I used to develop my own filf. If I had a darkroom, I could probably turn out as good a report with 35mm photos as some of the stuff you guys post. However, you are right, the amount of time involved would be a lot. You guys don't see it but it's hugely difficult for me to do even the simplest technological thing. I don't know why; but I've concluded that whatever it is that has kept me from grasping math my entire life is probably what is jamming me up with the technology. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

There are lots of theories about that; here are a few. Review the articles, pick out a method you like and then come back here and teach it to the rest of us. ONE TEAM -ONE FIGHT!!! Mike http://www.citysheetmetal.com/faq.html#designDrainage http://www.copper.org/applications/arch ... ation.html http://www.guttersupply.com/content.php ... &view=more http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/ ... stems.aspx http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/show ... hp?t=51248 http://www.roofing.com/forum/sutra19218 ... c5eeea1487

I liked it. Probably because I use a similar format modeled after Jim K's and Walt Jowers' sample reports that I'd studied about a decade ago. I saw some improvements that Jim has made over the past decade and I'm probably going to emulate those. Jim uses a lot of photos; something I'm still not comfortable with. I use very detailed narratives to convey what I'm seeing and thinking without the use of photos. If I purchase that new digital camera that I'm thinking about, I'm probably going to disappear for a week somewhere and take a kajillion photos and then practice editing them and putting them into a word document until I get very proficient at it before I'll incorporate it into my reporting process. As far as customers skimming versus reading reports - I can tell you from experience that my customers at least do read those technical descriptions; and, if I've done a good job explaining the issues to them in simple-to-understand concepts, they get a very good grasp of the issues. For me, it's important to explain things simply and thoroughly because about 95% of my clients were born outside of the U.S. and English is not their primary language. Nope, won't be posting one here for critique. I don't have a single masochistic bone in my my body. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

To reduce heat loss, (you should) consider insulating the attic hatch.(You should) Consider insulating the attic hatch in order to reduce heat loss. You are the one writing the report. Is it really necessary to say, "I recommend" when they know you are the one writing the report. I can understand you saying something like, "The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) recommends that home buyers have a CSIA-certified chimneysweep inspect all fireplace chimneys at resale," but I don't think you need to continually say, "Recommend." Reports where I've constantly read "Recommend ...." have all seemed so stilted and mechanical. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. Whoops, I see Jim was Johnny-on-the-spot and was writing at the same time I was. Nevermind.

Click here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

"Don't be surprised when/if..." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's what I got from all that: you're being paid to post on TIJ Kewl! Hey Tom, ask whoever is paying you whether Mike and Rose and I can be added to the payroll. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yep, Looks like an old gravity hot water system. I've seen a few of them but not much more than that. Jimmy or Kurt or someone from hot water land will respond soon enough. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike