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Hi, I'm pretty certain that you're mistaken about the outer sheath being a high-resistance ground path; however, so far I don't think they've been talking about armor clad or metal clad cabling - they've been referring to various early methods to add equipment grounding to NM cable when it first came out. I don't think that the aluminum bonding wire inside armor (AC/BX) cable is meant to be a ground path; the outer sheath is the accepted ground path - the bond wire is only there to prevent the metal tape that makes up the outer sheath from becoming a transformer coil when/if the tape becomes separated or unravels. That little aluminum wire is not supposed to be brought into the panel at all. Metal clad (MC) looks similar to AC but it lacks the aluminum bond wire; instead it has an insulated equipment grounding conductor and both the outer sheath and the EG conductor provide the ground path. I wish I could remember how my father wired our house when I was 7. He bought a house in 1958 that didn't have electricity and then he wired it himself according to how he'd been taught by a local electrician that did the electrical work on the houses my father built for others. He went through the house, cut out a slew of receptacle holes and then pushed wires through the walls and had me reach my arm inside, grab the loose end when it got near the receptacles and pull it through until it was the length of my foot outside of the wall and then I bent it over the rim of the hole to keep it there. After he got all the wiring in place, he came through with a bunch of metal boxes and metal rings designed to grip plaster and lath and installed the boxes and receptacles. It's been more than half a century, but I know for certain that house is wired with a whole bunch of that silver-colored rag-wrapped Romex and I'm certain that every circuit has an equipment-grounding conductor. I remember watching him ground the EGC to the back of each metal box and then he attached a short pigtail from the screw in the back of the box to the receptacle. What I can't remember is if he ran a separate EGC alongside every piece of Romex when he pulled them or if the EGC was already in the wire. I know the folks that bought that house; maybe I should track down their phone number and give the guy a call. After nearly 40 years of ownership I'll bet he knows exactly how the old man wired that place. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I agree, they shouldn't be mining Terry's client list for addresses. I see where they are going; they realize that as soon as an inspector signs up to use their service and starts to talk about it, someone in the business is going to say to the inspector, "Why the hell would you pay for that when you can get it free from Recalls.gov?" and the inspector will cancel his subscription or whatever it is. If they can get an email address for the client, they have a better chance of continuing that relationship with a non-home inspector that's not likely to know about recalls.gov. Then all they need is for that non-inspector to tell a friend about RecallTrak and so on and so on and it goes almost viral. They get their foot in the door by going through the inspector so, though it is spam, they can deny that they are spamming anyone. Lately I've been putting some clients to work on their fancy new internet-capable phones tracking down whether or not their appliances have been recalled. I show 'em where the model numbers and serial numbers are and tell 'em to dial up recalls.gov and let me know if the appliances are recalled or not so I can stick it in the report. They're always like, "Oh wow, I didn't even know there was such a site. Kewl! I'm going to check all of my stuff at home when I go home later." ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

An investigation is underway after a top-floor balcony of a three floor walk-up apartment collapsed in Edmonton's Old Strathcona neighbourhood Saturday night. Seven people had crowded onto the wooden balcony at the Sprucewood Manor apartments at 106th Street and 79th Avenue when it broke away from the building. A young woman fell to the ground, while four others landed on the balcony below. Read more: click here.

Cellulose insulation is an excellent air movement stopper and it won't burn. It can scorch but it won't burst into flame. It's made by soaking it in borate. If it's an IC-rated light, I wouldn't be concerned about it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Some of you use digital cameras. Do they all have record features? About a month ago a client followed me around snapping pictures with a digital camera and was talking to it as he did so. Apparently he can bring up a photo and then play back the recording that accompanies the photo. Wish I'd stopped to see what brand and model it was. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, I didn't mean to hijack Kimball's thread; my point is simply that as long as there are folks out there who are using passive language and others perceive them as being good writers, simply because of their position in an organization or because they are writing for a newspaper someplace, there is always going to be this problem. We should make a pointed effort to correct these vaunted fellows when we see them using passive language. I'm talking about doing it every time you see someone post a passive language comment; whether it be Barry Stone, Ben Gromicko, Mike O'Handley, Mike Casey, etc.. Don't let us get away with it without saying something about it and don't be shy about it just because you think you'll be perceived as being a prig. If we can write things that we expect you to listen to, than we must be willing to listen in return. I think it's time to split this topic into one about the fireplace and a separate one about writing; no? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I agree with everything Jim has said. By paying attention to what he and Jowers tell us about report writing, I've made great strides in report writing since the early part of the decade. Unfortunately, our profession has a very long and very rough row to hoe before we'll ever get report writing right. It's especially difficult when those who are perceived by large numbers of inspectors to be credible, simply by virtue of their position in certain organizations, are recommending past tense passive language as the model for the profession. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm with you, Jim. Furthermore, those gussets should be solid oak, in keeping with the heritage aspect. []Heritage aspect?Seriously? The home is only 87 years old. Plywood and drywall have been around longer. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Again, As Kurt pointed out; it's an FVIR. That chamber is sealed with a door and has a little glass porthole to look through. Even if there were a gas leak, it wouldn't be exposed to the flame. There is no heat or flame there when you take the puff shield off. The air inlets for combustion on an FVIR are those perforations you see. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Les, You'd think that they could have placed that tee about 10 inches higher and could have avoided that. It's an FVIR water heater with a sealed opening and a sight glass so there won't be any rollout that could damage the valve. I dunno, give the guy a Darwin award but unless that valve were subjected to rollout I guess it'd be OK. We don't have 'em like that around hee - too rigid - that's almost always a flexible stainless steel connector. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I probably would have used my Mister Rogers voice and said to the client, "Can you say piece of crap roof?" ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I had one of those about three weeks ago. It almost has us fooled until Yung stepped inside to scan the walls and the floor flexed and the tiles separated. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, If it's so old, isn't there any concern about accumulation of bacteria in whatever kind of media they have in that thing? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Two days ago I was in the middle of an inspection for a Microsoft client when I noticed the client dinking around with his cell phone. I asked him, "Got internet on that thing?" He said, "Yeah, that's what I'm doing right now." I said, "Wanna find out if these appliances are recalled?" He perked up and said, "Sure." I handed him a sheet of paper and said, "Write this down. Go to recalls.gov, click on 'search for recalls' and then when you see the box with the CPSC logo choose 'company' in that box and then one-by-one look up these manufacturers and check to see if this stove, microwave and dishwasher have been recalled." Then I showed him where the model and serial numbers were on those appliances and went about my business while he busied himself for the next few minutes checking to see if the appliances were recalled. I thought he'd found one that had been recallled when I heard an exclamation from the kitchen; so I stuck my head in there and said, "What's up." Seems he'd found an AP, or is it an APP, on the site that he could download to his phone so that he could check products to see if there's been any problems with them whenever he's out shopping. He was happily in the process of putting it on his phone with a bunch of other crap he had on that thing. Anyway, the upshot of it was that none of the appliances were recalled. He found a kewl app(ap?) that he could use, and I didn't have to spend time dinking around trying to track down those serial numbers back here at the office. Best of all, it didn't cost me a dime. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

What Jim said. Click to Enlarge 12.78 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

ALBANY, NY (09/02/2010)(readMedia) A meeting of the New York State Home Inspection Council will be held on Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 10:30 a.m. at the Department of State, Division of Licensing Services, 80 South Swan Street, 10th Floor Conference Room, Albany, NY and 123 William Street, 19th Floor Conference Room, NYC. If you plan to attend the Albany location, please call 518-474-1006 to pre-register for quicker entry into our building. Should you require further information, please contact Debra Campana, Meeting Coordinator, at Debra.Ryan-Campana@dos.state.ny.us or 518-473-6155. Please always consult the Department of State website at www.dos.state.ny.us/about/calendar.htm on the day before the meeting to make sure the meeting has not been rescheduled.

Hi, That sounds good, but I'd suggest making it very clear to the out-of-town client that the report will not be transmitted until confirmation is received from Pay Pal that you have payment. You don't have to feel awkward about insisting on payment up front; it's the way it's done in this business and it protects you against the guy from out of town that gets your report, decides the place is a dump, cancels the transaction and then intentionally loses your phone number and calls a different inspector for the next house. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I think that you are thinking of a dash coat; however, there are about a half dozen different types of dash coats and about 30 different types of finishes for traditional 3-coat stucco. Go to this link for descriptions and photos of the various types of stucco finishes. http://www.tsib.org/plastertextures.shtml#lightdash ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well, That hasn't been my experience. I've measured voltage in houses as low as 108 volts and occasionally as high as 129 volts. Since it's within the parameters of what I was taught as acceptable, I never made an issue of it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I split the question of voltage off so as not to hijack the thread. OT - OF!!! M.

Someone, I can't remember who, taught me that there should never be more than a 10% voltage drop or overage and that acceptable voltage ranges are 108 to 132 volts, which places 120 smack dab in the middle of that range. If an appliance were designed for 110 and voltage delivered were 130 volts, couldn't that create as many issues as running an appliance with lowered voltage? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I stopped referring to 110 volts about 30 years ago but I still hear folks talk abouit 110 volts. Are there areas where there is still 110v? I thought everything in this country had been bumped to an average of 120 these days. OT - OF!!! M.

Jeez, Jimmy, You just got me a whole lot of trouble. There I was, standing out there in the garage with my finger down my throat spewing chunks all over the place when the Korean Konnection walked into the garage, immediately became convinced I'd completely lost my mind and am a danger to her and the dog, and she started chasing me around with her clam digging sharp thingy whatever-it-is. Now I'm holed up here in my office with the door locked and a pile of books 6ft. high piled against the door and there's no way I can go upstairs and get ready to leave for the afternoon job. Climbing out the window... OT - OF!!! M.

Hi All, Those of you who're environmentally conscious and reluctant to rinse caustic chemicals into your yard, you (and your clients) might be interested in Stain Stealer, a concrete cleaner that uses live microbes to literally consume the oil that seeps into a concrete floor. It uses a foam cleaner that is applied to the oil stain and then scrubbed in with a brush. After application, you wait an appropriate amount of time and then sprinkle on their absorbent to remove the cleaner, wait for that to soak up the cleaner residue and then sweep it up. All done! Check out the video. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Or, she just didn't want to be inconvenienced. Maybe she's a complete pig - a hoarder. I once had to do a restoration job for a hoarder (that was a joke). There were little foot paths about 18" wide throughout the house. To either edge of those paths crap just went up at about a slope of thirty degrees to the walls - discarded clothing, checkbooks, notices, you name it. All the countertops were buried in these slopes. There was only one uncluttered room - the living room, which was the dog's potty room. They were careful not to mix their crap with the dog's crap. [:-graduat I've never seen anything like it, and never want to again. It's real challenge trying to reason and deal with people that are obviously out of their right minds. Did an inspection on a house where a hoarder lived a couple of months ago. The elderly wheelchair ridden mother owned the house and she, her daughter and grandson lived there. The main house, the owner's room and the son's rooms were normal but the daugther was a hoarder and I couldn't even get in the door of her room. The door hung off of one hinge and to get in she has to climb up onto a pile of stuff about four feet tall to get to her bed which looks like it's an in-ground pool in a yard made of clothing and other crap. I excluded the room from the inspection. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike