Chris Bernhardt

With masonry, for example chimneys, how much deterioration in mortar joints is too much to the point a chimney or wall needs to be rebuilt? I've read that tuck pointing the full brick depth creates a joint inferior to that of laying brick an mortar. Chris, Oregon

What I have noticed about the Bcam is that the little battery indicator is useless. When the battery starts dying the thing either starts losing function or dies. The battery indicator serves no useful purpose. Chris, Oregon

Didn't I say that? Chris, Oregon

Whats the resolution on the fluke? I have tried to look at sugar ants but they are too small. I have concluded it's probably impossible to see moving insects with the Bcam. The other day I found some carpenter ant evidence up in the attic of this house adjacent to the garage. When I scanned the walls of the garage in the area I found this curious warm spot. It was colder then crap that day and I didn't find any reflections or charges that might be causing it. I came back the next day to look at the spot again and it was gone. It has been one of my concerns all of long, that if I can't substantiate the anomaly by some other secondary means then what do you do? I think that if you were to mention it and recommend further investigation you would be wrong about anything being important there 99% of the time. Chris, Oregon

I will turn them on with permission on occasion but not without checking the plumbing first and being very cautious to watch the plumbing after I turned it back on. I always shut it off after I am done. Otherwise if the water is off and we can't get permission from the selling side I don't turn them on even at the insistence of the realtor. Chris, Oregon

I don't understand what is the real difference between the two windows? 1.7A says something about an integral return key and doesn't resemble the window in my initial post. And your right, I didn't look at 1.7B which does have a stop bead and resembles the pic in my post. So you need the stop bead unless you have some special model of the window designed for use with stucco etc. ? Chris, Oregon

Well, crap. It looks like different mfg's have different requirements. Owens corning doesn't require a stop bead like I have seen with some other mfg's. Does that mean I have to figure out the mfg of the lick & stick before I open my mouth? With the OC I have no idea if they have done anything right allowing the installer to mortar right up to the window. Even if it weeps I would imagine that you're going to get some amount of effluorescence at the bottom of windows. Chris, Oregon

This answer will probably get me shot but one angle in is to actually go work as a realtors assistant in the largest organization in town for about six months. You'll learn alot about the biz from their viewpoint and have a great opportunity to meet a lot of realtors and build relationships. I actually did that and I would consider doing it again if I had to. Chris, Oregon

Well there's IRC R303.8 Required heating. Every dwelling unit shall be provided with heating facilities capable of maintaining a minimum room temperature of 68 degrees F at a point 3 feet above the floor and 2 feet from exterior walls in all habitable rooms at the design temperature. The installation of one or more portable space heaters shall not be used to achieve compliance with this section. I would interpret that as meaning each dwelling unit needs its own system but then again when I lived in NY we had radiators in each apartment and the boiler was off in another building so maybe not. With respect to a forced air system the reference you gave is the only one I know of. Chris, Oregon

Look, realtors and car salesmen get paid only if the deal goes thru. Because of that situation good people start getting paranoid about making the client nervous, scared, frightened etc. If an inspector was paid only if the deal closed, you can imagine the mess that would make. Don't take it personal, you're an inspector now and if you worry about making clients nervous or that you will say something that will scare them, it will hurt your business it will not help it. Inspecting is an animal unto its own and there is not a lot that we can bring to it from what we did before. If you don't think that I haven't felt thrown under the bus a time or two you would be wrong. It happens more often than you think to all of us. If any of us say anything offending to you, just ignore it. There isn't anyone who doesn't want your success here. Chris, Oregon

Every cast stone veneer job I run across is completely detailed wrong. My understanding is that the product can absorb a ton more water than any other cladding system on the market. Only in this case it's going to be harder than hell to detect moisture behind it since its self retains so much. What are we going to do, drill holes thru it and insert probes? Can we based on our EFIS experience logically conclude that a wall is a goner if the cast stone veneer is not detailed properly? I have read on JLC by one installer that the details are even more critical than stucco installations. Anyone else wondering about how were going to figure out whats going on behind the stuff? Chris, Oregon

About 8 years ago inspected a ranch house that had an unreinforced poured concrete crawlspace foundation that had several of these big gapping cracks on the order of one inch. The house was on a level lot but it was suffering from a wet crawlspace. The only thing I could imagine was wet unstable soil under the foundation and then high winds to make it see saw apart. Chris, Oregon

Thats a good point Rob. I don't usually consider that around these parts. Chris, Oregon

Jon, don't fret. Your sacrifice was worth it. I learned a lot from what Bonnie just said. Chris, Oregon

Exactly. Chris, Oregon

I can't even imagine having a day off anymore with 8 kids and a wife and all her friends to manage. I know better times are a comming but not yet. I hope I make it before I become a full blown alcoholic. Chris, Oregon

When I first started inspecting the guys I did my ride alongs with did visual only. No tools except for a screw driver, ladder, flashlight and a three light tester. Now I can't imagine doing an inspection without moisture meters and an IR cam. Heck, I even have a 60' pipe and duct camera that I use on occasion. I would miss so much stuff without these tools that I use as indicators. Any suggestions on how to describe inspections that are beyond just visual but less than a quantitative analysis? Some guys layout the argument that if you use tools, you open yourself up to lots of liability. It sounds like a theory to me. My experience has been just the opposite; they in effect reduce my liability. Chris, Oregon

Well I felt it was messed up so that's why I posted it. This was the one where I found a thermal anomaly first then hit it with the moisture meter which wasn't pegging on the drywall setting but was about halfway full scale. I have done experiments wetting the back of drywall and making measurements to get a semi-calibrated idea of whats the minimum the meter should be taken serious at. Those tests indicated about 25% of full scale on the drywall setting. Also I ran into the owner whos lived there for ten years and reported that when he bought the house the floor at the base of the wall was soft and he had always thought there was a leak. I couldn't see the floor at the time of the inspection due to furniture and I talked to the owner a day after the inspection Given the lenght of time it was leaking there is probably something going on in the wall. It made me nervous so thats the reason for the recommendation. What if your spidey sense was indicating a problem somewhere where you can't see it, then what do you do? Chris, Oregon

This is what I wrote for a leaky roof where there is evidence of moisture in the wall. How would you write it if there was evidence or a good chance that water has been leaking into an area that you can't see. Roof leaks At the end of the dead valley over the front bedroom, the roof leaks. The framing in the wall under the leak is of course concealed and furniture was present concealing the floor. I found evidence that moisture is present in the wall. Have a roofer repair the leak in the roof. Understand that the concealed portions of the wall and floor may have damage. To find out you’ll have to have these areas exposed and checked and then repaired if any damage is found. Chris, Oregon

I know but what I was specifically thinking about those wide cracks on flat grade where there is even substantial separation down to the bottom of the footer. My theory is that those type of cracks occur in two events. The first event is a rotation caused by a load away from the crack resulting in a strictly Vee crack and the second event a load at the crack. The force at the crack would have the tendency to push the bottom of the footer apart. Chris, Oregon

I have always wondered how you can get such big ol cracks in stem wall foundations on flat ground as if the foundation is drifting a part? Any explanations? Image Insert: 74.91 KB Image Insert: 88.11 KB Chris, Oregon

You would think so. But you will need it to last for at least two jobs. Maybe not right now, but you will. I wonder how fast it can be recharged? Maybe you can recharge it between jobs, but rechargebles can only be charged so many times before they've had it. You might find yourself replacing batteriess every few months. Ask Fluke how many chargings you can get out of the battery. How do you replace the battery in the fluke? Is it something you can do yourself or do you have to send back to fluke? In other words talk to fluke and tell them the problem and see what their solution is. Chris, Oregon

Yes you are. Let me explain why. Did you do any measuring? Did you record data and then put it in a formula and make a calculation to arrive at your conclusion? No, that would be performing a quantitative analysis, something that we tell the client we are not going to do for them. IOW, we are not going to perform a quantitative analysis to attempt to find issues that can't be found via qualitative observations. Now if I tell you an engineer, that what I am going to do is find problems based on qualitative observations and not quantitative analysis you probably would understand what I mean, but no one else would. Maybe Les can tell us how the founding forefathers envisioned the use of the word. Supply and demand, my brother. Uh, now, can anyone tell me where Katens at? I heard he just got on a plane to Mexico.[:-wiltel] Chris, Oregon

Yea, battery life on that fluke is a deal killer. You need at least twice that including the capability of swapping out batteries like in the Bcam. I think there is no question that the fusion tech is important and the more res the better. I would call Flir and talk to them about whats about to come out. If it's only a month or two away then fine go ahead and wait. If it's 6 months from now I can tell you it will probably be longer. In this difficult market this year I imagined that a much better camera would be affordable next year but I just couldn't wait. My business plan called for it now, right away. Also if Flir has a new model with picture in picture coming, be sure to ask about battery life. That would be the pits if you wait all that time to again run into battery life issues even if you could swap batteries, it's a pain to manage. Chris, Oregon

Yes, because that would entail performing some sort of quantitative analysis to come to some reasonable opinion; however, it doesn't relieve an inspector from liability where adequate warning could be provided based on qualitative observations. Chris, Oregon