Nolan Kienitz

BW - Turns out they use same values here. Plumber did run pressure up to 25+ when he happened across some seepage in a legacy connection from when the house was built in 1982. He started to get a tad worried as he has seen some situations over the years where there had been a mess of leaks in some legacy properties. He segmented the system and then also found the underground failure at the riser/poly connection where it comes up to enter the home (as noted ... our meter is in the alley about 40' distant). City of Plano (AHJ) requires pressure test on situations such as our case where a new line was being installed for an appliance (in our case a cook-top). Actually with any appliance change (water heater, furnace) and adding a line for an appliance the AHJ would have also required the plumber to install sediment traps at the W/H and furnace if they were not present. They also check the appliances for adequate combustion air and proper venting ... if not present you get 'red-tagged' until updated. This is interesting to see and hear about as a few years ago the City of Plano AHJ could have cared less about 'sediment traps'. Interesting how the pendulum swings. .

I wish the leak was on the utilities' side of the meter. Unfortunately it was not. Dunno if this leak would be part of such concerns or not. .

UPDATE: Gas line repairs at my house Poly connection to bottom of riser (at house) is/was leaking. Typical riser with black tape wrap on riser, over coupling and poly. Leak right at poly and coupling. Riser also had small diameter pipe as support from original construction that was a water conduit along and to bottom of black iron riser wrapped in tape that also has rusted. Support pipe was just under roof eave where runoff would almost hit it directly. (Think about it ... how many times do we see that?) New 'weather-sealed' riser with longer horizontal stem is being installed to replace defective. Here's hoping the other end at the meter is still OK. At least it is not under the eave of the roof, but still has the hollow pipe for support of the original riser. One great learning experience, but my checkbook is likely going to hurt when it is all over. Gas leak is at poly to coupling: Click to Enlarge 60.89 KB New riser being installed: Click to Enlarge 66.04 KB Hollow pipe along riser at meter: Click to Enlarge 84.16 KB .

Another HI out of Spring (near Houston) got fined for $2K or so as he did not make note in his report that the attic access was not sufficient to remove/install a furnace/A-C system. Mind you this is a "code specific" item and TREC Legal fined him as part of the new Penalty Matrix that we are working under. TREC Legal did not specifically state the code item, but their verbiage quoted a reference to the TX SOP that has some vague language. He was also cited for not having formally advised TREC of the name of the company he was doing business as an inspector. Can't just have your name ... you also have to formally advise TREC of the name of your company so they can cross-link and associate. The Penalty Matrix also allows TREC to fine you for not advising of your current address and contact information and on and on.

Interesting situation I'm experiencing: Plumber adding gas line for a cooktop being changed from electric to NG. Single-story house built in 1982. Black iron gas distribution. Meter in alley, gas entrance to house about 40-feet run underground. Underground feeder may be poly with iron risers ... will learn for sure today. Extension to cooktop is also black iron. Local AHJ requires a higher pressure test with system changes ... not a bad thing. Pressure test not holding and plumber is finding that some of the old/original connections seeping. Has been segmented (so far) with leaks at underground feeder at in-house distribution. Higher PSI possibly blowing past some old connections. (supposedly) Will be learning more as more testing begins anew today. Any wise thoughts from the massive experience here at TIJ? BTW - Yes, this is my home. .

Not a wise thing to be inspecting in Texas with an expired license. TREC will catch up with you. Below clip was in the list of fines from the November TREC Advisor newsletter that was released yesterday. Click to Enlarge 33.81 KB .

Marc is right ... I'm not in love with the I, NI, NP, D checkboxes ... but trying to get the TREC Commission (all are agents, brokers with NO inspectors) love 'em. The SOP sub-committee tried to eliminate two of the checkboxes over the past two years of work with multiple presentations, but the Commission would not have it. In fact TREC Staff (IE: Legal) wanted to add TWO (YES ... 2 more) checkboxes to the 4 that were there. Thank goodness that didn't fly. Some of the other language that TREC Staff 'suggested' this past summer was absolutely nuts. Thank goodness that didn't also fly. An update on timing from my OP: The Texas Register posting is now only 30-days (instead of the 60-days in time past) ... thus the 12/23/12 date in the posting. The TREC Commission will review the comments at their 02/11/13 meeting and will possibly give final approval. Effective date (if the TREC Commission approves) will likely be in March-2013.

The SOP Sub-Committee has completed their work after two years. The TREC Commissioners have given initial approval and the new SOP and 7-3 Report Template and related rules have been posted at the Texas Register as of 11/23/12. This is the public posting of the SOP, Rules & Report Template. Once the posting time has passed and the comments reviewed and changes made the SOP and template will become effective. According to documents in the public posting the earliest possible adoption date is: 12/23/12. The link to the State of Texas - Texas Register is below. It is not the easiest reading. TREC SOP posting at Texas Register For easier reading I've attached the documents submitted by the SOP Sub-Committee. Rules for Template Download Attachment: 112312_TREC-Section535.222-535.223_FormRule.pdf 232.18?KB 7-3 Template Download Attachment: 112312_TREC_7-3_Rprt-Template.pdf 126.47?KB New SOP Download Attachment: 112312_TREC_SoP_535.227-535.233.pdf 324.98?KB Below is a link to the TREC website where one can also pull down the PDF files for the relative documents. There is also an e-mail address at this page where comments can be sent concerning the proposed SOP and 7-3 template. TREC site with PDF files for proposed SOP & 7-3 Form

Brandon, I believe that is incorrect as the Texas State Legislature handles such every other year and two years ago (if I recall correctly) they adopted the 2006 for the "state". I'll dig into that and see if I can refresh my gray matter. Of course each AHJ does their own thing and most are at the 2006 or 2009 version. Follow-up ... An update to the more current IRC was proposed at the Texas Legislature two years ago, but it got lost in the shuffle as it was stuffed in another piece of legislation that was scuttled. Thus ... the ICC has it correct in that the "State of Texas" is at the 2000 IRC. As I noted ... each AHJ has adopted more current versions. Maybe it will be on the docket for the 2013 legislative session, but I have no way of knowing that at this time.

Brandon, I believe that is incorrect as the Texas State Legislature handles such every other year and two years ago (if I recall correctly) they adopted the 2006 for the "state". I'll dig into that and see if I can refresh my gray matter. Of course each AHJ does their own thing and most are at the 2006 or 2009 version.

Brandon, Try this URL ... www.iccsafe.org/gr/pages/adoptions.aspx The link seems to go "high & dry" from inside this post (at least on my 'puter) ... dunno why. Just copy/paste into a new browser tab. If you right click on the URL just click on 'open in a new tab' and you should be good to go.

We have some property over in East Texas that had a very old and dangerous home that needed to be burned down. I spent six months working with various county and city municipalities (IE: fire departments) and they would not touch it. Reason being due to EPA, insurance and Lord knows how many more regulatory agencies being involved. I was told to have someone backhoe it and haul it off. But FIRST !!! ... I would have to get EPA approval and would have to have the property reviewed for asbestos and other potential harmful items and if found it would have to be contained and removed first before they could chop it down. Thank you large government ... even in a very, very, very small East Texas community where the nearest 'town' is 13 miles away. Well ... I got in touch with a fellow who had a demo business and had some spare time a backhoe and a couple of trucks. Ended up that the the old wood house was down in a couple of hours and complete haul off completed by noon on a Saturday when the job started around 10AM on on Friday. The demo guy had a friend who had a farm nearby with a big gully that held the debris and was burned the following Sunday. BTW - the demo guy even had to be careful where he drove the trucks as the local minders and constabulary had eyes open for such events and more than willing to write tickets and assess fines. I can assure you that it is not as easy as it used to be in many circumstances.

Hell Marc, I have found that as I get older, I often don't understand what I'm saying live. [:-propell My wife tells me that almost all the time .....[:-slaphap

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Yes, using Xactimate ...

I was in Houston after Hurricane Ike doing Insurance Adjusting. One time was plenty for me. I had local police looking over my should to help protect me due to thugs out doing what they do and it didn't matter which neighborhood. Got paid well, but worked my butt off and the insurance desk jockeys were unrelenting in their demands at all hours and didn't seem to even care about the headaches an adjuster encounters when conditions are like a '3rd world country". I would often get calls at 8:00AM from the insurance desk jockey asking me what I was doing? By that time of day I was on my 2nd or 3rd roof of the morning. They would start off demanding updated reports from the prior day and I would advise them to look at their 'inbox' for the e-mail and they would find all they were looking for. They would reply with they hadn't had time to look there yet. DUH!! I got paid well, but that was a once and done for me.

Ditto what Mike L. wrote. During booking of the inspection if it is "reasonably" determined that the utilities are not on, but 'will be' ... I send my client a PDF file I prepared that goes into inspecting vacant properties with utilities turned off. That document clarifies the definition of "ON" as the definition that my insurance company and I use is often far different than the one that the 'zoids' use. []

Water spillover from planter boxes on upper ledge? And maybe fertilizer of sorts added to planter boxes when watering? May just be image, but some siding looks warped or just not flat on sheathing. Maybe water behind/under siding and down to lintel?

Below is a link to a review of PayPal vs. PopMoney ... PayPal vs. PopMoney Review

What a collection at one site. No sense in going to multiple sites to collect all those. Glad you are OK and glad you found it for the safety of owners/buyers.

Knee-pads ... I have two styles: One pair for P&B crawls and one pair for simply doing the inspection. Two different styles of construction and covering for wear/abuse for the crawl and the regular inspection a style just to have a protective/soft covering for my knees. I started wearing them for the entire inspection about 4 years ago when my knees starting giving out. Made a world of difference. Looks weird, but my knees are "very happy". As for the knee & elbow pads for the crawls ... they don't get used anymore as I stopped doing P&B crawls two years ago.

Pity the poor window guy/company that may (someday) have to replace the windows ... for whatever reason. If he doesn't check things out closely he will have one helluva repair job. [:-bigeyes

Almost like some of the production HI schools in Texas and possibly other states as well. [:-bigeyes

Ditto. Marc Double Ditto.

Just did a quick look-up in my Haag Engineering guides. Below is their comment for such defects: "Manufacturing Issue: Craze cracks, due to shrinkage and embrittlement of unreinforced asphalt only in the "applique" portion of a shingle. The applique is an extra layer of asphalt and granules added on top of the original layer of asphalt and granules to make a three-tab shingle look like a laminated shingle." Above is a direct quote from their Composition Roofs Damage Assessment Field Guide.