rjw

Poor boilerplate, so misunderstood Boilerplate is good - it is tried and proven, bulletprrof, if you will A huge percentage of what an experienced inspector sees is something s/he has seen before. Why rewrite the same thing each time? Not only are you wasting time, you're increasing your risk: if you describe the same problem different ways, you are giving potential plaintiffs (read - dissatisfied clients) a weapon - either through mistakes or by giving them an opportunity to make you look bad. How many ways can you describe a missing T/P valve extension and what is needed? Rewrite it everytime you see it and you're taking a chance of screwing it up. I not only use "boilerplate" in my reports, I use it in my oral discussion, as well: My basic talk on most components is pretty much the same at each house The trick is keeping from sounding like you're reading something off or that you're bored and reciting something by rote. And when I add a canned comment to my report system, I look it over closely in the office, without the time constraints of being on site. I read it "against" myself - can it be misread? Does it leave openings? Is is accurate and sufficiently complete? A report is one type of legal document, what you say can be used against you, and you'd better be sure you don't give away the store.

FWIW, I do all my reports on site, publish to pdf, and burn to a CD for the client. I do some subcontrctor work for a company which uses InspectWare; for my own stuff, I use a comprehensive document assembly macro application I've developed in WordPerfect. (Mush more versatile, powerful and stable than Word, and the macro language is very flexible and much easier to use than VBA or VB.)* IW is good but could be better. The canned comments leave a lot to be desired, in my opinion, and I'd delete 'em all if I was just starting with it. I've tested the Palm addon for IW, and used it for "preliminary" notes as I'd do the outside or otherwise wander from the workstation, and feed the info from it into the laptop version of IW, but it's way too expensive for that use - I can use a lot of 3x5 cards for the addon price. IW has some good flexibility when it comes to modifying the "framwork" systems and subsystems and components are all easily added/subtracted. But it has some real limitations: what info goes where in the report is pretty tightly wrapped. (The report template itself is editable, in theory, but I'll be damned if I can do much with the template beside change some colors. I _think_ its some obscure sgml editor but I really don't know. And like it or not, all items called out get pulled into the summary. Some/much of the functional "information management" in IW is primitive I also tried the Carson Dunlop app for the handheld about 1 year ago. It had some very good features and a deep store of backup info, But as of last spring, it wasn't ready for prime-time, IMO. It has a strong hierarchial structure which is good in some ways, but a real pain to move from component to problem - up-down-up-down. I believe they were gomg to work on that feature. I'm not real hot on the handhelds - I want to see what the reprot looks like and, if necessary, edit it before the final push into pdf. The handheld screens just don't have ebnough info for my taste. With my system in WP, I print up a DVD case cover with the address, a printable CD with my Logo, etc and the address, a Summary Sheet that I fill out by hand for the client who wants something there and then in writing. I produce the report in WordPerfect, print it to a pdf (built into WP). I have a "website" that gets burned to the CD with auto-open which automatically opens the CD's "home page" into a browser. The home page has links to the Report and other "web pages - safety, maintenance, local services, promo info etc. I also generate a "problems checklist" from the report info which I print to pdf and email to the selling agent for use as an attachment to the inspection contingency rider. (They get a text version too so they can cut and paste.) This gets emailed to the agent right after the inspection. (I can ofetn find an unsecured wifi router near the home being inspected, if not, there are free enough hotspots now that I can usually get to one within 5-10 minutes after I leave. (The smart restaurants also get my lunch money, too)

Just went off in other on-line directions and lost the bookmark - then I saw a photo linked at FHB's forum (without attribution - at my suggestion that fellow added one) and found my way back. Doing a search, I didn't find much here on CO (just did my NCI recertification course on COSafety Analysis and Combustion Analysis - so I'm primed) Am I missing something?

This response is a while after the original question, but folks might still access the thread. If you think the catalogue photographers are a good source of expertise in testing for CO, by all means, go ahead and test in the registers. Otherwise, do yourself (and your E&O carrier) a favor and keep the meter in the truck until you learn how to test. I believe the best course is the www.nationalcomfortinstitute.com course. Bachrachs is OK, but weak on theory and depth. I don't know if Building performance institute still offers a course - the orignator of their course is not at NCI There has been a west course course, but I don't know anything about it.