John Dirks Jr

My bad. I edited the original post. Page 13, not 11.

That's what I was thinking but the documents don't mention clearance to combustibles for the vent termination. They only say 12" minimum above decks. Are you sure the intent of the instruction document is to include combustibles? Or are they giving clearances for the purposes of safe drafting and exhausting of CO gasses?

I'm trying to determine if I can back up a clearance issue using the manufacturer installation instructions. The linked manual (pg 11 pg 13) says clearance above deck 12" minimum. Does the railing count as deck? Is there an applicable violation to this vent in the manual? http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/instal ... 31_550.pdf Click to Enlarge 33.7?KB

I once reported a bullet hole in the exterior wall. I described the trajectory through the exterior wall and into the dining room, through the living room and finally impacting the header above the front door. I had pictures included. I think I mentioned that in this forum way back when. That report is stacked on another drive somewhere around this house. I had and out of state client I did an inspection for. They had never been on the property. The listing pictures didn't show the surroundings as usual. The house next door was a practical dump, I mean really bad. I did not include that in the official report but I did send a separate email with a few pictures and the simple comment - "this is what you see from the deck"

I finished reading an older version not long ago. I just ordered the updated version and am looking forward to reading it.

Looks like too much water for condensation alone. Maybe ground water is traveling along the buried pipe and entering the crawl through the pipe penetration. Are you sure its mold (3rd pic) on the plywood? It looks like the pattern is limited to specific pieces of sub floor. Why would mold grow only on that piece and not on the other piece of plywood or floor joists?

50% of the houses in my area which had vinyl siding as their initial cladding do not have water resisting barrier beneath. Shoot, earlier this year I inspected one built in 2011 with regular OSB sheathing and no wrap. It killed the deal and the builder was ticked. He claimed the code did not require it since the county in question was still on 2003 IRC. I told him we should look at the siding manufactures installation instructions. I never heard back from him.

What difficulties would there be in properly wrapping a house if the windows are already installed? Normally, the house is wrapped before the windows are put in. I appreciate the criticism on what I write. There's always room for improvement. Even more, I appreciate those who share what they write.

I don't think this is going to help your client much. If you see no signs of moisture problems, are you still recommending a contractor remove the exterior siding for "further investigation?" If you think all the siding should be removed and installed with a moisture barrier you should say so. I'm interested in seeing the written comments that anyone else uses. Heck, I bet that 50% or more of the inspectors out there don't even peek under the seams to see if the moisture barrier is even there. They consider the detail hidden. They're too afraid to even discover it's not there in fear of what they might have to say about it. Lets hear what others would write. I'm all ears.

There is no water resistive barrier beneath the vinyl siding at *** Current building code requires that water resistive barriers be used under vinyl siding. Furthermore, siding manufacturers have always recommended that water resistive barriers be used as part of best practice installation of their products. The reason is, vinyl siding is not intended to be waterproof. Water resistive barriers under siding help shed water and prevent damage to the wood sheathing and other structural components. Because of this, I recommend further investigation by a qualified contractor to determine if water damage exists. Special attention should be paid to areas around windows and doors and other siding penetrations including any deck ledger attachments. If water damage is discovered under the siding, the damaged materials should be replaced. Page 2 of the following document talks about water resistive barriers and their importance as components of vinyl siding systems. To prevent water damage to the buildings materials, you should consider having the siding redone to include a water resistive barrier. http://home.comcast.net/~marylandhomein ... nstall.pdf

I never see VB if its loose fill only.

Having Jim Katen and Douglas Hansen here to advise and concur on electrical issues is surely a gift to us all. I'll no longer say that refrigerators "should not" be on GFI protected circuits. With that in mind, I'll still mention to clients that inadvertent tripping of GFI devices could cause power interruption that can lead to other issues including spoiled food. It's interesting that even in the 2012 IRC they make an exception in unfinished basements for alarm equipment. I'm sure we can all agree how important alarm equipment is. Can anyone elaborate why they would make an exception such as that listed below? I think that the idea of nuisance tripping can be viewed as very unlikely. But what about inadvertent tripping? Through human error, things get de-energized and problems happen. Is not the language below implying that unintended power interruptions on GFI circuits can be problematic? E3902.5 Unfinished basement receptacles. All 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in unfinished basements shall have ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel. For purposes of this section, unfinished basements are defined as portions or areas of the basement not intended as habitable rooms and limited to storage areas, work areas, and the like. Exception: A receptacle supplying only a permanently installed fire alarm or burglar alarm system.

The home owner and buyer were with me the whole way. In this particular case, they both understood and appreciated what I did. I do assess each situation differently. In this particular case, I was comfortable with what I did. I would not always do the same in other situations.

Subject was a 2005 colonial with full finished basement including additional kitchen. I pushed the test button on one of the kitchen counter GFI's. It tripped as it should and the corresponding downstream receptacle also went dead. Looks good so I push the reset button and it does not reset. I figured a second GFI somewhere on the circuit and began the hunt. I couldn't find it and decided to continue with the inspection believing that I would eventually find the other tripped GFI. Finished the inspection without finding another tripped device. I scoured the house again including additional study of the breaker panel and all other GFI's in the house. During this pass I discover the basement kitchen fridge is also tripped and its full of food. Now I know I got an issue. 45mins of time was spent on this one GFI alone. I thought I was going have to hook the fridge up via extension cord and call an electrician. Instead I decided to do a little trouble shooting myself. I shut off the breaker for that receptacle, removed the screws and pulled it out of the box. I turned the breaker back on and got out my voltage meter. Bingo! The line side still had power. My conclusion was a faulty GFI, the very GFI that I had tripped with its test button. It was my luck that it happened to fail at that time. For a temporary solution I turned the breaker back off, moved the load side lines to the line side on the back of the faulty GFI. I then put it back into the box and put the cover back on and turned the breaker back on. While the receptacle of this GFI was still non functional, my wiring adjustment sent the juice down the line to the other receptacles, including the one powering the fridge. Here's my report comment on the subject. A GFI receptacle at the basement kitchen countertop malfunctioned on the day of the inspection and would not reset after being tripped. It was discovered that the refrigerator is also being powered by this GFI circuit. Refrigerators should not be on GFI circuits since nuisance tripping can cause food to spoil. Have the GFI replaced and provide the refrigerator a circuit that is not GFI protected.

I already have a lock for my 28 footer. I've never locked the 16' or step ladder. I'm thinking about these for general securing. They would also be versatile for other types of loads. What do you think of these? http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200333961

What do you find to be the most reliable and easy to use material and method to tie ladders to roof racks?

Any attic mounted air handlers? Maybe a condensate drain. Perhaps they took advantage of existing boiler pipe to provide route for condensate drainage to sump pit.

Some general guidelines here but your locality my have specific requirements. The spacing in the picture looks to be inadequate. http://www.decks.com/deckbuilding/Ledge ... _Fasteners

Sparky was called in on many more significant issues than this. It's no big thing for him to check out these splices while he's onsite. It's in the report.

Here's what I said. At two locations on the roof where roof slopes meet exterior sidewalls, there's an extra layer of shingles along the edge. This condition made it more difficult to check for proper step flashing without the possibility of causing damage. Since I'm not equipped to repair any damage that I might cause by checking for step flashings, I elected not to do it. There are some other roofing repairs that need to be done on this house. While the contractors are here for those roof repairs, have them check for proper step flashings at roof slopes to sidewall junctions and correct if needed.

I'm aware of Copallum and that my be what is under the tape. But I thought Copallum uses heat shrink insulation so why would standard tape be wrapped on them? I recently read in a Douglas Hansen book about barrel crimps designed for equipment grounds should not be used on current carrying conductors. I could quote the language but that's his copyright. Maybe he'll come along and verify that my suspicion might be correct. To be more exact, in the book he called it poor practice.

How did you come to know this? I know it's not required and likely has little or no value, but I don't know of anything prohibiting the use of tape on wire nuts. I knew and worked with many electricians that taped every wire nut they installed and never had an issue with approval from the electrical inspectors. Maybe I'm imagining I heard it, I don't know. Thanks and I'll remember that it's not prohibited. Thanks to Brad for calling me on it as well. Now, in this panel, taped wire nuts were not the concern, even though I mentioned that practice in my previous post above. The taped splices in the above pictures are not wire nuts. They are some other type of splice. That's what Ill be writing up for further review.

I'm not questioning if splices are allowed in the panel. I'm questioning the method of splicing. I believe they used barrel crimps which are ok for equipment grounds but not ok for current carrying conductors.

I think somebody used barrel crimps on those splices I pictured. I'm writing it up for further investigation and correction as needed.

If wire nuts are done correctly, there is no need to tape. If there is a bad connection, taped wire nuts would make it more difficult to inspect for loose connections, corrosion, etc.... I'm sure there are other reasons.