John Dirks Jr

It's weird how that smaller flue tile is offset from the one on the left. Don't think I've seen that before.

A kid with no regard for who pays for things.

Erby, my house is 1962.

I think the insurance companies stopped asking about aluminum wiring some time ago. At least that's the content of discussion I've had with realtors in recent times. I've dealt with both Allstate and Geico in the recent years. Neither of them asked me if my house had aluminum wiring.

I have this compressor with a powerful electric motor and a compressor pump that works great. It's fixed on top of a small tank that has a few tiny pin holes in the bottom. Is there a thicker type of compound I can coat the bottom of the tank to seal the pin holes? Im sure if I seal each leak individually, more will just pop up. Thats why I like to try and coat the entire bottom with something. Transferring the motor and pump to another tank is possible but it looks like more work than I care for on this thing.

That is how I got it

I've decided to keep them. They work fine and if I ever need them in a bind when another tool breaks down, they're ready to use. And, if you like that old fashion electric motor smell, you get that too when you use them.

Ok, I found a place to hide it for now. Never know if I need to drill nice straight holes in hot butter, or maybe marshmallows

It actually drills nice straight holes. But if put any pressure on it it stalls. No wonder it was put out to the curb.

This drill press was free and I hoard junk so you know the story. Its motor is 110v and really weak. Is it possible to rewire this motor to run 240v and get some more power?

Are these old power tools worth anything to collectors? They work. I have new cordless stuff I use now. I was about to recycle these. Should I go ahead and chuck them in the metal bin at the landfill?

Just bring Lurch from the Adams Family along. He can put is arm out the window and hold the ladder on top.

There are still meters inside around here. Even some from the 1960's that have the meter in the basement.

If you can post some better pictures it could help experienced people here give opinions. Some wider angle shots of the entire building showing where the cracks are might help in diagnosis.

I've been able to adapt to clients needs all along. I even have a separate agreement on hand for partial inspections. I few times in my 11 year career I've had a client abort the inspection short of fully completed. Saves them some money.

The older Anderson wood frame windows are the topic here. Not just the windows but also the framework surrounding the windows. Most of the time I see these windows they are in homes built in late 80's and throughout the 90's. They have a wooden frame and sill that is encased in vinyl. The corners of the wood sill are exposed and I assume a point of water intrusion. Sometimes there's significant rot of the sill and sometimes not, even mixed on the same house. Sometimes the sill is completely rotted and all that is left is the hollow vinyl cover. What allows the water intrusion that causes this rot? For those of you who have removed these windows with the rotted sills, what condition have you found the surrounding framing in?

About those service entrance cables. It looks like they are not high enough above the low slope roof. I bet the cables were there first, then somebody built the addition on the rear of the structure which causes clearance concerns with the cables.

A flexplate is the part that goes between the engine crankshaft and the torque converter on vehicles equipped with automatic transmission. On manual transmission vehicles it's a flywheel. Some people call it flywheel on auto trans vehicle too. However, the correct name is flexplate.

Which voltage sniffer do you guys like? I lost my Fluke which worked well. I tried putting a Gardner Bender one I have into service but it's too sensitive. It reads voltage even an inch away from a receptacle without even inserting the tool into the receptacle. No good since I cant use it to check for polarity in older two prong receptacles. My fluke was at the right sensitivity so you had to insert it to get a reading.

Marc, that Cummins engine is a good one. Is your truck automatic or manual transmission? Dodge automatic transmissions have a bad reputation. John, the dollies come in handy for sure. With a longer car like the wagon, the garage is not long enough to have two vehicles end to end with room to work. I can do it with two Mustangs though. Anyway, rotating any car 90 degrees and pushing it to the back gives tons of work space for the project car while leaving more than adequate space to park two other cars in the garage. Here's the cracked flexplate from the wagon. It was still drivable but making a noise similar to a rod knock. Imminent failure for sure.

I heat with a kerosene jet type heater. The building is not currently insulated in any way. It also has a ridge vent so most of the heat I pump in goes right out the top. If its 20 degrees outside, I can get the building up to about 50 degrees. 50 degrees is plenty warm when you're out of the wind and have plenty of Harpoon IPA in the mini fridge. Here's the current beast I'm tackling. My sons '79 Malibu wagon. Changing a cracked flex plate, installing new upper control arm bushings and upper ball joints, new front shocks and a heater core since I broke it by pulling on the heater hose to remove it.

Hi Jake, You came to the right place to get perspective about things related to the home inspection business. The members here helped me stay focused on important things when I first got started. I did it on my own and I must admit it scared me pretty good at times. It can still scare me but not as much or as often. Nonetheless, when I got scared I came here to this site not afraid to ask for advice. The members here were a priceless support base for me, even though I got beat up now and then. This business is mainly about communication, in person and more importantly, in writing. It's not just the house. It's also the people buying the house. Their concerns vary and you need to be able to read them and make them feel comfortable that you are protecting their interests, even when the news is not so good. General technical knowledge is good obviously. Also good is ability to search and find information about things you don't know. Wherever you want to do this work, study the governing requirements for that locality. Whatever those requirements are, they are a minimum for which you can build on. Use the minimum as the base and expand with your knowledge from there. Again, communication is key. That and, not being afraid to say, "I don't know the answer". "I don't know but I will research and find a conclusion" I made it as an independent from the beginning. I'm glad I did it that way. I believe that if you make yourself, nobody else can break you but yourself. If you let others make you, they will break you.

Thanks for the link Jeff. Now I know more stuff to talk about with clients.

Do the NM cable manufacturers use any light oil as lubricant in the manufacturing process? I saw a drop hanging off of a conductor in the panel at an inspection yesterday. It was a light oil of sorts. I could not figure out how it had gotten there.

I did spend some time in the garage this past summer. If you like to read excessively, you can delve into my progress thread on rescuing a 93 Mustang from the total hack jobs of previous owners. There's a a bunch of pics and a few vids too. >> https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/out-with-the-new-in-with-the-old.899295/ I see the discussion here on the dislike of Facebook. To make a long story short, I completely deleted my Facebook. The people who matter can find me if they want. Too much garbage for me in the social media.