kurt

That's reasonable and smart.

Actually, there is a major restoration of Wat Pho temple right now. I was admitted into where they were working; it's a bunch of people sitting there setting individual tiles and glass pieces all day long. They were pretty cool about me watching over their shoulders. They let me handle the glop they set the tile in...pretty sure it's mortar with admix. Some of it felt limey. I couldn't read the packages to see what all the stuff was.

I have some loose tile on my temple. What is the best way to repair this problem? id="left"> Click to Enlarge 161.78?KB Click to Enlarge 143.2 KB

Yes, I am. I know folks in Flint, and in Grand Blanc the white suburb right next door where the water is fine. What's getting screwed up about the story besides the usual media confusion?

Someone posted a link in TIJ (I think it was in here anyway) about lightening blowing up a house with black pipe. Anyone know where that is?

If one operates on the metric of "if a moron can screw it up, we shouldn't use it" eliminates....everything. PEX, NMC, OSB, all modern window technologies, all engineered lumber, foam insulation, nail guns, asphalt shingles,.....there's gotta be more, but yeah, pretty much everything.

I am not convinced of the arguments against CSST due to a phenomenon called multiple regression analysis. Google it, read up, and then determine if "all the fires" or other alleged issues are, in fact, solely caused by CSST as the single contributing factor. Are the studies correlational, and does correlational observation determine causation? I don't think it does. Does the presence of a CSST lobby prove fraud while iron pipe lobbyists are deemed moral and ethical? Of course not. It is innuendo, not data. How does the data reflect all other mitigating factors in a home fire? I'm not finding that it does.

I count 3 nay, 2 aye, with two sort of abstaining with a split opinion, sort of. Shows what you get when you talk to home inspectors....buncha personal opinions. Put it on another tack or material and everyone jumps up and down about follow the rules and listing. Collectively, we're a sorry lot. I'd use the stuff and not think about it one teeny bit. If the AHJ said more bonding, OK, more bonding, then I'd not think about it more.

If someone asks about software and focuses on hardware options before thinking about report structure and format, I would advise rereading Kogel's post several times until it sinks in. There is no discussion of HI reportage like one finds in a corporate or HR environment, or really, anywhere outside the micro world of home inspections. HI's think about which device to use before thinking about what the reader needs. The discussion is and has always been completely back asswords.

Because HI's are emotionally involved with their software. No one actually thinks about reportage, they just apply a personal logic that fulfills what they think is important. "No, no, no....you're not thinking, you're just being logical"........ Neils Bohr

A mold consultant is only slightly less ridiculous than a mold inspector. If you need to pay someone to tell you if you're house is clean and dry, some advice of a different order is required. This is called a 1st World issue. I have mold allergies. Everyone does to some degree. Your larger question is who to believe. Science and medical fact, or people earning their living pandering.

Interior air for combustion and dilution is allowed so long as all other requirements for installation are met. Local restrictions may apply. The crawlspace part is kinda lousy though. It would warrant a comment if I was writing a report, even if there's no fine print prohibiting it.

I like how you wrote this up.

An observation not proving anything..... The copper pipes in my apartment building basement were relatively clean and pure looking copper. I stored an open bag of Scotts Turf Builder in the basement. 6 months later the pipes had noticeably changed color toward blackish. Circumstantial, but interesting. Fertilizer, charging batteries, swimming pool chemicals, etc. have all been shown t cause the issue. At least, that's what gets talked about all the time when people bring this up.

Asbestos was used in >3000 building products for over a century. It can be in just about anything. USG has been Chapter bankruptcy proceedings for >35 years over asbestos in nearly all of it's products. It can be in old plaster, and often is. I've even found it in paint. Several times. If we're talking reasonable, prudent, and satisfactory, encapsulation with Jif Set and laying vinyl over it is better than removal. Much better. I'm only providing some of the obstacles to what's reasonable and prudent that derive from the nearly trillion dollars worth of asbestos litigation currently being waged. Any asbestos air test can turn up asbestos. The testing done as part of a removal is only to show that conditions were not made worse; it's not to see if it's better. IOW, one usually finds some before and after. I've read that asbestos fibers have been found in small concentrations on the polar ice caps; it's a component of the atmosphere at this point. You're asking good questions without good answers. How bad is it really? There's approximately 187 microfibers alleged to be as bad as asbestos, and what's happening in China now is effecting world air quality levels, and the stuff is bad. I'm not sure how you calibrate this to satisfy your personal concerns. Any reasonable effort at encapsulation should be just fine for you. That said, there's no good definition of what reasonable means.

Air cell isn't a problem if it's original and sound and the end caps are sealed. Hardly any of it is unless one beats on it or removes it.

A good wax has been shown to work fine. That said..... Covering it used to be the recommendation, but some installers are getting tagged in 3rd, 4th, and 5th party lawsuits alleging their installation over the tile created a hazard. While ridiculous, that doesn't mean installers don't have to deal with the hassle. It's a can of worms, unfortunately. Reasonable prudent measures are wilting under the possibility of legal action. Removal is where everyone seems to go, although that's a bad, or silly, idea imho. I don't know how it works in your neighborhood.

Chicago and concrete platforms intended to hold out water don't go together so well. I can't count the number of times I've had condo associations or individuals call me to figure out a coating that will stop concrete planks or platforms from leaking. For reasons I don't understand, it's not as simple as prophylactic coatings.

Maybe. It's about all you can do at this point. I'm finding multiple problems with these garages over storage spaces. It should be approached like a rain screen application with a "roof" membrane and drainage plane outlets. There's also problems at the garage apron. The foundation is cut down to create a pocket for the planks and water comes in around the pockets. There needs to be a membrane or something similar (maybe Rubber Wall?) over the plank/pocket area. These things require engineering and installation detailing that they (mostly) aren't getting.

That's exactly what mine are. Waterproof, windproof, hood mittens. Most of the time I wear windproof fleece fingerless gloves, switch to hooded mittens when it's brutal.

It's also good for supplying screws for all the times there isn't a complete inventory.

Fingerless, the type where you can pull a hood over your fingers, or pull the hood back when you have to do something.

Me too. I've blown up a couple backing the screws out; spare screws don't help much when that happens. Only blown up one putting wrong screws back in, a long time ago. It was a learning experience.

Only that radon is a single issue, easily remediated; there are dozens of others not so simple. Be careful out there.

One of the few lights in my career involves never having had to use either term. Having never inspected one, I still confuse the differences.