kurt

Robert, what are you trying to say?

Is it wrong for inspectors to try on silly hats they find in rich people's houses? Click to Enlarge 41.68 KB

Ummmm......no. Not even close. I build stuff. All my friends build stuff. We understand what it costs to do business, and to stay in business. We talk about our fees as home inspectors, yet folks seem completely unaware of the economic realities of building stuff. We complain about why all the stuff is getting built so crappy. Ever wonder why? Maybe because we don't respect tradespeople enough to pay them a fee that will support a business run like a business should be. So, the good guys bail out and the bucketheads fill the void. Someone charges a fee that will support a middle class lifestyle. Then we claim they are robbers. Let me propose that this is head in the ass thinking.

Not if the contractor understands markup, profit margin, capitalization, and overhead.

I've seen $750-ish to >$4k. One gets what one can. There's no pit trading lally column futures to set a price.

I'm not sure what I'd call that. There's no apparent wythe, just a jumble of field stone. Kinda lousy stone work, what with the massive mortar joints. It looks like a post WWII thing with that siding. I see that stuff on post WWII cottages and houses over in SW Michigan.

Pretty much the same here. It's the one thing that Type N mortar is reasonably good at correcting. It's not so much pointing or repointing as it's squishing the mortar into the "joints" as best as one can.

I've stopped doing laundry altogether.

In Chicago, it's usually partially mortared crap with the mortar long since turned to powder. Or dirt held in place with crap.

It makes me fear for the future of the Republic.

First, file a request with the Department of Redundancy Department.

Yes, it is, and the OP can spend their time getting lost in the universe of green options. Or, they can put up a picture and we can tell them in a reasonably condensed and summarized version that applies to their specific property. Green Building Advisor is fine for you and me, but most beginners don't know where to start.

Tom's crawlspace vapor retarder recommendations are good and the rest of it is sound, but it's not necessarily what you need for your particular house. There's a lot of stuff that goes into this, more than blanket prescriptions. What's the house design? What kind of attic.....overhead, side crawlspaces (like a cape cod), any vaulted ceilings, locations of ducts....all sorts of stuff. I've found that most insulation contractors are the worst advisors about what to do; they have a product and they sell it. Most, not all, but most. There's ancillary issues of tightening a house up with foam, primarily indoor air quality. We've been finding that the one's that are tightened up like a foam beer cooler can have serious air quality issues that require an ERV or similar ventilation system to introduce fresh air. So, it's not complicated, but it's not always a simple prescription. And, I've found the DOE pamphlets to be essentially correct but almost always so generic as to have little actual value in prescribing what one ought to do in a particular structure. Put up a simple picture of your house as a start.

Sorta the right idea. Too confrontational and 20th century thinking. Kids already get it; they just need it framed and presented in the right form. Definitely brings it to the wrong audience. HI's, as a group mind....forget it. It's like an obese man fumbling around trying to find his dick.

Same here.

That may be it. I occasionally come upon 3 phase in small office buildings of the sort that might be/are medical facilities. It may have been a positive pitch to medical tenants.

Corinthians 2:11 or Isaiah 55:8. Maybe Proverbs 20:24.

Hot water/hydronic. It's a boiler not a furnace. Sounds like maybe the radiator is rusting out from the inside.

Ok, so aeroseal doesn't work for this. It was just a thought. The times we've done it, it does coat the interior of the duct, but it sounds like it's not a good idea for fiberglass. $2K is about average for a small to medium sized house. Sounds like new metal is where you're headed. Should be interesting.

We do some pretty fancy sheet metal work but I'm damned if I'd know how to replace a trunk in someone's attic without opening up the the roof or otherwise tearing the house a new asshole. What's "accessible" got to do with it? Teranz, look up aeroseal and see if there's a vendor in your area.

Good advice, but highly problematic. How does one retrofit metal ductwork into an existing structure? What about something like Aeroseal for this? Wouldn't that work? Could it work?

Yes. They sell similar tubs in China.

I agree, not even a couple....inventory is taxable. No one wants to pay twice. I'm sticking with the serial #'s. Thanks fellas.

Well, that's what I came up with too. The seller insists it's from '06. Oh well.....

I may have goofed up on the age of some equipment. All Nordyne Serial #'s. FGA010905655 Furnace 2: FGA011105133 AC: FSA020202328 Anyone got an idea how old?