DonTx

I personally call it out as something that needs repaired. Rusting rebar expands and keeps sluffing off concrete plus there is no telling how far in the rust goes. I usually advise the Clients to have a foundation repair company to make all necessary repairs. It's my opinion that "buttering it up with concrete" won't work. The concrete will sluff off also. Most companies I've talked to use non-shrink grout after cleaning and priming the metal and conrete to make sure that the grout will adhere to the conrete. From what I understand, it's usually a little more involved repair than what some may think.

I see 'em like that quite regularly...of course that doens't make it right. Generally, there is no grommet to secured the NM at the cabinet opening.

Do you have the serial number? Is this a water heater?

Troy, We do not have AHJ's in the counties here. Even in Houston, the AHJ is blind and deaf. I guess it's up to the sparky putting in the service panel as to what he uses. I see a lot of Kitchen and dining room circuits on 15 amp - 14 gauge wire also.

...or anyone else who knows about pools. I think I pretty much trashed this pool, but I'm wanting some second opinions... One thing I've heard go both ways is air bubbles at the pump motor. If there are air bubbles there, what does this indicate..if anything. I see them both ways and have always wrote the presence of air bubbles up. Download Attachment: pooldeck2.JPG 85.5 KB Download Attachment: pooldeck.JPG 79.77 KB Download Attachment: pump.JPG 64.76 KB Download Attachment: waterlevel2.JPG 59.96 KB Thanks,

It's about 50/50 or perhaps 60/40 in favor of women with us. I guess it's where we're at, but agents rarely call us to schedule an inspection. My vote is the fridge mags and pens. I'd also throw in 3M Post-It Notes with your logo on them. I've spent a lot of money on other marketing things and always come back to those three.

If she can provide you with the manufacturers name and model number of the wood floor, you can go to their website and get their installation instructions. You might also want to check out: http://www.woodfloors.org http://www.nwfa.org http://www.nofma.org http://www.woodfloorsonline.com

T. That panel was on new construction.

Interesting site, I'm assuming it's yours. One thing that would really help is to edit the pictures with arrows and text boxes showing exactly what your looking at and describing the problems. Some of those pictures were taken from a distance and it's hard to tell exactly what we're suppose to be looking at in the photo.

Twist solid wire for a good connection? I'd say if you had to twist solid wire for a good connection, then you sould only be using one wire under the set screw. Anyways, those neutrals go under single set screws instead of being doubled up like they are.

Gotta admit; I missed the green ground screw.

This is a panel that one of my other inspectors found on new construction. From what I can tell, the neutrals are not grounded. I'm not sure why they have a jumper from the neutral buss to the ground buss since it does not look like the ground buss is grounded. I'm not sure why they added another ground bus to the panel instead of using the one that was there, unless they started to use this as a sub panel. Any thoughts? Download Attachment: markssep.jpg 35.51 KB Super Sized Download Attachment: markssepsuper.jpg 640.23 KB

Cool, thanks guys. Religious traditions are one thing I find fascinating when inspecting homes. Wow, thanks for the link to that site Joe, it was very informative and interesting to read.

Buster, You may be correct. The ICP compressor said "Three Stage" on it. I don't think I've ever run across the ICP brand and Preston's doesn't show it.

I've seen these things on homes in Jewish homes before. They are usually on doors to bedrooms and entry doors into the home. Can someone explain to me what they are for or what they represent? Also, this is the first time that I've seen all the Kitchen cabs, sink, appliances, etc labeled for either "meat" or "dairy". Curious about that also. Download Attachment: doorthingy2.JPG 22.02 KB Download Attachment: doorthingy3.JPG 20.86 KB Download Attachment: doorthingy.JPG 17.7 KB Thanks,

Sorry, I didn't take no pictures of this box, my bad. It was one of those things I started thinking about after I'd left. This was a residential home, the meter was above the service panel and I didn't see any grounding rod, however, it could have been encased in the concrete of the sidewalk but I never saw any wire coming out of the brick veneer. Also, there was a gutter box between the meter the service panel/fuse box that fed the service panel and the fuse box. I got the 12 amps from both a clamp on and my Amp Probe. This was an older home near downtown Houston.

See if someone can answer this for me. The service panel yesterday had 4 wires coming into the masthead. One was spliced to a smaller wire at the masthead.(wrote up) No ground rod noted for the home although all but 3 outlets showed to be grounded with the ST. In the panel, I measured 12 amps on the stranded ground wire (about a 1/0 size). Main breaker was 100 amps. There was only two wires terminated at the main breaker plus the stranded ground wire coming down from the meter box. I have no idea where the 4th and smaller wire from the masthead went. There was also a fuse box next to the main panel. The neutral and ground wires were paired up on a single buss (wrote up). Home was built in the late 60's to early 70's. Questions: 1. How would this system be grounded? 2. Why did I have amperage on the ground wire?

My guess is Maryland...

Do a search on the subject. I think Scott Warga had a very good thread on it a while back. Very eye opening.

I guess I should have stated this earlier, but they tiled over the brick. It looks like your every day run of the mill tiled shower. They just used that brick work as a backer.

I did a final inspection on a home yesterday and noted high moisture levels on top of, around and below the shower seat. The client had taken of 4600 pics during construction and said he'd look up the pictures of the seat. This is what he sent me and he asked if water got below the tile and onto the seat, if it would be a problem. My reply was: There's probably a wood structure below the brick (he confirmed it was) and that the brick is not water proof. I also told him I have concerns that the right of the seat side is not sealed at the Hardi backer, but that the Hardi backer is cut out for the seat. This seat looks like it's tied into the wall structure and water could end up there due to the lack of sealing the seat at the backer. His reply was "What can be done about it?" "The only thing I know is to redo it and put a liner up over the seat this time or live with it this way" I told him What are your thoughts? Personally, I've never seen a seat constructed out of brick and I'm assuming they did it this way because they felt the brick was "waterproof". I guess I should have recommended weep holes for the brick. Download Attachment: showerstall.JPG 19 KB Super Sized Version Download Attachment: showerstall2.JPG 490.18 KB

This sounds like we need to hear the full story! By the way, if someone started forwarding an email of mine like that, I'd have to ask them to have their attorney look up the definition of defamation and while he/she's at it, privacy laws.

Well golly, I guess I'll have to throw my hat into the "Don't always walk roofs" crowd. I'd say I walk about 10 to 15% of the homes I do. I'm not real keen on heights and but I'll try and find a way to walk it if I see something that concerns me. 2 stories..maybe...3 stories...forget about it. It is important for you to describe how the roof was inspected in your report and to your client. I do inspect all 1 stories from the edge. 2 stories if I can get out on the roof from a window. Now I do have an inspector who is a freakin' cat. There isn't much he doesn't climb. To date, I only know of one defect he caught that I didn't see from the ground, an unpainted storm collar. I don't knock any inspector for climbing roofs. I actually have respect for the ones who do it on a regular basis unless they're just climbing to be climbing to put on a show. I use either a pair of 10 x 50 Nikon binoculars or a spotting scope to look at the roof from the ground. Don't even try looking at one with those mini binoculars, they're worthless at best. Besides, if use the high quality glass to hunt, camp or fish, you can write those toys off your taxes. In fact, you can write off a lot of toys that way...I just wish I could figure out how to write off my guns and fishing equipment. I've only had one roof complaint and it was in my first year of business. Roof had those metal shingles over a cedar shingled roof. Told the lady it was junk, told her to get a roofer to repair the over 1 dozen loose and raised metal shingles I saw, told her that there was no flashing between the sidewall and garage...and a few other things. Calls me up 6 months later and says her roof is leaking. Asked her if she had followed both my verbal advice and written advise in the report..."No, my agent said inspectors blow these things out of proportion to cover ya'lls a$$es." "Then either you or your Realtor are gonna have to pay for this roof because I told you it was junk. You paid me for my advice and I gave it to you, I can't make you act on it." I never heard back from her.

Hmmm....I'd like to know those secrets also...but it's not worth my 10 bucks. Look at the franchise he owns...go figure.

Brian, Jim forgot rule 1a. If you only want a few inspections, try taking a nap. The phone will ring in random intervals just enough to keep you from getting a nap.