DonTx

Richard beat me to posting the solution to your problem. Just replace it with an Ultra Stinger and be done with it!!

Well, at least the www.wimp.com site was good....I didn't get the Llama song but if you go to the main index the clip of the Helicopters and Mini-Guns is well worth watching.

Geez, that's in my own freakin' back yard. Just what I needed, more bucket heads running around with new toys.

I think you're getting in the ballpark Corners. One of the problems I see is that many states, including Texas, will bend over backward to give out HI licenses to P.E.'s (I'll go ahead and throw in architects here also). It doesn't matter which field they come from; electrical, civil, petro, computers, etc. I do know in the last few years that they have tightened up on who got a P.E. after their name. The other problem is, P.E.'s are not required to follow the state SOP unless they have a TREC #. Even performing one of their inspections to those minimum standards would be an improvement over what many do now. As of the first of the year, the hours needed to be able to test for a HI license in Texas jumped from 188 to 440 for the Fast Track route. I'm not sure what the schools here are going to teach now, as they had a difficult time coming up with 188 hours worth of classroom material. If you go the apprentice route, you have to perform 25 inspections under direct Supervision from a sponsoring Professional Real Estate Inspector and another 175 under indirect Supervision (whatever that is) to become a Professional Real Estate Inspector. Personally I'd like to see them add an annual or semi-annual peer review/report verification to the mix. I think the Fast Trackers also need a minimum of X number of inspections under the watchful eyes of a sponsoring inspector. Many are getting out of school and still have no idea how to write a report or what a purlin is. P.E's should have to go the same route. Either the classroom route or sponsoring route, plus be required to take some kind of writing/communication classes (in reality, this should be required for all people entering the field). Now that would be a good start.

I think Kurt nailed it on the head when he said "Engineers understand vast amount of detail about a very tiny range of subjects." That has been my experience as well. We're blessed out the Yazoo with P.E.'s in Houston. I know several of them and have went along behind many of them. I've seen the work they do and from their reports, you can get a glimpse of their weeknesses and strengths. My past time is collecting reports on actual homes that others have inspected. I like doing this because 1. Every once in a while I learn some good information and may see a better way of doing something 2. I see the strengths and weeknesses of other inspectors I have as many bad inspection reports from P.E.'s as I do Joe Home Inspectors. Now some of these P.E.'s are the tops in certain fields. For instance, there are two that I would recommend to evaluate and design repairs for foundations any day of the week. They are really good at this. One even teaches a course in causes and effects of foundation failures. Hands down the best in the area on foundations if you ask me. However I've followed both of these guys on other homes and the rest of the report goes down hill after the foundation sections. For example. One of the Realtors who uses my services called one day and asked if I knew a good P.E. Sure I said, "the same one I recommended to you Mom for her foundation." Their client wanted an engineer to look at the foundation before putting a contract on it. While he was out there, they thought it would be a good idea for him to inspect the mechanical, plumbing and electrical. (I had no idea that he even offered "home inspections" but found out differently later) Well, his comments on the furnaces was, and I quote his exact statements here, "Gas furnace; attic, blue flame, okay", "Water Heater; utility room, blue flame, heated water, okay", "Service Panel box; no discrepancies noted" It took him 4 days to get that report to them also. The agent called me up almost in tears after getting his report and she told me what happed. Their option period was about to expire and she knew this was a bogus report. The Clients were upset. She paid me to go back out after getting an extension on the option period. The furnaces were 14 and 19 years old rust buckets, the Service Panel was a POS FPE with 3 breakers oversized for the wire size and the water heater was 12 years old with rust nearly up to the burner and corroded connections that looked like a science experiment. (I think the Sellers regretted giving that extension) Now this guy has been an engineer for 17 years. Damn good foundation man but couldn't inspect or communicate his way out of a wet paper bag. The other P.E. mentioned is a heck of a guy but I had close to the same experience on a framing inspection he did (I did the final). He's been doing inspections almost 20 years. Just goes to show you that a P.E. after your name doesn't mean squat. I'd even bet that in this area, and probably most other areas, the average HI is a much better inspector of homes than the average P.E. simply because the HI has a better grasp of the homes entire system and components. Now if a family member or friend was buying a house that I couldn't inspect for them, I'd hunt me out a Katen, Mitenbuler, O'Handley, Jowers type inspector and I'll be the freakin' hero for having recommended them. If they find something wrong that needs the attention of a P.E., then I'll go find one.

I believe that inspectors collecting money for their technical services should hold a professional engineer's license. And to take this up another notch, not to knock on all the other licensed PE's, but not only should you have an ABET accredited engineering degree and 4 years professional experience under a PE, I think you need to retake the NCEES PE exam every 4 years to hold your PE license. I thought this discussion was about ways making the industry better (including licensing) and protecting the consumer? Why would you want to water it down with a bunch of book learned, anal retentive types who's best summary of a building is "this home appears to be in average condition compared to other homes in the area of the same age and type"

It's the length of the dryer duct. Ya know, no more than 25 feet, 5 foot deduction for each 90 degree elbow, 2.5 foot deduction for each 45 degree elbow. IRC states you do not count the transition duct. I say the transition duct is the hose from the dryer to the duct. My other inspector says it's the section of duct that the hose connects to at the wall. This section is generally a 90 degree elbow and I subtact 5 feet for it.

We're talking dryer ducts here.... The IRC says you do not count the transition. I've always considered the transition the duct that connects the dryer to the duct in the wall. I have an inspector who says it's the first section of duct behind the wall where the dryer duct connects....which is usually a 90 degree elbow. What's your thoughts on this?

That's good info! Don't most data tags for electric furnaces have the temp range on them? I normally look for at least a 35 degree rise. If I get less, I then go checking the strips if I can get to them.

Okay, thank Mike, now explain what it does because I thought they were attached to springs.

What is the proper name for this? I've just always called them keepers. Download Attachment: window.JPG 40.34 KB

I check temps and airflow at all registers to see if there is a wide swing in temperatures. I either heard or was told that registers on the same zone should not have more than a 3 degree temperature difference. Anyone know about this? Any register with a temp difference of more than 5 degrees or a noticeable lack of airflow gets written up.

On several occasions now I've had the opportunity to put the PSM and the Tramex Moisture Encounter Plus on a head to head test. On sheetrock the PSM does not pick up moisture as deep as the TME+ If it's sheetrock, I grab my Tramex. On tile, I'm never sure where to set the Tramex. Is it sheetrock and plaster or should I set it on brick and concrete...hmmmm. I find myself wrestling with that decision on a daily basis. So I grab my PSM so I don't have to think as hard. If I could only use one meter, it would be the PSM simply because it's small, handy and has pins. I'm glad I don't have to use only one because I sure like my Tramex on sheetrock and paneling!

Thanks everyone. I've seen the counterbalance arm/damper on other systems, but not this one.

Today's home was 4038 sf 2 story, split zones with a thermostat for each zone and 1 five ton York unit. This HVAC company installs York units for the national builder. On their set up, they run a large duct from the return plenum back around to the supply plenum. Why would they do this? What are the pro's and con's of this setup?

No Bain, I'm not. I'll only remove an access panel if it's not sealed. Some have plates on the side, some have plates on the downstream side. One thing that got me to thinking about removing the plates is the cost of an evap coil. One of my clients received three quotes for a 5 ton evap coil and housing in the $2000 to $2500 range. I never knew they were that much.

Thanks Dom, that's kinda along the lines that I was thinking. It's also what I told my Clients. The condenser was a '96 model and I'm sure this evap coil was much older. At least the housing was. This home was full of things the Seller stated "they fixed" or added but was not present when I did the inspection. The stupid thing is, they listed all the discrepancies off of their old report and wrote down next to each one that it was fixed. Things such as GFCI's (there were none), backflow preventers (there were none), new flashing around the chimney (it wasn't), new lead roof jacks (they weren't), etc. Some people have the gonads.

In my quest to do a better job on the HVAC end of my inspections, I've started taking off any inspection panel on the evap. coil housing to see if I can see the coil itself. I found this one two days ago. The housing was rusted at the bottom pretty bad. I'm not sure if I'm looking at a coil that needs the scrap yard or a thorough cleaning. The temp dif was about 24 degrees. BTW, the pic is on the downstream side so I imagine the upstream side is dirtier. Download Attachment: evapcoil2.JPG 86 KB Download Attachment: evapcoil.JPG 72.18 KB

MC forgot one major paper - The Houston Chronicle where ASHI was mentioned resently. We're still getting calls from people asking if we're "ASHI" members due to that article. I can't say for certain whether it is because of ASHI branding or because of the moon phase, but the hits I'm getting from the ASHI website has increased and I have been booking more people requesting an ASHI inspector. I've also been very pleasantly surprised that we have booked more than the usual number of commercial inspections because of people finding us on the ASHI site. Even if I was in it just for the marketing, ASHI dues would be worth the money. ASHI is fast becoming one of my best lead sources.

Thank Jim, you've explained those two functions a lot better than anyone I've heard before. Now I think I understand them. Now, how about function #6, holding the button down while plugging the ST in? I've noticed that this function will trip AFCI's and GFCI's. I have the older ST-1D.

I figured the flickering was caused by the load the ST put on the circuit. What I can't figure out is why? It doesn't do it with all circuits. The readings I noted on position #4 and #5 of the ST were higher than other outlets in the house, but I'm not sure what those settings are or what they mean. I'm thinking they have something to do with the flickering.

I was inspecting a home yesterday and noticed that the Master Bathroom lights flickered just a little, like in an eye blink, whenever I plugged my ST into a Master Suite outlet. The "blink" would come just as the ST read out the volts. Same thing today (both new homes) so I started experimenting with the ST. On today's home, the hall bath lights would flicker when I plugged the ST into an outlet in the hall. I tabbed through the numbers on the ST and came up with these readings; #4 reading measured 1.4 - 1.7, #5 reading was 11 and #6 was .19. Other outlets showed 0 or close to it on #4 and #5 Can anyone shed some light on what these readings mean and/or what would cause these lights to "flicker" just as the ST was reading out? Edit: BTW, the voltage drop was 5.4% on the hall outlet and about that or less on other outlets.

Question: How far away were you when you took a picture of that copper turret thingy?

Didn't Michael Leavitt write an article on three light testers? I know about the session at Inspection World 2004, but I also thought he described this in print? Maybe someone here has that article. (if one exist) I do know the 3 light testers will not show a false ground. That alone is enough for me to buy one but I also use mine to check voltage drops. I'm really not sure what functions 4, 5 and 6 are, or what they're good for. Can the electrical gurus's come out and play?

The only problem with using the SureTest on some outlets and not all is that you'll miss the false grounds. I'd say we find at least one false ground in new construction about every other day. 99% of the time it's the tag end of the ground wire making contact with the neutral.