Ken Meyer

No luck Googling American Appliance Mfg., they don't have a web site, at least not that I can find.[]

Just for the record, I think you can still buy those things new. - Jim Katen, Oregon Are they made that way so they save space? Can you stack things on them, like a dryer for instance? When I got to the house, the buyer was already there, the place was not locked, and e had tried to pry the lid off the thing, not knowing what it was. I'm glad he didn't succeed.

Nope. But that was the least of the problems this place had. Click to Enlarge 40.83 KB Click to Enlarge 101.48 KB Click to Enlarge 123.58 KB Click to Enlarge 74.33 KB

However you slice it, it's past its life expectancy. Thanks, Chad.

Found another one today, I tried looking it up, but the serial number sequence didn't seem right. It looked too old. This must be a different manufacturer than American listed on the water heater age charts. My guess is 1978 from the last 2 digits, the UL label says 1977. Click to Enlarge 36.08 KB Click to Enlarge 101.15 KB

Thanks, everyone. The house was built in 1958, the water heater was in a hall closet with shelves built around it. From the outside, it was in remarkably good condition. I didn't think to take a photo of the whole thing,but the TPR valve did look a bit different. It could very well be as old as the house. A couple of months ago, I had one that was wrapped in a thick blanket of insulation, so I could not determine it's age, and no one was willing to give me permission to remove the insulation. The buyer got a home warranty and less than 2 months later the WH conked. It was 41 years old. Thanks for the compliment Brandon. My little Olympus 1050SW takes great closeups, and it's tough. I did do some Photoshop adjustments to make the numbers more visible.

Anyone seen this brand before? Any help on the age would be appreciated. Click to Enlarge 53.31 KB

Between 5 and 6 feet. I'll include it in the report as Brandon suggested, better safe than sorry.

Is this heat duct insulation considered a combustible material? The combined furnace/water heater exhaust flue is almost touching it, but I could see no sign of damage from heat. Click to Enlarge 42.64 KB

Hi WJ. I wrote up the lack of bolts on a deck ledger a while back. For the re- inspection I went into the crawlspace to see if I could see any of the bolts (cripple wall). Every nice new shiny bolt end was visible in the sheathing between the studs. I see this quite often when the interior section of wall is exposed-- scary stuff. Yes, sometimes they miss. On this deck, that's not the only place they missed. Using hold downs to beef up the attachment to the house may have been a good idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Click to Enlarge 34.62 KB Click to Enlarge 29.51 KB Click to Enlarge 18.86 KB Click to Enlarge 42.04 KB Click to Enlarge 26.97 KB

By the way.... I've found electrical issues on 3 new construction inspections in the last week or so: all in different counties(rev. polarity, multiple neutral wires and different size wires to boot under the same lug, 3 way switch issues, under sized wire in panel, etc.). There were other minor issues besides the ones listed above. How is it that electricians are screwing this stuff up, and then code enforcement officials are missing this stuff? It makes me wonder if the code guys are really even looking at what they are supposed to..... I wonder the same thing sometimes. Last week I found a panel in a house that had 2 fairly recent (1 year old) inspection stickers from the county, but no one noticed that the house panel was a sub panel fed from another panel in a separate building. That's where the service came in from the pole, and where the meter was. Since I didn't see a meter on the house, I went looking for it. In the house sub panel, the grounds and neutrals all terminated on the same bus bar. I think the when the municipal inspectors come out, sometimes they only look at the specific thing(s) that the permit was pulled for. Maybe they don't have the time, or aren't supposed to look at the whole system, I don't know.

Thanks, I'll go with that. There are more problems with this panel and another one I found in the pool house that feeds this one, making the house panel a sub panel and wired all wrong. Lots of other stuff wrong, too.

That doesn't really answer the question.

In this GE split bus panel, there are 22 120V breakers in the lighting section, most of them twins. Usually I can find the maximum # of breakers allowed on the label, but I can't find it on this panel. It does say "70 AMP max. branch breakers". Does that mean the total combined amperage of all of the branch circuit breakers? Click to Enlarge 65.59 KB

After weeks of looking at the thing every other day online, I'm going to give in and buy one, too. One question for those of you who are using them: what kind of belt holster are you using? I assume Kurt is the only guy who custom made his own holster.

Too bad, I'll bet you would have liked to know what they found. I'm going to ask the buyer to keep me posted on what he finds, he may or may not.

I think Richard is onto it. His theory explains why the OSB still looks good. Mushrooms are just the fruiting bodies of the fungus, which has to have been there awhile before the mushrooms sprout. The OSB would show evidence if it had been wet for years. Here's a closer look. Click to Enlarge 28.53 KB

Has anyone seen mushrooms growing out of Hardie plank? This was a first for me. This is on the gable end of a garage, south side. Most of the butt joints have been recaulked, the house is 8 years old. From the garage attic, I do see some water stains on the roof sheathing at the peak. The mushrooms are growing out from lower down, about 18 to 20 inches off to the side below the peak. The OSB looks fine from the garage attic, no staining at all or other signs of moisture. I would think that if mushrooms are growing in the OSB, there would be more evidence. My moisture meter placed right next to the mushrooms picked up only a slightly (2 per cent) elevated reading compared to the rest of the siding in that area. Of course, it's nice and dry now. Can the mushrooms be growing out of the siding? I can't really tell where the water is coming in, my best guess is wind driven rain getting in under the shingles or around the flashing at the peak. I couldn't stick around too much when trying to get a closer look at the peak, there were two yellow jacket nests under construction right behind the barge rafter, but I did get a couple of pix before being driven back down the ladder. Click to Enlarge 40.12 KB Click to Enlarge 43.16 KB Click to Enlarge 53.32 KB

Thanks, the analogy about the new car is perfect, I'll be using that one in the future. I think they will press the issue with the builder, we had other discussions during the inspection about imperfections in the paint and other cosmetic issues, and I told them pretty much the same thing, since it's a new house, they have a right to expect it to look new.

Thank you Chris, that is good advice. The report is finished except for this one last thing, I was just waiting for an answer to this question.

The top of this vinyl slider widow is bowed, as you can see, but it does not affect how the slider operates, and the screen insert can be removed from the inside. Is this worth mentioning? I think it was probably bent before it was installed, but it got put in anyway. This is new construction. Click to Enlarge 28.88 KB

It's the side wall, and they did extend the width of the garage. It's a flat site, no chance of movement like that. The foundation wall is newer than the slab. I think it's just unfinished work, the house is in foreclosure, it looks like the owner was trying to fix it up & flip it, but things went south on him and he never finished most of the numerous projects he started, like the garage door, for example. Click to Enlarge 29.87 KB

A new water line is a possibility, the line comes into the crawl on that side of the house behind the garage.

Let me guess. Amity? - Jim Katen, Oregon Nope, SW Portland, but in Washington County. We don't have any hillbillies in Multnomah County. []

I don't know, there was so much crap in there. Are you thinking this was done for drainage? One concern I had was a trip hazard, since the electrical panel is directly above this.