Ken Meyer

In the garage at yesterday's inspection, one of the exterior walls had been bumped out, and there is a 3" gap between the foundation wall and the poured concrete floor. It's just one of dozens of unfinished projects in this foreclosed home. I'm not sure what to say about this, or if I need to say anything at all. All the stuff in the gap is just clutter, by the way. Click to Enlarge 23.42 KB

Question of the day: If you have a gas dryer in a garage, how many tires does it have to rest on for it to be 18" above the floor? [:-bigeyes Click to Enlarge 26.24 KB

When in England some years ago, I heard "wimbly wambly" used to describe something that is wavy. Could be "wombly" though.

Although sometimes I don't mind.... Click to Enlarge 27.57 KB

Thanks for all your replies. The client is anxious about it, and I wanted to make sure it is not a serious concern. Her husband was putting his arm around her and offering reassurance. At least I think that's what was going on, they spoke to each other in Chinese. Maybe some of her anxiety rubbed off on me.

They just recently noticed the dip, maybe it's because they haven't used that patio door much lately, or perhaps they went around looking for things since the warranty is expiring. There are other cracks perpendicular to this one, she had pulled up the glued down carpet pad about a foot or so.

Agreed, so the solution seems to be remove all loose material and and fill it in to level the floor. How much more can it be expected to shrink?

Got a call last night from someone whose home warranty expires in 2 days. So I went out this morning to have a look. She is very concerned about a crack that she & her husband noticed in a finished basement room. It has patio doors opening to the back of the house. Just inside the patio doors, there is a noticeable dip in the floor. There is a retaining wall behind the house, and the lot is sloped. Only a small crawl space under the front entry. The crack runs the length of the room, all along the back of the house. No signs of movement from the outside. This seems like more than the normal amount of cracking. My guess would be either a poorly compacted base or a wet mix, since the foundation walls look okay. The downspout drain runs into the wall and through the crawl under the front entry and exits the foundation at the front of the house. There had been some cracks in the drywall around the upper corners of the patio doors and windows in the floors directly above the basement patio doors, but they have already been patched and painted. The homeowner is nervous about it, so for her peace of mind, I recommended a structural engineer. I did tell her that at the very least, the builder needs to remove all the loose material and fix the crack. I'd like to know if you think this may be anything serious. Click to Enlarge 41.11 KB Click to Enlarge 30.33 KB Click to Enlarge 37.68 KB Click to Enlarge 27.36 KB Click to Enlarge 35.07 KB

Is there a meter out by the street, or are all the meters in your area inside? If they are inside, someone has to come in to read them, and they would see an unmetered connection. Could it be that the 2 meters are there for the homeowner to keep track of water use for the apartment and the home separately?

Yes, Open Office, it has PDF capability built in. Also Primo PDF, or Green Print, the latter can save paper & ink, too.

We have a Decra roof on our house, installed in 2002. In early 2007 we had a solar array installed, and the installers had no problems other than wearing out a lot of drill bits going through the roof to install the rack, and wearing out their shoes from the granules. The roof covering did not distort from all their walking on it, and I've been up on parts of it as well, you can feel a little flex, but it does not distort from walking on it. I clean the gutters regularly and have never seen any granules. It is made to last. Image Insert: 102.15 KB

I think you got it, Richard. I should have thought of that. Sorry, I uploaded the wrong version of the first photo. Here's a closeup of the feeds from the main lugs that connect to the lower section behind the two single pole breakers, if that's indeed what they do. I couldn't see well enough back there. Image Insert: 160.02 KB

Panel is a Square D from 1952, the sub panel was installed some time later. There are a number of problems here; old obsolete panel, most of the wiring in the house is older, ungrounded NM cable, and there is corrosion on the breakers. Question 1: I can't see any markings on the breakers either on the front or anywhere to tell me the amperage. The service will most likely be upgraded anyway and this whole mess removed, but if I encounter a panel like this again, how can I tell the rating of the breakers? Question 2: This made my brain hurt when I looked at it at first, but I think I have it figured out even though it makes no sense why it was done this way. The two single pole breakers on the right (outlined in red in the first photo) are labeled as feeds to the the sub panel, but they go back to the main lugs, and through add on lugs attached to the main lugs over to the sub panel. The breakers (which should be double pole) are then bypassed and completely useless. Yes, I noticed the 3 wire feed to the sub panel. A second opinion would be welcome to confirm my conclusions, or correct me if I'm drawing the wrong conclusion. Image Insert: 307.17 KB Image Insert: 381.75 KB Image Insert: 308.66 KB

Here's an interesting article, ideas to get more out of your cell phone. Some of the services are free. I'm trying out Jott, it lets you create a reminder to yourself by using voice recognition and then it sends you an email. It takes just a minute to set up, I used it a couple of times today. Here's the story http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/technology/personaltech/03basics.html?em&ex=1207454400&en=93fa48333426e0ab&ei=5087%0A

It looks like a radiant barrier. It's better to install it under the rafters to reduce the radiant heat entering the attic. This will work somewhat, but it will eventually get dusty, and lose its effectiveness.

I knew someone would say that.[:-eyebrow

Can someone explain the reason that female threaded adapters are required to be accessible? Thanks

Maybe he could try this. http://www.instructables.com/id/Insulating-an-attic/ [:-bigeyes Or not.

A few years ago I added more attic insulation in some knee wall spaces, and I remember getting some Owens Corning fiberglass insulation that was encased in a plastic that allowed air to pass through it, so you could add it on top of existing insulation. It was very easy to apply as well. I didn't see it listed on their web site, maybe they don't make it anymore.

Sloppy, and obviously not done by a professional or even someone who knew what he was doing. There are only 3 conductors entering the sub panel, there is no neutral. The grounding conductor on the cable coming in looks frayed, and it's connected to the neutral bus bar instead of the grounding bus bar. All grounds should be terminated at the grounding bus bar. Way too much of the romex insulation jacket inside the enclosure.

The disadvantages are that the homeowner may not understand how to shut off power to the lighting (120V) circuits, and that even after doing so, the 240V circuits are still energized. Often in older homes the panels are poorly labeled, and sometimes additional single pole breakers have been added in the upper (240V) section, which should be reserved for double pole breakers (maximum of 6). The added circuit(s) in the upper section would still be energized after the homeowner thinks they have shut off power to the lighting circuits. Having a single main disconnect is a big improvement.

A Subaru wagon with a roof rack works for me, and it doubles as a vacation car, since it can get up in the snow, but the mileage is not so great. Next time, I'll get something with better mileage. Anything with a roof rack will carry an extension ladder.

They do. $50/month http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/deta ... 529dd6d5ea

The receptacle you are testing could be fed from another receptacle upstream, and there could be a faulty ground there, or at any other receptacle on that circuit if they are fed from one to another.

Why not just run it out through the roof at the first elbow in photo #2?