exploreparadise2

There is an electric cable leading to a box on the cowl topping the furnace. Is that controlling a damper inside?

This furnace in a 1920 house is still making heat. The oil lines have been cut and it was converted to gas. I don't see many of these relics. It was manufactured by the Williamson Heating Co. Would it have been coal fired originally? Image Insert: 78.59 KB Image Insert: 88.67 KB Image Insert: 87.08 KB

Could the shelf be a prop for women's legs when they shave they shave them? Blair Seattle Home Inspector

The photo doesn't help much. I don't have knowledge of ACs being cooled by swimming pools, but I have come across what I describe as water cooled air conditioners. The condensing unit was installed in the basement rather than outside. The water was piped from the potable water supply, cooled the condensing coils, and drained into a waste pipe. The water was not re-circulated. Every time the condenser ran, a valve opened the water supply and kept it flowing. Unless you get free water, the cost savings from the small decrease in electrical consumption because a cooling fan is not used is more than offset by the increased water usage. Blair Home Inspection Seattle Bellevue

It's PVC. Under the dirt in the large photo I can see a grid pattern. PVC is embedded with a fiberglass base mat. TPO has no base mat and is smooth and white. Blair Home Inspection Seattle

You can't see it on the photo but there is another set of steps with three risers on the right side of the porch. A 71-year-old woman lives alone in the house. I told her to only use the short set of steps until the dangereous steps are fixed. It's a 55+ community. And yes, we are a spry bunch. The photo below is from the same house. I couldn't fit them all in, but there were 28 roof vents clustered at top of three sides of the hip roof. The attic space was about 2,000 s.f. The other photo shows the spacing of the crawl space vents, which continued along the perimeter. There were ventilation fans with humidistats in six of the crawl space vents. I'm guessing the builder had a mold claim in the past and thus, the overkill. Image Insert: 69.73 KB Image Insert: 59.67 KB Blair Seattle Home Inspection

I did an builder's warranty inspection at a one-year-old home in an upscale retirement community today. I think the builder or architect wanted to make a unique design statement at the front entrance. Maybe it's unique because most builders would see the safety hazard here and not attempt it. The jurisdiction is subject to the 2006 IRC. The top two treads are more than 30 inches above the grade and therefore require guards (R312.1). Because the run of five risers is interrupted with a landing, a handrail is not required. But what is odd here is the continually reducing width of each tread. R311.5.4 specifies that the width of a landing shall not be less that the width of the stairway served. Code or not, I am commenting that is my opinion that the stairway is unsafe. I know I'm not required to suggest a remedy, but do you think curved or angled handrails and guards on both sides that stay within the width of each tread is a reasonable solution? Image Insert: 72.05 KB Blair Pruitt Seattle Home Inspector

I've used Home Gauge for a couple of years and am very pleased with it. It's versatile and easily customized. I created a template for commercial inspections. The templates are easily updated. I tweak it just about every time I write a report. Be sure to back up the templates regularly on a storage device other than your hard drive. The canned comments are terrible. I deleted all of them. Customer service has been excellent. They try hard to sell their web hosting service, probably because it's more profitable than selling software. I didn't sign up because I upload the reports to my website. You can play around with the free demo version for a month, and if you buy, they just activate the demo version and you can keep your work. Blair Pruitt Home Inspection Seattle

It's good news that the OK senate is quashing the bill, but how did it pass with such a large majority in the house? I'm impressed that everyone is trying really hard to be polite in this thread. As others have promised, I will keep my own strident thoughts about religion to myself. I don't want to upset the civility applecart. Perhaps the forum moderator should allow regular discussions on religion and politics, but ban any talk on inspector organizations. Secularly and humanistically yours, Blair Pruitt Home Inspections in Seattle

IRC Section P2803.6.1(9) The discharge piping serving a pressure-relief valve, temperature-relief valve or combination valve shall be installed to flow by gravity. And (6) Discharge in a manner that does not cause personal injury or structural damage. And (7) Discharge to a termination point that is readily observable by the building occupants.

I never knew that the channel in the toilet that the waste flows through is called a colon. How appropriate.

I looked for reversing valves and didn't see them. Each is connected to a gas furnace/evaporator unit, one in the garage and one in the attic. Image Insert: 539.14 KB Image Insert: 556.84 KB. Here are the data plates. They're readable if you double click on the photos to enlarge.

Here's a photo of two new Bryant condensing units. The smaller unit on the left is rated at 4 tons and is charged with 7.95 lbs of R410A. The larger unit on the right is rated at 3 tons and is charged with 5.25 lbs of R410A. I double-checked the data plates. So why would the smaller unit have a higher rating? I couldn't visually discern a difference in the compressor sizes. Any explanations? Yes, I will be commenting on the disconnect switches installed behind the units. Image Insert: 770.94 KB

I'll be inspecting a warehouse with a concrete slab floor and foundation next week. Half of the warehouse, or about 14,000 s.f., is refrigerated and kept at 13 degrees F (I better pack some mittens). The buyer says that the owner told him that he is keeping the refrigerated section, which is vacant, cold because the floor will buckle if it warms. The buyer will not be using the warehouse for cold storage. I told the buyer that I don't foresee any issues with the floor, because warming it will only bring it back to the temperature it was when the concrete was poured and cured. Besides, it would be subjected to a far less dramatic temperature swing than any exterior slab in Minnesota would endure. Do any of you concrete masters have an opinion on this?

Randy, The provision for grandfathering in the last amended bill has not been removed. See Section 2 (2), which is copied below. Grandfathered inspectors will still have to pass an exam, which will be chosen or written by the new licensing board. "However, if a person performing the duties of a home inspector on the effective date of this act has proof that he or she has worked as a home inspector for at least two years and has conducted at least one hundred home inspections, he or she may apply to the board before September 1, 2009, for licensure without meeting the instruction and training requirements of this chapter."

Here's a chance for some of you to show off your electrical expertise. The photos are from a sub-panel installed in the same building as the main panel. I haven't seen anyone connect the grounding wires this way before. Two wires are wrapped around a third, which is in turn connected to the grounding bar. I see some other issues and input is appreciated. This is going to a long report-writing session, so I'll be able to include comments for a few hours yet. Thanks, Image Insert: 605.4 KB Image Insert: 620.06 KB

If you haven't already done the research, check out every competitor in your service area and make sure your name doesn't infringe on another business name or at least doesn't cause confusion. Also consider how your business name would be integrated into a website address. It is desirable to have both your business name and search keywords in the URL. When considering a logo, my opinion is to stay away from a magnifying glass over a house or a Sherlock Holmes hat. They are cliches and a consultant should do better than that. Keep it simple and don't have too many colors, unless you like to pay high printing costs for business cards. Don't let your business name restrict what you may do in the future. I chose Axiom Building Inspections because my work includes commercial property and not just home inspections. A business name with a city or geographic name can be restrictive as well. Most people don't know that an axiom is a statement universally regarded to be true, which hopefully is part of my work product. I don't care if they get the meaning, as long as they remember the name. A lot of people don't know what esoteric means either.

I found water-filled blisters under the paint of a 1940s house. The blisters appear on three sides of the house, at both the main and upper levels. My understanding is that using both oil and latex paint is the problem. Water vapor migrating through the walls is trapped under the paint and condenses on the cold surface. I don't know which paint must be on the top surface. Your feedback on the cause is welcome. So what's the solution? Removing the paint? Some of the wood siding boards have warped. I don't know how long ago the last paint of coat was applied. Image Insert: 382.98 KB

I'll chime in and say the roofing membrane is PVC. The grid pattern of the fiberglass mat is visible in the second photo. EPDM isn't reinforced with a base mat. Having the the reinforcing fibers is a good thing. Early examples of PVC weren't reinforced and tore easily.

I've been using the same telescoping ladder for six years and it works great. I'll have to try cleaning it with Pledge wipes. Do'es it have to be lemon scented? Another good use for the ladder is accessing upper level roofs. It's small size and light weight makes it easy to carry up to the first roof.

Relax Mike! The cherry trees have started to bloom. Go look at the pretty blossoms and you'll feel better. Later, you can tackle lawyers and newspapers and Duane Roundy.

When his signature in a public forum includes a fine print legal disclaimer, I'm guessing Mr. Connell spends a lot of time in court and around lawyers.

Richard, What species of wood is used on the cabinet and drawer fronts? Looks exotic.

I think what Brad is suggesting is that we use TIJ as a vehicle for home inspectors to build reciprocal links with each other. The idea being that we would include links to websites owned by inspectors outside of our service area and therefore not competitors. Those linked inspectors would in turn link back and we would all have a bunch of links and rank higher with Google. The programmers at Google are pretty smart and probably thought of this long before home inspectors did. Google probably discounts reciprocal linking through collusion because it doesn't increase the importance of the website in the searcher's mind. The latest opinions from SEO consultants that I've read is that recripocal linking is dead. No one knows for sure though but the Google programmers. Many SEO advisors also feel that Google's page ranking has become irrelevant. Check the page ranking of the top sites in a search and you'll see they're not consistently good.