Jerry Simon

Settled footing. Just saw one with over an 8" drop. Like you said, nothing above suggested foundation movement itself. (Foundation held in place by adjacent foundation walls, soil pressure, floor structure above.)

Doing new construction year-end warranty inspections for several houses in same subdivision. One complaint was that the bath exhaust fan, in only one bath of three, never turned off. Builder said this was normal. You know what I said. Just did another one in the subdivision, and one of the bath fans, different location from above, didn't turn off when its toggle-switch was turned off. Homeowner said her handyman *adjusted* the fan, and now it still runs for at least a half-hour before turning off. Any help understanding this would be appreciated.

Maybe, maybe not. I've been fighting those suckers for five years. EVERYTHING sealed outside, but finally had to spray-foam my wooden knee walls that they kept chewing through. Little assholes. Mouse Holes I originally was concerned about arcing/burning inside the panelboard that could escape through the openings.

You guys flag these three small open holes on the back of a main electrical panelboard's metal cabinet as needing to be sealed? Cabinet is not mounted flush against foundation wall (one could stick their pinkie into the larger hole). Same holes at top of cabinet if you're familiar with this brand.

Yellow?

Is this type of exhaust fan rated for a wet location above the shower stall (regardless of GFCI protection)?

Wires are tapped off line-side of main disconnect circuit breaker lugs. I could not determine where these wires ran to. Here's what I wrote in my report: "Safety Concern Inside the main electrical panelboard, wiring circuits are dangerously tapped-off the main service entrance cable lugs, and this poses a shock hazard. Should the main disconnect circuit breaker be turned-off, this wiring would remain dangerously energized. An electrician should re-wire as needed to eliminate this hazard." Electrician who checked it said CommonWealth Edison, our local electrical supplier, did this in relation to their new *Smart Meter* installation. Electrician agrees it's odd and he's never seen this, but says there isn't anything he can do to correct such, and to contact ComEd. Is this something anyone else has seen, or any comments about this? Wires (black & white) can be seen in attached picture.

Weirdest HVAC system today I've ever seen in 27+ years. Anyway, finally figured out "some" of the heat was electric radiant in the ceilings. Thank goodness I bought that inexpensive thermal-imaging camera for my IPhone or I would have only been guessing at such. Also found the heating elements in the large living room were not functional. Use of the camera today was a life-saver and justified the purchase 100% !

Basement is otherwise dry. Your posit makes sense. Drilling as you say may give the water a path down to better soil, or, down to stone around footers. Then, sink a 3" PVC pipe to footer stone. Good thoughts.

1950's era house with shallow (2') window wells, no installed well drains. Wells are filling with water during moderate-heavy rainfall. Water is not coming over tops of wells or through sides of metal window wells; it's perking-up through soil below. Soil grading is mostly fine & dandy (in fact, worst problem is at well where grading is excellent). Basement is finished, so adding well drains that run down basement walls and tie-into stone below basement slab not an option (I've seen such done and work well on several occasions). And, digging and installing new well drains would be extremely costly. All I can think of is to dig down in each well to accommodate pouring about four inches of concrete in the base of each well, half the depth of the new concrete below the bottom edges of each metal window well, the other half up above the bottom edges of each window well. Then, use an appropriate type of sealant to seal the perimeters of the wells to the new concrete bases. Anybody have other helpful thoughts?

Just used FLIR ONE GEN III for first time. Well worth the $200 price tag IMHO. I know it's about as basic as one can get, but can't wait to try it out on a job. Thanks for the help.

As long as it doesn't become a pandemic. Thanks for the help. Bought the basic FLIR One Gen III yesterday

I've done that a few times with no temp changes. I've either got a bad laser therm or found multiple inoperable systems and didn't realize it 😯.

Maybe I'll get one of those basic IR scanners for my IPhone. I hear they're at least good enough for this. Thanks!

Hey all you mothers. . . How do you check an electric, in-floor heating system? Only once that I can remember did I feel a warm tiled floor after turning up the system thermostat. And, I've never had much luck using my laser thermometer, either (though I hardly use it and am probably doing something wrong). Perhaps using my clamp-ammeter inside the main electrical panel? On a related note, these systems have *test* buttons on their thermostats, but after pressing such a test button, I don't notice any change. Thanks for any help here.

Not disputing your calculations, Jim, but every other furnace I've seen like that (sans water heater issue in my original post) has same size intake-air pipe. They've all been wrong?

The exact rating so the necessary amount of intake air for both the furnace and the hot water heater is supplied by this pipe. 😎 I do get your point; the pipe is likely under-sized.

Not a smart-ass question. The furnace closet doors have an air-tight perimeter weather-stripping/gasket and spring-loaded hinges to prevent CO from the attached garage from getting into the closet. AHJ acceptable? Who the hell knows. The thousands of IL cities/town all march to their own drums. Not to mention the Country of Chicago codes.

For the hot water heater's combustion air supply, you silly.

Hey Mark, no, not to augment anything. And, you can't take intake air from the garage with the furnace closet located solely in the garage; if a car is warming up in the garage, automobile-generated CO could be drawn through the ductwork into the living areas

The gas-fired furnace and hot water heater are located in a garage closet. Zero air-intake source from the garage. Took me a while to figure out why the furnace's exterior air intake flue pipe had been *tee'd* with an open-end pipe stub. Do you know why?

It appears to be Chrysotile, usually 30-40% asbestos content.

Truly informative, James. Very well written (almost like you used to hang-out with Sam L. Clemens). Always learning new stuff here.

Is the cable running from the neutral lug up to the main service entrance cable raceway bushing area redundant panelboard bonding (in addition to the neutral bar bond screw) ? If not, what's the purpose of this cable?

The caulk/siding colors won't match after a few years; joints look like shite.