Jim Morrison

We do exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason. I'm continually amazed at how many people actually seem to read that stuff. - Jim Katen, Oregon Ditto

Well, maybe not...but I've never had fresher breath!

It's 'sub-optimal' to use a little Inspectorspeak, but it is what it is. There's a boatload of houses in New England wired that way. Remember, at the time, it weren't no thang, but you & I never once rode in a car seat. Seen through the modern prism, our parents would be barbarians. But were they? In the pantheon of safety, I think it's pretty safe enough. I'm guessing, but I think that any ground path that a 3 light outlet checker can pick up is probably sufficent for most residential emergencies. Anybody know different?

My cell phone is so old, it has a rotary dial. When it dies, I will either buy the cheapest phone I can find, or I'm getting me an iPhone, because iPhones are the slickest damned things on the planet.

Kibbel, How did you manage to dub a foreign language over my brother's snow removal tips clip? Ever in awe of your abilities, Jimmy

John, It's simply a matter of how you store/name your text. You could easily call them W1 and W2 if you wanted to. If recalling it is clunky, it's simply because you gave them clunky names. I write and maintain the boilerplate in the plural for multi-family units and separately for single family units as well. Otherwise, editing for syntax is too complex for me. Jim

Last I heard, they're predicting another 12-20" in Boston from Tuesday PM through Wednesday AM. Ho-hum. I have an inspection scheduled Wednesday AM and won't postpone it unless they do. My Jeep can climb a tree in a horizontal ice storm. Matter of fact, so can I. Despite my being jaded, I am in humble awe of the 2x5 rafters I see at 30+" OC in some 100 year old bungalows. No structural engineer with any sort of grip on his senses would put his stamp on them. Yet, they survived the hurricane of '35, the blizzard of '78, and countless other unnamed tests of endurance that a home built to modern minimum standards never could. I'm not saying: 'We don't build 'em like we used to.' I'm glad we don't, because most of 'em burnt down.' I guess I'm only lending my voice to the oft-heard lament that book-smarts are exponentially more useful when tempered with an equal amount of boots-on-the-ground smarts. And...ice dam stained interiors aren't the worst thing that can happen to a homeowner. You can paint it in the spring. But that spinal column...?

There's no point in removing an ice dam. Melting a hole in them is plenty good enough. I used to hook a garden hose up to my grandmother's water heater, haul the 40 footer into her backyard, and melt a few 3-4' wide holes in the ice dams that would occasionally form on her roof. Problem solved. We see plenty of hatchet marks in asphalt shingles on the low edges of roofs here in MA. As often as not, there's an assprint in the ground directly below, where some hatchet-wielding idiot fell in a fit of ice dam destroying frenzy. It's a wonder more people don't die that way.

Yeah, I guess I never thought of usin' them thangs. Excellent point. Only trouble is: once you dig 'em up, repair 'em, and patch the floor; the next leak is still just around the corner.

Ditto. Try finding a leak in a system like that. Nearly impossible. They all get replaced with baseboard systems sooner or later.

GoDaddy.com has been great for me, and for Charlie & me. I don't know about their customer service, because I don't think either of us has ever used it.

Actually (its been a few years, so I hope someone will correct me if I misremember, but as I recall), the person who made that claim (who is far more scientifically learned and credentialed than I), when pressed to substantiate it, reveal that he was actually parroting back something that some professor had convinced him of many years earlier. He had accepted it without questioning it then, and couldn't defend it at the time. Anyway, the point isn't that some young guy believed a professor and later found out he was wrong. I think that has happened to most of us. Anyway, the thicknesses of insulation he was talking about in that discussion, would have precluded entry into the basement, as I recall. The point is that even smart guys can pass on bad info. Home inspectors -at their best- have enough intellectual honesty to keep learning, even when they think they know something, but to always rely on facts and not hearsay.

Or at a certain point, adding insulation to the exterior of a water heater will actually increase heat loss?

Les is right. I think you're going to have to get him to come over and pee on it for you.

Sounds like the pressure relief valve on your boiler opened. Call a heating guy and he'll have you fixed up in a hour or so.

For Educational Purposes, I'll offer this: Any inspector who dedicates more than a single neural synapse to whether or not the base of any toilet bowl is caulked, grouted, or otherwise chemically adhered to the floor covering is very likely missing something vital. If you ever find yourself wondering, I advise: Go back and take a look around. my two cents, Jimmy

Brother Jim, They are most definitely comparable. Perhaps not medically, probably not as insulation choices, and certainly not as menu choices; but I'd guess that if someone were to run the numbers, they'd find that the practical health risks of living in a house with Zonolite and eating the occassional Baconator are both pretty danged tiny when measured against the countless risks we all face each day. I'm not saying Zonolite isn't bad for us, I'm sure it is. it's just that I don't think the facts justify the hype in the Silent Killer piece. I also agree that more information is better than less. I'd even go one step further and submit that good information is better than skewed information. Jimmy

She's in danger every time she leaves the house. I'd advise against that, except that more injuries occur at home than anywhere else. It's all relative and sooner or later we all die from something. If my exposure to asbestos gets me at 70, is that really any more alarming than clogged arteries from eating too much BBQ? I don't really think so. Most of the rest of the world laughs at us when we get our panties in a wad about these things. Only a handful of countries can afford to worry about 'Silent Killers' like residential exposure to zonolite insulation. Life is good.

I'm no doctor, but that piece was pretty sensationalistic. I've said this here before, but I'll say it again: Asbestos is lethal. So are bacon double-cheeseburgers in sufficient quantities. It depends on exposure. Drinking too much water can also kill you. My grandfather worked at the Charlestown Navy Yard for most of his adult life, breathing in asbestos by the lungful every working day. He died of mesothelioma in his mid 70's. I don't think crawling through an attic with zonolite a few times a year really compares with that. Still, I'll be interested to see how this story plays out since we see a fair amount of zonolite in the Boston area. Jimmy

sewer funk is also acceptable

gases

Do you think that saying, "I use inspector Smith" when one means "I regularly refer inspector Smith to my clients" is mindlessness? It's a simple colloquial expression. The idea that someone is trying to impose a hierarchical relationship with it is, well, paranoid. It reminds me of the scene in Annie Hall where Alvy Singer is convinced that a coworker is dissing him because, when he asks if he had lunch yet, he says, "D'jou eat yet?" and Alvy interprets it as "Jew eat yet" and is sure that he's being victimized. I'm surely not erudite enough to understand Woody Allen references. Never have been. But I am convinced that what we're taking about is quite real and more subtle than either Katen or Mitenbuler purport.

I might be super-sensitive but insecure? Nah. You may be right that they mean nothing by it, but I think they often do, even if it's subconscious. I hardly interact at all with real estate agents in the course of an inspection and when I do, I'm always pleasant and polite. I just don't like it when they say they 'use' me. They don't. So I correct them.

Being common has nothing to do with it and I don't think it's subtle at all. Words matter. If they didn't, why do you suppose they don't all spontaneously begin using a better word? Thoughts become words Words become actions Actions become habits And on it goes. Maybe I should have posted Barry Stone's complete response to me. He gets it. He gets that he's part of the sales team, that is. I don't get steamed when brokers talk like that, I expect it from them and simply correct them. Inspectors ought to know better. Jimmy

When Betty Big-Hair says: "I used to use you." or something to that effect, I just look puzzled and reply: "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have forgotten. Did I inspect your house?" They almost always correct themselves and say: "No, but I've referred clients to you in the past." Which is more often than not, a lie, but I thank them anyway and get on with things. Stone just doesn't get it. And doesn't want to. You're not supposed to bite the hand that feeds you.