SWagar

How old is the home and chimney? Can you tell if the chimney has a liner? The stains you see may not be rust, but rather creosote and other build up leaching through the brick chimney wall.

Does the AFCI breaker kick off immediately when the fan is turned on? Did the fan ever work properly without tripping the breaker?

There is no way that the (fill in the blank) could be remotely construed as anything close to acceptable, even to the most ignorant and naive. Have the person responsible for this checked for an IQ over 25. or It appears as if this (fill in the blank) was done by a third grader with attention deficit disorder. or I looked at (fill in the blank) in many different ways, it looks the best with my eyes closed. or In my opinion this (fill in the blank) could best be repaired with a gallon of gas and a book of matches.

How about unprofessional, unworkman like, improper, or inadequate? Sometimes just plain wrong works for me.

I think the trainer's doctor should prescribe a glass navel for him. So he can see because his head is up his a .... well you know where!!!

When I see unusual roofing details such as this one, I ask myself can the water get out? Does any water that lands on / gets to the horizontal part of the shingle at the base of the metal flashing get to daylight or does it run under the lower shingle? One might have to lift the lower shingle and take a peak. If you saw shingle then it is a leaker, metal flashing and it is probably OK. IMO goop should never be used in place of good roofing technique. Good technique lasts a goodly amount of time goop doesn't.

So, is the mixed pipe material really a problem I would think the only time mixing plastic pipe material is wrong is when it is glued!? The compression fittings should still be functional.

I would echo Brandon's statement, I've seen blistering when there in insuficient ventilation and excess heat in the attic. Being only on the south side make me suspicious that heat may be the culprit. I don't see very many roof vents. Was there soffit ventilation?

Another option you may consider is the rechargeable Maglite. Not the cheapo Maglite, these cost approximately $125. They have 218 lumens, slightly less than the Ultra Stinger. The battery lasts about 1.5 - 2 hours per charge. The bulbs last quite awhile, unless I bang the light, which I am prone to doing. I often miss the darn belt ring and the light lands on the floor. Next time I turn it on poof! I’ve also noticed on real cold days, if I don’t warm up the light, the bulb blows when I first turn it on. So now, on cold days, I stick the light under the truck heater on the way to the job. I rotate through two lights, usually exchanging lights before the crawl space. 80% of my inspections have crawl spaces, I do them last. There is more than ample light to see what I need to with the Maglight. Sometimes, I can see the Termites giving me the one finger wave. I also carry a Strion from Streamlight on my belt for those times when the Mag is too much light. I also carry the Strion into crawl spaces as a spare, cause I'm afraid of the dark. Knock wood, I've only had my Maglite die in 2-3 times in a crawl space, usually right after I whack it on a post or rat. Then I have had to use my backup to either get out or re-lamp my Maglight. For me I think the Mag is a better option.

I'd be very sad to see the excellent current photo of the month go away! But I'd get over it.

Did the owner work for the Post Office or someplace like that? Where do you think he found all of those little white thingys? Did you laugh all the way down your ladder?

Something about attics porn and contraband they just seem to go together. I once found a bag of weed and a bong inside an attic hatch ... I didn't know how to report that !? I hate finding porn in the attic ... it makes the attic inspection take forever! They don't call me an inspector for nothin'.[:-magnify

I had an electrically activated vent damper installed on a new boiler years a few years back. It failed in about two years. It failed in the closed position, which would not allow the furnace to operate. And just as luck would have it, the vent damper failed on a weekend while I was away. That made for one cold Sunday night of sleeping. The repair was taking the stupid thing out so I didn't have to deal with the next one failing.

I thought what I was seeing in the photo was that the CPVC pipe fed the cold inlet and was Tee'd to the TPR valve. But after closer inspection, the CPVC TPR drain pipe just has the copper pipe from the cold water shut off connected to it. So I'd have to agree it is for thermal expansion. Was there a pressure reducing valve or backflow preventer installed on the water main? Was this house on a well? In general, I thought most thermal expansion is dissipated by the cold water plumbing from the water heater back toward the water supply, unless there is a device preventing water flow back toward the supply.

Not only is that goofy, it is one big accident waiting to happen. I don't know what the pressure/burst rating is for CPVC pipe. If the water heater overpressurized it would more than likely burst the pipe. Something would have to give, the pipe would be the weak point. Then one would have one big mess!

Yep , you 're right about the outlet issue, I mis-interpreted the nomenclature of the code book. An Outlet (per the NEC) is a receptacle, light fixture or smoke alarm. -

The NEC says that branch circuits supplying outlets need to be ACFI protected. It says nothing about AFCI in Lighting circuits. If the Lights are on the same circuit as Outlets then they will be AFCI protected by virtue of being on the same circuit as AFCI protected outlets. Generally in new construction, for me anyway, lights are on separate circuits from outlets. I don't think (in general) that there is any prohibition of putting lights and outlets on the same circuit. I know there are some specific case where they cannot be e.g. kitchen small apliance circuits.

Jim, Are you talking about the asterisk in table 310.16 (2008 NEC), that points to 240.4 (B)(3)? This seems to allow the next larger breaker size to be used i.e. 25 A upsized to 30 A. Otherwise I can't find it ?!? -Scott

An asterisk, dang not even bold. I'll go look ... I knew there had to be a reason for the 30 Amp breaker we typically see.

In Portland this past summer, I inspected a house built in 1927 that had no ridge board.

I'll take a stab at it... 4500 VA (watts) / 240 volts = 18.75 Amps 18.75 A x 125 % (continuous load factor) = 23.5 Amps 23.5 Amps needs 10 AWG copper minimum. A 25 Amp breaker should suffice. NM wire is satistactory provided the wire is not exposed. MC / Flex metal conduit should used to house any wire that would have been exposed. Or if you feel the need, run the entire circuit in MC /Flex. The only thing I don't like about my answer is that I always see a 30 Amp breaker on a Water Heater circuit. So my guess is that I missed some thing in the code requirements or no one makes a 25 Amp circuit breaker???. That's my story and I'm stickin' with it (unless I'm wrong, then I'll change it).

Brandon, I fully agree with you ...... you can see some of the rot some of the time, you can't see all the rot all the time. A while back I was inspecting a crawl space just a crawlin' along and a stabbin' the Rim Joist when out of the blue my screwdriver went flying through the wood. All of the wood up to that point was fine and this wood did not look any different. But it was toast! I have not done very many inspections when the temperature has been below freezing for a prolonged amount of time (which is a good thing in a way). But it seems to me that the rotted wood would still be softer that the surounding sound wood. Even frozen, it would have no strctural integrity. If you were to pry on it, you should be able to tell it was rotted by the break out pattern. Just a thought.

If you look in the high end cabinet stores, you'll see an attempt to make cabinets look like furniture. Maybe these people were able to see the future and remodeled their kitchen for that high end , contemporary look. Give them some credit. Although, I'd say the cabinet installer needs a little help.

Do you think this crawl space drain will work very well? The picture is hard to get a feel for scale but the distance from the earth to the bottom of the drain is about 2 feet. This was in a newly constructed 1.5 million dollar home. Maybe that's where the swimming pool was gonna' be!

I think those meters can be electronically read from the outside of the building. I had one that looked just like that in my New England home years ago.