Tom Raymond

You don't need a tech, you need an ME.

Supplemental heat in the basement. Window units on top floor. Dampers and continuous blower. The basement will be colder but the humidity will be higher so the feel will be close. Edit: on second thought, the basement dampers need to be controlled via humidistat. Only condition for humidity. Let the stratification take care of cooling.

Not sure, I didn't make it through the second paragraph.

Most manufacturers specify a minimum clear space around the exhaust to minimize draft issues that could shut the furnace down. Also the exhaust contains acidic condensate that will corrode the condenser. Bad for furnace, bad for condenser, bad for anyone that says it's ok.

They will find out when they tear it down. If they are inclined to fix it, that is.

Is the water heater also in this closet? I had one like that where the open return plus combustion pulled the flame out the burner covers on the water heater. If the CO didn't kill them the house fire surely would.

Call them. You have to call to get the interior unit age any way.

Why wait for one to appear on the side of the road? On your next municipal inspection declare the water heater at safety hazard and commandeer the valve. Or go buy one at Lowes. A new valve will be way easier to get apart.

ICC.

Gary is talking about a welded steel door frame. Commercial industrial stuff. They are mother f***er to to remove when installed like that.

Plummen, the Property Maintenance Code states that life safety improvements are required. GFCIs and AFCIs are life safety items.

We all sag a bit as we get older. I hope I look that good when I get to the other side 100.

The pic in the OP isn't a defect, but, that kind of work on a party wall would be here. When I did masonry work party walls were required to be struck clean on both sides. The inspector cannot see voids in a wall that isn't cleaned.

There is a neighborhood of mid 50s ranches not far from here where that finish was popular. It's especially attractive on green brick.

I review my crawl pics with my clients on site. It may be the only time they ever see the crawlspace. I explain my concerns and anything they ask about. I could see some asking about the mortar.

And I thought this week's gig with two goats and a cat as conditions of sale was funny.

I was home alone in the 80s when a wood fired boiler in the basement exploded. Circulator failed. Hard water fouled the TPR and it failed. Wasn't hot enough to blow the soft plug in the water jacket. The pressure wave from the blast lifted the house and all the columns tipped. Every last one. The greatest movement we 3/8". Not worth fixing. The same pressure wave threw a 100+ pound iron fire door 30 feet across the basement and crushed a washing machine. If those columns move you have bigger problems to worry about.

Gravity works pretty well in places not prone to quakes. Accidentally shifting the column in the first pic would take far more force than most people imagine. Number 2 looks far scarier than it is.

Permethrin, some petroleum distilates, and most likely a lot of water. It's concentrated. Use full strength outside or dilute 5 ounces with 1 gallon of water for indoors. Bonide makes a bunch of garden type insecticides, products for fruit and vegetables, greens, and flowers and shrubs. I had never heard of it either until calling around looking for an alternative to boracare. I saw a Bonide commercial on TV late last night, so it must be good. I mixed mine a little hot, closer to 8 ounces. Painted on the subfloor with a roller on a pole. Zero odor while wet. A very slight soapy smell when the plywood was damp but dry enough to walk on. Zero odor when dry. The best part of the project was teaching my daughter to use the pneumatic stapler. She's 5 and usually hates the compressor. She likes it a little better after stapling a sheet of underlayment.

Post the best picture you can take of the beetles. If they're anobiids, then there's really not much risk. They need relatively high moisture levels to re-infest anything other than the wood that they started in. You might have been able to leave the wood in place and let the beetles run their course. If they're lyctids, then they're capable of reinfesting very dry wood. It's worth pre-treating with a chemical before proceeding. If you treat with anything, use Boracare. Amazon has it for about $70 per gallon and you can dilute it with 5 parts of water for preventive care. That's not particularly expensive. Probably the easiest way to tell the difference between the two families of beetles is to look at them from the top. Lyctids have distinct body sections of head, thorax, and abdomen. Anobiids, look like they only have two body segments and the head is not particularly distinct. The two segment appearance is why I think anobiids. There was some variation; about 3/16 long with small mandible, and slightly smaller with lafge mandible. Gender? I'll see if I can get a good pic. I opted for Bonide. It was available locally and I could treat this morning and prep this evening. My new floor arrives tomorrow and only needs 48 to 72 hours to acclimate. The contents of my room are spread out all over my little house. I want to get it back together asap.

I found a recipe for that. 4 pounds of borax in 1 gallon antifreeze. Bring to low boil and reduce by half. Cool. Mix 1:1 with water. Sounds pretty nasty for my bedroom.

We had a pretty large emergence over the last week. The floor has been removed. The only live adults that remain are in a jar so I can identify them (shaking the jar isn't as satisfying as you would think). They look to be anobiid. There are no signs of damage on the plywood subfloor, or the pine and plywood frame of the closet system. Before I put the new floor down should I treat? With what? I can't find any of the borate treatments (boracare, Timbor and the like) locally. The only boil acid I can find is roach powder.

Yes, but a PB failure on an upper level could be harmful to a basement condo. It would also be nice to know who is responsible for that system, the owner or the association. I for one wouldn't want to find out the hard way.

Perhaps my least favorable review came from one of my sister-in-law's friends. "OMG, a really big Raymond just crawled in a really small hole!"

Ouch. Is this just bad flashing or one of those silly split face block fiascos? The only good part is those 20 foot I joists can be shoveled into contractor bags. I can't imagine staging that many building materials in your urban environment.