Tom Raymond

I was contacted last week by a bank looking to verify my info and position on the roster. I would think that means there is some action out there. Where would one look to see how much 203k lending is going on in their area?

It looks like he managed to get those chilled shorts on after all[:-dev3]

It's crappy detailing and cheap vinyl. Did you pop a seam and see of there was a WRB under it?

It's making a comeback around here. It's been gone long enough that the installers are making all the same mistakes they did the first time around.[:-banghea I really don't see the appeal, it's kinda like a sharkskin suit with a tee shirt and no socks. Tubbs was always better dressed than Crockett.

I have seen all manner of energized and likely to become energized materials installed in direct contact with steel beams. That said, I can't recall ever having seen a beam that was bonded. I think any builder(?) dumb enough to use the word 'rebarb' should be forced to jump through enough hoops to not want to build in your jurisdiction. Stick it to 'em.

My step father has a collection of the Utica Club Steins, my father actually drank it. I'd like to be a beer snob, but when I can't afford it Yuengling is good stuff. I had a black and tan with dinner last night. My very first beer was a Schlitz. I was 8 or 9 and the old man promised me a beer if I managed to get up an water skis. It took everything I had, but hey - a beer is a beer. Speaking of the old coot, I recently reconnected with my father after nearly 15 years. A beer with dad is a good thing. Jimmy, enjoy your day with your dad.

Am I the only one thinking that furnace is undersized? My house is 1200SF and has a 100K BTU boiler, and if he's actually dealing with 20 degree ambient temps in July, he has far greater heating needs than I.

Les, drive west a bit. There's still some money in Saugatuk.

If only they where all this easy. Click to Enlarge 49.28 KB

I should have included a shot down the liner. Here it is. Click to Enlarge 27.94 KB Ben, the crawl floor is concrete. Kinda stupid, the whole area is just shy of 16 x 20. In 1974 when they built it, it would have cost around $500 more to go the extra couple feet. Click to Enlarge 63.24 KB

This is the chimney from this morning's inspection. Sorry for the big images, but I think they show the condition far better. Full masonry fireplace with gas logs. Click to Enlarge 189.97 KB The cap is broken nearly in half and has obviously been leaking for a long time and the missing spark arrestor isn't helping any. Click to Enlarge 125.95 KB Click to Enlarge 76.07 KB There is severe effloresence(sp?) all over, but worse on the broad faces. I have never seen the salts build to this kind of thickness before. Click to Enlarge 100.93 KB There are two horizontal cracks: Outside Click to Enlarge 72.88 KB Inside Click to Enlarge 58.32 KB I didn't see any evidence of water in the fire box, but this is in the crawl directly under the opening. Click to Enlarge 38.17 KB Is this as simple as a new cap and a little pointing, or has it been leaking so long that it could be a complete tear out and rebuild?

I don't have a logo. Can I get a gold circle too? Can I, can I, huh? If I was paying for that kind of silliness, I think I'd demand a refund. And to think, I was considering removing 'Independent Inspector' from my marketing material.

Hee, hee! I actually did laugh out loud when I read that. Take another look at your pic, there's plenty of evidence that the whole mess has been leaking for a while too.

We have LGs at the day job, and I have Werners for the HI gig. The 300lb Werners are heavier, but they don't bounce under my weight like the 250lb LGs do. A couple of our LGs are a tad tough to operate but those are approaching 15 years of hard service. On my last inspection the MT17 got me onto the garage roof, then I pulled it up behind me folded it into a step to get me the 4' from the ridge onto the upper roof. The only flaw in this plan was that the RE had to help me set the ladder when I sent it back over the edge of the garage roof. Fortunately she was paying attention.

I have seen new homes with a brick ledge that are vinyl sided because the veneer turned out to be too expensive, including one that has all the brick in the yard on skids, but I've never ever seen a veneer removed to apply vinyl. It's way easier to side right over it.

My wife took that pic with her cell phone because she had never seen one before. It was in the ladies bathroom in the changing area of the big pool at Letchworth State Park. Google the park, it's beautiful. There's fun graphic instructions for both pull in and back in use if you google 'lady's urinal'. There's actually a website devoted to user submitted pictures of women's urinals from around the world. Enjoy!

We wouldn't have those arguments if these had ever caught on here: Click to Enlarge 34.77 KB

Like Mike Holmes[:-dev3] A combination LPG/NG detector is under $60 at campingworld.com. The 12v DC power source might cost a bit more though.

You new I7 should have come with a book. Read it. Scan something that you understand and match what you see in the image to what you know about the scanned item. Lather, rinse, repeat. By misunderstanding the range in that image, you scared yourself and your client. IR is a cool tool, but isn't worth a hill of beans unless you know how to use it. Nice job on the matching visible spectrum pic, when I get excited about an IR image I often forget to take those.

Hee, hee!

Yes. That and people adding weight to the door.

Are hammer arrestors common on PEX systems, or would you guess that the rest of the house is just plumbed as sloppy as that sink?

Distilled white vinegar. It tastes better than any of the other suggestions[]

I thought the only good surfing on the Lake required a sail.

If the door is balanced with the opener disconnected, meaning that it will stay put when it is around half way open, then the spring is properly wound. If the spring is under wound the door won't balance and the cables will go slack and fall off the drums as the spring stops turning before the door completes its travel. Over wound the door will runaway as it approaches fully open, and if over wound enough may drift open on its own or dangerously out travel the length of the horizontal track. A torsion spring exerts a varied effort on the door as it moves to support only the weight that is in the vertical section of track. With the door closed the spring is under full tension, then for each foot of travel as the door opens the drums make one full turn (and therefore so does the spring) reducing the amount of energy stored in the spring and the amount of weight it will carry. The extra 1/8 to 1/4 turn is there to maintain some tension on the cables when the door is in the fully open position so that they rewind properly as the door closes. Wooden doors complicate the spring calcs because they are never a consistent weight from one door to the next, and that weight changes as frequently as the weather. The down and dirty fix for that door is to bolt on a piece of perforated angle that is at least 50% longer than the distance between the vertical stiles, preferably as long as the door. The proper fix is to have a new panel fabricated and installed with a steel strut across the top rail. In either event the opener needs some serious adjustment. A properly adjusted opener just doesn't generate the force to pop a finger joint like that, even if the seller closed it on her car (an educated guess).