Tom Raymond

Bathroom? Looks like a fan switch to me. Tom

I tried to search 'oversized furnace' and 'short cycling'. The first turned up lots of poorly written web pages for Mom & Pop HVAC companies, and the latter more information than I ever wanted to know about cycling shorts[:-yuck] I did stumble across a few discussion forums and I can't tell what's scarier, the advice on the DIY sites or the stuff over at P.T. Barnum's [:-banghea I gotta agree with the masses, sizing isn't your job. Besides, when did you look at it? It's entirely reasonable that it was functioning fine as recently as a few weeks ago and short cycled itself to death through the arctic blast we just endured or the thaw that followed it. Exactly how much can be gleaned from observing a single cycle? Tom

That's a specialist, not the dental hygenist[:-monkeyd Tom Sorry Marc, sometimes I can't help myself.

We're glad you're on your own now, Tom. Good job. Good thing I have plenty of pipe insulation handy for bumb protection, I walked right into that one.[b)] Tom

That makes sense. I've seen pipe insulation used as bump protection lots of times, especially in group homes. Tom

This is an up/down duplex, if the panels are adjacent in a common area then your grouping requirement has been met, no? Tom

The only problem I see with Kurt's fix is that it will likely become permanent, the roofer will have no way of knowing that length of pipe needs replacing. That said, I like the epoxy putty and glass patch, with thorough prep it might even hold under far wetter service conditions. Nothing sleazy about a temporary fix that will has the potential to function indefinately, around here I would expect to see 3-5 inappropriate materials secured over that crack with everything from duck tape to zipties and hoseclamps. Taken a bit further, Kurt's approach might actually be a satisfactory permanent repair. If the entire length and circumference of the broken pipe section were prepped and wrapped in glass, and then while still wet wrapped in heavy cling wrap to evenly distribute the epoxy and ensure a thorough wet out, where exactly would it go? It only supports it's own weight, and with it's new composite skin would be at least as strong as anything you might replace it with, except maybe a new piece of iron. Polyester or vinylester resins would work just as well and be cheaper and easier to get, too. Ofcourse if there are more sections of iron above this one then it should be replaced. Tom

Uh Rob, those temps are in fahrenheit[]. In a building tight enough to need fresh air intakes, 40% RH at 30F outside will be enough to cause that condensation. In my experience the RH should be around 25% assuming indoor temps around 68F, if the noses aren't happy you could bump the RH to 30% but expect to see small amounts of condensation on cool surfaces. Tom

Was it on this forum that, many years ago, a woman wrote to complain about a home inspector peeing in the roof? She even had a picture of him that looks like it was taken from across the street. Walter Jowers had the best comment. He asked if she was offended by the urine on the roof or by the sight of a man's penis from 60 yards away. Does anyone else remember this or am I hallucinating? Oh if that is from here someone has to go and look for it.[] Tom

That's way cool Jim. Tom

Because no foyer is complete without a panel[:-monkeyd Tom

You lowered your heat to 68?[:-bigeyes Put on a sweater man! I have three radiant zones in my house; an in floor loop in the kitchen and baths set to 62 (two loops with balancing valves and one thermostat), cast iron radiators for the living areas set to 64, and more iron radiators in the bedrooms set to 66. The two degrees of seperation between zones is to ensure that they all have the potential to run, there are no barriers between zones like doors that I could close, just open archways and a stairway. The house is comfortable and on the odd occassion I feel cold I grab a sweater or sweatshirt, my 8 year old is almost always in a t shirt. Your system is limited by the recovery rate and capacity of your water heater, and the high temperature you are trying to maintain and your other domestic usage has you at capacity before you shower. Lower the temp setting to the lowest you will feel comfortable (maybe start at 68) and then leave it there, radiant systems don't respond well to setting back temps (manual or automated). You could also take other conservation steps like washing clothes on warm or cold water settings, or only running the dishwasher when it is full. These small changes should get you a hot shower, if not then you have a bad tempering valve as others have said, or the heat exchanger flow rate and/or fan speed isn't configured correctly and is drawing heat out close to the water heater's capacity. One last thing before you grab that sweater, make sure the water heater is set to at least 140, the standard 120 setting would net you the same cold shower. Tom

I gotta agree. In my experience, an 18 YO that can recognize the signs of a grow op has either built one or worked in one. I have four younger brothers, so by association, I know quite a few of the local delinquents. With the inroads being made toward legalization, and the continued criminalization of tobacco, RJ Reynolds will be selling 'green tomatoes' (my favorite local colloquialism) and grows will be a thing of the past within my lifetime. Tom

His latest episode is about the clean up of a rental property that was being used as a grow house by the tenants. What a coincince[] He'd have a much better show if he stopped bashing HI's and contractors, and spent more time discussing the new building science principles he impliments. Tom

Unless there was a lot of scrap, then you see much shorter pieces, usually all in the same place. Tom

There's nothing like manual labor to whip you into shape. When I was precutting log homes I was lifting big heavy timbers all day long and 4000 calorie lunches were the norm (half a sub, a big bag of chips, a pound of cookies, a piece of fruit and a quart of chocolate milk), 29" waist 165 lbs, but I was also only just 20. Some 20 years later and the six pack abs more closely resemble a beer ball that nicely overhangs the extra 5" around my waist. I made 210 at my heaviest about a year ago, 195 today, and I was the tall skinny kid that didn't hit 100 lbs until the summer before high school. Tom

Thanks for digging up this thread Jim, I'd never have found it. Can't imagine what you were searching for though[:-dev3] Tom

That's funny![:-monkeyd

Here you go Mikey: quietus [kwahy-ee-tuhs] –noun, plural -tus#8901;es. 1. a finishing stroke; anything that effectually ends or settles: Having given a quietus to the argument, she left. 2. discharge or release from life. 3. a period of retirement or inactivity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Origin: 1530–40; < ML quiçtus quit (in quiçtus est (he) is quit, a formula of acquittance), L: (he) is quiet, at rest (see quiet 1 ); cf. quit 1 (adj.) Tom

Is this guy even acustomed to having a gas bill? If he's coming from an apartment I bet not. My whole house (c1870) is gas. When I bought it there was gas in every room for long ago removed lighting and space heaters, and I spend between $1400 & $1500 per year ranging from about $40 a month in summer to a high of about $230 in the dead of winter. Tom

That monster is sweet, my wife would be drooling! Mine is a wee bit smaller, single oven, 4 burners with a bifold cover, and seperate broiler, with two storage drawers and a night light. The cooking charts on mine are in at least that good condition, but labeled "Roper Scientific" and copyrighted 1936 on the broiler and 1938 on the oven (I see 1951 in your second pic). There are dozens of patents listed on it, from 1936 to 1939, and I would assume that much like the ANSI numbers we see today that would date mine '39 to '42 or so. Tom Tom

Except for the pink, that's pretty cool. "Another case of the marketplace erasing good ideas." Mid century appliances are experiencing a resurgance in popularity and there are several companies that specialize in providing parts and repair or rebuild services, there's even clubs and virtual salvage yards to be found. Rachel Ray uses a circa 1940 Chambers C on 30 minute meals. I designed my new kitchen around an early 40's roper stove, 42" of cast iron, heavy gauge steel, porcelain and chrome, nearly 500LBs worth. I've seen several others featuring vintage appliances as well. Vintage appliances are cool, or were you talking about the shooting range?[] Tom

I should have guessed that from the size of the building, and I agree that ventilation is not always the answer. In fact I think the whole current thinking on ventilated roof decks is faulty, the decision to vent or insulate, and the design of either system, needs to be undertaken by someone better educated than the roofer, sider, insulator installing them. For that matter, what other component of such critical function is left to multiple trades to install? Maybe it's intentional, there's plausable deniability when the soffit/ridge vents fail to work and each of the three tradesmen have done what they were told. At the risk of being pat: The building in your pics has either the wrong insulation or the wrong application of the steel roofing. The fix would be to spray foam the underside of the steel. Even inserting rigid foam insulation between the purlins would be far better than what is there. A plywood deck and 30# felt would have been a better initial install. But you knew that already.[] Tom

Ventilation isn't going to help that building, notice the drip lines in the insulation correspond nicely to the purlins under the steel? Isolating the steel surface from the attic air space is the only way to fix that. Tom

It has been my experience that the insurance industry seriously under values the cost of labor, and to a large extent materials too. When pressed they also tend to want to control my overhead and profit percentages as well. You're still subject to market conditions and the insurance companies are disconnected here too, just not as much as Feds. I still think my estimate is pretty close. In order to restore one of these buildings you have to remove all of the interior finishes, provide suitable protection for everything to be reused and for any flooring that doesn't get removed, gut out the drywall, gut out the insulation to inspect and repair and damaged plumbing and wiring, put it all back together, fix the flooring you inevitably damaged along the way, and reinstall the rest of the interior finishes, again replacing what gets broken. The man hours involved are stagering, and the building could be demolished and reconstructed in a comparable time frame. I'd love to see a real cost comparison. Tom