Scottpat

I was going to say a Chinaberry or Cottonwood tree, aka Trashish treeis sp. Some locus trees have bark like that also.

Marc, that is so true but this is Canada you are talking about.... They like to do it on their own just like we do here in the States.

Depending on what it is, I'll spend the money when it comes to buying quality tools. In this case, I don't see where laying out an extra $150.00 for a moisture meter for our purpose, is worth it. It's wet, or it ain't. Does the accuracy of a percent or two matter that much? It's not so much the percentage veriance but rather the depth the meter can read, the reliability of the meter and how it detects moisture. Many times we can't see or feel the moisture.

Is the chimney solid masonry or is it a chase with a brick veneer and a metal flue?

My clients will have their report via email within a few hours after the inspection. I can track when the report is viewed and I would say that the agent looks at the report hours after it is available if not the next day a large percentage of the time. I just see no need to rush to produce a report on site when all of the liability rest on your shoulders.

In the South a hot steamy bathroom probably has the same RH as the air in the attic! In 18 years of inspecting homes in South and Deep South I can't recall finding a major problem from bathroom vents venting into the attic as long as that attic had good ventilation. When I lived un MS, most of the AHJ's said it was OK to vent into the attic as long as the vent fan had an exhaust pipe sticking 3' or more above the insulation. Most stopped allowing this back around 2004 and started requiring the vent to terminate through the roof, soffit or sidewall on new construction. I still note if the fan vents to the attic and tell my clients it should vent to the exterior.

In my sons old car when it started making more noise he just turned up his radio more![:-bigeyes

I think it is a weak article that gives too much support to ionization detectors.

Stupidity......

There use to be a moisture meter repair guy in Littleton CO. I think it was called Black Hawk and the guys name was Dennis. I have no idea if they are still around but he repaired a couple of meters for me several years back. If I recall they are a Tramex warranty of sales company but also worked on other brands if they had the parts. They did work on a Demhorst meter and a Wet Wall Detector that fell off a roof onto a asphalt parking lot..... Yep, it was not pretty..

I don't think that the newer Protimeter SM's are not the same quality as the ones that were made in Ireland. I think they changed when GE bought them out back in early to mid 2000's. I have one that I bought back in 1996 that is still going strong.

It is relative moisture. In my area if you put the pins of a Survey Master into drywall of a garage that is open in the middle of August I bet you will get readings in the 10% to 16% range. It is due to the humidity in the air and is not really a problem since you have so much air flow and it is not constant. Same goes for most framing in a crawlspace. On reason the we want to see treated lumber in contact with concrete or the ground. Now in a vacant home that is closed up and is allowed to fester that same 15% RM level in the drywall will become a mold farm in about 30 days!

I call.... Low <13-14% Med >15-19% Problematic/Mold/Damage >20% The guys around here tend to lock on 20% as the level where problems start, so that's what I do. Is that "too low"? Is 25% a better call for problems? I think I got the numbers from Ron Huffman or Dennis Rose about 15 years ago. 25% is really more of a easier number to recall, I think that is why so many folks use it. I would also bet that the various meters will have at least a 2% to 3% margin of error. Pretty much anything over 25% is going to be saturated with moisture. Damage/rot really gets cooking around 15% at 20% it is a mold rot buffet!

The readings on the various meter are relative to that meter. I have found that in EW work it has been best to report moisture as Low, Medium or High. When I'm asked to define what the levels are I use the following: Low is anything under 12% Med is between 13% to 24% High is anything over 25% (at this level you can usually see the moisture) I also add that moisture and fungal problems are seen more readily once the moisture reaches the Med level.

Just use what you normally use for a stick built, that is what most do.

Part of the job here as well. If I chared an extra fee for crawls I would have less homes to inspect!

As others have noted, I enjoy the time off and for me I don't need the fee to keep the lights on. Now if I really needed every inspection dollar to pay the bills, I might find it a little more difficult to be so generous. You'll be rewarded down the road by showing some compassion at the appropriate times.

A few times a year I give a client the option to end the inspection early for a discounted fee based on what has been found in the first 10-15 minutes of the inspection. Some take me up on my offer, some don't but wish later they had.

I'm just glad we have an assigned pisser offer! [:-bouncy]

Naked Bike Ride? I wonder if they use a special seat on the bikes? [:-dev3]

That is early generation aluminum siding. The fiberboard helped to prevent denting. I want to say that was from the late 1950's to mid 1960's.

In my area it is common for water at the meter on the house side to be around a 120+ psi. The homeowner is the one responsible for reducing.

Right, I was just pointing out the receptacles requirement because we got off onto plug vs hard wired.

Big difference between pressure and volume. You can have a home with good to high water pressure and low volume or flow due to old pipes.

E3902.4 Crawl space receptacles. Where a crawl space is at or below grade level, all 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in such spaces shall have ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel. E3902.2 Garage and accessory building receptacles. All 125-volt, single-phase, 15- or 20-ampere receptacles installed in garages and grade-level portions of unfinished accessory buildings used for storage or work areas shall have ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel. The exception was removed in 2006, now it is ALL.