Scottpat

Yes, I'm getting more price shoppers than in years past but I'm also booked about 5 days out and I have not been like that for several years.

The reason that they do not want an outlet on an island/peninsula with an over hang is to limit the length of the cord. Appliance manufacturers have even shortened the length of the cords to help prevent them from being stretched across the kitchen, counter, etc and becoming a hazard. I go with a max 6" overhang and no more than 12" from the top of the counter top. Most appliances only come with a 18" to 24" cord now...

Our late friend Norm Sage shared some advice with me when we were up in Chicago working together on an ASHI committee. He said that he always told his clients that he was on a Safari. He was looking for the lions, tigers, elephants, etc but those little butterflies and crawling critters might not be found. That has stuck with me for about 15 years and I use it often when I tell folks what I'm looking for in a home inspection. It gets the point across real quick.

More on Ryan's fishing trip can be found over on IN http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_insp ... stion.html

Proper flashing to keep water out of the building envelope was most likely required in 2000. If I recall decks were not specifically addressed utill 2006 or so, but if they were attached to the house via lag bolts one could argue that proper flashing was needed. I don't feel like researching it now, but it should not be that hard to find.

A long time ago, someone @ EPA went into somewhere in Pennsylvania with whacko high levels, installed a state of the art system, and the lowest they could get was 4.0 pcL. It's a performance based threshold, not a toxicologically determined threshold. Which, basically means it's a darn meaningless number for determining much of anything. Or, so went the story I was told when I was in licensing class about 20 some years ago. I avoid radon risk by swimming. The WHO has set the threshold at 20!

Well, all I can say is if you are going to toss stones do not live in a glass house! If I was a service manager and I worked for a national firm like Air Quality Control I would not be harping about how good we are to anyone outside of my service area. Erby has shown with his photos the substandard work performed by Air Quality Control in his area of Kentucky, so we know that it happens. This is a good example of what happens when a company gets too big! The overall quality tends to suffer due to the lack of good supervision. If I needed a radon mitigation system put into my home and after I found this post on the Internet, I would most likely not use Air Quality Control. This is just my humble opinion.

Combined with another post.

I agree with Bill.... When you put the pipe into the slab did you remove as much dirt as possible and place a bed of crushed rock in the hole and then place the pipe and back fill with crushed rock and then seal with concrete? My experience with water in the pipe is that it will make a gurgling sound from time to time.

I love it! That is a good example of the frugal use of every known type of plastic plumbing pipes known to man

Check the panel for any signs or scorch marks or discoloration. Look at the neutrals and grounds real good, they tend to take most of the power during a lighting strike. Try to find out where the lighting struck (ask the owner if you can). See if you can see the repairs that were made. What kind of damage was done to the home? Fire?

I have agree with everyone, that is a mess. Water is going to find its way back into the wall. The pockets for those LVL's are not flashed or sealed as Mike pointed out, water is going to pour into that wall.

With lighting rods,isn't the goal to attract and then direct the lighting to the ground? Growing up out in the hill country of TX we had poll barns that all had metal skins over wood frames with dirt floors. None of them had lighting rods. We had a few metal buildings on slabs that had electricity and plumbing, they did not have lighting rods either. I know that we had a few lighting strikes over the years and all it did was to punch a hole in the roof and short out the electrical. I have no idea if a lighting rod would have made any difference. I'm afraid I would have to punt that question to an lighting rod expert, I'm sure we have them around.

I think that is a fair price for all.

I would be in the $1,500 to $1,600 range for the whole thing. I would allow for 2 days to inspect. With nine bathrooms I'm betting that the rooms are pretty small in this house and that it has had several remodels over the years.

That is an unusual detail for around here. Is that something commonly done in your area? Fairly common due to the uneven hilly terrain and the rock that builders have to deal with. With this house I could stand up in the front of the crawlspace (I'm 6'2") and at the rear I had about a 3' clearance.

Thank you to all for the help and reinforcement! I just fired off the report, I'm giving it about an hour or two before the phone starts to ring.... The grade outside that wall is about 4' below the top of that CMU, so that is not an issue.

The joist are actually sitting on a concrete ledge and then the CMU.

Yesterday while doing a pre-drywall inspection I found something that I have never run across before. In the master bathroom and what will be the closet the sill plate was cut back a good 6" exposing the open CMU core. I have not been able to ask the builder why they cut it. So I have no idea why or the reason behind it. I think I know the answer and that is they needed a few more inches for the walls! Yes, the CMU is higher than the subfloor by a good 1" to 1 1/2". I'm at a loss as to what I need to tell them to do with this, if anything. Any help would be great. Click to Enlarge 39.88?KB Click to Enlarge 40.15?KB

For starters, I doubt you will find any guidelines on how to properly install a radon mitigation system in an underground home! You have a unique home and thus it will require a unique system. As said in another post, you need to re-test and see what the results are.

We hit 77f yesterday and today our high of 51 was at midnight! Right now we are at a cool 45 heading down to 25f. The Walk-in Doc in the Box offices are loving it!

A group out of North Carolina and I think a professor form Appalachian State University in Boone NC did an extensive case study on homes with sealed crawls. You should be able to Google it.

That is pretty normal in the land of NM cable (Romex)! Is it perfect? No, but not much if anything is going to happen. Now if it is in the walking path or it is on the ground then I would call it out.

He's wanting to copy his program files. It won't be much use having them on an external disc. Well that was what I wanting to do, but that is looking more and more like a pipe dream!

Yep, that is one reason I'm switching over to HIP. 3D has pretty much priced themselves out of the market as far as I'm concerned. Their customer service is lacking big time and if you do not subscribe to their yearly service you get no help. I running 9.0.2 version and from what I have been told it will not work on Windows 7 very well if at all. But for almost $1000 I can get the new upgrade that works!