Scottpat

GasTite has a wealth of information on CSST. http://www.gastite.com/bonding.php They have also introduced a new product called FlashShield. They had it at InspectionWorld at their booth. It has a couple of layers along with a mesh sleeve that is suppose to dissipate any electrical charges along with any heat. The key with CSST is in bonding it.

How does that document help your client? It's more like advertising for the attorney, IMVHO.

While inspecting a large custom home last week I came across a opening in the laundry room wall that was trimmed out just for the cat. It was a first for me. Click to Enlarge 29.13 KB

It would be great if we could get ASHI, NAHI, INACHI, CREIA, FABI, TARI, AmeriSpec, P2P, WIN, Home Team, Service Master and whoever else that might have a vested intrest to pool funds together to fight this extorsion attemp by HomeSafe.

They have a ton of wrong information on their website. According to their site I do not need E&O or GL in my state (TN), I think they need to tell the state that!

I think word has that function built into it.... Save the PDF to a Word doc or to Rich Text, that is what I have been doing and it seem to work fairly well. Sometimes the fonts and spacing need to be adjusted but that is not all that difficult.

All of the electric WH I have seen(including mine) have a high limit cutoff/breaker that is built into the thermostat.

I have an HP mini as well that I use around the house, on the patio, whwn I travel, etc. like my laptop. I have not used it on any jobs simply because I do not have my reporting software loaded on it. I think once my little PDA craps out I will use the mini on jobs. I really see little difference between it an a full size laptop other than the size. My mini has 1gig of RAM and 60gig hard drive, so it has plenty of power to do just about whatever you need for it to do. Heck, it has more power than my 6 year old desktop computer I use in the office. The HP mini keyboard is 80% of the size of a full size laptop. The only drawback with the mini I see is that it does not have its own CD drive, you have to use a plug-in drive. The battery on my mini will last about 12 hours, that is about twice as long as my laptop. I paid $299 for the HP mini.

Well, the scam as it has been called has to do with the fact that just testing for mold spores does not tell you anything that is really of any value. If you see mold or smell mold then you have mold! No need to test for it, you just need to find the reason for its growth make the repair and clean it up per the EPA guidelines.....

Folks are still printing reports? I guess I would go for a small laser printer that I could run out of my inspection vehicle. They are quick and print good b&w pictures. Why not just email the report to the client after you leave the house? It is not like they really need a copy at the site, they are not going to do anything with it until they have a chance to sit down and review it.

I just tell them pretty much what Jim stated. The manufacturers require it. That usually ends the discussion on that subject.

Pretty cool, kind of makes you wonder what happened!

That could be very true, but their heavy handed extortion tactics need to be stopped. If folks would just not rollover and pay their extortion fee and require HomeSafe to provide proof that their patent is being infringed upon in the way of a written report, they would go away. It is virtually impossible for them to prove any of their claims, they are just shooting in the dark and hoping for a random hit!

If I recall a good part of the test has questions that come from the consumer publications(For Buyers and Sellers) put out by the EPA. You can download them from the EPA site. When I took my training the instructors went over what would be on the exam. You just don't get that with online courses.

What triggers me to recommend the scope are: *Home is over 40 years of age. *Has cast iron waist lines *I can see trench lines in the yard to the street on neighborhood homes. *Just have a gut feeling.... They cost about $200 in my neck of the woods.

Homesafe is still around and sending out the demand letters..... We had a fellow in our chapter get one of their letters right before Christmas. They said for a $1,000 settlement they would not take him to court or pursue it any further. The letter went on to say that he had to either buy into Homesafe or stop doing IR on homes. He said that he contacted his brother who is an attorney in a large law firm who then sent Homesafe a go and pound salt letter... The best part of the letter was that he stated that his firm had been preauthorized for 2500 hours of litigation support in the event that they want to proceed with the lawsuit. At the last chapter meeting he had not heard anything from Homesafe...

Congratulations to your son and to you as well. I served as a volunteer leader with the Scouts for 20 years or long enough to get my two older sons and many other young men through the program. I'm a staunch believer in the method of Scouting and the end product we see in those that attain the rank of Eagle.

Can you show us a reference for never touching a soffit? patt, beat me to it. Beside being an ASTM guideline it is also found with most of the manufacturers guidelines.

As you can see the responses are all over the board. Some have had very good experiences like Randy, others have not. My suggestion for what it is worth is to visit this HUD site http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/203k/203kmenu.cfm Immerse yourself in the website. Read the publications and look at the forms. I don't think that Randy's experiences and they way he charges for his consulting is the norm around the country. Over on Linked In and on Facebook you can find two groups of 203k inspectors from all around the country. It might be worth the time to join the groups, listen, read and take part in their discussions. It might give you a tad bit more insight to the program.

To be considered EIFS you need to have the insulation board. You can also have the insulation board with DEFS (Direct applied Exterior Finish System). You also have PB(polymer based) and PM(polymer modified).PB is more flexible and PM is hard almost like cementitious stucco. The lamina(finish coat) on EIFS and DEFS is acrylic and can also be found on cementitious stucco. In the picture I see what really looks like the stucco is a retrofit onto who knows what. For starters the windows are wrong, they have no header flashing and I see no sealants around the windows. The stucco should never touch the soffits, or other dissimilar materials. I also do not see any control joints, but then I also do not find them all that often on stucco homes.

I really do not even go after the 203k business any longer. The pay scale that is set by HUD is from the mid 1990's and the red tape seems to be getting worse, or the lenders do not understand the program. You also need to realize that you do not get paid until the loan is closed and if it does not close for whatever reason you do not get paid. The last two I consulted on were about 6 months ago. The poor buyers had the hardest time finding contractors in our area who were willing to go through the process with them. Finally we got them closed and everyone got paid! FYI, 203k's are all over the board depending on your area and the types of homes. The problem in our area are the contractors, they really do not want to mess with them. Wells Fargo is the largest 203k lender in the nation. For the most they know the program when you deal with the regional folks but it has been my experience that the local loan folks really do not know much about the 203k process. WF is also strict about the fees that they allow you to charge, you must stay within the published fees they allow.

In my country, where they have taxation down to an art, if the auditor comes knocking, he will ask to see records of mileage, (even though we haven't had miles since the 70's), and the tax form I use wants my total, so it is good to record the odometer readings a couple of times a week at least. I just buy a cheap daybook for that and throw it in with my receipts at the end of the year. Same here in the States... I just keep my millage in outlook. At end of the day I just put the miles down for each appointment. Sometimes it is at the end of the week, but if the tax man comes a knocking I will have all of my miles on a form. I just hope they give me about a month's notice just so I can double check to make sure it is right []

I only reference the standards and state that they are availabe by request or from XYZ website. I provide the State site address and ASHI address.

Hello this is Bob. May I speak to the person who handles your company website? Seems like Bob or his brother Thomas call from a dozen or so different numbers that are bogus numbers.

I take the standard IRS mileage deduction and deduct any personal usage I might have. I average around 18,000 to 20,000 miles a year of business use and about 4,000 miles of personal use on my truck.