Scottpat

Doug, you need to get General Liability coverage. It is too inexpensive not to have and if you are in any type of business that deals with the public it is silly not to have it.

Same house as the light fixture. This is the flue pipe for the wood stove in the basement. This guy was a genius at rigging things. Also a pic of the little stove that could! Image Insert: 149.6 KB Image Insert: 141.1 KB

This is an example of a person who know what they want and just can't buy it so they made it! In the basement this guy had every type of wood working machine one would ever want. Only problem was that most were made in the 1920's! Image Insert: 75.23 KB Image Insert: 77.58 KB

I have just raised my rates overall. The only price I publish is my minimal or small home/condo fee and it has to be under 1000sf to fit that fee. Not publishing your fees makes it very easy to adjust them as needed! I do cover a large area simply due to all of the rural towns and developments in my area. I try to limit my time to an hour drive of my home. On the average my jobs have bumped up about $25-$50 on a normal home inspection and an extra 1 cent on homes over 4,100 sf(I now charge .13 per s.foot on homes over 4100sf) That extra penny adds up![:-magnify

It is what it is! Yes, you will have fluctuations in the readings that is why you use an average. You should have an EPA average and also a machine average. The EPA is what you go with. I have seen spikes from a sump pump kicking on and emptying out the sump.

John, did a client tell you this? If so they are most likely refering to the sash. After more than a decade in the fenestration biz I've heard more bizzare descriptions of a sash than you can imagine. Don't even get me started on the difference between mullions and muntins[] Scott, the next time you run into a seal failure in what you suspect to be a high performance glass check it out with your IR thermometer, the difference in performance is probably greater than you think. Tom I will do that. Now don't you eat mint jelly with Muntins? []

You can tell the world about what you found, but if a person is killed by the electrical line the owner is the one that has the ultimate responsibility. Regardless of what you say in your report, you could still be named in a lawsuit. If it got to court, your part might be dismissed as you did ID the problem and let other folks know about it but you would still have to defend yourself. I'm trying to figure out how the garage was removed? I would phrase it like Mike did and leave it at that.

I think that with some of the ones that have the more exotic gases added to them you might experience a very small reduction in their insulation efficiency. But, I don't think that a normal person would ever notice the difference.

Just speak in the first person and tell the what is wrong and what they need to do. When I turned the furnace on flames shot out the front. This is not normal. You need to have a qualified HVAC contractor repair or replace as needed, before it is used. You could then add this; I put the fire out that started from the furnace in the attic with the garden hose, but this then caused the ceiling to fall in the kitchen and it shorted-out the microwave oven. Your cat was a little close to the fire but should be OK once it's hair grows back.[:-bigeyes

When I lived in Mississippi I use to see treatment systems all the time due to all of the clay soil and the lack of percolation. Now that I'm in TN I almost never see them due to the rocky conditions and the good percolation of the soil. I'm a big fan of treatment plants. It also looks like they might have a lift station/grinder pump. That box on the side of the house with the green light. It is either that or an alarm for a effluent storage tank. Do you know if that is what it is?

The T&P installation is also covered by the manufacturer. Watts has it on their site.

Based on my own experience; when I replaced my old system in my old home I had about a 50% savings in my gas and electric bills. The most noticeable was the electric savings. Our summer cooling cost would average around $225 before the replacement and after they dropped down to about $125 or less. The gas bill dropped about 40% and that was with an 85% efficient unit.

My software (3D) does have the ability to do what you are talking about, but I just don't find it useful. I use Outlook for all of my scheduling. As I do other types of inspection and work that are not home inspections, I found that I was using two systems to keep track of what I was doing.

I have one in my home like that. Two wall switches and one controls just the light and the other allows the entire fan to be controlled by the remote. It allows the light to always be turned on at the wall, but the fan is controlled by the remote. Comes in handy when that dang remote develops legs and walks off to another room or plays hide-n-go seek under something. I see nothing wrong with it, in fact I like the way it is set up.

Well, I provide my clients what they want and not what I want. The first few pages of my report will be a summary of the items that need attention. Personally, I don't like a summary but I have discovered that my clients like it. They want to know what is wrong without reading through pages of my report. Seems like everyone except the home inspector likes a "Cliff Notes" version type report. The way I report items is simple. It is working, acceptable or serviceable. It all depends on what I'm talking about. If it needs repair, correction or whatever; I just say so. I use words like; Repair; Replace; It is broken and Correction. I don't like the Minor/Major way of describing things. This type of reporting is relative to how much money your client has to spend on repairs. $500 might be Minor to a person who is earning $175,000 a year and Major to a person who is earning $75,000. Same goes for the $100 repair vs. a $300 repair.

Like Erby, I see them all the time. My home is built that way. Another method I see is that they dig the footer trench and then form walls like for a poured concrete basement foundation, add the needed steel. They then fill the center of the "pad" with crushed rock put in the plumbing add some additional rebar and wire and then they fill the entire thing with concrete so you end up with about 3-4" of concrete in the center of the foundation.

Granite is very brittle, it does not take a great deal of stress or force to cause a fracture.

I have never seen granite installed without a plywood base to sit on. I would think that it would need support other than the edges of the cabinet frame.

Are you saying that the granite was placed on top of the old counter top and not on a raw wood surface like plywood, etc? Personally I don't see why it would be a problem. Now, what I have seen is that when granite tops are placed on older cabinets and the cabinets were not designed for the additional weight of the stone, well Houston we now have a problem! The cabinets need to be reinforced so that the weight of the new top does not compact and bind the cabinet. If not the drawers/doors will not work properly. This is very, very common on retrofits and even on some new construction.

I agree with Jim, I have heard the same from Douglas Hansen. I don't have an issue with reporting on them in a home, what I have been struggling with is when homes don't have them. I know many report their absence just like a GFCI and many don't even mention them in their report.

Humm, sounds like you are looking for a legal opine! Eric, I would first contact the local municipal inspection official (AHJ). You can call the city hall in your town and they can get you in contact with them. Ask them your question but leave out the words "illegal" or "legal". Just ask them if it is OK, or if they have a problem with that from a "codes" standpoint. You should be able to get an answer. If you are heading down the road of litigation, and it kind of sounds like it I would hire an inspector who specializes in litigation consulting and this type of work so they can put it in writing for you.

I have never added any AFCI boilerplate type verbiage to my reports, for some reason I just type away as needed when I want to talk about a home needing AFCI protection. I'm seriously thinking about adding a general comment to my reports electrical section about AFCI and how all homes should have them. I have done this for GFCI outlets/breakers. Does anyone have any verbiage they would care to share? I like to keep it simple but I also like to be descriptive in what I'm trying to convey.

Well ya know it all depends. But, if you have a suspicion chances are that it is spot on. Go with that gut feeling and just say what you are thinking. What's the worst that could happen if you tell someone that the flashing just does not look right and it is possible that water is seeping in? I do it all the time. Just last week I had a home with really screwy roof lines and I reported that based on my knowledge, experience and from what I have seen on similar structure I'm betting that water is leaking down that wall during a heavy rain. Yes, it really ticked off the agent and the homeowner but they did open a wall and found mulch filling it up. The mulch was the OSB substrate!

I'm having some of the most profitable weeks and days that I have had in years. Homes, large homes are selling left and right in my area. Smaller homes under 300k, like my home are not selling. Those that have money and good credit are doing well in today's market when the buy a home.

I don't know where "here" is, but I hope you are not under the NEC, because if you are, unless you have a SPECIFIC amendment, it IS quite illegal. ARTICLE 394 Concealed Knob-and-Tube Wiring 394.12 Uses Not Permitted Concealed knob-and-tube wiring shall not be used in the following: (1) Commercial garages (2) Theaters and similar locations (3) Motion picture studios (4) Hazardous (classified) locations (5) Hollow spaces of walls, ceilings, and attics where such spaces are insulated by loose, rolled, or foamed-in-place insulating material that envelops the conductors Not illegal just not permitted by the code.