caryseidner

HEAVY DUTY EXTEND AND CLIMB TELESCOPIC STYLE LADDER The real ladders are Xtend, no E in the name. You might be right Carey, it may be real, and the seller just doesn't know how to spell. Anybody can make a spelling error. For instance my name is spelled "Cary" not "Carey"[]

It must be my eyes Ben, but where does it say or why do you believe it's a knock-off?

You might want to have your HVAC guy/gal look into what caused all that rust on the vents as well. It looks like the vents are not sloped properly.

It's a desert topping & a floor wax.

I don't test and probably never will. If I client is adamant about testing during the AR, which I don’t advise doing, I give them the number of one of the big radon testing companies in the area so they can contract directly with them. I think testing during the AR period is silly because of all of the external and internal variances that can skew the short-term results. The only advantage, IMHO, is so the buyer can get the seller to compensate for the remediation, should the number come back high. I advise my clients to hire a radon testing company to do a long term test (6-12 months is my understanding) after they move in, and plan on installing a remediation system regardless of the reading. If radon is bad, which I believe it is, there is no real safe level. I don't trust the EPA or most other government agencies.

Mike Parrett gave an 8 hour seminar on Damp this weekend at a local ASHI seminar I attended, and had some interesting things to say about moisture meters. Unless you're testing wood, they are only good for showing when water is not present. He stuck the pins of a PSM into the core of a bone dry cynder block filled with clinker (sp?) ash, and the meter read something like 80%. Apparently the ash has carbon in it, as do many other buliding materials, which give a false positive. I'm not disagreeing with Kurt's analysis of this situation, just thought you all might find that interesting.

The NRCA also provides info and details on metal roof systems.

You created your own graphics for SketchUp? Marc Not yet. I have created my own graphics in QuickCAD, and SketchUp looks like it has many of the necessary drawing features to do it as well.

I've used QuickCAD for about 15 years now, but not so much over the last 6 since becoming an HI. It's an AutoDesk product and much lighter than AutoCAD (maybe close to AutoCAD LT?). I don't believe they produce it any longer and I'm guessing it won't work with my, soon to arrive, Windows 7 rig. I've played with SketchUp a little, and it looks like it will do everything I need it to do. Check it out.

Tom, I think Google SketchUp might work for. I use CAD software myself, but I've read others here talk about the simplicity of SketchUp and it's free.

After Kurt suggested "Water in Buildings", I placed it in my Amazon shopping cart. I'm guessing that quite a few people bought this book after that, because the price went from seventy something dollars up to $97.02! Nice going Kurt! Of course this may have been a coincidence, but I think Amazon owes you some cabbage my friend. I'll wait for the price to decline again before I hit the checkout button[:-monkeyd

Given a standard little 1200sf home with a straight hip roof, I think cont. soffit and cont. ridge (and/or mushrooms if the ridge is too short) would provide complete air movement through the attic. If cont. hip were added as well, you might not get upper attic air movement because the cont. hip would become exhaust vents. Other roof designs may be more suitable for the cont. hip so I guess it's good that they are out there as an option, but I'm having a difficult time imagining what design that would be.

For the same reason a mid-height gable end vent stops the full air movement in the attic. Air comes in low through the soffit then washes out through the gable (or cont. hip) instead of reaching the cont. ridge. But then again Jim is probably right.

From what I've read, adding gable end vents to a roof that already has continuous soffit & ridge vents can cause a ventilation interruption in the attic. I can't name the source right now, but I recently read that in 2 separate articles. Continuous hip venting seems like it might create the same phenomenon.

All of the T1-11 I've ever come across has a recessed channel or slot, not a raised batten. That stuff looks like exterior plywood with an applied batten board. Not a true "board and batten", but more of a simulated one.

Sloooooow. Yes me too.

Hey Kurt, where can I pick-up a can of that locally? My telescopic is in need. I tried the McDrive-through on Howard St., but I didn't see it on the value menu.

Great photo Bain!

I can't tell from the photos either, but I have seen asbestos wrapped around supply ducts many times in houses that age.

I was a member of Le Tip for 4 years. It was not a waste of money for me and I found it to be a very good referral source. The revenue generated far exceeded the expense (about 10:1), and it continues to even though I left over a year ago. The Le Tip & BNI groups are very hit and miss. It really depends on the make-up of the group. I ultimately left because I don't believe in the membership philosophy of quantity over quality, but I still maintain good relationships with the commercial realtor, mortgage broker, financial adviser and others from the group.

Ahhh. Job security!

Here's a pic I found on Google. Click to Enlarge 8.72 KB

Bend at your legs and grab one of the lower rungs with your dominant hand then reach up with your other hand and grab another rung. Lift and walk. You can lean it back into your shoulder for additional support but be careful not to tip it back too far or you'll lose it. To bring the ladder back to horizontal I would walk it to my truck's rear bumper. Using my ladder rack as a pivot point I would simply lift from the bottom until my ladder was at horizontal. Of course that was with my old pick-up truck and wouldn't do well with my SUV. You can always find something to use as a block. A fence, a tree, a post, a stair, your vehicle tire...there all over the place.

The 28' is a good size and should be a little easier to handle, but only you know if it will work for the houses you typically inspect. I would suspect it would. You and I are about the same size and I used to handle 40' by myself. I'm not bragging, but I was taught how to carry and set-up a ladder. One tip I have for you is that it's always easier to manage a ladder if you are carrying it vertically. I would use the street curb as a footing to walk my ladder up to the vertical position, then carry it to the building. If low power lines or other obstacles were between my vehicle and the building, then I would carry it horizontally and find some other stationary "curb" by the building to straighten it up. That should keep the feet from kicking out on you and save you some $$$ on a new ladder.

Or the homeowner wanted to relocate it because it was under their couch.