Jeff Remas

Clearance to combustibles? Combustion air needs?

If they place at least 20' of #4 bare copper inside the footing then the only connection that you will see will be in the main panel/disconnect.

Wow, nice form job. I can't believe you took the time to get the top of the form to exact elevation. Normally we use finish nails to mark the elevation where we snapped a chalk line inside the oversized forms. No rebar in your seismic zone?

I am more concerned with the depth of the footings than leaving old ones in place. If they used rebar to tie the new footings into the old then there should not be a problem. Most of PA has a frost depth of 42" to the bottom of the footing. Looks like you will be bringing in lots of fill. The code inspector should be requiring a set of revised prints or a change order allowing this situation to happen. You are in PA and are under the PA UCC which is currently the 2006 IRC. You are on the other side of the state otherwise I would swing by and take a look for you. Go to my website and email me what county and township you are in and I will contact the code official for you if you give me your name and the address of the property.

Now that I have been thinking about this situation since you posted it (thanks Joe!) I hope that it is an easy find such as a misconnected neutral to an enclosure or somewhere else.

I would love to see the local ordinances that are more restrictive to see if they were actually legally adopted. I would love to see any of these requirements in writing. In our area, there is one municipality that does not allow NM in any commercial structure and has not since the inception of NM cable. Another municipality has special conduit requirements in its "fire district". That is about it.

I have checked this before and never really had a problem in residential applications. Commercial and industrial situations, especially those with large IT departments is another story. This can be your best friend: http://us.fluke.com/usen/Products/Fluke+430+Series.htm

Is the grounding conductor tied in improperly to a sub-feed? I am thinking this conductor is picking up additional current from an overloaded neutral on a 4 wire 3 phase why due to harmonics.

More than likely harmonic current is loading the neutral so I would try to oversize the neutral conductor to carry the load with less resistance so that it takes away from the grounding system. This is a system that is grounded correct? It is not a European system where all current goes back to the POCO transformer and there are no ground rods/UFERs, etc., is it? 50Hz is not American. The system needs a good power analyzer that can look at harmonics in detail. I am assuming that this is a 3 phase 4 wire wye of course.

What exactly is that reading? Is it Amperage which I assume it is? AC or DC? The photo is out of focus. Is there cathodic protection in this system? Is there a lot of electronic equipment in this building?

You are missing something. No inspection sticker. Legit and should be mentioned in your report. Questioning the number of circuits after a panel change is another story and a separate issue. No one has to add circuits when they change a panel or upgrade a service. If that is what the customer wants then that is what they get. No one has to upgrade the rest of a house when a panel is changed or upgraded. If you have a problem with loading on a panel due to too many circuits or think the home needs more circuits then that too is another issue that you can put in your report. Just don't tie a new panel into automatically thinking the rest of the house has to be upgraded. If all of the appliances are gas then I don't see a problem. You can always recommend additional circuits be added if there is a lack of receptacles in the home that has caused a problem with use of extension cords.

Oh wow, Joe Tedesco is back online. Long time, no see.

I love using the trusty old analog Simpson for AC issues like this.

Owens Corning SureNail system is designed to be nailed directly into the strip. http://www.abchomespecialists.com/image ... oofing.jpg

The receptacle should be flagged during the inspection as being defective due to its location.

I would not write it up as a defect as long as they are all 2 prong receptacles. They can always go the GFCI route and mark the converted 3 prong receptacles, GFCI Protected-Ungrounded. I would however recommend an upgrade for safety enhancement

I don't see a problem. You are obviously nit-picking to generate work for yourself.

Tell the agent to kiss your ass and get a book on common sense.

Who would be idiotic not to put one in?

Were there stairs leading down/up into the garage from the house entry door?

Maybe in his jurisdiction but not nationally

Ultimately, gypsum by itself is non-combusible but I am not aware of any gypsum board assemblies that are rated as being non-combustible. Sheetrock in general must meet the ASTM C 1396 standard and those used for fire "rated" assemblies must meet other ASTM fire restive rating tests.

That all depends on what type of gypsum wallboard you are talking about. Gypsum still has a flame and smokespread index like many other materials. Some documentation lists a non-combustible material as one that will not ignite or flame within 5 minutes when places inside an oven at 1380 degrees F. Even some of the best gypsum type X still states that it is not to be applied in areas that are subject to more then 140 deg F temperatures such as a wall for a wood stove.

It all depends on how it was layered where we can't see from a picture. That will determine the answer. This can be a perfectly acceptable installation.

This is a great question and it is not spelled out in the building codes at all. I was, however able to dig something up from New Jersey some time back (I don't know if they still have this language) but essentially they said that the outlet from the trap weir had to be at least 3" in length to be condidered a P trap. I have been using 3" as a decision maker ever since then but it is not in the IRC or IPC. Maybe Darren can dig this back up since he is a Jersey boy