Terence McCann

No washing machine Richard - you are correct. I figgered that the home had come out of being winterized however I let the water run for a few minutes, at varying volumes, with no luck.

Did a bank owned home today - nice house, built in 06. The thermostat setting, of the hot water tank, is set to just past 3rd degree burns. At the master bath tub and at the laundry sink (both are the farthest runs from the tank) the hot water is spitting and sputtering like there is air in the lines. I ran both of these faucets for more than enough time to clear any air. No other faucet in the home exhibited this type of behavior. ?

Well put Jim.

What is what do Oprah Winfrey's dresses do? We're not playing jeopardy? Oh. Too funny Chad. Reminds me of when I was watching Johnny Carson, doing the Carnac bit, and he holds the envelope up to his head and says Yasser Arafat - he opens the envelope and says What is the sound Dolly Partons bra makes when she takes it off?

From the Cedar Bureau: Solid sheathing is recommended for shakes and may be required in seismic regions or under treated shakes and shingles. Solid sheathing is used in areas with wind-driven snow. Please note that the only solid sheet sheathing tested with Certi-label shakes and shingles is plywood. Check with your local building official for plywood thickness/dimensions. The wind driven snow is certainly a factor here. Thanks guys.

Is plywood roof sheathing acceptable when the covering is wood shake or should it be skip sheathing?

What's a bleed at the seams Kurt?

Sorry, read it too quickly. [:-dunce] Were you able to check the roof vent for flow? Able to pull the front to check for obstructions?

Any heat going out the sidewall vent?

The front steps are lovely too.

Looks like it is alive no? Any idea how it got in or is the family missing their pet.

The Burnham Heating Helper A good PDF to keep in your reference section. I've uploaded it to the file section as well but most likely pending approval.

Sawzall?

It's not related to driveways here Jim. Almost all driveways are set away from the home itself. The most problematic basement I've seen had wall damage on 3 out of the 4 walls in the basement. Story was that the owners had the basement waterproofed and then the horizontial cracks showed up sometime later.

On a side bar: I always recommend installing GFCI on older homes without them. Anyone recommending/considering recommendation of the installation AFCI as well?

According to Dr. Joe, that doesn't happen in heated basements: http://www.buildingscience.com/document ... l-trouble/ Thanks for the link Jim, that was a good read and very informative. Also, a lot of it pertains to this neck of the woods. I need to follow the other links posted in the footnotes. Not that I'll ever run into this situation but he did make mention of unheated basement with a rubble foundation. So, why in cases where we have unheated foundations and frost susceptible soils we still don’t have many problems? Well, mostly luck and some unexpected and under-appreciated drainage. With many rubble foundations, we dodge the adfreezing bullet and lateral frost heave forces because the rubble foundation wall is a pretty good drainage medium Any thoughts on CMU as compared to? Last point, whenever I see a horizontal crack a few courses down, running much of the length of the wall, I always assumed it was due to poor compaction (although to much being the case), poor drainage with expansive soils with frost heave. It would appear that frost heave is not the problem now so what would you think is the major cause?

I mentioned to Mike O, some time ago, that he should write a coffee table book showing all the goofy stuff we find. He sure has enough material to work with. Sell it a the big box stores.

The water heater has a flue pipe for a reason. If it has holes in it replace it. If the flue was meant to have holes in it then it would have been shipped that way. There is no need to impress your clients with home inspector techno babble. Just adhere to the KISS principal. 90% of the people won't understand and the other 10% will want to argue about the theory.

Exactly - if he didn't pay then there is no warranty. You're not going to stiff me twice. Here's my attorney's number, he wants to know how you intend to pay for the original job.

Now your just showing off. []

All of the shudder adjustments I've seen though rotate. From the placement of the thumb tabs it can not rotate, only move up or down (assuming the tabs are attached to the inner piece of metal). Gas lighting perhaps? I really should stop farting around here and get back to my report. [8]

Looks like a shudder adjustment off a burner doesn't it? Be interested to see what BK has to say.

Too much common sense - please stop before it goes viral.

You can cool the 1st and second floor correctly with one system however you have to find a contractor that knows what their doing and then you actually have to pay more for a correct temperature control system and balanced duct work. When they build houses like their on an assembly line you get the contractor special. All I want to know is how cheap it is.

Where is the furnace located?