Jeremy

I'd settle for good sleep.

Trial and error test. Let us know how it goes.

I'm curious about the rest of the house. Is the wall at the other end of the home leaning too?

Turn around and put a .45 in it.[:-grumpy]

Bad question written by the mis-informed.

Makes me think of Seven, the garden dust to kill or keep bugs off garden plants. Maybe the homeowner was doing his own exterminating?

Jeremy, may I use you as a reference? My work computer was built in 1999 and is running Windows 2000. For the first time in my life I can input data fast enough to shut a computer down. And, I'll be in Buffalo three days each month for the next 4 or 5 months. Is Walden Ave close enough to you so we can do lunch? Yep, and Yep. E-mail me the days. I'm sure we can arrange that.

Hi, We too have similar problem. Attached are some of the pictures of cracked hardy planks around the nails. We reported this problem as part of our 11 month repairs list to our builder but they have not done anything yet. Our house is now 1 and ½ years old. I am trying to contact siding company JamesHardie to check whether this is covered by their warranty. Thanks, Srini Click to View 922.07 KB Click to View 746.97 KB Click to View 746.96 KB Your builder should be taking care of this for you.

Jim, It looks like a nail with too large of shank would be a possibility and like others have said, put on soak and wet.

Ezra, This Z brick, is it possible to determine whether it is solid or Z brick on the outer face? I couldnt see how thick the material was. Looking at the corners of the chimney shows that they are regular brick. I doubt that 3/8 z-brick could produce that much efflorescence. I say a masonry chimney needs a masonry foundation, period. Tear it all off and start over. Building back with just a frame chase and siding would be most practical.

Yep, this is 2009.

A vapor retarder should be installed on the warm-in-winter side of the insulation. Your jurisdiction could have additional requirements, you would need to check with the AHJ about the additional barrier on the foundation wall. Or you could ask the contractor to cite the code for you. Unless the cavity is vented, I would favor vapor retarder only on one side. The ice shield is a requirement in some jurisdictions. Again, you will need to know what your jurisdiction requires. The IRC leaves it open for the AHJ to call.

Walk through.

Might want to try the public offering like State Continuing Education, Inc. How long for a good inspection and what will it cost?

Teen girl dies of CO poison.

Or really heavy smokers.

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years. Possibly a black hole. A void in space.

One thing about it, you can check the dip while you have the tank out for the high performance pan installation.

True, and it is fortunate we have guys like that. They will always be ahead of the code cycle with ideas that should be tested and proven before becoming law. Without them there would be no progress. Now we are starting to see provisions in the code for some of those ideas, such as conditioned, non-vented crawls. Having these options as a "legal" way to do things is great and prevents us from being trapped into only doing the minimum, but it's not always necessary that we exceed minimum requirements. When advising someone to go with the latest and greatest, rather than what is laid out within industry standard, I think we need to be sure we are not advising them to join an experiment. If I am the one to "sell" them on someone's new idea, will I also be the one they come to for the guarantee? That would be my concern and makes me wonder why we wouldn't stick with the IRC as a rule for source cites. Don't get me wrong, I like buildingscience.com and don't condemn it in anyway. I'm just thinking in terms of inspector liability.

I see buildingscience.com referred to quite often here on TIJ and I have to agree that it is great source of a wealth of information. But, what about the IRC? Would it not have more legs to stand on if this topic were to become a real dispute? After all it is what more jurisdictions adopt as the base for their codes. Wouldn't it be a better source to site? Opinions?

Gypsum board is used in firewalls, but does not mean it is non-combustable. It is used in firewalls to buy time and the amount of time it buys determines the fire rating. If it were non-combustible, it would be o.k. next to fireplace openings.

Ah...Thankyou! I knew something didn't look right. It's getting late. How is that for an excuse?

We don't get cold enough around here to see that sort of thing, but I'd guess that the coloration of the "stalagmites" is due to the inclusion of combustion byproducts from previous use as a woodburning fireplace chimney (resins, etc) in the condensation. My thoughts as well. I have seen it with wood burners...and darker.

In addition to everything already said, the section of pipe that is passing through the drywall would need to be one size larger, and then within five feet from the trap, attach to a verticle vent two sizes larger than the pipe in the photo. IRC Section P3105 Fixture Vents. It would still be ugly.

To me it looks like a partial roof job.