David Meiland

If you do decide to install a heat mat under tile, I would go over to the John Bridge tile forum and read up. There are many, many threads on how to do this, probably some of them are stickies. http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/

johnmuller has 3 posts... where's the third?

Agree with the above. Skip the bleach and don't bother caulking the studs to the sheathing, although it is worth finding air leakage in the room and caulking or foaming it, after all mechanicals and before insulation. Use a large box fan to suck air out of the house, then crawl around the remodel room and find all the places it's coming in. After drywall, crawl around again and foam all the holes for plumbing stubs, electrical boxes, etc. If you can keep air from blowing out of the room through those cracks, it won't get in your stud bays and cause that staining.

I wouldn't use shark bites in the wall... One alternative is to sweat on a copper male adapter and then thread on a valve. It can be easier than sweating on a valve. Another is to use compressed air to blow water out of the lines. Shut off water to the house. Close the water heater valves. Open all faucets and hose bibbs. Use a compressor and a blow gun to shoot bursts of air down each pipe where you want to sweat. You might push it out, you might get a geyser in your face, but you can get the water further away from your work, and then start over with the sweat. A third is to use compression fittings on the existing pipe, connecting to a short nipple of new pipe + the new valve.

Wait... you can put your own diaper on?

Maybe there's a temperature sensor in there being insulated by the foam?

I haven't checked the county record, but I bet this place was built under an owner/builder permit. The owner may have details on it, he still lives there. Seems like only a matter of time before the membrane develops a leak, at which point you're up there shoveling all the dirt down into the driveway.

I looked at a house for a potential buyer recently, to price out some work on the exterior that will need done if they buy it. The house has a sod roof, or living roof, or green roof, or whatever you want to call it... it's got lots of dirt over a membrane and vegetation growing on it. I didn't look closely at it but do have a photo if anyone wants one. They had a licensed HI perform an inspection, but apparently a question has come up about how to inspect such a roof, and who could do it. The buyer's agent called to ask my opinion. Given that the membrane is almost entirely concealed, what makes sense in a situation like this? I can do an IR inspection from the interior, and presumably the HI checked the underside with his moisture meter. What else?

Yeah, pretty much. It doesn't warrant a significant repair. Any half-decent contractor-type is going to re-attach the pipe in a few minutes, using fiendish cleverness to outwit the circumstances. You don't need to strip the roof and replace the sheet. Nothing is going to happen because of that discoloration.

Yes please. Where do I send the money?

Maybe I should buy an Olight before my Fenix goes down...

If you want to fax the manual to me, I will scan and post. 360-378-8397

Looks like I got lucky here. Heard from the GE person that these units are 24-month warranty. I was too stupid and lazy to look into that in the first place, and assumed that like all other "stuff" it would have some limp 6-month or maybe 12-month warranty. If your is not seeming right, and it's approaching it's 2nd birthday, it might be worth filing for a replacement.

My Surveymaster has become intermittent in scan mode. Used to do it once in a while, now it does it a lot... reading of 0 when placed on a surface (i.e. drywall), with a "real" reading flashing on the display briefly every several seconds. There's no discernable pattern. I got ahold of GE and they say they no longer repair or calibrate these. They seem prepared to replace mine for $325, which is a rip since it's less than 2 years old and lightly used. Any thoughts? Anyone fixed theirs?

Not enough info from the photos. One term we use here is primary vs. primary/secondary, the latter being a system where the boiler heats a primary loop which then feeds different water temps as needed to radiators, tubing in floors, etc. Robert, were there rads in the house, tubing in floors, or what?

Is it worth buying conversion kits for Maglites, or should I just put them in the museum? I have 3 - 2AA minis, a 2D and a 3D. They are not going to get used as incandescent flashlights.

If the heat pump itself is not running, and it's 67-70 in the house, sounds like the aux heat strips are on in spite of no red light. That'll spin the electric meter nicely. In our climate you should have no heat strips running if it's warmer than 35 outside, possibly lower. If you have a 60 amp and 30 amp breaker for the heating system, try turning off the 60 and see what happens. If the fan keeps running but the house starts to get cold, that's something to know.

Someone will come along shortly with a better answer, but here's what I know about the opposite condition: a NG appliance that is fed with LP will have a flame that is wayyy too large... so I would expect a LP water heater fed with NG to have a too-small flame. It may or may not burn well and it would heat more slowly. When you replace the orifices on an appliance, there is sometimes a way of leaving notice for the next guy, such as a check box on the tag.

Snapped this as I walked by, Seattle near Pike Place Market... lousy cameraphone shot but kinda amusing piece of functional art (there's a flat roof, a scupper, and a leader box just out of sight at the top of the pic). Click to Enlarge 88.08 KB

With 30 feet of ductwork you are going to lose a lot of airflow. I would oversize the fan(s) at least one notch. Most recently I've been using Panasonic WhisperGreen models and they work quite well. Check the specs, there are some nifty adjustments and functionality.

This got me curious, so I popped a dimmer switch out of the wall and put a clamp meter on it. It's a Lutron dimmer like this one http://www.lutron.com/Products/StandAlo ... rview.aspx that controls three pendants with a 100-watt bulb each. At full brightness, total draw is 2.2 amps, 264 watts. At minimum brightness, total draw is .98 amps, about 118 watts.

Very possibly.

You're never going to have more than a mediocre attic with batt insulation. Blown-in cellulose is a better choice, and once they are there, it can easily to be installed to R-60 at minimal extra cost, with substantial savings down the road (since you had the house built, I assume you plan to stay there and can gain the benefit of extra insulation over the years, especially if energy prices increase). I would remove the batts, sell them on craigslist, do all the air-sealing you can around pipes, wires, etc., figure out a way to deal with the can lights (do some internet reading on this), figure out how to deal with ductwork if any, get the attic access weatherstripped and insulated. This is a weatherization /retrofit / home performance project, and there is a lot of internet reading available on it. Here's one place to start: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ ... report.pdf and here's another http://oikos.com/library/airsealing/checklist.html

Looks like they're having the plumbers dig under the foundation to get their drain in after the concrete is done.

Is there a similar installation detail source for cement stucco over wood frame walls?