David Meiland

This stuff hardly looks 30 years old to me. I'm gonna go with (1) the first prospective buyer I talked to got me on the wrong foot by describing a big problem, and (2) when they did the addition (or sometime after) they resided the house. I will inform the current buyer that this product has had a history of problems, but not all of it has problems; I cannot tell its age but my guess it that it is not original; it looks great right now because it was just painted; one of us could research the permit history and possibly learn more; and, she should budget X$ to fix that area with the slab contact. To find out more, I'd have to take some off the wall.

Photo doesn't enlarge much... Click to Enlarge 51.86 KB

Thanks all for the insights. My comments about getting kicked out are in jest... just wanting to clarify what my role is. I am often called to follow up on HIs. When you guys write "have a contractor look at this" I frequently get that call. I am asked for pricing on repair/replacement, and frankly, I often encounter stuff that was not in their report, so I have to decide where to go with that. I am there to look out for the financial exposure of the prospective buyer. The siding I saw did not have exposed fasteners, or at least any that I could see. It appeared to be blind nailed, and it definitely appeared to be recently painted. Given the imprint on this stuff, it seems like it would be hard to disguise swelling/crumbling etc. This place has been through a few failed deals recently and no amount of sleight-of-hand by the seller would surprise me. In any case, the siding "looks" good in most places, certainly not swollen or growing 'shrooms. I was able to determine that an addition was built post 1985 and at that time the siding *may* have been replaced. Possibly the first potential buyer I talked to was freaking out over nothing. The photo shows what appears to be the "LP knot" along with some faulty grade. Per Jim Katen's comment, I assume it's hard to date the material without removing some to see a stamp on the back (if that's even possible). Click to Enlarge 59.01 KB

From another source it appears that siding from the 80s/early 90s would be called "Inner Seal" and basically turns into a vertical mushroom farm, possibly taking the sheathing and framing with it. It is very rare for a house of that vintage to have anything but cedar siding, or possibly T1-11, around here. I've literally never touched a piece of it on any job anywhere.

About 8 months ago I got a call from a person planning to buy a house built in 1985. She told me that the home inspector identified the siding as LP siding, and from her research thought it would need to be replaced. I told her I would come and price that, but she never called back and never bought the house. Today I got a call from someone else planning to buy the same house. She asked me to come look at foundation issues identified by a different inspector. She emailed me a copy of that inspector's report and he does not mention LP siding. My question is, how easy is it to identify this stuff from 1985, and what are the known issues? I consider these two inspectors roughly equal and both reasonably good. When I go there tomorrow, to look at supposed foundation issues, I should probably do something to assess the siding. Last thing I need is a customer buying this house and I never said anything about the siding, and it's rotting the walls. For anyone who doesn't know, I'm not a HI, just a contractor who hasn't gotten kicked out of here yet.

I take hundreds of construction pics each week, stuff that is intended to be looked at days, weeks, months, or years later for details. Everything is 3000x2000 and about 2MB, big enough to zoom in on if need be, but I always try to crop at the time I take the shot by getting or zooming closer. More is better. The rooftop shots I've seen from drones... so far... look like they give a decent cursory look, but with roofs and flashing, there are lots of times where you want to lift a layer to look underneath. There are lots of places you can't easily climb to without protection, so a drone would be a lot better than nothing.

I much prefer fiberglass to typical PVC windows. Seen too many PVC that are deforming. There are some very high end windows made of uPVC... Intus and similar brands... but they're nothing like what you would get in the box store. I've had great luck with Integrity.

Floor drain with a trap primer? I would only expect 3/4" PVC from a water heater pan.

I have seen 1-2 cases where a toilet leak--thought to be a wax ring issue--was actually a crack in the toilet itself.

If you did everything perfectly wrong, with the exhaust above the intake, condensate could drip into the intake. You would have to be exceedingly clever to screw it up that badly, but it could be done. In any case, they figure you're going to run two pipes side by side on the ceiling, or in a joist bay and out the rim... horizontal.

The only place I know of where BPI multifamily folks might be found is the RESNET/BPI group on LinkedIn. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1110 ... =hb_side_g

Reads to me that #1 is an install spec for ducted combustion air, #2 is an alternative to use a factory-certified system that passes a lab test, and then the two exceptions are two additional options.

We installed a woodstove in an existing building with a concrete slab floor and no way to pipe outside air to the firebox. In such situations, code allows air to be provided to the room the stove is in. This *appears* to be governed here in WA by the Washington State Energy Code although there is related language in the IRC with very similar section numbers. The plan-checker photocopied the following and taped it to the plans (that's what they do in these parts... code cites photocopied and added to your plans wherever they feel it's appropriate). http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=51-51-1006 I installed the air inlet about three feet off the floor, because that's where I felt it looks best (and is out of reach of splash-back from rain landing on the slab outside). The building inspector said no, it has to be at or below the level of the firebox. 1. I think he's mis-reading the code cite above. This is not ducted air. I have exception #2. 2. Even if he's not reading wrong, how would the elevation of the inlet matter? We are talking room pressure vs outside. If the stove (or anything else) causes room Thoughts?

Agree with Kurt. We had a Takagi for ~7 years, I sold it and put in a standard tank. I do miss the remote control, because it would make the water 165 degrees for cooking pasta sooner, but that's it.

I've had a few of those installed, various sizes and brands, they seem to work fine but you need a LOT of big wire to hook them up. Last one was (4) 60-amp breakers.

Interesting item... a refrigerant-to-water heat exchanger. The water piping would be fairly simple, but you would need someone to evacuate your AC system, modify the lines, and then recharge the system. Also looks like it depends on a convective loop to move the water from the exchanger into the tank. According to their promo video, a housing authority chose to install several hundred of them, so they must have done some research to determine that they were cost-effective, and/or they got rebate money from the electric utility to apply to the project. What would the total installed cost be for you? I agree with Marc that you would look at typical weatherization measures for a building of that age. What can you get in terms of a free or subsidized energy audit from the utility companies?

What's a good, small pair of binoculars for looking at roofs and similar?

Can't answer your specific question, but in your climate you could look at a heat pump water heater.

Any chance those folks are new owners of a high efficiency washer? It's easy to put in way too much soap if you're not used to it.

Not on the house per se... it's all nicely above grade on a concrete foundation... but there are landscape timbers embedded all over the place. When I told the owner the window was really poorly installed and should be pulled and re-set, he said "there was water coming in there before they even installed drywall"... and that was 20 years ago. My repair is not the first to this exact spot. The termites had 2 decades to find the good stuff. Idle curiosity, but I'm wondering if they smell it or something like that. This would be a difficult area to repair correctly, and it's not in the cards. I was able to improve the flashing at the bottom corners of the lower unit, so maybe it won't leak further, but the correct thing to do would be to scaffold all the way up, strip the wall, pull the units, install pans, and then re-install the windows, siding, and trim. Wild guess, $7500. If this was a typical 3x4 unit it would already be done. Click to Enlarge 101.55 KB

It would be interesting to know how these guys found this concealed pocket of wet rot in this house. I suppose an entomologist would know. They would have had to scout several thousand square feet of exterior surface area to find the one small opening that led them to their new home. In 11 years of working this one 50-square-mile area and repairing countless leaks, I've never seen them before.

Thank you, gentlemen. The owner is sure to be pleased. This little surprise was about 12 feet off the ground, so they travelled quite a way to find the wet spot. There was a bit of sandy-looking debris in the area.

Excavated a poorly flashed window today with lots of rot, and found these guys holed up. I've never seen them before. ID? Click to Enlarge 144.87 KB

Worthless answer: that looks a lot like what the local propane guys call "sharkskin" and it's used as a sleeve on the poly tubing they use outdoors when it's exposed above grade (they use CSST inside the structure). Edit: this is what it looks like, it's PVC as far as I know, and it's on basically every installation around here. Click to Enlarge 134.55 KB

It's definitely not solid surface; it's not a homogeneous mix like Corian. Hmm. The few that I have had the displeasure of handling have seemed like solid surface to me, but they're probably not as old as what Jim is talking about (60s... I'm thinking more 80s and up). They're some sort of cast resin... bowl, backsplash, and all. I've had to cut a few to fit around stuff. They typically have flecks or streaks mixed in.