mjr6550

Received feedback today from the buyer. An exterminator looked at the damage and said it is from wood boring beetles. The buyer had no other information.

A couple more photos. Old house borers is a possibility. The pellets look a lot like photos of drywood termite pellets, but I have never seen them and they would be rare for this area. From what I have read they eat across the grain. This wood was channeled along the grain. Click to Enlarge 37.2 KB Click to Enlarge 23.39 KB

I'll do it for $8250 and throw in the travel for free.

Cylindrical. Maybe about twice as long as the diameter. I could sent you a larger photo if you would like.

I performed a structural inspection today and this was identified as termite damage. The smooth channels look more like carpenter ants, but the frass makes me think this is some type of beetle. I mainly want to confirm that it is not termite damage. BTW, no drywood termites in this area. Click to Enlarge 18.6 KB Click to Enlarge 26.04 KB Click to Enlarge 18.46 KB

In our area the inspections are by private inspection agencies. They do not open panels. Seriously? Around here, you need to have the panel cover off when the inspector arrives, or he turns around, gets in his car and drives away. This is one of my favorites. Click to Enlarge 35.15 KB Click to Enlarge 29.88 KB

Vinyl siding installation guidelines don't call for caulk, but virtually every window manufacturer does. I realize that does not apply to other joints. I don't recall seeing details like that with any vinyl siding installation, but I see similar details with stucco remediation projects.

If budget permitted they would be better off lifting house and building a new foundation. Otherwise benching is easier than underpinning. If the foundation has concrete footings then they may be able to excavate 4 to 5 feet lengths at a time. Usually they do one third at a time. Of course, the cost will vary quite a bit depending on the depth they need to excavate.

In our area the inspections are by private inspection agencies. They do not open panels.

In my opinion anything butting up to a J channel should be caulked to keep bulk water out. I have seen quite a bit of rotted OSB below the sides of J channels at windows, doors, etc. where they were not caulked. A proper WRB and flashing would eliminate a lot of that, but with newer construction I don't count on anything being proper.

I've never understood this "put it in writing" business. What good does that achieve? Or is it just some kind of chest thumping intimidation thing? I'm not fond of the put it in writing comment. I've probably only used it a couple times in the past 30 years. It just tempting because so many people want to believe every word that comes out of a contractor's mouth.

Quite a few HVAC contractors don't seem to care at all about clearances to combustibles. I have seen hundreds of flue connectors for oil-fired equipment with less than the required clearance. All the installers would say it is fine. When I hear that the contractor said it is fine I often want to say "Have them put in writing that it does not comply with code, but its fine".

Kurt, I suspect that there are differences in steel that would explain the different rates of corrosion, but I did search quite a bit and could not find much good info on the topic. I found some references to increased amounts of manganese causing more corrosion. Manganese is added to hot rolled steel, so that is a possibility. I was leaning towards poor brickwork because of the age and the complete lack of mortar residue at the horizontal joint that separated.

I have seldom seen that. I'm going with the didn't bother to excavate fully and did not backfill either.

Hard to tell from the photos, but its looks like you may have excavated below the bottom of the foundation wall at some areas. If so, that is not a good practice. There is a greater potential for settlement, especially if the soil below the foundation gets wet. Regarding the corner with the concrete, not sure what is going on there. If the foundation has not been a problem so far, it is probably ok. Backfill with granular soil or crushed stone and don't get too agressive with compaction. Make sure you are draining the water away from the foundation, which is sounds like that is the plan.

4" thick block with 4" thick brick. They used to build a lot of houses around here like that in the 1940's and 1950's. They had header courses. This was all running bond.

I thought about that, but I have not looked into quality of steel versus corrosion. I believe I googled that before and did not get far. I'll try again.

A little while ago I did a brief visual structural inspection as a favor to a contractor. The building was built in 1975. The construction is brick over concrete block. As you can see from the photos, there has been excessive cracking and displacement due to corrosion of the steel lintels. Any ideas as to why this is worse than typical for the age? The lack of flashing and weep holes is obvious, but that is typical around here. Looks like the lintels were never painted, but I've seen that before without excessive corrosion. Looking at the clean separation between the mortar joints and brick makes me thing there was a lack of suction, so maybe hairline cracks? The condition is worse on the northern exposure, but I would expect that. One other factor of interest. There is a small concrete/concrete block manufacturer to the north less than 1/4 mile away. I'm not sure whether that could have much effect on atmospheric corrosion. Click to Enlarge 46.23 KB Click to Enlarge 42.67 KB Click to Enlarge 44.67 KB Click to Enlarge 47.76 KB Click to Enlarge 45.19 KB

I don't believe a self-closing door was ever part of the IRC. Fire rated doors much be self-closing, but the IRC does not require a fire-rated door. I think the main difference between a 20 minute fire-rated door and a standard 20 minute door is the self closing hinges and the fire-rated door is a tested assembly.

It would be helpful to see a bit more of the columns. That is probably not a big deal. I'd be a bit more concerned that one column does not bear fully on the concrete pier.

I'm thinking Adam colonial, but that style would seem to be too early for your location.

I am not a metallurgist, but I believe there is more variability to cast iron than just about any other metal. Through in differences due to age, exposure to moisture or corrosive materials, etc. and you probably end up with what we all see-some old stuff seems to last forever and some newer stuff fails. I wonder how much variation there is in wall thickness?

Today I did a structural inspection for a mortgage company. They had a mold inspection at the same time. I'm not sure who called for the mold inspection, but I think it was a waste of money. From their standpoint, maybe there was a need for it. Click to Enlarge 50.98 KB Click to Enlarge 38.34 KB Click to Enlarge 25.18 KB Click to Enlarge 47.84 KB

The cast iron does not have a seam, but if the mold if slightly offset, then this could create a stress concentration in the cast iron.

I have seen this many times and age is not necessarily a factor. It is usually at the top of horizontal runs. I think that the mixture of air and moisture at the top of the pipe causes more corrosion there and when the pipe weakens enough stress in the pipe causes the crack. This is just a theory, so maybe I am totally wrong.