Bill Kibbel

an Episcopal church was formed by a group that came from Wales and settled in the Pennsylvania colony. They built a stone church on the top of a hill in the "Welsh Tract". Click to Enlarge 45.19 KB Click to Enlarge 49.69 KB My supervisors today: Click to Enlarge 68.85 KB

My experience has shown that there is very little cutting necessary. The pieces were custom made for each project. Advertisements and catalogues usually state "made to order" as well as a large stock of standard pieces. The architects plan and detail drawings were submitted to the manufacturer, who would fabricate and deliver the product to the site in "perfect condition". For structural tile, manufacturers extruded the clay through many different die sizes and then each piece was wire cut to the length/height needed. Decorative, glazed architectural elements were induvidually custom molded.

The terra cotta industry was huge in NJ, in fact it all started there. At it's peak, there were 30 states that had terra cotta manufacturers. That list includes a majority of the east coast states.

It's not telephone tile, but similar. Read the second page of the article that I linked above.

Some of you know my experience with, and appreciation of structural terra cotta. It was a nice surprise to discover who built the house I inspected yesterday. Click to Enlarge 71.15 KB Click to Enlarge 62.1 KB Click to Enlarge 69.1 KB Exterior and interior walls, floors, chimneys, support columns, all architectural details, tiles and even door stops were terra cotta.

I just saw video shot from a helicopter over Phillips previous home town, Tuscaloosa. Holy crap. I hope he wasn't anywhere near the path of that tornado. I also saw video of my sister-in-law's town of Ringgold, GA. They live on a hill overlooking the town. She slept through it, but her family watched the tornado level much of the town. Her kids' schools are just gone.

Only required if the area of an individual pane is larger than 9 sq. ft. AND less than 18" from the floor.

Excellent! Thank you very much Terry.

For units made within about the past 10 years, Sanyo has made finding the manufacture date easy. Click to Enlarge 26.7 KB I find it difficult, and this time impossible, to determine the age of older units. I'm sure these two are the same vintage, but the serial #s aren't giving it up. Click to Enlarge 44.85 KB Click to Enlarge 22.25 KB The indoor sections aren't helping. Click to Enlarge 33.44 KB Click to Enlarge 50.7 KB I haven't seen any with the fake wood decal since the mid 80s. Can anyone determine if this guess is -correct -close - -way off?

Yes, it's a backflow preventer/check valve. It's not too common if this is a single family residence. I usually find them in commercial buildings, multi-family and LARGE homes, all with fire suppression sprinkler systems. It has test cocks for annual testing, required by the manufacturer, if not local code. I don't see a relief port so vertical installation might not be an issue. There should be a strainer if there is no filter preceding it.

April 25, 2011 Harrisburg, PA Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed his first bill into law today since taking office in January. The law repeals a requirement in the national building code for new 1 and 2 family homes to have fire suppression sprinkler systems. Gov. Corbett said the law will keep "new home prices within reach for Pennsylvania's working families." "Whether or not new homes should be equipped with sprinklers, I believe, should be left up to the individual consumers, not to the government." Garth Everett, R-Lycoming County is the bill's sponsor, and declared the passing of the law "a victory for all Pennsylvanians seeking to build and buy new homes." More from PR Newswire: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... 55949.html

A facade is the entire front or "public face" of a building - not one element.

A pediment is not a triangle stuck onto a building. A pediment has projecting moldings of the cornice around the perimeter, resulting in a recessed area called a tympanum. The earliest had releif sculptures within the tympanum. The Greeks created the pediment. It was the decoration of the end of the roof at the gable-end of their buildings, which is the facade. The Romans took it and stuck it over doors, windows and niches. The Italians took a bite out of the peak - it's called a broken pediment. 17th century British architects stuck a finial in the gap of the broken pediment.

Bill, it seems that we agree that the problem is likely to be the manometer itself. I don't want to put words in your mouth; am I reading you right? No, it's not the manometer, it's the installation. Every radon mitigation system manometer I've seen is a simple clear U-tube, with blue non-evaporating liquid. It has flexible tubing on one end and the tubing is inserted into a hole drilled into the PVC suction pipe. If the hole in the pipe is bigger than the tubing, and there's no sealant, the liquid in the tube is usually at zero. I'll take the tube out of the suction pipe, flare the end with my pen and re-insert it, just to show folks the system is actually creating a negative pressure. The next most frequent issue is finding the tubing has kinked. Pushing on the bent tubing removes the kink, also quickly illustrating that the system is creating a negative pressure.

It doesn't have the elements to be a pediment. It's a false-gable parapet wall.

Just to be clear, in case there's any doubt. I am not the author. I'm just the technical consultant. I know. It was in response to many of the replies in this topic.

Wouldn't "mineral deposits" be more accurate than "chemical deposits"?

A good inspector should be really bad at writing fiction.

That is my guess as well. I think it's pretty easy to spot a split bus: Click to Enlarge 48.58 KB (ItI stole the pic from a post from Chad over a year ago).

Almost no likelihood I disagree. I've inspected thousands of oil-fired and some still coal-burning boilers that have only a coil immersed in the boiler for the domestic hot water. The boiler stays within a constant temperature range throughout the off-heating season. That part is plausible. It's also imaginable that such a boiler could fail in the summer, resulting in no hot water and a flooded basement. It's somewhat possible that this symptom could be patched up temporarily and the boiler resumes generating hot water. I can't make a connection between the failed domestic water system in the boiler and a "clanking sound". Make it a hissing sound it it could be conceivable.

Beaver? Badger? How about using the correct names for systems installed in buildings, not goofy names made up by companies selling products and systems.

Good air movement isn't good. It means air from the house is being sucked into the system, thus no negative pressure under the floor slab. Are the perimeter drain, slab cracks and sump pit sealed? More often than not, when there's no negetaive pressure reading, I find no sealant where the tube from the manometer enters the suction pipe.

Any way we can find out who f***ed it all up in '76?

In-floor weight scale.

Probably a lot/run number. I wouldn't know if there is a date code in there. One EPDM manufacturer prints if it's either 30 to 60 mils in thickness.