Bill Kibbel

"4-way" woohoo! They're not unusual here - from late 40s to about the mid 60s.

I've gotten quite a few gigs some years from property management firms working with H/O associations. Many times my task has been to figure out how to fix something that got really screwed up. The screw-ups began when they were convinced to do something by contractors they blindly believed. The other times I've been brought in have been for litigation.

Put down the flint and steel, I'll send you my old carbide lantern.

From RL Batteries on Ebay, where I've purchased other rechargeables from before. He's on vacation 'till Monday, but put him in your favorites. He had at least 10 pairs w/chargers. He had them listed as 3000 mAh, so he either typo'd or sent the wrong pair.

I heard back from Streamlight. It seems like they won't be coming out with any decent LED that can use rechargeable batteries. Thanks to you fargin bastages, I've now ended my 25 year loyalty to Streamlight and purchased the Fenix TK12. It has three modes with two outputs for each mode and a handy clip. I also got a pair of 18650 3600mAh batteries with a charger - all for under $90.00.

A good fire in the fireplace is the most likely cause of "depressurization" in the home. If the furnace isn't running, smoke from the fireplace flue is being drawn into the home through the furnace flue. Every time we lit up our open-hearth fireplace (you could park a VW in it), smoke would immediately be sucked down the boiler flue (along with some birds and an occasional plane). This is in a drafty 300 year old house - we always had to open a door and a window.

Some of the aggregate has hematite crystals. Hematite= very common iron ore in our area. It's normal for titanium dioxide in the vinyl on non-glossy windows to chalk. If the vinyl is supposed to be the glossy, something went wrong.

I'm aware of a retrofit project on which a product called Tripolymer 105 is being used. It is apparently a urea-formaldehyde product and possibly even illegal in some states and/or Canada. I haven't been able to find out much more of the what & why. Anyone have specific info on this? I was referring to UFFI installed before the 1982 ban. I don't think Tripolymer 105 is a urea formaldehyde product. I'm more familiar with it for UST abandonment than for thermal insulation. The only recent flap about urea formaldehyde in thermal insulation that I've read about is the RetroFoam class actions.

Jim is correct but brief. UFFI - Universal Foreign Function Interface? More specifically it's Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation. If you Google it, don't freak out over what you might read. Formaldehyde out-gassing has ceased long ago.

I wouldn't even sign it with Kurt's pen.

Hyperbaric chamber oxygen treatment.

I looked into online scheduling some time ago. I thought it would be really helpful for the office and field staff. I couldn't convince anyone at the office to even consider it. There was one that I liked that was simple, inexpensive and quite customizable. I think it was Appointment Plus.

I've followed the Fenix reviews here, but I'd really like to stay with Streamlight. For over 2 decades, their service has been amazing - better by far than for any other product. They will replace anything that stops working or I can manage to break (I think those exact words are in the warranty). Not only do they replace the broken part, they refurbish the whole thing every time - no charge. They're also an American manufacturer that provide many local PA jobs. I have always used the SL-20XP halogens that are the equivalent of 145 lumens. They're plenty bright for everything I do, except for the large barns that the big doors no longer open, warehouses and large commercial or industrial buildings without electricity supplied. For those I use the Streamlight Litebox @ 540 lumens. So again, for an everyday LED light, how many lumens do we really need?

It ain't no Photoshop, but it's got a few handy tasks - I like the screen capture. If you really want a poor man's Photoshop, Gimp does almost everything PS does for free.

I saw it too. I think it's $300. I mentioned it would make a good stocking stuffer. If I get it, the first picture I use from it in a report will have a caption that reads "Oh look, a polyp!"

Thanks for the service/support review. I've been quite spoiled by the incredible service from the folks at Streamlight. How many lumens do we really need for LED lights? Seriously, what's the minimum? Streamlight is starting to add LEDs to some of their products. One of mine has a combo halogen and LED. I've been looking at the new LED Stinger HP or DS with 200 lumens.

It's an innie, not an outie. The correct term is "inset dormer".

It's called a ball and socket joint. I've never seen one without the bolt-on retaining ring. I read an old plumbing manual that indicated they were created for the newly developed, structural steel buildings. It allowed the cast-iron piping systems to flex with the building

Michael is mostly correct. The bricks were likely farthest away from the core of the kiln, resulting in very little surface glaze. That's why they were used on the interior. Since the early eighties, there's been a trend among young urban professionals to remove perfectly good plaster from the interior of brick walls. Now they're all bitchin' about the constant red dust all over their imported contemporary furniture. There are even some bricks that were used on the interior of low-end buildings that were nothing more than sun-dried. In cities along the east coast, unwashed or inadequately washed local sand, that contains salt, was often mixed with the clay. Salty sand in the mortar can also easily be absorbed into unglazed bricks. There can be sulfates of sodium, magnesium or potassium. Even minimal moisture/vapor can recrystallize the salts and disintegrate the bricks while expanding. Moisture is most likely a factor here. There can be air currents, constantly moving damp air from the basement through the space at the edge of the floor. There can also be capillary action, moving moisture from the ground up the wall. Adding the "water-proofing" paint probably accelerated the deterioration. See how it's worse where the paint stops at the top of the wall? It's best to allow brick walls in a basement to "breathe", just like they need to on the exterior, above ground. If there is a desire to treat the interior, it should be a lime-wash or lime-plaster.

Great link, Mike. They have a 1952 catalog cover showing the Asbestocel duct insulation. It shows a poor fellow cutting it with a handsaw!

Thanks Mike & Les. Anyone know of anything I can reference showing this corrugated layer stuff was still manufactured with asbestos this late?

This duct insulation looks just like the old asbestos Air-Cell and Asbestocel, commonly found on old steam piping systems and coal furnace ducts. This was probably installed when central forced-air heating was installed in this home in 1975. It is on 6" ducts. Click to Enlarge 30.15 KB How late was asbestos duct insulation available? Could they have manufactured this type of insulation without asbestos felts?

Carpenter ants love nesting in that stuff.

If you're still talking about the 90-95 year old building, encasing steel beams and columns in concrete was the most common method of fire protection of structural steel.