Bill Kibbel

It can happen if you get oils from your skin on a xenon/halogen bulb. I own and love several Streamlight products, but I still think Ultra Stingers are useless for building inspections.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/realest ... i_11408176

Jim comin' at ya in his tactical underwear.

I'm pretty sure Twiceler is the indexing spider for a new search engine, cuil. It's reported to search pretty deep into pages of web sites.

The combustion air and vent pipe terminations shouldn't be located where they can be affected by wind, blowing snow & leaves or allow reentry of flue gases. That pic shows that the combustion air and vent pipes terminate: < 36" from the dryer vent < 10' from the fresh air inlet, if powered < 12" above anticipated snow depth There's probably a whole lot more wrong with that installation that isn't shown in the pic.

Portland, Maine "The ranks of appraisers, broker offices, agents and lenders thin out as buyers pull back.", according to this Portland Press Herald article. It's not surprising that the piece indicates the past year has been rough for home inspectors as well. "Home inspectors... say their work has nearly evaporated." This story, the only one published that I've read that mentions the influence of the current real estate market on home inspectors, can be read here.

Click To Enlarge Thanks to Matt Olson (matto) of Marshfield, WI for submitting this pick of the month.

Can we bump that to the Pick of the Month? The current one's a little stale.

Add: Liquid wrench Assorted Prybars Streamlight Stingers won't last an hour.

We had a 300 y-o house that one of the fireplaces could easily fit most mini-vans. We loved it, but we had to seal the door to the boiler room and open up some windows when we fired it up. I inspect several homes with open-hearth fireplaces each week. It's a major desirable feature of the home. If I suggested to buyers to put in a Quadrafire, I'd get punched in the face. It ain't about modern standards. Hell no- we cook breakfast over an anthracite grill! Since youse not from here, I getst you wootna known it's houz we sez Philadelphia. Nope. Here in rural areas, we can burn trash in open pits too. In PA, we let a coal vein fire destroy a town and it's still burning 45 years later.[utube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkHfnp2czZQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344">

Identical stoves are still manufactured today. It's not supposed to be a modern, efficient, rope-sealed door stove. In fact, it was intended to operate with the doors open, until the end of a period of use. It's a "Franklin stove", although not exactly Franklin's original design of 1742 (it didn't work). Franklin liked the heating ability of the recent German settlers' five-plate stoves, but he didn't like the fact that one couldn't see the fire. His design was a compromise, but was intended to be significantly more efficient than an open fireplace. David Rittenhouse improved Franklin's concept in 1772 so it would vent properly. He called it the "Rittenhouse Stove", which is still the same exact design as in Jeff's pic. Everyone calls it the Franklin stove to this day. It's almost impossible for most folks to be able to determine if one were manufactured 200 years ago or last year. They're still quite popular around these parts. If Jim were to make his comments to any Franklin stove owners in the city of Fluffia, PA or surrounding counties, I'm sure they would try to do him some bodily harm. If the masonry on the wall is consistently at least 3.5" thick, without a ventilated air space, the required clearance can be reduced by 33%.

I thought Rex Caulkwell writes books about sealants and I didn't know about the turd edition Mike - If you correct the typos in your post, I'll look like an idiot.

What mouse in what trap?

That's a really cool find. I saw one on display at a museum or historic site somewhere and one on an inspection of a college building. Both had the same cabriole style legs.

It's for units exposed to salty ocean air and acidic environments. I see them on industrial systems and it's standard on some residential split-ductless systems. It's surprising to see it on that installation (although a crappy application). Maybe they had a problem with the dog peein' on it.

Hydronic: baseboard, convectors & covered radiators. I don't want to know the temp. of the covers. Commercial: (warehouse & shipping) suspended units, infrared and tubular radiant. These are usually 20'-40' from the floor. My step ladder doesn't get quite close enough to use a 1:12.

I've posted this before in other threads: It's pretty accurate for the mid-Atlantic region.

This might be the same model: http://www.yukon-eagle.com/Portals/0/ma ... %201_2.pdf

From your description of some of the components, it sounds like it may be a multi-fuel furnace. One that can be used with oil/gas or wood. I've never seen one made by Sears. I'll bet it was originally manufactured by another company like Yukon.

There are 3 different reasons a chimney may be offset: To penetrate the roof at the ridge so as to avoid having any roof slope above that would need to be diverted around the chimney (cricket) To avoid cutting and supporting a structural member Some architectural styles include chimney placement as part of the design.

I respectfully disagree. I think a 1:30 is necessary.

Unfortunately, we know what your vote would be.

Look to the left of your post at the top of this page. Being south of the border, Jim's just trying to turn this into an international conflict.

Yup. And the chimney flue was built for coal too. Affectionately known as an octopus furnace.

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