Bill Kibbel

Manufacturers' installation instructions. - Only one offset is permitted - A max. of (2) 15° or (2) 30° elbows can be used - mixing combinations of elbows to get other angles is not permitted Or did you mean the terminating section was 50° off vertical?

I don't know about the "reddish looking" collar, but those collars for metal roofs are EPDM. The heat ratings are 180º for continuous or 225º intermittent up to 30 minutes.

It's a coal burner. I've seen a couple in carriage houses. The horses (and carriages) always seemed to have it better than the servants residing above.

Clipped gable is the correct name for the style of the roof. Jerkinhead is the name of the little triangle piece above the gable ends.

It's asphalt impregnated fiber-board (like Homasote). I doubt it says "Fire Rated".

Most requirements for wood siding state a minimum of 2" clearance between siding and roof surface.

It looks like it could be copper, but it's certainly not new. Ask 'em to show a receipt. I wouldn't be telling them it should be monitored. It's installed wrong and its had temporary patching that has failed. I'd be telling them to have the gutter joints/overlaps, downspout outlets and downspouts installed correctly. There's plenty of reputable sources that show and describe correct installation.

The problem is with the #$%&@ agents telling naive, first-time buyers that they don't need "another inspection" since the "FHA inspector will find all the major issues". I think legislation that removes reeltors from the entire inspection process would better serve the public.

Looks like brickface. It was wildly popular here from the 40s through the mid 70s. Some old towns here have 60% of the historic buildings covered with it. Here's the process: www.brickface.com/product_gallery_brickface.html

I'd love to get that too, but it would cost me more than twice as much. If my wife saw me takin' it out of the box, she would have a new pair of Zanottis that very same day.

Around here it needs to have a sediment trap between the shut-off valve and the appliance inlet ('cept dryers and grills).

The galv. pipe is where the water meter is supposed to be.

I installed a pair last year when I replaced one of my water heaters (electric). They're made by Watts; Series CWH-S flexible water supply connectors for water heaters. NSF and UPC Listed. "These connectors provide full flow capacity and protection from vibration and bursting under pressure surges and seismic activity". There is no information, label, etc. warning that they are not suitable for gas or lp.

There are braided stainless steel connectors specifically manufactured and approved for water heaters. The tubing is Santoprene (cross linked EPDM and polypropylene).

That gray goop is called carbide sludge or carbide lime, which is only calcium hydroxide. It's not considered toxic or hazardous. Waste from industrial generators is filtered or settled out in retaining ponds and used in water treatment, agriculture and other applications. The only caution would be the same as with handling or breathing the dust of powdered lime (when I make and use lime mortar, I loose my fingerprints for a few weeks). Calcium carbide is made by electrocuting limestone. Acetylene generators either dropped carbide pellets into water or dripped water onto carbide to create the acetylene gas. This was fun: www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2823

Hey Jason, Yes, it contains asbestos. I'm pretty sure it's J-M's Air Cell.

I've set up a map where TIJ members can mark where they are located. Go to www.mapservices.org/myguestmap/map/asiedydd Zoom into your town, or down to your actual street address if you want, then double click to mark the location. Enter your name, a greeting and a website. Use inspectorsjournal.com if you don't have one.

Hi Joe, Every time I go to or from the airport, I make it a point to drive around Bethlehem Steel. I often get a certain feeling when I'm around old abandoned buildings that have had historically significant activity. The feeling is almost overwhelming when I'm in the shadows of the complex that had such a major part of industrializing America. Bethlehem Steel also supplied the components for munitions and thousands of ships for both world wars and landmarks like the George Washington Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, Grand Coulee Dam, Hoover Dam and the San Francisco Railway. I've had the pleasure of inspecting some of the early execs' homes and their hunting lodge.

I don't know of anyone that has a life expectancy section in their reports. If a house part is beyond, at, near or approaching the end of its useful life, I let folks know - in the section of the report that pertains to that part.

It's a solenoid valve (thingy).

Fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) panels. I've seen them in hundreds of restaurant kitchens. Meets USDA/FSIS requirements.

Doug, Read the documents listed in the TIJ Library about I-Joists. www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum/LinkFil ... cat&id=228

John, I don't have the time to read the text right now, but I clicked through the pages and I'm very, very pleased with the layout. It's almost identical to the format of my reports. It looks like a report that was created from scratch, specifically about the home inspected. Wait a minute - that IS how my reports are created. I'm really turned off by most HI reports. It usually spews "canned boilerplate contained within purchased software formatting" from almost every page.

I'm impressed with everyone's research effort, but direct experience won't be indexed by Google. That's an interesting case Mike, but I think the County Analyst got it wrong. It's possible that in this particular location, the aggregate used for masonry wall construction came from ground up slag, a waste product from several local furnaces (the name of that town "Cinderford" likely came from the piles of slag from all the furnaces in that area of Gloucestershire). Some slag can contain arsenic, if the furnace was operating at a temperature which did not gas it off into the atmosphere. The statement "He had found definite traces of arsenic being given off in gaseous form from the wall" is completely unsupportable. It's not possible without intense heat (like a smelting furnace). The fact that the greatest amount of arsenic was found in the victims' lungs indicates arsenic oxide, well known as being given off in deadly quantities from smelting furnaces. I'll bet they lived down-wind from the furnace.