Tim Maxwell

I had one like that last week Rob. The cold supply valve would just turn and turn in either direction I went in and I had not hot flow at any hot location.

I have never given a report on site. I've always emailed them the same evening or next morning. Buyers, for the most part, have had no problem with this. Like others have said, it's best to have a little time to think about the inspection and put the final touches on the report later. Also I like to stay focused more on the inspection while at the house instead of focused on the report. I still take some notes and lots of pictures and only enter some of the info onto a laptop.

I had one back in Sept. right before the flood. It was a townhouse crawlspace, but big. They said $14k. The bad thing is it didn't last a month and had trout in it. They were 100 yds from the river.

I can only say that in my 13 years as an AmeriSpec owner that they have never tried to teach me anything shady. Not once. I do all the inspections and my wife helps me quite a bit with office and marketing type stuff. If I were to go it on my own and get away from AmeriSpec, I would honestly not change anything that I do regarding my inspection or reporting. of course..."each office is independently owned and operated" So I speak for myself and cannot speak for others that I don't know.

153 was my highest reading. It was last summer. Direct sun, black shingles, hot humid day.

I get attics that hot all the time.......in August. I've only seen 125 or so so far this spring.

What does the face of the siding look like?

Was it also stinky over there?

I'm glad all you got was a hole in the pants.

My cheap Samsung is one click into macro, one click out. If I don't use the macro it will always be blurry on the closeups.

I think you may be right Chad. I had a friend over in Athens GA that inspected for 6 years and finally sold out. He also had too many crawlspaces, 80 old houses, and it finally just got the best of him. In my area I mostly get the new to 20 year old houses, with just an occasional older home with a crawlspace. I don't think I could take crawlspaces everyday.

It reminds me of the old houses with uneven stairs. You write it up because it's a safety concern, and to CYA. It is unlikely that anyone is going to rip out the stairs and rebuild. Same here. Write it up, CYA, and likely no one will move the panel.

That was the first thing I thought, remodel. Surely it was not installed that high originally.

My first digital camera was a Fujifilm. I was so disappointed when it broke. My next/current one is a Samsung. It has lasted well but does not take as good a picture as the Fuji. I am going to try another Fuji. I like to keep it under $100 if I can but $159 not too bad. Thank goodness I don't get many crawlspaces and when I do most are fairly roomy. I have many that I don't even put the coveralls on, just the knee pads.

I've seen it once, or should say I've felt it once. Slab home but you could tell when you walked on the main level hardwood floors that it was not sitting on the slab. The builder was at the house and said that he framed the floor up off the slab to be able to use real hardwoods. Adding rosin paper over the slab surface first to help hold down any moisture. Other than the one time I have heard of it being done in a basement for the same reason, to add real hardwood flooring. It is odd and not something I would consider.

This is the one I saw back in 2006, new construction. Click to Enlarge 53.95 KB

I had seen this a little before in the past on houses from their own windows. It seems the house to neighboring house started once the required Low E glass came into the picture. I have measured 178 F in the grass from a reflection focused on one spot. Then the trouble is that you can replace the damaged siding, but unless something is done with the laser beam windows next door it will likely happen again within the next year. Marc, I have a friend that painted his vinyl siding and it has held the paint really good, actually longer and better than some of the other types of siding. I don't know if that would be good or bad info for your Dad.

the water jugs in the crawl are left over from Y2K......don't drink it...

I see that sometime too. I always feel around just to make sure there are no gaps between joints under the tape. Looks like the foil covered roof deck, Techshield, I think is what I've seen. That stuff seems to work well at keeping temps down in the attic in the summer.

These wood shingles are installed in the front gables. Shouldn't there be trim overlapping the angled edge to prevent moisture entry. As you see, the shingles butt up against the trim. And of course the shingles have lots of face nailing. Click to Enlarge 29.82 KB

Thank you Bill. This one, and others I have seen have not had any type of drain. My confusion yesterday was the location of this one. When I have seen them installed for thermal expansion they were installed above the water heater. This one was about 10 feet away on the wall. The buyer brought up the fact that there was no expansion tank at the water heater and I showed him the valve but told him I would double check it on the best HI forum in the country.

This valve was installed in the basement on the cold water pipe in the basement near the water heater. Click to Enlarge 35.19 KB. The water heater does not have an expansion tank installed. This valve would not be installed instead of a expansion tank would it?

......especially if this is a furnace from 2002. All modern gas fired furnaces that I have seen have the blower compartment at the base and then the burner on top of that which usually puts it at or above the 18". I too would like to see a photo of this furnace.

It is a 320a meter but there was only the two mentioned disconnects. The buyer was there and we talked about it. I told him I had never seen quite a set up like this. Thank you for your replies.

Today I had a house built in 2006. The main electrical shut off was in the basement main panel. There is a sub panel installed in the upstair bonus room. The shut off for the sub panel is at the exterior near the meter. It is a new one on me. Seems very odd that it would be set up so that you'd have to shut off two breakers to be able to shut off all the electrical for the house. I went over it a couple of times while I was there and could not see where the SEC came into the main panel from, like from the meter housing or off of the 100 amp sub panel breaker out side. Any advice on this? I'm planning on referring an electrician but really want to understand what has been done here. Click to Enlarge 34.34 KB