tim5055

Thanks Chad. I figure if I'm going to haunt this site as a non-inspector I should at least ask questions and actually follow your advice.

Well, it all stated with me dropping a bottle on the glass electric cooktop.... So, now we are switching to a LP gas cooktop. The plumber is coming out to add the line to the cooktop and I asked what type of line they used. He adviced they would use CSST. Following up I asked about bonding. There was a slight delay and I got the feeling he wondered where the question came from but was happy to discuss it. First, he advised that our house had copper gas lines running underground to an underground LP tank, thus they generally would not worry about bonding. But, he continued that they had just switched to a new CSST pipe that does not require bonding. He said they used Omega Flex TracPipe CounterStrike, but if the AHJ required bonding they would be happy to do it. Looking at the brochure it states Additionally in the Lightning Brochure it says Am I missing something, or I guess the real question is what are the minimum requirements for rigid metal piping?

So far I have seen no trolls, just honest answers. Stop propagating your own mold. Look for any places it is growing on it's own and eliminate the moisture issues that allow it to grow. You can take one of those test kits and swab any surface and you will get growth, because - mold is everywhere. They are a waste of money.

Good one, it actually does! Let me be the first to say, mold is everywhere, all the time. I would be astounded if you didn't find mold in any house. The only thing you have proven is that Home Depot and the manufacturer of that mold test have made some money. Do a search here - mold is generally a scare tactic sales technique. Here is a good paper form Middle Tennessee State University, Frequently Asked Questions about Mold and a couple of excerpts: The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine states, "Current scientific evidence does not support the proposition that human health has been adversely affected by inhaled mycotoxins in the home, school, or office environment There is no specific number that defines either safe or unsafe mold exposure it must accepted that mold exposure is inevitable in the world in which we live.

Chad, remember it's the left coast. It must be a "style" sort of thing.....

I know it can make you look bad to the RE agents (but who cares), but they are asking for something outside the scope of the services an inspector provides. In both cases you cite an inspector can't be expected to proffer an opinion as to the correctness of the repair/mitigation. Because someone was willing to do it for $50 just proves they are an idiot.

I must be missing something... If they are not an inspection client how do they transfer any responsibility or liability to an inspector. As and example - inspector Smith gets a call from a home buyer - Buyer - "The appraiser from my bank said I should call an inspector because XXX looks funky" Inspector - "I've never seen your house before, but for $350 I will be more than happy to schedule a full inspection" Buyer - "But, I just want to know about X" Inspector "Sorry, but again I have never seen your house" How has any liability/responsibility transferred???

For several years I lived a little west of you out by Wolf Trap. We had a mitigation system installed and as the guys here have pointed out the fan will be mounted high. In our case it was in the in a space over the garage like an attic. We heard nothing. Do a little more research on Radon. Yes, I wanted the mitigation system, but the more I read the more I truly believe the levels for mitigation are more based on what the industry can deliver than on medical science and what levels are truly healthy/unhealthy. I think what you are describing is a daylight basement, one or more walls have windows and doors. So to answer your question, yes - windows and doors open with fans will exchange air and reduce the level.

OK, I think I set for now. When in doubt, read the manual. While the spa does not have a clock or the ability to set timers it does have a "quiet mode". When you power the spa on it starts a 24 hour timer, divided into two 12 hour periods. The second 12 hour period can be set up as "quiet", meaning the pump/heater will not run unless the temperature drops below 80. So, I'll just have to reset the quiet mode timer to cover the peak hours. As this will eliminate one timer, I guess I'll go back to Joe's suggestion and just install the timers next to the heaters in the crawl.

Well, I've hit a stumbling block on the spa timer control. The spa is rated at 50 amp but the largest Intermatic timer is 40a.

Thanks Chad! The payback time is the problem. I have already retired and the wife is eligible now, but looking at another 18 months of work. We already own the house in the mountains we will retire to, so this house probably has two years or so left under our ownership. All of your ideas are already in the planning stage for our retirement house. No natural gas, but there is an LP tank buried in the yard. I just wish they had buried a larger one.....

It got it's monthly test today. Don't think it wasn't in my mind as it was running.....

No, I want three. I just can't stomach the $199 each. I had already looked at those and really like the features!

$12 per kW during that hour. So 4 kW during the highest hour would be a $48 charge for that month.

You are pointing out my lack of clarity - sorry. The 5/8" on the garage side is solid. The panels are on the laundry room side, so that was where I was planning on dong it.

Thanks for the quick reply Joe!! The water heaters are installed in the crawl space, inconvenient at best. As I already have the pool pump on one of these timers I find that they need to be looked at on a regular basis to make sure the time is correct on them. The hot tub seems to retain its settings in non-volatile memory as it hods everything after a power failure.

Well, my electric cooperative here in SC has come up with a new rate structure- 1. Account charge Residential .80 cents/day 2. Energy charge Residential 4.7 cents/kWh 3. On-Peak charge Residential $12 dollars/kW This is the rate for the highest ONE hour of electric use during the On-Peak time frame of the billing period. Yes, you read that right. The on peak charge is twelve dollars/kW for the one highest usage hour during the month. So, as you can see I am encouraged to get my On Peak usage down, which leads to a question- Can I replace a section of drywall below my electric panes with a wood board which I would mount several Intermatic timers onto? Right now the panels are mounted in the stud cavity between the laundry room and garage. There is 5/8" drywall on the garage side and 1/2" drywall on the laundry room side. I am thinking about removing a section of drywall as wide as the two stud cavities and about 12/14" tall to mount the timers on. This would also allow me to access the wires (they all travel up from the crawl space thru these cavities) to hook up the timers. As the panels are already mounted to wood studs my first reaction is not problem, but you all have shown me the error of my ways before. I have three timers identified; two for the two hot water heaters and one for the hot tub/spa. Any otehr ideas?

If they are not paying you as an expert, you want to limit anything you say to as few words as possible, yes and no work well. Unless the subpoena specifically is requiring you to bring records don't even bring a copy of your report to refresh your memory. As long as it is an honest answer, "I don't remember - This inspection was three years ago and I've inspected hundreds of houses in the meantime, they all run together" is a great answer. Again, you have to give honest answers to specific questions, but you don't have to read anything into the questions and try to help anyone. Short - sweet and to the point!

Jim & Scott have probably identified the cause - hydrostatic pressure. Solution #1 is to get gutters on the house to move the water WELL away from the house. The recommendations you got to add a sump pump and "draining stuff" is a good one. At 60 years old I doubt there is any perimeter drain around the house, thus the water comes up in the crawl. That the exterior grade is above the crawl is helping make it into an indoor swimming pool. Here is the link to a thread where I talk about encapsulating my crawl space, including adding a sump pump to dry it out. https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum ... C_ID=18281

Bite the bullet and have the mitigation system installed now. They will seal that hole as part of the installation. Your house has a problem and you are aware of it. If you go to sell you are required to admit it so why not just fix it right. I think the last sub-slab mitigation system I had installed was a few thousand dollars and that was in the high priced DC market.

My current house in SC has the meter base (with smart meter) on the south wall of the house. No disconnect that I know of without pulling the meter. The cables exit the rear of the meter base, through the wall into the crawl space (this side of the house the crawl is 10' high) traverses the entire house through he crawl then up an interior wall on the north side of the house where the two panels are located. Each panel has a dedicated feed from the meter and I'm guessing they are 75-80 feet long.

Love them! Too bad we lost Tommy

They are amazing machines. For the last year I lived in the DC area they used two similar horizontal cranes installing the train "bridges" for the Washington Metro extension through the Tysons Corner area of McLean, VA. They basically set one or two sections of the elevated track each day for miles. http://www.dullesmetro.com/project-stat ... ns-corner/

Well Cristhian , I'm the "token" homeowner here who likes to read what all these smart folks are talking about. Every once in a while I'm able to add a little something to the discussion. Most of this I wrote last year for another inspector in your situation. The wife & I worked for the US government and moved every 4 - 6 years, so we have experience with inspectors. The key to us hiring an inspector was a good web site that fully explained the services and a little about you. A single photo with the wife & kids somewhere on the site is fine, but the rest I want to look professional. Photos of you, not stock photos or clip art graphics. Keep it up to date with current phone numbers and email addresses. You can't believe how many disconnected phone numbers I have called trying to find an inspector. Define your service area. You know the areas you serve, but I'm sitting in a hotel room on day number two of a house hunting trip in a city I have never lived in. Do you go to Lakeland? How about down to Manatee County? I like the way Scott has it on his web site: "Our normal service area is a 100 mile radius of Nashville, TN, but we often accommodate our clients in locations outside of this area as needed" Talking about email, how about an auto responder. When I send you an email automatically reply that you will reply within X hours. Whatever you decide for X, make sure you meet the goal. Your website has to be optimized for mobile phones. Non-optomized websites don't make the cut in Google searches anymore. Many times I'm surfing on the iPhone while the Realtor is driving to the next house. On our last search we looked at 55 houses, the move before that was 70 houses. That's a lot of driving time to fill with research. Be wary of the Realtors and their recommendations. While I have used a Realtor recommended inspector in the past, I always wonder who the inspector is looking out for. I see one in your list of recommendations and wonder why? Look around your area for companies/agencies that regularly relocate employees. Large companies and government agencies. Tampa has a huge military presence including SouthCom. An inroad there could set you up with inspections for life. They generally use a single relocation company per company/agency to assist employees. You may be able to make inroads with a relo company and get business that way. If you are working out of your house don't advertise your home address on your website, and that includes your website registration. I can already see where you live from the address you registered the web site to. There are too many nuts in this world. The last thing you want is for someone to show up at your house when they have scheduled for you to be miles away. Get a box at the UPS store. It's $120 a year for insurance to cut down on the nuts a little. I agree with the others, the video needs to be started with a click, not automatic. If I was in the car working off my iPhone as soon as that started I would move on to another inspector. I would get rid of the links in the upper right corner. Right now the Google+ and YouTube links go to a generic Wix page which makes you look unprofessional. The Facebook link works, but you are "Liked" by too many Realtors for my comfort level. Plus the Facebook "People also like" section on your page is feeding me info on other home inspectors in Tampa, probably because some of the Realtors who have liked you also Like them. Your "Code of Ethics" needs work Is this your personal code, the code of your association or state? It just makes me uncomfortable when I read it. OK, that's it for now... Good luck with the new business!

I have seen several comment in the past dealing with fire damage to new home vs. older homes. Here is an interesting article.... In a Flash - New York Times