
tim5055
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Everything posted by tim5055
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If you go to the Fannie Mae web site you find that while they are implementing this in January, it is not "required". From their Q&A: Will things change in the future, probably. But it's not the crisis that these two guys purport it to be in January.
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Have you tried curiosity? Well, the best I can tell it's really not a cat issue - it's something that periodically happens after encapsulation. But as the cats belong to the wife and her job requires an above average level of competence with devices that can cause bodily injury I'm not going to go there[^]
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Thanks - I thought about that, but wile the smell is strongest in this area we do smell it in other areas. I'm guessing any penetration of the floor is allowing it to enter the house.
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Well, a new chapter in the crawl encapsulation. We developed a smell, concentrated around the kitchen cabinets that is best described as that of cat urine. As we do have cats I broke out the black light looking for signs of urine in areas that we were noticing the smell with negative results. So, I remembered - Google is your friend. A search has revealed that this is reported by some folks who have their crawl space encapsulated. No consensus, but off gassing of the plastic used or changes (rise) in the humidity below the plastic are the direction most fingers are pointed. I don't raelly notice the smell in the crawl, but the wife says she does. Inspection under the house revealed a large hole in the sub floor (hidden by insulation) that the original carpenter cut to route the cooktop downdraft pipe. The "cure" that is talked about is installing a vent system under the plastic, similar to a Radon remideation system. The main difference is that this only need to vent out of the crawl, not above the roof. I'm figuring I can do this myself for less than $500 so I guess I have a New Years project. Any suggestions on how to label it so a future inspector does not flag it as an improperly installed Radon system? Thanks
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They have pills for that now......
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Guide to Fuse Replacement
tim5055 replied to Nolan Kienitz's topic in Open Discussion Forum (Chit-Chat)
Now that's funny! As a kid I still remember folks talking about using a penny when you Edison base fuse blows[:-bigeyes -
Thanks I can say as I followed him around I'm sure I don't want to get into this business. The level of knowledge needed is amazing and I take my hat off to all of you. As an example I had never heard of the Zurn Pex Plumbing Liability Litigation Settlement. The house was built during the correct time period for the faulty fittings but he could find no leaks at any visible fittings. I'm not sure he figured I would follow him everywhere until we got to the attic and the crawlspace. I was right there with him, but I know I don;t want to do that every day[:-crazy]
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Well, as an update... We went and looked at the house a second time and decided that it would fit our lifestyle nicely. It is nice that they constructed it like I wanted paying attention to things like no wood on exterior (all Hardi or PVC) or the whole house electrical transfer switch. We made what I consider a low-ball, but not insulting offer. They must finally be ready to sell because they countered at only $5,000 above our offer. The nice thing is that now I get another large shop[:-monkeyd House Family Room Shop/detached garage Creek View I had to hustle to find an inspector, but found one and we went through the house a couple of days ago. The inspector kept looking at me funny as I was able to finish his sentences as he started to point out things he found. You all have taught me a lot. The worst things found were no kick out flashings and the gutters are overflowing and keeping one wall of the crawlspace very wet. Thanks for the education!!
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Well, some of you may remember that we have land in the mountains of NC that we plan(ed) on building our retirement home on. We already have a Morton Building with both storage for our RV as well as an efficiency on the side. With our move to SC we are now only a little over 3 hours form the property and find we spend ever second or third weekend there. I have always figured that building would be at least $125 sq ft (low end) to who knows where on the high end. Both the wife & I have a condition which causes us to "make it bigger", like well we can add a few feet to the master bedroom, how about a bigger family room, we could put a gym over here..... I think you get the picture. A friend has suggested looking at existing houses as prices are still way down in the mountains. The is a house about 1.5 miles from our property (same road/same creek) that looks interesting. Nice fit/finish - not custom, but upper end builder quality. The floorplan seems to work for us and I can't get over how much it appears we can save to buy existing. If we bought it we would keep the existing property as both an offsite guest house and our own private campground on the creek. I have extended water & electric and have a nice drive so we can get the camper there. So, what am I missing?
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Always picking on us homeowners[:-paperba
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I spent many hours on my hands & knees cleaning corners of terrazzo floors in a Publix supermarket during high school. All their stores had terrazzo. I remember one new store being built had a beautiful brown terrazzo floor poured. Probably 30,000 sq ft. It didn't match the color chip so the contractor had to jack hammer it out and re-pour....
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Install lap siding over existing stucco. OK?
tim5055 replied to luvtorekord's topic in Exteriors Forum
The screws have probably rusted away already, this is a five year old post. -
Fire at Neighbors - Wake -Up Call
tim5055 replied to Mike Lamb's topic in Open Discussion Forum (Chit-Chat)
Well, don't I wish I read this a few weeks ago. I just got done replacing all the 9 year old detectors in the house (hard wire/battery back up) with new ones (duplicated the original make/model). You guessed it, all ionization alarms! -
This is what I did a year ago. The house we bought already had two 50's in series. As it is the two of us with 4 cats and a German Shepherd Dog 100 gallons at 120 was more than we would ever use. I turned the lead tank down to pre heat the water going to the finish tank. So far so good.
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talked to them today. Seems they found a neutral wire coming off the stator not connected anywhere. Don't see an empty lug and it doesn't show on their schematic. Generac told them, oh - you must not have the new schematic. Should be ready Monday.
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While I consider my self above average on the handy scale, an o-scope may be just out of my range. Yes, it was blind faith, but I admit this unit was selected because it is a pure sine wave unit for use with electronics. I'll have to ponder on how I can get it tested......
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I lost 2 fluorescent fixtures. I'm going to guess they were on the high leg and took out the ballast. One was in the laundry room (surface mount, 4 bulb) and I was looking for a reason to replace it anyway. There are now three recessed fixtures,with LED bulbs. The other was my fluorescent fish tank hood. Again, I was looking for a reason to get an LED hood. When I figured out something wasn't quite right I had turned on about 6 circuits, all 120v. Most of my lights in the house have been replaced with LED bulbar and they worked. I also remember the display on the microwave oven was lit, but obviously I didn't try to operate it. Those 2 fixtures are all I can find damaged.
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Well, interesting twist to my back up generator project. I handled most of the wiring, but brought an electrician in ton finalize everything and play in the load center. We had to swap 5 circuits back and forth between the two panels so that the emergency circuits would be in the panel the generator supplied. I had time Monday to test out the system. I threw the main on the back up panel and started the generator. Got it up to speed and engaged its breaker to supply power to the panel. Went back inside and turned on a few lighting circuits. Heard a pop when I turned one on but really didn't think anything of it. Well, I turned on the lighting circuit that controlled the laundry room that the panels reside in. Heard a pop above my head and no lights came on. OK, even I can figure,out there is a problem now. Killed the breaker for the generator and shut it down. An inventory of circuits I turned in revealed that the fluorescent fixture in my fish tank and on the ceiling of the laundry room were dead. A little late, but I grabbed my trusty meter and started checking things. Seems the generator was putting out 30v AC on one leg and 155v AC on the other leg..... Dropped the brand new generator off at the service center today.......
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I actually finished the hardest part of this project today. I made a document template so i could make new overlays to identify all the circuits in both panels. Now the question, as an inspector, how should I label this so it makes sense when you walk in and look at it?
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stations carry it all over Check out Pure-gas.org Since discovering ethanol free gas a few years back, I've started using it in everything except my car. It's amazing how much better everything runs. Mower, chain saw, tractor -- it's like day & night. I use it in everything other than the car also. But on things like my generators (I have three[:-eyebrow ) I drain them each year and the drained gas goes in the car. Everything does seem to run better.
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OK, maybe "all over" is a stretch. We had none anywhere near our house just outside Washington, DC either.
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stations carry it all over Check out Pure-gas.org
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It is a thirsty bugger. 10 hours at 50%, 16 gal tank. Yes, I usually keep several cans full, rotating them through mowers and other tools or the car gas tank. For my generators I usually fill it in the spring and add Stabil. it gets drained and refilled yearly. I use ethanol free gas and when I test run them monthly I shut off the fuel valve so it runs dry. During a power outage I usually don't run it 24/7, but 10 - 12 hours a day.
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If you are giving them ball park pricing don't forget labor. I did a lot of the labor myself, but did pay an electrician to play around in the panels. I have two 200a panels side by side and only one of them will be powered. He had to swap ten circuits between the panels (five in each panel) so I would have the correct circuits powered. I had all wire pulled and everything installed so all he had to do was play in the panels. I was lucky to have the Square D panels as Square D makes their own approved interface kit. There is a company out of NC if I remember correctly that makes aftermarket kits, but they are not "approved" by the manufacturer of the load center - if that matters.