Inspectorjoe

I've seen a few indoor charcoal grills, but nothing like that brick structure. It looks like somebody built it from plans meant for an outdoor BBQ. When I see one, of course, I tell people not to use it. Even if when in use, every bit of the combustion gases gets sucked away, you'd be SOL if the power went out and the fan stopped working. In the town I grew up in, there was a neighborhood bar/restaurant that had an indoor charcoal grill. It was huge, about 6 X 5 feet, and it was right in the dining area. Frinzi's Charcoal Pit had the best steak sandwiches I've ever had. It was a single piece of steak on a hard roll, smothered with chunks of onions. It just might be worth the risk of asphyxiation if I could recreate that sandwich at home. Click to Enlarge 51.15 KB

Looks like the dryer is venting into that area too. Nice stuff to breathe.

That must have been a nice surprise. I saw a panel like that once. I used it for my Picture of the Day a few weeks ago. I don't know if the link will work. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid= ... =1&theater

If you don't know, you shouldn't be doing it for hire. What do you do for a living?

I think it would be crazy to shun agent's referrals. I don't solicit them, but I certainly welcome them. When I do an inspection, I honestly don't give a thought to how the job came to me. As Robert pointed out, getting your info on a folder isn't going to be very effective. Put the money into a website, even if it's just a template site that you customize. Frankly, your site as it is, is worse than none at all. There is nothing on it. I thought that was John Wayne.[]

A variation I've used is: Do you wait for a blowout before replacing your tires? I haven't heard the 'but is it leaking?' quip in a long time. I'm afraid I'm overdue. Looks like you have a nice picture for Facebook there, John!

You'll get a much better return by putting the money into your website instead.

Maybe things are different on the west coast, but writing a letter seems kind of ridiculous. I would have just gone to the door and said "I'm sorry to bother you, but I was walking down the sidewalk and couldn't help but notice ....... If I were the homeowner, I think I'd receive the info better coming directly from the person rather than in a letter.

How long ago was this on? It wasn't April Fool's Day, was it?

Terry: Approximately 1850 and 1910. Surprisingly, there were no signs of ice damming. No worries about the asbestos - it was in excellent condition. [:-crazy] Click to Enlarge 47.61 KB I think your mistaken about the trap. It sure looks more like a pitcher trap to me. It must be a lot newer than the rest of the system, because it's made of plastic. Speaking of traps, lying next to the 'pitcher trap' was a victim of a bear trap. How sad that he spend his lonely days looking forlornly out the floor-level attic window. It sure was an interesting house. Click to Enlarge 57.5 KB Click to Enlarge 62.77 KB

Thanks Bill. As usual you nailed it. I don't recall ever seeing an overhead system before. And thanks for the offer of more detail, but I won't need it. I feel kind of stupid, but I had the info available to me all along in my library (courtesy of Dan Holohan). Your diagram jogged my memory. I knew I'd seen it before. He called it a "first class" system. It seemed to have made the transition to circulated pretty well, judging by the uniformity of radiator temperature. I still wonder about ice damming, given the fact that the soffits are close to 18 inches wide. No signs of it though.

The original portion of today's house was built approximately 1850 and the addition was built maybe 100 years ago. A 175,000 BTU boiler was recently installed. The distribution is currently circulated hot water, but judging by the diameter of the pipes, it was originally a gravity hot water or two pipe steam system. The radiators don't look like any that I've seen used with steam, but there is a Hartford Loop of sorts behind the boiler. There are heating pipes running around the perimeter of the attic (no radiators in the attic. There is a riser with an air vent at the top. I can't figure out what the purpose of this attic loop is. It's got to be an ice dam maker in the winter. Click to Enlarge 52.38 KB Click to Enlarge 45.89 KB Click to Enlarge 47.6 KB

Why would you remove it? Assuming you're calling for the panel to be replaced, what's to be gained by looking inside?

Also, it looks like it might be unsupported where it discharges onto the shingle roof. What's the purpose of the dummy dormer, other than to look goofy?

Charlie: Just to play devil's advocate ....... you can't possibly know that you've never lost any inspections because of that policy. You state on your web site that you don't take credit cards. If a buyer on your site read that, but knew he wanted to pay with a card, he would just move on to someone else. How would you ever know that happened?

It's surprising that they don't come with a tripod mount.

Being in a bit of a funk over a recent abysmal lack of business, I've been surfing YouTube this snowy/rainy afternoon (like that's a productive use of my time). I ran across an amazing video of a song and dance number in a high school musical. It seems the older I get, the more of a disconnect I have with the young people of today. I'm also guilty of stereotyping them. This video opened my eyes a little bit. Seeing this made me think there is hope for a bright future for this country. I wonder what Alvin Lee would think if he saw this. I'm sure choreography wasn't on his mind when he wrote the song. I hope you have a sub woofer under your desk like I do! [utube] " type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"> http://www.gazette.net/stories/03022011 ... _32533.php

It's a damper regulator. As the steam pressure increases, it closes a damper to slow the rate of combustion. Was that thing still functional?

The World Trade Center opened in 1974. W-T-C ~~~ no apos-tro-phe

Marc: I shot the video on Hi-8 (analog) and captured it at 720 X 480. I chose to do it in the crawlspace for several reasons. I've never seen it done before. There are lots of videos out there of inspectors giving their pitch, but not from a crawlspace. It's not something one would expect to see. It was an attention getter; hopefully enough to compel people to watch. It just might plant the idea in a prospective buyer's head that there might be some unpleasantness and discomfort involved in an inspection and they might be getting some value for their money that they hadn't thought of.

Yeah, I noticed the respirator straps flopping around as I was talking. I even thought to myself "I bet that's going to look goofy". It also should have made me realize that I was bobbing my head around too much. I should have done a dry run at home. As far as having it on my head, that's what I would do if I was taking it off for just a minute or two to talk to someone. It's a lot easier to get back on that way. Looking at the still image in the YouTube video, it kind of makes me look like I have devil horns. As for the cue card, I WAS using a cue card. All of the Uhhhs were when I was trying mightily to read my crappy handwriting.[:-weepn] Click to Enlarge 51.63 KB

Now Ezra, if I could afford to hire a pretty model, I sure as heck wouldn't be futzing around with homemade videos. Of course, even if I could afford a pretty model, I doubt my wife would understand: "honey, I swear, it's just business". I agree about the uncomfortable position. In my original intended location, I would have had only my torso showing. Being fully exposed where I ended up doing it, I look like an overstuffed sausage in the coveralls. Now on to figuring out this Facebook thing. Since I now have my short URL, it's time to do something with it.

Well, for what it's worth, I have my first video on YouTube. It's got some problems, such as the audio levels not being consistent, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. I shot the video Thursday at a vacant house. I scoped it out Monday when I set the radon monitor. I intended to leave the camera in the basement and position myself at the crawlspace opening, doing the shoot before the inspection, while I was still fresh as a daisy. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed that an insulated metal duct cut the clearance down to about a foot. I could barely squeeze though and it wasn't big enough to frame the shot anyway - plus, I got there later than I had planned. After the buyer left, I lugged my stuff through the main crawlspace, through a narrow tunnel and positioned myself in the far crawlspace. I set the camera up in the tunnel. By then it was about 6:30 pm and I wasn't fresh as a daisy. I was dirty, sweaty and somewhat disorganized with my thought process. I hemmed and hawed a lot. I know I'll never have a career in TV broadcasting. When I played the raw video for my wife and stepdaughter, they both had the same reaction - uncontrollable laughter. That wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting. [utube] " type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344">

I sure hope so.

"If I worked exclusively in an urban setting, it might work. But I drive over several miles of gravel roads every day. My rig has to drive over mountains, through mud, and over large rocks all the time. A Kleenex box on wheels wouldn't cut it for me." Jim is too modest to post this, but here's a newspaper clipping showing an early prototype of his rig. Download Attachment: snowcruiser.jpg 68.3 KB