Inspectorjoe

This was in a 22 year old center unit townhouse. It had soffit vents but no upper vents. What I assumed was FRT plywood (couldn't find anything stamped on it) had a white powder matching the grain of the wood. It didn't appear at all on the adjacent flakeboard sheathing. I don't recall ever seeing this before. I'm guessing is powder is the chemical(s) that was used to treat it. Anybody know if this is a problem? Click to Enlarge 51.46 KB Click to Enlarge 57.89 KB

Raymond Actually, walking down a street in that town (Allentown) 100 years ago, you'd be just as likely to hear German as you would English. The town had several German language newspapers. Today, things are exactly the same, only German has been replaced by Spanish. A REALLY bad song

Laundry day in the 'hood Click to Enlarge 51.79 KB

I just can't picture how that's done - or why. Does the foot grip the ground better?by digging its side in? John, If you can barely handle the 32 footer on your own, it's probably not a good idea to use it as your primary ladder. Instead of trading it for a 28', why not keep it, buy a 24' to use as your primary ladder, and load up the 32' only when it might be needed? When I started out, I carried a 24 footer, along with Little Giant models 17 & 22, but when I got T-boned in my pickup truck and switched to a mini van, I sold the 24 footer. A LG model 26 replaced the 24' ladder, but it stays in the garage most of the time. I usually check out houses ahead of the inspection by looking at them in the birds eye view at http://www.bing.com/maps/ . If I have a house with a roof that I can't access from lower roofs, I stick my LG model 26 in the van. If you think setting up a 32' is a bear, try extending that LG to it's full length of 23' while on the ground, THEN standing it up. I can barely do it, but the feet definitely need to be wedged against something solid. I only use it once or twice a year.

As I sit here at 1:30 am gathering receipts and wondering how the heck I'm ever going to be ready to meet with the accountant tomorrow, my mind naturally wandered to accounting software. I have Quickbooks 2002, but only got around to registering it last fall. I guess I should say trying to register it. The nice lady in India (as well as her supervisor) said I couldn't register it because that version was no longer supported. But I digress. To take a break from trying to recreate an entire year's worth of financial transactions, I browsed online for accounting software. Staples has a deal that seems too good to be true. They have Peachtree Pro accounting software for $165, and they're offering a $165 rebate. You need to purchase it between 4/11 and 4/24. From the reviews I've read, the consensus is that Peachtree isn't as user friendly and intuitive as Quickbooks. I don't know if there are any catches price-wise, but I'm going to jump on it. http://www.staples.com/Peachtree-Pro-Ac ... uct_797819

Some do, some don't. Looking over the guide that I linked to, it seems the your state's requirements are especially onerous. Have you looked into Radalink's pay per test plan? If you aren't going to do many tests, that would be somewhat cheaper. I'm not suggesting you do this, but you could lease monitors from them for a year or so, then return them, buy your own monitors and use their QAP/SOP as a framework for making your own.

jburgmann: Have you looked into leasing monitors from Radalink? They would provide you with a turnkey QA/SOP program. It makes life much easier, albeit more expensive. http://radalink.com/

"Was that so hard?" I'm glad I wasn't taking a swig of coffee at the time because I surely would have spit it all over the screen. I haven't laughed so much in a week.

http://www.radon.illinois.gov/pdf/radonqaguidance.pdf Ain't Google a wunnerful thing?

"You can't make this crap up"? People are getting hurt by using a knife that could have been designed better (judging by the pictures) and the company is fixing the problem so more people don't get hurt. You have a problem with that?

Marc: How would a warranty that's only valid until closing be a benefit to the buyer? I'll never offer a warranty. I don't want my clients to associate my work with a warranty of any kind.

Address, date and time. 123 Main Street, done March 23, 2010 at 9 am would be 123main03231009 I keep an Excel file of all inspections, consecutively numbered, so I can search by date, buyer, address or agent.

I felt the same way when I filled it out. It was strangely reminiscent of the Branding surveys that were sent out 7 years ago. I'm afraid this is going down that same path, only this time with different players and different (cloudy) objectives. Does anybody remember those surveys? They seemed to be written to elicit a desired response. Reading them gave me a feeling that something really bad was about to happen. So bad that I saved the second one. Why did I save it? I don't know, maybe so I could someday say "I told you so". My written comments were pretty prophetic I think (You need to enable macros to read them). Of course, my answers and comments fell on deaf ears. Things didn't change at the bizarre experience known as Chapter Leadership Day held later that fall. The day was wasted shuffling from room to room, literally throwing ideas up on the wall and seeing what stuck. This is crazy I thought. There were a few like-minded people who also were skeptical of the scheme, but all I got from most of the people I talked to was condescension. I can't recall the number of times I was told "you just don't understand it yet". I was in the back of the room during the initial session when Kurt stood up and condemned the Saturday-Mornings-at-Home Depot idea. That gave me some initial hope, but I didn't see anything like that repeated that day. Download Attachment: ASHI Branding Survey II.doc 1403.84 KB

Thanks Mike! Before I posted, I tried finding it on Google, but I guess I didn't use the correct terms. I just uploaded the report. Six hours at the inspection and another 5-6 to do the report. At least I had a little fun with it. This picture was included in the report to illustrate how some window lock sections don't align. I couldn't help but include a little unrelated editorial comment.[:-slaphap Click to Enlarge 41.42 KB

Ben: The black line is meant to be exposed. It's supposed to make the roof resemble slate when viewed from a distance. You can sort of see the effect here. Nice valley, eh? Click to Enlarge 101.49 KB Terry: It's masonry stucco. Since we're on a roll, here's another goody. This is the wall that shields the driveway from the road: Click to Enlarge 39.19 KB Click to Enlarge 60.9 KB Here's an overall shot: Click to Enlarge 52.88 KB

You've got a point there, Marc. The last time she was in the house, she said there was a big puddle where this stain is. Click to Enlarge 28.94 KB Jeez, I wonder if it had anything to do with the missing gutter at the roof over the rear half of the 4 car garage. The water dropping down scoured a nice gravel channel that ran back toward the house. As a bonus, the downspout that drained the other half of the garage roof was perfectly positioned to take advantage of that gravel lined channel to make a beeline back to the foundation. That took some real planning! Click to Enlarge 77.86 KB

Has anyone ever seen this blue foundation damp-proof material before? It's a first for me. It obviously has not adhered. The house is 3 years old and never occupied. The buyer is freaked out about moisture/mold issues (she had a guy there running around taking air samples during the inspection). Click to Enlarge 59.04Â KB Not related, but just for laughs, here are two more issues (of many) that this million dollar house had. It was originally listed for 1.5 million when it was completed 2 and a half years ago. The patio under the deck is below the surrounding grade. As if that's not enough, it slopes back to the building. Click to Enlarge 41.78Â KB Above the patio, the deck ledger board is attached to the stucco. Click to Enlarge 52.21Â KB I won't even mention the roof issues!

JP: I too have been using inspectvue for 6 years. I let my subscription run out because I'm planning to switch to Inspect Express. I downloaded the trial version about 2 years ago and really liked it. I've been procrastinating on switching because it's so unlike IV and I don't like change all that much. I'll be facing a big learning curve. I'm going to bite the bullet and do it soon though. Do you still have Inspectvue 4? Just go back to using that til you find and customize another program. Inspectvue has gone off the cliff and I don't see it coming back. I see you're pretty much using the narratives that came with the program, so you don't have a whole lot to lose by switching. The crap that the PHD wrote is horrid. It's so bad that you'd swear that it's a parody of bad report writing. How did I know that you use the original narratives? I'll fess up and admit that I looked at one of your reports. Yes, I can look at the reports that you have stored on the IV server. In fact, any Inspectvue user can access any other users reports if they're uploaded to the server. I discovered this by accident 6 years ago.There is no hacking of any kind involved. I don't know if any other users have discovered it. I can't imagine that Lorne didn't know about this. The new owners might not know. I figured that by now, this huge security flaw would be fixed. That's why I went into your report file - to see if I could. I assure you I won't do it again.

I played with one at the cop supply store that services my Ultra Stingers. I've got to say, it does put out an amazing beam. It would be great for doing the interior of a barn, but would really be overkill for an attic or crawlspace. As for an exterior after dark, no way would I attempt it with a flashlight, no matter how powerful. I'd come back during daylight hours. Drool no more.

I've been thinking all along that the deck is pretty heavily stacked to ensure a yes vote, but the 'ASHI Presidents' email I got earlier today was the crème de la crème. It's outrageous that an 'official' ASHI email was sent out just hours before the ballot was, in an obvious attempt to sway the vote. I can only hope that some who may have been on the fence were clued in by it, as to what's going on. If something as shameless as that is done right out in the open, what the hell is being done behind closed doors? If somebody wants to start a true Professional Society, I'll follow and give my support.

I salute you, Chad! You're just the kind of customer I had in mind when I opened my first restaurant: a guilt-free pigout buffet. The idea took off like wildfire. Although I sold the chain a long time ago, they still have a little shrine to me at the original location. I sure wish I'd put on a new pair of shoes the day the picture was taken. A hole in my shoe - how embarrassing!

Last night I made up a mess o' pulled pork. I ended up with about 25 pounds of finished product. Of course I had to have one as I cleaned up at a little past midnight. Man, it was good. I'll be having a few for for lunch today - to build up my energy before I go dig out from the storm. Click to Enlarge 48.76 KB Click to Enlarge 51 KB Click to Enlarge 36.65 KB Oops! I just realized that I posted this on the wrong site. I thought I was on the BBQ forum. Sorry dieters - just forget you saw this. []

cornice return

Oh, you mean it's tied in directly. I thought you were describing what's very commonly done around here: the line is run across the surface of the floor and discharges onto the top of the drain grate.

How would sewer gas be a problem? You wouldn't get it from the sink or washer discharge, because it's only greywater. If anything, a regular flow into the floor drain will reduce the risk of sewer gas by keeping its trap from drying up. The only bad things that I can think of are the floor drain not being able to take all of the water, the pipe being knocked away from the drain and the pipe on the floor being a trip hazard. Here's my boilerplate: The laundry sink discharges to a floor drain. This is not a good practice. It is a trip hazard and can cause water damage to surrounding items. You should have a plumber reconfigure it to drain directly to the waste system.