Inspectorjoe

It doesn't have to be green: Click to Enlarge 34.47 KB

Very True. And very timely for me. A month ago, I bought a company that I'd been doing inspections for as an independent contractor. The sample report on the web site is six years old! I'm certainly not publicizing the site in its current state. It's being completely replaced. Well, maybe just this one time. http://homeprosystems.net/

"Grow fast" is an understatement! I know - I have 60 of 'em lining my backyard. I don't use them to block out the road, but to give privacy from the neighbors. Gladys and Abner Kravitz live on the east side of me. I trim the sides and top them every year. It's a hell of a big chore, but I knew what I was in for when I planted them. I top them when they are 15'-16' high, taking them down to 12'-13'. At topping time, I feel just a little like Fred Dibnah. Click to Enlarge 38.47 KB Click to Enlarge 74.95 KB

Aw Chad, you can't believe Wikipedia. Everybody knows that a bank barn is simply a barn that's been converted to a bank. Here's an aerial view of the Palmer Township branch of the bank barn I use for my business, First Star Bank. They have two drive through lanes, but I've never seen the outer lane open. Click to Enlarge 61.68 KB A more common barn variety is the book barn. At one time there were several around here, but they're a dying breed. The largest one, the Tatamy Book Barn has been converted to a yoga studio. Since there are none left around here, I had to find a book barn example on the internet. Click to Enlarge 18.02 KB The rarest of all is the Christmas barn. That's what the barn with the deathtrap stockrooms was. The property was slated to be razed for a strip mall, but the sour economy halted those plans and gave it a new lease on life. The story

Here's my bizarre find of the week. A few days ago, I inspected a vacant retail property that evolved from 19th century farm buildings. The second floor of a post and beam building was floored with about an inch of blacktop. It looked just like you'd find in a parking lot, but it wasn't smooth - obviously they couldn't run a 4 ton roller over it. The building seemed to handle the weight well. There was no obvious sagging, but the areas below were finished and minor sagging wouldn't be too noticeable. It seemed to stiffen the floor greatly. Walking across it felt like walking on a slab. I'm not concerned about it, and the only mention of it in the report will be a description (still working on the report Thanksgiving morning). I'm just curious if anyone else has seen anything like this, and/or might know why it was done. Thanks, Happy Thanksgiving! Click to Enlarge 51.96 KB Click to Enlarge 57.08 KB Click to Enlarge 73.93 KB

Mark: Today I started the process to open a merchant account with FirstData, through BJ's Wholesale Club. The rep never asked if I was a BJ's member. I wasn't able to finish the application process because I had to leave for an inspection. It was the best deal I found. Data entry is done on a computer through a 'virtual terminal' which costs $15 per month. There's a $99 gateway setup fee and a $25 monthly minimum charge. Their cut is 2.12% + $0.25 per transaction. There's a great primer on merchant accounts here

Run the water and shut it off quickly, If several ounces of water drain out after it's shut off, it's a frost free cock. I've found that if one of those screw-on brass vacuum breakers is on a frost free cock, it often won't drain until you push on the little piece of black plastic in the outlet.

If you liked that story, here's another: The Dainty Princess

I don't carry a laptop with me. I have a Fujitsu tablet that just collects dust, so I guess I could use that, but it would be a pain in the neck carrying another device. I was discussing the Aircat with Dallas before he left and he told me you could upload the data through a windows based cell phone browser, but I didn't ask if you can fill out the doc form off site, like with the Telemonitor. No, I'm going to stick with Radalink. To people who own their own monitors, the annual cost of $1,980 to lease a monitor might seem outrageous, but to me it's worth it. Pennsylvania has very onerous record keeping and reporting requirements, including tracking your exposure when placing and retrieving units. I know me - I'm a huge procrastinator. I know I would put off doing the paperwork until I'm hopelessly behind, then come audit time I'd be screwed. I've been audited twice by the State DEP and both times I was violation free. That wouldn't have been the case if I did my own paperwork. Radalink also offers free continuing education. In PA, you need 16 hours of class time prior to your biannual license renewal. Now if only Radalink would cover the $350 license fee!

Has anyone switched from the Telemonitor to the Aircat? I'm considering doing that, to be able to upload data without a phone line. I've been happy with the telemonitor, but more and more households are giving up their landline, and of course the percentage of vacant houses has gone up in the past year or so. That's caused some snafu's on occasion. I'm a little leery of having to use a peripheral device to start and stop the unit and enter the documentation info. It seems like it would be a pain in the neck compared to the way it's done with the Telemonitor. So, is anybody happy they made the switch? Anybody regret it?

It worked for me.

Wow, what a coincidence - I'm doing a report from an inspection I did yesterday and just took a break to check in here. I had just decided to leave some things out of the report. I seldom do that. The report I'm working on isn't typical though. The buyers weren't there, so I took more pictures and voice notes than I normally do, plus, some of the things I'm leaving out are on the exterior, and the property is a condo. Like I said, I seldom leave things out that I took a picture of or made a voice note of. Sometimes I might think about it, but almost always end up putting it in, figuring that if I thought it was important enough at the inspection, I shouldn't be second guessing about later. Just as important, it would almost always be something I mentioned to the buyer. I try to include in the report every issue I mention verbally.

Bill: Why would you try to light an old unit that wasn't ready to fire up, especially when the client wasn't going to put it back in service?

Zombies messin' with it? If it was a 1981 house, I'd have the answer.

The Federal Government is to blame for the death of that poor bird! Here are some interesting facts about hummingbird behavior. Mike, don't click on the link if you want to keep that wonderment mystique. [:-slaphap My wife keeps a feeder in our back yard. I love to stand at the kitchen window and watch them. that I shot last May.

What doo-dad are you referring to? The nipple and coupling? If so, maybe it's a ham-fisted way of running a future cold water line somewhere.

I assume you mean flushing (running water through it) as opposed to simply draining. Are you talking about a conventional tank, or a bladder type tank? If it was a bladder type tank, you could have put an end to the nonsense right away by asking the agent to explain the procedure to flush it. If it was a conventional tank, you might have asked the agent why on earth you would want to replace some of the chemically inert water in the system with fresh oxygen-rich water by flushing it. Then follow up with surely you know what that would do, don't you? There is no upside to getting into pissing matches with real estate agents over things that are (or should be) your forte.

I very rarely see one. They were discussed a few years back.

Here it is on an underground service: Click to Enlarge 44.66 KB

Aw, come on. You've got to elaborate on that. The suspense is (almost) killing me.

The non-technical book at the top of my list is Building Your Home Inspection Business, published by Carson Dunlop. It's packed with info. While you probably shouldn't take it as the final word, it's good at getting you thinking about things that you might not have realized you should be thinking about. One to absolutely avoid is 21 Things Every Home Inspector Should Know. It's wretched. I couldn't remember just why I hated it so much, but when I looked for it, I couldn't find it. I must have thrown it out long ago. I found The Home Inspector's Bible to be very informative, but by now it's very dated. I'm sure it's still valuable if you can keep that in mind as you go through it. It's in a question and answer format.

You might want to consider calling the buyer and asking what the plumber/HVAC [sic] found. It's a win-win situation. You gain some knowledge and your customer will probably feel that you're taking a personal interest in them and going beyond what's expected. If you hear anything, I'm sure you'll post it here. I know I'd be interested. On another note, what's with the anonymity? I guess you could have a valid reason for not putting your name in your posts, but why not in your profile? I'm guessing that Max Power isn't your real name. I've seen a number of people here take the time to answer your questions. Don't you think it would be befitting to let them know who they are conversing with? As an added benefit, you wouldn't have to endure JG calling you blazenuts.

That thought popped into my head yesterday, Mike. I discovered that for some reason, the image size had shrunk and I hadn't noticed. I stretched it out to fill the monitor, but that just expanded the display as a whole, without changing the amount that's not viewable. I forgot to do it last night, but I was going to see how TIJ displays on my laptop and my wife's laptop. If I manage to catch her in a half-decent mood, I might even ask my stepdaughter to bring it up on hers also.

In Firefox, when I click reset, the unseen area of an individual thread page shrinks from about 15%, to maybe 5%. On the main message board page, where before, it fit perfectly, it now has that same approximately 5% that's unseen. If I zoom out one level, there's a little white space on either side, which is what I'm guessing everyone else sees. Using Opera, when it's set a at 100%, about 15% is unseen. It fits perfectly when it's set at 90%. Internet Explorer behaves identically. Maybe I should just get myself a new monitor, since they seem to be practically giving them away.

John, I'm thinking some of the confusion stems from the difference in terminology used in our different regions. Around here, a domestic coil being used as the sole source of domestic hot water is referred to as a summer/winter hookup. I'm guessing that in your area, a domestic coil used to heat water in the winter, in conjunction with an electric water heater used in the summer is called a summer/winter hookup. It's just a standard electric water heater being used only as a storage tank. As you pointed out, there's no power source to the elements. Plus, if the elements are active, I can't imagine anyone placing pipes right in front of the covers. Also, I don't see any isolation valves. If this was being used to heat the water with the elements in the summer, you wouldn't want the supply water passing through the coil in the dormant boiler. The cold water would likely create condensation problems at the boiler. I wish there was a picture of the bottom of the water heater. I still can't get my mind around what the water paths are.