Inspectorjoe

I get 3+ years out of a battery, rotating three of them through two flashlights. I keep the third battery in a plastic tube in my bag. About once a month I put the spare into a flashlight, then put the freshly charged one that I took out, into the tube for a month of 'spare battery duty'. Don't let the battery discharge completely. My wife once borrowed one and left the switch on. It wouldn't charge at all after that. My heart sunk when I saw it was the battery that I had bought less than a month before. Luckily, the owner of the police supply store where I bought it replaced it at no charge, even after I told him what happened. Once one discharged completely in my bag after something pressed against the switch. For some reason, that one recharged and has been OK ever since. Maybe it's because I got it on the charger fairly soon after the the discharge.

Copy and paste into a browser: http://web.archive.org/web/200206020632 ... urnal.com/

Happy anniversary to Mike, Mike and Rose. You don't need to be told what an incredible thing you've got here. Thank you for the privilege of being part of it. And thanks to everybody here. I don't reply much on technical topics, because I know there will always be one (or many) coming along soon to post an answer with more knowledge behind it than I could muster and often with more clarity and eloquence than I can ever hope to achieve. I mean that. Speaking of anniversaries ....... Mike O, maybe you could clear up a mystery that has me puzzled. How is it that according to our profile pages, I've been a member since April 12, 2002, but yours says December 5, 2003?

Mike: Did they use that sheet metal technique in your area? The only place I've ever seen it is in western MA. The use of sheet metal may be dying out, as I typically only see it on older buildings. It seems to me that it would be very effective - more so than Ice and Water Shield. With the self-stick product, the water still gets under the shingles, which can't be good. I tried to find a decent picture (my vacations are usually a busman's holiday), but only found this, which I cropped from a much larger one. It was taken outside of Lee. Click to View 45.84 KB

In the Berkshires (western Massachusetts), a common way to deal with ice damming is to use sheet metal on the bottom 2-3 feet of a roof. Here's an interesting take on that - sheet metal with heating cable under it: Bylin Engineered Systems Les, keep in mind, your living situation does have its advantages. Your upkeep costs are practically nil (assuming people keep buying refrigerators from Sears). As for me ...... well, the wife keeps harping about needing a new kitchen. I don't see a thing wrong with the one we've got. It surely has stood the test of time. Why, just look at the range. I keep telling her, they don't make 'em like that anymore! Click to View 57.94 KB

This roof installation is a good example of that. It was obviously a labor of love for the amateur who installed it. It's a pity his creativeness will be seen only by neighbors and low flying planes. Click to View 57.23 KB For some reason, it seems he briefly lost his grasp of the concept of stripes (along with reality). Click to View 44.66 KB

Gee, knowing that, I would think he'd be a more mellow fellow.

Hmm, something tells me that the hausdok might not fully agree with the late beloved Bob's philosophy. It's just a hunch, mind you. [utube] " type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344">

It took over a month, but ...... Gas Leak Determined as Cause of Allentown Home Explosion

I don't think it was applied because of a dog, because the fins weren't corroded or deteriorated at all. Thanks guys.

Does anyone know what this blue stuff on the coil is? It's like a thin coat of paint. I don't have a closeup picture. It's a Carrier and the data plate is missing, but it looks to be a good 20 years old. Being A/C only, it was way too cold today to operate the system. The outside unit was wrapped in a tarp. The buyer said it wasn't covered when he saw it a week ago. I normally don't uncover them, but that made me a bit suspicious. Click to View 57.77 KB Click to View 91.18 KB

Hi Chad, Thank's for the explanation, but I do understand that, as shown in post #7: The two things I didn't understand was how a a frozen cock would cause a supply pipe to freeze and why this would flood at or above the floor level. I didn't think of the ice in the tube hastening the heat transfer from the supply pipe, and I was picturing the cock and its supply pipe installed between floor joists. I have what will probably be my last inspection of the year today. It's a vacant estate sale. When I set the radon monitor on Friday, I took a walk around the exterior and noticed two hoses still attached to frost free cocks. Maybe today I'll get some new split sillcock pictures to add to my picture library.

Oops, I should have stated it that way. I know that warm moves to cold - honest. I try to explain it to my wife several times every winter when she sits by the bay window and complains about nonexistent 'drafts'. Ah, now I understand how it happened, especially after Mike explained that the connection was under the sink cabinet. I can see the temperature under there with the doors closed being easily 20 degrees lower than the surrounding room temperature. Chalk it up to regional differences. Speaking of regional differences ...... have to admit that I'd be pretty flummoxed if I encountered anything like the framing in your pictures. Around here, they stopped framing like that (or similarly at least) well over 120 years ago.

Yes, I see that occasionally. In that case, I would think that the first thing to freeze and break would be the nozzle, which would be fully exposed, rather than the sillcock tube within the building envelope. That still leaves my question unanswered: "Why would a hose still attached to a frost free sill cock cause a pipe to burst?" The freezing begins in the hose and creeps inward through the sillcock, the extension tube and, eventually into the distribution pipe that supplies the extension tube. How far it freezes depends on how cold it is inside & out. The sillcock extension tube is usually the thing to split, but it might split further in, at the distribution pipe. So you're saying that ice in a sillcock tube can allow freezing temperature to migrate further in than it would if the assembly was dry? That it would travel far enough inside to freeze a supply pipe that otherwise wouldn't freeze? That, I didn't consider. I'm still puzzled as to how this would damage the floors though. Mike said the house had a crawlspace. Around here, the only time a sillcock is installed above the floor level is when the house is on a slab. With a basement or a crawlspace, it would pass through the band joist. Any escaping water would be flowing below the floor level. Even if it was spraying upward against the bottom of the floor, I can't imagine that there would be widespread damage to the flooring, let alone get in the walls.

Yes, I see that occasionally. In that case, I would think that the first thing to freeze and break would be the nozzle, which would be fully exposed, rather than the sillcock tube within the building envelope. That still leaves my question unanswered: "Why would a hose still attached to a frost free sill cock cause a pipe to burst?"

Why would a hose still attached to a frost free sill cock cause a pipe to burst? The valve body tube would split, but assuming that it was shut off at the exterior, it would split downstream of the washer and wouldn't leak until it was opened.

I think Mike gets the prize. What is it? A pocket watch maybe? http://www.nawcc.org/museum/nwcm/galleries/tower/howard.htm http://flickr.com/photos/frostimaging/1 ... 213449412/

I installed one in my house two years ago. The generator panel is fed from a two pole breaker in the main panel (and also from the the 2 pole 4 wire feed from the generator, through a rubber cord). The branch circuit hots are disconnected from the breakers in the main panel and wire nutted to pigtails that connect to the breakers in the generator panel. The two panels are bonded. The only neutral in the generator panel is from the generator as it passes through the enclosure and on to the neutral/ground bus bar in the main panel. Gen-Tran manual My installation

Debunking the Myth

How about this one? Image Insert: 46.19 KB

No Mike, I'm referring to electric. I don't know what the percentages are, but most that I see are a variation of the type below. I'm going to keep track of the next 10 to see just what the percentage is. That may take me till next year though, because the inspection I have booked for this Saturday will be my first in two weeks. Image Insert: 40.14 KB

If it's finished wood, I'll use my thumb like Phillip does. Otherwise, I use a screwdriver. When I was doing my tagalongs in 2000, I was with one inspector for most of them. He used a screwdriver for probing. I used to cringe watching him abuse the tool like that. Funny thing, I've been doing the same thing myself ever since.

Wow! The results (so far) are pretty surprising. Looks like I'm the only holdout. My ideal choice would have been I'm not planning to buy one, but that could change in the future

There is a missing choice. I move insulation if I suspect a problem.

I don't see many water heater thermostats that have actual temperature settings. Most of them have something like A-B-C or VAC-WARM-HOT. The disappearance of numbers is probably an attempt by manufacturers to reduce their liability.