Charlie R

Thanks Jim, but it's OK to run the aluminum to the box to ground the box? Or should I be saying bonding the box?

Sad, but true. 200 amp service.

What about the size difference?

But can the aluminum ground still be used to the metal boxes? A ground doesn't normally carry current so I wouldn't think it needs to be pig-tailed but I really have never seen a definitive answer. Anyone?

I may be pushing it by actually pulling the receptacle out of the box, but I'll take the heat as it is the only way to determine if the repairs are proper or not. That particular wire nut literally fell off as the electrician had put so much anti-oxidant paste on it didn't actually twist on, was just pushed on. I don't usually remove the connectors. We each do what we feel comfortable with doing.

Thanks Marc, that's what I needed.

When I get a home with aluminum wiring, I always open up at least two receptacles and I've never been disappointed - they are always wrong. Here's yesterday's pig-tailing done with 3M connectors that are listed for "copper only." (This is the same home as the spliced GEC) Done by a licensed electrician. The metal boxes were still using the aluminum ground wire but I believe that is OK, can anyone verify for me? TIA Click to Enlarge 25.33 KB Click to Enlarge 31.06 KB

I wrote this splice up but it was apparently done by a licensed electrician. Need some code ammunition for the gunfight that will be coming, can my fellow inspectors supply me the codes this does not meet? TIA Click to Enlarge 57.22 KB Click to Enlarge 47.07 KB

When you can just twist all the grounds together, then use one to touch the panel itself. I didn't even have to say anything, my client looked at it and said "that's just wrong." Click to Enlarge 38.48 KB Click to Enlarge 35.92 KB

Inspected a home yesterday, built in 2001, vacant, bank owned, had been winterized 8 months ago. They had someone come turn the water on and the electricity was on. Gas was turned off to the water heater and furnace, and the 15 amp breaker for the furnace was off. Temperature was 45 and supposed to go down to 30 or less here overnight, no warm up in sight. After looking everything over, I turned on the breaker, turned on the gas for the furnace, it fired up and ran fine. Turned on the gas to the water heater and lit it, ran fine. When I left I turned the gas water heater back off but left the furnace on at 50 degrees. Documented exactly what I did in the inspection report. Is this something I typically do ? Heck no. I've been told by everyone not to turn on gas or breakers, but under the right circumstances, I will. Will I get burned one day (figuratively meant), maybe. Was the calculated risk worth it to do a good inspection for my client? Well, my business, my choice.

Boric acid is also one of the main things used by the mattress industry. The boric acid is used to treat any flammable parts of the mattress (think cotton) to meet the US standards for flame retardation in mattresses. Basically, we sleep with it.

My interior coil iced up this past summer, it turned out the furnace fan motor was going bad and turning too slow so I had reduced air flow over the coil. New fan motor made the problem go away.

I'm like Erby, I downloaded a bunch of the free trial ones three years ago, went with HomeGuage. Delete all their wording, easy to create your own. I like how easy it is to put drop-down selections in sentences so you can make one sentence fit a lot of things such as a "Room" drop-down to choose which room you are talking about or a "Fixture" drop-down to choose which bath fixture you are referencing. Easy to make the report look like whatever you want, easy to add text and markers to photos. I use a camera with an SD card, just take the SD card from the camera, plug it into the laptop, tell the HomeGuage where the pictures are and it loads them all into a strip. Write or plug-in a pre-made sentence that you have created, and then double click a picture - done, go to the next one. Instead of making notes, I just take pictures, so as I run through the picture strip, I have all I need to complete the report. Save the completed file as a PDF and either print on site or e-mail. I haven't used the HomeGuage site for delivery.

Assuming you are going to go into attics and crawls, get a decent respirator and some disposal cover-alls. I like to carry the old fashioned 6' folding stick rule, and a spare camera for when the one you have in your hand stops working. The camera can take the place of a clip board for notes. A set of the latest Code-Chek books makes a great field reference.

Here is their website - http://www.griptite.com/products/wall-a ... ystem.aspx - but there really isn't a whole lot of info on the site. They do have a way to find contractors that use their systems so you may be able to direct your client to one of those contractors also for info. I've only run into it once.

Typically, the rod goes out into the yard and is attached to an anchoring plate somewhere around 12' to 15' away from the home's foundation. As the soil dries, the foundation wall may have less pressure against it and the nut can be tightened a turn or so.

Bought the Olight M21X Warrior Tactical LED Flashlight, used it about a month now, switched from the Fenix because the tail switches kept going bad, couldn't be happier.

I assume you dug down to see that there wasn't a poly vapor under the gravel, I know here in Maryland I see a lot of the vapor barriers under the gravel.

Good catch.

Don't forget the termites. They love an invitation like that.

I state what I see - that the receptacle(s) does not have GFCI protection where we believe a receptacle should be protected and then add " I recommend that, as a safety upgrade, a qualified licensed electrical contractor correct by installing a GFCI receptacle or breaker for that circuit." Doesn't matter over if it's in the kitchen, bath, sump, etc.

Had a few here, no problems found. Unusual but they work.

They might have had a flow problem - too few gallons per minute. Unusual set up, I've only see it twice, but I don't see anything wrong as long as you have both well caps/heads accessible.

Just a note on - "which limits my liability to 180 days and on top of that the statute of limitations in Arkansas is 1 year from date of inspection." if you offer any free opinions AFTER the 180 days or the statute of limitations, in almost all jurisdictions, a good attorney will say that you have voluntarily extended that time limit by answering any questions and the day count starts all over. Not so if you say "Sorry, but a new agreement for my opinions must be signed," even if the new agreement is for free.

Doesn't appear to be like any normal spalling that would be caused by frost in the brick, appears to have been hit and broken. Either someone for some reason broke them off on purpose or maybe the operator hit the edges with his back-hoe bucket when back-filling around the foundation. Unless the bricks were actually loose, I would have noted as "cosmetic damage to the brick, repair as you wish."