John Kogel

Actually, my client is asking the question: "Is the foundation solid and able to support an additional 2nd storey?" This will be my assignment for Monday. It is a 1949 basement home, and I expect it to be sitting on a proper footing. There will be post and beam supports in the basement with about 7 feet of headroom. I know it is a job for an engineer, not me, to determine the suitability of the foundation for adding another storey. I'm wondering if anyone here has worked on such a project, and what kinds of obstacles arose from it? The masonry chimneys will need to be altered, but they've been lined and are being used for gas appliances anyway. I think I'll suggest they jack the house up instead, and build a new better basement under it. That'll distract them while I make my getaway. Click to Enlarge 31.49 KB

Oh that's the tub?? I thought it was the urinal. [:-sour] It's a retro installation. They usually just dumped the water out off the back porch.

I'll bet if you asked them, they wouldn't know either. [] I think with the cut valley, you use common sense. The side with the largest volume of water cascading down should be cut so the water flows out over woven shingles rather than under cut shingles. Usually the main roof is cut and the dormer side is woven, but on this roof, the dormer side has the greater area, so the dormer sides should be cut. No wonder they got it wrong.

If ferrocement makes a good boat, why can't it make a good roof?I suspect it can be repaired and will last longer than the shack and the dock it's sitting on.

Like you, I call it honeycombing. Lack of vibrator probably why it was mixed with a *hoe*. Well they may have had a primitive cement mixer, powered by ??But the pour was pretty much a 'hand job', eh? [] I don't know, Jim. I poured many a basement wall in the 70's, and we would just rod the concrete a bit so there were no big voids, maybe thump the forms here and there, no vibrator needed. Sometimes the concrete would slump too much, and I recall going and adding a little to some low spots. We'd blame that on the truck driver adding too much water. Tom, I'm certain you are right. The concrete just went into a trench, or onto the bedrock, like in the second pic. No real cracks anywhere, and 3 tall chimneys haven't moved an inch in 100 years. In contract, the concrete work that was done later, probably ready-mix, was cracked so bad, I had to warn the clients about trip hazards. Go figure. Well, there's been some drainage problems. Click to Enlarge 108.72 KB Click to Enlarge 48.67 KB Click to Enlarge 63.06 KB

This was a one storey with livable attic space "Arts and Crafts" built in 1910. I've seen a few like this with the concrete that looks like it was mixed in a tub with a hoe and poured in stages. What is the term for this type of honeycomb texture and how badly is the strength of the concrete affected? Would a shortage of sand in the aggregate have been partly to blame? Question 2. The deck which was added many years later is sitting on a fractured corner. Would you repair it by drilling and adding pins, or simply pour a new corner? Click to Enlarge 59.84 KB Click to Enlarge 113.47 KB Click to Enlarge 134.23 KB

There's hope for an older guy starting out, but there's a multitude of information to absorb if it's all new to you. Yesterday, I was saying something like, "Well, that was standard practice in 1979". My client said "How would a young home inspector, 20 years old, know that?" "They'd have to have learned it from an old guy like me", I said. There's a certain advantage an old guy has in this biz, I think, which is credibility. Fact is, I'm a lot smarter now than I was in '79. [] I didn't have to be there then to know it now. But perception of age and experience helps a lot, I think. Now if I could just remember where I left my flashlight and my ladder, life would be perfect.

That white flex hose is what they sell at the big box for dishwasher hookups, I think. It restricts the flow too much for a clothes washer, IMO. And there could be trouble, since they are blowing water in under pressure in a crawlspace. Just so happens, I had one of those T's on the main stack yesterday. Two back to back toilets upstairs, 1979 house. My washing machine hookup was also kaka. I believe the stand pipe is too short. Click to Enlarge 57.19 KB Click to Enlarge 44.39 KB Click to Enlarge 42.88 KB

The sheathing is new, so this is not correcting for a layer of old shingles underneath. It may have been done for looks? Is this roof visible from the street? One downside would be that the mastic strip is high on that second row, so the lower edge of the third row is possibly not well glued.

That plumbing stack should be connected to the chimney with a wye. That way, the methane gas can help with combustion, like an afterburner, and burn a hole in those tree branches for safety. [] Sorry, I don't know the regulation, but I think 3 feet seems reasonable. I would call for that chimney to be inspected and most likely replaced with a new unit, and for those limbs to be cut back.

I believe Red Adair's company help put out the oil well fires in Kuwait. I inspect for my clients and I keep their best interests in mind at all times. I also get plenty of referrals from realtors, I think. I know the ones that sell lots of houses and never refer me. My ad $$$ would be wasted on them. There are plenty of houses to choose from, and plenty of realtors. I'm no marketing genius, but I would suggest keeping an arm's length relationship. Print your own brochures.

The cover must remain accessible. All wiring must be protected where it enters and exits the box with cable clamps or bushings. It is best to limit the bundling of cables to two per clamp. All wiring must be secured with staples within xx" of the box. (12" in my area) All unused openings must be closed with approved plugs or plates. The box must be grounded. The big issue is, that work should be done under an electrical permit, and inspected. If not, the person responsible for any future accident is you, and you are not a licensed electrician.

You would not be permitted to do that here where I live, so that tells me it is not the best way. I think you should have a qualified electrician make that installation for you. He will make sure it is done safely and under the proper permits, so that it becomes an asset to your property instead of a repair item or a safety hazard. Doubling two conductors under one lug can result in a loose connection, heat, then fire. That is one reason it is not permitted. If you plan to run a smaller gauge feeder to the other location, it needs to be protected by an 80 amp breaker at the source. Otherwise, it could overheat and start a fire. The large main breaker doesn't protect it. The grounding of all three devices or panels has to be done correctly to prevent shock hazards. The safe way to get 80 amps to that other location is to run a correctly sized feeder from an 80 amp breaker in one of the other breaker panels.

It does make a groovy floor, but I'll wait and see if it really catches on. I see you need to use the planks exactly as they are laid out in the factory. Like a jigsaw puzzle. I don't know what happens if you find a big check or some other defect in a plank. You can't just toss it aside or use it in another spot like a closet. So you send the whole floor back??? They follow the grain on some pieces, but then they have to cut the grain on the next piece to make it fit. It isn't natural to saw planks like that. []

Agreed. Just take an old lead boot out and heat it up with a tiger torch. The mod bit would be on fire before the lead melted enough to be damaged. Then he goes on to say they use a low heat so they can install a plastic boot. Huh? [] Little patches of mod bit over the bleedout would be another joke. I think I would just record all the info and hand it over to the client for reference at this point. Good point, Mike. Charge for your time. Mr. Niceguy here got thrown under the bus one day for "making the seller's toilet leak. He saw you do it". I had gone by for no charge, to see if the attic repairs were done. OK. Thought I'd check the loose toilet as well on the way out. My free reinspection almost cost me a plumbing and drywall repair. Lucky my client was also a nice guy, who knew the toilet had been loose for months because he had seen it the first time. Now, the ceiling was damaged. He just laughed it off. I wonder, though, if I had charged him $100 for the reinspection, would he have been so generous? We'll never know and it will not happen again. I also recommend keeping records of all correspondence and notes of telephone conversations. I am told that even a simple handwritten note, time and date, what was said by who, will be valid, if it ever comes to that. So any time a client calls me, I make a note of it and toss it in the file. I try to remember to print off the emails too.

Right. For a 120 volt circuit, the neutrals should be permanently joined together, either on the bus bar or with a wire nut. It looks like that bus bar is isolated.The panel should be bonded to the grounds. So it's wrong 3 ways, if you count the telephone cable. Amateur wiring, so I warn the client there may be hidden defects.

Dang it. Does this mean I have to start sniffing every vent stack I come across, just in case it's plugged up? Good catch, BTW.

Right. I think by creating negative pressure in the crawlspace, they are drawing moist air in, a lot of it from upstairs. I see an occasional bath exhaust fan in the crawlspace, but when there are no other vents to let air in, it's a joke. I tell people to leave them turned off. Every area has their own solutions, but here, a lot of the new crawlspaces have electric heat, so warming the air a bit works just fine. No need to blow it around.

Those are odd-looking conductors, but that stranded grounding conductor looks like Al. At least from here. John, if you have trouble or expense finding a breaker, you could replace that whole subpanel with a nice new breaker panel. We're not worried about the fuses, but those breakers are antiques. You could temporarily feed the new panel with the 60 amps from your main panel. Then you'd have plenty of space for new kitchen circuits when you do the rest of the kitchen upgrade.

That's a split bus panel. Common as dirt around here. The top 6 2-pole breakers are all mains. The one labeled main controls all of the breakers below it. - Jim Katen, Oregon It is labeled incorrectly, is it not?

That plan gets my approval. I was picturing a mess worse than that. Now that we know what you've got, including a picture of Kristen, could you move those wires? [] maybe Jim can tell us if you can go back to plan A and use one of the 20 amp fuses, provided you disconnected the compressor?

Well Robert's busy, so I took a look at the Nutone ILF130 manual and found this: NOTE: If used for dryer boosting the ventilator must be mounted at least 12 feet from the dryer outlet. For gas fired dryers the ventilator capacity (CFM) must not exceed the dryer’s fan capacity. They really need to staple that wiring up to the joists.

He's got an antique fuse panel there. Not likely there's any space to add a breaker of any kind.He does not want to go from the sub, because it is installed wrong, double tapped off the service conductor connections. I think that's the feeder to the sub leaving the panel on the left ? and if so, it is already 4 wire. John, I'm with Tom, replace the service with a larger rated panel (200 A). Install a 60 amp main breaker in it for now. When cash flow allows, have the service increased to 200 Amp. You can repair the feed to the subpanel, which I assume is a breaker panel, modern-like? If you have #8 or #6 installed to the sub, then you can remove the double taps and connect that feeder to the fuse pull where you have the 20's for the compressor now. Replace the 20's with 40 or 60 amp cartridge fuses. Then you can run the new micro circuit and the compressor and other circuits from the sub with new breakers. You'll be that much closer to an upgraded system.

OK, thanks all. There's no soot in this flue, but you can never tell how much use it's going to get from the new owners. If the flue liner needs repair, I don't see a problem with adding a metal liner. It eliminates the uncertainty for a reasonable cost. In fact, I often tell people to have an airtight insert and a liner installed so that they can get some decent efficiency and close off that drafty hole in the wall. Different house now. I had a 100 year old fireplace earlier this week that had no damper in it and just a spark screen parked in front of it. Brrrr. Click to Enlarge 69.08 KB Nice patch. My clients were told $1600 was spent on the 3 chimneys. Click to Enlarge 51.42 KB Click to Enlarge 59.48 KB This flue with the moisture in it is venting a gas water heater in the same house. I called for a liner and a chimney cap. Click to Enlarge 43.57 KB Here's the corbelled section in the attic, two bedrooms up there. Hard to believe they had these chimneys repaired and nobody saw a problem with this flue?

This wood-burning fireplace was built in 1968. There is a gap at the top where the last flue tile needed to be a little higher, so the mason just pulled it up a few inches. Should we be concerned with the gap there? There is a gap at the bottom where the first flue tile does not appear to be well sealed. Are repairs needed at the lower end? Click to Enlarge 58.54 KB Click to Enlarge 73.87 KB Click to Enlarge 58.92 KB Click to Enlarge 82.6 KB