John Kogel

I take Visa and Mastercard, and I'd say about 75% of my transactions are CC. 90% of the younger buyers carry only plastic. I remember one young client who had to write me a check on his mommy's account. I swear he didn't know how. I fill in a slip, give them a receipt, phone it in when I get home. Costs about $10 per on average, UNPS, maybe that's only in Canada? I just accept that as a cost of biz, cheques and cash being a bonus. Sometimes. i'll drop the price a bit for cash. Once in a blue moon, there's a problem with the card and I have to call the clients to straighten it out. I've steered away from using the cell so far. There's a bit of hacking going on, with the new phones out there. So they say.

Well, judging from the shingle installation, no surprise at all. Maybe not required in Maryland? Even if it was, nobody checked that roof job. It should all be torn off and done right. And I think that's a whole complex worth of roofs they've got there. Ouch!

Apparently. this master thatcher does ok thatching roofs in the US and Canada. I don't suspect he has much competition. http://www.thatching.com/mcghee.html It's not the kind of work you'd want to hand off to a group of amateurs. Imagine trying to find a leak in that haystack? []

That's newer construction. I'll bet there is soffit venting disguised into that trim. There are plans somewhere that will show the attic details. If the vaulted ceiling has problems, you should be able to see some anomalies in the drywall. Check the lower edges with a moisture meter. Shine a light across the surface of the ceiling to see if the drywall is sagging between the rafters.

It would be easy to die in this basement. Gotta like the tap off of the dryer outlet, used for lighting in the garage hangout. Where will he or she be, in the laundry room or in the bath tub? The service panel is old 60 Amp wiring with a few additions. Could just keep adding loads until things get too hot. Click to Enlarge 53.78 KB Click to Enlarge 93.12 KB Click to Enlarge 78.8 KB

"crapola" []

That new one is 'tan'. Kevin says his was darker than chocolate milk. BTW, if you take pictures anyway, you can prove later that you couldn't get close to inspect it. Click to Enlarge 5.57 KB Click to Enlarge 9.98 KB OK, back to the fridge, no, back to work. []

Thanks, Jim. Do you mean the magic feather would just be for a backup? []

Thanks all. To keep it brief, the street slope is down towards the right. So the natural slope would be toward the right, away from the driveway. I can picture what you are saying, Mike. I will run the idea past my clients. Jim, the house is pretty inside. He is a builder-type, so nothing will scare him off. [] The downspout is a big source of that water, I agree. I'll bet the downspout pours right into the perimeter drain beside the footing. I will recommend routing the runoff from that downspout out and around in a dedicated solid pipe. Around here, if you have to block up the legs of the pool table, it's a crawlspace. [] Click to Enlarge 94.08 KB

My clients are planning to buy this 20 year old house with a drainage problem. The front yard slopes steeply down to the entry. There is a crawlspace with a three foot foundation wall under the entry way. On the left is a garage on a slab, and a driveway sloping down to it. The living room juts out on the right. A downspout empties into this entrapment area as well. Nice. A slab sidewalk has been poured in the strip between the garage and the living room. They don't want to break up all that concrete and dig a deep ditch in front of their new house, eh? Click to Enlarge 37.51 KB Water is seeping under the footing and into the crawlspace. I know the best fix is to break up the sidewalk and dig down 3 feet, install new drain pipes, and seal the below ground walls of the crawlspace. Click to Enlarge 25.45 KB My client's friend is suggesting repairs inside the crawlspace, sealing the skim coat, smearing this and that on it. I know this won't work. I suggested maybe a ditch in front of the sidewalk area like a curtain drain, running from the corner of the garage to past the living room, might carry enough water away to alleviate the problem. Has anyone had experience with something like that? Click to Enlarge 59.57 KB Click to Enlarge 73.78 KB Click to Enlarge 49.32 KB

Wow, good catch. Do you think somebody stepped on it there?

From the sounds of it, we could have a cloud of Japanese radon coming our way soon. From what I've read, radon originates from uranium deposits, so it would occur in scattered locations just about anywhere.

It was not unusual here in the past for a single flue brick chimney to be supported by a stud wall. The builders would frame up a shelf in the kitchen wall for example, about 3 feet up the wall, so the mason could build a chimney up through the attic and the roof for a wood stove. All that brick work would be supported by a 2X4 stud wall resting on the floor joists and possibly a wooden beam and some piers in the crawlspace. Look for signs of movement. Is the chimney sinking, causing the flashing to pull out? After stopping the leaks, you will need to dry out all that OSB sheathing and have it checked by a builder. Some of it may need to be replaced. A Home Inspector would have told you all about that mess before you bought it.

To sort of answer your question, the disconnect needs to be readily accessible, and that one is not. I would call it out for repair.

It just looks like someone was simply adding a hot and cold supply, maybe to a laundry sink or something, and never got on with it. It's a leak waiting to start, I suppose. You mean you've never left a project hanging like that? []

One thing I would look for in my cold clammy climate is a heat source in every room. In my area, that would likely be electric baseboard heaters, cheap and easy to install, but there needs to be at least 100 amps at the panel. The wall mounted fan heaters are better, but cost a bit more. Is there any insulation in those walls? If not, pump some in and add some in the ceiling. Make sure the attic has ventilation. Like Mike says, fix the leaky plumbing in the slab. Or could you just abandon that old stuff and run a new line up and in through the wall? Here's some other ideas: Install a gutter on the back of that roof. [] Direct the downspouts away, preferably adding a buried drain when time allows. Best to do what Mike says and replace all the drainage but they could have the perimeter drains around the slab inspected, and possibly cleaned and repaired. They are most likely concrete or clay tiles, clogged with crud, but sometimes the mud can be blown out of sections of them and then a new line to the storm drain can get drainage flowing again. If it was me, I'd just start digging up sections and replacing till it was all new.

My wife and I did without power a few times, moving onto raw land we bought, then building. After a while, you get real sick of splitting wood and hauling water. It takes up a lot of time. We don't even have a wood heater in this house and nope, we don't want one, either.

John, I believe a proper heat shield needs to be spaced away from the wood with at least a 1" air gap. A proper heat shield can reduce the distance from 18" to 12" for wood heat. Oil heat maybe a bit less. Nothing like that mess you've got there.

That's a funny one, "Do you know so-and-so? Well, he's dead, anyhoo". I think I see black wires going to the neutral bus. Yep, that's a good one for an electrician to check over and repair. I don't know if it is actually forbidden to backfeed a panel like that if you really want to. Of course, we expect to see at least 100 amps nowadays, so I will always call for a service upgrade if it's only 60 amps. The location is another question. The panel appears to be mounted on what may have been an exterior wall? I see some drop siding there. Was the panel there before the toilet? I guess it doesn't matter, anyhoo. [] It looks like you turned power off to remove the deadfront. Good idea if you can do it without repercussions. Oh right, you were leaning over a toilet and inspecting a farmer's electricals. []

Don't know the exact wording in your report, but if you said the panel "should be mounted on a wood backing" rather than "needs to be", then you wouldn't be relying on a code requirement, and no one could deny it would be good advice. [] That is how I sometimes avoid the "not in the code" rebuttal. Mind you, that doesn't get it fixed, either. [] Brandon mentions the dimples which normally create a small air gap behind the panel. Looks like they are lacking in the pics. Is that a cold basement, and is that moisture from condensation on the cold metal?

Is it correct then to call it "cellulose"? I think so. The reddish-brown shredded wood, I call "shredded wood", as it appears to be less thoroughly processed than what I've been calling "cellulose". I sometimes see "sawdust" that looks like it came straight from the mill. That stuff will burn, I'm sure. What I call "Rock wool" would be predominantly mineral based, and looks like gray fiberglass.

OK, you have a solid floor. I mean for support of the fiberglass shower floor, a bag or bags of wet (damp) mortar stuffed in around the drain. Some units have OSB-reinforced floors, but many do not.

OK. I would have turned the trap so it pointed straight at the drain, but that works. If you ever get hair ball clots in your drain, you can still pull the mess out with a hook. One more thing. If you install a fiberglass shower, make sure you support the floor so that it can't flex. We see a lot of leaky drains caused by lazy builders who don't read the instructions.

Yes, that gets an appproval from me, but I'm no plumber, right? To get rid of a pesky nail that won't go away, I sometimes use a hack saw blade on them, or just grab it with vise grips and snap it off. If you use screws for construction, they should be the expensive construction grade. Big Mike never tells us these things. You could line those joist cavities with poly and tape, directing possible future water leaks over to the walls? Then install one of those leak alarm sensors.

There is another way. Well, there always is, but here is my idea, and I am not a plumber, so it might get shot down. [] From the drain, go to an elbow, cross over the plumbing lines with a slight downward slope, 1/4" / ft, then put your trap so the trap arm, the exit, goes out thru that hole in the joist, horizontal to the original drain. This will let air flow back to the trap, so no siphon problem.