John Kogel

That's like saying don't have a built in dishwasher. Unlike here, it's very normal to have the laundry in the kitchen in Europe and if I cared at all what my kitchen looked like, I wouldn't hesitate to go the built-in route. Thanks, Richard. I should have realized he was talking a different language. [] Personally, I don't care for the way the stackers are shoehorned into closets in this country, with bifold doors that hit the handles of the machines and no possible access to the plumbing shutoffs. Builtin units would be an improvement to some of the setups I see.

I would not go with a built in unit. Allow for the appliances to be replaced as needed. Separate dryer mounted on a shelf above the washer.

That's taken from The Illustrated Home. It says "Two gas appliances on the same level are often vented through one flue (e.g. basement water heater and furnace)" Then below that, it claims that .. "In many cases venting thru a single flue is permitted even if the appliances are on different levels". I have found the illustrations may not always be accurate in that book. I believe the artist sometimes draws something other than what the author of the text was intending. Some of the roof flashing illustrations are incorrect.

Sometimes 2 blows, sometimes none. I think maybe one of the riveting machines was screwing up on the job. Those Chev 6 engines were 216 cubic inch displacement and had cast iron pistons and overhead lifters, when Chrysler and Ford were stuck on the flathead, valve in the block design. I had the same Chev engine in my '49. The crankshafts were solid, no oil galleries in them, so oil was delivered to the connecting rod ends by way of 6 little pipes in the pan which sprayed oil so 6 little dippers on the rod caps could catch a shot of oil on every revolution. If you tried to go over 80 mph, the crank would start to dry out and you would blow a rod. The cast iron pistons did not like to go fast either. The rod bearings where not replaceable, simply a coating of something oldtimers called 'babbit'. When that babbit wore away, she'd start to knock. You could pull the pan and remove rod caps and there were shims that could be taken out to tighten the rods up!!! I had the pan off three times in about 6 months, trying to catch my brother in his '47 Dodge. He had the flathead six, but he'd had the head planed and added a 3/4 race cam. My poor old Chev 6 was slow but with plenty of torque. Later reincarnations of the Chevy stovebolt 6 -The '52 Chev had a 235 cid 6 with the pressurized crankshaft, oil pumped to the rod bearings. That engine powered the '53 and '54 Corvette, and you could get some speed out of it. The '55 Canadian Pontiac finally dropped their line of flatheads and adopted the 235, bored out to 261 cid. The 235 became the 250 in the 60's, and that engine was copied by Toyota for their Land Cruiser. The GMC 292 was the same mill with a longer stroke. I used my '64 GMC 1 ton to pull trees out of the ground, clearing property.

Marc, I think you should explain to this client the effect of temperature on vinyl siding. It needs to have a gap there, or it will buckle in the heat of summer. Also, there is no call to sue anyone if there are legitimate deficiencies. It is perfectly normal to ask the builder to return for some touchups before the 1 year period expires. They expect a few calls like that. #3, now that he's lied to you, needlessly, he needs to rebuild trust from you, or you will not be any help to him in a clash with the builder, if one even occurs. #4, good luck and remember, about 30% of the North American populace is off the rails on the crazy train. and a good portion of that group can't ever be satisfied. []

Amateur installation. Could be hidden defects. No permit.

I can't speak for the Golden State, but up here, we don't expect to see shutoffs under the sinks in a mobile home. Sometimes, people have added them, good idea. I believe in the US they are under the HUD jurisdiction. If your unit was lacking them, it's a good bet that's the way it left the factory. They left stuff off for two reasons, to save money and to reduce weight. I have pics of mobile home toilets with plastic toilet tanks. Lovely. Click to Enlarge 42.46 KB Click to Enlarge 59.56 KB Here the $90 Nikon Coolpix captures the water drops falling from the leak in the sink. Fascinating stuff. []

Only if he tosses a rope down. One that is tied to something permanent, not the bumper of someone's car. []

There's a subdivision here where the roofers left their anchors on the ridges instead of pulling them out on the last day. Good idea, but somebody's still got to climb up to attach that rope. That appears to be a 12 in 12. I used to do a lot of roofing, but I would have scaffolding under me on that slope. We'd have the ladder off the scaffold up to the peak to do the ridge. I had an 8 in 12 today, 2 storys up, too steep for safety. I used a proper extension ladder and got views of all sides, lots of pics. Found enough bad shingles to make my assessment. Ever had a rake board split off in your hand? Ever grabbed a vent cover and had a swarm of yellow jackets come out of there? The loose shingle is another one. One small surprise and hopefully you wake up in a hospital. One guy I know took 3 days to wake up.

Whatever turns you on, Jim. Click to Enlarge 9.58 KB That's a refreshing switch from the usual gumboots, eh?

Mileages may vary. [] My wife's got a nice clunker, so mine's all work. A $5 daybook has the calender dates, and I copy the last 4 or 5 digits off the odometer into yesterday's date on the way to the first stop sign. Easy to do the math at year end. This year's minus last year's. If I don't feel 100% was business, I can deduct a %age for pleasure. Pleasure, what's that?

No, if there are absolutely no concerns visible, such as a masonry fireplace that doesn't get much use, clean flue, I say they MAY need a WETT inspection, because it may be required by their fire insurance provider. I guess it is similar to what you call a Level II. I inspect the interior of the stove or fireplace and take pics down the chimney flues if I can. If I see serious trouble, I warn my client that I don't think it will pass a WETT inspection. Why waste $$$ on it. Fix it first, then get your pass from the WETT guy. Yesterday's woodstove had creosote buildup and a questionable installation, so I said they definitely need a chimney sweep and a WETT inspection, and possibly an upgrade.

In my country, where they have taxation down to an art, if the auditor comes knocking, he will ask to see records of mileage, (even though we haven't had miles since the 70's), and the tax form I use wants my total, so it is good to record the odometer readings a couple of times a week at least. I just buy a cheap daybook for that and throw it in with my receipts at the end of the year.

Something similar. I added a SOP page to my website. They say it's good to have lots of web pages, more chance of being picked up in searches maybe.We hand over a binder with stuff in it, general good info, including the SOP which I'm sure nobody can read and make sense of, but they have it there if it ever comes up.

Especially since we quit peeing behind the woodshed, eh? [] Click to Enlarge 54.26 KB

That church is great, but the wall is something else. I don't think I've ever seen curved bricks like that.

I see the clipped end of one of the K+T wires sticking out from the splice, and the other one is spliced to the white neutral. That's all I can tell from that pic. We had "Electric Plus" here for a while. 240 v baseboard heaters on a separate circuit with their own meter, no neutral feeder installed in the subpanel. They didn't want people tapping off to run lights and outlets.

I had something similar a couple of months ago. Never did figure out what it was or how they got in. This was the photo I put in the report... Click to Enlarge 37.21 KB Like yours, no signs of rat or mouse droppings. I googled images for raccoon & possum droppings. I'm not sure you could tell them apart. Possums are the sleepy ones. [] We don't have possums on this island, yet. (we've got your grey squirrels and your cottontail rabbits, so porcupines and possums can't be far behind) So I know when I see cat poop with no attempt to bury it, it is from the bowel of a coon. Click to Enlarge 30.29 KB Click to Enlarge 45.02 KB Squirrel droppings are small and roundish versions of rat drops, with a nutty flavor. []

Actually, there are. They're the little grey things on every other breaker handle. I'm sure that's a fault . When the conductors run together, their electro-magnetic fields cancel each other out. When they're run separately, the fields remain intact. If you pass a single wire through a metal plate and run current through it, these fields can cause the metal to heat up. Its the same reason why we want both wires in a knob & tube circuit to enter a box through the same hole. I suspect that the rule requiring the re-identification of white wires in this situation is quite an old one. I know it was required in the '47 NEC. Even so, it seems to have been one of the more widely ignored rules.Yeah, Mr Electric is ignoring it.[] I don't know of one, but there might be something in the manufacturer's literature. Unless the panel someday needs to have a neutral added, I can't imagine how it would be a problem. - Jim Katen, Oregon It only becomes a problem if they install that neutral feeder, eh?

Marc, I beat you by 2 seconds! Type faster! []

If this is an old two wire system, the only possible grounding would be "bootleg", where the neutrals are jumpered to the ground screw, in the back of the j box. Then grounding for the pin is achieved thru the two screws holding the receptacle. Because neutral is grounded in the panel, you get a false ground at the receptacle. You didn't say if the supply cables have the ground wire, but assuming the ground wire is there, 3 wire system, it is likely wrapped around the ground screw in the back of the box. I think those are metal j boxes, but even the plastic boxes will often have a ground strap to one of the mounting screws.

Yeah, but could you make real rocks defy gravity? [] Click to Enlarge 43.42 KB Click to Enlarge 44.15 KB

Digital psychrometers don't use a wick. - Jim Katen, Oregon In that case, is there an advantage to the hygrometer over the psychrometer?

Ok, it's after 6 PST, I'll take a shot. I believe all the subpanel branch circuits are 240V, hence no neutral feeder from the main. 1. There are no handle ties on any of those breaker handles. 2. The bending radii on the feeders is way too sharp. 3. Both feeders should exit and enter thru the same knockout. Why? Because I've never seen it done any other way, until now. 4. All the white wires should be marked black or red. (But that is a newer code rule, I believe, so does not apply if this is an old installation.) 5. They are using the neutral bus at the bottom, bonded to the panel, for a grounding bus. This is a poor choice, but I don't know if there is a NEC rule that addresses this.

[:-graduat