John Kogel

Shocking! [:-magnify In Canada the switch must be 3 feet away from the edge of the tub. In that situation with the tub by the door, we put the switches out in the hall. It seems inconvenient but people just get used to it.

I think we are looking at fused disconnects.

Denny, those black marks be leaky eavestroughs. Or I use 'gutters' to avoid typos. The black sludge is gunk from the gutters, in other words. We have a green algae that leaves a black stain when it dies, could be some of that too. There is hidden damage behind the stucco, agreed.

Well spotted, old chap. [] Actually true EIFS will have the insulation board behind the stucco, so it could be slurpy one coat stucco on sheathing, can't tell from here.

Or it could be leveling compound spread over the uneven wood subfloor in an attempt to level it. Could have been done any time, but in the last 20 or 30 years.

Efflorescence is said to be mostly soluble sulfate salts. Now say that fast ten times. [] I am thinking you could test a sample but don't know the chemistry.

Right, they could be slugs, so there would be no fused neutral. Or WAG - Those could be breakers with reset button in that hole, made by Bryant.

In British Columbia, we let them (Asian contractors) buy our raw logs and they mill it themselves on the trip home.

Hey, speak for yourself. We still occasionally use car decking subfloors here. Must be where the wood goes when it is shipped from here. Subloors are OSB or if you're wealthy, plywood.

Jim raises a good point. If there are anchor bolts they secure the sill. If there are no anchor bolts, why is that house still sitting there? [] Plank subfloor- old house. Anchor bolts may not have been required when the place was built. Missing anchor bolts can cause insurance agents to run for cover.

It's been raining in there for years. What triggered the sudden call for action? [:-magnify

The ladder appears to be uh .... missing? []

Site-built trusses were common here in the 1960's. Manufactured trusses became the standard in the early 70's here and solved a lot of problems. But I have found a few attics like that and rarely a problem. Good old Fir plywood. Could always use a few more nails in the gussets, but they were pounding nails with hammers in those days. [:-slaphap

Those are connecting the transformer to the low voltage wiring to the lights. Too bad he didn't just set that up in the attic. Although there would be a heat issue up there. Maybe we need better code rules for low voltage lighting. I would use the same installation guidelines as we see for doorbell ringers. Transformer open to the air, maybe in a closet or the laundry room. Usually the lighting transformer is hung under the cabinet.

Tom is probably correct, a stove pipe flange or thimble. See, all that CE makes your mind sharper. [:-graduat

This is the www, and people come here to learn, so I am sharing my observations. If you stress a piece of wire, any wire, it develops little cracks. We all know this already. Here in Canada, we use 15 amp circuits and #14 copper for most residential wiring, so that is why I tested #14. I am not trying to prove I'm right in the normal anal sense, because if the wire did not break after folding it and unfolding it twice, I would have said so.

My point is simply this - how tight can the wire be bent before it is too tight to straighten it? Can't answer that without more testing. OK I'm done here. Lock it up. []

if I was the sensitive type, I would be offended by all that. The grounding wire in that kinked cable is not insulated. So it is the weakest wire in the cable and most likely to snap first. Since we already established that an inspector ought to leave kinked wiring alone, I thought I'd add some test results. Which is what you read as being anal. [:-slaphap There is a discrepancy in results simply because your testing did not follow the guidelines of my testing. We never did establish how many foot-pounds of tension to inflict upon the kinked cable, because there is no way to determine what was done there before we discovered the kink. My point is this - if the kink is acute, the bare grounding wire could snap, so leave it alone. We don't need to hear how many times somebody has straightened a bent wire, or how many times he rode a bike without a helmet. []

I just tried this 3 times, so this is not just guessing and not working it like crazy either. [] - Bend a bare piece of solid #14 copper in a tight loop and kink it in a tight hairpin with a pair of Linesman pliers. You have to use the right tool for this, because it is scientific testing. [] Straighten the kink out, and then bend it again in the same spot. When you go to straighten it a second time, the wire snaps. Jeez John, what are you trying to prove? Marc I did prove that a kinked copper wire is easy to snap.[:-graduat

I just tried this 3 times, so this is not just guessing and not working it like crazy either. [] - Bend a bare piece of solid #14 copper in a tight loop and kink it in a tight hairpin with a pair of Linesman pliers. You have to use the right tool for this, because it is scientific testing. [] Straighten the kink out, and then bend it again in the same spot. When you go to straighten it a second time, the wire snaps.

Right, the copper could snap if you played with it. I think I would leave it as is even in my own attic. But the temptation to straighten it could win out if I saw it enough times. []

The tablet adds about an hour to the field portion of a 3 hour inspection. It makes sense to some people but I prefer to write the report after the field work is done. I did forestry field work for many years before home inspections. Get the info and get out. Then set up a cozy spot to write it up. Best use of the time.

We see a grounding conductor from the rod to a hole in the wall that is shared with an outdoor outlet. The ground wire hopefully goes up to the breaker panel, not to that outlet.

Strawberry farm. Well they're growing something in those tubs and I'll say strawberries.

Maybe salvaged from an old commercial kitchen or something. The washers are worn out if she drips.