John Kogel

I disagree. Topping is a bad horticultural practice and promotes weak advantitious growth. It is better to elevate, remove lower limbs to several feet above the roof, and remove and dead or dying limbs. Have the tree guys come back every few years and maintain the trees. I worked around plants, landscapes and trees for a lot of years. allseaz, I am in full agreement that it damages the tree, but I am in favour of topping to save the house. []

Would the thermostat be the ignition source? I know they click on and off. So the heater might be fine if the thermostat is moved up to a higher point, like in your pic. It's a good question. Sometimes the Code writers are slow to catch up, but we can still point these things out as questionable.

Yeah but that was a big blow in 2006, IIRC. In fact it was hurricane force winds that hit here and flattened some mighty Spruce trees that were 100's of years old. The property next to us still has windfalls laying there from that storm.

Yes, the repairs look worse than the cracks do. The crack above the crawlspace vent Pic 2 is interesting, because it changes direction. I would be inclined to think it is minor cracking of the veneer. We don't know what is behind the brick veneer, but it could be wood frame. If so, some cracks of that type would be normal, caused by some minor settlement.

OK, I'll chip in. [] Ask the arborist if he can top the trees. Take the top halves off. This will cost less than removing two whole trees. The tops will grow back fairly quickly, but once topped, they are easier to top again every 5 years or so. They will look odd for a few years but they will grow better for it and they will do less harm. Kinda like the way they cut the horns off a cow, makes them friendlier. [] Bulls, too, yes, welcome, Welly. [] I took a Bigleaf maple down to the ground for my stepdad about 10 yrs ago. My son got the 1990 Mustang that was under the tree, my stepdad got rid of the car he didn't want and the tree he didn't want. And I got to spend two days in a tree. I started up top with a Swede saw, like a bow saw, y'all, took down the top and the limbs. Then when I got closer to the ground, I could run a chainsaw while standing on a ladder, no belt and spurs for me, but it took two days with dragging branches to the landfill and all. Now a word about maples. They grow fast and they are brittle. Maybe the Red maple is stronger, but they are not strong like an oak.

It will need a frame to match, with hinges and latch routered to match, so it becomes a winter project. It looks like the veneer is damaged a bit on the inside edge. If it is veneer, you can't sand it very much, and there is grain going two directions. I'd use a chemical stripper and a bunch of different scrapers. No, I wouldn't, but to save the door, that would be the way. []

She who knows best has been banging down on the lid to start the machine for about 6 months. [] Yeah me and the tools enjoyed that, too.

10 years of faithful service, but now Kenny was having problems concentrating on the job. His sporadic performance prompted a review by the board, and we decided on remedial action. Click to Enlarge 34.04 KB Click to Enlarge 34.38 KB Here Stanley Phillips, with a hand from yours truly, points out the defective organ. A poly vinyl plastic lid switch has ruptured itself. Click to Enlarge 25.33 KB We called in the old linesman, Henry Boker, to facilitate a repair. He likes to use #14 copper with just enough tension to hold the parts snug. Click to Enlarge 34.33 KB Chrome Vanadium provided the muscle, and Stanley sewed the dashboard back in place. Not a bad design, once you figure out the removal of the end caps. They just popped off with a gentle tweak from Mr Vanadium. Now, back to HI. []

Once you've glued that first elbow to the second one, there's no turning back. So you add more elbows. [:0]

Javelinas. Click to Enlarge 12.54 KB They will turn your lawn into a dust bowl. But they will get rid of the cicadas. And the armadillos, too. []

The Protimeter SM works great as a pinless meter. I haven't used it in pin form in a long time. I think if I had to buy a new meter, I'd get the slightly cheaper pinless. I've always got my Hydrosensor shotgun for a pin type meter, couldn't lose it if I wanted to. I made that up about ultrasound. Moisture (and metal) conducts electricity better than dry material.

I was once told that it was designed to work that way. Yes, it sends ultrasound beams into the material a certain depth,then measures the resistance between those two beams. It's magic, actually. I have an antique pin moisture meter that looks like a sawed off shotgun. If it finds moisture, a red light flashes slow for damp, faster for wet. The "Drieaz HydroSensor II". Marc, how's your Ryobi screwdriver holding out? Mine is strong as ever. Anything with a lithium battery is topnotch, IMO.

We discussed this before, or maybe it was somewhere else. Creosote poles driven into a swamp, capped with concrete, then topped with a house. As they dry out the swamp, the soil drops away.

In Canada, if the receptacle is over 9 feet (3 meters) above the ground, a GFCI is not rquired. FYI, For Y'alls Info. [] I have a picture of the extension cord upgrade. Click to Enlarge 49.26 KB

If the design allows, I will suggest they remove a wall and and have the closet elsewhere, maybe cheaper than moving the E panel.

Ditto. I tell them to come at 11:30 and I will tour the place with them. They can book off early for lunch, do inspection, pay me, back to work by one. I don't see a problem going over the place again, but it's in the plan to do that, and I get to double-check it, good thing.

The cheap voltage sniffer y'all get huffy about sometimes was my little friend this week. On my walk around the house I saw this - SEC's pulled so zinging tight they're lifting the gutter. On the deck, opposite side of the house, continuous gutter, my sniffer was going wild. Set my ladder up on the deck as a stepladder and stepped over onto the roof. I wasn't grounded up there, but would have been with my long ladder planted on the ground. Yikes. Click to Enlarge 41 KB Click to Enlarge 28.47 KB Today, I had this old mobile home bath fan. Somebody's removed the fan and left the wires dangling inside the housing. With the fan switch on, my sniffer went nuts. Now I'm trying to imagine Billy Bob taking showers under this thing, 7 foot ceiling. Yikes again. Click to Enlarge 42.2 KB

Best way? Knock out all the 2X4 blocking and install normal perforated soffit covers.

I had a bunk in the bow of the USS Radiant for two 10-day shifts, doing bush work up at the head of an inlet called Indian Arm. The Radiant is a wooden-hulled minesweeper built in 1941. She is almost 100 ft long and only 20 feet wide midships. What made me pick top bunk in the bow for the best sleeping spot? It truly was. Click to Enlarge 26.2 KBA typical minesweeper

It is not correct to ground the neutral in that panel. I think Jim mistook the question. So there should be no grounding wires on the neutral bus.

Virginia, it's pretty close to Quebec, no? [] Page 6 has some good illustrations, and this - no less than 2/3 the width of the wythe. http://www.gobrick.com/portals/25/docs/ ... s/tn28.pdf

Everybody is right so far, the Max arrow is indicating the position opposite the 100 amp breaker. The label looks to be factory installed. Yes, the Canadian factory might still be churning out product, amazing, or maybe the factory is offshore, who knows? I think they are saying the max total capacity for each of those tabs is 125 amps, eh? It is actually more common to see a sticker prohibiting the use of those slots altogether, probably a safer choice if the main breaker could be upsized to 125.

Condo building, strange plumbing, fire-red control box, multiple gauges and valves, sprinkler system. []

Yes, I now see the typo errors in #18. That probably happened from errors in dictating with Dragon Speak. I usually catch most of it in proof reading. Thanks for nabbing it. Did you fix it? I don't see an error, but then I read text like a guy in a rush to get the answer. [] John, that is an interesting approach to reporting, and it nails all the bad stuff up front. For a while I was supplying a brief one page list of defects in text at the beginning of the reports, then the body with pics of good and the bad, then the computer generated summary in text. Now with the new software, I'm reporting the systems with good and bad, plenty of pics, followed by a summary in text. Not saying any way is better, not sure which works best.

Two degrees in 2 hours is normal here for hydronic on a concrete slab. I do the same thing you did, watch for a response to the thermostat, then check for a working circulation pump and a gradual rise in temp. A house with 4 or 5 zones, there's not enough time in the day to check the system thoroughly, which is what I tell the clients. "It makes heat, but I can't tell you how much for how long".