John Kogel

They certainly are Stab-Lok, Federal Pacific "NoArk" Stab-Loks, to be precise. I get a kick out of the No Ark moniker, like "there's no boat?" [:0]

My mail order plastic BB machine gun would have riddled that tank like swiss cheese, not. Air in pressure tank, raw steel always wet, a Niel Young song, Tom (and I) had the cassette. []

That is ..... strange. There seems to be a flexible cord to the back of that receptacle. The garbage disposer needs a switch in the line, but the DW does not. My guess is power comes from the panel to the receptacle, the cord and plug supply the disposer, then he's rigged an NM circuit for the switch. He probably tapped into one of the countertop receptacles. If power went to the disposer first from the wall switch, the dishwasher would only run when the disposer was on. [:-graduat

I see a screw holding the main breaker in place, so that part is probably OK. Kimball, there should not be a threaded end of a conduit just poked into the box like that. It is wrong. Mr Petey is not exaggerating. The clamp and jumper is an attempt to makes things right, but not acceptable. There is no protection of the SECs from chafing where they exit the conduit, wrong. The neutral is spliced, and the splice is clamped incorrectly. As Marc pointed out, the equipment grounds are not properly terminated under a clamp or to a bus bar. How much more do you need? []

Huh? I see a bad batch of shingles, followed by a batch of better shingles.

If 30 guys put cash in a pot, we could have an insurance co-op, and get one insurance company to underwrite us for a few years until we accumulate enough cash to buy the house if need be. CAHPI(BC) has done this, with 200 guys contributing. I would be willing to discuss this furter, but am offering an option that every trade union has - we can insure ourselves.

We have the National Home Warranty here on new construction. The builder would be going back to fix that. Labor and Materials is under a 2 year warranty. The temptation will be to just fill that gap with mortar.

Recycled lumber. I see the tar turned around on one piece and is now dripping down. All is well with the world. []

That whole place is a joke but the price is probably right. Just needs some upgrades. Hope it gets them. []

Kevin, I think Denny is asking stupid questions for fun, eh? What looks worse, a faux stone chimney or a vinyl siding chimney?

The second and third breaker down are the style that accept 2 conductors. I question what he did there - a black and a white on a double 30 amp breaker, OK. Then he added a black to one side of that circuit. That looks like the work of an ignoramus.

Maybe they pulled an extra conductor in there for 100 amp 3-phase and then went to single phase for unknowable reasons? The sparky then terminated the unused conductor on the grounding bus as a way to keep it safe? WAG. The only way to know is to have the other end of the service inspected by an electrician, IMO.

Buddy's truck has an oil leak. We are still oblivious of the house and garage.

That's a canary bird door opener. The bird gets trapped in the garage, flies around til it's tired, goes to rest on the opener, the door opens. []

I find Al here that has a plastic insulation but a cloth jacket, the early version. That is Tinned Copper. If you cut an end, you will see a copper core. Pic 2, you have a neutral with two ground conductors all sharing the same screw. Bare ground wires can be doubled or tripled, but the neutral conductors should not be doubled with another wire, for safety.

If the connecting duct which I named the plenum is a 12" hose, then the killer is atmospheric pressure on the hose. If you have suction on the hose, negative pressure, the hose will collapse like a tons of bricks landed on it. So if there is a weak pump, it needs to go in the back. Put the best fan up front and no problemo, Franco. Bolt it all down. With engineering, it could become a jet engine. []

If there is a busy street past the house, it could be soot and carbon from deisel engines. That is my guess, for what it's worth.

Don't listen to these guys. They are eggheads, overthinking a simple question.1) Use identical units only. Not one from your uncle's shed and one from the corner store. They've got to be equal in age as well as size. They will pump air together and the pressure in the plenum will be equal. No problemo.

Since you are planning lateral for 20 feet, go lateral between the second floor joists and then down that wall. I don't advise cutting joists at all if possible. Use the correct fittings that have a sweep rather than a sharp bend. Buy a Homeowner's Plumbing book from the comic book rack at the big box store. Remember to install vents. A family of 5 in my world can get by with one 50 gal heater, but I suppose it depends on the # of mins in the shower. I think you'll be fine with either the less used 25 or the 50. Sure 3/4 is better than 1/2.

No, John, I would wait till next year and get a better deal on a better notebook or laptop. Any computer geek worth his salt can keep you running Windows 7 on any machine for another half a decade or so, until they stop supporting it entirely like they will do with XP in 2014, no more XP updates. I had Windows 3.1 on 12 floppy discs. Then I had XP Pro on a disc thru 3 or 4 desktops. Now I'm running Vista on 2 machines, not even needing the OS on a disc anymore. In a couple of years we will be plugging keyboards into our cellphones, virtual hard drives. PS you already know this but maybe forgot. XP maybe just needs to be refreshed, defrag the hard drive, delete a bunch of stuff, run spyware anti virus and updates, etc. Take it in and get it setup with Win 7 maybe?

Sounds like the Nantucket Sleigh-ride has moved onto the land? []

There is a brand name for that stuff - like durocoat or durok or something like that. [?] Yes, it could have been applied a couple of years ago, no way to be sure.

Condo ceiling - he or she wants to cut the sound of footsteps upstairs.

Pic 1 shows a double wide or modular home attic, pic 3 looks more like a typical mobile. I wouldn't apply spray foam to OSB unless it was bone dry, fresh from the factory. Certainly not the black spotted sheathing in these pics. JMO.

One for the scrapbook, thanks, Rob.