John Kogel

Left-handed faucet, I'm afraid it is wrong, even tho I was born left-handed.[:-thumbd] It is a quick fix for someone that is 'handy'. See, I made a joke. Some models have a red and a blue dot. It seems to me red is on the left, blue on the right, so the handles goes forward for hot. Those I would mention if the red dot side runs cold. Same thing tho, easy fix.

Needs a bit more tinder. []

Read it again. This is a subpanel in the house, not a separate garage. What you just posted is wrong, AFAIK. Does not matter, answer applies to a feeder(sub) panel, or a separate structure. In the 2008 NEC it does not allow to re-bond after the service( 1st over current device). I think you are misunderstanding my point. I am saying this rule was code long before 2008 and I am not even in the USA. There is no rule to grandfather bonding the neutral at the sub. The electrician is wrong to say it is OK, or that it was OK before.

New OS, old peripherals? In the past, waiting has worked for me. Someone will eventually program the driver you need to make it work. Alternately, install XP in your new laptop. I know a few people are still happy with XP.

Yeah, I did a double take, and it seems he had to climb over or move obstacles placed by the seller to block access to the hatch.

Read it again. This is a subpanel in the house, not a separate garage. What you just posted is wrong, AFAIK.

Yep, I see 2 240 volt circuits and 4 120 volt circuits which are drastically overfused. Nope, it would likely be original 50's equipment. I get a kick out of the FPE "No-Ark" brand - What, there's no boat? []

Air in the line, maybe. Failing to hold the knob in all the way? I show the people the card with the instructions, but never mess with other people's pilot lights. Maybe for the home owner I would, but never a buyer. I know you are trying to teach and help, but it can lead to trouble, such as what happened here - she couldn't get it right. A month from now, she might try again and burn off her eyebrows.

It is not a typical engineered rafter repair, so I would be inclined to call for some paperwork signed by the 'engineer'. When he can't produce this paper, we can get a real engineer to draw up a proper repair, or simply get an experienced builder to sister the rafters. With a slight bit of movement, that cable can just pop off the brace and become useless. I'll search for the pics. Click to Enlarge 30.62 KB Click to Enlarge 46.3 KB One cable had popped off. A couple of years later, I returned to inspect another unit and found that the management had repaired this. It may been nudged by a truck.

A moldy orange would make me sneeze, I think, but cat dander makes me sneeze, so maybe it's that, or dust mites. Maybe it's moldy dust mites that are covered with cat dander? []

My water pressure is around 90 psi. All the supply pipes are copper. I should install a regulator, but am afraid I'll cause a leak. []

Anchor bolts is not in my SOP. Old houses don't have them and we know this. Old houses don't have a lot of things. In recent years, insurance companies have been asking if the house is bolted down. It is an issue if you ask for eathquake insurance coverage. So for those mid 60's houses, I will sometimes be asked to check for anchor bolts. Thanks, David. It makes sense that you could attach a new sill to the foundation wall and then set the house on that. I imagine straps or plates could tie the new sill to the old.

It's not a normal build, because of the move. Sometimes the block wall is built under the home and then the last few shims are pulled out. The better movers would pour a foundation under the jacked up house. Even so, it would be tricky business to line up holes in the old sill plates with anchor bolts in the new foundation. I've never thought about it before, and will have to ask one of the mover guys sometime.

I am required to inspect a lot of stuff, and usually there is nothing to report about those things, cabinets, walls, ceilings, flooring, it's all good. I put some interior pictures in my report, see? I inspected it. It reduces a lot of text that way. Every bathroom gets a pic of the fixtures, and maybe a couple of under the sink shots. Then a defect pic or two goes in there. Call it fluff or glamor if you like. Bathroom and kitchen are high priority to a lot of people. They can be sitting back at home thinking, was there tiles on the backsplash or was that the other place? I maybe didn't mention the tiles, but there's a picture in the report.

A builder was telling me about a buddy's home inspection. "We went up into the attic and there was a whole nother roof in there, and the stinkin' inspector never even seen it." Well, I said, he probably did see it, just didn't put it in his report.

Always turn OFF the electrical power to the water heater before draining it. There might be another way, in fact, there often are other ways to solve a problem. You could have a pressure regulator installed on your water supply line at the house. That would prevent the pressure increase when the pump kicks in. (Remember this is just a guess as to what is causing the problem) Talk to a plumber. You may need an expansion tank or pressure release valve with the regulator. But that will still cost less than remodeling the shower enclosures. Lo-flow shower heads, try that too.

You may be picturing the dome first and then the foundation. But when you build a house, you start with the foundation and build up. How do you embed the panels in the concrete? Picture the forms for the concrete. Are you lowering the completed dome somehow with a sky crane? People have been anchoring buildings to concrete for over 60 years by simply using threaded studs embedded in the concrete. I don't see the point in reinventing the process. People have been building dome structures for that long as well. Study what they did. Yes there are wood foundation systems but they have not been highly successful. If you must bury the lower edges of your dome, build those panels out of plastic or ferro cement. Wood in the ground is just not permanent, and if water seeps in under the plastic concrete coating, which will happen to any dome structure because there is no overhanging roof, no gutters, there will be rot going on with no way to reach it to replace it. Sorry, Jim, you posted same in much fewer words.

Right, the old two valve system and a fluctuating pressure when the pump kicks in, 8 minutes is about right, which may be increasing the pressure on the cold valve momentarily. You could have installed a larger pressure tank, which would hold pressure a bit longer, but won't want to now. I'm surprised no plumber has suggested upgrading your shower faucets to the modern self balancing type. That is why I was probably over thinking your problem. The price for installing new faucets depends on a lot - the brand and quality you choose, the shower stall material, access to the plumbing pipes and then the contractor's time. Depending on the condition of the shower enclosure, you may want to install a new shower stall along with new fixtures.

Joe, is there any chance the written report was altered by the sellers? Pages removed, maybe?

You never embed wood in anything, including concrete. Get a book by Buckminster Fuller. He had no problem figuring out the foundation. Just truncate the panels.

We will need more info. What kind of water heater, gas or electric? What size (gallons) is written on the label of the water heater? Do you have multiple showers going at the same time, it sounds like it. Do you know the output of the well, gallons per minute? What size is the new pressure tank? Do you know what type of pump you have? What kind of shower faucets do the kids have in their showers? A central handle or two faucets? What type of plumbing pipe? Copper or plastic? Can you tell if it is 1/2" or 3/4" diameter? Do their showers have different shower heads? Some heads use lower volumes of water. If nothing is malfunctioning, I would give that a try, water-saver shower heads. A water-logged pressure tank causes the pump to come on frequently, called cycling, and this can cause the pressure to change noticeably at the faucet every few minutes. Sometimes, all the tank needs is to have some air pumped into it give it a cushion. If the tank has a tiny leak, it will lose air. Assuming now that is not the problem, it could be the well can't keep up with the demand, or the water heater is faulty, or the shower valves are reacting to changes in pressure or some other factor.

This seems like the logical route, since you are already heating 4000 sq ft. If you insulate the floor of the attic, some gable end ventilation might be all that attic needs to keep it healthy. Some air needs to enter the attic at the soffits, so you want to give the soffits some attention. Old houses often get enough soffit venting from cracks and gaps. Don't install power vents or turbine vents, as they suck too hard and usually end up drawing air in from downstairs and causing problems.

I don't always mention the attic fire thing, but I always report the presence of the old roof in the attic, with pictures, so there's no shock factor sometime down the road. Then I explain that this is common practice. The old roof keeps the house dry while they are building the new wing. And I always make sure there is access to both sections. Ventilation is a good point. Usually, it's an old drafty attic with an addition. In this area, the old part will be OK, but yes, we should check for ventilation problems.

Yes a 30" plank is a wonderful thing to see. Trees were big, and so were the saws that sawed them. The last sawmill for old growth logs shut down here not too long ago. For the really big stuff they had a band saw that would quarter them right in the lake. Then the quarter sawn sections went up to the big circular saw. Muslin, that could be the material in the closet pic. Thanks, Jim.

It's suffering the ravages of a misspent youth. When it was younger it experimented with "dirty" power, associated with off-brand panels, and shared multi-wire circuits with others of the same pole. Now, it lives out its old age in decrepitude, a servant to a heat pump it loathes. You're amongst friends, Jim. Do you wanna talk about it? Funny. The ramblings of a ravaged mind. Marc deserves a pat on the head as well.