John Kogel

I think the neutral could have been, should have been spliced or not even cut. That fix looks kinda haywire, eh? [] You're right, it goes nicely with that roof and that service drop.

I've seen a few engineered truss repairs, and they involve large plywood gussets and lots of nails. Not necessarily covering the entire truss, and as you say, it would be impossible to bring full length gussets into the attic, anyway. The top chords need repair where they've been cut. I'm not an engineer.

Around my area, ivy pulls houses down. But those are wooden houses. It leaves ugly marks on stucco. There is a campaign here to kill English ivy that is found growing on trees in the wild. It is an invader, but I don't see it actually killing the larger trees. It keeps deer happy through the winter. They keep our hedge along the road trimmed pretty good. Click to Enlarge 89.52 KB Click to Enlarge 67.92 KB

The truss with the finger pointing at it is cut pretty deep. It will need to be sistered. The sheathing should be trimmed back to trusses so that the new sheathing will have proper support. Then new underlay and new shingles need to be woven in. It's not too challenging a job, but choose an experienced builder. It's not a job for the inexperienced.

What causes it? Moisture. []

I've seen them used to fill holes in stucco after blowing chopped cellulose insulation in. So I don't think the hole plugs themselves give much of a clue as to what was done, but it is a good guess that insulation was blown in, IMO.

I think it's an air horn. The label says it's a fire detector, so maybe not an extinguisher. XXX Alarm Co. If it is an extinguisher, it would need to be mounted directly over the fire to do much good. No doubt, it was a cool addition to the house in 1957. I wonder if it was sold by a door-to-door salesman driving a business coupe?

I agree, John. Pic 2 shows termite damage. In this case, they could actually be subterraneans, but who cares? Termites have been at work there. We missname the anobiids here, because the pest guys call them "powder post beetles" all the time. We don't use oak for building, and there are no real East Coast Powder post beetles here. But you are correct, and yes, if there has not been a treatment done, the beetle larvae are still at work there as well. If they think that shored-up wood skirting is a good fix for that house, they are sadly mistaken.

I don't think the chimney rule would apply unless the owners decide to go back to wood-burning. What if they tore the bricks off down to the roofline and went with a metal stack? They will need to fix that flashing, so that would be a better option, IMO.

Thanks to all. This website has some info I might read sometime. [] http://www.chimney-liner-central.com/ch ... eline.html

Thanks, Jim. I haven't encountered that method here. That sounds like an inexpensive, one day job. How do they keep the condom from sticking to the concrete? Don't tell me it's lubricated??? [:-crazy]

If this was your chimney, besides fixing the flashings (and replacing the shingles)(and scraping off the parging), would you install a metal flue liner? Or knock out the old flue and drop in new masonry flue tiles? The chimney is about 50 years old, the oil furnace is a 10 year old conventional efficiency unit with a long vent connection to the chimney in the basement. It looks like 8" pipe. If it was up to me, the furnace would be closer to the chimney, but my concern is that the chimney flue liner looks bad. So what is the best option to make it safe? Click to Enlarge 107.12?KB Click to Enlarge 69.55?KB Click to Enlarge 51.13?KB Click to Enlarge 32.82?KB Click to Enlarge 47.55?KB The brick 'posts' are supporting a long brick fireplace extension in the living room, 1960's styling. They haven't moved a fraction of an inch in 50 years. The expanded metal guard is to keep the dog in or out, not sure which. The furnace could easily have been put on the other side of the wall, closer to the chimney and out of the way. []

I prefer the staggered tiles to the square look. With the sguared pattern, there are vertical lines that don't match up with the lines below.

There is hardware, not software, that allows you to run your old HD with a USB connector. I haven't tried it, yet. http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l ... ee0a0aRCRD I use an external drive, so I can just plug it in to another PC anytime.

We are better consumers, so we want new stuff when we move. We buy another house, and likely as not will throw out the last occupant's appliances because it's the wrong color, and buy new anyway. Home ownership is really expensive in Europe, so the majority of people rent all their lives. If you are moving out of a rental, you take everything you bought with you. I'm told Europeans like click-plank flooring, because they will even take the living room floor when they move.

I'd feel pretty safe walking that roof, but I'd want to take a few practice jumps from the third floor first. []

That's what I was thinking, most everything 10 years old in Florida is CMU, awesome capillarity. I've never been there, but I believe it's just a big swamp with a beach. There was a 60's country tune "If the skeeters don't git ya then the gators will." []

I don't know if this is really how they do it but I have been told the lab here counts 100 fibers in a sample. If one of those fibers is an asbestos needle, that is 1%. A typical result from the lab here is "less than 1%", which is probably the CYA standard response. I've been asked if I will take samples and my response is "No, it is better to have a trained lab person do that".

OK, 8 miles from the beach and facing a big swamp? [] No doubt there is a moisture issue and since you couldn't determine a source, you were right to call for more investigation, I agree. It may well have been from past flooding in the unit above. Could it be rising damp from below? If so, that is an extreme case.

I think the question is "Have I gone too far?" ? Since we don't know where you started, we can't really say how far you've gone. [] Anyway, I agree there is a moisture issue. You also found some damage evidence in the bathroom. But you say the damaged corner beads are on ALL the exterior windows. Doesn't that rule out the bathroom plumbing leak? I would blame this on wind and the ocean. The ocean is too close to those leaky windows. [:-graduat

Thanks, Jim. I deleted my garble but you were responding to it at the time anyway. [] It was just a phase I was going thru, better now. So that capacitor could be a phase coupler, but only if it is in an apartment with 3-phase wiring? Got it.

You might want to check out the Mitsubishi ductless heat pump systems. No leaky ductwork and you can control each indoor unit individually. "Mr. Slim." This website has some prices. You'd want a tri-zone, I think, to take advantage of the design. http://www.e-comfortusa.com/index.php?m ... =47&page=3 I've seen a couple of them and I think they are pretty cool heaters. [] One advantage is that you can leave your old furnace in place for a backup, so it's an easy transition to the new system. A new company up here has just come out with a huge heat pump unit that looks like a garden shed. It uses a heat exchanger to heat domestic water when you run the AC. It also has a self contained NG generator built in for power outages. Price will be thru the roof, I imagine.

That's a common belief but it's wrong. The transformer supplying the house has only a single secondary coil and supplies only one phase of power. Just because we stick a neutral in the middle of the coil, it doesn't somehow generate another phase. There are such things as two-phase systems, but my understanding is that they're exceedingly rare and have applications in industrial power systems and railroads. Acknowledged. Spock out. The electric cradle went the way of the conveyor belt toaster. WW II.

One elbow on the discharge is OK. Also, I don't think that unit has a temperature probe on it, so it would simply be a pressure relief valve, PRV.

I think household wiring has two phases, but we call it single phase. Marc, Star Trek is real. You haven't watched enough TV, that's what. []