John Kogel

7. Vermiculite is extremely fireproof. [] Click to Enlarge 66.93 KB Click to Enlarge 63.7 KB

Disgusting. And why was it too hard to find matching colors of shingles? When I see that kind of stuff, I warn the people there may be hidden problems in other parts of the shack. I'll bet that is the tip of the money pit iceberg.

That is a lovely old Craftsmen design. It needs a chimney to complete the look, just not that one. I wonder if that damage is earthquake related? Good thing it is braced.

That's a reasonable assumption. The drywall would be a different temp than the OSB, so there would be less condensation there. But there's not much doubt that the leaky vent pipe is to blame.

I think the poster is worried about heat buildup in the attic, not moisture. I don't have an answer. We don't get heat up here in the damp North. [:-weepn]

Sorry if I came on a bit strong there. People assume they will be there to turn the generator off before turning power back on. That is the part not shown in any of the homemade instructions I've seen, BTW. Well, in an emergency storm situation, you could be away from home with the generator energizing the panel.

What Marc and Douglas have said. Do not use your existing circuits unless you have a proper transfer switch or switches installed. The risk of someone, maybe not you, flipping a breaker and shocking a linesman up on a pole is just too great. The cheapest way is to simply run a couple of good quality extension cords from the generator to the appliances, and just plug in what you need. Build a weather-proof gasket so you can feed the cords in from outside. Cheaper than that? Go mooch off a buddy til the power comes back on. [] I have seen the notes, "do this, then do that" where people have rigged up their own generator hookup. Now the house was being sold to a possible ignoramus with the potential to kill somebody. It may be illegal. It is certainly not permitted anywhere in our two countries. Here's a note, how to run a 'genator'. If the duct tape comes loose, they would write the buyer new note, maybe? Which one is the main? And what if power goes off in the summer, not the winter? Click to Enlarge 38.91 KB

Check out HomeGauge and also check out Home Inspector Pro. Both can do all of that. HIP support is unbeatable, as Dom M. never sleeps. He will happily take care of all the nerdwork for you.

This copper gas line is just glued together with paint. []I have pics of unpainted pipe joints, but they are buried. We see lots of soft copper gas lines, steel is usually a short trunk off the meter. Click to Enlarge 37.72 KB

Brazing is simply stronger than soldering, so less likely to be knocked apart, what Jim said.For example, when I was a kid, I brought my bike to the local shop for a frame repair, and the old guy brazed it with an acetylene torch and a brass rod. We would have laughed if he'd just soldered it.

I believe that is correct - only one Al, and if you do attach two copper, the max wire gauge drops to #10. Randy, I agree it is pretty hard to estimate wire size by just looking sometimes. In this example, you would expect #8 Cu for a 40 amp range circuit. From that, I would deduce that Al to be a size larger - #6.

Thanks, Mike. Seems to me your dog would make a good little door tester. []

I had one last year, a 60 gallon storage tank water heater and a gas on-demand water heater, in parallel. Just one couple in the house. The demand water heater was turned off, and they were using only the big old tank heater. That was a head-scratcher. []

I'd call them "the rotten ends of the beams." []

It needs to be 2 feet taller than any roof surface within a 10 foot radius. It appears to be too short for a wood-burner. [:-magnify Eye wood collet. []

Here's a quote from that page: "The expert says "nucleation" by a variable electric (charge?) field not the magnetic field which he says is far too weak. The Portsmouth tester says the magnetic field causes the CaCO3 to "coagulate". .... my neighbor who installed an EasyWater unit says it seems to be working." I recommend wearing a magnetic headband while operating this device. Works for me. []

The wiring needs to be routed away from that moist area and protected with conduit. That should be done by a skilled electrician. The hole needs a tight fitting cover over it. I would suggest verbally "screw furring strips to the concrete and attach an insulated cover to them".

Denny, thanks for the pic of the other half. It looks like the large breaker on the upper left is feeding power to the panel making this a backfed subpanel. The power supply is single phase 240, a black and a red, going thru that main breaker to two of the bus bars in the panel. The jumper energizes the 3rd bar, so there could be an imbalance on one of those legs, having double the number of circuits on it. That would depend on what the individual loads are, and that is a job for an electrician to figure out. That big missing knockout needs a plug.

Can you post a pic of the whole thing or at least the other half? Could that large breaker on the right be backfeeding the panel? Is that a grape leaf hanging in that big missing knockout and is that daylight? Any rodent droppings in there?

You shouldn't be texting while you're driving, it's dangerous. []

"Install child-proof latches on the cabinet doors" []

It looks stupid. It should have a guardrail for that reason alone. []They should put up a wall, hide the whole thing.

Your friend could try to learn more about termites from this website. I like the graphics and there's a wealth of info here. http://www.termite.com/termites/termite ... olina.html http://www.termite.com/termite-control/usa.html

Thanks Bill, as well. I'm not familiar with that device, but it provides transfer switching for up to 6 circuits, so there is no switch or breaker added to the main panel, just jumpers to the individual circuits. The breakers are double-ended, so that power to or from the utility is cut when generator power is switched on. (Not allowed in Canada, AFAIK:)

Creosote, from serious burning of wood. Probably they have an airtight insert or stove that gets damped down at night. And a high moisture content in their firewood. Click to Enlarge 91.04 KB This place had stain running down the wall and across the sidewalk. Renters.