John Kogel

Well I think it is the orientation, so there. []The majority of the strands are laid up in one direction, and the sheets are stiffer in that direction. Same as plywood has more veneer laid the long way, so that is the only way to lay it up. I suggested that may be possible, easy fix. But I also warned my client that the shingles may not lay flat when they're done, and that he should check for that. Also, it is not technically correct to drive a bunch of nails into truss members, not that it would matter much.

I guess the buyer will be "taking a bath". []

As Johnny and June used to sing, one of these days and it won't be long, we'll get together for a song... [] Dang it, Phillip, I think that zap you got might have been fatal, after all. Shure looks like HIH to me.

What happens when you use OSB scraps to finish the job, and you lay a peice up oriented vertically instead of horizontally? You get a dip in the roof, that you have to go back to and fix, somehow. They saved about $10 on a 1/4 sheet of OSB. Tsk, tsk. Click to Enlarge 64.75 KB Click to Enlarge 52.05 KB Click to Enlarge 56.66 KB

Marc, I'm trying to picture you standing in a septic tank in a crawlspace. Would you wear boots for that? Hipwaders? [] Regional differences are interesting. In my area, buried oil tanks are no longer allowed. They rust out and leak in this climate. Most of the old tanks have been found and decommissioned or removed. There is a tank service contractor that will come out and do a free search for a buried tank, so if it is a pre-70's house in town, I recommend a tank search. Nobody wants to discover an old abandoned and leaking tank in their yard. If it's not leaking, it can be filled with sand. I've encountered a few of those. The two lines are a good clue. Above ground tanks don't usually need a pump return line, but the buried tanks generally do. However, I have seen where a buried tank in the front yard had enough elevation to supply the basement furnace by gravity, so that's no definite indicator. That one had a single copper line to the furnace, pinched off. The tank breather pipe coming out of the ground at the corner of the house gave it away. The filler cap was buried.

I wear a rubber rain jacket when there's wet ground like that. I know, Phil, you'd die of heat stroke in a rubber raincoat. Well, if I die and go to Home Inspector Hell, I suspect it will be a crawlspace somewhere in your neighborhood. I'll be the sweaty guy in the rubber coat. []

Hello Marc. To make the index page informative, but quick and easy to read? Use opening sentences, then link to another page (Read more about that here). This will put the text on other pages. Lots of links are good. On your index page, use words which clients will use when they search for a home inspector. But if you move some of that text, you can have more info, who you are, how to connect, why you, etc. Try to highlight some of that text so it catches the eye better. Bold or different fonts. People will skim over the page looking for a quick answer. It's all about instant gratification. Or so I'm told. []

As Mike said, they should have a poly vapor barrier down on that dirt. Even in Colorado, moisture is rising up into the living space. If radon is a concern, bare dirt is the worst, or so I hear. Sounds like the builder cheaped out. A concrete skim coat over poly would have been the best finish under there. That is what we expect to see here in any house built recently. Older houses, there will be a crawl where there are outcrops of bedrock.

No frosting indeed. It's good, for 1991. For today, it lacks glamor, which people expect to see. It says you're a no-frills kind of inspector. But it won't hold anyone's attention for more than a few seconds. Only a few visitors will read that much text. Sorry but that is the way of the world. People are surfing webs on their cell phones on their way to work. But I'm no expert on marketing. Maybe the lack of embellishment will work for you.

How do you know it wasn't built like that from the get go? Builders only recently got that sloppy? I suppose an artist could be proud of that creation. But it doesn't look like something a mason would do, do ya think? []

This 8 year old tank in great shape was leaking from a loose fitting. Old folks tend to let things go. Click to Enlarge 58 KB

And what does all this have to do with slugs? Do they even have slugs in Vermont? []

OK, so you spread the desiccant out in the attic, and it soaks up all the moisture. Then what? You leave it up there, like John's boxes of kitty litter? I've used kitty litter to clean up spilled fuel oil, but part of the process is shoveling it into bags and hauling it out.

One item I watch for is the older wiring to the range. Usually there's a newer range sitting there. The wire gauge in pre 70's houses tends to be undersized, like #10, for a 40 amp breaker, and the BX grounding could be flaky. I don't pull the range out to see what's what, but I will comment on the antique feeder being possibly inadequate, and that they should upgrade the wiring.

Bill, What are some of the other issues? Worst case scenario, I would think: A chronic leak that is ignored, so it drips long enough to contaminate the soil behind the house. Around here, the insurance people don't like to see an indoor tank, so they are becoming rare. As a rule, oil tanks need to be inspected, usually by someone sent out by the oil supplier, every ten years.

I like the newer GB with the rounded edges. I knocked the lens covers off a couple of the older ones and the test button quit working on one. But mostly, I use them til they find new homes. []

Reuben, I don't know the NEC rule, but up here, that feeder needs to have a ground from the main panel. I suspect the installation was never permitted, and there are a few reasons to 'suspect' it is dangerous. Where it crosses the service conductors, there could be a worn spot, invisible unless you separate the feeders and inspect them. Where he's clamped the large conductors to smaller conductors to go to his panel and whatever is in the garage, did he use split bolt connectors, wire nuts, or some other? Or did he whittle the stranded conductors down to fit? A bad connection there can cause a hot spot = fire. Is there a proper ground rod of the correct length or is it a piece of pipe of some unknown length? What about the ground clamp? Is the neutral marked with white tape so that there can be no mistaking which lead is hot? Is neutral separated from ground at the garage? Did he get the polarity on the receptacles correct in the garage? Is there an insulated knob for the bare messenger at each end? Are there any openable windows within 3 feet? Is there a weatherhead at each end, and are the conductors protected where they enter the buildings? Anything that can lead to a bad connection or a crossed connection is potentially dangerous. Amateur wiring is scary, because we can't inspect every inch of it.

Some things are so obviously wrong they have never written a code rule about it. That may be one of them. The service drop must not make contact with anything, and certainly not with a feeder to the garage. Normally, triplex such as what you have is used to carry 240 volts, 2 energized insulated blacks and the bare wire is a neutral. The new rules call for 4 wires, but there was a time when you could use 3 wires plus a ground rod at the garage. Certainly not just 2 feeders. In this case, Mr Handy may be supplying his garage with 120 volts using the 2 insulated cables. Or he may be running his welder only, with 240 volts. Some kind of a ground rod would be advisable, in that case. Was there a ground rod for the service in the garage? Is there a breaker panel of any kind? I suspect the entire hookup is Mickey Mouse and dangerous. It is allowable to run 120 volts to a few receptacles in the garage, but in that case, the ground needs to be there from the main panel, AFAIK, since about 1960.

I wonder if the force of those long nails pushed the particle board down and the roofer goofs didn't care to check in the attic? "Watch that soft spot and let's getter done." But somebody installed that particle board and somebody covered it with roofing paper. There's no excuse for it. Jason, you should rename your pics before posting, eh?

How so? Lead-acid batteries will give off hydrogen sulfide gas when charging if their plates are damaged or if their water level is low. Try it. For what it's worth, I remember the smell coming from a car battery on quick charge. We'd remove the caps to check the water level, and the smell was .. sulphuric.But I can't imagine that much gas drifting all the way to the kitchen. [:-magnify There is another possibility - Meth lab. Cooked in the kitchen, stored in the utility room.

What Phillip said would be best, a continuous vent across the lower edge. I have seen standard roof vents installed on the lower portion of the roof, on older houses where soffit venting is inconvenient or some other. The precaution there is that not all rafter bays are vented and there is a greater flow of runoff against the vents mounted low like that. But if it is done correctly, it won't leak, and any venting is usually better than none.

Rereading on a fresh coffee recharge, this is more than just a localized off-gassing, as you found it in the kitchen as well. I can't speak for them, but if the drywall was the source of this corrosion, then it would appear that replacing the iron pipe is a wise precaution, especially while it is all exposed anyway. In your case, the source of the corrosion needs to be found. I would suggest a lab test of the drywall, for starters. Yes all the electrical needs to be inspected and the damaged sections replaced. If the source is air-borne, then the unexposed wiring should be OK, but I would pass this off to a remediation company and advise my client to sit tight.

I have a question about the Mitsubishi heat pumps, such as the one in the computer room. The principle is that one outdoor unit, larger than that one, supplies up to 4 indoor units, each in a different room so no ductwork is needed. Each unit has its own remote control. I've only run into one so far, but I expect to see more. Can the unit supply heat to one room while supplying cool air to another? Somehow I don't think so. Are there any stumbling blocks to installing the indoor units, re: routing the refrigerant lines? Is the electrical supply to the room units just tapped off of a general lighting circuit?

I think that could be it. They may have had a mobility scooter with lead/acid batteries, which they charged in the hall under the panel.

The question is whether the moisture is on the surface of the house wrap or coming from the inner side of the house wrap, (or the 3rd possibility, no house wrap).