John Kogel

Due to the other chimney lacking a metal liner for the combustion appliances? No se, compadre. The bad chimney has a masonry liner and was used for the oil furnace. No longer in service. The big chimney is a fireplace, also with the original masonry liner, probably used a lot less. They've switched to electric heat, no more oil burner.

I'd feel much better condemning that thing than blessing it. []

Same here. I carry a model 17 and model 22, and only take the 26 when I need it. To see if I'm going to need it, I check out the the aerial views the night before at bing.com/maps. I see from the demonstration that it is possible to extend the top section when it's upright - sort of. I guess it would work if you had wheels on it (I don't), had a smooth wall you could lean it against to roll along while you pushed it up (which would be rare) and didn't have a soffit at the top of the wall. Joe, I think your way is better. At least you seem to put less effort into it than that guy in the warehouse. []His ladder went skidding in to the wall, then it was a visible grunt to raise the last bit, with some real strain and sweat going on there. Nothing like the sweaty armpits for when you go to greet the clients, eh? I do use a variation of his method for the shorter ladder, however I stretch and lock the top section with the ladder on the ground. No strain, no pain. I'm too much of a wussy to use that big LG. I'll stick with the extension ladder on a rack. BTW, the Jaws ladders don't flex in the middle. But I said that already.

Today's chimney, one flue, 3 dummys. The roofers should have built a cricket behind it. It was all about the looks of a massive brick erection, if that's the correct term. [] Oak trees are sacred in this burg, so cutting the tree down is verboten. Hey, there's my Jaws ladder. Click to Enlarge 79.59 KB Chimney #2 needs repointing, do ya think? The 1951 mortar is letting go, probably because the cap has been cracked and leaking for decades. The big chimney is just fine, no cracked cap, no lost mortar. Click to Enlarge 83.91 KB Click to Enlarge 79 KB

So where are all your former roofs now? [] I agree, that roofer was in a rush and did it the quick and easy way. There could be hidden problems, like missing underlay, missing nails, nails too short, poor flashing, etc. All we can do now is warn the client of possible future problems. My attempt is not to be a smart*** but hopefully a question taken correctly. Why would one "warn" the client of "could be" future hidden problems? Couldn't you make that claim on every roof? No. Well you could say that for all roofs but that is not helpful to your clients. Yes, I would say it for this roof, because of the way the shingles were laid. With those thicker shingles, you can't bend the top shingles up well enough to put the last nail in the underlying shingles properly. Especially with a big bulky nailgun and they all use nailguns.Read the other posts. The racking methods is sometimes used for the thin 3 tab shingles. A quote from Be's post #1. "You can see the break line every other shingle. All the install guides I read says to use a 4-5 staggered course, so you don't have a solid line that runs up the roof".

Jaws. If you ever climbed one, you'd see why. Two tapered knuckle joints that lock into place. I squeeze the two sides together with one hand and spin the nut tight with the other. The second wing nut is redundant, because the sides are locked with one nut tight. I respect all the LG users out there, but I will never buy one - too shaky. Too heavy. Sorry for butting in.

Robert, was the service size increased? That would automatically require a permit to show the power company.In my area, if the permit for an upgrade was pulled by an established electrician, the electrical authority might give it his blessing without a visual inspection. That's how it works here. Too busy to come out for a small job, and "those guys do OK work", so the permit get a stamp. Again this is for my area, but I understand that a change of the panel would not require the various branch circuits to be brought up to the new code requirements. For example, I often see a 50's house with a newer panel but with the old undersized 3 wire feeder to the kitchen range. I will recommend a new cable to the stove, but the code authority does not require it. www.allsafehome.ca

What code reference does he use? And wouldn't it be better to remove it from the box, rather than leave those clipped ends there? You can't tape it if it's that short. Click to Enlarge 50.09 KB I left my calling card on this one. It could be brought back into service someday, so I said to terminate it in a junction box with a cover. Notice the rat smears on the cable. Maybe they should leave the breaker on. []

Sounds like folks are just happy to have running water in some places. [] One day, my single lady client wasn't too happy to hear about the shutoff in the crawlspace. I told her it was a concrete floor and somebody had left a skateboard down there for her, but it didn't cheer her up. [] Anyway, there was an easy solution. The copper supply pipe ran from the shutoff about 15 feet to the bathroom to supply the cold taps, then went on to the back of the house. A plumber could easily rig up a loop with a shutoff under the bathroom sink. Maybe 50 years ago, people weren't as spoiled as they are these days.

North of the Juan De Fuca Strait, that's me.

Actually, the seat is down. The lid is up. Mike, tell us that is rust in that toilet bowl. I mix it up, sometimes lid up, sometimes down so they can see the brand name, wow, it's an Eljer. Sometimes my pic catches the water swirling in the bowl, those are my favorites. BTW, that's not just a return, it's a urinal, too. Yuk.

After that, can he get cranky and defensive? []

Mr Decaying Wood deleted his post and went away. You have done neither. How about "Swamp Thing" for a title? []

It looks to me, from my armchair, that those conductors are compressed, indicating that the set screws are probably tight. There is no indication of tarnish from overheating on the copper, and no sign of melted insulation. The bus may have come from the factory with that tarnish on it. Maybe those connections were checked by an electrician after the last inspection?

My guess, but I wasn't there, is that the tank is at the front, but the pressurized field is there at the back. Each of those inspection ports would be at a branch line. Those systems use a small diameter drain pipe under pressure from a pump in the tank.

Thank you, sir. The sellers are away, so I trust the garage door company named on that decal will perform the task. I hope they know their biz. Now if there's a callback to me, I'll pass on this info. The door has operating electric eyes at the correct position, and auto-reverse seemed to be OK, so how the damage occurred is a mystery. Maybe they repaired the eyes afterwards....

Thanks, all. "Vertical stile" gets filed away somewhere where there are still live brain cells, thanks Tom. I get your meaning on the spring, it is what it is, but is it not wound to the required tension? My question is not so much about designing a repair, I try not to drift that way. But I may need to advise the client afterwards if the repair she got is adequate. It looked to me like a finger-jointed piece of wood was expected to perform like a clear piece. Click to Enlarge 30.55 KB

This 20 year old townhouse has a busted window in the wooden garage door. Not surprising. My client wants the sellers to fix it. I said the frame is broken and needs to be repaired, or replace the door. Strata council will demand that the new door look just like this one. Should the opener be moved to line up with one of the upright frame pieces? Or would a metal brace screwed across the top take care of it? I've seen both and am wondering what's the better way to go. Click to Enlarge 29.2 KB Click to Enlarge 40.8 KB Click to Enlarge 36.59 KB

The plated roofing nails roofers use nowadays in their nail guns get rusty in my climate in about a month. I know because I see them layng around on the new roofs all the time and they're always rusting. Old-fashioned Hot-dipped galvanized nails can lay there for years, no rust. In my mind, at least, siding nails have a rounded head, like a mushroom or a round head screw, and they are hot-dipped. The round head allows you to drive the head into the siding just a bit. If they have a head like a finishing nail, but galvanized, they are casing nails, for trim and such, but not siding. Nail guns need to be adjusted to drive the nails the right depth. Everybody knows this, so why? I had nail pops on the roof I inspected this AM, but just on the first 3 rows, then NumbNuts took the time to set up the gun. Well now, he's going to honor the guarantee and come back to fix it like he should have the first time, hopefully. Update - he did go back. Then he phoned me to whine about my overhang comments. []

I'll bet the old pipe is leaning south because it's cut off inside the wall. It wouldn't turn if it was still attached. There's no predicting what you'll see in an older house. Some mysteries may never be solved. []

Quite often there will be two regulators or more on a residential propane system. If the line from the tank is 3/4", usually copper tubing, they will run that at high pressure. Then another regulator near the appliance reduces the pressure to what's needed for the device. The high pressure section will be more prone to leaking, I would imagine. That is, a leak would be more severe. I got rid of the propane furnace that was in this house when I bought it. There were junctions, splices and tees all over the place, scary. I used propane in various camping trailers and was always pretty casual about it, until my wife almost blew herself thru the wall, lighting the oven one night. But she got it lit in time to bake me something, so no harm done. [] Mike, what would cause all the keys on the left side of this old Corona typewriter to stop working? My son and his girlfriend bought it at a garage sale. I haven't seen it up close. Click to Enlarge 47.67 KB

Just a thought. Look up the multi-inspector businesses in your area. See if they need a recruit. Ride-alongs are the quickest and best training.

In addition to all of the above, they ought to print a little card up that tells people what an HRV system is and why they need to clean the filter and plug it in to get any benefit from it. []

He could have pulled new NMD to all those boxes for not much more time and money, but there's no limit to basement ingenuity. So I'm disappointed that there's no sardine can nailed up to cover that terminal bar.

I think when that rubber boot finally lets go, there will be a heck of a crash up in the attic. The cast iron pipe has dropped, so the flashing up on the roof should be checked as well. If that is still the main stack, it should probably be 3" ABS all the way, but it really depends on what is being vented. What Brandon said.