Jim Baird

"Stachybotris'll get you if you don't watch out!"

...I appreciate this kind of support. Client and I have talked. When shoes start to drop I feel ready.

...many times I have been startled by my electric screwdriver in my back pocket when I forget to lock it off.

Thanks for the replies. I inspected a home after a contractor referred me. He found weird stuff and advised she have me look. Evidence revealed by contractor showed serious effort to conceal structural problems. Another inspector preceded me but I did not see his report. An engineer followed me to prescribe a fixit, so I likely am only a choir member. My client has not answered me but I am giving it some days.

Thanks for the replies. I have not talked to my client yet, and I have about 30 days to answer defendant lawyer "request". Lawyer letters can make a request sound like a demand.

Letter from defendant lawyer in a suit related to my inspection of a dwelling demands "all documents, photos, etc". I am about to call them and inform them that my report stands alone as any documents I issue. They want me to have a notary sign off on my affirmation of my report as mine. Comments?

My most satisfying jobs are the ones when the client follows me like a dog on my heels and listens to my verbal description. Almost all of that kind like me better. I do take pride in my writing, but the verbal delivery feels to me like a job better done.

One curse of an inspector's life is looking around for code violations wherever he goes, even on vacation. The pic posted is in a bath with no window, and the "vent fan" is only a fan cover screwed to wall. A wall switch that appears to be associated has no effect, of course.

...also makes a rated separation.

Pours when rains dept, after finding first wind up ding dong bell I find three of them in one house, but don't touch them with even a pole.

Thanks, Jim. The only time I ever visited Vail, Colorado the thing that struck my eye was the number of buildings that were so close together that I don't think you could wedge a paint brush between one eave and another. That must be why slim rollers were invented.

Dr Seuss would call it a Yertle of turtles I think. Float down any of our creeks and rivers to see them lined up on logs that lay halfway in the water. When they notice you by sight or hearing or whatever they will slide off one by one into the water.

Our state fire codes call for 20' min distance between bldgs unless the walls are rated construction. I don't see how this vent is any remedy for fire risk.

Here's one for Mike lamb and the aesthetes among us. Next door to my job I spotted this roof vent array, that cleared up for me any question why this box vent is called a turtleback. Been down many a river where these guys line up on logs and slide off when you pass.

...do you keep them wound up?

...never.

Sorry there is no picture, but I found a mechanical fire alarm on a kitchen ceiling I have never seen the likes of. When I pushed what looked like a test button the "button" fell off and a loud alarm bell sounded. The buyer, the realtor and I assumed it was hardwired, but throwing even the main breaker would not make it shut up. After wrestling it from its mount on the ceiling we discovered that it was not battery powered but was a wind-up machine that only got quiet when the wound device ran down. I did not have the tiny hex key it took for winding. Our study of the labeling found it only responded to heat and was not a smoky at all. Anyone here encountered these? It was round, about ten inches in diameter, and loud as hell.

...ask Ray Magliozzi, the surviving CarTalk bro. On NPR.

No height prob by far here, but hearth was sealed off on inspection day...thinking of a sweep maybe wanting to lean a ladder there to look. I didn't.

You should ask Werner Herzog if he would like to bring over a film crew.

Wonder why anybody would stack a flue liner like this on top of the one lining the brick column. There was no code need for height here. There appeared to be some mortar but I would not lean a ladder against this thing.

Do you think we are being visited by replicants, Marc? As a Philip K Dick fan, I would not be surprised if we start seeing inspectorbots.

I have been called off a number of times, once when I discovered violations of disclosure where seller tried to hide things. Once I arrived at a job, called the client and told him I would not even start the job, and did not charge him at all.

I always offer the option to call me off, and let me bill by the hour. I don't push it but I do offer it. I too like to finish a job.

Surface equipment, if listed, is fine. Maybe you are thinking of the fact that Romex is not listed except by exception by local AHJ, for commercial use. In my day as an AHJ banks (of which an awful lot were built around here during those crazy Y2K days), always wanted to put on a real homey feel in their design, (maybe instead of the cold steel industrial hidden face of their operation). They used wood frame walls and cushy comfortable conference rooms and offices, with judges' paneling and tray ceilings, and they always wanted a break from commercial wiring conduit rules. The other thing they always wanted a break from was the code requirement for a drinking fountain outside of the required restrooms. They always said they would provide contracted drinking water stations, which they usually did.