Jim Baird

Wyes can go on their sides, but not san tees. Btw I don't see any tees in the pic. I agree that it looks circuitous, but do not have enough info to second guess a plumber. Maybe he billed per linear foot of pipe.

...or a bad batch of eps that melted at low temps??

John, I thought I was the one who could wiggle into impossible angles to get through openings, but this one I'm not sure I could make it through.

...down here they call that plan "shotgun", meaning you could fire a shotgun at the entry and sweep the whole space.

An older inspector (one even older than me) told me once there are two kinds of basements, those that leak and those that will leak. At 50 years it has probably morphed into the "has leaked" category. What does your nose tell you down there? I agree with Kurt that best long term remedy is gut job. Finished basements have never impressed me as they all have a dank feeling if not a smell as well.

My HVAC man says black, not galvanized, is the pipe for gas, as galvanized can flake off and cause problems. Suzanne, are you a designer? "Cathedral" type attic? Scissor trusses? If gas pipes supply appliances, why are they in the attic? Like the other replies, I do not get what the concern is.

...I have seen something like that only in an institutional setting, and it was used then for sound dampening.

...what he calls supply looks a lot like return...

...what Jerry said.

Positive slope will outperform the French drain. It wants six inches fall in first ten ft away from bldg. If you don't have ten feet then get the six in what you have. Uphill slope can be steeper than the down one. Trouble with "thirsty" ornamental grass is you may well lose it in dry times, and it needs lots of sun. If there is lots of sun then why can't you just grade.

My sister got a faulty inspection a few yrs ago. She works a 56 hr week and could not be there. Her realtor said she would handle it. When the inspector "finished", he said he could find nothing wrong. In fact, the house was so flawless he did not even write the report. Whatever his fee was, the realtor "took care of it". I imagine the fee was simply a fistful of cash. That's what I call a "faulty" inspection.

...maybe the bomb squad should check it out...

I'd rather have snakes than rats any day anywhere.

Thanks for posting the pdf illustrated, Erby. It was an update from one I had on file. I thought Kurt agreed with me that screwed up steps cannot be fixed without tearing them out. Even if you do tear them out, you still don't have enough total run, which leaves you cutting into the floor system after moving some walls, if the floor plan allows it. The last thing I want to do for my clients is tell them to "call somebody". I get paid for more than that. People use google to find out who to call. I use code references as a way to declare things unsafe. The code reference simply indicates the gravity of the situation, because codes cannot be enforced in retro. The lawyer for an AHJ I worked for said that after the CO is issued the local authority should not touch it with a ten foot pole.

...they could have brought the wire out of that box in some flexi conduit.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I do have trouble dumbing down expression because I do enjoy prose style for its own sake. Seriously, though, Erby, I do not consider stairs like these to be practically fixable. As every carpenter knows you cannot "fix" messed up stringers. You just have to start over. When there is not enough total run you just cannot squeeze in enough treads and meet code. State of GA allows up to 3/4" diff for bottom and top risers in a given flight, but these even flunked those. What happens a lot around here is that builders buy a floor plan and an exterior elevation, and call that a full set. Then they start adding 9 and 10 ft ceilings to make their houses trendy. Where stairs should have landings at turns, they squeeze in winders that end up being pie slices. Also lots of trouble with stairs leading to "bonus rooms" above garages, where not enough run gives stairs that end right against a door frame at the bottom.

...the wall cabinet is a testament to the strength of drywall screws and particle board, both of which I'm sure hold everything up there. I have come to think of Common Sense as a mythical land that lives in everyone's dreams, but where many have never been. Some are born there, some find it by accident or on purpose, but others only arrive there after their final, ultimate wrong turn on the path.

Most houses only have one 3'0" door anyway, and it is usually the one noone uses. No one decides. Any door that meets the egress requirements can fill in as the egress door. Marc

Most homeowner handymen stake a claim on the turf of Common Sense, but this one doesn't seem to belong there. What could he have been thinking? I had to use a flashlight and a mirror to see the label on this water heater. At replacement time the hammers and crowbars will have to come out. Click to Enlarge 36.47 KB

I deliver the lecture on stair profiles so often that the boiler plate resides on the top of my head. Here is the latest rendition, of which prose I am proud after so many repetitions.[:-graduat 8.5) Stairs 8.5.1) Seventeen risers with two turns lead from the main level down to the basement. 8.5.2) Sixteen risers with two turns lead from the main level to the upper. 8.5.3) Both of these staircases exhibit a list of code violations. All risers in a flight or series of flights are supposed to be of identical height within 3/8? of each other. I found a range of riser heights in each stairway that covered up to an inch and a half difference. 8.5.4) ?Winder? treads that turn should measure no less than six inches depth. Each stairway had at least one that diminished to zero inches. 8.5.5) Stair handrails should be continuous from top to bottom, broken only by newel posts. Both stairways had considerable gaps in continuity, but all the handrail pieces did feel securely mounted. 8.5.6) The basement stair lacks headroom where one of its flights passes below the main floor framing. Headroom at all points of a tread should be min. 80 inches. I measured 69 here. 8.5.7) Builders often struggle trying to shoehorn stair flights into buildings because the total length of opening needed is not available to them due to floor plans. The result is the kind of irregularities these stairs exhibit. Stairway standards are important because the eye and the feet struggle to make adjustments to irregularities, and the chance of falling goes up. 8.5. Unfortunately these defects are usually not practical to correct because of structural limitations. Occupants of a building usually adjust through repeated use, but their eventual comfort cannot be passed onto guests, who have to bear the temporary discomforts of traverse.

...I think we all quote prices according to rough standards, and usually "sight unseen". Sometimes we eat the bear and sometimes he eats us...

"...I see you got your brand new ---- pillbox hat. Can I jump on it sometime? I just want to see If it's really the expensive kind..." apologies to Bob Dylan

I don't see a ledger, as in a piece that provides bearing. Looks to me like a band joist nailed to the 5/4, with hangers to bear joist ends.

...vertigo, bro...do you ever have shaky knees like I do?

Thanks for sharing, Brandon.