Jim Baird

ICC documents and prescribes very well in this category...but their material is copyrighted...there are ways to get such docs online posted by those among us who think that, if documents are to be adopted as laws, then they should be available without charge...without posting url just google seal of approval, you should be able to find your way to prescriptive resources without charge...

...you mean the tee laying sideways? The third trap is "too much sugar for a dime", as they say down here. Isn't the max trap arm length to vent stack about 42"?

Just chalk it up to experience Mike. Those clients may not have seen the ghost but it does sound like they felt him. I call myself a rationalist too but I am no denier of other kinds of reality.

...scariest for me was a hand-dug well whose concrete cap had fallen down in. Don't know how deep past concrete cap. (This has happened twice).

...it's funny to me how many people, when I tell them I am a crawlspace diver, wonder about snakes in those places. I have never seen a live snake in one.

The tee, and hard to judge elevation but it does look like the DW discharge might well flood the sink basket too.

I like it, I like it. It's like the "Oh, sh*t" grab handle on the passenger side of cars.

Piers are supposed to be capped so that the load is spread across the top surface. If not capped by cap block, then by filling cores of top course. I think those shims were stuck in there during framing because the girders, for a number of reasons, did not contact every pier, but sort of "floated". How long till they broke is a mystery. All buildings settle over time because gravity never sleeps. Are you sure the broken shims caused the drywall cracks? I agree with Kurt and Jim that it may not be worth messing with.

Sometimes for third person I will say, "My traverse of the crawlspace found..." --I found a number of what I call temporary supports for the floor system. Some are technically wrong, others are just sloppy. Have a competent contractor replace the temporary assemblies with more permanent ones, including spot footings.--

...off topic duct, but the passive voice doesn't help the prose. If you saw it, why not say you did.

...very typical for the area, friend. Remember that sometimes "helper" supports like this do work, even if they are not by the code book. When I see them I usually call them out as "temporary" and advise that more permanent assemblies be installed.

Old sailor, hope your skin is thick enough after so many years before the mast that these guys don't send you over the gunwales in search of a lifeboat. "...You're on a lee shore, Silver...--Capn Smollet"

The question with termite damage is just how extensive is replace/vs repair vs sister. Often replace is just not feasible. I have seen some very creative support systems that do not replace. Short of engineering, which may be very hard to get depending on extent of damage, sistering as well as shoring can sometimes save a building from the wrecking ball.

Solid "C" for creativity...

We could just fall back on the idea that a multi-strand conductor, when split so the pieces will fit smaller lugs, is simply altered equipment, and ergo not allowed.

Jawdropping, Mike. Here's what I think happened, because cabinets look so new as to be part of a general kitchen remodel. GC did not coordinate cabinet man and electrician. Electrician installed panel in bare-walled kitchen before cabinets arrived, while pretending not to notice clearance to grade outside. Cabinet man arrives and hatchet-jobs his install (at least he opened the panel door for you) in order to get outa here and paid.

Down here radiant heat means wood stove or fireplace insert...we live in an oak/hickory forest full of solid fuel...as for the inner fuel the spirits spectrum is pretty wide and mostly good...

...worst I have ever seen... Raise heck.

So, Tim, I guess your mea culpa is that the visit was a sales one, not an analysis one, and in that company's service structure the two are completely diff animals...lol...Marc is on point.

...thanks for the laugh, Kurt. The culminating enhancement of the red flag's effect on my gut was a hard to remediate laugh-out-loud reflex

Les, Your reply to this query earns you the Fairness award in Jimworld. Last week I stopped doing business with one of those companies because they insisted we cut the grass at a house for $20 and the entire yard is under three feet of snow. They insisted on an invoice! It can work for you, but be careful.

Roof cover age is often disclosed if the seller has been an occupant. Just as with gardening where every location is a local climate, every roof faces its own challenges to its guard duty for the building. I just do the best I can to describe what I see.

Doug, did you take that picture? Where I live coons come and go. Our 11 acre tract is the smallest one around, for some distance. They raid our outdoor catfood station from time to time, when the possums don't empty everything. We can always tell when the coons have been around, because they throw the food bowl around and wash their feet in the water bowl. Funniest animal story here was when our dog trapped an unknown animal under a low deck, and would not stop barking at it. I laid down at the best access point and shined my light on the rear end of a skunk, lifted and straining to spray me, as I could see the little sphincters swelling and ebbing in pink on his little rear end. Noting the danger, I backed out and called off the hunt. I think the skunk may have been out of nectar at the time.

Down here in the piney woods is a great variety of SYP, some of which is very good material. It has a waxy surface and is actually very stable if you can get the real clear stuff with regular grain. I guess by the time the material stream reaches PA it has been picked through pretty good. Also, the forest products biz has been growing "super trees" whose grain is so widely spaced that the Southern Pine Council and the ICC have derated syp in its span tables.

By treated I meant pressure treated clear SYP that is kiln dried after treatment. It was used for replicated brick mold on another old building. Don't really know his plan for the current windows. I just saw the damage to the ones he had in his shop. By treated do you mean pressure treated? I would use salvaged old growth wood or redwood. For saving rotted wood the liquid epoxy consolidant is great.