Jim Baird

Kurt intuited my question. I told client they might could demand removal, or its cost, of the seller. But my finding of exclusion drove me here for a sample of experience. Don't know size yet but they did say they wanted to shoehorn a pool onto the lot, so what better time to haul up the old fuel oil tank? If authority won't intrude at all a price drop might be hard to seek.

Underground storage tank for private home fuel oil consumption is exempt from our state's regs for closure/removal. Anyone here dealt with private home UST's?

Just like those 2x4 thrown together guards I've seen on foreclosed house porches and steps.

...bleeder on wrong side leads to repairs like the one seen on the left. Did the plumber not turn the valve around to guarantee a future call?

...thanks for replies. Common sense tells me steam system would be more costly to set up and run, not to mention the safety issues. We live in hardiness zone 7-8 (that's a plant survival scale), where temps rarely hit single digits in winter, with mid-twenties about the coldest in normal yrs. One fun fact about the property is that when a friend of mine (not a local boy and an academic to boot) won a race for mayor 20 yrs ago, he discovered that a number of buildings and dwellings including this one had non-metered taps onto the muni water supply. (he wasn't mayor for very long). Marc, the town is Comer (pop. 1200) not Conyers.

...seems like I remember stories of the infamous Chinese drywall smelling bad, just as with cheap plastic lamp components I suppose. The smelly parts were discolored as if from heat.

I agree with the cinders theory. I had a guy bring coal cinders from a big coalfired heating plant to put on my driveway because he got them for no cost. They are often light and airy and could well be like sponges when mixed in the block making slurry. The only other thing that occurred to me was bullet holes. Don't suppose there could ever have some tommy-gun firing sessions there?

Don't yet know whether steam or water...

Holiday company staying in a daughter's former bedroom that featured some kind of hanging paper lantern in a star-shape. Light went on in afternoon and by dark-thirty a revolting odor like spoiled seafood filled the upper atmosphere of a room (vault from ten to twelve feet). Search for odor sources found nothing, but turning off the lantern thing diminished odor to a tolerable level. Next day fixture/lantern was removed and inspected. Only defect found was the plastic threaded fixture parts that included the 115 volt socket, smelled like spoiled seafood. Fixture removed, but question remains, Why does cheap electric fixture like this smell bad after time?

Have agreed to inspect a historic home that I know has an ancient hydronic system...not sure about its operation and it may well be dormant as home has stood vacant for some time. Hydronic systems are very rare here, this one is from a 19th century cotton baron's home built in early 20th. It is so outside my palisade of exp and knowledge I would like general hints on which trade even to refer to if the system needs attention. Jim Baird

That's funny. Capping the pier with pine to create bearing for pine. Down here, Chad, the pine is even harder than the heads on most local shoulders!

Have seen this off centering often. Layout errors are often "exact" errors, off by one foot etc. OTOH, code calls for three inches bearing on masonry for wood structure. So this does "pass", no matter how sloppy it looks. Piers are supposed to be capped, like Marc said, or the top voids grouted to make a solid cap. Here lots of builders use treated pine for caps, and they appear to work OK. I see no problem with rotation.

...tests I read about re mosquito control with this showed even with no DDT at all introduced into container re-used from test with material, still showed mosquito death 100%...

very funny post Dig this. Once I inspected a used car for sale by an individual I knew casually. He owned a very stylish owner-built home on a lovely woodlot. Old family property. Very eccentric, custom construction. He was putting home on the market soon. After I had examined car briefly he led me to see a standpipe right beside the house that he thought led to an underground storage tank for what was most likely fuel oil (very rare in our area), and no longer functional. He asked me if I thought he could just saw this pipe off below grade, bring in the soil, and not mention anything on disclosure. Guess what I told him, and guess how my judgement of his used car for sale was affected!

There is none in residential Marc. On most manufactured homes both entries swing out to save floor space, but not due to any regs.

OTOH, it's the new "paperless" system of the future. As for the wc, every dog know that is an indoor spring put there for them to drink from.

If you have ever seen crews installing trusses "by hand", that is, tipping them end over end and hauling them up one by one, you could imagine a short-handed crew mis-handling the units as they hauled and wracked them up into place, maybe springing apart those joints in the process. Are those 2x4 or 2x6. Those plates look like they might have been knocked on after installing, with mixed results.

Do not think this kind can shrink. Any way the frame of the house might have grown? Rafters pushing walls apart or whatever? I have seen some pretty bowed out eaves.

How is your positive slope at perimeter outside? If there is equipment down there you should have "damp-proofing", parged block exterior and draintiles installed.

...Erby, you sure it is cedar?...Looks a lot like pine, but then, the smell is how you tell.

Looks to me like b&b siding...first thought was T-111. I think the mystery holes in pic #1 are powder post beetle, whose incubation is from 2-10 yrs. In material that is not kiln dried they often show up. I've been told that if you keep wood dry it needs no finish, but it is often hard to keep the sides of a house dry, and carpenter bees etc will bore into whatever they can find.

By any chance was this a spec house? As an ahj a few yrs ago, during the faux frenzy of the housing bubble, I noticed a spec builder's siding crew installing hardi-type lap siding on my way to look at another of his masterpieces. Siding right over osb sheathing, no wrb. I stopped the crew, issued a stop work, and not much later the siding crew was removing the stuff and starting over.

I think it looks great. If there is a problem with heat building up a thermostat power assist might help at that opening up...commercial bldg attic that big should have one hour separations with fire-dampered louvers to break space into <3000 SF areas.

...just like the North arrows on well done maps...

Stand your ground Robert. The blower is not related to vented operation. If so would not be optional.