Jim Baird

Denny, do you carry a bathing cap to wear for scuttles through those attic access in the shower ceiling?

BTW those radial treads don't look like they would meet the six inch minimum on depth at the pointy end.

As I recall the code says guard must "resist" 200 lb applied laterally...question is what does "resist" mean?

It's a very funny picture...am betting it is for an absentee owner. The steep slope next to unit explains the practical reason for wedging it in, as installer would have had to build a support.

I saw sheathing like that under a roof where steel panel was slapped on top of a cpl of layers of three-tab, no vents at all.

...looks just like my mama's house...

...that is why we and you are here...appreciate this site...

Thanks, Jim, again...

It's a fluke brand "sniffer" that reads hot or not...no continuity with circuit off.

Switch loop to control ceiling outlet is hot on both ends. I thought I had a bad switch, but switch makes no diff. Somewhere along length of loop (romex) the two legs have joined, like maybe a nail through cable or the like?

...never thought about too much lip, except from certain individuals. There is no code requirement for an overflow go figure.

...bet they don't have Obeone Knowbe's light saber....

here service drop is not anybody's bidnis but utility...

A little off topic, but I saw a basement fitted with a glass-blocked in steam room (inoperable at the time). In the same big basement room was one of those boxes I only saw once on I Love Lucy, that is made of plywood with a hinged top. You sit inside with your head sticking through a round hole in the top. Inside are a whole lot of light bulbs that are supposed to melt off the pounds, I guess? Muy retro.

The pictured arrangement is very common in my area, and represents what was a standard "affordable" retrofit for a residential upgrade. I'm not sure when the codes were adopted statewide, but plenty of those are still in use around here. Whenever I see it I just point out that it doesn't meet current code, and any remedy applied should be the electrician's choice.

No doubt the rest of the dwelling was just as spotless. I love it when people take care of things. I had one inspection where no shoes were allowed inside, period. The realtor hung around in his sock feet to make sure I didn't cheat.

Isn't this the same story as the one a bout the mule's ears rubbing on the barn door header?

Gary I guess the whole idea of pride in work went out the vent hole with unions. The picture is so common I sometimes don't mention it, especially if there is plenty of vent provided by other means. Long ago, working summers doing construction labor, (even here in the South), I cut a piece of wood for the striped-overall carpenter I was helping. At day's end I was backed into a corner by another carpenter who told me I was to refuse to cut a piece of wood if asked. The quality of the work was monitored the same way by the ones performing it.

I think it was a pit dug to contain prior heating equipment that was replaced. I saw a similar pit in a hundred + yr old crawl. Usually these pits technically under mine the soil support for columns, but i have not seen such undercuts fail yet.

A bachelor I know had a cat that came and went via cat door, and was so smart he could turn on the kitchen sink faucet to get himself some water. Bach had to go into surgery for a cpl of days and in his absence, cat turned on faucet but sink was clogged. Whole house flooded by time bach returned.

hmmmm, so the gravitational force exerted by your hands pulled the water down? Maybe a Moses style staff to send the waters back to whence they came?

Here's a way you can "monitor" the crack through time. Get some common laboratory glass slides and some epoxy cement. Glue the slides across the crack at a few locations. If the slides break, it indicates movement.

Never seen them either. I knew a couple that made several hundred CMU's in their back yard years ago, using a slip form that yielded an 8X8X16 block. On one face they plopped in two field stones that would show on the final product. They had maybe a cpl dozen forms and gathered the stone over time, making the blocks on weekends. I don't know the total count, but by the time they finished building they built a home, a garage, and a sturdy outbuilding. The wife, a civil engineer, learned from her father, who had done the same thing on his place. He built a lot of curved retaining walls and a two-story garage with his. The blocks drove the masons who laid them nuts, as it was hard to set them to a string line, what with the field rocks sticking out of the outsides.

Pie safe.

One outside each entry. Sparky did not know/guessed on location, or deck man changed his mind. Maybe somebody buried a septic tank where the deck was to be. Tank can be close as ten feet to house. I saw one house where the deck teetered on a beam with no leg on one end because one end of the deck encroached over the tank.