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Jim Katen

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Everything posted by Jim Katen

  1. Jim Katen
    It's just your average crappy dryer duct installation as Jim & Les said. The duct should be as short and straight as possible and air-tight (or nearly so). If lint is getting out, so is water vapor, which will cause condensation problems in the winter - unless you live in Denver or someplace like that. As for the lint, it's not particularly dangerous. It's just really little pieces of your clothing.
  2. Jim Katen
    Quickest conversion is an earthquake.
  3. Jim Katen
    In my area, chimneys didn't start to have liners till about the '60s. Most of the houses that I look at are older than that.
  4. Jim Katen
    *Real* chimneys don't need no stinkin' liners.
  5. Jim Katen
    Liner? What is this "liner" that you speak of?
  6. Jim Katen
    I see it very often and lightning is almost unheard of here. When we get lightning, it makes the front page of the local paper.
  7. Jim Katen
    I remember an explanation about it from a materials scientist many years ago. As I recall, the visible patterns reflect stresses in the plastic, but I'm less sure about why the dust sticks to some area more than others. Static charge seems like a reasonable explanation. The areas under stress might have a slightly different charge than the areas around them. I know I can just wipe it off with a finger and see absolutely no other evidence of a pattern in the plastic.
  8. Jim Katen
    I still can't find a US retailer for the Jaws Ladder. They might not be sold in the states. The only US inspector I know who used one got it in BC.
  9. Jim Katen
    If you have 16 CEUs and 3 are mandatory, you have 13 more than you need. What's the problem? If you're working regularly, giving up inspections for a trial would cost you way more than $500. I'd just pay the fine and call it "tuition."
  10. Jim Katen
    Why wouldn't you just use a regular Gorrilla or Little Giant 13-footer?
  11. Jim Katen
    What's an "isolation joint?" This term is new to me in relation to stucco. Is it a local term? It sounds like he's talking about an expansion joint, which, of course, would not be used around a window or door. If the inspector is talking about the sealant joint that's *required* around windows and doors, then hell yes, they're required. Do you have pictures?
  12. Jim Katen
    I doubt that it needs repair at all. The plastic is there to reduce the risk of corrosion underground. Above ground the copper is fine without plastic - except that it should be marked yellow every several (5?) feet. If wrapping it in tape makes you feel better, go for it. I suggest using the yellow tape, though.
  13. Jim Katen
    Reminds me of when I was a kid. We went to visit my cousins in Pittsburgh and all went out for vanilla ice cream cones. My cousins showed me how if you just hold up your cone in the air for a while without licking it, a grey film formed on the ice cream and dripped down it in streaks - just like the streaks in those pictures. According to them it was coal dust, which was thick in the Pittsburgh air in the '60s. They insisted that it made the ice cream taste better. Did this roof taste better?
  14. Jim Katen
    Based on the quality of the workmanship, I'd say someone was using the opportunity to practice.
  15. Jim Katen
    They don't look unstruck to me. It looks like it was deliberately pointed with a beading tool.
  16. Jim Katen
    Is it just a plain electric furnace, or is it part of a heat pump system?
  17. Jim Katen
    Seems like an incredibly dumb idea. In my area, even a baby earthquake would make a mess of that.
  18. Jim Katen
    Um, it's not the clothes. It's you. You're nose blind while you're in Florida. By the way, I live in Oregon, and I've had people visit from Denver who told me that all of Oregon smells of mold. I don't smell it because I'm used to it.
  19. Jim Katen
    I guess I don't understand the issue.: You live in Florida and you don't necessarily smell mold in your house. You get ready to go on a trip, so you pull out your suitcase. Does it smell of mold then? You pack your suitcase. Do the clothes smell like mold then? You arrive at your destination, open your suitcase, and smell mold. Is this right?
  20. Jim Katen
    Good grief! You live in S Florida - Mold is in every lungful of air you breathe. It's on your clothes, on your skin, in your nose, and on your eyeballs. Every day. All the time. Every time I travel to Florida, the moment I get off the plane, I hit a wall of humid, moldy air. It's like walking in warm Jello. And you know what? It's ok. Millions of people live with it every day of their lives. We evolved with it. If that little spot of mold is all that you got on your test, you're miles ahead of nearly every other Floridian. Before your next trip, open your suitcase, and set it outside in the sun for a few hours. It'll smell better.
  21. Jim Katen

    R-458A

    Jim Katen replied to Jim Katen's topic in HVAC Forum

    I think it's actually a blend of 4 or 5 different refrigerants, with all different flash points. One of the papers that I read treated this as a selling point, saying that it made the blend up to 25% more efficient. This is why I never trust products where the only available information is PR.
  22. Jim Katen

    R-458A

    Jim Katen posted a topic in HVAC Forum

    https://www.bluonenergy.com/residential/ Does anyone here have firsthand experience with this stuff? Is it a realistic drop-in replacement for R-22 or just hype? Everything that I can find online seems to be PR from the manufacturer.
  23. Jim Katen
    I don't know squat about the 203k program, but I dealt with HUD for many, many years in other capacities. One valuable lesson that I learned is that when you can't find an answer in their handbook or other literature, I just make up an answer that makes sense to me and go for it as if it were the holy truth from on high. If HUD doesn't like it, they get back to me and I get the real answer at that time. Much easier than playing the phone game.
  24. Jim Katen
    It's a good point. I've seen lots of them here and I can't recall ever seeing one with a pan under the unit. I've never seen one leaking - but that's probably because nearly every one that I see has stopped working.
  25. Jim Katen
    Do they not have a water level monitoring device that shuts them down if the drains fail?
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