randynavarro

What are your Standards of Practice? Most that I'm aware exclude the inspection of low-voltage or control wiring. Was it stated in your contract? and did the client understand this?

Not following you. Are you talking about the window to the left of the panel in the picture of the exterior?

The meter base is mounted directly behind the panel; connected with a 1 1/2" (or so) nipple. So, foaming inside the 1 1/2" nipple around the service cables?

Yup

Jim, I'd buy that but why is there condensation on only one of the lines and not all three?

Wow, had some fun today. Brand new home, finished in September. Shot inside the bathroom upstairs - notice the two symmetrical cracks at the left and right hand side of the room. Download Attachment: InsideViewofCracks.JPG 58.24 KB Right hand side of the room. Download Attachment: RightHandSide.JPG 65.7 KB Left hand side of the room. Download Attachment: LeftHandSide.JPG 53.17 KB Close up of the cracks on one side. Download Attachment: CrackCloseUp.JPG 86.72 KB Exterior, front of home. Bathroom is the very top, center of the home - the little dormer / cupola looking thing. Download Attachment: FrontofHome.JPG 81.32 KB I think I've got some pretty good ideas what's happening. Anyone wanna guess?

Found my camera. Here's some shots of my wet electrical panel. View of meter base configuration. Perfectly normal and dry. The eave protects it from getting wet. Download Attachment: ExteriorMeter.JPG 75.42 KB Close up of main lug. Look carefully and you'll see the little drip right at the bottom of it. Download Attachment: CloseUpLug.JPG 87.08 KB My solution. Its brilliant!! A paper towel to soak up the water - doesn't let it drip down on to the rest of the breakers. Gotta rival Goodman's water heater drip pan for creativity! Download Attachment: PaperTowelLug.JPG 86.52 KB For those that have offered opinions as to the cause and / or solution of this water intrusion, trust me, I've addressed them all and have come to no clear solutions.

I've never gotten a call or 'burned' for a poorly written description or lack of one. Lately, I've been tempted to really minimize them in order to save time and alleviate the client from plowing through all the text. I'm sure almost noone reads them. Can't tell you how many times I've had clients call me asking what type of wiring and plumbing are in the home - the insurance company needs to know. I refer them to the sections of the report that clearly outline this info. They politely apologize for wasting a phone call.

Eric, the service conduit is buried 36" underground. Are you referring to the 3' or so above the ground as it enters into the meter base? My install is just like 99% of all other homes, yet I haven't seen any other water drips from the SEC.

Would love to, however I've just discovered my camera has gone missing.

Yep. I have that same condition on my own panel. Drives me crazy! I have an underground feed. One of the two cables 'wicks' water and sends it down one row of breakers. I called the local utility right away when I noticed it right after original installation. Their answer was their rolls of cable sit in the yard for long periods of time. They get wet. When the cable is energized it actually pulls water into the panel. "Shouldn't be a problem" Hmmmm. That was 2 1/2 years ago. Just opened my panel during our recent power outage and noticed more blasted water!!! The cable can't still be wet from its original installation. My solution now is to just stick a folded piece of paper towel to catch where the water drips right under the lug. Wonder what the utility will say about this?

"Cleanspace", I believe, is a brand name for a crawl space sealing system. It is not a waterproofing system. It is a system that 'seals' the crawl space and keeps moisture from getting into the home. Google it and you should find 'em.

Got a call today from a friend. Our infamous wind storm here in Seattle last week ripped about 100 or so shingles off her roof. Went to check it out. 3-Tab shingles were in good condition - good color, flat, nice and thick too. Probably a 30-35 year shingle. 10 years old. Trouble is, hardly any of the seal strips took. I could lift just about any random shingle at will. It was easy to see how the wind just penetrated right under the shingle and started ripping 'em off. They lasted 10 years with no troubles. Bummer is the 11th year proved to be fatal. I've never really made a stink about a shingle that I could easily lift before. Fact is, they'll endure about 95% of our weather. I guess its that last 5% that we should be concerned with.

Thread drift: Funny how the electrical and connectivity grids work. Mike, I live probably only 2/10ths of a mile from you as the crow flies. I didn't get power back 'til 1AM this morning (Monday). My internet, though, never went out. . . . generator kept us functioning.

Yes, I lift shingles to look for nailing patterns and quality. Yes, I look for shiners in the attic. 3-tab roofs are not necessarily the bottom of the barrel. Like anthing else, the mfg. has a great deal to do with the shingle quality. If they're nailed (or stapled) correctly, and the seal strip does its job, they'll perform fine.

This brings to mind another question. If two people (married, unmarried, father-son, whatever) are purchasing the inspection, do you have bothsign the contract? Me, I use the "and / or" wording. IOW, "John and / or Jane Doe". Anyone see issues with this?

Condos: pre-2002 (I think that was the year pans became mandated here), hardly ever. Post-2002: most all of them. SFD: Hardly ever, cuz WH's are in the garage most of the time. When inside the home, after 2002, new construction, they're in a pan. Do-it-yourself water heater installs; hardly ever. If they do have a pan, the pan is almost never drained to the exterior.

Well, if its an older building there usually isn't a way to get the TPR to its own drain and to the exterior or 'approved location' that is feasible or practical. It's much better that it drains into something other than terminate above the floor into nothing except the carpet, subfloor and unit(s) below. About the parents . . . I usually just treat them kind of like my children. "Look Daddy! Isn't this cool??!!" "Yes, sweetey, that's neat-o!" as I carry on with my business at hand.

Cool. I've finally been thinking right about something all these years!! Thanks for the post Kevin - much appreciated. I know I could have easily referenced these resources as well, however I will confess to a weak trait of my maleness - laziness. Kind of like my wife; why should I look for something when I can just ask her where it is and save myself the trouble!!??

OK, for clarification, I've learned that basically anthing under 6" is called a "nipple". Perhaps I'm in error here. What is the definition of a "nipple"

As far as I could tell. There were various lengths. IOW, to make the jogs they needed, they assembed an iron ninety, then off that, a 6" copper nipple, then another iron ninety, then another 3" nipple. No. It appears so. The pieces were threaded at each end. I'll say this, if they were brass they were the exact same color as typical type M copper. Sounds reasonable.

Natural gas line to furnace. Various copper nipples used in combo with typical black iron pipe. Dissimilar metals, yes? Need di-electric union? Di-electric union ok with natural gas?

Got it. Thanks. Can't remember the last time I saw that stuff around here, even on the million dollar places. Its all metal straps here. No go back to that second website you posted. The plastic tape is shown twice. They call it 'plastic hanger straps', I believe.

What do they look like? Is that "plastic" plumbers tape? I didn't think metal straps were allowed on plastic pipe (even though we see it all the time)

When I've been asked to do a log home, I inform the client that I'm not a specialist and encourage them to consider hiring a log home expert if they really want to know the specifics of that particular building. For instance, type of log, type of chinking, style / method of joints etc. I also ensure them that I can provide a worthwhile inspection because other than the logs, all the other components are probably the same as a typical wood frame building. BTW, it also wouldn't take a log home expert to identify rot or other 'normal' wood issues that might be relevant to the logs.