John Dirks Jr Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Which section of the report do you put furnace flue pipes and vent connectors with clearance to combustibles issues? Plumbing or HVAC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 HVAC. Why would you consider putting it in Plumbing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I put them in HVAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 HVAC. Why would you consider putting it in Plumbing? Because its a pipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lamb Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 If the vent is wrong on a water heater I also recommend an HVAC pro fix it. Plumbers do water and venting is often just an after thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 How about bathroom or range hood vent issues. What category for those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I put them in the respective Bath and Kitchen sections. There, they each have their own menus of common issues I can choose from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkenney Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 MD SOP says: .07 Plumbing System. A. A home inspector shall visually inspect the plumbing system including: (4) Vent systems, flues, and chimneys; .09 Heating System. A. A home inspector shall visually inspect: (2) Vent systems, flues, and chimneys; and .13 Fireplaces and Solid Fuel Burning Appliances. A. A home inspector shall visually inspect: (2) Vent systems, flues, and chimneys. B. A home inspector shall describe: (1) Fireplaces and solid fuel burning appliances; and (2) Chimneys. The defect I report is always in the context of the appropriate system. Only the fireplace section requires you to DESCRIBE the chimney irregardless of any deficiency. Rock bottom minimum standards for MD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 Range hood vent issues go in the 'Kitchen' section. Bathroom vent issues go in the 'Attic' section because that's I can see them. Furnace vent issues go in the HVAC section. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 Like Bob Kenny shows, I try to keep things organized along the MD SOP. Of course I go beyond the SOP. However, I don't have a "kitchen" or "bathroom" section in my report. Problems in those areas not related to electrical or plumbing go into the Interior section. I think I'll put the HVAC venting issues in the HVAC section and the bath fan and range hood issues in plumbing. Does that sound crazy? It's what I've been doing and have not heard negative feedback thus far. The change will be to move the furnace flue pipe issued from Plumbing to HVAC. I'm trying to organize things for a more efficient year of business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspectorjoe Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I think I'll put the HVAC venting issues in the HVAC section and the bath fan and range hood issues in plumbing. Does that sound crazy? Not crazy, but I think the fan issues would be a better fit in Electrical. I'm trying to organize things for a more efficient year of business. I hear you. I'm looking at doing a big project while things are slow - setting up and using Inspect Express, which I bought in December. ........... December 2010! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkenney Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 .12 Insulation and Ventilation. A. A home inspector shall visually inspect: (1) Insulation and vapor retarders in unfinished spaces; (2) Ventilation of attics and foundation areas; and (3) Mechanical ventilation systems. I just put the bathroom, range hood, etc in this section. I also include a summary page in the beginning and a little reference to bathroom fan fires if necessary. As far as the range hood goes, most of them just blow grease around the kitchen, so that's noted (does not vent to exterior by design.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I think I'll put the HVAC venting issues in the HVAC section and the bath fan and range hood issues in plumbing. Does that sound crazy? Not crazy, but I think the fan issues would be a better fit in Electrical. I'm trying to organize things for a more efficient year of business. I hear you. I'm looking at doing a big project while things are slow - setting up and using Inspect Express, which I bought in December. ........... December 2010! My project is to get familiar with all the built in features of Word 2010. I've got Styles and Autotext down pat. Now I've discovered Quick Parts and how to make custom galleries with sub categories to store pre-written content. I've got 6 galleries on the top toolbar, each with two sub categories. I'm filtering and editing comments and putting them into the relative categories. They work like drop down lists. When you find the comment you want you just click on it and it drops into the body of the report at the cursor position. Next is to tackle Macros to reduce the number of functions needed to perform common tasks like marking pictures with arrows. I love the full freedom of working in Word. I should probably pay a Word Guru to sit and teach me for a couple of hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurt Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I've got flue/vent descriptions for water heaters in plumbing, furnaces and heating equipment in HVAC. So, two places. I put bath fans and range hoods in "Interior". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I wound up putting clearance to combustibles comment in both HVAC and Fireplace/Chimney since that is where I describe the solid fuel stuff and with consideration that you can have clearance issues with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 Here's what the Quick Parts gallery buttons look like on the top toolbar. Download Attachment: P1200340.JPG 1568.96 KB Download Attachment: P1200341.JPG 1651.49 KB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erby Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 Because its a pipe. Reminds me of the time I went to a Lowes store for the first time. Asked a kid where the pipes were. He looked at me blankly. I said "You know, they carry water." He responded with "Oh, out in Lawn and Garden with the water fountains." How much computer programming time you got invested in your Word report now, John? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkenney Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 How much computer programming time you got invested in your Word report now, John? Why do you insist this is 'programming'? It's cut and paste stuff, it is being proficient with a 'tool.' In this case a piece of software. You do use tools don't you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 Because its a pipe. Reminds me of the time I went to a Lowes store for the first time. Asked a kid where the pipes were. He looked at me blankly. I said "You know, they carry water." He responded with "Oh, out in Lawn and Garden with the water fountains." How much computer programming time you got invested in your Word report now, John? Probably enough cash value to buy a full version of every popular report writing software on the market. Although, I still like the looks of mine better than any other. Plus the document creating knowledge helps in all other aspects of business and personal life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 How much computer programming time you got invested in your Word report now, John? Why do you insist this is 'programming'? It's cut and paste stuff, it is being proficient with a 'tool.' In this case a piece of software. You do use tools don't you? I'm not programming. I think that's just the word Erby chose. I make use of existing tools. It's writing all the boiler, designing storage features and report templates that take time. In the free environment of raw Word, anything is possible. Making choices and changing your mind again and again takes time. With constant refining and honing, things gradually get better and more efficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 Refining and honing example; For instance, stuff like balusters, guardrails, handrails, steps, walkways can wind up in various sections of a report. Rather than store these comments in duplicate in various places, I've decided to create a general gallery with a few sub categories. The sub category for these particular things would be "EGRESS". So, regardless of where I might use the comment in the report, it will be only stored once in the EGRESS comment sub category. This keeps duplicates to a minimum making fewer comments to search through in those categories where they would have been duplicated. Same goes for things like mold, pests, asbestos etc. While they could be addressed in various sections, they'll only be stored once in the general gallery under a sub cat called "ENVIRONMENT". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 . . . I should probably pay a Word Guru to sit and teach me for a couple of hours. You might check out teh New Horizons Learning Centers. I took a MS Word class from them many years ago, when I was making the transition from Wordperfect to Word. It was really very good because the teacher didn't really stick to the outline but went where the students wanted to go. I learned all kinds of cool tricks that weren't in any manual at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 . . . I should probably pay a Word Guru to sit and teach me for a couple of hours. You might check out teh New Horizons Learning Centers. I took a MS Word class from them many years ago, when I was making the transition from Wordperfect to Word. It was really very good because the teacher didn't really stick to the outline but went where the students wanted to go. I learned all kinds of cool tricks that weren't in any manual at the time. Thanks, I'll look into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMustola Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I like this topic. I am in the process of changing my reports from room by room to a by system organized report. Some examples: The chimney shows up in the roof section because it's on the roof. It should be in the fireplace section. Plumbing vents also show up on the roof section but I'm switching it to the plumbing section. In my room by room scenario each bedroom and common room is labeled and listed separately. For each room I include: walls ceilings floors windows doors electrical Because of this the customers must look in several areas to see all the electrical of window problems and I want to correct this. How do most of you report on interior rooms, is it cover in one section of the report? Do most of you use a by system instead of a by room type of report structure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erby Posted January 4, 2012 Report Share Posted January 4, 2012 I tried the room by room stuff when I first started 10 years or so ago and soon dumped it for system by system. They don't repair stuff room by room, they repair it by trade or system. All the system stuff is together broken down by location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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