Richard Moore

...and 15 years later they're still just laying there. Exactly as I found it. Sometimes you just have to chuckle. Download Attachment: 121023K 014xx.jpg 139.85 KB This first-replacement heater was tucked away in the dead end of a pantry, the original TPR discharge line hard-plumbed to the exterior through the wall, out of reach behind the tank. I can't quite figure out how the home-owner disconnected the first TPR without damaging the threads. Well, OK, I can, but it first involves a wrench on the valve while someone else unscrews the TPR by spinning the whole (empty?) tank in place. ???

Would you be OK with the neutral feeder between the panels being bare or un-insulated wire or using metal conduit as the neutral conductor? 'Cos that's what you can be effectively creating. The exact scenario where that neutral current could be fatal is a bit fuzzy in my old head (and may involve standing in a bucket of salty water), but I'm comfortable that there's sufficient reason for the insulation on neutrals, and the need to keep that current from traveling along the grounds.

OK now, let's all play nice!

Nah, the relevant line remains the same in 2008 and 2011... (D) Bathrooms. In dwelling units, at least one receptacle outlet shall be installed in bathrooms within 900 mm (3 ft) of the outside edge of each basin. I also read that as one being OK as long as it is within 3' of both sinks. I can see some interpreting that as one per basin but, if that was the intent, it would have been simple enough to use the words "per" or "for" somewhere in order to state it clearly. Having said that, it does seem a bit El Cheapo to only have the one in Steven's photo, but that's builders for you. Marble counters sell houses, receptacles don't.

For me, too long, but it's always been that way, and cropping and marking up the photos is only a small percentage of that time. BTW, they're not my houses and I'm fairly certain they have the "regular" number of defects, meaning whatever is there. I have, over time, reduced the number of photos in the report to only those I think are really useful. I'm long past the phase where I feel the need to stick in a photo of every damn thing just to make the report sexy. My main issue is that I never learned to type with more than two fingers and I also have to keep pausing to read crap on the web. OK, I don't have to do that last bit, but I'm easily distr....oooh...Squirrel!

Speaking of that, how'd you do it Richard? Looks neat. Marc Lines, arrows and text courtesy of PhotoScape. Quick and easy once you get used to it.

So, as soon as I get on the ladder my first thought was "that doesn't look right". Small older house with two closed cut valleys at a "decorative" gable. The shingles have been cut with the overlay edge on the up slope. It seems wrong, and I can't remember seeing one done like this before, but is it really a big deal?. It's an older roof with probably not much more than another 5 years left, but otherwise is in OK condition. There were zero indications of leaks in the attic or interior near these valleys. While it seems and looks ass-backwards, isn't it effectively just a little extra overlay? In other words, does it really matter if some runoff seeped under the "glued" edge if it would still have to go a long way uphill, between layers, on the other side of the valley to cause problems? Download Attachment: 121006W033x.jpg 290.89 KB

OK, but then what are these "flanges" as they relate to a home inspectors site? Perhaps what we would call flashings?

I heard that left-handed slobber daubers were making a comeback since the recall of the Righty-Tighty Drool Collectors. My main issue is that Steve doesn't explain if the 36.725% actually includes the Kilbasy flanges, or not. The NFFAA* website is also no help on that. (*Non-Ferrous Flange Association of America)

Sorry, My question was about choosing interiors or exteriors forums, here. For the report I stick all things windows in the interior section, unless it is exterior paint or trim issues.

12 year old townhouse condo. Low end finishes, etc. All of the vinyl clad windows and sliding doors had weirdness going on between the panes. No brand name visible. Only one actually showed condensation, but the rest had odd defects in a perimeter coating. This varied from dry looking flaking to slumped and "melted" goop. Anyone seen this before? I haven't. Click to Enlarge 57.01?KB Click to Enlarge 47.24?KB Click to Enlarge 30.34?KB Due partly to this, but mostly to a slab that had obviously settled unevenly within the footings, this was terminated early and my client happily walked away from the potential headaches. Just wondering at this point. BTW...Do windows go in the interior or exterior section? I can never decide.

At the ridiculously easy end of the scale, how about this one? Download Attachment: 2012BoatSJ037x.jpg 219.84 KB Found in Anacortes on the rocky headland above Cap Sante marina. At this point I'm mostly over taking HI photos when I'm off duty, but this one made me chuckle.

Maybe Bubba didn't bother turning off the main breaker and had the generator running when the utility power came back on? I don't know exactly what that would do to the cycles/voltage/etc on each leg, but I suspect it's not good for any delicate circuitry. My bet is that he fried more than just the GFCIs.

Anyone know how to upload a photo fom the iPad camera roll to this forum? Using Safari on an ipad2.

No he didn't. You or your agents lack of negotiating skills killed the deals. Overcoming objection is sales 101. Train your people to work with what they have and keep their fingers pointed at themselves. It's just a term, Gary. Of course everything is fixable, even if it involves a bulldozer, swamp draining and more money than the house listed for. However, not every buyer wants to deal with that. And, no, we don't get to actually kill any deal. But, we do provide much of the ammunition that gets used in the gunfight. If, at some point, a buyer decides they don't want to proceed, whatever they base that on, I would hope that their agent would listen rather than using awsome "overcoming objections" skills. This is a home that will have to be lived in for many years, not a used car that might break down occasionally. They are very different. The next thing Greenburg is quoted as saying, in the same paragraph, is "Our commission comes from our clients, not a particular deal, and it has never made sense to jeopardize a client relationship by recommending an inspector who would do less than serve his client's needs." And the following paragraph... As far as there being a conflict of interest when it comes to agents referring home inspectors, Greenburg says, "For that concern to be valid, you'd need at least two people to ignore their duty to their client - the agent and the preferred inspector. While it's certainly not an impossibility, those are the same agents who bend or break the law and code of ethics as a matter of routine. The answer is to clean up our act by getting rid of them, not by limiting the service we provide on the presumption that we're all like them," says Greenburg. I can be as cynical as anyone, but I also try not to view everything from a high horse. I really can't find fault with any of Mr Greenberg' words. He sounds like one of the good guys. The article was a bit lightweight (what isn't nowadays in the time of Twitter) but I thought it was a good piece.

There's always this or something like it. $275 Cdn for a day (plus delivery) from a Calgary rental company.

Hate to pile on, but my favorite can be found on the front pages of the local sites... "Purchasing a home is stressful for anyone. However, purchasing a home with our Alpharetta Home Inspection will make the homebuying experience a little stressful." BTW..I'm also confused. Who is Damon Slate?

That's open to a little bit of interpretation and some local AHJ rules, but I think 15' would exceed any of those. And then there's this... So the basement one is 99.99% likely to be wrong (I would leave it to the seller/electrician to provide a reference otherwise). And the ungrouped one in the kitchen is even wrongerer (technical term). If the guy's really a sparky and he wants to sell his house,...well, the fix shouldn't be that difficult. However, I'm not so sure that I would want this particular guy doing any more work on my new house!

I find it verrry interesting that Herr Jones could recognize the German words, but not the English. Click to Enlarge 14.28?KB

As far as the fireplace's function, I don't see that being a problem as long as they used all the proper coaxial fittings and duct. These are often piped 30+ feet (10 meters, eh) up an existing chimney so 10' should be OK. That is subject to the fireplace's manufacturer's specs of course. I'm less happy about having the flex on a wall in a storage shed where it is too easily subject to damage. I honestly don't know the rules on that, but it seems the elegant solution would have been more rigid smooth-walled pipe from the original outlet straight up and to a termination at the shed roof. Having the termination next to the vent for the shed probably isn't going to kill anyone, unless they happen to be a narcoleptic gardener, but it ain't smart. I would either seal it up and install some roof vents or, as above, move the termination. As a pre-list I think I would tell the seller that this is an unusual configuration that doesn't smell right to you and probably won't to the buyer's inspector. They might think about having a licensed installer modify it to something that doesn't look so DIY.

Denny, the disconnect doesn't need to be an OCPD (breaker, etc) so that single shut-off lever does qualify as the service disconnect and, obviously, is less than 6 throws. It looks like you have grounding, bonding and other old house wiring issues but, with that disconnect, the number of throws is not the current problem.

Yes Marc, we know about Ohm's Law, but you seem to have overlooked the critical fact that the resistance needed to get 75 amps in a 240 volt circuit lies mostly (and I do mean mostly!) elsewhere. I am going to use stranded 2AWG copper conductor for the calculations and we will assume the breakers trip at exactly 75-amps. On a 240V circuit at 75-amps, the total resistance would be 3.2 ohms;. R=3.2=240/75. Correct? From http://www.stealth316.com/2-wire-resistance.htm we find that at 75 amps the resistance of 2 feet of the wire is 0.0003 ohms;. 4 feet doubles the resistance to 0.0006 ohms;. So, to maintain the equation at 75 amps, the resistance of the entire circuit, not including those two lengths of wire, would need to be 3.1997 ohms; and 3.1994 ohms; respectively. R=3.2=(3.1997+0.0003)=240/75 and R=3.2=(3.1994+0.0006)=240/75 Still following? Or, to put it another way, the available current before tripping the breakers, again not including those two lengths of wire, is (roughly) 74.99 and 74.98 amps. The difference caused by the conductor lengths at the panel is a minuscule PERCENTAGE that could have, should have, been largely ignored in providing a simple answer to the initial question on that panel's main breaker set-up. That being 150-amps. Really?

VD is the wrong way to analyze it. Let say that one conductor is twice as long as the other one, just as an example. The conductors are joined on each end so they both have the same voltage across them. The current will be twice as high on the short one than the longer one because it has only half the resistance. That means 2/3 of the total current is in the short one and only 1/3 in the long one. It also means that the total ampacity of that parallel set-up is only 50% higher than the ampacity of either conductor. 150% of 75 is 112 amps which is much less than 150. .... Marc Marc, I'm not an electrical engineer, but I have to call BS on that. First of all, voltage drop is due to resistance and I'm sure that it corresponds nicely with the current carrying capacity. Next, let's say I punch two holes exactly the same size in a bucket of water and then attach two hose of the same diameter, but one say 4' long and the other 2'. There is some resistance in the hoses and the 4' long one will have twice as much of that, but it's not the same as pinching one hose to half the cross section. You are effectively saying that just having double the length of hose will shut down the flow by half. That's not true and I guarantee you that you would have a hard time actually measuring the difference in flow rate from the bucket. Conductors act somewhat similarly to the hoses. Doubling the length may double the resistance but that initial resistance is a percentage of the capacity of the wire (based on the other variables as well). In my sample, with those loads and lengths, it would seem that the 2' wire would retain 99.9% of its capacity while the 4' one is reduced to 99.8%. That is an awful long way from your two third/one thirds. I know I'm simplifying things a bit, but I'll bet you a case of beer that I'm a lot closer to the facts than you are. Where's that Doug Hanson?

Well, I did say "very close". Marc, I used an online voltage drop calculator (see photo). Given that the voltage drop for a 2 foot 2-AWG Aluminum feeder at 75 amps is only .1% (one tenth of one percent), how much difference do you think a 4"(?) difference will make to the current carrying capacity? I agree there will always be some imbalance. Hell, even if the conductors were the same length, I would expect some other imperfections. However, I suspect in this case it would be a very small amount, and given the topic of the conversation, one that we could largely ignore. Download Attachment: Voltagedrop.jpg 98.98?KB

If the load on one 75amp breaker exceeds 75 amps and it trips, it also trips the other breaker. How can you call that 150? The panel as shown in the picture will only take 75amp max on either side so that's what it should be rated at. NO! Because it is NOT a pair of 75-amp SINGLE pole breakers. Look at the wiring to them and it is obvious that they are TWO, DOUBLE-POLE 75-amp breakers being used IN PARALLEL. All things being roughly equal, the load will split fairly evenly between the two breakers. A 240-volt 75-amp load would therefore only put 37.5-amps on each of the four poles. It would take 150-amps (or very close) to first trip any one of the breaker poles which would then internally trip the other pole within the same breaker and then the other two pole breaker by means of the handle tie. If it helps, try to picture the whole thing as four 75-amp single pole breakers with a long handle tie connecting them all.