Brandon Chew

Thanks Mike! Yesterday's stage was the final race in the Alps. About the only thing that was accomplished during the stages in the Alps was that Vino went from pre-tour favorite to a long-shot. A very pleasant surprise was the emergence of Alberto Contador on the Discovery team. At 24 years old and in his first TdF, he's showing a lot of potential for the future. Vino is still hurting from his crash last week, and he lost some more time to his main rivals, but I wouldn't yet rule him out completely (although he's clearly no longer a favorite to win). He'll gain a good chunk of that time back on Saturday's time trial, and will move up in the overall standings from his current 21 @ 8m:16s back. Kloden is clearly the better rider on the Astana team in the mountains. I think Astana will use the results of the time trial to decide whether to keep supporting Vino for a place on the podium in Paris, or to support Kloden for a stage win in the Pyrenees. I don't think Kloden has what it takes to win the yellow -- but again, the time trial will be telling. Early in yesterday's race a yellow lab tried to cross the road. As you can imagine, having a dog wander into the middle of a bike race is not a good thing. Riders were swerving and jamming on the brakes. A dog in that situation doesn't exactly walk in a straight line. One unlucky rider was trying to stop and broadsided the dog. The impact turned his front wheel into a pretzel and catapulted him over the handlebars. Dog and rider appeared to be unhurt. The same could not be said for the bike. Now they head for the Mediterranean coast and have three relatively flat stages. On Saturday is a time trial and after that there are three days of hard racing in the Pyrenees. The time trial will reveal who the real contenders are for the yellow jersey. The current wearer of the yellow jersey, Rassmusen, will drop like a rock. He's great in the mountains but not good in "the race of truth". For the USA, I like the chances of Levi Lipheimer at this point. Although he hasn't stood out yet in this year's race, he's riding very smart. He's currently sitting 9th @ 3m:53s and hasn't had to work very hard yet. On yesterday's stage the Discovery team was riding very well. On the final climb and on the descent toward the finish, they had two riders (Contador and Popovich) off the front. This put the onus of chasing them down on other teams, and allowed Leipheimer (who was well-placed in a break of his own) to gain some time on his rivals while other teams did the work. He was disappointed, though, that the chase was disorganized, so it didn't work as well for him as it could have been (meaning he could have put even more distance between him and his rivals). Leipheimer should be in a position to challenge for the overall after the time trial. Evans, Contador, Moreau, and Kloden are the riders to watch who are ahead of him. After the time trial he's got three tough stages in the Pyrenees, and he's got five guys who are climbing extremely well to support him (Popovich, Contador, Gusev, Paulinho and Hincapie) Not much will change in the overall standings between now and Saturday's time trial. Today's stage was typical for this portion of the race. What usually happens is that either one guy or a small group of guys, none of whom are threats for the overall, will break away early, and the peloton will wave and let them go. Then the peloton will work just hard enough to make sure the time gap doesn't affect the position of their team leader in the overall standings. Meanwhile the riders in the small group will be pulling out every trick in the book as they fight among themselves for the win.

From my copy of the 2000 IRC. Italics are mine. §N1103.3 Duct insulation. All portions of the air distribution system shall be installed in accordance with §M1601 and be insulated to an installed R-5 when system components are located within the building but outside of conditioned space, and R-8 when located outside of the building. When located within a building envelope assembly, at least R-8 shall be applied between the duct and that portion of the assembly furthest from conditioned space. EXCEPTIONS: 1. Exhaust air ducts and portions of the air distribution system within appliances or equipment. 2. Ducts within the building envelope located in detached one- and two-family dwellings or townhouses.

I'm doing the same.

Either there is some serious distortion from the camera lens, the framer was drunk, or the nails in that picture missed the studs.

The H clips provide edge support for the plywood sheathing between the rafters. For a given sheathing thickness, they can allow greater spacing between the rafters. For a given rafter spacing, they can allow thinner sheathing to be used. Whether or not edge support is needed depends upon what rafter spacing and sheathing thicknesss is present. The H clips are not the only way of providing edge support. Solid wood blocking is another way it could be done. Using tongue-and-groove plywood is another. The clips are also designed to provide a secondary benefit -- space the panels -- but that is not their primary purpose (unless they are installed when edge support is not needed). If you have a copy of the IRC go to §R503.2 Wood structural panel sheathing. Then check out TABLE R503.2.1.1(1) ALLOWABLE SPANS AND LOADS FOR WOOD STRUCTURAL PANELS FOR ROOF AND SUBFLOOR SHEATHING AND COMBINATION SUBFLOOR UNDERLAYMENT. In that table you'll find two columns under the MAXIMUM SPAN heading: "With edge support" and "Without edge support". The span heading references a footnote d. Footnote d says: "d. Lumber blocking, panel edge clips (one midway between each support, except two equally spaced between supports when span is 48 inches), tongue-and-groove panel edges." TECO has a fact sheet on the clips: http://www.tecotested.com/documents/200 ... HClips.pdf

Trying to bring this back on topic.... As with most legal settlements, each side tries to claim that they "won" and they put the best spin on it from their perspective. Anyone care to share some opinions related to: 1) Does this achieve one of the primary goals, which was to avoid confusion between the two organizations in the eyes of the consumer? 2) What does this settlement mean for the future of the HI profession? NACHI's mantra is now "we're going global and we don't want to be limited to just traditional home inspections".

OpenCourseWare is a world-wide movement. In the US, the schools currently participating in it are: Defense Acquisition University Harvard Law School, Berkman Center for Internet and Society Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michigan State University Tufts University University of California, Irvine University of Massachusetts Boston University of Michigan School of Information University of Notre Dame Utah State University Utah Valley State College Wheelock College Some of them are up and running, and others haven't gotten their stuff out on the web yet. The list and links can be found here: http://www.ocwconsortium.org/about/members.shtml Scroll down the page to get to the links to each site. If you use the nav menu on the left, it takes you to a different page that does not have the links. This if this catches on, and I think that it will, it will profoundly change the world. During the past two hundred years, we've had the industrial revolution, the agricultural (green) revolution, and we are currently in the midst of the technological revolution. What we could be seeing here is the dawn of a new age of enlightenment -- the knowledge revolution.

Whenever someone asks me "what is the best method" the first thing I do is reach for my JLC Field Guide*. I like to cross-check my opinion with a published source, whenever possible. In this case my opinion and the JLC Field Guide are the same. The ventilation should be split 50/50 between low and high vents -- soffit & ridge vents are considered to be the best combination. The primary purpose of the attic ventilation is to rid the attic space of excess moisture that enters it from the house below. Secondary purposes are to lower the temperature in the attic space (and of the roof covering) and to (in my climate) "keep the roof cold" to prevent ice dams from forming. With a passive ventilation system, I can't think of any problems related to having too much -- so I agree with AHI that continuous ridge and soffit vents are the best. One thing to be careful about, if you have a continuous ridge vent, is to be sure that you have at least the same amount of unobstructed NFVA (net free vent area) in the soffits (and more is better). If the soffit vents are undersized or blocked, under windy conditions the ridge vent can act like a vacuum and draw more moisture laden air into the attic space from the home below. It's the area of the attic floor. Use 1/300 if there is a well performing vapor retarder (not exceeding 1 perm) present between the attic space and the heated portion of the home, otherwise go with 1/150. The purpose of the attic ventilation does not change based upon which roof covering is applied, so I'd say the answer to your question is yes. I cross-checked my opinion with the IRC and the codes to not take into account type of roof covering when they specify minimum attic ventilation requirements. *"JLC Field Guide to Residential Construction -- A Manual of Best Practice"

Thank you Jim. Very helpful. -- Brandon

Try eHarmony.com (sorry, I couldn't resist) Ok, in exchange for being a wise-guy I should try to answer your question. These came from two files that I downloaded from message boards at some time in the past. I'm not sure where I got these from, so I can't give proper attribution to the authors. If anyone recognizes these, please give the author the credit. It looks like your Trane and your Peerless is 2000. Trane Capacity: Trane has used a number of different methods for encoding capacity information in the model number. It is commonly found in the first three digits – sometimes and Btus, sometimes as tons. Example: SPCC-B504-A = 5.0 ton, Or TWS748A = 48,000 Btu = 4 ton Age: Through the seventies date of manufacture information is found as a number and a letter in the serial number where the number is the single digit year and the letter indicates the month. A=Jan B=Feb C=Mar Etc. Example: 1C-xxxx = March 1971 In the early ‘80s Trane began to stamp the date of manufacture in the lower right hand corner of the data plate. TRANE Trane uses alpha codes in their serial numbers to determine year of manufacture. They started this in 1987 with the letter B and skipped a couple of letters during the years........ The first letter of the serial number gives the year of manufacture as follows: In 2002 they started their serial numbers with the year it was built. In 2002 the first character of the serial number is 2, in 2003, 3 and so on. Z=2001 R=2000 P=1999 N=1998 M=97 L=96 K=95 J=94 H=93 G=92 F=91 E=90 D=89 C=88 B=87 S=86 Y=85 X=84 W=83 U=82(seventh digit) T=81(seventh digit) O, A=80(seventh digit) Peerless Prior to 1984 there was not a date code included as part of the serial number. Starting in 1984, there was a four digit date code following the serial number that was month and year. Example – JO-12345-1084, this unit was built in October of 1984. Starting in the year 2000, same idea only it was a six digit date code following the serial number that is year and month. Example – 1234567-200105, this would have been build in May of 2001. Anything without the addition to the serial number would have been made before 1984 and would require contact with the factory.

This situation is like the old fused neutral systems with a blown fuse on the neutral while there is still power to the two hot legs. Current flow will stop, and it will appear that the power is off to the entire house. But the entire system will still be energized, with that electricity waiting to follow a good path to ground. The part of my answer that still has me scratching my head is "what role does the earth grounding system play in this situation?" Wouldn't the current continue to flow through the earth ground, making everything appear to be ok?

My money is on "the two 120 volt circuits now have 240 volts".

Bah! This morning I was proofreading a post I wrote that answered that puzzle (about the nuclear power plant) and when I went to post it, Mike had pruned and locked the thread... [:-weepn] (It's ok.... I agree the topic had nothing to do with home inspections...)

You'll likely see me there asking questions at some point. When it comes to writing, I'm triple-challenged: inspector, engineer, and ex-gubmint bureaucrat! [:-shake] WJ - your theory works for me. I watch the screen while I type and I frequently hit the backspace key to correct my mistakes on the fly.

Hello Bonnie! I was in the class of 1984. I see that you have found a welcome home here at TIJ. I've been on a several-month haitus from the message boards and I'm just now catching up. I'm curious. How did you find your way here? Are you like me, and were you a moth in a previous life? In this life I seem to be inexplicably drawn to bright lights -- and TIJ seems to have some of the brightest around. Or maybe it's the odd collection of goofballs... Brandon

When I was shingling the roof of my addition a few years ago, I remember that when I opened the bundles of shingles and pulled them apart to use them, that on a lot of them the plastic strip was sticking to the seal strip on the top of the shingle instead staying on the bottom of the shingle above it. I didn't give it much thought at the time as to why it might be doing it. I just pulled the plastic off the shingles where it stuck to the top surface and threw it away.

I stumbled across this visual thesaurus a few days ago while I was using an on-line reverse dictionary. http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml In a reverse dictionary you type in a phrase and it returns a list of words. The list might help you to find that word that is on the tip of your tongue but which you just cannot seem to grab. From the list of words you can then go to a list of on-line dictionaries to explore their meanings. I saw an entry for the visual thesauraus and said to myself "self, let's check this thing out". I have a paper thesaurus and when on-line, like Kurt, I use thesaurus.com. The thing that really struck me as I began playing with the visual thesaurus was how quickly I came to start to understand the subtle differences in meaning between related words, without really trying to do so. I just don't get the same effect when I read a list of words in a standard thesaurus. Not everyone processes information the same way but this way works very well for me. Listening to someone speak is extremely ineffective for me but could work well for someone else. Jim - yeah. I would draw bubble diagrams when in the early planning stages of big engineering projects and in meetings when discussing things that are connected to each other. Chris - a wiki style would be cool as long as accuracy could be maintained.

If you are a visual learner like I am then I think you will find this to be a really cool and useful tool. "What is it? The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus with an innovative display that encourages exploration and learning. You'll understand language in an exciting new way. To understand the power of the Visual Thesaurus, you really need to see it in action. Type in your favorite word and give it a try!" http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ Disclaimer: I have no connection with these folks financial or otherwise.

I have a copy of "The Elements of Style". It was required reading at Cornell, where I got my degree. A look into the background of the authors would make it clear why this was so. Another good book, and one that I read based upon Kurt's recommendation, is "The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier", by Bonnie Trenga. She makes her points in a way that is fun and easy to read, while driving the message home. In it she tackles what she believes are the seven most common problems that weaken writing: -- using passive voice -- using nominalizations (a noun you have created from a verb or an adjective) -- using vague "-ing" words where it is not clear who is doing the action -- using too many weak verbs (various forms of to be, do, go, get, have, occur, make, etc.) -- misplacing modifiers (a word or a phrase that is meant to describe the nearest noun) -- trying to put too many thoughts into one sentence -- wordiness I like this book because I would rather focus my energies on a small number of the most common mistakes, than to try to memorize every rule and make my writing perfect. The book I am studying now is "Keys to Great Writing" by Stephen Wilbers. It is heavier reading than Trenga's book, but I like it because he spends a lot of time showing the reader how to put his ideas into action. His five keys are: economy, precision, action, music, and personality. He also discusses the elements of effective composition and the writing process (drafting and revising).

My comment was a lame attempt to make a joke at Mike's expense. The reason I'm re-writing the boilerplate is so that it sounds like me and not someone else. Mike, when our paths cross, and I think they may, I owe you a pint. And now we return back to our regularly scheduled program ....

Well, um, yeah. One of the reasons I went with an MS Office based product for my report writing was because I could do stuff like that, if I had the time to learn how and wanted to do so. Or I could pay Mike B for doing it in a future version of the software (hint).

Better yet, once you have punched the make, model, and S/N into InspectExpress, have a button you can push that will go to the CPSC website and do the search for you, allow you to browse whatever hits you get, and select any that you want to retrieve. When retrieved, you could select whether to insert it right into an appendix of your report or save it to your hard drive, or both. It seems like this would be a good "value added" feature for the program to have. For products without specific model & S/N, have an option to do a keyword search.

That's my story too, and I'm stickin' to it. By sticking my neck out, I hope that if I have something wrong or if there is a better way to do it, one of these guys will tell me about it. It's how I learn. I'd much rather learn here than by being strong-armed for my wallet. Is this book for real? It sounds interesting. BTW, based on your recommendation I picked up that book "The Curious Case of the Mixed Up Modifier". It is an easy read and by just focusing on those seven common mistakes, anyone can vastly improve their writing. Old habits are hard to break and I still make mistakes but given some time they should become less frequent. Aha! Now I know the reason I have been investing hours re-writing the boilerplate in a certain inspection software program since I purchased it! [] (j/k on the reason)

I by no means have perfected the art of writing a good HI report but that won't stop me from sharing what I think on this topic. I think having a glossary as an appendix to the report is a good thing to have for the reasons Kevin has stated. The glossary does not need to be extensive. It just needs to have the terms and meanings that you, as the inspector (and your lawyer), think are important to clearly define to your client. I am using a glossary in my report. I think putting the terms from your glossary in ALL CAPS and bold every time you use them in your report narrative is excessive and actually interferes with the process of communicating your message to your client. I think we need to communicate our message to our client in full sentences using plain English, in a manner that they can understand, and using no more words than are necessary to convey it. Sometimes when explaining complicated concepts it takes a lot of words to make my point. But those sentences should still be easy to read. I've worked for more than 20 years as an engineer in a government regulatory agency, so believe me when I tell you that I've seen some of the most bloated and confusing writing that has ever been written! The time to impress our clients with our knowledge is before they hire us and while we are performing the inspection. But when we are communicating with them the most important thing is that they understand what we are trying to say. I've been told throughout my career that I write well. Even so, when I decided I wanted to get involved in the inspection business, I've been doing some self-study to improve my writing skills. This is just a reflection upon how important I think this skill is to the profession. Brandon Edit to add: LOL... after re-reading this I realized that you guys had me so pumped up that I forgot to add that I'm preaching to the choir since a lot of those opinions were shaped by many of the people who post here.

Great point Les. In my post I used the phrase "fire my client for breach of contract and terminate our transaction" very loosely, just so the reader could get a sense of my goal. But the details of bringing something like that about need to be worked out with my attorney and written into my business SOP.