dtontarski

Great term. Can't wait to work this into a conversation over cocktails some evening. Thanks Jim!

I'm looking for the proper architectural term for this ornate roof runoff collection component on a 1929 Tudor Revival. Can anyone help me out? Thanks Click to Enlarge 71.34 KB

Jim - "9000 posts" I can't thank-you enough for your contributions to this forum! Happy Holidays! Dave Tontarski

I wrote this B-vent installation up as "not recommended" as installed, and specified why. I additionally recommended that this be further evaluated when the HVAC professional is called in to further evaluate the heavy corrosion near the draft diverters of the 2-28 year old forced air furnaces and their 28 year old air filters.

Thanks for the responses. I had never checked out HT vent before..... "woven ceramic fiber refractory blanket - surrounded by two inner walls" Yes this might just draft alright in this climate. I don't think I could get my wallet to open that wide....thanks for referencing though....good to know about.

Observed what appeared to be B-vent (no legible labeling) running up the exterior wall of a home in Northern New York. This vents 4-small atmospheric venting appliances. I know that this is not recommended due to drafting and condensation issues, and I generally see exterior run B-vent installed in an exterior wall chase. My question - Are there metal vents other than B-vent that would allow this? What prompts my question is several other bordering homes had similar set ups. Click to Enlarge 63.76 KB Click to Enlarge 63.65 KB

Thanks for the replies.

I have never observed a roof framed with other than rafters or engineered roof trusses - that is until yesterday. Yesterday I inspected a 1986 rural built home with roof framing that ran parallel to the home's load-bearing walls. Has anyone every observed a roof framed in this manner? Click to Enlarge 46.38 KB

I appreciate everyone's comments. This did stress me out a bit because like most of you, meeting the needs of my clients is my priority. And I would have been willing to talk to the electrician on the phone, providing that he had seen my full report (the electrical section being 11 pages long and very detailed). However, my client never responded to my communications on what he wished me to do. For those of you that think me showing up to impress the listing agent would have been a good idea, that's not how it works in my market. This agent, and the agency she works for, awards the majority of their home inspection referrals out to an engineering group that produces home inspection reports that average about 10-pages, most of which is boilerplate. You know....the up to 5-inspections per day/per engineer type operation...that has office help integrate a few comments and photos into a template. My reports average over 60-pages, and I complete one per day. The fact that she expects her engineers to return at her demand is likely due do the relationship her and her agency have with this engineering group. And hey, if a report only has a couple sentences about electrical conditions that would benefit from either repairs, or safety updates, then required meetings between the engineers and electricians are likely required often. (the CYA comment..."I recommend that this condition be further evaluated by a professional electrician"...may be at play here) There would not be a chance in hell that I would ever get a referral from an agent that expects a 10-page home inspection report of this type. The demanded meeting with the electrician has come and gone now...and I do regret that I was not able to better assist my client, but my client never got back to me about this, and as I stated in my original post, me returning to the home to oversee that the electrician "repair any issues that are not within code" would have been an impossible task. Thanks again....I feel somewhat better about this....but not great.

Well...the listing agent did inform me that the electrician had the full report (not just the summary report as is usually the case), so yes I was a little perplexed about why my presence was summoned. Since the initial call from the listing agent, the edited down excerpt from my report - what the electrician actually received - was forwarded to me by the buyer. The excerpt version of my report edited out a considerable amount of information justifying the corrections and safety updates I was recommending. I would have been glad to discuss this with the electrician, but my client never got back to me on how he wanted me to handle this, only that he wanted me to meet the electrician at the home...which I agree is goofy....especially without upfront compensation for likely at least 2-hours of my time, plus my direct expenses.

Being a passive non-aggressive - I only repeatedly interrupted her every time she interrupted me when I tried to explain to her that this was an issue between my client and myself and that by law....I should not even be communication with her. Thanks for the advice.

I received a request from a listing agent to meet an electrician at property I had inspected for a buyer a week or so ago. I explained to her that meeting the electrician at the home should not be necessary, as my report clearly documented my recommendations. I contacted my client and told him that me meeting an electrician at the home would not be useful, due to it not being clear what the seller had agreed to fix. The only documentation I saw stated that "the seller would hire an electrician to repair any electrical issues that are not within code", which in my mind is very vague and subject to interpretation. Well, I just received a call from the listing agent again asking me if I will be at the home today to meet the electrician. I told her what I explained to my client and she is very upset and demanding that I meet the electrician at the home. (and that she has never known an engineer that would not be willing to do this without expecting to be compensated for it) Any opinions on what I should do? I asked my client to copy her on my Emails regarding this to explain why I didn't think meeting the electrician would be useful, but obviously this was not done. Dave Tontarski

I received a request from a listing agent to meet an electrician at property I had inspected for a buyer a week or so ago. I explained to her that meeting the electrician at the home should not be necessary, as my report clearly documented my recommendations. I contacted my client and told him that me meeting an electrician at the home would not be useful, due to it not being clear what the seller had agreed to fix. The only documentation I saw stated that "the seller would hire an electrician to repair any electrical issues that are not within code", which in my mind is very vague and subject to interpretation. Well, I just received a call from the listing agent again asking me if I will be at the home today to meet the electrician. I told her what I explained to my client and she is very upset and demanding that I meet the electrician at the home. (and that she has never known an engineer that would not be willing to do this without expecting to be compensated for it) Any opinions on what I should do? I asked my client to copy her on my Emails regarding this to explain why I didn't think meeting the electrician would be useful, but obviously this was not done.

So as I interpret your reply.....the ungrounded wall outlets are GFCI protected if the GFCI RO cuts power to them....Thanks....I know I've read about this before.....just making sure.

Question: Should my Ideal 61-059 remotely trip a GFCI receptacle outlet upstream from an ungrounded standard receptacle outlet? There were a bunch of ungrounded 3-slotted wall outlets downstream from a GFCI receptacle outlet supposedly protected circuit at my inspection yesterday. (these were labeled as ungrounded & GFCI protected) NOTE: I was able to cut the power to the ungrounded wall outlets by pushing the test button....I just want to ensure that I accurately describe these as GFCI protected or not. Thanks in advance!

Thanks Garet

Scott, I've learned a lot from you over the years....the inspection knowledge for sure, but your mention of Macallan was probably the most valuable information I acquired. So my question is what are some examples of "forced air inlets"?

Many of the power vent water heater installation manuals I have reviewed call for the power vent exhaust termination to be 3' above any forced air inlet within 10' horizontally. My question is - would the combustion air intake for a direct vent furnace be defined as "a forced air inlet"? And if not...what are some examples of "forced air inlets"?

Thanks everyone. All I can charge for is my time, and the older the home, the more time I spend. Most older homes.....anything more than 20 years old around require a lot more time for me to complete a thorough report. I've heard of some inspectors that give discounts for new homes. Sometimes I feel I should, but I get over this fast, when I think about the many homes I have inspected, where due to deception, or home owner "improvements", I could have made a better hourly rate making milk shakes at a fast food restaurant by the time I finished writing everything up. Lots of hours, low pay, and high liability....maybe I should just buy the big E&O policy and have my secretary pump out some 12 page reports like my competition does.....oops did I say that out loud....

I've been encountering a lot of discrepancies between listing dates and actual dates of construction lately, and as I base my fees on the combination of year built and square footage, I feel I've been getting short changed. For example I've just inspected 2-homes that were listed as built in the mid-1980's, and yet were clearly built in the mid-1880's. Just because a home has received renovations, it does not seem that a realtor should be able to use the renovation dates versus the actual build date. Does anyone know - are there any rules or standards on this? I'm heading out to inspect another one of these shortly....MLS listing photos definitely reflect an older than "1987" build date. Has something perhaps just changed on the rules on this? I've been inspecting for about 10 years now, and have never encountered this before....and now to get 3 in a row just seems strange. Any thoughts?

I'm looking for information on what would be a standard and approved method/material for fireblocking & draftstopping at the point the pipes for a high efficiency direct vent furnace enter the base of a wall chase on route to a through the roof install. Any information would be appreciated. This looks like it would be pain to install metal flashing around. Would ceramic wool be an option? Thanks! Click to Enlarge 41.21 KB

David That's been my experience in the past....full flow to one fixture without any throttle back, and I did see similar information online about some valves with internal pressuring balancing capabilities having compatibility issues with some tankless units. Thanks.

Mike - I browsed a few plumber forums and self-help forums, and there weren't a lot of positive comments about Bosch customer service, so I came here. Bill - could you explain a bit more about "if there is a single fixture operating, there is a problem." Only a single fixture was running when this happened. It went from full flow with great pressure, to about less than 60%. Thanks.

I recently inspected a home with a Bosch AQ125BNG tankless water heater. I turned the shower faucet all the way on to hot and after a few seconds the pressure dropped off significantly....about to the point where it would be hard to get the shampoo out of your hair. The owner of the home explained that this was a characteristic of this particular water heater. He explained that as the demand for hot water increases, the flow drops...by design as it attempts to regulate how much hot water it can deliver at a given pressure. I have never observed this type of drastic drop off in flow while inspecting homes with tankless units. I'd be more inclined to think that this might have something to do with debris obstructed the flow, or something to do with a temperature/pressure balancing faucet component. Anyone else ever observe such a drop off in flow, and know what the cause was? Does the home owner's explanation make sense? I wish I could return to the home and troubleshoot this a bit. I did not observe this at any of the other hot water delivery points, but then again, I was not in the troubleshooting mode, and at the time of the inspection, the client told me that he probably would not keep this unit, so I didn't spend much time trying figure this out. Thanks!

Thanks everyone. This is all good advice. I'm not sure of the brand, I noticed this unit when I was at the home setting up a radon test in advance of my home inspection. Great info. on Sunsetter though.