Chris Bernhardt

My reports are photo intensive. I have a photo covering every item in the report. Clients love it, and it brings me biz, along with the IR camera thingy. I dropped the comprehensive narrative speech a while back, and simplified it following the remarks that Kurt has made in the past. In my opinion, my clients don't give a crap why something is a problem. They want me to cover their ass, like Jim Katen says. Show them a photo of the issue with an arrow pointing to it even if it's obvious, and tell them it needs to be fixed if they don't what to have problems x, y, and z. If for some reason I feel like expounding on some item in the report, I do it now in an email to the client or do it in person in the walk & talk. Otherwise the narrative is limited to a sentence or two per item. That being said many times I'll end up with say 3 or 4 sentences intially, but then I chop it back to one or two. With photos, there's just no reason to write more than that. Concerning Kimball's originally post, I'm fine with the brick molding in lieu of the drip metal on the rakes. It works just fine around here. If I see exposed roof decking along the rake, I'll tell them to get it covered if they don't want leaks or damage to the roof decking. Chris, Oregon

What Scott Patterson said. Looks like someone pouring hazardous waste into the toilet with it dripping down off the bottom of the container forming a pool and then running to the floor drain. Chris, Oregon

My basic protocol is to visually observe say a gas furnace and take pictures of it before I touch it. I'll pull the covers and again visually observe it and take pictures before I touch it further. After I am satisfied that it appears safe to turn on, I'll go turn the thermostat on. I usually turn it up high, cause I want to be sure it stays on and not reach temp before I'm ready in case I get off onto something else for a moment. I also want to determine if it's short cycling. After I am satisfied it's not short cycling or not kicking off for some other reason, I'll turn the thermostat down and observe where it kicks off. If it's the summer time I'll start with the A/C. I see mostly gas furnaces, followed by electric systems (heat pumps, baseboards, Cadet heaters), then oil furnaces and then rarely boilers. If the furnace is dusty, I usually automatically write it up for cleaning and service. I look for the filters, identify their location and whether they need cleaning or replacing or just installing. I look for and at the automatic safety controls to make sure they haven't been bypassed. I try to figure out how old the furnace is and whether it's past or close to it's expected service and report on that. I observe how the furnace operates, startup, flames, shutsdown, etc. I look for code violations, and make sure there are adequate combustion air sources means, and observe for venting problems and contraventions. In my area I see a lot of the same brands and have gotten familiar over the years how they should be operating. There are so many things to look at and consider, but they are pretty much contained in one area, so it goes pretty quick. Some guys will check for CO, but you'll almost always find some, your findings will probably not be reproducible and will change based on various conditions. The distribution system is another whole ball of wax. What I recommend is that if you haven't already, join some local HI associations and inquire with the local brethren. What we recommend here will vary regionally. Also Mike O. has got a really good protocol list of things to do covering various systems floating somewhere about this site. Chris, Oregon

I use 11pt Garamond and 9 & 10 pt Constantia. Chris, Oregon

I use "Merge". You have to fiddle with it a bit. You bring the first pic in and size it, then the IR pic and scale and position it, which shows up in a third window as the composite pic. It's not perfect. You have to try and take the photo and the IR pic at the same azimuths. Chris, Oregon

The laser pointer is important; I use mine all the time to pin point anomalies for scanning with my moisture meter. I have heard that the picture in picture thing is not used for scanning so much as for taking the shot for the report. You can do picture in picture with the flir Bcam, you just need to do it offline in the computer with some freeware that allows you to overlay photos. As far as the resolution, more will get you better pics, but you can easily get by on the Bcams resolution for trying to uncover wet walls, ceilings and floors, etc. Chris, Oregon

The dishwasher drain line is covered under Section 807.4 in the UPC. No domestic dishwashing machine shall be directly connected to a drainage system or food waste disposer without the use of an approved dishwasher air gap fitting on the discharge side of the dishwashing machine. Listed air gaps shall be installed with the flood-level (FL) marking at or above the flood level of the sink or drain board, whichever is higher. In Oregon it was covered under Section P3029.3 A domestic-type dishwasher having a pump for the removing of waste water may discharge over the sink or, if the discharge pipe from the pump is extended to the underside of the cabinet top and securely anchored to preclude the danger of sink waste water from flowing back into the dishwasher, it may be connected to a fitting or other inlet between the sink and sink trap. The discharge pipe extending from the inlet side of the sink trap shall be copper tube or other material approved for such purposes. I thought there was another code ref requiring connection to the disposer if present, but now I can't find it. Chris, Oregon

I run into that alot. I keep flipping the switches periodically, maybe tap on the control valve. I don't know why, but it seems to work. I have found the fan switch mis-wired on occasion requiring both switches to be on. What I hate is having to hold the pilot down for 5 minutes to bleed it when someone had turned the gas off. Chris, Oregon

If it's warping that much it's probably how it's fastened, not some abnormal moisture problem. Is the warping primarily on the weather side? Chris, Oregon

Jim, then I take it we should be calling into question any ledger not connected per Woeste, et. al.; just like the one in your photo? On new construction I can't recall seeing any ledgers connected like the one in your photo, at best they will be bolted in a single line spaced pretty far apart. Chris, Oregon

Another argument is that the NDS doesn't cover lag bolt connected ledgers, thus neither does the IRC, so the builder can't say it conforms to the IRC prescriptively. He would have to cite some test and get it approved by the AHJ, for which I think Woeste et. Al. have already done, test that is. Chris, Oregon

Is there a citeable definition for positive anchorage? In the research I have done the term with respect to the ledger means that the ledger should be flat grained & not vertically grained also. Chris, Oregon

The main criteria for condeming the roof for me was the degree of splitting of the shakes, but there are plenty of secondary issues (butt rott, wear thru, messed up interlayment, etc.). Anyone trying to make repairs will only cause more shakes to splinter with every step they make, leaking will follow. With the butt rot, it's not the rot in the butt, but the infection it tends to cause in the shake underneath. The rot also aids splintering, however not the primary cause of it. What I do is count up how many shakes I think need replacing. There's 40 to a bundle and every bundle I count as about $150 shakes & labor. After three bundles or so, I usually stop counting if it looks like there's a few more bundles to go and start justifying the roofs replacement. I use the installation criteria from the Cedar Shake & Shingle Bureau (A lot of roofers I know don't and they make up their own criteria). I hate shake roofs myself, the only purpose of the shakes is to keep the underlayment pinned down so the wind doesn't lift it and blow rain in underneath[]. When repairs are advisable, I tell clients to find a roofer who loves shake roofs, cause he's the only one likely to make proper repairs. Anyone else, particularly asphalt shingle guys, will either condem it or make incomplete and half ass repairs using metal shingles, etc. Chris, Oregon

I've been recommending following the "Prescriptive Residential Deck Construction Guide" put out by www.awc.org, which is based on the IRC - sort of. Thats fine for residential, but there is not a like guide for commercial as far as I know. Chris, Oregon

Darren, judging by the pics that roof is toast. Call for replacement. Chris, Oregon

What would be the narrative? Understand that a proper remediation costs thousands of dollars (air seal all penetrations between home and attic, correct ventilation deficiencies, sand off mold stains, etc). Option two is to cold fog the attic with a mold control agent every couple of years (only a few hundred dollars)? The difficulty is in trying to figure out in some cases what is or was the moisture source. Is there only moderate mold staining at north side eaves or is it a completely black attic. How do you go about deciding which cases support using a mold control agent vrs full remediation or do you just give them the options and let them decide. You know a number of them are still going to ask us which is the best option to go with if it was our house. Chris, Oregon

To cure a double tap at a breaker, can wires simply be crimped together like the ones in the photo? Click to Enlarge 40.9 KB Chris, Oregon

I have often recommended fogging black attics with Concrobium even after ventilation increases have been made, but I have been recently reconsidering that advice. If ventilation is adequate, then the moisture content of the roof decking should never get high enough to support mold growth and thus a mold control agent is a waste of money. The problem is determining what ventilation changes will result in adequate ventilation. I can think of a number examples where passive ventilation just won't work. Clients want a solution that is guaranteed to work now, not some recommendation for monitoring and trial & error solutions. Chris, Oregon

The aquant/sm is good for the first 1/4" or so of a material. If you want to detect roof leaks dripping on the back side surface of ceiling drywall, you'll need a tramex moisture encounter plus. I use four different moisture meters in practice, perhaps more if I find another one with some set of exclusive characteristics. Chris, Oregon

If a remediator has actually done their job and remediated then according to CPC no application of mold control agents are needed; doing so is akin to selling snake oil. We're asked for advice all the time on this subject, are there then any instances where the application of mold control agents is justified? Chris, Oregon

How long does common molds take to grow once a surface has reached conditions to support growth? I believe it varies with the different molds, does it also vary with different substrates given equal active water levels? Is the time about 2 days, 1 week or a month? Chris, Oregon

Let's take for example the case for drywall, does it require that the bulk thickness of an area of drywall become saturated (paper facing & gypsum) or does it only require that the paper facing become saturated to support mold growth? Chris, Oregon

What causes plywood roof decking to delaminate? Is it moisture or heat? Chris, Oregon

I figured it was a EW call, but wanted to poke my foot in it. That's why if any EW stuff comes up I tell em to call Jim Katen. Don't put me up there or I will be spending the next month trying to get both my feet out of my mouth; it may even take surgery. I read it somewhere, that while decay fungi could snip away, that mold could not as easy breakdown wood past the surface. Based on this and past discussions I was theorizing that if you could mfg plywood or OSB without tearing the surfaces as much that they would be less susceptable to colonization like the trusses are. I didn't know, but suspected that was the truth of it. Chris, Oregon

Looks like an old fart inspectors house. Bet the owner claims it was all that way when he bought it and that the FPE panel has never had a fire. Chris, Oregon