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Tom Raymond

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Everything posted by Tom Raymond

  1. Tom Raymond
    Mom's house had them everywhere when we moved in. The foil heat sensor disks get brittle and fail and the alarms will go off, usually about 3am. A nickel is a perfect fit.
  2. Tom Raymond
    He could always try a spirit level.
  3. Tom Raymond
    The excavator is right. Your driveway isn't permeable. Once compacted enough to drive on, there will be no space left for water to reach your drainage system. If water pools on your driveway add enough stone to fill the low spots and create a crown to run it off to the sides. Then follow your excavator's advice about the box drains in the trouble spots. If water is running down the drive toward the house install a surface drain conductor and connect it to the box drain. Run everything via gravity that you can. Pumps add cost and complexity.
  4. Tom Raymond
    There are 3 sample reports on my website. A $60k house, a $160k house, and a $460k house. Actual reports for real clients, names and addresses already scrubbed. Clearcreekhomeinspection.com
  5. Tom Raymond
    It's an alcove. The whole left side is open.
  6. Tom Raymond
    What do you think will be an issue? Venting? Both will have alcove requirements in their installation manuals.
  7. Tom Raymond
    That was a failed attempt at humor. And, perhaps a little venting of frustration over the modern struggle for ineptitude spilling over from personal experience.
  8. Tom Raymond
    Why bother troubleshooting? Just defer it to an HVAC tech for review, analysis, and evaluation. Oops. I thought this was Facebook. My bad.
  9. Tom Raymond
    I'm with Les. I'm impressed, but I'm not likely to buy any more insurance than I already have.
  10. Tom Raymond
    Yes. I had a city of Buffalo light commercial license. I was asked four questions, then handed over a check. If I recall correctly it was $350 a year in the 90s. It's about revenue, not public safety.
  11. Tom Raymond
    Exactly my experience in NY. I can be exempt, can be required to have coverage, and am ineligible for benefits. I have been the employer paying far too much for coverage, the injured employee suing for benefits (my attorney made more than I did), and the sole prop forced to comply with rules designed for companies 100x my size. I will take my exempt status whenever possible.
  12. Tom Raymond
    Doctors. There are no doctors offices in my town, or any of the adjacent ones accepting new comp cases. They cost too much to administer, the don't reimburse enough, and what little they do pay takes 90 days or more to receive.
  13. Tom Raymond
    None of the private practices in my area are accepting new workers comp cases anyway. What good is insurance if no one will accept it? I am exempt for about 90% of the work I do. I have resolved the vast majority of the remainder by becoming a w2 employee, making it someone else's problem. Once or twice year, I take my chances.
  14. Tom Raymond
    I've done this several times in NY. As an officer of a corporation (two person partnership S corp) I was eligible for coverage under the corporate comp policy, but only in my capacity as an officer. If I was injured unloading a truck my claim would have been denied. As a Sole Proprietorship, there are several instances where I might be required to have comp coverage, and a few where I am required to "opt in", but none where I am eligible for benefits. Additionally, having both comp and health insurance puts me in a position where both insurers could claim my injuries are the others responsibility. No thanks.
  15. Tom Raymond
    I am flabbergasted at how many cowboys are upset over no longer being hogtied. I don't get it. NY doesn't license any trades. The only time public safety is at risk, or collusion takes place, are the highly regulated public bids and projects.
  16. Tom Raymond
    Insurance is a racket. Never buy more than you have to.
  17. Tom Raymond
    No, but I probably should look into them. We are at near zero inventory. In my zip code there are currently 5 houses for sale. Two are foreclosures, one Is a double wide that has been vacant for a decade or more. It was a total loss when i looked at it 8 years ago, $61k. The other is a little 1960 ranch with tarps on the roof for $30k. There is a new listing 2000sf 1870 colonial for $179k that's probably overpriced. The last is an outlier, 5000sf, 150 acres, $1.2 million in a community with a median price of about $100,000. The neighboring towns aren't much better. We had more inventory at the peak of the crash.
  18. Tom Raymond
    As for the overnotched joists, they rarely split but they always bounce.
  19. Tom Raymond
    Nacho was planning on using their fee calculator to pay nacho members to perform prelisting inspections. He got a lot of pushback for promoting "free" home inspections. At about the same time there were 3 other prelisting programs launched, and he shifted gears to his commercial inspection association. It was all over Facebook about 6 months ago.
  20. Tom Raymond
    I would just follow the slab. If everything is crooked in the same direction by the same amount no one will ever see it. Make one component level and will stick out like a sore thumb. The real trick with the doors you have picked is making sure that the sills are flat. The directions will harp on plumb, level, square...but a flat sill is far more critical. Most of those doors aren't manufactured square.
  21. Tom Raymond
    The only time I shut anything off was the weekend the fire department decided to control burn the house at the end of my street. We don't have backflow prevention so I closed the main. our volunteers have imploded more than one water heater when the pumps pulled more water than the lines could supply.
  22. Tom Raymond
    I would only raise the door if you plan on building up the floor. Put the "one by" on the top.
  23. Tom Raymond
    That's a small space. Hang and tape drywall. The money you save on the plastic ceiling can go toward a plastic floor cover, the concrete patch will always look like a patch.
  24. Tom Raymond
    No, they won't lap nicely. Add strapping and run them the other way, or divide the space with H channels. Or select a different material. Tongue and groove cpvc is nice.
  25. Tom Raymond
    Spendy Costly Expensive There goes your vacation plans Your kid was probably going to drop out of college anyway Whatever it takes to convey the gravity of the situation.
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