Big Bill

Guess I assumed that it wasn't load bearing. Interior basement walls. 10 yr old bsmt. I-Joist (I viewed) to what I assumed was an I-Beam to pillar to footing. Most of the area was finnished. An area of 30'x35' maybe. I'll see what I can do for pictures next week. The followup Radon measurement was delayed due to the homeowner unplugging the measuring device for us... Thanks... Sorry, my guy didn't get pictures as requested...

I sure couldn't think of a reason, let alone a good reason for the plates to be 1-1/2" embedded. Perhaps they for some reason added the 1-1/2 inches of concrete to a bad floor (whatever) and then added a second plate to the perimiter framing, raising it the 1-1/2"s seen now...I was curious if there was a common practice I hadn't seen... Guess not! We gotta get in there to complete the post mitigation test and I'll try and explore further...Thanks!

Was helping my son do a radon mitigation this am. It's a 10 yr. old collonial w/full bsmt. While he was sealing cold sems in the basement he asked me about the 2x4 bottom plates embedded in the concrete (flush, 1-1/2 into). After inspection, the bottom plates in question were for the interior walls only, but where the abutted the ext. wall bottom plate they continued under and up to the poured wall. Will they have concrete beneath them? Will it have air/barrior to the sub-grade? He asks. I says sure, I dont know why they'd embed these bottom plates, but there should be 3" concrete there no matter what. Later while doing a smoke test he found that, yes the air was drawing past the embedded bottom plate. so... He's left sealing the 2x4's that he can access and hoping for the best. I'm wondering who's seen this done and why? It doesn't look loke a second pour. The ext. wall sill boards were typical. Sorry no pic, but its just bottom plate embedded flush...

At my house in WI I contribute the upstairs moisture to the bathroom shower. That and the fact that the cold air returns are not quite balanced. It's an 80 year old cape cod. I also think the window and window jam are the least energy efficient insulators. The bathroom shower isn't used oftne in winter because that would instigate ice damming which is way worse than the small puddle in the ol' sill. Ya gotta love the nort' eh? bill

Thanks for the help! hard to believe this amateur wiring job had a 10 amp fuse in it, but the color was a little un-defined and if one puts a penny behind it it'll save a trip to the store and $1.65...

I was looking over this old style auxillary panel which had a couple problems including over-fused circit, and a double on the feed side of the panel leaving it un-protected. When I observed one of the glass fuses the fuse rating was'nt legible and it was gray in color unlike the 15 and 20 amp fuses, blue and red. Can someone simply list the colors of the common glass fuses? The local home improvement didn't have a gray fuse...I've searched the www to no resolve...Thanks, Bill O