John Kogel

To fix it he would have to cut the window. He'd have to buy a special saw blade for that. I wonder why he didn't just dig a hole in the ground?😀 I know, late to the party, but we do need to stay active.

The correct light switch with a builtin dimmer should supply only your ceiling fixture. It is typical to see split outlets with one side always hot and the other controlled by a normal light switch, especially in housing where the builders never installed a ceiling fixture. It is also typical to see where Mr. Handy has messed around with the outlets and fixtures.

Right, Our house had old scuffed lino on the floor and loose vermicky in the attic. My Dad died from smoking, but my sis still lives there, having renovated in about 1984. Like you, Mike, I hung out in a gas station and would drop brake drums on the floor to knocj the black dust off them. But that changes nothing for the home owners of today. They simply don't want it in their homes, and I agree, why expose your grandkids to asbestos needles in the air if you can avoid it? Still you could easily recreate those wonderful flooring pictures and sell posters. Mike Lamb would be happy to accept royalties for the use of his any of his pics I'm sure.😁.

Good luck finding a buyer that isn't freaked out by asbestos. 😟

We are seeing drone videos everywhere now. Realtors use them to get arial views of the property. This could be a foot in the door for a home inspector in the second decade of this century. I imagine You could offer cheap shots of the house, and I'm using the catch phrases liberally for those who read between the lines. Cheap shots, then foot in the door, because part of the roof nobody looks at is the back of the attic. So send your drone back there to clear out the cobwebs. When I was inspecting steady, I couldn't take the time to do droning, too. I used the pole camera a fair amount, especially for condo buildings when I couldn't get roof access, I'd find a window on the top floor. Drones of today seem to be quite sophisticated and if there's anything that gets a realtor's attention, sophistication is something we can all use to our advantage, y'all. 😎

Well thanks for stickin' around. Up here in retirement villa, I am surrounded by boring old farts, so it's cool to get on here where I'm surrounded by uh bunch nice people. 😎

Hope y'all hang in there for a while yet. Sorry to read about your stroke of bad luck, Mike. Keep walking as much as you can. Too bad about the Packard Studey but life goes on. The rest of that stuff is just stuff. It has not much value in the digital world of today. The valuables are what we all have between our ears. Take care of that and your family support group. Jerry, I had a triple bypass surgery in 2015, died for a couple of minutes in recovery, got better, sold our home and bought a better house, Spent 14 months building a rental unit that paid for itself in 2 years and is now providing a solid income supplement. Retirement is sweet. My wife helped me get back on my feet, starting with baby steps and progressing to more and more steps for the first 3 months. Now we ride bikes or E-bikes or walk every day. But I have been lucky too, to have good bones and joints. Take care of what you've got. Cheers.

Oops, I read your first post too quick. What I wrote above is not wrong, but your little tester is indicating worse than a simple hot and neutral reversed. Sorry, there is definitely an issue at that outlet, could be a broken neutral wire or something shorted to the outer shield. Get an electrician to check it out. That wiring is 75 years old and is overdue to be replaced. They might be able to run some new wiring in the basement or attic to minimize fishing behind the lath and plaster. It is not something to ignore or put off till some other time.

Hello Zach. When the BX wiring was installed there was no ground prong on power cords and outlets had two identical slots. So it is normal for black and white wires to be mixed up a bit. If the outlets were changed to new 3-prong types, good chance they were installed wrong. Somebody got the white wire energized and didn't see a problem with that, probably. It only became an issue when the polarized 3-prong outlets were put in. When you get a whole string of outlets in reverse, the first wrong one in the chain can be corrected and that should correct the polarity for all of them. This is a general statement because we can't see what you've got there. Old BX wiring should all be checked by an electrician. He can check for leakage from damaged insulation,. fire hazards, over-fused circuits, etc.

Speaking of stranded AL here's why bare stranded aluminum is not acceptable for connection to a grounding rod. At least that is the Canadian rule, must be copper. I had rigged up a subpanel in a shed on the edge of a patch of bush, and for the grounding, I used a loose chunk of bare Al stripped from a length of used triplex, the typical overhead feeder of 3 cables twisted together. About 10 years later, The bottom end was buried in damp leaves and debris. The end of the cable under the leaves had rotted completely away.

Right, it's not just about inspecting houses, it's about pole barns and Mustangs and sharing the great fortunes good and bad that occur in our lives. Hope you stick around for inputs now and then, John.

It's tricky, because when the authority comes knocking on his door, the neighbor will suspect you ratted on him. Maybe have the authority come out to your place to talk about drainage of your property, act dumb about the neighbor's mess. If there's trouble with your neighbor, you just assumed he had the necessary permits. You can't imagine doing all that work without permits. I have found that the best way to deal with the municipal authority is to ask before you act and get him helping you. He will suggest the best way to get the result and become your buddy instead of an adversary.

What Tom said, or if she's younger, ask her mother.

AHJ = authority having jurisdiction, something I learned here.😎 Re: the chicken question, I've learned it's often better not to ask "why?'. Thanks for posting, Jerry, the best answer so far.

Of the different report programs I used, as I subbed for other inspectors and had to use their systems, I liked Home Inspector Pro the original version, which I told the others about but everyone has their own favorite. The HIP report was a simple pdf. file that could be attached to an email or printed if they had to have paper.. There were no additional fees for the use of HIP, just the one purchase price and no need to upload reports to the Cloud, What a pain that is when you're all over the map searching for a wifi connection, cellphone hotspot with flaky cell reception, sheesh, that takes time. I couldn't work with a tablet, too awkward to take up the ladder, and too fragile to drop. Poking at the screen with your finger like a 2-year old kid. 😛 Each report when I used my own system was a simple pdf file, I attached a copy to a friendly email greeting and off it went. I had no trouble writing a 14 page report as long as my laptop was in working order, in about an hour. I'd take simple notes during the inspection because that is the only way not to forget something. I used a normal camera with flash and zoom, loaded pics into a file folder, had the report already started with a cover page, and some standard comments from a prior search of the listing, so a few minutes to load pictures into each page and write up the defects. I'd have three hours before meeting with the clients, and if they were a little slow arriving. I'd often have the report ready for them. I could always show them roof, attic and crawl pictures on the laptop after a walkthrough of the house. Before sending, always check it again, and check notes and pics again, always.