Jim Katen

Why not call your local building department and ask? 

Because it never works well. Things expand and contract, the caulk fails, and water gets behind the siding. 

15 hours ago, Bobby Jim said:

We usually see metal pans at the top of the piers . . . 

 Don't the termites just build tubes around the metal? 

20 hours ago, Bobby Jim said:

I inspected a building with plastic sheeting being used as a termite barrier on newly added piers. Is this acceptable?

Hell no. 

Termites will chew through that plastic like a puppy chewing through a new carpet. 

Does anything work as a termite barrier in your area? Around here, they just go around whatever barrier we put up. 

By going to a truss manufacturer, you get your engineering - essentially - for free. 

This is what those guys do, every day, all day. 

Take your desired design to a truss manufacturer and ask their designer to fix you up with a scissor truss package. 

7 hours ago, PNWpro said:

Jim, we insulate our foundations to compensate for the lack of depth. Basically trying to keep a "bubble" of earth below the home from freezing. We'll install rigid foam insulation at footer depth (typically 4'-8' deep for residential construction). The rigid foam is installed horizontally extending 2'-4' wider than the foundation, and 4" thick or more. ICF's are common. As far as protecting water lines from freezing the rule of thumb in my area is 10' deep for fresh water supply lines. 

If you're doing a frost-protected footing that's 4'-8' deep, why not just build a basement while you're at it?  It would be the cheapest square footage in the house.  

I really don't know. In fact, I'd forgotten about this discussion. Now I'll have to go back to the auto store, find those lamps and start messing with them again. 

Thanks for the clarification, Mike. Yes, a 120v/240v circuit is, by definition, a multiwire circuit as well. So that slightly simplifies the answer to Johnny-A's question. The difference between a MWC and a 240-volt circuit is that one will have a neutral and one won't. (Well, that and the circuit sizes.) 

16 hours ago, mtwitty said:

If it is sharing a neutral with another circuit, your customer may just have to lose their affection for the old plates.

I see a 3-d printer in their future . . . 

Good question. You can't always tell. It's just a guess. In most cases, however, a regular 240-volt circuit won't require a neutral and the installer won't waste money installing a cable with an unnecessary neutral wire. So most 240-volt circuits will re-identify the white wire and use it as one of the "hot" wires.

They could be 120v/240v circuits - where an appliance uses both voltages. Those would be indistinguishable from a multi-wire circuit when viewed from the panel. However, there aren't too many 15-amp or 20-amp 120v/240v appliances. (Electric ranges come to mind - they often need both 240-volts for the elements and 120 volts for the controls, but they're almost always 40 or 50 amps.) 

If you were inspecting the house, you'd be able to tell for sure simply by observing what electrical appliances were installed. 

The overwhelming likelihood, though, is that they're MWCs, which are very common and which, until relatively recently, required no handle ties. 

7 hours ago, richard hargreaves said:

good morning I have an old but very reliable Airco Furnace model WBS2-90, I need to replace the filters in the unit but I cannot locate where they are.  Any clues

Thank you Richard

The filter (or filters) will be somewhere in the return air stream - they could be anywhere. Start at the furnace's blower compartment and work your way back to the return-air grille. If you don't find the filter, hire an HVAC contractor to install a filter housing for you. 

I'm in Oregon - no where near as cold a climate as you - and I occasionally see heavy condensation at the rim joists; it's just not cold enough here for it to freeze . Every time I find this, I find a corresponding high moisture condition somewhere in the space.  

Aside from your main question, I'm curious. Around here, foundation footings are supposed to be placed below the frost line. How do you cope with that in your environment? Do you just have super deep crawlspaces? 

Love the bedsprings. 

I suspect that there's a complementary rule that's part of the UL listings for various products. That's why virtually all space heaters, toaster ovens, etc have limited power ratings. 

Remember that 210.23 only applies to "multiple-outlet branch circuits." When a branch circuit has two or more outlets, then any one piece of equipment can't exceed 80% of the branch circuit amp rating. Designers and installers need to keep this in mind when designing and installing the electrical system. This part of the code applies to them. 

A manufacturer can still make a piece of equipment with a standard 15-amp plug that uses more than 12 amps but it should only be used on an "individual branch circuit" and, of course must not exceed 15 amps (per 210.22) Same goes for a dryer on a 30 amp circuit. That's why some appliances include instructions to power them only from dedicated (individual) circuits. 

I doubt that there's an industry standard. It's a rare enough specialty that you can do whatever you want. I've only done it once; the pre-inspection took far longer than the post inspection, but I charged the same for both. No one quibbled. 

On 1/23/2020 at 12:37 PM, dannyghostwriter said:

Im using tablet as well, but after a while I just found out that was the biggest mistake. I just dropped my new one, next time notebook or laptop. Im unlucky. First one was destroyed by my kids and now that. iPad Air 64GB.

If you have butterfingers, what's to stop you from dropping a notebook or laptop? Why not invest in a rugged case for whatever you use? 

A filter? (WAG) 

That's one of my more tame shirts. We missed you. 

It was great to finally meet Marc and his wife, we've been having fun. 

I don't understand.

• Nurses are on their feet all day; wouldn't she be better off wearing flats?
• Pantyhose came out in 1959. I'd have thought that nurses would have been early adopters. 
• And what's with the dog? Is this a *veterinary* nurse?

51 minutes ago, Mark P said:

As the person that started this thread way back in 2014, I can report that we are happy with the water heater and have no regrets in the purchase.  

I'm curious, does yours have the "advanced flow control feature." If so, does it work well? If not, do you get temperature swings when you turn multiple fixtures on and off? What did it do to your electric bill? 

On 1/18/2020 at 6:13 AM, Marc said:

That's about 123,000 btu/hr.  The largest resid gas-fueled tankless heater you'll find here is 199,000 btu/hr, so 123K isn't too bad off.  The service entrances must be large and the electrical grid possessed of abundant capacity for the utility to allow such a thirsty water heater.

Yes. Each unit had a 175-amp service with what looked like oversized feeders. When the water heaters were running, the meters spun furiously. They could easily accommodate two showers at once, but when you added the dishwasher & washing machine, they just dribbled. 

On 1/18/2020 at 4:38 AM, Les said:

how did you write it.  not looking for verbatim, rather how was it reported?  This info is what i learned today; january 18th, 2020.

 

I didn't write it. Our inspection was on Thursday & Friday and I left for IW first thing Saturday. One of my partners will be writing it this weekend. If I were to write the report, I'd include it as an FYI note: 

These water heaters have an “Advanced Flow Control” feature. It ensures that the hot water temperature doesn’t fluctuate very much (a common problem with many other on-demand water heaters), but it does this by reducing the flow of water when too many fixtures run at once. For instance, if a resident runs the dishwasher and the washing machine (on hot setting) while taking a shower, the shower flow will be much lower than it would be if the other fixtures weren’t running. Consider telling the residents about this at their orientation to avoid complaints after they move in.