Jim Katen

Garet's retired, but he might be able to recommend someone. 

. . . and some split bus panels don't allow single pole breakers or tandem breakers in the upper section. See the schematic on the panel; it reveals all. 

It looks exactly the same as any other j-channel window but with a clunky fake brickmold trim built into it. 

Traditionally, it needs no flashing. The top piece is angled to shed water and the 1st course of siding is beveled at a slightly sharper angle.  Portland is full of houses with this detail intact from the pre-war era. 

A self-insulating attic. . . 

Let me know when you'll be in Portland and we can meet up somewhere. 

What time of year? 

I suggest that, after Portland, you head west, see the Oregon wine country, and head for the coast. Take highway 101 into California. It's a much more interesting drive than I-5. Perhaps cut back east on 128 and go through Napa before heading into San Francisco. 

It only needs a pound or two of pressure to work. I'm guessing that there are controls that keep it in that range and some kind of safety relief valve that backs up the controls if they fail. 

It shouldn't blow steam at all. The steam should remain contained in the radiator, condense inside it, and run back into the heating chamber via gravity. I imagine that you'd occasionally replace the water, but probably not all that often. 

The more I read that ad, the more I want one. 

I think what you're looking for is in 334.15(B): 

Quote

(B) Protection from Physical Damage. Cable shall be protected from physical damage where necessary by rigid metal conduit, intermediate metal conduit, electrical metallic tubing, schedule 80 PVC conduit, or other approved means. Where passing through a floor, the cable shall be enclosed in rigid metal conduit, intermediate metal conduit, electrical metallic tubing, Schedule 80 PVC conduit, or other approved means extending at least 150 mm (6 in.) above the floor.

There's nothing wrong with having NM cable simply "exposed," but it's not supposed to be exposed to damage. 

20 hours ago, John Kogel said:

I suspect the steam is just in the name. You wouldn't want steam in there with no place to go.

You can check something like that with your DMM. Measure the resistance between the prongs of the plug, Make sure the switch is on. Almost zero or zero resistance, it's shorted. Infinite resistance, it's burned out.

I don't know if it makes steam or not, but if it did, the steam would go into the radiator the same as it would in a regular steam system. There'd be an air vent that would let out the air and snap shut when the steam hit it. 

I've never had luck identifying heating elements with a DMM. They always read zero for me - even when they're fine. What am I missing? 

What do you suppose is the point? An electric baseboard heater would produce heat at 100% efficiency. You can even get "hydronic" ones filled with oil. Why generate steam for one location? 

Unless, of course, you could make it hiss, spit, or make klunk, klunk, klunk noises. Then it would be authentic. 

Now I feel like I have to get a bigger planer. . . 

They don't look anything like the chips that come off my planer, but I just have a little wuss planer. 

Given that they look like cedar, I was wondering if they might be related to the production of those milled cedar sidewall shakes that were so ubiquitous in the middle part of the last century. 

I occasionally see this stuff, but I've never found an official name for it. (It looks like cedar.) An old timer once told me that it was "mill tailings."  If so, what milling process would produce it?

13 hours ago, Mike Lamb said:

will soft delaminated plywood adversely affect the roof life or performance?

No one knows. 

I'd describe the issue, tell them to replace the damaged sheathing when they eventually replace the roof, and tell them that there's no way to determine whether or not the existing deteriorated sheathing will have any effect on the performance of the shingles. 

Why five of them? That's way beyond "over the top." 

1991 is the date of the ANSI standard. 

I'm inclined to think 1993 as well. 

It could have been done better (tapcons, shims, structural sealant joint, etc) but really, for what it is, it looks fine to me. If this is the contractor's worst blunder, I'd be fine with it. By the way, it's not too late to toss in a few tapcons. . . 

Ah, of course. 

As for the PDU, I have no idea why he has it up there. 

Actually, they're not. I've seen smaller cameras. But if they're cameras, why are there two of them? 3D movies of the burglar? 

Does anyone have any idea what these peculiar sensors are? They're mounted on the ceiling above the garage door opener and both seem to point toward the passage door that leads into the house. They're not safety sensors - those are mounted on the door jamb as usual. 

In the '70s I worked on some buildings that looked like that when we finished building them. 

18 hours ago, hausdok said:

I was still in the Army when they retired those and sent them to the National Guard. We were sad to see them go. For a while they could be seen here and there when the NG outfits that had them were drilling  but after a while we didn't see them anymore.

What are they called? 

Somehow, they remind me of those pictures of kids with anorexia. . . 

I've got two Rheem/Ruud heat pumps. One paired with a gas furnace and one with an electric furnace. They've both been very solid performers. I like their stuff because the outdoor cabinets are heavy and well painted and the louvered openings protect the coils. Their controls are good and they've been leaders in variable speed technology. In my area, the oldest equipment that's still running is usually Rheem or Lennox. 

I've seen more Carrier equipment than any other brand, mostly because it was the favorite brand of one of the better installers in one town near me. It seems like it's always been reliable - but it's generally been installed by a really good installer. The heat pump coils are generally exposed outdoors and tend to be easily damaged. 

The Trane coil bristles were always a pain in the butt to clean, but it seems that Trane has moved away from bristles and toward fins. . . 

Lennox used to make really fine equipment with mostly, if not all, proprietary parts. Their stuff was like tanks. In the last several years, though, it seems like it's turned into a builder-grade commodity product. 

York, Coleman, Luxaire, Nordyne, etc are all crap. 

Goodman/Amana seems to be a decent budget choice. Kind of like a Kia. They're much better than they used to be. That said, every time I see an older Goodman product, there's something wrong with it - usually, something easily fixed, but something wrong nonetheless. 

16 hours ago, Tom Raymond said:

Plug in halogen work light. No shared neutrals.

If you have the opportunity and the time, it might be interesting to wire the Kirby and the work light directly to the AFCI breaker to eliminate other variables in the household wiring. 

Also, do you know the brand of AFCIs that were doing this?