Jim Katen

The pipe sticking up out of the ground is just a pipe.

The thing at the very bottom of the pipe is the cover from a backwater valve, as John described. I don't see how anyone can actually open the cover in this situation. Someone should excavate a larger hole and put in a sump liner or something with a little elbow room in place of the pipe.

I went back and inspected the conditions which caused the plumber to refuse installing the water heater. Most of the PVC was still in the "service line" category, even though it wasn't that much. However, whoever added the basement bathroom t'd off and ran PVC on the cold side only to the fixtures close by. All that was up behind ceiling tiles which I did not move during the initial inspection. Anyway, to settle the matter so I could sleep better I offered a refund of the inspection fee and the client accepted.

As for what is truly service piping and what is distribution piping, what is the determining factors? I ask this because I see PVC service pipe from wells running through basements before getting to the well tank. I would like to know for sure, when do I call a pipe a service pipe and when do I call it a distribution pipe?

If a service pipe can run through a structure to a well tank and still be called a service pipe, can it run to a water heater and be called the same?

In our area, the service pipe stops two feet outside of the foundation wall. Even if it's the same pipe, it stops being service pipe and becomes distribution pipe after that. PVC isn't allowed as distribution pipe in a building or under it in my area. Cold or hot doesn't matter. No PVC inside or under the building.

Swisspearl?

The radon action level of 4.0 pCi/l is not a health based threshold; it is more of a skill / equipment / knowhow threshold. The general idea is the less radiation we are exposed to the better. The 4.0 was chosen as the level at which a mitigation system could achieve a significantly lower level of radon inside the home.

It started out that way. Now it's being touted as the "danger" threshold. The radon lady at the last ASHI conference was *absolutely* telling people that 4 pCi/l was a health based action level.

This is old news. The risk from radon and radiation in general is just not well understood. That makes people uncomfortable and public officials tend to set up rules on the side of what they believe is "caution."

This is, in part, why "action levels" for radon are really absurd.

I regularly recommend inserting flashing behind the old caulked butt joints because they *always* fail in my area and they're a maintenance headache. I have a very simple method for fixing this that takes little time and works well.

I don't mention the caulk-filled spaces between head flashings and siding unless I see some kind of problem that's related to it. I have yet to see such a problem.

My guess is that it was a simple mistake. Someone laid a board at the bottom of the form to use it as a nailer. After stripping the form, the board remained and no one cared. Some years down the line, the board rotted. Voila! A slit in the foundation.

. . . I opted for Bonide. It was available locally and I could treat this morning and prep this evening. . . .

Never heard of it. What's in it? Is it listed for use indoors?

We had a pretty large emergence over the last week. The floor has been removed. The only live adults that remain are in a jar so I can identify them (shaking the jar isn't as satisfying as you would think). They look to be anobiid.

There are no signs of damage on the plywood subfloor, or the pine and plywood frame of the closet system.

Before I put the new floor down should I treat? With what? I can't find any of the borate treatments (boracare, Timbor and the like) locally. The only boil acid I can find is roach powder.

Post the best picture you can take of the beetles. If they're anobiids, then there's really not much risk. They need relatively high moisture levels to re-infest anything other than the wood that they started in. You might have been able to leave the wood in place and let the beetles run their course.

If they're lyctids, then they're capable of reinfesting very dry wood. It's worth pre-treating with a chemical before proceeding.

If you treat with anything, use Boracare. Amazon has it for about $70 per gallon and you can dilute it with 5 parts of water for preventive care. That's not particularly expensive.

Probably the easiest way to tell the difference between the two families of beetles is to look at them from the top. Lyctids have distinct body sections of head, thorax, and abdomen. Anobiids, look like they only have two body segments and the head is not particularly distinct.

Your average air handler draws 11 amps or less. Hard to imagine it pulling enough power to heat up the cable.

And while you're up there, consider this app:

https://www.fallsafetyapp.com/

I've found that it works great when I can actually place the phone on the roof or when I can view the rake dead-on.

A lot of people try to use this app to measure the angle of the roof from the ground. That introduces errors and doesn't work.

Can't say I've ever seen anything like it. When you saw it up close, did it look burned?

If I hadn't seen the title of this thread, I would have thought that someone drew a sharpie across it.

Another thought:

Are you sure that those aren't smooth on the inside? I've seen some drain tubing that was corrugated on the outside and smooth on the inside.

I agree that it's a problem. Your code reference is odd though. Perhaps you meant 701.2.3:

Fittings used for drainage shall be of the

drainage type, have a smooth interior waterway,

and be constructed so as to allow one

fourth (1/4) inch per foot (20.9 mm/m) grade.

Given that it's lasted for 100 years so far, I think you should note down the species of tree, the diameter of the logs, and the methods of installation. That would be a good guideline.

I think we are looking at fused disconnects.

Exactly. The switches turn power to each circuit on and off and the fuses provide overcurrent protection.

We're so used to circuit breakers that do both things that we forget that wasn't always the case.

Gypcrete.

It's used all the time in multifamily construction. It's generally pumped in and is self-leveling. If it's not mixed properly it can crack and crumble. You can replace the crumbling sections very easily.

Ok. I'm beginning to get a sense for what you're describing.

It looks like someone parged the exterior surfaces of the walls with some kind of wet, soupy plaster. Not unlike a sack finish but with something other than Portland cement. Over the years, efflorescence has loosened it in spots, blisters have formed, paint has been applied, and the paint itself has blistered with efflorescence.

I'm afraid that I still can't figure out the question.

Are you saying that you've found a cast concrete foundation (with one section made from CMUs) that has a soft, gypsum or foam-like outer surface, which, itself, has form marks on it?

As if someone sprayed something on the interior of the forms before placing the concrete in them?

I really can't tell what I'm looking at in the photos. Could this just be gypsum sheathing?

. . . With the addition of the Mod Fan (Triple Fan) the line up of common trusses is complete. . . .

Surely not.

When I was in school, we had to design a truss in the shape of the Sinclair Dinosaur using the fewest possible members. I could really have used a program like yours then. (Except there was no internet, no personal computers, and we were required to use slide rules because calculators were too expensive. . . )

Actually you do bring up a very serious point with this comment. It would be very useful if I could develop and interface which allows for any custom truss simply by stretching and pulling the center lines of the members, and the insertion of any member by merely drawing a single line. The program then auto draws the members with the appropriate scarf cuts etc... I will need to give this some further thought.

That would be an awesome feature.

Audible would be good enough for me to call it wrong.

Are you sure that they didn't run the vent connector into the ash dump?

. . . With the addition of the Mod Fan (Triple Fan) the line up of common trusses is complete. . . .

Surely not.

When I was in school, we had to design a truss in the shape of the Sinclair Dinosaur using the fewest possible members. I could really have used a program like yours then. (Except there was no internet, no personal computers, and we were required to use slide rules because calculators were too expensive. . . )

. . . Plank subfloor- old house.. . .

Hey, speak for yourself. We still occasionally use car decking subfloors here.