Had some work in PA

[Chad Fabry]

I drove through central PA yesterday and today performing PV inspections.

A few shots of the end of an era.

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[kurt]

Mail Pouch. That's old.

I went through there this summer. I got off the expressway, and saw a few similar things.

Kinda sad and forlorn.

[John Kogel]

If you could ship those old timbers out to the coast, they'd find a new life in million dollar homes. []

[Brandon Whitmore]

Dang it. I was holding my breath reading the responses in the hopes that the question was asked.

Chad-- what's a PV inspection.

[hausdok]

Poly voltaic

[Brandon Whitmore]

Ahhh, thanks Mike.

[Inspectorjoe]

It's sad to see old farms revert back to woodland, as it appears to be happening in two of the pictures. I can't image the back breaking labor that it took to originally clear the land. I have mixed feelings about deteriorating abandoned barns though. I might prefer to see a barn live out its life with a bit of dignity, rather than be bastardized into something grotesque. I'm all for adaptive reuse of urban buildings, but some of the barn conversions I've seen just make me shake my head at the insensitivity toward maintaining even a small sense of the original aesthetics.

This 'end of an era' has been happening for a long time. Eric Sloane was documenting it more than 50 years ago. One of my favorite books of his is Our Vanishing Landscape

Speaking of adaptive reuse, I found a really cool bridge Saturday. I was near a foreclosure that I'm inspecting this Friday. It's 4,000 sf and the original section was built in 1831, so I thought I'd swing by to get a handle on what to expect. The property has a creek on the east side. I've driven over bridge at the southeast corner of the property at least a hundred times, but have never seen any of the structure. It seemed like your run of the mill steel framed bridge with a concrete deck, but it was arched instead of being flat. Seeing it from the side, I was amazed to see it was actually a single lane stone arch bridge that had been converted to two lanes by placing I beams through the walls and placing a new deck on top of them.

I would have loved to have seen them do it, but it happened the year before I was born. The pictures are here.

[Rob Amaral]

...you mean 'Photo Voltaic" ....

[kurt]

It's sad to see old farms revert back to woodland, as it appears to be happening in two of the pictures. I can't image the back breaking labor that it took to originally clear the land. I have mixed feelings about deteriorating abandoned barns though. I might prefer to see a barn live out its life with a bit of dignity, rather than be bastardized into something grotesque. I'm all for adaptive reuse of urban buildings, but some of the barn conversions I've seen just make me shake my head at the insensitivity toward maintaining even a small sense of the original aesthetics.

This 'end of an era' has been happening for a long time. Eric Sloane was documenting it more than 50 years ago. One of my favorite books of his is Our Vanishing Landscape

Speaking of adaptive reuse, I found a really cool bridge Saturday. I was near a foreclosure that I'm inspecting this Friday. It's 4,000 sf and the original section was built in 1831, so I thought I'd swing by to get a handle on what to expect. The property has a creek on the east side. I've driven over bridge at the southeast corner of the property at least a hundred times, but have never seen any of the structure. It seemed like your run of the mill steel framed bridge with a concrete deck, but it was arched instead of being flat. Seeing it from the side, I was amazed to see it was actually a single lane stone arch bridge that had been converted to two lanes by placing I beams through the walls and placing a new deck on top of them.

I would have loved to have seen them do it, but it happened the year before I was born. The pictures are here.

Damn, that's a gorgeous bit of stonework someone hacked up with their expansion.

Is a PV inspection a new way of saying "I was getting some sun"?

[Nolan Kienitz]

Is a PV inspection a new way of saying "I was getting some sun"?

Chad needs to add the PV 'tan line' image [:-slaphap

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[Inspectorjoe]

[quote name="kurt

]Damn' date=' that's a gorgeous bit of stonework someone hacked up with their expansion.[/quote']

Yes, but it's better than the usual alternative of demolition, which is slated to happen to another stone arch bridge in the county. The township it is located in apparently wants to save it. They hired DeGruchy to assess it. He says it can be saved. It's still in line for demolition and replacement.

DeGruchy's assessment

For some reason, covered bridges seem to be much more valued than stone arch bridges. A while back I crossed over the Cabin Run Bridge on the way to an inspection in a neighboring county. This Town Lattice Truss bridge was built in 1874. Going under it, I was amazed to see that it's supported by huge steel I-beams. I can't imagine how they placed them.

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[kurt]

Very nice. Very.

[hausdok]

...you mean 'Photo Voltaic" ....

Hi,

No, I meant polyvoltaic. I assumed that he was inspecting new tech which would probably be silicon based polysilicon PV cells which are generally referred to as polyvoltaic systems and used for electrical power like stand alone chargers for certain farm equipment.

Could be he meant photovoltaic though. Guess he'll have to say what he's up to.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Chad Fabry]

I meant photovoltaic. I do some QC work for a west coast company that wants to ensure their product is properly installed and safe.