News

Sorry no bathroom in this one...found it the other day. Great truck only need very minor modifications to be ready...

Attachment 65650

Attachment 65650

Attachment 65651

Attachment 65652

Attachment 65653

Attachment 65654

Runs great and only had 8000 miles on it!
Attached Thumbnails          

Looking into buying four of these. These would be used during OSHA audits to determine if a hearing conservation program is necessary in an industrial environment. Anybody have one? Looking for some purchasing advice.

I have a client who wanted to know why, when her oven was on, her countertop on both sides of oven got really hot, and the oven housing hot to the touch. Is that oven malfunction?

This home was built in 2005. I don't think I will be doing a wind mitigation inspection for the home, but if I were, what would this be classified as on the 1802 form?

I'll contact Simpson Tuesday as I seem to remember seeing this strap in their catalog.
Attached Thumbnails      

When I went to furnace school a long time ago, we were told that furnace room doors should open out. However, I am unable to find this in the Alberta building code, it only says that furnace rooms must have a door, (DOH!)

The reasoning was that if a someone was in the room and passed out because they electrocuted or gassed themselves, they might fall in front of the door, so if the door opens in, the dead or incapacitated service man would be blocking the door.

I just left a door opening in furnace room but it was plenty big enough that a service man down could be shoved aside and the door opened, provided of course that the service guy or gal was smaller than William the Refrigerator Perry, so I don't want to say anything about it unless I have to.

Need age of Clare gas furnace M/N BAS-100, S/N 0-4343.

Have a fun and relaxing weekend everyone!

Need help diagnosing this deposit on the water line.

Well water
Hot water heater Hot side
Copper pipe

Is the deposit build up from a previous leak?

Is the deposit on the copper pipe Salt, Calcium, or Lime?

Not an active leak during the inspection.

Attachment 65634
Attached Thumbnails  

I'm having issues with a blower motor at my own house. I noticed a slight burning smell almost like a curling iron that has been left on if anyone is familiar with that smell. So I popped open the Air Handler access panel and noticed the motor seemed to be running slower than usual. I went ahead and replaced the run capacitor, however, that didn't help even though the other one was slightly under tolerance.

So I pulled the 1/6 HP blower motor out. It is a 3 spd single phase, 1060 RPM, 230V. There was one red wire coming to the B terminal on the motor, which I have to believe is the power source. The motor was rated at 1.15 AMPS and when I put a clampon meter across the line I was getting that. It is 14 years old. It only has 1 yellow wire coming from it and 1 black wire. Then there is the ground that was screwed to one of the mounting bolts. I checked the resistance across all the terminals and this is what I found:

Yel to Blk = 88.3 ohms

Blk to Term A = 52.5 ohms
Blk to Term B = 37.9 ohms
Blk to Term C = 33.0 ohms

Yel to Term A = 74.7 ohms
Yel to Term B = 60.1 ohms
Yel to Term C = 55.2 ohms

A to B = 14.6
B to C = 4.9
C to A = 19.4

Problem is I'm not totally certain on what these measurements mean, other than the sum of the terminals A to B and B to C equal the measurment between the terminals C to A.

I just need to know if this is a bad motor because of the smell that we were smelling from the vents directly below where the Air Handler sits in the attic. Can someone please explain how much of this is relevant and what it should or should not read. The only examples I could find on line had a lot more wires coming from the motor, whereas mine only had the Yellow and Black. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.


Regards,

Steve :(

... but we're getting a forklift. Thanks to our distributor Inspector Outlet, our product sales keep growing.

Can you guess what made me think there might be a leak in the roof?
Attached Thumbnails  

I found this 200-amp panel in a bedroom closet. The 200 amp main breaker is not being used. The 100 Amp breakers on the lower left are feeding the panel. I have never seen this before. Is this OK? (There are many more issues with the panel but this I have never seen)
Attached Thumbnails    

OK this is no excuse however I live in the city and do not run across a ton of wells and when I do I have never seen a plastic covered tub? So my client is wierded out by this tub of water in the basement and now his water quality failed the total coliform and mostly likely he will relate it to this tub. Are they possibly related? And what is this tub, just a holding basin?
Attached Thumbnails    

Hi all,
I have not been here in a while. It has been 10 amazing NACHI years!!!
I want to thank the organization for all of the support to our members. when I started there were a fraction of the members and so much has transpired. A huge thank you to Nick and all of the staff for creating the biggest and best home inspection organization in the world!
NH now has over 300 licensed inspectors and as a licensing board member I can say that 90% of those licensees are INACHI members.
The education offered through our organization is amazing and constantly growing and our NH members are able to meet their continuing education thanks to INACHI!
Thank you Nick and staff!!
Carla Horne
10 year member!

This is apparently an annual occurrence, as swarms of Formosan termites fill the skies near NOLA this week:

http://www.nola.com/environment/inde...an_termit.html

Of course, you can learn all you need to know about these destructive little imports by (**shameless plug alert!**) purchasing our full-color WDO Inspection Field Guide from Inspector Outlet, now at 40% off! ;)
Attached Thumbnails      

Did an inspection on a 1956 ranch in a nearby suburb. It had a 25 x 25' rear addition, added subsequently. The house was structural brick with a frame addition covered with T-111. The original was over a dirt crawl with a full basement under the addition.

The grade around the rear addition was all poured concrete, but was only about 1/2" below the T-111 and there was evidence of old Great Stuff in the gap.

In the basement:

• 2 x 10 floor joists with a doubled 2 x 12 central beam. The beam was supported by the foundation walls and 2 4 x 4 wooden posts with no footings, just resting on the slab (but no cracks in the slab floor, surprisingly).
• On the east (right) side, the original joists were severly notched, but sistered. The sisters were only 4' long and held to the original joists by 1/4" carriage bolts.
• There were only 5 sill plate bolts, non of which with washers or nuts, and none on the north side. The sill plate was not treated lumber. The sill plate was lifted and twisted (at most, 30 degrees). There were places where there was as much as a 1 1/2" gap between the sill plate and the foundation wall. Sunlight was clearly visable in some spots.
• The top of the foundation had a brick ledger, but the ledge was on the inside, not the outside.
• The top of the foundation wall was 1/4" higher than the exterior concrete patio. This patio was sloped towards the house. I turned on a hose and 5 minutes later there was a waterfall over the foundation into the basement.

The buyer was an electrician. Took me 15 minutes to convince him that a) this was messed up and b) he might want to walk away.

Shortest report I ever wrote. Just a cover sheet and a 1 1/2 page introduction explaining the major bullet points.

Busy time, these last two weeks, but most of the houses were rear POS's, with silly, stupid and dangerous issues.

Additionally:

• Backdrafting water heater.
• Condensate and humidifier drain emptying, directly, to crawlspace.
• Portion of ductwork in crawlspace (about 2') artfully constructed of duct tape.
• Bathrooms exhausts venting to attic.
• Stab-loc panel dead front almost completely embedded in the drywall mud.
• Service drop rubbing on garage roof. Drop only 9' above driveway.
• BUT: All new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops, Toto toilets with bidets, really nice tile in the shower enclosures and all that other flipper crap.

Enjoy!

I will now gently settle into an alcoholic stupor. :mrgreen:
Attached Thumbnails          

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xlOiHGTDRY

Congrats Dennis Wright.

La Sécurité Électrique

Have you all noticed a change in policy at our favorite underwriter?

In recent weeks I have had several calls to do a re-inspection on a roof I inspected last year. It seems that the life expectancy of the roofs in question was stated at 4-6 years. Now we know that they will opt for the 4 year expectancy, but they now have a new twist -

Since a year has gone by you would think that the roof now has a life expectancy of 3-5 years (Three in the eyes of the clerical giants), and thereby meets the requirement for a minimum of 3 years life. - Easy math, right?

Not so fast my friends!!! Since the roof inspection was performed in April 2012 and the policy renews in June - that is less than the necessary 3 years and hence a roof replacement or updated inspection or is needed. So theoretically if you do an inspection today, based on a non-renewal letter and state the life expectancy of 3 years for a policy renewing in July - they will be denied coverage!

Now I don't know about you guys, but I have never had much luck finding the expiration date on the shingles, but do you suppose we should be putting more exact figures on our reports? Say....3 years, 2 months and 23 days...

I am currently registered to take the inspector's exam, and as most of you already know, the next step is to get insurance. My question is this: Exactly what insurance is required? Is it E&O for 100,000, or is it both E&O and 100,000 in general liability? I am a bit confused about this, and want to buy only what is necessary at this point.