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I inspected a home today, where the owners complained about black, soot-like marks on the living room and kitchen ceilings. They have a six-year-old home with high efficiency gas furnace. The exterior furnace intake pipe drew much less air than the exhaust pipe exhausted. Is that natural? The furnace is in a small bedroom-sized basement room that is kept closed to keep out family pets. I thought the furnace might be starved for air and giving off soot that has collected upstairs. I tested some of these marks with a moisture detector. They were dry. I also used a thermal camera. The marks were somewhat cold. Any ideas?

Found this http://www.nachi.org/fl-cilb-approve...e-provider.htm which I guess is only for a wind mitigation course.. once taken does InterNACHI report this to the FL DBPR so we get credit?

Are there any other courses InterNACHI offers so we can complete the 14 hours of continuing education for a contractors license?

Do the class above also count/report for the HI license?

Last night I had a dream that I was admitted to a psychiatric facility. (Insert snicker here)

The strange part about my dream is that the only person who could make a phone call to get me out was..... Nick Gromicko.....

Seriously..... LOL

There is going to be a news story tomorrow night on I think channel 11 at 10 PM (Mon) on unlicensed home inspectors in Minnesota. Have no idea what it is going to be about, but bet it will not be good! Minnesota does not require us to be licensed so (duh) I guess they will be talking about all of us!!

An age-old challenge for thermographers is the ability to annotate or mark objects to make them easier to identify in recorded imagery. One possible solution is to mark targets with an ink pen with low emittance ink.

more equipment i have for sale please make offer if price is too high

a GE Protimeter MMS2 with a bunch or cords and attachments asking $500 obo

Leica Disto D8 Laser Distance Meter $500 obo

General DCS1600ART Articulating Datalogging Video Borescope System asking $800 obo

Fyrite Tech Combustion Gas Analyzer asking $400 obo

GE Telaire Handheld Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Monitor with Data Logger (7001D) $500 obo

My husband recently passed away he left a bunch of equipment. i have to do some research to find out what it all is i will probally post photos of each item to find out what its worth. he has also left me with some financial problems so far i have 4 1027 radon monitors willing to sell at $450 a piece plus shipping. 1 e perm starter kit $1600 plus shipping. 1 fluke tir1 with case and cords $3000 obo.

also has a tool bag full of gagets i will post photo and let some one make an offer.

Hi, I have an inspection for a solar earth home, as labeled by customer. Is anyone familiar with this type of home? I have seen a earth home with windows facing south, but are the roofs spancrete or ? Should I look differently than an above grade house? The house is located in Central Wisconsin,Thanks

There was a discussion awhile back and somehow, I believe it was Russel Hensel who said, he had never seen a G.F.I. receptacle that was tripped and still had power.
Now you have.
This was at the inspection this morning and the home was built in 2000. I just wanted to show that it does happen.
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Looking for any history of through wall HVAC mold regarding hotels / motels. Papers or past litigation. Thanks

Have a good friend considering the inspection business. Any advice specific to Georgia would be appreciated. He's a non inspector looking to go in a new career path.

Thank you.

What year did the IBC start requiring residential garages to be fire taped? I just inspected a 2008 single family with attached garage and it had bare drywall on the walls and ceiling. Anyone have an answer?? Mike Paule, Peoria IL

you guys see many valleys like this>
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Anyone get a call or dealing with Home Advisor? Called claiming to be teaming up with NACHI to help generate leads and business for inspectors.

Anyone get a call from Home Advisor? Saying they have teamed up with NACHI to help inspectors get leads. Couldn't talk to him when he called. Calling back on Monday. Any info anyone?

Guess I better stick to a regular camera for now.
NASA's Android smartphone satellites return blurry images from space

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/3/429...returns-images

Inspected an older (1923) Chicago brick bungalow the other day. It was a complete gut and rehab done by eastern European "builder" represented by an eastern European agent.

Most of the work was done OK, but it was one of those weird inspections were some of the work was purely excellent, but there were some errors and issues that were just plain silly. Such a contradiction.

Among other things:

- Finished basement with a basement bedroom with no proper secondary means of egress.
- Electrical drop splice not done by the electric company (illegal hookup?) but the rest of the electrical work was excellent.
- Older enclosed wooden back porch that had been finished out and used as living space (not allowed around here because of structural concerns).
- The roof structure had gone through some spread and it was fixed, but the method was obviously from the Keystone Kops.

Mentioned to the buyers that this was a flip and that I could not find any record of permits pulled, etc (Bless Chicago, all building dept records are no on-line!).

Sellers agent said, "Oh yeah, but all the work was done to code. We never get permits, they are just a waste of time!".

What part of illegal don't these people understand?

Even the buyers agent deferred on the basement bedroom with,"Oh, every one does that. It is 'technically' wrong, but everyone does it." Sure, everything is fine until someone dies in a fire!

Buyers going ahead, but at least I documented these items and made the buyer's lawyer aware. If anything goes wrong, at least I have covered my butt.

But it seems absurd that people pay me to cover their butts, but then go ahead and complete the sale even after being warned.

Comments?

IS THIS MAN A GENIUS?
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Inspectors booth manned by member Johnny Carrillo of http://www.npiweb.com/carrillo

Thanks Johnny!

This was not coordinated!
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