News

I am aware that a lot of inspectors have used the service of one of the local vendors on the this message board to purchase their IR/THERMAL imaging equipment, and some have had good service from them , but I recently purchased a T420 camera from a well known vendor from this board and after 5 weeks I have not been able to recieve nothing more than a reciept for funds. I have asked every one that will answer the phone when I can expect a due date for my camera. All I get is LIE after LIE. No one in this company knows or even gives a damn about the customer that they took $ 8,000. dollars from. I was told it would be shipped on this day or that day. I talked to the sales person today and was told the factory had stopped production on the T420. I asked for the free Level 1 that was included and was told I would get the info today. This was at 9:00 am Arizona time, well at 10:15 pm Eastern time I have not recieved an email yet, there I been LIED to again, this has happened 3 times before by the service rep. If you plan to buy a IR camera do not buy it from AC tool supply. All this company does is lie . By the way I ordered the camera 5 weeks ago and it took a week to even get a receipt for the purchase. If you are buying a camera BEWARE there customer service SUCKS . I will never buy from them again. If I treated my customers this way I would not have a buisness.

If you have had good service then you are fortunate.
For me there service totally SUCKS.

I don't expect favorable replies. I want you to be informed.
I even tried to speak to Jason Kaylor and his exact words were
" why did they transfer you to me"
It appears no one ,even the president does not give a damn.

Any of you ever, or would you ever, cancel/leave an inspection after you start but before you are done? When I take calls I may turn away a customer I feel will be difficult by quoting a high price putting them off. What if during the inspection you just KNOW these people are going to cause you problems down the road? Maybe even legal problems. Do you walk away?

Here's some polybutylene found today - I see a hot, cold and.......Ground? What the hell could the third line be for?
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Boy that sure is a good looking truck, whats that you say...oh yeah the roof............Have a Happy Memorial Day ! Got one scheduled for monday had to really think hard on it, but hey I got to help out our clients for we are InterNACHI Inspectors #1.
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Sorry no bathroom in this one...found it the other day. Great truck only need very minor modifications to be ready...

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Runs great and only had 8000 miles on it!
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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.
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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.

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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?
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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)
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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?
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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! ;)
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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:
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