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An average day

I wrote a correction that stated that the flex vent is not listed for outdoor use.

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I noted an ongoing project fifty feet away that has the same flex vent used outdoors.

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I said that the project is ongoing due to a lack of paint. This city requires everything that's not a part of the house to be painted to match the house.

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And right next door. They do like their paint and the city is not all that particular about where that paint is placed.

I have a question or two regarding the correction that I wrote.
I have looked at the installation instructions for several manufactures and they are dramatically divergent. One states that the flex vent can be used anywhere a single wall vent is allowed with a reduced minimum distance away from combustibles of 1" and it is not allowed in an attic or crawl space.. Another states that their flex vent is only allowed in an attic or a crawl space while being Listed B-vent.

So far I haven't seen specific verbiage that would prevent an outdoor installation by any manufacturer. I did see one instruction that stated that each end of the "connector" shall be secured to something such as an appliance or a fitting/vent". So by virtue of that instruction, this configuration is not allowed. It would be nice if I knew which company has that rule.

From the beginning I've had the understanding that this hardware is a connector. To be honest, I didn't get interested in flex vent until now....or if I did, I forgot about that.

The easiest way to deal with this vent is to establish your own hard and fast rules. Or I could find/have installation instructions to refer to.......you would have to do this out of the view of the contractor. There's no point in confirming that you're crazy. I'd like to see the look on a contractor's face when you tell him that the flex vent that he used in a garage is Attic Only" Come to think of it, that vent might be labeled "Attic Only". Who do I need to call to make that happen?
 
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The request was for roof sheathing.

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I had not been to this site previously. There's four floors with crap everywhere. The contractor thought that I would sign off the roof sheathing with no consideration given to the framing that holds it up. The condition says a lot about the lack of respect for the inspector. They didn't even have a framer or plans on hand for the inspection.... just a kid with a hard hat.
 
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The request was for a gas pipe pressure test. According to the son of the owner, there was a fire two years ago and the dwelling has been vacant for the two years. The son was a few bricks short of a full load so the why it took two years wasn't clear. He said that the work inside is done and the gas company will not restore service until the building department gives the okay. I don't have confidence in the inspection crew in that city.

I was saved by the gauge which read zero. Nobody has said anything about the mountain of garbage in the back yard. I alerted the ASS-BO.

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This thread reminded me of a day in the life. I was the mixer man on a pool plastering crew. I had a rig with a mixer and plaster pump. The warehouse was in Mountain View Ca., the pool was in Santa Cruz. The lady owner took me for a short walk in the woods behind the property. She turned over a rock, pointed at the dirt and said, "That's the color I want". I commenced to mixing duds trying to get the formula for her color choice. She rejected one after another. It got to the point that I would not have enough material on the rig if I had to mix more duds.

The lady called the company owner. She then picked one of the samples that I had created. It turns out that she had a contract that stated that the company would let her choose a color. It didn't say that the color would be a standard color... or a color from a chart. She had the right to pick any color. She got a huge discount.

The lady in this thread has unreasonable expectations. The lady with the pool plaster was a lawyer and she set us up.
 
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I notice things that influence my attitude in dealing with an inspection. The job is a four story hotel. The place is a mess with left over material and falloff. Each floor has a stairway landing. There is what someone thinks are guardrails. The attempt to restrain a 200 pounder that stumbled down the stairs is woefully inadequate. The elevator shaft was a message to wear a hard hat.

So that and the trash gave me a sense to not approve anything unless I had to.... and I've never "had to" before.

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ICE said:
At the front door I couldn't see a work truck. The owner pointed to a red car and said that the solar guy is there. I found him sound asleep. I knocked on the window. In a sorta panicked voice I told him that there's a dead child next to the live el. service panel. He became upset when he realized that I was twisting his nose.
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The "Ol", yell fire in a theater trick!
 
ICE said:
This thread reminded me of a day in the life. I was the mixer man on a pool plastering crew. I had a rig with a mixer and plaster pump. The warehouse was in Mountain View Ca., the pool was in Santa Cruz.
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Not knowing the area … are the locations important to the story?
 
e hilton said:
are the locations important to the story?
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Absolutely. That's fleshing out the story. I Was wearing plaid pants and a blue dress shirt shirt at the time. (my work clothes came from Goodwill) Kenneth O'Dell took a bite out of my sandwich .... I put a frog in his lunch pail. Kenneth broke the VW drivers door vent window when he opened his lunch pail. Kenneth thought that I should pay for the window.... he quit screwing with my lunches.
 
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10/10 times when the job site is a mess, the job is a mess. I pay close attention to the state of the site, it tells me quite a bit.
 
R602.6.1 Drilling and notching of top plate. Where piping or ductwork is placed in or partly in an exterior wall or interior load-bearing wall, necessitating cutting, drilling or notching of the top plate by more than 50 percent of its width, a galvanized metal tie not less than 0.054 inch thick (16 ga) and 11/2 inches wide shall be fastened across and to the plate at each side of the opening with not less than eight 10d (0.148 inch diameter) nails having a minimum length of 11/2 inches at each side or equivalent. The metal tie must extend not less than 6 inches past the opening. See Figure R602.6.1.

Exception: Where the entire side of the wall with the notch or cut is covered by wood structural panel sheathing.


Note that the strap is on the side of the wall with the notch. The exception says "the entire side of the wall with the notch or cut". It would be rare to find the sheathing in the inside of an exterior wall however, perhaps that interpretation is too literal. Opinions????

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ICE said:
R602.6.1 Drilling and notching of top plate. Where piping or ductwork is placed in or partly in an exterior wall or interior load-bearing wall, necessitating cutting, drilling or notching of the top plate by more than 50 percent of its width, a galvanized metal tie not less than 0.054 inch thick (16 ga) and 11/2 inches wide shall be fastened across and to the plate at each side of the opening with not less than eight 10d (0.148 inch diameter) nails having a minimum length of 11/2 inches at each side or equivalent. The metal tie must extend not less than 6 inches past the opening. See Figure R602.6.1.

Exception: Where the entire side of the wall with the notch or cut is covered by wood structural panel sheathing.


Note that the strap is on the side of the wall with the notch. The exception says "the entire side of the wall with the notch or cut". It would be rare to find the sheathing in the inside of an exterior wall however, perhaps that interpretation is too literal. Opinions????

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Funny you mention this, just showed this pic in the field to someone....My $0.02....There is no max. depth to the notch, only "more than 50%"...So call it 100% and the notch is on the sheathed side when the plates are over-notched in a sheathed wall....
 
ICE said:
Note that the strap is on the side of the wall with the notch. The exception says "the entire side of the wall with the notch or cut". It would be rare to find the sheathing in the inside of an exterior wall however, perhaps that interpretation is too literal. Opinions????
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If we take the word "cut" to mean a severing of the entire cross section of the top plate, then both sides of the wall are the side with the cut. Therefore plywood on the "entire side" of either side of the wall suffices for a cut.

For a notch, we have some intact cross section of the top plate, so the assembly will if anything be stronger than the case of a cut. While it is true that with a notch the assembly will be stronger in out-of-plane bending if the plywood is on the side with the notch rather than on the side with intact cross section, either way it is stronger than the case of a cut.

Therefore, it makes no sense to me to dictate which side the plywood is on for the case of a notch. If anything, your proposed interpretation would just encourage cutting all the way through instead of notching, just to allow relying on the exterior sheathing.

Cheers, Wayne
 
wwhitney said:
If we take the word "cut" to mean a severing of the entire cross section of the top plate, then both sides of the wall are the side with the cut. Therefore plywood on the "entire side" of either side of the wall suffices for a cut.

For a notch, we have some intact cross section of the top plate, so the assembly will if anything be stronger than the case of a cut. While it is true that with a notch the assembly will be stronger in out-of-plane bending if the plywood is on the side with the notch rather than on the side with intact cross section, either way it is stronger than the case of a cut.

Therefore, it makes no sense to me to dictate which side the plywood is on for the case of a notch. If anything, your proposed interpretation would just encourage cutting all the way through instead of notching, just to allow relying on the exterior sheathing.

Cheers, Wayne
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OMG...2 building officials from opposite sides of the country agree...Quick grab a Calander...
 
That section covers drilling and notching by more than 50%. Typically I see that when they drill a 3" hole in a 2x4, or a 4" hole in a 2x6. Once in a while I see a 2x4 wall with a 4" pipe coming down through it. There is no top plate left. The outside has structural sheathing, the inside gets a strap.

It says "at each side of the opening", the exception covers the fact that generally one side of a load bearing wall has structural panels. This keeps the over zealous inspector from requiring straps on both sides when there's already sheathing on one side. Generally I see this on exterior walls, but I have occasionally seen a load bearing interior wall with shear called out. same applies there.
 
wwhitney said:
One strap (or plywood per the exception) suffices for the case that the plate is fully cut through.
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That is true if the circumstances line up with the code.

www.strongtie.com

RPS

This strap meets code requirements for the repair of wood members notched during installation of plumbing and electrical.
www.strongtie.com www.strongtie.com
 
It hasn’t always come easy. There was a time when I had to concentrate intently. That might have been insecurity or perhaps a drive to excel. Whatever the cause, I have outgrown the need to be so serious all of the time.

Here’s an example that I think proves that I am over myself. An inspector requested that I accompany him on an inspection of a factory. The business manufactures large, wheeled totes. These totes can hold a 1/4 yard of wet concrete and be rolled around. For those of you that wouldn’t appreciate that consider this…they are large enough that three Wendys would fit with room for camera bags. (The Wendys are Chinese)

The machines that make the totes are huge injection molding contraptions. Here’s the rub: the machines are not UL Listed. That means that the machines are not legal for use in the USA until UL evaluates and approves the machines. We’re talking big money for equipment half the size of my garage.

Well Chris, the inspector wanted me to look at the machines and give an opinion on whether the machines would survive scrutiny by UL. Chris wanted to keep my presence on the down low if you know what I mean. He had been there several times already and bringing me in wasn’t allowed by the City.

I met him and we were escorted in by the plant manager. It wasn’t long into it that the owner showed up. He stayed out of our way and when we were done he approached for a handshake. And then he asked me if I was another inspector. I said no….that I am a Hollywood producer and we are planning to create a reality show about building inspectors. He was excited to hear that. He asked if he would be on television. I explained that we were still in the early stage and no he would not be on TV.

As Chris and I walked to our ride he said, “Hollywood Producer? You could have been anything and you picked Hollywood Producer??? How am I going to explain this????

I love Chris and he knows that. By the time we were getting done with lunch he saw the humor in it. Chris got the check … I got the tip.


Please note that I did not use the word "very".
 
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