Thanks for the answers guys! Apparently the current installation is grandfathered in before the codes were changed to explicitly disallow this, even with manufactured housing. And yeah, when the septic guys had to pump it a few months ago, it was a tight fit for them to get into the tank, but thankfully the field is still in good shape. Will have to get some gas detectors just to be sure though.

OK, so this is likely a bad question to ask, but what are the hazards of having the concrete septic vault located underneath a building?

Currently have a manufactured home (ie double-wide) that shares a septic system with two other units of equivalent size. The two units are approximately level with each other, while the third is lower. The three units are staggered in a row. The septic collection is under the middle unit, nearly completely located under the building. The access block is completely under the unit. A layout of the approximate setup is attached (crude as it may be).

What are the pitfalls to this setup? Is it significantly hazardous to have the vault under the building? Aside from the obvious smell of sewer gas (which isn't noted), would there be concerns for other gases that wouldn't be detected by odor and are there devices such as CO detectors that would be wise to put in place above this unit?

Since the lower unit is below the vault building, but not actually below grade of the vault, it has backed up multiple times including 2 months ago, so the vault was not recovered with soil, the cap was just replaced. We assume this is against Washington state building code to have the units placed as such, but not for sure.

Any input would be appreciated.

Hey Michael, the themes after 27 are only available on sites created after September 2010 which are on a different server. It's not possible to directly convert to the newer sites, but it is possible to migrate to the newer server with some work. E-mail the help desk or click on Live Help if you'd like more information on migrating to the later themes.

The mission statement is not intended to be an extremely long block of text, usually just a few lines of text. If you go to Themes under the Admin Menu, then click on Configure to the right of Theme 39, you can then change the settings under the Mission Statement Customizations to change the text size and color to be a smaller value. The values shown are just the default value.

Hi Guys,

We're in the process of creating new tutorials to help you guys better use the software and web sites. Before we make these available, we wanted to check with you, the target of these tutorials, and see which tutorials you prefer and find the most helpful.

There are three different tutorial types we create, each a bit different:

1. Animated Flash Tutorials - These show animated examples of how to do different processes in the software showing the steps in action. Examples of these can be found here: http://www.homeinspectorpro.com/software-tutorials/home-inspector-pro
2. Written Text Tutorials - These give step-by-step instructions on how to do processes, though without pictures, solely just text instructions. You can see these here: http://www.homeinspectorpro.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=183&jfile=index.php&board=14.0
3. PDF Written Tutorials - These are self-contained written tutorials that are in PDF format. These are similar to the Written Text Tutorials, but also include screenshots of the steps you will be completing as each part.

Any input you guys as users could offer will hopefully help us better provide templates that you will find easier and more instructive. Our goal in the end is to still provide the tutorials in multiple formats, this is just a matter of which would be most effective for us to do first so you guys are able to use the software and the web sites more effectively.

Please go ahead and respond with your thoughts or votes.

Sadly it's the wifey's mothers who owns the place, and we're having to use this tub, as the shower surround and fixtures in the master bath were incorrectly installed/sealed and all the studs and backer are rotten. So am trying to have it so we have one place to shower while the other is out of commission. I guess in the short term heavy duct taping would do the trick while I fix one tub, then can address the other. Sigh...

Hey Guys,

In the place I'm living, we have an additional bathroom that we want to start using, but noticed that the bathtub has a 2 1/2" crack in floor of the tub. It's below the slope of the side, so it is truly in the floor of the tub, and when pressed, about 1 1/2" is through the tub body. It is a standard 5' fiberglass tub (not full shell, just the tub) surrounded by a separate surround. Is there a way to fix this type of damage, or must the tub itself be replaced? I have included photos of the damage, though they may be a little bit grainy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Joseph! We've actually talked a number of times on the phone, but it's always great to be welcomed again!

Hi Guys,

Saw a great deal on this yesterday, should be good for a few more days: http://sellout.woot.com/sale/eye-fi-prox2-8gb-sdhc-wi-fi-memory-card?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=6ccd529ab1-Daily+Digest+-+20111013+-+Shirt.Woot&utm_medium=email

What this is is an SD memory card for your camera that includes built in Wi-Fi capability. This allows you to connect to the SD card in your camera without needing to actually take the card out or plug it into the machine. Could be helpful for those times where you can't sit down and plug things in, especially in the field.

Note: I haven't actually used one of these before, but for the price of the item and what it does, might be worth it for those of you who are tech adventurists.

If anyone has tried one of these, go ahead and post a response and let us know how it works for you.

Sorry about that Bruce, we migrated the site to new servers earlier this year and not all the links synced up. You can find this tutorial here: http://www.homeinspectorpro.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=183&jfile=index.php&topic=828.0

Sadly, no, as the point is now moot. They rented the place to someone else, so he no longer has to worry about a balcony collapse at 5 in the morning while standing on his porch watching the sun rise.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/apa/2618812309.html

A friend of mine messaged me this rental that he is looking at renting, says it's a gorgeous place, built in 1910. The first thing that jumped out at me when I saw the listing though: the balcony in the lower left corner.

It looks like it's supported by a cantilever, I'm guessing made of steel, but it looks like it would be over-extended for it's length. He says he stood on it (he's a good-sized man) and it was very solid. What would an inspector or someone who knows about leverage think of a balcony like this? For a 100 year old house, this seems like a dangerous addition.

Not to mention the fact that there are no markings on the 240 plug, that could be 30 amps or 50, either way Cameron is right, this could kill someone, like the next homeowner who buys the house. No bueno.

Thanks for posting this information Steve!  I know it can be frustrating some times to get exactly what you want done, but sharing this information helps others get it done that much easier. 

If you're syncing data, then yes, I'd assume you need the client on each machine. This would be the case for any synchronization software.

I've never used it before, though it could be useful for what you're describing. From reading reviews of the software, it's a love it or hate it software, mainly with how it can be rather complicated or unintuitive to set up (http://download.cnet.com/ViceVersa-Pro/3640-18511_4-11129952.html). I wasn't able to tell the difference between the versions, as the page for the differences is missing (http://www.tgrmn.com/web/popup/feat_comp.htm), which is kind of sketchy, but it would be worthwhile to tryout the trial and see if it does what you're looking for.

So I have gone through and been playing with a number of the other file syncing options (and there a number of them out there) and might have found an option that is working for what you've described John.

Dropbox across the board is still considered the gold standard for syncing of software, but another to try is called SpiderOak. The software itself can be found here: https://spideroak.com

SpiderOak offers a free 2 GB option, which for most inspections and basic reports should be more than enough. As John had mentioned in a previous post, the goal is to share multiple folders without having to use a set dropbox folder as the sole point of sharing.

SpiderOak does allow this to be done. On each machine, the SpiderOak client is installed. Once installed, you can click on the Backup tab, and specify on this machine the folder to be backed up. The same process is done on each machine. After the files are backed up, you can then go to the Sync tab and create a new Sync. The Sync allows you to specify a folder on each machine that has the client installed to keep synched up. In the case of the Home Inspector Pro, if you have the Home Inspector Pro folder set to backup, you can then go in and create a Sync for the Client Data folder, then one for the Data folder (which includes the Documents folder below). This will then keep the files in each of these folders synchronized.

The sync process seems to work pretty well and the responsiveness of the program is pretty good. You're able to pick and choose which folders to backup, then within the backup, which folders you want to sync. This gives a significant amount of control over backup and sync than you would see with Dropbox.

The only downside to this as I can see, is the free package is limited to 2 gigabytes total space for backup and syncing. If you go over this limit, you'll then need to remove some files, or pay for the unlimited package ($10 a month for 100 gigabytes).

Overall, there are a number of good options for synchronizing the data on your machines. The rub is that if you're going for true simplicity and lots of space, you're going to have to pay for it. Bandwidth and data storage cost a lot of money, there is never going to be a free option than does everything. But this is a good intermediate option that works pretty well.

If you were to decide to go with the paid option, this actually is a pretty competitive price for online backup, especially as you can backup multiple machines for one flat rate. Services such as Carbonite charge per machine, so if you're running 2 or more machines, this could be a great deal.

Their FAQ answers a number of good questions, so this might be worth reading over for more information: https://spideroak.com/faq

Product: SpiderOak
URL: https://spideroak.com
Cost: Free for up to 2GB of space, $10 a month or $100 a year for 100 GB of space (https://spideroak.com/pricing)

For most of the Synchronization software, these are intended as a shared folder on each machine where you're able to copy files into and have available on each machine. In the example of Dropbox, there's a folder that you specify on the machine (or a "dropbox") that you copy the files to be shared into. It does allow just one folder to be used as the drop location. The items copied into this folder are then uploaded to their servers. When another machine accesses the dropbox, the files are copied down from the server.

There are a number of these services that are available beyond Dropbox, some for free, some for pay. A list of these services can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_backup_services

One that does a similar function and is free is the Microsft SkyDrive as part of the Windows Live Essentials (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh-sync-skydrive-using?os=other).

For doing actual backup of your data, probably your best bet would be a service such as Carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com/en/). This allows backup of numerous folders on your machine (that you specify) which are watched for changes and automatically backed up. For the cost of the service, this would offer the most secure and reliable backup as possible.

1. Yes, the synchronization software works on different versions of Windows, whether XP, Vista, Windows 7, or any other varieties. Most of the sync software, such as Dropbox is also cross-platform with a client for Mac OS X.

2. For what you're trying to do, these are two different things. The sync software is usually used for publishing a specific group of files, such as HIP and your documents folders, not the entire machine. You could use the sync software, such as Dropbox, to synchronize your HIP folder to all your machines.

For sharing the contents of the entire machines (or large amount of files) between multiple machines in your home, your best bet would be to use the built in Windows file sharing to allow the files to be visible between machines. You don't necessarily need to synchronize the contents of the entire machines, but just make the files available. Basic instructions for setting up Windows file sharing can be found under the following links:

Windows 7 - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Share-files-with-someone or http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/simple-windows-7-file-sharing-step-by-step-procedure/

Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

Wow, all pretty harsh. Though he doesn't give pictures or an offer price for the wife, so am not sure how serious this offer is...