Ted, I recently looked at the foundations handbook on-line and it is an engineer's document for sure, talking about wind shears strengths affecting the length, or the width of the home, the snow load limits of rooves of varied pitch, spacing of piers and varied anchoring systems and loads per pier, et al. I did copy the few early pages of the Table of Contents so I might be able to verbally refer to the categories of the handbook. The point these two underwriters were trying to make in our area meeting Wed. night was that all too often they see appraisal reports where no one gave a try at offering several lines of description about what the system looks like ..... but merely waives it all and prints out heaps of addenda anyway. Frost depth and pier settings ? ... of course, only the engineer could make such a determination ! The disclaimers and overriding assumptions can be brief, and yet still be potent enough to protect the appraiser while informing the reader to an extent not requiring the follow-up phone call to the appraiser, but rather to the engineer to set up his or her appointment.