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home inspection: Climbing Trees and Bad Toupees - 03/12/08 12:25 PM
When I was a kid about 10 years old, I loved to climb trees, much to the worriment of my mom. I even built a tree house for some friends and me in the back yard...but that's a story for another time.
Recently I have begun to call on those old climbing skills as I inspect attics. Where the construction and roof truss braces allow, I climb up to the top of the attic to get a close look at a frequent source of problems, the ridge vent.
Ridge vents are an essential part of a modern roofing system. They allow … (7 comments)
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home inspection: The Peek-A-Boo Gable! - 11/08/07 12:07 PM
I almost missed it!
Lots of people had missed it. The owner, who had the house built 20 years ago and had lived in it all these years. The builder. The county inspectors. The roofer. The second roofer who installed a new roof one year ago.
Yet there it was. In plain sight! I saw it because I was showing the owner the various components of his attic ventilation system. I was making the point that even with the great full length ridge vent installed last year with the new roof, ventilation was still limited in the attic because nothing had been done … (10 comments)
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home inspection: But Will the House Dance? - 11/06/07 06:54 AM
Selling an older home today can be alot like getting back in the dating game after many years of married life. Lots of updating to do. In today's real estate market, update you must, or more than likely, the house sits, and sits, and sits....like a wall flower at the dance.
This is especially true when the sellers are people who have lived comfortably and happily in the home for 10, 15, 20 or more years. They have become so accustomed to the home's problems that they've overlooked them ... choosing to put off fixing things. They also are unaware of outdated … (9 comments)
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home inspection: Buyer Be Wary! - 11/05/07 03:05 PM
If you like television series CSI, you'll enjoy this.
This inspection was of an 11 year old single family house that showed well...no, better than that, it was spectacular! Tremendous upgrades, granite, ceramic tile, hardwood floors, the works. It was also almost vacant, but tastefully staged, when I saw it. It had been the object of investor greed, changing hands several times in the past three years, and most likely without inspections. While the house had been rented several times, no one who had owned the house had actually lived in it...which partially explains why the seller was so suprised by … (8 comments)
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home inspection: The Green Monster - 11/01/07 07:51 AM
A recent inspection of a vacant foreclosure house confirmed my childhood fears that there is Green Monster lurking in the basement. (Sorry Red Sox fans, this isn't about the fabled Fenway wall).
It was late September and with the outside temperatures still in the 80's the air conditioner was running full blast. Unfortunately, the humidifier was also running full blast with the humidistat at 50%. I had wondered why the air in the house seemed "muggy" and on the walls and ceiling of the finished basement a potential mold growth had begun. Humidifiers are wonderful things. In the winter, they can make a chilly … (7 comments)
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home inspection: What's Different About Foreclosures? - 10/29/07 06:19 AM
The rising tide of forclosures has left some lasting impressions with me. Inspections of foreclosed properties have gone from about 3% of my business last year to about 25% this year. The trend seems to be accellerating.
Obviously foreclosed properties are different. Like the woman who is magical with make up and a pretty dress the evening before but quite ordinary the morning after, the foreclosed property has no make up. You see it in its least attractive state. Warts and all. But there are differences which are important. Take for example the HVAC System. Regular maintenance by a certified professional … (9 comments)
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home inspection: The Ceiling Fan Farm! - 10/24/07 08:46 AM
My initial impression of the second floor bedrooms in this foreclosure house was that if you turned on all the ceiling fans full speed, there was one in every room, the roof might blast off!
Just as in houses where there are air fresheners in every electrical receptacle, ceiling fans in every room usually has little to do with the previous owner liking them. They are there for a reason and l set out to figure out what that reason was. When I had entered the house from the front door, I was aware that on this 80 degree day, the … (11 comments)
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home inspection: Radon Myths - revised - 10/21/07 08:03 AM
Some clients and agents do not have correct knowledge about Radon:
Myth 1 - Slab foundations. "We don't need to test Radon, this house has a slab foundation." The agent said this to me as though it was an absolute fact. I told him I wished that were true, but Radon will be in its highest concentrations in the living area just above the slab.
Concrete is a lousy barrier for Radon. This colorless, odorless gas can go through the pores and cracks in concrete with little effort. Houses and townhouses on slabs should be checked and remediated if found to … (10 comments)
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home inspection: Shut up and Bail! - 10/18/07 08:17 AM
My client was very excited about owning her first home. So much so that when I started doing my inspection, she started cleaning and doing repairs! Never mind that she didn't own the house yet! She wanted to get a head start and she had come prepared to get some serious cleaning done.
Her enthusiasm was contageous and I forgot one of the unwritten (or maybe it is written), common sense, rules in Real Estate...don't do anything to the property until you own it. (Who knows...there are a hundred ways a deal can fall through.). I had mistakenly thought, how can … (12 comments)
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home inspection: Nature vs. Nurture - 10/15/07 08:08 AM
Foreword, there may be people that think I should not mention the Virginia Tech tragedy in context of a home inspection blog or news letter. I do so here with the utmost respect for the victums, their families and everyone involved with this incident. At the time, our hearts were heavy and our thoughts and prayers were focused on Blacksburg, VA. Most of our conversations in those days after April 16th included something of the news and events of that terrible day.
My young client wanted to talk about the awful events at Virginia Tech a couple of days earlier and asked … (1 comments)
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home inspection: The Fixer Upper! - 10/14/07 03:57 PM
"Does this house qualify for one of your email letters? My agent friend asked me with a devilish grin. "Probably about three" I said, and I began to think of the lessons this house could teach.
This was a 29 year old split level on a beautiful mountain lot which showed lots of wear and tear, both natural and man-made. Over the years it had suffered the effects of owner tinkering, bad judgement and bad taste. All of the walls and ceilings were covered with textured ivory paint and all the floors were poorly laid linoleum. None of the baseboards or … (4 comments)
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home inspection: On Discipline When Business is Slow - 10/13/07 03:14 PM
I was opening an old electrical panel and my electric drill didn't have the power to turn the screws, so I reached in my bag for my manual screw driver. It wasn't there. I had to improvise, basically using my electric drill as a manual screw driver. No big deal right?
Well I got to thinking about why my screw driver was not in the bag. As I turned that scrutiny on myself which I use in inspections, I didn't like what I saw. I had been sloppy. I had used the screw driver in an inspection two days before and put it … (31 comments)
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home inspection: The Bottomless Hose Bib! - 10/12/07 07:04 AM
For all the agents who are custodians of empty listed houses, it's that time of year again. Freezing temperatures in many parts of the country are right around the corner. Cases like the one below are rare, but if you find an outside faucet that does not shut off properly, get a plumber in and have it fixed. The alternative of a broken pipe and the water damage is just not much fun to deal with...especially when you are trying to sell the property.
"Oh No!" I though as I rounded the corner into the back yard and saw the hose … (4 comments)
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home inspection: Unwritten Rules #103 & 104 - 10/11/07 07:24 AM
A friend of mine who happens to be a real estate agent related a horror story to me several months ago that I felt should be passed along to others. The second story below happened to me on an inspection. Both teach rules to live by in Real Estate which are probably not handled in class.
My friend had helped a couple place a contract on a lovely house in McLean, VA. The couple, a highly regarded, and very strong financial contributor of the Bush White house, has stayed there over night on several occasions. The house, a 1.8 million dollar house was … (9 comments)
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home inspection: Old Worn-out Electrical Outlets - 10/10/07 07:57 AM
I ran across the term "Handymanliness" on an excellent DIY website called HammerZone.com. I like the term, but for different reasons than all my female friends think who are tapping their foot and saying "You're kidding, right?"
The concept is that when properly illustrated and guided, homeowners can tackle basic tasks, like replacing old worn-out electrical outlets, safely. The result can be a very large improvement in the safety and sale-ability of the house. I frequently encounter old, worn-out, electrical outlets in 20+ year old homes, and sometimes in younger homes where certain outlets get a lot of plug "in and … (3 comments)
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home inspection: Hazard Marking - 10/09/07 06:18 PM
Normally when installing an attic fan, you install the fan first, then hook up the electric wire to it, then hook up the wire at a junction box to the power source. However, I recently encountered a case where the homeowner hooked the electric wire to power first and then forgot about installing the attic fan. The wire was left coiled on a nail right beside the attic access hatch where it could ZAP any unsuspecting person who touches the live end. Unfortunately, I find hazards like these more often that you'd expect and I've learned to keep an electrical current … (1 comments)
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home inspection: Unwritten Rules #101 & 102 - 10/09/07 07:03 AM
These rules may be covered in real estate training, but they never came up in my home inspection classes. I believe they apply equally to both agents and home inspectors.
"Pretty nice place" I said as I began reviewing the home inspection report with my client. This had become a standard comment, and I had always considered it to be pretty bland. Later I learned that my statement, was construed by the seller who was standing nearby, as a justification for hard negotiating on any concessions. The seller went further to point to my statement as being the reason why not … (5 comments)
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home inspection: Aunt Sallie's Glorious Bowl - 10/07/07 07:26 AM
"That ugly old thing, I completely forgot about that." My client said.
I was just finishing up on my report for a Home Wellness Inspection and had mentioned a large ornate bowl I had run across in his attic. It appeared to have been there a long time and had multiple water rings in it. He told me the story. Just after they were married 22 years ago they moved in to the house. Shortly afterward they had experienced a really bad storm and a couple of days later was a leak stain on their guest bedroom ceiling. He had gone … (12 comments)
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home inspection: What's an Arc? - 10/06/07 07:50 AM
What's an Arc!
I'm smiling.
The title "What's an Arc?" reminds me of Bill Cosby's "Noah!" Sorry, this isn't about the biblical boat or the famous comedian.
Arcs are defined as the luminous discharge of electricity across an insulating medium. They are different from ground faults which pass through a conductor (hopefully not human) to ground; arc faults pass through air from conductor to conductor. Arcs can involve temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius...many times hotter than the surface of the sun!
We've all seen electrical arcs. Pull a plug out of a wall outlet and sometimes you'll see a flash. That's an arc … (10 comments)
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home inspection: Shut up Murphy! - 10/04/07 01:57 PM
Murphy rides on my shoulder and tells me what fun he's having. Most of the time he doesn't bother me...just when he can cause some mischief.
Like last week when I was studying an electrical panel and noticed a breaker labeled Sump Pump. That's funny I thought. I've been all over this basement and haven't seen a sump.
"It's nothing", Murphy said. But I was curious and went looking. Sure enough.
There, behind some things, beside the water heater was a sump pit. It was easy to miss because there was NO sump pump, NO sump pump discharge, NO sump pump electrical connection. Nothing. … (1 comments)
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Bill Duncan
Haymarket,
VA
More about me…
Home Status Inspection Company, LLC
Address: 4208 High Ridge Road, Haymarket, VA, 20169
Office Phone: (703) 754-9992
Cell Phone: (703) 283-6375
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