seattle home inspection: Why does my fireplace have a bollard? - 06/19/10 12:35 PM
Take a look at the following picture for a moment.
This is a picture of the fireplace in my living room.
Can you see what is wrong?
Yes, there is a cactus in the bird cage. What is wrong with that?
No----the fireplace is not eating the hassock.
Yes there is a little burn mark on the floor where the corner of the hearth points to. (That is what happens when you set a hot fireplace screen on wood-----but not what I am after.)
No----nothing wrong with the bollard, but that … (30 comments)
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seattle home inspection: You have to be batty to live in a place like this! - 06/05/10 11:15 AM
Actually the house was very nice----had a few issues, but what house doesn’t.
What was really interesting about this house was the house that was built onto the house. Now some of you might be thinking “Mother-in-law” or “rental,” but that would not be accurate no matter how much you like your mother-in-law or how much she either acts batty or drives you batty.
This house is literally a “Bat House.”
There were bats at home too----it being daylight and them being nocturnal and all.
With a strong flashlight I was able to … (35 comments)
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seattle home inspection: How do I get out of this dilemma TOO------(The Sequel) - 05/10/10 09:55 AM
The other day I did a post called, “How do I get out of this dilemma----I mean window.” Today’s sequel to that post carries the question to a new absurd level.
In the next picture we can see that someone knew that for proper egress, the height from the floor to the bottom of the window should not be more than 44.” The installation of the permanent step certainly gets the window a lot closer to compliance but there is a bigger problem that should be obvious to anyone.
If you guessed that the window “size” … (27 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Whoops! But no worries----I’ve got you covered. - 05/07/10 09:34 AM
Sometimes the construction trades just aren’t on the same page. I guess we should be grateful if we can get them in the same book.
At a recent inspection, it was apparent that the bathroom exhaust fan was not pulling any air. A simple test to see if a fan is pulling air is to see if it will eat a piece of tissue paper. In this case it would not----not even a little bite.
In the attic, the duct can clearly be seen terminating at the roof.
But, at the exterior, up on the … (20 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Wordless Wednesday ----but a little sleepy - 04/14/10 09:24 AM
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seattle home inspection: Wordless Wednesday What? - 03/31/10 08:52 AM
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seattle home inspection: Do you have trouble staying on track? - 03/30/10 09:33 PM
Sometimes----as much as I hate to do it----it is important to stay on one’s own side of the bed and staying on track may not be everything people rail about.
I think this work crew probably has no trouble keeping “track” of things. Well trained in all that they do, all they have to do is avoid the train and NOT stay on track when necessary. Sometimes it is important to know when to stay on track and when not to. They just have to keep track of the train schedule.
Charles Buell
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seattle home inspection: Are you kids playing with matches down there? - 03/26/10 07:29 AM
One of the characteristics of incandescent light bulbs is that they produce large amounts of heat----along with the light they give off. In fact, approximately 90% of what incandescent bulbs “do” is heat----as opposed to only about 10% light. This is why the shift to other types of lighting has become so important and why ultimately we will be using LED type lights or something better than LED’s in the future.
Now the fact that these bulbs give off heat is not particularly a bad thing in buildings we are trying to heat (although it is somewhat unpredictable). When … (29 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Wordless Wednesday Wabbit - 03/24/10 08:17 AM
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seattle home inspection: Toilet Seat Wars------already at Bathrooms near you! - 03/22/10 07:29 AM
I can imagine that it was Thomas Crapper’s wife that started the war between couples about leaving the toilet seat lid up or down depending on your point of view. While Thomas Crapper most likely did not invent the toilet, he for sure did a lot to make it popular with his many improvements.
As near as I can tell it takes just about as much strength to lift the lid up as it does to lower it down, and I figure that whatever position it is in “someone” has to put it the other way----but what … (29 comments)
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seattle home inspection: It is just water over the damn! - 03/20/10 08:24 AM
One of the things I like to do in my Inspection Reports when writing about concerns involving water leaks is to give a rough “visual idea” as to what the issues are by doing a color “overlay” of the issue. Whether it is suspected water behind the tiles of a tub/shower enclosure, water under the vinyl floor around a toilet, or an improperly installed sink trap, I think these pictures help get the point across----and worth the few seconds it takes me to do it.
The particular defect that I am going to discuss today, of an improperly installed … (33 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Sooner or later some other critter is going to enjoy us as much as we do! - 03/15/10 07:49 AM
Fungi play an essential role in the environment. Without it we would pretty much be stuck with only fire and extreme pressure to get rid of all of the vegetative growth that has occurred on the planet since the beginning of time.
I think it is pretty cool that nature not only figured out a way to create plants and animals (and creatures in between), but also created other plants, and animals (and creatures in between) that could come in and break down other plants and animals (and creatures in between). All this to aid in recycling their body … (29 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Braille for the sighted! - 03/13/10 08:46 AM
Everyone knows that a picture is worth a thousand words, but did you know that a picture can also actually contain words?
Now I am not talking about words captured “on” the picture itself. I am talking about words “hidden” in the picture code that only shows up when you pass your cursor over it. It is a sort of, “Braille for the sighted” and a distinct advantage of computer images. These “words” also show up in the picture place holder while the picture loads----if it doesn’t load instantly (as has been known to happen)----especially if you have … (24 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Wordless Wednesday in Seattle - 03/10/10 07:43 AM
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seattle home inspection: Another striking example! - 03/09/10 10:43 AM
For some reason this defect at a door lock-set reminded me of that movie Airplane (can no longer remember which one) and the play on the word “striker,” where the word was not only some guys name but also what was done to one of the stewardesses. In a similar way this Strike bolt, struck me as kind of funny----even though no stewardesses got hurt and no little kids had to see Peter Graves naked.
It does make me want to strike myself in the head though.
Charles Buell
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seattle home inspection: Who says modern builders don’t care? - 03/05/10 12:47 PM
Two years ago today, I got my second featured post when I asked the simple question: “Why is there a BARGE on my roof?”
Two years later, this post is still a pretty decent post----even if it isn’t as “pretty” as the ones I do now.
As a sequel to that post I thought I would share something I saw at an inspection the other day. It not only shows how nicely the barge rafter end can be shingled to protect it, but shows how even the small amount of water that would otherwise run off the end----bypassing … (23 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Everyone loves "What is wrong with this picture?" type contests. - 11/15/08 07:07 PM
Now I am sure this will be easy for all the inspectors out there so I would appreciate it if they would all refrain from commenting to give everyone else a chance to have some fun. So the question is: What is wrong in this picture. And let's see who can come up with the most "creative" excuse for how the defect got to be this way.
Charles Buell
PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) … (50 comments)
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seattle home inspection: Gotta love them bare parts! - 09/21/08 09:23 AM
I have written about the safety hazards that can exist where the power company connects its wires to the house wiring at the electrical mast. These connections should have proper coverings to protect persons from coming in contact with the hot connections.
I had a really good example of this the other day. I could see from the ground the potential problem, but I have experience with this hazard and knew where to put my ladder---my fiberglass ladder. My concern is that someone with a metal ladder might not have the same knowledge or foresight.
In this picture … (20 comments)
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seattle home inspection: What is Giovanni Venturi doing in my attic? - 02/01/08 12:55 PM
Michael Thornton posted a blog on his "Photo of the Day . . .that reminded me of another problem associated with the venting of attic spaces. Most older gable roof style homes have gable vents (which under most circumstances are adequate). Older homes may or may not have soffit vents. Current standards require soffit vents in conjunction with roof vents or continuous ridge vents, and the amounts of each is a specified amount based on the size of the space being vented. Typically, by today's standards (with exceptions): The total net free ventilating area shall not be less than 1 to … (4 comments)
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