I am blogging about the Long Shot camera system today. This camera system has help me a lot since I bought it. It is a telescoping pole that you can mount your digital camera to, I bought the 23 foot pole there are three different size poles to choose from 9, 15, 23 foot. The polester goes where I can not go safely on roofs, or in crawlspaces, etc. This system allows me to take pictures of roofs that are in assessable due to height or are un safe to transverse. They said sharing is caring I am sharing this information with everyone on Active Rain. The web site address is: http://www.LongShotCameraSystems.com here is some pictures I took using the system. When inspecting a roof it important to find the best Long Island Home Inspection you can find. Take a look at the pictures below to see what to look for.

I writting this blog post today to provide information about pool safety. The summer is here and the pools are open. I was at a networking event, where they wore collecting money for donation for a child that had drowned in their swimmimg pool. It is too late to save this child but we can all help prevent this happening to another child. By following U.S. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION on pool safety guidelines. When I am doing residential inspection and I see the house has a pool I talk to my client about pool safety. I send them two pdf files, one is from the U.S. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION, the another is on pool alarms. We can all come together as real estate community to help promote pool safety. For more information about pool safety please visit the following web site, http://WWW.CPSC.GOV

U.S. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION Washington, DC 20207 Web site: www.cpsc.gov How to plan Toll-free hotline: 1-800-638-2772 for the unexpected In some of the nation’s sunbelt, drowning has been the leading cause of accidental death in the home of children under 5 years old. It is very important to have your home properly inspected. Finding the right Long Island Home Inspector is important and I can provide you with the expert reports you desire.

I ran across some more unusual plumbing and electrical installation during some of my inspections. These are some of the more creative installation that were done by un licensed contractors. People want to save money or simple do not have the money to spend in these time I understand that but have work done by un licensed contractors cost more in the end and is dangerous to the people living in the house or building. Here are some pictures of the creative installations. During the Long Island home inspection process these are the types of things we see.

This is why you should have at least 6 inches of space between the stove and the wall to prevent a fire.

The plumbing pipe is pitching to the trap instead of draining the water out of the house.

This creative electrical installation was done on a newly renovated kitchen. It was powering the dishwasher, stove, refrigerator.

Who needs a light we have a surge protector.

I have not posted anything on my blog for some time now. It has been hard to get some free time to write blog posts. Anyway enough about not having a enough time and lets look at some unsual plumbing and two potential dangerous situation I found during home inspections. Here take a look at these pictures and you will see some unsual plumbing installations.

Someone decided to plug up the pressure relief valve on this hot water heater. By doing this to the hot water heater the pressure can build up and it could blow up or fly though the roof like a rocket.

Duct is open and can let Carbon Monoxide into the living space, and hot water heater is on its last leg!

Duct tape sure not be used on HVAC ducts.

I just did a inspection for my client who just had her 2 family home totally redone 2 months ago. It was a nightmare I do not know how the town inspectors allowed it and did not shut down the job, and take away the contractors license. My client called me up asking questions about the renovation she had done to her home. She told me she had the house totally redone for herself and her mother to live in. I told her to contact the the contractor with her concerns and ask him to correct them, and said to her I hope the contractor does the right thing by you and your family and you do not need to call me again. But no the contractor was  long gone with they money over 280000.00 dollars "he does not return my calls" the client stated. Here are some pictures of the renovations take a look.

That one 20 amp breaker supplies 2 GFCI in the kitchen and the refrigerator on the same circuit. When I tested the GFCI's the refrigerator turn off, and there are no arc fault breakers in the panel box.

The cables were not installed to hold the bay windows in place.

No caulking around any window.

My client said my knees hurt walking up these stairs.

The deck and balcony

Hot water temperture.

All of the new hard wood floors are warping.

I got a called from my client stating: "I have leaks and bugs are coming out of my walls"

Can you help me?  I started asking some questions to get some background on this situation.

The client stated they had bought a luxury condominium from one of the leading luxury home builders.

I asked the client if she had the condo inspected prior to purchase. The client said, the attorney advised that no inspected was needed due to the fact, it was new construction. I then, asked the client about the bugs coming out of the walls. The client described the bugs as little black dots, the client said they have a ziploc bag full of them. I told them, I am not a bug expert, and ask them to bring the bag of bugs to the pest control company to find out, what kind of bugs they are. I then ask about the leaks the client stated the leaks were on the ceilings of the bathroom and the kitchen. The following pictures are from my inspection of the condo.

No Visible Leak On Bathroom Ceiling

Leak On Bathroom Ceiling Found With Thermal Imaging

Verified Leak On Bathroom Ceiling With Moisture Meter

I was recently hired by my client to inspect his house not because he was selling it or buying a house. But because his family was getting sick with respiratory infection every month  from living in the house. The client told me over the phone that he just had a mold removed from both the basement and attic of the house, and wanted to known what was causing all this mold build up in his home. The following pictures show the cause of the mold problems in the home.

Most of the HVAC ductwork was crushed.

Bathrooms vent are discharging in the attic putting unwanted moisture and helping the mold to grow.

A active water leak from a valve.

This is the opposite side of that stucco wall.

The stucco and the synthetic stucco are in the earth allowing water to be sucked up into the wall and styrofoam.

The soffits were covered by stucco blocking air flow to the attic and the roof.

The grading around the house was sloped in the wrong direction.

The first thing I saw was the ledger board did not support the whole deck. Second thing no flashing to prevent water from entering the house. I started probing the wood with my screwdriver and almost lost it a few  times due to wood rot that was present. Then started shooting it with the infrared to see what it would detect? How much moisture was present? I wrote up the deck in the report as a improper installation  check for CO and permits for the deck.

This retaining wall is failing due to hydrostatic pressure. Be sure to find out who is responsible for the retaining wall? This can be a very expense repair. This wall was about 7 ft height and 50 ft long, the repair bill would be thousands of dollars. Make sure your client is not the one that is going to be responsible for this repair.

The missing knockouts on this main electric service panel box are exposing the main lugs. Which are live all the time, because wires coming from the meter base which is coming from the utility company. This situation is very dangerous, I all ways call out missing knockout because the hot bus is exposed.