I once did an inspection that went very well. That something was off rang like a bell. The urban environment external to a home can affect its desirability. The clients' tolerance of that is what counts. It's the other side of the coin. So what are the 'masked' issues or factors and what is your
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01/31/2011
I’m a little teapot… drip drip drip. How do you keep the spout of a teapot from dripping on the table linen or furniture? Some teapot spouts always drip. Some drip sometimes. Some never do drip. You can't tell at the store. You can't tell till you use it. So what do you do if you have a dripping
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01/21/2011
Robert Butler - Aspect Inspection Having a property inspection done by someone knowledgable in building construction and operating systems does one major thing for you.It provides the 'due diligence' on the building. This means that you've had the house looked into to a reasonable degree beyond
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01/16/2011
Robert Butler - Aspect Inspection This is installed on the ridge board in the attic of a 50's era built home. We could not trace the wire once it left the attic. The sheathing is braided fabric that is not fraying or heat degraded and the metal of this device is not rusted or damaged. The heat
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01/16/2011
It’s cold! What do I do? Ok, the house doesn’t have a basement. It has a crawlspace and the floors are cold. There is a dirt floor, which is dry now, but there is efflorescence so it has been wet in the past or maybe seasonally. Air heating ducts pass through the area. They are incompletely ins
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01/11/2011
Do you think this is an inviting Halloween walkway? It's actually the morning after Halloween but can you spot the 8 safety concerns here? No I'm not talking about the absence of handrails or the disrepair and neglected landscaping around the walkway though those improvements would be recommende
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01/09/2011
Our climate is similar here in Montreal. Our first big snow dump this year fell with westerly winds so the lee sides of homes developed what I like to call 'Snow Brows'. Theses are big over hangs of snow projecting various distances out form the roof edges. 'Don't slam the door!' scenarios b
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01/05/2011
As an inspector I’ve often heard "I don't need to get an inspection, it’s a new house." Big mistake, made by the inexperienced,most often young couples. New construction is where the biggest problems exist. The problem is not 'glue verses wood' or any other technological innovations. Each t
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01/04/2011