Eye Candy - Top 20 Home Inspection Photos from 2011 - 12/27/11 06:06 AM
I post a new home inspection photo on the Structure Tech Facebook page six days a week, and this year I decided to put together a blog post showing my favorite photos from 2011.   I hope you enjoy these half as much as I do.  As with all of my blog posts, click on any of these photos for a larger version.
Ice Dams - Remember ice dams?  They were nasty last winter.  I'm enjoying winter in Minnesota much more this year; what have we received so far, two inches of snow?

Ice Dam-age Control - This is the only photo we didn't take … (141 comments)

My Search For A Home Inspector (and my complaints about other web sites) - 12/20/11 06:14 AM
I have out-of-state family who are in the process of buying a new home.  I told them I'd find a good home inspector in their area, assuming I would already know someone in their area from an online discussion group or from ActiveRain.  No such luck.  Oh well... the search begins.

At first, my search for a home inspector started out kind of fun, a little like searching for a house.  It was easy for me to weed out home inspectors, but I actually ended up weeding out way too many.  I was left with no one, for one reason or … (37 comments)

Before you insulate your foundation walls, start with the rim space - 12/13/11 05:57 AM
Have you ever noticed how snow will melt around the foundation on older houses?  This will happen at any house with unheated foundation walls, and it's a great visual indication of how the house is losing heat.   When there's no melted snow up against the house, we can rely on thermal imaging to figure out where the heat loss is occurring.  In the image below it's right at the rim space; that's the part that shows up as the brightest orange / yellow.

While houses usually act like chimneys, sucking air in at the bottom and exhausting air through … (49 comments)

Buying a vacant property in Coon Rapids? Familiarize yourself with their "Water Restoration Permit" first. - 12/06/11 06:11 AM
I recently had a friend go through a huge hassle to get his water turned on after buying a vacant property in Coon Rapids.  His plan was to buy the house, get the water turned back on, and live in the house while he remodeled it going room by room.
Shortly after buying the home, he contacted the city of Coon Rapids to have the water turned back on, and they told him they would need to inspect the house first.  The city ended up having a huge list of repairs that he would need to completebefore moving in to the house, … (10 comments)