Found this on today's inspection. An older house that had 2 prong outlets in most of the house, with several new 3 prong's installed.

Someone used a jumper wire to go between the neutral and the ground lug on the outlet. This creates a potentially dangerous condition. It could have been done out of ignorance, or maybe to try to fool a home inspector, don't know. I just know that some inspectors would have plugged in their tester, seen a grounded outlet and moved on. 

Yep, I'm good, if I do say so myself.

Some people like water features. I have a small pond. I have a spitting frog and a little waterfall. I like the sound of running water in my back yard.

Some people just have a fountain pump that acts like a decorative sprinkler and bubbles water in a little pool (or a big pool).

The house today had a water feature. It was in the basement. Not your normal location for a water feature. I don't think that a water feature was the intended outcome of the installation however. 

This house has a water problem. Water is coming in from the surrounding ground and runs to the low point in the basement. The corrective action was to dig a hole, install a bucket and a sump pump. All went well with the installation. They dug a little trench to direct the water to the hole. The drilled a zillion holes in the bucket so the water would flow in. They bought a really nice sump pump. They found an extension cord so they could plug it into an outlet in the basement (another story). They did it all.

Except one tiny little thing. They forgot to add a pipe on the discharge side of the pump so the collected water would be pumped OUT of the basement into the yard, AND away from the foundation.

So the bucket filled up, the pump kicked on, and the fountain started flowing. Sprayed water all over the place, so it took a little while for it to fill the sump again for another blast.

Got to love it.

I was inspecting a 64 year old flip house today. Got to the basement stairs and looked down and got a little nervous. First of all, there wasn't a handrail. Second, the stairs were pretty steep, and thirdly, I could not see the bottom step. The last step looked like it ended a few feet above the floor.

So I decided to proceed slowly and be ready for a sudden trip to the floor. I got to the bottom and just had a hard time figuring out just what they might have been thinking.

I got enough photos on this house to make up at least a dozen blogs. Stay tuned for more postcards from the fringe. Got to love those flippers

I have a habit of checking all of the bolts and nuts on the hinges of the pull down ladders before I go up. I can not say just how many have loose nuts, or missing nuts, or even missing bolts. IN my tool pouch, I cary 3 or 4 1/4-20 nuts just for this reason. I probably buy a couple hundred of them a year. I have extra bolts I keep in the truck. I probably go through a dozen or so of them per year.

I usually do not do repairs when I am inspecting homes. I may tighten down a hose faucet stem that leaks, or add some screws to a crawlspace access door, but pretty much do not do repairs. However, since I am going to use the ladder to access the attic for inspecting, I want to make sure it is safe for me to climb.

The other pet peeve of mine is how they attach the ladder to the framing. Most of the time, they are not installed according to the manufacturer's specifications.

They are supposed to be secured to the framing with 16d nails or 1/4" lag screws, and NOT drywall screws. They are required to be in all four sides of the ladder (at least 8 fasteners), as well and through the holes in the metal brackets (usually 4 more). 

When someone installs one in a hallway, they usually cut through the bottom of at least one roof truss, sometimes two. This is not allowed.

The bottoms of the ladders need to be cut to the proper length and angle, so they fit properly at the bottom when the ladder is open.

If had homeowner's kind of laugh at me when I open the ladder then take out my screwdriver to tighten the bolts. It's kind of like. "What is this goof ball doing now?". They quit chuckling when I pull out a spare nut to replace one that is missing. I have replaced as many as 4 on one ladder.

Now go check yours.

I inspected a house today that must have had a few stories to tell (if it could talk). Lots of holes in walls and doors. A lot of broken glass in the back patio (broken bottles and dishes).

But going into the kitchen stopped me in my tracks. The top of the cooktop was smashed to pieces. Now I have seen glass top cooktops that have had a tool dropped on them, and they pretty much just crack. As you can see from the photo, this one must have been smacked many, many times, with a lot of vigor.

The microwave door glass was broken too. 

I kept seeing these things at trade shows. I would even give it a try on the convention hall floor. Fun, yeah, Kind of pricy, yeah, maybe next time. For last last few years I have seen them and thought they were too much money, and no matter what they said, it wasn't going to work for me.

So last january I was in Orlando at the ASHI convention. Krawlgear had their booth set up, as usual. Since there was a low turn out, I had all the time in the world to talk to the vendors, and look at the stuff. I hemmd and hawed for a couple days, then talked to a friend that has one. He said it was great. So I decided to take the plunge.

Even when I got it home and tried it out on the living room floor, I wasn't 100% convinced it was really going to work for me. Then I had a bunch of slab and basement houses to inspect.

I finally got a crawlspace house to inspect, and it was a doozy. It was low, had pipes on the ground, ducts close to the ground and a bunch of crap all over. So in I went. It took about 15 seconds to realize what a great purchase I had made. It did everything they said it was going to do. I went over a 3" pipe on the ground very easy. I slid under a duct easier than if I was on my belly crawling. I was able to make tight turns. It was a life changing moment.

The best part is my knees and hip joints do not take the beating they used to. My arms are getting a little different workout, but the knees are doing much better.

It's way too cool.

Last week something happened during an inspection that had never happened to me before. At first I thought it was a slight brain fade moment. A few seconds later, it was more of "wait a sec" moment. Then it turned into a full 'OH CRAP" moment.

During the course of inspecting a house, I flush the toilets, turn on sink faucets, run the tubs and active the shower diverters. It's just part of checking out the fixtures and the drains. It's a pretty common policy not to turn water valves such as main shut off valves and fixture shut off valves. If they haven't been used for a while, they might just decided to start leaking when you turn them, or break. I don't operate valves for that reason.

However, I do operate tub and shower controls. I check to make sure the HOT water is on the correct side, there are no leaks, and they shut off without continuous dripping. I've done this for close to twenty years.

So here I was in the 40+ year old house checking the bathrooms. I got to the master shower and turned on the left faucet and waited for the hot water to flow. The I turned on the right faucet and let it run a while so I could check the drain. After flushing the toilet a few times and running the sink to check functional flow, I went to turn off the shower.

So I turned the faucets "righty tighty" and the oddest thing happened, the shower kept running. "Oh, OK" (here's the brain fade moment), maybe one of the faucets was reversed ("I don't remember that, but, well, maybe"), so I turn them the other way, then one after the other. The water was still running. The time between the "wait a sec" and the "OH CRAP" is really just a fraction of a second. The water is NOT shutting off.

I now go down to the basement and turn off the water to the house at the main valve. Good thing for me, it was a newer lever valve and shut off fine. My next stop would have been the meter in the front yard.

I have a pretty good idea what happened. Either the screw (that holds the washer) has come off the end of the valve stem, or the stem itself has broken. Either way, it's going to be a call to a plumber to get it fixed before the water get turned on again.

The good thing is the house is vacant. 

While I have had my share of shower diverters shoot out of the fixture when I push the button, or faucet handles that leak like crazy, I have never had one not shut off.

Just goes to show you - always be ready for the unexpected.

Got a call this afternoon. A woman told me she was given my name by a good friend, AND her Realtor to do a home inspection. I asked a few questions and gave her a price of $350. There was a long pause. She then told me her Realtor told her it would be about $150.

I told her that she must be mistaken because I didn't even charge $150 when I started in 1989. She got off the phone saying she would get back to me.

A little later I see an e-mail from her. She said that she had also called XYZ Inspections and they quoted her $295, and if I would match the price I could have the job. But she really liked my report style, and her friend said I was really good.

I looked up the guy she mentioned, since I didn't recognize the name. He got his license in Early 2007. He has 11 CEU's. (He's going to need 21 more by the end of this month, but I'm guessing he doesn't know that). 

Let's see: he's been in business 22 months and has probably done 250 inspections. He's going to charge $55 less than me. I've been in business about 233 months and done close to 9,000 inspections. He has completed 11 CEU's and I have completed 65 in the same time period. She has two people that referred me. She has seen my report style and likes my attention to detail. 

She just doesn't think that I'm $55 better than the other guy.

I think i just decided that I don't want to work for her. She deserves the low priced guy.

I was doing an inspection on a large house yesterday. My clients had told me the listing agent had tried to tell them the house had just been inspected for the seller and they didn't need one. A builder they had met gave them my name as a "good inspector". 

When I got to the house, I was told that a termite inspection had been done and some treatment completed last Tuesday (4 days ago). I had noticed a spot where an old mud tube had been scraped off, and signs of a few drillings in the slab.

The crawlspace in this house was pretty interesting. 1. It had a poured concrete floor., 2. It had some areas where the clearance was pretty small. 3. There were lots of little nooks and cranies where the foundation walls created a maze.

From the main part of the crawlspace I could tell there was a lot more that I just couldn't see very well. It looked like it was going to be next to impossible to get to it, however after I looked more, I could tell that if I went under some ducts, it opened up again. So in I went. I will call this "The Hard Part".

1st clue. The property owners have been traveling and have not been in the house for several weeks. On with the story.

As I got to "The Hard Part" I noticed the dryer was not vented to the outside. So I was greeted with a large amount of lint covered spider webs. LOTS of webs! Off in the distance ahead (about 30 feet) I could see some staining on the foundation wall. I needed to get there. So off I went. I had to go over and under pipes and some ducts, and sweep webs and lint out of my way. 

When I finally got there, I could see a lot of termite tubes. What was really cool (for an inspector anyway) was one of the tubes went from the concrete slab up 32" to the floor joists. There were also some on the front foundation wall. STRIKE 1 for the termite inspector. He didn't go back there.

I was under the master shower, and as I pulled the floor insulation away, I found EXTENSIVE wood rot and damage on the sub flooring and joists. STRIKE 2 & 3 for the termite inspector, STRIKE 3 for the home inspector (I skipped strikes 1 & 2 for the home inspector).

I am not usually one for pointing fingers and saying stuff like "That guy should have caught this", because we don't know when they were there. However, I do know when they were there, both of them. I can pretty much bet they did not even attempt to go back there. Remember the 1st clue? There would not have been as many spider webs with dryer lint if they had gone in there. There may have been spider webs, but since no one has been in the home doing laundry, NO LINT!

I don't bring this up to imply that I am a "super Inspector" or did anything out of the ordinary to get into that area of the house. I was just doing the job I signed up for. Yes it was hard, for about 15 seconds when I squeezed under those ducts. Yes, I had to go over and under some pipes. It WAS hard. I didn't like brushing all those webs out of the way. 

But this is the job I signed up for. I knew it involved going into these tight places, with spiders, and snakes and unpleasant things. And this is the job that my clients are paying me for. They hired me to do this job. I owe it to them to do my best.

When I was showing the listing agent the photos in my camera, it became obvious to him that maybe the guy he recommended was not committed to doing the best job they could for their client. Especially when he noticed there was over 30" of space between the floor and the joists.

I have a feeling there might be some angry phone calls first of next week.

Here's the photos....

When inspectors put on their "inspector's hat", we have to remain impartial and objective. We are not supposed to let our personal feelings get in the way, or try to lead the client one way or the other. Sometimes we really have to bite our tongues.

I have been on some inspections, and within ten minutes I knew that if it was daughter buying the house, I would drag her to the car. I have been on others when it wasn't until the end that it was obvious (to me anyway) that the buyers should walk.

I have been on some where the buyer stopped me, said there was just too many things wrong, and I would have been comfortable with my daughter living in the house. Just different levels of comfort, and different thresholds for pain.

I once inspected a house that was sliding down a hill. There were very large cracks in the walls (masonry house). When I say large, I'm talking 3" - 4" wide. There were cracks on the right side, cracks in the front, cracks on the left side, and cracks in the back. It was horrible. I wondered why I was even there. Forget the blankets of mold in the basement. 

I went to the buyer and told her that I had some serious concerns about the structure, and I was going to recommend she get a structural engineer to look at it, and develop a plan for repair. She said she had owned an older house before, and had dealt with structural problems before with help from a engineer friend. I told her she had better call him. "Oh, he died a few years ago". When she talked to me, she didn't look me in the eye, she sort of looked toward the side, or down. I again told her there were significant structural issues that needed an engineer. She then said that she had used caulk to fix cracks before and she thought she would do that again. All I could do was try to make the report as clear as I could and hope she took the time to read it. I'm sure she bought the house anyway.

Which brings me to my client today. I'm going to inspect an 11 year old house in foreclosure. The water, gas and electric is OFF. The previous owners have stripped light fixtures and plumbing fixtures and left wires hanging. It looks like it has either been added on to a few times, or was really poorly planned. The floors slope, there are stains all over, there are damaged walls in every room. After I found some fairly significant framing problems I brought her and her uncle around to look. After showing them my concerns, I told her I was going to get my ladder to go into the attic and onto the roof. She said, "You should just stop. I have seen enough. This is more than I imagined (damage and work to be done) and I don't need to take on this type of project. Nancy (her Realtor) can show me more properties, and I will find something that fits my needs. Thanks you so much for your time."

I really admire someone that knows their limitations, and has realistic expectations. She'll find another house, and I'll probably inspect it for her.