A Northern Virginia Home Inspector's Perspective

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Home Inspector - Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - 3380-000723

ARCHIVED BLOG POSTS

2014 

You might not think it possible to do, but this is a lesson on how to improve duct tape. When I pulled up to the house and saw rolled asphalt roofing OVER an entire roof and could see that this rolled asphalt roofing was laid over a previous layer of shingled asphalt roofing I thought to myself t...
10/30/2014
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There is a key word in this phrase:  Furnace Safety Switch. AND THAT WORD IS "SAFETY" ! It is not a good practice, or a best practice, to fool with the furnace safety switch! So, when I took the cover off this furnace and saw what the homeowners had done with the safety switch, I was concerned. D...
10/29/2014
On pre-drywall inspections I can mostly see what cannot be seen after drywall installation, and, as to what I can see, sometimes you're baffled and sometimes you're not. Take this master bedroom for instance. Those pieces of cardboard in these photos make up what are called baffles. They are prop...
10/28/2014
Free Enterprise Is Not A Scam Or A Big Can Of Spam   Words mean things. Concepts mean things. Ideas mean things. People try to spin word meanings, or make others think words mean things that they don't, but the words, concepts and ideas still mean what they mean. And meanings can change over time...
10/27/2014
Did my thermal camera find a ghost during a home inspection? This is true - it all happened just as I say. I arrived at the inspection early.  The house was being worked on by someone doing last-minute repairs. Entering the house I looked to the right into a room with some minimal staging - a com...
10/26/2014
When I can see the insulation installation during a pre-drywall inspection, I am able to speak with my clients about this question:  when is R-13 insulation NOT R-13 insulation? Basically when it's compacted too tightly, it leaves gaps, is smashed inward beside studs or slips down inside the wall...
10/25/2014
Patch work is great for quilts.  But roofs? This is a condo building, just over a year old, with roof leaks repaired many times. Sooner or later enough layers might just get put over something that it controls leaking, or at least forestalls it until after the warranty period. Glue and layer.  La...
10/22/2014
Overall, it is important to be consistent when installing vinyl siding. However, the consistency should be in the GOOD department, not the BAD. On a one-year warranty inspection, which I seem to do a lot of, I look top to bottom, inside and out. Walking around the house I have 20X binoculars that...
10/21/2014
I found this fascinating and wanted to see what things would show after knee surgery - before and after thermal images. A friend of mine damaged his knee playing soccer.  He ruined his ACL, which is the anterior cruciate ligament.  Not having this opportunity before, I wanted to see what Mighty M...
10/20/2014
Free Enterprise Is The Natural Course And Cannot Be Resisted   “We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.”   Jules Verne (1828-1905)   If we humans are about nothing less we are about defining our behavior.   We love to create rules and laws.  We love to create standards and pra...
10/20/2014
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Jay Markanich

Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia
local_phone(703) 330-6388
smartphone(703) 585-7560
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An experienced home inspector's look at current home inspection events and conditions along with his useful recommendations.