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home owner repairs: Screwing Up The Gutter - Repair Or Replace? - 02/07/12 06:13 AM
As regards screwing up the gutter - repair or replace?
Homeowners must ask themselves this all the time!
First of all, this is not the first time the gutter on this vacant house has been "repaired."
How can you tell?
The soffit and fascia material has been caulked and painted, although not recently.
And the gutter has some kind of material, what I don't know, oozing out the seams.
But obviously it had come apart again.
So, this time they decided to screw it up!
Literally!
There are 12 sheet metal screws visible in this photo.
There are more on the … (60 comments)

home owner repairs: A Cellar Comes Up For Air - 01/14/10 06:00 PM
Sometimes when things are done improperly the result can lead to other problems.  
When, for example, a stone foundation is improperly repaired it gets wet.  If it gets too wet it can collapse.  When it collapses small gaps become huge holes.  (See my two previous posts)  Huge holes that didn't used to be there cause other things to move or separate.  Air moves more freely and rapidly and can enter the house where it isn't supposed to.  Such was the case in the recent stone-founded historic house. 
This very pretty picture shows lots of things.  It is a thermal … (4 comments)

home owner repairs: Hide and Seek Water Heater - 10/10/09 05:07 PM
The water heater was no where to be found. 
There was this fine laundry room, beside the fine "bathroom" (door to the right).  That bath could be a story in itself, but I digress.
The laundry room was special in its own right.  You can see the water connection on the wall.  And there was no drain, so I assumed that the washer drained into that special floor drain in the foreground.  That is packaging tape over it now - keeps the snakes out.
I don't know where that floor drain goes.  Perhaps to the creek behind the house.
The … (6 comments)

home owner repairs: Going Postal - 10/06/09 04:54 PM
Not often does do I have the opportunity to go back to a house following a home inspection.  I inspected this particular house just a couple of weeks ago.  And, in addition to its problems, it had high radon, requiring remediation, which the sellers had to accomplish.  So my clients asked me back to do a follow-up radon test.
 
When I arrived the front porch, which had many problems noted on the inspection report, presented itself! 
So I looked around!
First, I looked at the newel posts on the front guardrail.   Both had been rotting, high and low, and one … (11 comments)

 
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Jay Markanich - Northern VA Home Inspector

Bristow, VA

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Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC

Address: 12315 Sherborne Street, Bristow, VA, 20136

Office Phone: (703) 330-6388

Cell Phone: (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.


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