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unprofessional work: ONE MUST Understand Paint Before One Paints! - 05/31/12 04:17 AM
Paint is like caulking. There are many kinds of caulking and the right material must be used for the right application.
Similarly, there are many kinds of paint, and the right paint must be used for the right application. ONE MUST understand paint before one paints!
Should I prime first?Should I spray the paint, roll it or brush it?Should I use oil or latex?Should exterior paint be avoided indoors, and can interior paint be used outdoors?Should I apply one or two coats?
Example in point. This gave me a chance to actually teach my client.
This is a layer of paint … (24 comments)
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unprofessional work: Use The Right Nails People! - 05/26/12 05:07 AM
Pulling up to the house I noticed a problem from far away in the road. It was a "repair," and not professional.
It was something done over a window, ostensibly to fix another problem that used to be there.
Not well done!
When I looked more closely, the entire window and framing had been "repaired."
When the young and inexperienced Realtor arrived I started with this, before she even went in the house.
There had been many "repairs" done to the house, inside and out. I noticed a common theme outside. See if you can pick up on it.
Notice the … (18 comments)
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unprofessional work: Roof Pedicure - Toe Nailing! - 05/03/12 02:40 AM
A roof pedicure happens when "repairs" are made by using a nailing technique called "toe nailing."
To toe nail a technique that abuts two perpendicular pieces of wood by driving nails at an angle on the very end.
This attachment technique really isn't good for most long term applications and is often only a temporary thing until the proper strap or bolt is put in place. It should not be used long term for, say, roof support!
From the outside of the house there was a substantial dip in the roof.
That almost always means fun on the inside!
This roof … (23 comments)
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unprofessional work: The Three Amigos - 04/26/12 03:42 AM
THIS BLOG IS ABSOLUTELY TONGUE IN CHEEK AND TO BE JUST A HAIR SARCASTIC. JUST SO'S YOU KNOW'S...
When installing attic fans, there are some things that are important. Let's call these The Three Amigos.
1. Thinking outside the box2. Position3. Consistency4. Professionalism
In order to improve ventilation in attic spaces, many people choose the old and reliable attic fan. They are thermostatically controlled and can be set to come on and turn off automatically. The factory usually sets the thermostat to turn on the fan at about 110F. It will turn itself off when the temperature reaches 100F.
This house … (18 comments)
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unprofessional work: Child Support - 04/21/12 03:27 AM
Walking around this house I saw what looked like a little child growing on the side of it.
The poor little fellow had so many birth defects I took pity.
It makes me angry when it is obvious parents don't care enough when creating a new one.
Eating and drinking properly, taking vitamin supplements, taking financial responsibility and exercising a little during construction is very important.
And then, using the right materials, properly placed, with planned forethought, dressing the child once born with the best stuff one can buy is the next phase of parental responsibility. Fancy stores don't matter as … (30 comments)
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unprofessional work: Ponding On The EPDM Roof - 04/13/12 02:07 AM
Ponding on the EPDM roof.
Often over flat roofs we see what looks to be a black rubber surface. That is a synthetic rubber, produced by the Firestone Corporation, called EPDM. The acronym means Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer - an (M-class) rubber.
This material comes in two thicknesses - a 60 mil, the typical thickness installed by builders, and a 90 mil, which is used commercially and by the better roofers for replacement.
The 60 mil product has about a 15 year life span, maybe more, depending on how much sun it receives.
Typically found on flat, or nearly flat … (11 comments)
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unprofessional work: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, And This Fence Rocks! - 04/11/12 03:04 AM
One of the folkloric sayings I studied in the Folklore class I took at the University of Virginia was the old idiom: "Good fences make good neighbors." May I add, and this fence rocks!
Fences, and forms thereof, have been the source of many things - property rights definition, containment, borders, lawsuits, fueds and even wars!
Much has been written about fences and neighbors - and whether they truly make good, bad or indifferent neighbors!
Well, it seems to me that it depends on the fence!
Here is one for the ages!
And so, can you tell me - what … (25 comments)
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unprofessional work: Tipping The Toilet - 04/09/12 02:32 AM
I know it sounds alliterative, but on a home inspection one of the tests I do is tipping the toilet.
It is important that a toilet be secured properly to the floor and that the tank secured to the bowl.
Especially important, when I see new flooring, I want to know if the flange, which seats and anchors the toilet to the floor, is still in place and the toilet is bolted to it.
This bathroom has a new vinyl floor. I could see that the bolt under the one cap is very loose.
Difficult to see perhaps is the huge … (56 comments)
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unprofessional work: Solid Geometry - Area Of A Cabinet = Pi Times Plumbing Squared - 04/07/12 02:34 AM
For some reason, when I took solid geometry in school, one day the formulas for figuring out the area of an object just clicked.
And it has helped me! When doing energy audits, one of the things I have to do is figure out the area of all the rooms so I can calculate the area of the house needing to be environmentally controlled.
Wow, you mean high school math has helped me? Yes!
Who knew that would ever happen?
So, imagine my joy when it came to determining if this cabinet is large enough for the plumbing?
Or was it … (19 comments)
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unprofessional work: Comical Deck, But The Comedy Won't Last Long - 03/21/12 02:22 AM
There were so many things about this deck, I could call it a comical deck, but the comedy won't last long.
It is comical for two reasons:
1. Flipper has apparently never built a deck.2. There was a final County inspection of the house with an Occupancy Permit.
Here are two examples of my problems with this deck:
Wonderfully erratic, the nails used for the decking are indoor nails. Their pattern is haphazard. This deck is less than one month old and already they are rusting. As they rust, their attractive pattern is even more evident. Also, as they rust they … (23 comments)
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unprofessional work: Wiring An Outdoor Shed For Lighting And Making Sure It's Safe - 03/05/12 03:18 AM
Wiring an outdoor shed and making sure it's safe is something most homeowners should not try to undertake.
Whenever I go into an outdoor shed and see that there is wiring, I am careful to examine what they have done and make sure that how the power gets to the shed is done properly and safely.
This shed proved so interesting it inspired a song... You've heard it before. Please, sing along.
Yooooouuuu
light up my liiiiiiiffffe.
Yooouuu give me hoooooopppppe
… (34 comments)
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unprofessional work: Flip List - 03/02/12 04:03 AM
On this house, the selling agent, FOF (Friend Of Flipper) created quite the little disclosure issue for him/herself.
A Flip List was left on the kitchen counter. It left for the buyer all the things done by the Flipper to "improve" the house.
I am sure the list is true. And I am sure the "improvements" were not done with any permit whatever.
"New roof and roof flashing" was on the list.
No permit is needed in Virginia to put on new roof shingles.
And everything was new - shingles, plumbing penetration sleeves and chimney flashing.
Obviously the previous roof covering … (26 comments)
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unprofessional work: When Toilets Wobble - 03/01/12 03:57 AM
One test I do in every bathroom is grab the toilet and see how well it is seated on the floor. But what can be done when toilets wobble?
Toilets wobble for a reason. They have to be attached to something!
Those two bolts on the sides of the toilet bowl attach that bowl to a flange. The flange is itself ATTACHED TO THE FLOOR STRUCTURE.
That attachment is best made with stainless steel screws. One of my pet peeves on new construction pre-drywall inspections is to see drywall screws used to attach the toilet flange! What!!??
If the flange isn't … (20 comments)
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unprofessional work: Don't Fall For This Trap! - 02/29/12 04:01 AM
It was a dark and stormy night, um, it was a very nice morning and a terrific couple buying a house. The husband had called me a couple of days prior to the inspection with some very circumspect questions. This was a house with a lot of "remodeling," but he was told that the "$100K or so" put into it was only "cosmetic." OK...
Well, you know me - that sent all of my radar dishes pointing in the same direction.
We had a nice conversation and he heard all my typical spiels. The biggest issue, as always, is getting a … (61 comments)
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unprofessional work: Wood Pellet Stove Chimney - Up Periscope! - 02/24/12 03:22 AM
Creativity never ends! But you never want to hear: Wood pellet stove chimney - up periscope!
Of all the things to play fast and loose with, wood stove and pellet stove chimneys would not be one of them!
The pellet stove is in a bedroom!
No protection against the wall, no hearth on the floor, kind of jammed into a hallway between the bedroom and house.
It is right in front of a window.
There is nothing, and that is NOTHING, safe about its installation. Or professional.
The exhaust "chimney" exits out back.
It goes straight through the wall, just behind … (83 comments)
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unprofessional work: Good Thing This Dryer Vents Into The Attic, Cause It Sure Can't Vent Outdoors! - 02/16/12 05:42 AM
Good thing this dryer vents into the attic, cause it sure can't vent outdoors!
Combine a makeshift laundry room, with a holey (not holy) dryer vent, and the most interesting, but clogged, discharge outdoors I have ever seen and what do you have?
Well, for one thing, you have a lot of mold!
Interestingly, most of the mold was not near the dryer vent!
Most of the exhaust was blowing so much toward one end of the house, the end where the homeowner covered up that pesky vent hole on the side of the house, that the mold really developed there! … (73 comments)
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unprofessional work: How NOT To Flash A Chimney, Or A Roof - 02/15/12 06:52 AM
So often, more than seeing something flashed correctly, I see how not to flash a chimney, or a roof.
Roof tar does not flashing make! Period. It's great UNDER "stuff," like shingles, or vent covers, and when under it is long lasting. But it is not intended to be installed (my word is "gooped") over "stuff!"
But it does inspire song! Please, feel free to sing along. It's best to bob your head too...
I SEE A RED CHIMNEY AND I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK,
NOT ONLY IN THE FRONT, BUT UNDER AND … (86 comments)
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unprofessional work: Where Oh Where Could The Dryer Vent Be? - 02/11/12 05:57 AM
Where oh where could the dryer vent be?
Sometimes you know a change has been made, but you don't know where.
This dryer vent has blown directly onto the AC compressor since the house was built. That would be 1979.
A dryer vent should not be within 12' or so of a compressor. Too close, as in this case here, and the compressor will draw in air while the dryer is venting its lint-laden exhaust. That can load up the fins with lint, clogging them, and robbing the compressor and AC system of efficiency. I have seen compressors look … (88 comments)
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unprofessional work: Be A Preposition On A Home Inspection - 02/10/12 07:01 AM
What is a preposition? My 8th grade English teacher, Miss Braun, taught me that a preposition was anything you can do to a house.
What? I mean, you can go inside, or be outside, over or under, beside or behind or in between, before or after, up and down. All those kinds of words are prepositions. They describe relation to a noun and govern it.
So, things you can do to describe your relation to a house would be a preposition. How prescient since that is what I do today!
So, when I pull up to a house and see a … (23 comments)
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unprofessional work: 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)
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Jay Markanich - Northern VA Home Inspector
Bristow,
VA
More about me…
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC
Address: 12315 Sherborne Street, Bristow, VA, 20136
Office Phone: (703) 330-6388
Cell Phone: (703) 585-7560
Email Me
An experienced home inspector's look at current home inspection events and conditions along with his useful recommendations.
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