Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House): Counter that Flashing - 08/31/07 07:25 PM
It is kind of obvious if you think about it: Water runs down. So, when protecting against water intrusion, that is the direction it is most likely to be coming in from. Obviously there are times when wind-blown rain might be an issue too. This photo is not unusual. It is … (1 comments)
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Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House Inc): Log Houses - 08/30/07 11:48 PM
Inspecting log homes is a specialty in itself. In fact, there are specialists in that field. In our region of the northwest, even with mountains and woods there are still not that many of these homes. So such inspections ore only occasional things. A problem with logs is that the pests … (0 comments)
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Bellingham WA Home Inspector (King of the House): Open Ended Gutters - 08/29/07 09:45 AM
In the Pacific Northwest, where we have so much rain, gutters are a pretty important part of a home. They control the rain and runoff water. Around here, when you see a house without gutters and downspouts there is almost always a big pile of mud under the eaves, caused by the … (2 comments)
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Bellingham WA Home Inspector (King of the House): Conducive Conditions and Crawl Spaces - 08/25/07 12:21 PM
A common problem in crawl spaces is the plastic vapor barrier being out of place or missing altogether or at least missing in some areas. The photo below is a crawl space that is very damp, as you can see. As a result of that the insulation fell down and that … (3 comments)
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Home Inspections Bellingham WA (King of the House): Fallen Insulation - 08/25/07 10:40 AM
When a home inspector sees crawl space insulation that has fallen, such as this, it usually means one of a couple things. In this case, the crawl space is wet and the moisture has evaporated up into the insulation and it is heavy and no longer supported. The little metal rods … (5 comments)
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Bellingham WA Property Inspector (King of the House): Up On The Roof -- Tar - 08/25/07 10:13 AM
When a home inspector sees tar around the chimney are the vent stacks, or roof vents, it usually means one of two things: The roof leaked there and this was a repair or that the person who did the roof was not a professional and trained roofer. A professional roofer might, … (5 comments)
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Regional Class Home Inspection Training: Bellingham Technical College - 08/24/07 11:37 PM
Registration is now open for the home inspection training course that will be offered at Bellingham Technical College the end of October. This is a regional class, designed for Washington state, in that a number of students will be coming in from King county, Snohomish county and other areas of the state. This … (6 comments)
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Bellingham Washington Home Inspector (King of the House): Condo Wiring - 08/24/07 10:16 AM
Below is a photo of the main breaker at a condo. Inside a condo, people see an electric panel and assume that it is like the main panel inside a home. Usually that is not the case. At condos the panel inside is usually a distribution or sub-panel. The main breaker … (6 comments)
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Bellingham WA Real Estate Inspections (King of the House): Metal Roofs - 08/23/07 09:33 PM
Metal roofs, over recent years, have developed a good reputation. There is a catch however. The metal roof that is generally considered to be high quality is the standing seam metal roof. This popular roof is durable and has a minimum of exposed screws or fasteners. That catch I described is that … (4 comments)
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Home Inspection Bellingham (King of the House): My Leaking Pipes -- Galvanized Pipes - 08/23/07 09:07 PM
The photo below is something seen a lot when inspecting older homes. This is an old galvanized system of drain pipe that is now beyond its useful life. You can see the moisture around the threads and there was water on the vapor barrier -- a conducive condition. Whenever such pipes … (0 comments)
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Home Inspection Bellingham WA (King of the House Inc): Carpenter Ants - 08/22/07 04:20 PM
The state of Washington WSDA considers the carpenter ant to be the most "important" insect pest in the state. I kind of question the word "important" and think it might be better to just say the most "significant" insect pest. The carpenter ant is much misunderstood by the average person. For … (3 comments)
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Bellingham WA Home Inspection (King of the House): Subtle Diversion - 08/22/07 12:33 AM
This is fairly subtle, but something a home inspector should check for in kitchen sinks and bathtubs with showers. There is a diverter valve, inside the faucet or the spout. This diverter valve is designed to sense a change in water pressure when the sprayer or the shower head is turned … (6 comments)
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When In Rome - 08/20/07 10:20 PM
As I said in a previous post, in about a month, I will be visiting Italy again. Even though the construction is so different over there, I can still pick up on some things. They are not very useful tips in the Pacific Northwest, but interesting anyway. Most of the roofs … (6 comments)
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Hot Photos From A Draw Inspection - 08/17/07 03:44 PM
As real estate professionals probably everyone at Active Rain knows what a draw inspection is. The bank, often through a third party, wants a confirmation that the work is being completed as reported, and as money is requested, by the builder. I do a few of these, as do many home … (2 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Home Inspection (King of the House Inc): Deadly Voltages - 08/17/07 03:22 PM
It is my goal to delay indefinitely, or avoid completely, my personal Waterloo. Dangers go with the inspection business. Let's talk electricity. I spent years as an engineer working with 7000 volts or more and these were not low amp circuits either. As it involved broadcasting and paid airtime, often we had to … (3 comments)
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Bellingham WA Home Inspection (King of the House): Crawl space vegetation - 08/17/07 01:24 AM
I have been in lots of crawl spaces. The one today was blooming out all over. Best foliage I have ever seen down under. This was a post and pier foundation and nobody had ever put down a vapor barrier. Access was pretty much impossible, there were ferns and various weeds … (2 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Washington Home Inspector (King of the House): Unsafe Wiring Practices - 08/16/07 10:08 AM
Here is another one I see frequently on inspections. This is the case of running the live electric wires over, inside, or through the gutters or downspouts. The gutters and downspouts are obviously not designed for this purpose and the wires usually move around and wear the insulation off the conductors. … (0 comments)
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Home Inspection Bellingham (King of the House):Tie Me Mobile Home Down Sport - 08/14/07 12:46 PM
If you list or sell mobile or manufactured homes, there are a few terms that go with the beasts that are not necessarily familiar to the average Jack or Jill. For example, an inspector often cannot see much underneath them because they have a built in vapor barrier. This is up … (8 comments)
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Home Inspection Bellingham WA (King of the House): Vinyl Siding Damage - 08/14/07 11:18 AM
Vinyl siding is prone to damage. That includes damage from lawn mowers, weed wackers, baseballs. As it gets older, more UV exposure, it gets more brittle too. It is kind of amusing when you know the answer but over and over buyers or realtors will ask why the siding has this … (0 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Property Inspection (King of the House): Estimating Electric Service - 08/14/07 10:46 AM
Electricity is complex. In an older home there can be all sorts of issues: knob and tube, two conductors without the equipment ground. Generally, an inspector or an electrician has to try to figure that out, as so much of th system is only visible in the attic or the crawl … (5 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Home Inspection (King of the House, Inc): Trip Hazards and Wires! - 08/14/07 09:56 AM
I always find it amazing, at inspection sites, the number of homeowners who will have extension cords draped across paths, sidewalks and high foot traffic areas. Usually these supply power to a pond, a fountain or some type of water feature. There are a couple problems. First, just the trip hazard … (0 comments)
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Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House Inc):New wood destroying organism in Washington state - 08/13/07 06:50 PM
I am not sure that even many of the home inspectors know it yet, but in the past couple of months the Washington State Department of Agriculture has added another ant to the list of wood destroying organismsbusking their wares in this state. The state has also changed the WDO … (4 comments)
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Bellingham Property Inspection (King of the House, Inc): Electric Heater Safety - 08/13/07 03:36 PM
Sometimes I am amazed at how casually people treat the areas around their electric heaters. The heater might be in a bathroom and a towel rack is mounted over it, towel hanging down. Or maybe the curtains hang down over the baseboard heater in the living room. In the photos below, … (4 comments)
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$16 Bucks Will Get You Some Real Excitement - 08/10/07 06:30 PM
Boy, just look at what $16.00 will get you today. I had been under the impression that real excitement was more costly than that. However, just the other day I saw one of these gizmos in use and realized that a person could spend seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months and years watching it. … (7 comments)
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Household Pets (Pests) As Conducive Conditions - 08/10/07 06:09 PM
In Washington State, where inspectors are regulated by the WSDA, there is a term known as conducive conditions. It includes things that are likely to lead to damage from wood destroying organisms. Examples are wood to earth contact, leaking gutters and faucets, failed caulking, bad roofs, poor flashings. You get the … (3 comments)
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Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House Inc): Good Intentions - 08/10/07 06:03 PM
Sometimes homeowners have good intentions but the follow-through is just not up to snuff. Case in point is the downspout extension below. The people knew it was good to get the water away from the foundation, but notice that the extension runs uphill. Water does not unless it is pressurized. The … (1 comments)
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Lillies - 08/10/07 05:54 PM
Folks seem to like my photos of my wife's flowers better than my graphic photos of termites. So here are a couple lillies that are responding well to the nice weather in the PNW. As the weather begins to get a bit colder, as the season moves on and the days … (5 comments)
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Asbestos Fibers In The Attic? - 08/08/07 12:36 AM
I have been blogging about asbestos lately. Not sure just why. However, here is one concern that pops up every so often in the form of vermiculite attic insulation. While vermiculite is a mineral that is different than asbestos, the problem is that vermiculite mined prior to 1991 came from a … (2 comments)
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How Much Information Do You Really Want Your Client to Have? - 08/07/07 10:44 AM
This basic question comes up time and time again, sometimes from realtors and sometimes from associates. That basic question is, how much information do you really want your client to have? David Helm and I, who work together as adjunct faculty at a technical college, often compare notes. More often than … (2 comments)
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America's Most Wanted: Have You Seen This Criminal - 08/07/07 10:11 AM
This is, obviously, lower profile than the violent crimes or kidnappings perpetrated by vicious criminals. However, since we now have the goods on this criminal, I think it is time to see if the public can help identify him so law enforcement can, finally, track him down. First, let me setup … (4 comments)
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Automobile Theft - 08/07/07 09:44 AM
Yes, this is a bit out of my field of expertise, other than having been a victim a few years back, I thought I would pass this along. As far as being a victim, I owned a Honda, driven by my daughter. She was at work one day at a large … (2 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Home Inspection (King of the House): Not Such A Spiffy Biffy - 08/06/07 09:55 PM
One of the most common problems with toilets is the loose toilet. People have heard that if they tighten a toilet too tight to the floor, they can crack the porcelain. That is true, but the usual problem is that they overcompensate the other way. They leave the toilet loose to … (5 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Home Inspection (King of the House): Slower Than A Speeding Bullet - 08/06/07 09:38 PM
Well, here is a crawl space decimated by anobiid beetles. This pest works slowly, over the years, but when it has taken a hold -- BROTHER! Again, as always, it was a conventional crawl space and intended by design to have open crawl space vents. The primary conducive condition was vents that … (4 comments)
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Bellingham WA Real Estate Inspection (King of the House): Asbestos Cement Siding - 08/05/07 10:29 PM
Probably the biggest problem with asbestos cement siding, that is still in place today, has to do with areas that have been cracked or damaged. This was the early cement-based siding, with asbestos fibers. Everyone hears the word "asbestos" and gets nervous, however asbestos siding itself is not airborne or friable unless … (7 comments)
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Bellingham Wa. Washington Home Inspection (King of the House): Water Is The Enemy - 08/01/07 03:58 PM
A detail oriented inspector will look at the tub or shower surround, associated tiles, floor areas and caulking. One of the more common maintenance calls by the inspector has to be telling clients to remove the old caulking or grout and install new. Most of the time we suggest this be done … (4 comments)
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Bees on site: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) - 08/01/07 03:22 PM
Sometimes, when working as an inspector, it is easy to forget that unexpected, and sometimes dangerous, surprises could await you. Not only do you have to make sure you do not do a high wire act from your ladder but, also, you can run into pests such as the nest below. … (6 comments)
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