This week those of us who teach in the program have another of the approved fundamentals of home inspection classes coming to an end at Bellingham Technical College. Today completes this classes fourth week. At this writing, this is the only approved course in the state that is available to the
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07/31/2009
I was taught back before I had any gray hair and when I went to home inspector school that using those concrete blocks, with the channels in them, for piers was a bad idea if the channels were placed horizontally. That is the wrong way to go about it. You know, like this. The channels should go
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07/30/2009
Boy, it is really hot in Bellingham. That is the lead for this blog post. There are those home inspectors who would lead you to believe that the details and concepts that we inspectors have to remember are so complex and baffling that they are overwhelming to the mere average soul. Those types
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07/29/2009
It is common place to find that a repair has been made, yet it is not done correctly. The photo below is a good example. The original receptacle at this outside corner of the home had not been a GFCI protected receptacle. The seller hired someone to upgrade all of these -- good! While most of th
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07/29/2009
One of the things that I do, as the program coordinator for the Bellingham Technical College home inspection training program, is to work to assure that our students will qualify for their Washington State home inspector licenses. That is the goal of taking the class. We provide detailed instruc
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07/28/2009
I would say that, about half the time, the door on a crawl space is inadequate. There is nothing particularly unusual about the arrangement below. The problem, if one thinks about it, is pretty obvious. First, the various flaps of wood are touching the ground so they are rotting. That condition
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07/25/2009
I was inspecting at a manufactured home that was located out in the country just the other day. The two downspouts out front were as flat as pancakes. I will put a photo below. This crushing was from just above my head down probably three feet or better.Since there was more than one downspoutlik
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07/24/2009
Whenever I am inspecting a home from the late 1960's to the mid-1970's -- usually 70's houses -- there is one concern I do not want to miss. I pay special attention at the circuit breaker panel. Do you see what I see? That lower conductor is copper. The upper four are all aluminum. When an inspe
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07/23/2009
There are times when, just glancing at a furnace, it does not look so bad. But a look up under the draft hood can be the first clue that time is not on our side. The furnace above was in that category. Further investigation showed that it was installed in 1981, so that makes it 28 years old. Tha
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07/23/2009
Trusses that you are likely to see up in attics are engineered components. They are designed by structural engineers and truss manufacturing companies that have special software. That software has sophisticated math that has been figured out as far as loads, spans. The catch is you cannot monkey
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07/22/2009