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ferndale home inspector: Level II Chimney Inspections (King of the House) Bellingham WA Home Inspector - 05/11/12 10:02 PM
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), states that, at the time of a real estate sale or the transfer of a property, a certified chimney sweep should perform a Level II chimney inspection. This suggestion makes sense. The home inspector is a generalist and provides only a very basic visual inspection of a wood or solid-fuel burning appliance and any associated flues and chimneys.
Clients want to know what is involved in a Level II chimney inspection. The inspection begins with the chimney sweep examining (inside and outside) the chimney, flue and the associated fireplace or stove. The … (6 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Attic Venting (King of the House) Bellingham, WA Real Estate Inspections - 04/29/12 09:02 AM
In the Pacific Northwest, we have lots of precipitation and moisture. Since those of us who live here realize that, you would think that houses would be built in a manner that makes them resistant to moisture problems. It is amazing to me how many houses in our climate have roofs with poor to no drainage and poor or missing gutters or downspouts that empty next to the house.
Another problem, maybe not as intuitive to understand, is the case of the under ventilated attic. General guidelines for building state that attics should be ventilated. Around here that venting, usually, consists … (7 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Green Building, By Default -- King of the House, Bellingham Home Inspector - 03/25/12 09:09 AM
Green building is a buzz word in our society today. I hear many agents and builders discussing green building and I run into clients who wish they were buying a green building.
Despite there being considerable controversy over the whole topic of green building and just how environmentally beneficial it is anyway, there is a type of green building that involves no controversy at all. We see this one frequently in the northwest and we can all agree that it is not a green condition that you want to have going on at your own house.
That is a gutter … (5 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House) Perimeter Slope - 01/21/12 12:07 PM
One issue, often found to be present during the course of a home inspection, is perimeter pavement or soil that slopes toward the home. Here in the northwest, more often than not, houses have crawl spaces and not basements. I have even seen soil or pavement slope directly toward a crawl space vent. Below is a shot from an inspection, this is my indicator to myself, often displayed in reports, to get the point across about the slope of the soil.
This is, in most cases, not difficult to correct by grading soil. But, if the problem is not corrected, … (3 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Happy New Year from King of the House - 01/01/12 11:31 AM
I was online reading a news story about how many people found 2011 to be one of the worst years of their lives -- unemployment, no money, the usual things reported these days. One person interviewed referred to last year as shared misery.
It made me grateful to have my niche here in Whatcom County. I found last year to be a year of modest growth, although I did pretty much the same as the year before. I have gotten to a point where I can only do so many inspections so I have been sending overflow to some other friends … (11 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Merry Christmas from King of the House - 12/25/11 02:35 PM
I want to wish all of my Active Rain friends -- internationally, nationally, statewide and locally -- a great Christmas. As I write this post, we have a really windy day here. I am hoping that the power does not go out. I am so glad I no longer am involved in being an engineer in radio, wind often led to power outages and real headaches. And, due to the time of the year, this often happened between Thanksgiving and New Years. That is a responsibility from my past life that I do not miss at all. Dead air meant no … (7 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: You Can't Always Do What You Want (Bellingham Home Inspections) - 12/25/11 11:09 AM
It is my goal, at a home inspection, to try to look at all components and systems. That not only earns me repeat business from clients and agents, but it provides some insulation against potential client complaints. Logic prevails: The more you see the less important stuff you miss.
It is not possible to find everything that might be wrong at a house. Finding 100% of the problems is not achievable within the confines of a home inspection. Sometimes mother nature herself interferes. This time of year, it is not unusual for the home inspector in this region to have restricted roof access … (1 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: An Attached Garage is Not a Fire-Rated Assembly -- Despite What You Might Have Been Told - 11/29/11 07:15 PM
I hear the remark, even from home inspectors, that the garage is not fire-rated or 20 minute fire-rated. Home inspectors are not code inspectors, but this kind of talk is based on codes and a misunderstanding of residential code requirements. Let's look at garage/house separation requirements. The book, Building Code Basics: Residential, was published, in part, by the IRC (International Residential Code) which dictates most of the codes that apply to modern construction. Codes may vary from one jurisdiction to another. Below (bold) are explanations, from the IRC, that apply to garages. Below that are my comments.
"Dwelling separation from garage -- Unlike separations … (5 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Get Off The John -- So I Can Inspect It! - 11/27/11 04:23 PM
They follow me everywhere, I cannot get away from them. This last week I had to work with, and around, five house destroying organisms at various residences in Bellingham and Whatcom County. Their stalking me might have been revenge for the widely circulated expose piece that I wrote about the species.
At one home, they followed me into all the bedrooms and hid under the beds. They tried to follow me out onto decks where they were not supposed to be. There is no question about it, house destroying organisms love to hang out with the home inspector. The home inspector has … (10 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Whatcom County Home Inspection (King of the House) Knob and Tube Wiring Systems - 11/20/11 10:29 PM
In the last week, half of the home inspections that I performed in Bellingham were at houses with knob and tube wiring systems. The minute I say that, the inspectors know that the houses I inspected were at least 50 years of age.
Knob and tube wiring, the first wiring system to be used on a widespread basis (after Thomas Edison figured out the light bulb) is a relic, an antique. However, that does not mean it is not commonly found. I own five residences, one a duplex and one house I inherited, and three of the five houses still have … (8 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Short URL Tool for Google Maps - 11/07/11 02:01 PM
This information might save time, and be handy, for any Active Rain real estate professionals who send, or post, URL's or links to Online maps.
In the majority of the home inspection reports that I send out in Bellingham and Whatcom County, I insert a description of the home and provide a map link to an aerial view of the house. In the past, I have used mapquest, as the source of the map, because it provides a much shorter URL than google or bing maps. However, in the last couple of weeks, I have found that mapquest is inserting pop-up … (7 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Better Safe Than Sorry (King of the House) Bellingham Home Inspections - 11/04/11 11:03 AM
A couple years ago I tossed one of those orange safety or hazard cones in the back of my truck. Somewhere along the line, at one of the Washington State Home Inspector Licensing Board meetings, a member made some mention that such a cone could be very handy. For example, such a device might be valuable if you had a hatch open that someone, like your buyer, the seller or an agent, might fall into.
Up until recently, although it rides quietly in my truck, I have never used the cone. Actually I found a use for it the other day. … (28 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Meet the Beetles -- February 7, 2012 - 10/30/11 04:21 PM
The title of the upcoming class, offered at the Washington State University Puyallup Structural Pest IPM facility, caught my eye and my ears. It is called "Meet the Beetles". I am of such an age that a distinctive image is brought to mind when I hear those words. If you lived through the 60's, you have to remember that groundbreaking album, title above modified slightly to meet my journalistic requirements for humor. This course for inspectors is the brainchild of Dr. Dan Suomi, our state's leading expert on beetles. Dan did his Phd studies on the beatles and, today, he is a … (4 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Legendary Performer Reborn, #1 Song In America, 1974 - 10/27/11 10:05 PM
In February of 1974, there was a re-birth for one of the original artists and songwriters of the early days of pop music. The artist's star had faded pretty badly in the USA. He had not had a hit of any magnitude since 1964, ten years before.
Despite everyone being ho-hum about his career back home, the performer was still a well-respected artist in the U.K. This man, being incredibly creative, was not willing to rest on his laurels and he presented a new sound to the British audience at a major London concert. They liked what they heard.
Shortly thereafter, at a star-studded party … (4 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Speaking of Photos -- Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham, WA - 10/27/11 10:19 AM
I am often posting photos at Active Rain that I shot in Italy, Mexico or Canada. For a promotional piece that I am working on, I have taken photos of four or five of the best known buildings in Bellingham. I think that the most distinctive of those has to be the Whatcom County Museum. This building goes back to 1892 and was, for many years, the Bellingham City Hall.
Ever since I was a kid, 1950's, it has been the Whatcom County Museum and a main cultural meeting point for the county. Some people think the building is lovely. There … (4 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Italy Photo -- Pretty Impressive - 10/26/11 08:13 PM
I have been so busy catching up, after getting back from Italy just over two weeks ago, that I have not had time to go through many of my photos. This was a hard building to photograph. There was another building across the street and it was of such gargantuan size that it was difficult to get far enough away to get it all in. To complicate matters, there were a zillion pedestrians and construction taking place in front of it. Therefore, the best way to take the shot was up high. Even if it is a limited view, it is … (2 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Whatcom County Home Inspector (King of the House) Deck Building - 10/23/11 04:14 PM
When I inspect decks in Bellingham and Whatcom County, not unlike at other areas of the country based on what I am told by other inspectors, I find a multitude of problems with decks. The average homeowner, hyped by being told how easy it is to build a deck on a weekend, often ends up constructing a monstrosity that is unsafe or will degrade the quality of the house. Some of the most common problems involve improperly flashing the deck, so rot might develop at the junction of the ledger board and the exterior wall; failing to anchor the deck to … (1 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Bellingham WA Home Inspector (King of the House) Bugs by the Number - 10/23/11 01:09 AM
We have many problems with rot and wood destroying insects in this region. A few months back, I was inspecting an older house that had a number of issues with wood destroying organisms. Since many of the insect pests are attracted to wet and decayed wood, it is common to find wood destroying insects living in rotten and wet wood.
At this particular crawl space, the first thing that I noticed, when opening the hatch, was frass or shavings from carpenter ants.
Honestly, that was no big surprise, since I had previously seen the little devils crawling around at … (20 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: Whatcom County Home Inspector (King of the House) Keeping the Water in the Tub! - 10/18/11 10:01 AM
Often people, especially renters, have a casual attitude about slopping water from a bath or shower onto the floor. Obviously, a tub or shower needs to have a satisfactory surround and, at a shower, a curtain or a door. But there must be a decent seal at the floor, between the tub or shower and the floor covering, so water does not seep under the floor covering.
In checking a tub or shower, the inspector may find damage at the caulking or seal that could allow moisture into the area below. This it the best photo that I have showing the extent … (5 comments)
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ferndale home inspector: #1 Album In America On The Day The President Died - 10/15/11 06:24 PM
"This Day in History" posts feature music and nostalgia. On the 4th of July, I speculated that, in the course of every person's life, there are historic moments, and horrendous events, that will be remembered until a person's dying day. In my lifetime, those events would be (1) JFK assassination (2) Armstrong walking on the moon (3) Challenger explosion (4) Oklahoma federal building bombing (5) 911 attacks. I remember where I was when JFK was shot: School lunch duty at Parkview elementary in Bellingham, my teacher was Mrs. Thon.
In a previous article, I identified Deep Purple, by the duo Nino Tempo … (7 comments)
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Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector
Bellingham,
WA
More about me…
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc
Address: Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine, Sumas, Nooksack, Lake Whatcom, Lake Samish, Anacortes, Mount Vernon, Whatcom County, Bellingham, WA, 98225
Office Phone: (360) 676-6908
Cell Phone: (360) 319-0038
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