ferndale inspection: Pacific Northwest Home Inspection (King of the House): Moisture Ant Infestation - 03/01/08 01:09 PM
Actually, we probably would rather live without moisture ants, but they are an important part of nature -- turning old wood back into soil. As a home inspector and a licensed structural pest inspector, I often see ants or, better yet, ants on the march. Fact of the matter is, the … (33 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House): Carpenter Ant Infestation - 02/29/08 04:25 PM
I was up in Point Roberts, WA. Interesting place, trees all around and many vacation homes. Because of the wooded landscape, it is common to find carpenter ants. Carpenter ants often have nests in nearby trees or old stumps or even old wood below grade so if a person lives near … (10 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Stranger Than Fiction - 02/26/08 12:00 PM
The photo below has to be the weirdest window repair I have ever seen. At least it is the weirdest one I have seen that satisfied the homeowner. I have seen rotten and loose windows, people planned to repair down the line, but the seller of the home thought this was A-okay to … (9 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Whatcom County Home Inspection (King of the House): Pest Inspector Methodology - 02/22/08 03:13 PM
When performing a structural pest inspection, an inspector is likely to "sound the wood." The basic idea is two fold. One possibility is that the wood will, hence the name, "sound" different if it is damaged, hollow, soft. This is a technique that works quite well on exterior logs on log … (5 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Botched Up At the End - 02/22/08 12:29 PM
Inspectors see any number of decks. Some are well built. In this wet climate, we like to see the structure built out of pressure treated lumber and concrete piers that isolate wood from soil. As the composite deckings get better looking, to look much like wood, they are becoming more common. … (2 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House): Coffee And A Light - 02/22/08 12:19 AM
I saw a recent blog about can-lights written by Charles Buell. He was explaining the finer points of can-lights, inspecting can-lights, and can-light safety. In the comments, he and another AR member were talking about safety features found in some can-lights -- that cause them to shutdown if the bulb is overrated … (2 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House) -- Two Problems, One Attic - 02/21/08 04:48 PM
This is an interesting photo in that there are two problems, or at least possible problems. The knob and tube wiring, which had been modified in various places, is the most obvious problem. Some insurance companies will still cover knob and tube wiring (with a higher premium) but many of the … (2 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Blaine WA Home Inspector (King of the House): Oh Rats! - 02/19/08 10:55 PM
It is odd. People do not want rodents in their homes. Yet they often fail to do something as simple as putting one plus one together. That something simple is realizing that rodents are going to enter a crawl space when they have a window of opportunity, such as through numerous holes … (4 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Home Inspection: It's All About Straightening The Pictures On The Wall - 02/17/08 05:22 PM
The title of this blog is deceptive, down right silly -- if you know anything about the scope of a home inspection. Silly as that title above might be, it is apparent to any working inspector that some naive sellers are under the false impression that the home inspector comes to a house to … (40 comments)
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ferndale inspection: This One Curled My Hair And Gave Me A Charge! - 02/14/08 01:43 PM
I found something at an inspection the other day that was not only dangerous, but pretty illogical too. This was another house where a "builder" had been doing his own projects. He might have been a builder, but an electrician he was not. The photo to the left is an AC … (8 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Manufacturer's Recommendation: Repair With Duct Tape! - 02/14/08 11:56 AM
I know an individual who, sarcastically and with a smirk, makes fun of duct tape repairs. Can you imagine that -- making sport of the greatest repair miracle cure of the past 100 years. It is a product well known around the world, and in Canada too. This same person is a stickler … (10 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Black Widow Spiders In Western Washington! - 02/12/08 10:12 AM
I have to admit, as a Washingtonian all my life, I have always thought that the only place a person would find black widows spiders would be east of the mountains, as in eastern Washington. Those of us born and raised here know that the "serious" spiders and snakes are found on … (3 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Big, Mean, Nasty Termites: At Least They Are Not In Your House - 02/11/08 10:34 PM
As a home inspector, who also teaches a class in wood destroying organisms through the state college system in Washington State, I always take a camera along with me on hikes or vacations. I have some cool, and very illustrative, photos that I have taken of all kinds of wood problems, … (5 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House): New Home Inspection Issues - 02/11/08 11:17 AM
This is probably a surprise to most people, it was to me the first few times I saw it. I am referring to the number of times in new houses, where the heat ducts have not been hooked together or, if they have, they have come loose. Sometimes I think it … (5 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Homeowners Doing Crazy Things With Trees - 02/10/08 04:10 PM
Earlier today I posted a photo of a nice tree house. In thinking about that, I started reflecting on any other unorthodox uses for trees, that are nuts, insane or crazy that I have seen on real, honest to goodness home inspections. Unfortunately, back when I did this inspection, I was not … (4 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Lynden Home Inspector (King of the House): Right Idea, Bad Implementation - 02/09/08 10:56 AM
The photo below is amusing in a way. This crawl space vent well was put in, somewhere down the line, by a person who knew that crawl space vents need to be protected from runoff water and being blocked by soil. To achieve that goal, the person put in a vent … (5 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Bellingham WA home Inspector (King of the House): Attic Debris - 02/07/08 12:02 PM
So the owner of the home is really proud of the new roof that replaced the old wood shake or shingle roof. The owner says it was a major improvement and, in fact, it probably was. Then the home inspector goes into the attic. This is another of those things an inspector … (2 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Blaine WA Home Inspection (King of the House): Want Mold? Baby -- You Got It! - 02/06/08 12:48 PM
There have been a number of posts lately about mold. Home inspectors see mold all the time, in varying degrees. Sometimes it is widespread but usually it is in a localized area and it does not take an Einstein to determine the cause. And, one thing is certain, mold is ALWAYS, in … (2 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Monty Python Trees - 02/05/08 02:28 PM
I remember in one of the old Monty Python movies, there were trees that would reach out and grab people. I kind of felt like that when I saw this tree. This is one of the best examples I have seen of a tree, at a main public street, that has … (5 comments)
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ferndale inspection: Romans Knew Thy Wood - 02/05/08 09:44 AM
I was pondering Charlie Buell's blog called "What Would Impress The Romans" and thought I would pull out a couple photos of Roman work that impressed me. This is the bottom of an ancient Roman-built building in Bologna Italy. Bologna, like much of Italy, was run, or overrun, by Romans (or Greeks) at one … (2 comments)
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