Bill's Blog

Pull the Plug!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:21:59 -0500

It was one of my first Do It Yourself projects years ago and I thought I replaced the old food disposer perfectly. I turned it on and it ran well. Every thing was just fine until the next morning when my wife turned on the dishwasher and soon afterward screamed from the kitchen that there's a big leak!

Sure enough, when I got there there was water gushing out of the vacuum gap by the sink, which, of course, was facing away from the sink so water was going everywhere. What a mess! She just looked at me and said. "Fix it." (she didn't have to say the last part, "You Idiot"!)

I was guilty, as so many people are, of not reading the directions carefully. I was unaware that the units are sold with a plug in the opening where you attach the drain from the dishwasher. That's because they sometimes run without a dishwasher hooked up. Good thing to know....I know I won't ever forget it!

When I recently encountered a vacant home with a newly upgraded kitchen, and a dishwasher which would not drain, I knew exactly what had happened. In this case, as on most of the new dishwasher models, there is no vacuum break required next to the sink. Never the less, with the disposal plug still intact, there is no where for the water to go.

On another inspection the same day, I encountered a similar issue with a range fan where the directional plug had not been removed. These fans will discharge either up and forward, straight up, or straight back. They sometimes have a cylinder that you turn to direct air to a vent. In this case, the fan had plugs that you knocked out so that the air discharged in the proper direction. All the plugs were in place and the air had no where to go.

Unfortunately, I have found range fans that do not vent on houses where they have been malfunctioning for years. I have also found them in new houses and in newly renovated kitchens. People hear the fan and assume that it is sending air where it should be going. You have to look closely at it.

Also, quite often I find kitchens where the range backs up to an exterior wall and a fan vented to the exterior would not only be logical, and easy, but very inexpensive. There is one major new community near Manassas (I'll not name it) where the builder opted for internally vented range fans even though almost every house could easily have an externally vented range fan. (You need to know how a builder thinks... when you have a 1000 units and you spend an extra $100. to vent to the exterior, that is $100,000 you can save. Things like this add up.

Click here to see what people are saying about me.

Agents and homebuyers listen up. When you are looking at a beautifully done kitchen in a new house, or a renovated kitchen in an older house, and the house is vacant, remember that no one has been living there to discover any mistakes made by the installers. Expect suprises if you do not have a home inspector go through first.

In my case, since my house is my learning lab, I have made just about any mistake you can think of. I know first hand what to look for.

Its a good idea to have me inspect your clients prospective house. You never know what I will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company, LLC

email: homestatus@verizon.net phone: 703-670-5071-Scheduling 703-283-6375 - Cell web: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ljv5qlcab.0.0.6otgrtbab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2FHomeStatusInspection.com

Climbing Trees and Bad Toupees

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:25:58 -0500

When I was a kid about 10 years old, I loved to climb trees, much to the worriment of my mom. I even built a tree house for some friends and me in the back yard...but that's a story for another time.

Recently I have begun to call on those old climbing skills as I inspect attics. Where the construction and roof truss braces allow, I climb up to the top of the attic to get a close look at a frequent source of problems, the ridge vent.

Ridge vents are an essential part of a modern roofing system. They allow hot air to escape at the top of the roof and this creates a slightly lower pressure in the attic that draws air in through the soffet vents at the lower end of the roof. This cooler air travels up the underside of the roof to the ridge vent, cooling the roof and prolonging its life.

The ventilation provided by a properly installed ridge vent, paired with properly installed soffet vents, also reduces humidity and moisture condensation in the attic and the opportunity for mold to take hold. In the worse case scenerio, bad attic ventilation can lead to expensive problems to fix. How can this happen?

Sometimes things just happen in house construction. Mistakes are made for innocent reasons. Take for example, crew that is putting down tar paper ahead of the roof shinglers. Lets say there are storm clouds approaching and its near the end of the day. The crew may tar paper right over the ridge vent hole at the top of the roof so that rain will not come in through the hole.

The next day, a different shingling crew finishes the shingling and not seeing a ridge vent hole, shingles right over the top. Later the supervisor notices there is no ridge vent and orders the crew boss to "put one on". An inexperienced crew hand tacks one on, on top of the shingles and nobody notices while he is making the mistake.

Later, looking up through the attic access hole at the ridge vent hole 15 feet above, supervisors, buyers, county inspectors, home inspectors, and lots of others look up to see the black strip they expect for a ridge vent and don't bother to look closely at it.

Can you see the underside of the asphalt shingle? This is close up. At 15 feet away it is really hard to see.

Years later, along comes yours truly who loves climbing trees. I get up close enough to tap the underside of the shingles or tar paper (I've found cases where the shingles were put over the hole after the tar paper was cut out...that was not because of an approaching storm!).

The problem with me finding this "bad toupee" years later is that the lack of a properly installed ridge vent has caused the previous home owner to deal with a very hot attic. In one case, there were multiple ceiling fans installed in the bedrooms of the upper floor. In another, the attic fan installed may not have been necessary. In all cases, the energy costs were elevated because of the condition.

I am sure that my insurance company wouldn't like my love of climbing trees but neither did my mother. It was her constant nagging me about it that both spurred me on and made me extra careful. I bragged too many times that I had never fallen, would never fall, to face her if I ever did. Which I didn't. Thank goodness!! Whew!

It's a good idea to have me climb around in your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

An Intentional Defect?

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:43:45 -0600

My selling agent and I were not very suprised when we found the water shut off at the street.

After months of foreclosure inspections I have begun to expect the unexpected.

I urged my client to have me come back to inspect the plumbing when the water was turned on and we agreed that since we were all together I would go ahead and inspect everything else now. My reasoning on coming back was that in this 17 year old house, the polybutylene plumbing needed to be fully checked.

The rest of the initial inspection was uneventful. There were some major items that the client would need to deal with. An aging roof and windows that were drafty and needed to be replaced, but all in all, there were not alot of unexpected items.

An Outside Faucet Problem

On the return inspection of all things water related, I immediately ran into a problem. I expected this winterized foreclosure house to have winterized outside faucets, (i.e. the outside faucet is open while the inside shut off is closed). What I found was a fully charged rear faucet. Upon further inspection, I found that the only way to shut off this rear faucet was to shut off the water to the house!

A rear shut off valve may have existed at one time and been left off in what appeared to be a repair to the Polybutylene line. This raises red flags not only about the polybutylene repair, but also, because you can safely assume that a professional plumber would not forget to put shut offs in for an outside faucet.

I cannot count how many times I have run into issues with outside faucets. Often I find them with water pressure even when the house is vacant. Quite often they have hoses still hooked up. Testing the lines has revealed a fair share of broken internal pipes. While some home inspectors do not always check each outside faucet, especially when they have been winterized, this is a mandatory routine for me.

A Bigger Problem with the Water Heater

Turning on the water gave me a chance to confirm what I already strongly suspected, the water heater was reverse plumbed. What this means is that the heated water coming from the water heater's gas heat exchanger is being immediately mixed with the incoming cold water. The result is greatly reduced heating capacity for the appliance and a very much higher utility cost to provide hot water.

The solution of course is not difficult. It is just reversing the hot and cold water connections on this water heater. Again this defect raised red flags. Who installed this water heater 4 years ago? Certainly not a certified plumber.

Here's the interesting question. Was this Defect Intentional?

This is one of those defects that actually may have been beneficial. One of the primary methods of extending the life of polybutylene plumbing is to lower the temperature at the water heater. High heat tends to make the material brittle over time and can cause cracking and leaking.

Since this property had been a rental unit for the last four years, was the water heater intentionally reversed plumbed to remove the possibility that a tenent could turn the heat to the maximum and cause plumbing leaks? Certainly, with a reverse plumbed water heater, warm is about as good as you get even when the dial is up to maximum.

We'll never know of course. All the original players are long gone. Intentional or not, these are defects which might have gone unnoticed were it not for a careful inspection. The buyer had them taken care of easily, can now winterize both outside faucets, and can get hot water from the water heater without wasting money on higher settings.

It is a good idea to have me go over your foreclosure home's plumbing...you never know what you are going to find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company, LLC

A Deadly Combination

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:38:50 -0600

Kudos to the agent. He sensed, based on what his client had told him, that the house he had listed for them needed to be checked out by a professional. The middle aged couple who had lived in the 35 year old house for 25 years were not concerned about the aluminum wiring since there had been no problems but he convinced them to contact me.

The home owner told me, up front on a pre-inspection phone call, about the aluminum wiring in the general circuits and I began to explain the hazard. According to studies by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the risk of fires due to having aluminum wiring for the small guage general circuits is 55 times higher than with copper wire.

The problem is aluminum expands more than copper when carrying electrical current and over time connections loosen and get extremely hot. To say that the system is safe because there have been no problems in 25 years is simply not true. When the next owner plugs in a high amperage appliance, say a big screen TV, into a circuit that for 25 years has seen only a lamp, the new load may cause the outlet connections to loosen and heat up. This increased risk applies to every aluminum circuit connection in the house.

Learn more about Aluminum Wiring Hazards at this definitive website, www.inspect-ny.com:

The owner professed to know something about electrical wiring and said he was thinking about doing the work himself to install aluminum to copper connections which could make the house safe. I said. "Don't do it yourself, don't even think about it!". Regardless of how good you are with electricity, the liability is too high. If anything happens, after the house is sold, due to the electrical wiring, it will come back to haunt you. Get a certified electrician in to do the work. Period.

As I continued the inspection I found quite a few minor things that are typical of a 36 year old house. That is, until I found the Federal Pacific Electric panel. I've written about this hazard before, and I don't mind saying that I strongly urge every client that either lives in or wants to buy a house with a FPE panel to get it replaced. Don't think twice about this either. Just do it.

There are numerous safety issues with these panels and were it not for budget restraints back in the early 80's when a proposed recall was on the table for the CPSC, there would have been a full blown recall. Reason: The high incidence of fires caused by FPE panel failures. For example, lab studies have shown that the two pole 240 volt circuit breakers fail to trip 25% of the time!

Visit my website for numerous resource links for home inspection hazards

The problem with Federal Pacific Panels is that when I find them they are not spitting out smoke or fire. They can be said to be performing as intended....as they have for 30 years. Unfortunately, that does not mean that they are safe. This is a "latent" hazard, and I am careful to tell my clients that for a relatively small investment to change the panel out, typically ($1,500 to $2,000), they can have peace of mind and not worry about it again.

The agent in this case was absolutely right in getting a home inspector involved. This was a potentially deadly combination. My word carried more weight with this couple and the FPE panel was immediately replaced. Work is pending on the aluminum wiring. With both of these issues aside, this charming house will compete very effectively in this house saturated market. Otherwise, potential buyers are likely to just walk on down the street.

Saturday and Sunday Inspection times available click here

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's home before it goes on the market. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Note the distinctive red breaker handles
Home Status Inspection Company

July 29, 2007 Copyright Home Status Inspection Company

The Peek-A-Boo Gable!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:07:38 -0600

I almost missed it!

Lots of people had missed it. The owner, who had the house built 20 years ago and had lived in it all these years. The builder. The county inspectors. The roofer. The second roofer who installed a new roof one year ago.

Yet there it was. In plain sight! I saw it because I was showing the owner the various components of his attic ventilation system. I was making the point that even with the great full length ridge vent installed last year with the new roof, ventilation was still limited in the attic because nothing had been done to increase air flow through the soffet vents. These were still just 3" diameter holes every 3 feet. By installing additional soffet vents he would improve the comfort of his upper floor and reduce his energy costs.

Do you see it? The gable vent is a vent on the side of the house just under the point where the front and back roofs meet. In this case it was triangular.

The gable vent was visable because a 1/2" gap had been left between the two vertical nail-to studs at the center of the exterior wall. The studs provide support for the exterior sheathing which in this case was not cut out for the triangular gable vent. There was also no cut out for gable framing, and yet it had still been installed on the outside of the exterior sheathing along with the vinyl siding.

"I wonder what holds it in?" I said, and my client said "Funny you should ask". Just after the new roof had been installed, this gable had fallen out. The roofer, thinking that he had possibly loosened something sent a worker out to re-install it free of charge. Apparently this worker missed the fact that the gable had no gable opening, and just nailed it in place.

It wouldn't have taken much brain power for any one of the many people involved with the construction of this house to ask the question: "How is air supposed to flow through this gable vent, when it is covered over like this?" The carpenters framing the house, the electrician running wires near by, the roofer, the contractor installing insulation.

The fact of the matter is that there are different contractors working on specific parts of every house. They want to get their part right and they often don't notice mistakes by other contractors. This is precisely why home inspections are important on every home purchase.

Schedule me on Saturdays and Sundays - Click here for more info.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

July 15, 2007 Copyright Home Status Inspection Company, LLC

But Will the House Dance?

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:54:46 -0600

Selling an older home today can be alot like getting back in the dating game after many years of married life. Lots of updating to do. In today's real estate market, update you must, or more than likely, the house sits, and sits, and sits....like a wall flower at the dance.

This is especially true when the sellers are people who have lived comfortably and happily in the home for 10, 15, 20 or more years. They have become so accustomed to the home's problems that they've overlooked them ... choosing to put off fixing things. They also are unaware of outdated look of their home, their wall paper, their furniture, their appliances, etc. when compared to other houses in the same area and price range.

While there are some buyers that are looking for houses they can make over, the vast majority are not. Sellers that don't grasp this early in the process risk having the financial burden of a house that sits out dance after dance and/or a selling price that goes down and down and down.

A thorough home inspection gets the seller past this inertia and identifies a list of issues to be addressed to prepare the house for one of the most competitive housing markets in history. A good pre-listing inspection not only identifies house problems, but also helps prioritize the "have to do's" from the "nice to do's."

A recent pre-listing inspection, for example, involved an old deck. The seller was thinking about just tearing it down. My recommendation, after looking at it closely, was to get estimates on fixing the safety related items such as the loose hand rail, worn steps and wide spaced ballasters and compare those costs with the cost of removing an hauling away the deck and fixing the siding. The house may be more saleable with a deck, albeit old and worn, than without. Most buyers tend to find it easier to accept updating an existing deck than visualizing starting from scratch.

A pre-listing inspection should make the seller aware of things that make the house more saleable. That 25 year old water heater or air conditioner may be working now, but will be viewed as potential problems by prospective buyers. Adding a home warranty doesn't always give the buyer the peace of mind that having a new appliance does.

I've been asked whether putting in granite counter tops is a good idea. Now I love granite, but unless the house shows well to begin with, it's probably a better idea to put that money into things that will improve the appeal of the house... i.e. new siding, new windows, new carpeting, can go a long way toward making the house more attractive.

When the sellers are not really understanding why their house is not all that attractive to anyone by them, I will recommend that they go with their realtor and look at houses for a day or two. Then go out to dinner and when they go home, visit it like they were visiting the other houses. Try to see it for the first time. This usually opens their eyes...sometimes enough to get them to consider the services of a professional stager.

There is alot of "letting go" for people and the home inspection process can be a great way to get it started.

You are invited to our website

It's a good idea to have me pre-list inspect your client's house. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Buyer Be Wary!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:05:01 -0600

If you like television series CSI, you'll enjoy this.

This inspection was of an 11 year old single family house that showed well...no, better than that, it was spectacular! Tremendous upgrades, granite, ceramic tile, hardwood floors, the works. It was also almost vacant, but tastefully staged, when I saw it. It had been the object of investor greed, changing hands several times in the past three years, and most likely without inspections. While the house had been rented several times, no one who had owned the house had actually lived in it...which partially explains why the seller was so suprised by what I found.

I started thinking something was fishy when I found a portable AC unit in the storage space under the stairs. Why would this house need a window AC? Hmmm.

The main electric panel "sparked" additional questions. There were 5 HVAC breakers...two labeled "AC," two labeled "Furnace," and one labeled "Heat Pump." All were hooked up! That seemed like alot of horsepower for this house and all I had found was the 8 year old heat pump compressor outside. Now my curiosity was in high gear. I went looking for the missing pieces.

The attic, at first glance, was unremarkable. No furnace. No AC. But when I brushed away the blown insulation I found a work platform that is required for an attic HVAC. Little else remained except the furnace shut off switch which was still connected to a wire. The emergency condensate pipe, sans pan, was also under the insulation.

The spaghetti like flex ducts serving the upper floor were connected to a plenum which looked OK until I picked it up and found it was connected to nothing. Further testing revealed that there was no ventilation to the upper floor, the two systems had not been interconnected.

I found more clues and in the end I surmised that for some bizarre reason, an early owner, or perhaps one of the rentors, had removed the attic furnace and AC. The other AC was upgraded to a heat pump and the other furnace was converted to serve as a dual fuel emergency heat backup.

This was going to be an expensive problem to fix. HVAC is required for the rooms on the second floor. Either the Furnace and AC would have to be re-installed in the attic or the two HVAC duct systems would have to be connected and engineered to properly serve the whole house. This would probably require a new, larger heat pump for the larger load. At any rate, I called for the HVAC experts to figure out the best solution for my client.

The lesson of this inspection for investors and, of course, all homebuyers is not to get too confident in one's own skills at "reading" a house. Get an inspection every time. A situation like this one can fool you, as it fooled alot of people. It can cost alot of money to fix and without a pre-sale inspection the buyer is probably the one paying the bill.

I publish my inspection rates on my web site. Click here to see them.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

April 8, 2007 Copyright Home Status Inspection Company, LLC

Would You Buy this House?

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:26:31 -0500

"Would you buy this house?" My client asked me this quite sincerely. Evidently I had gained her trust and she wanted my opinion.

The inspection results so far were not helping her make up her mind. The house she had fallen in love with a few days before when she first saw it with her realtor had a new complexion now after she learned about the need to replace the windows, the roof, and the water heater as well as to address a moderately long list of minor issues.

As much as I wanted to help her with her decision, I could not, should not, must not , answer this question.

This is a red herring question that no professional home inspector should ever answer. I think the same holds true for all real estate agents as well. My job is to be objective. As soon as I lose that objectivity, my role in the real estate transaction is compromised.

Over the years I have adjusted my response to this question, which I seem to get about once a month. Sometimes if the situation is right I use this deflection: "What, you want to sell it already? What's wrong with it.? " Then I follow up with something like. "You are asking me to be subjective I can't do that. I look at about 1000 things in this house and report to you on their condition, but your life and tastes are way different than mine. Only you can make that decision."

I go on to say, "What I can tell you is that everything we have found so far can be fixed." So don't lose sight of that original feeling you had about the house. When we are finished with the inspection you and your realtor will decide on how to address each of the inspection items.

Sometimes I get a follow up question that amounts to a "pretty please." Sometimes it goes like this. "What if you were choosing a house for your mother or daughter, would you consider this one? Again, stay away from giving your opinion. I've had some success with just saying, "I've given up trying to account for the tastes of any of my relatives. "

I've heard of situations where home inspectors have advised clients not to buy a house. That is exactly what they are doing when they say "No, I wouldn't buy this house." The same holds true for the positive answer. Later on, after the inspection is long over, the client will remember what you say as a recommendation to buy or not to buy the house.

It is entirely inappropriate to answer the question regardless of how bad the situation looks from your client. The client needs to make this decision on his or her own.

I offer a 20% discount for Fire, EMS, and Police. Click here for details.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Bill Duncan Home Status Inspection Company

The Green Monster

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:51:38 -0500

A recent inspection of a vacant foreclosure house confirmed my childhood fears that there is Green Monster lurking in the basement. (Sorry Red Sox fans, this isn't about the fabled Fenway wall).

It was late September and with the outside temperatures still in the 80's the air conditioner was running full blast. Unfortunately, the humidifier was also running full blast with the humidistat at 50%. I had wondered why the air in the house seemed "muggy" and on the walls and ceiling of the finished basement a potential mold growth had begun.

Humidifiers are wonderful things. In the winter, they can make a chilly 70 degree room feel very comfortable. Because of this, they can be helpful in lowering utility bills.

Humidifiers are supposed to only run in the Winter, in conjunction with the furnace. When people forget about them, they end up running year round, pumping humidity into the air while the air conditioner is straining to remove it. The house ends up muggy and uncomfortable and in some cases, as in the above foreclosure property, the high humidity in the air promotes mold growth.

There are several things that make the standard, stand alone, humidifier problematic for most homeowners. First, depending on the outside temperature, different humidity levels are required for comfort. These range from 45 to 50% when it is just freezing outside, to 30% when it is 0 to 10 degrees. Most people don't regularly adjust their humidistat based on changes in the outside temp.

The second thing that people forget to do is to regularly clean or replace the "drip" media. Left uncleaned, the wet environment makes for an ideal place for molds, allergens, microbes, etc to grow. It is recommended that humidifiers be cleaned on a monthly basis with a vineger and water solution. In the Spring humidifiers must be turned off when the furnace is no longer needed. The media must be cleaned or replaced. The drain needs to be kept clear at all times or backups will occur causing water to drip into the furnance and/or onto the basement floor.

It is little wonder that a large percentage of the humidifiers I come across in inspections are either disabled, defunct, or disgusting. As in the Green Monster! The good news about humidifiers is that many of the new HVAC systems integrate the humidifier function into the unit itself controlling it with the units computer and removing all homeowner requirements for adjustment and maintenance. This isn't a perfect system, especially since newer units often see less regular maintenance by HVAC professionals, but it is certainly a big step toward energy savings, system comfort, and healthy performance.

My advice to agents that are custodians of vacant houses is that regardless of time of year, make sure the water to the humidifier is in the "off" position (righty tighty) and that the dial on the humidistat control is also "off." Don't run it. Especially if you do not know the condition of the drip media. If you have the HVAC serviced, have the humidifier serviced as well and document this to any potential owner. Still, unless you are commited to regularly maintaining it, leave it off.

Visit my web site www.HomeStatusInspection.com- Click here

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective, vacant, foreclosed home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Special Alert - It's that Time of Year Again!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:01:48 -0500

Cold weather is coming fast and it is time for winterizing the house. This letter has more significance this year than ever before because of the thousands of listed houses that are vacant!

In fact, nearly all the houses I have been inspecting lately have been vacant...a sign of a frustrating real estate market. Agents for these vacant house listings need to assume responsibility for routine winterization... especially if the owners are not in the area.

HVAC. Most of the time I am finding the HVAC in the "Off" position. Now is the time to turn the heat on and set it to a low setting, say 60 degrees. You don't want the house to get so cold that pipes freeze...also, if someone tours the house you don't want it ice cold. Agents note: You should check on your houses frequently. Other agents will change settings on the HVAC when they tour the house with their clients and may not put them back as they found them.

Outside hose bibs. The last thing you want is a frozen pipe in the wall. Turn the water off at the inside shut off for the hose bib. If it is not marked, follow the pipe leading to the outside hose bib back to the shut off valve. It will usually have a distinguishing thumb screw on the side of the valve.

When you have found and turned off the shut off, go outside, remove any hose connected to to the faucet, and open the hose bib. Some water may drain out and that's good. If no water drains out, go back inside and while holding a cup under the shut off's thumb screw, open the thumb screw and drain some water out. It is not necessary to drain it all out, just enough to pull water back from the outside wall.

Gutters. Check to see if there are gutter guards. Chances are, if there are no gutter guards, the gutters may be clogged, or will be soon. When the leaves have stopped falling, hire someone to clean out the gutters. Otherwise, water may back up and freeze into an ice damn that can send water back into the house through the roof, ruining ceilings and walls! Or water may go over the gutter edge, fall to the side of the house and find its way into the basement.

Client safety. You may want to have bags of ice melt handy for the walkways so that prospective buyers won't fall on patches of ice. Make arrangements to have walkways shoveled when there is snow and ice melt scattered when there is ice. Things like this also communicate that you care...and now days that means more than ever.

There may be additional things that need to be done for the house as cold weather sets in. Take a walk around the house with this in mind.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

What's Different About Foreclosures?

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:19:17 -0500

The rising tide of forclosures has left some lasting impressions with me. Inspections of foreclosed properties have gone from about 3% of my business last year to about 25% this year. The trend seems to be accellerating.

Obviously foreclosed properties are different. Like the woman who is magical with make up and a pretty dress the evening before but quite ordinary the morning after, the foreclosed property has no make up. You see it in its least attractive state. Warts and all.

But there are differences which are important. Take for example the HVAC System. Regular maintenance by a certified professional can make a dramatic difference in life expectancy. In a foreclosed home, you can pretty much bet that the added cost of HVAC maintenance went out the window when the bills started piling up. Filters are often unchanged, furnaces uncleaned, ACs run while low on refrigerant. These units tend to die young.

Also, in any home, and particularly in older homes, things break down. Repairs by professionals can be costly and you often find in foreclosed homes, efforts by home owners to make repairs themselves when they had neither the money or the knowledge to do the job. Sometimes these repairs, while creative, are just not right and are causing other problems.

A recent finding was a sump pump replacement that was drastically under sized for the job. The pump beat itself to death for 5 minutes trying to clear a standard sized sump pit and then, when it shut off, half the water ran back into the pit because there was no back flow valve installed. Exterior drainage issues along with the puny pump had resulted in flooding of the basement and an expensive mold remediation situation.

While I see lack of maintenance in regular properties, it seems to be more pronounced in foreclosed properties. Things like keeping gutters clear are the least of your worries when you are struggling to pay your bills, but the foreclosure buyer may find the resulting foundation settlement or leaking basement walls to be worrisome and expensive indeed!

If anything, I have learned to expect the unexpected: Electrical wiring with taped connections instead of wire nuts. Plumbing with improper fixtures; Clogged plumbing (which normally is cleared when houses are prepared for the market); broken outside hose bibs; burned out attic fans; leaky skylights (especially when installed by the home owner). And the list goes on.

Do I find these things in regular houses? Of course. The difference, in my opinion is in the degree. In a foreclosed house you know that money was an issue...not just to pay the mortgage, but to do anything else. I recently had a three year old foreclosed house which, not being old enough to have major things go bad yet, had none-the-less an eery, empty, feeling about it. The owner had stretched so far to buy the house that after moving in couldn't afford to do anything to make it a home...no painting, no decorating, no drapes, nothing. My buyers, a lively young couple, will breathe life into the house that it had never seen before.

I post my rates on my web site. Click here.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home even that foreclosed beauty. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

My Friend Murphy Again

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:39:29 -0500

I'm trained to notice things, and despite what some people will tell you, there is something more than skill at work here.

Take for instance, windows. There are some in the business that say that checking a representative sample of the windows is OK. After all, checking them all takes alot of time and time is money. Check them all if you find defects in the first few.

I disagree with this based on my own experience. I have often in inspections "pretended" that I was doing representative sampling and said to myself, "I'll check this one and that one...If they are OK, I'll skip this one." Then to find that the first two were fine and the third one had broken sash cord springs. This is especially true on brand new houses or on houses where the windows have just been replaced.

I have also tried this test on other repetitive tasks such as testing each bathroom's GFCI individually, even though it means repeatedly going up or down two or three flights of stairs to reset the master outlet each time. Same result on other tasks such as testing each electrical outlet, testing each outside hose bib, thoroughly testing each appliance. The ones I would have skipped are the ones that would have been suprises to my client.

Is this because I am potentially unlucky? Is something else at play here?

Perhaps I have actually been lucky to find this out on my own time. I have often said that Murphy sits on my shoulder, waiting for me to cut corners. The more I remind myself of this, the less chance that clients of mine will call after moving into their house, upset that I missed something that should have been caught.

Recently, an agent put my theory to a test, by mistakenly telling my client that my home inspection would take about two hours. The client had built his schedule around a two hour inspection. The house, however, was one which required over 3 hours due to its age and the renovation forced on it by a homeowner that did not know what he was doing.

I refused to cut corners here and the agent was quite upset...apparently her usual inspector never took longer that two hours. She questioned the need to test every outlet and every window but stopped when she realized I was finding alot of things wrong. Also, the client gladly changed his plans and told the agent that there was no need to hurry.

Want to schedule an inspection? - Click here to find out all the ways to contact us.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Don't be Lulled Asleep!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:35:15 -0500

Here is a seller stereotype that you have probably run into before.

Really good people. They've lived in their house for 25 years. Cared for it well. It is beautiful. They desire that the next people who live in their house get the same kind of joy that they have from it. They go out of their way to tell prospective buyers everything about the house.

So, as you and your clients go through the house with them, they are completely open and show and tell about everything they can think of. Your clients fall in love with the house and back in your office you put together a contract proposal.

Your clients think that no inspection is needed, "they showed us everything we need to know."

Don't fall into this trap. While the sellers have every intention to tell you everything, it's still a good idea to have a professional home inspector go through the house. Here's a good example from a recent inspection:

The couple rarely used their jacuzzi tub and realized that that 80 gallon water heater was wasting money. They had that big boy swapped out for a 40 gallon tank. New, smaller gauge, wires were run to the new tank and the old wires were left connected into the old breaker which was turned "off".

The problem with this is that when the house changes hands, the new owners may not have been told that the breaker that is "off" should not be turned on. You do not know whether the wires are capped on the other end, or loose and susceptible to an arc flash when energized. Also, these wires could be energized for years only to cause a hazard during a future renovation.

Old unused electrical circuits should be disconnected from the breaker in the electrical panel. The unused breaker can stay in place, but the wires should be capped and moved out of the way in the panel.

To see some crazy inspection photos, click here.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your clients electrical panel. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

My Credit Card Company's Shell Game

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:39:19 -0500

This blog is not about Home Inspecting. It is about an outrageous practice used by my credit card company (whose name rhymes with a famous Southern City). Yes, I'm throwing them under the bus. What they are doing is wrong and I am wondering if I'm the only person that was not aware of about this slimy practice.

My credit card company doesn't like me. I'm one of those that they do not make scads of money on. I pay my bill off every month. It hasn't always been that way, but for the last several years my wife and I have managed to get keep the credit card debt to zero.

If we had not paid the bill off each month we probably would not have noticed the $1.00 finance charge added to the bill each month. As it was, it took about 5 months for my wife to notice and another 2 for me to get around to calling them. Hey, I knew it would take about an hour to get it fixed with them and even with the Real Estate Market on the abyss, I figured that time spent on the business would be worth more than what I would retrieve. Well, my wife gave me the look and I know that no matter what I earned with the hour, it wouldn't be worth Not calling.

Why did I have to call you might ask? Well, please don't get my wife started about that. It seems that in the great State of Virginia, the man is the only one that the credit card company will talk to on a joint account. You don't want to go there and I don't blame her for feeling that this is both sexist, and discriminatory. It is. Unfortunately that's the way it is, so this poor schmuck (me) had to spend the hour on this call. God help them if my wife had made this call.

It did take and hour and multiple explanations and appeals and back and forth with a so called "customer service representative" and her supervisor. What I found out was infuriating:

It seems that this little $1.00 charge is for an unpaid balance. Now remember that I pay everything off each month. This gets better. Back in March I used the card to charge for about $100. US worth of Israeli money for my son and his wife to use as "mad money" on their upcoming trip to Isreal.

The charge showed up the next month as a line item and we paid the entire bill...didn't think anything else of it. The following month there was a $1.00 finance charge which we did not notice. I said to the supervisor that since the line item for the $100 was on the bill which we paid, we paid it, right? Wrong. It seems that from the closing date of the statement until the time we paid the bill (we paid within the allowed time) other charges had been made and these were credited first.

I said, OK, so the $100 charge was moved back and shown on the next month's statement, right? Wrong. It never showed up again. I said, doesn't that mean its been paid? And how about the charges that were moved up infront of it, were they shown on the monthly statement when they were paid? NO. So I said, let me get this straight. On the month when I tried to pay for this charge, you wouldn't let me and applied the money to something else. Then on subsequent months you denied me the chance to pay for this bill. I was told that thats the way all the credit card companies treat cash advances. I was told that they would not credit me the $7.00 for the finance charges for which I had no control.

So I asked, "Can I send you a check for the amount so you'll stop charging me a finance charge." No. The only way I can clear this is by calling up on November 15th and getting a payoff amount and then paying that amount when the statement is received. Oh yes, and I can't use the card until the statement is received so that nothing else can be applied to the money I send in.

The long and short of this is we are canceling the card and now have some pointed questions about practices of any card we start to use. If we find a card which treats my wife equally that will probably trump anything else, but I also want to know that what I pay for is what is on the statement.

As for the card company, I don't understand a business model where an account which represents $12,000 in business in two years, is virtually kicked out the door over $7.00 in disputed finance charges. In my home inspection business I know how much in raw fees are charged me for use of credit cards by my clients. I know that there is money being made on my charges as well.

All I can say to them is "Don't let the door smack you in the behind as you leave!"

It's Not About Time!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:55:38 -0500

"How long is too long for an inspection?" The question came from one of my favorite agent clients and before I could reply she said, "How about 6 and 1/2 hours!"

"Wow" I said, "It must have been some house!" While I've not taken that long on any house, I have had some very large houses approach that.

"Just a simple two story town house." She went on. "I was so angry I started looking for a new home inspector. That's how I found you!"

I find it hard to say what an appropriate time is. I recently took 4 1/2 hours on a 20 year old contemporary in Reston, and only two hours on a 90 year old farm house near Fredericksburg. The farm house was immaculate. The contemporary, a very tricky inspection requiring close scrutiny of everthing the homeowner had touched.

Generally, I have found that a four hour time slot which includes travel handles most home inspections. I like to start with 9:00 am, then one at 1:00 pm, and in the summer, a last one at 5:00 PM. Within this time structure, I find I usually have extra time between inspections or can use the extra time on a demanding inspection. Of course, adjustments are made for outlying areas which require extra travel.

Factors effecting home inspection length are, of course, age, condition, and size. Other factors are: Has the house been renovated? Has there been an addition? Was the house rented for a long period of time? Was a finished basement added by the owner? Does the house have a crawl space?

I've found that the real determinant on how long an inspection takes is what you find. For example, a single mis-wired outlet prompts extra attention to the entire electrical system. Evidence of water intrusion prompts exta time getting to the bottom of it. Amateur work requires careful review of everything. Replaced major appliances with original breakers still wired in the panel along side of the new breakers prompts a check of what has been done with the original wiring at the appliances. etc., etc.,

A good starting point on a medium size town house or single family home is between 2 and 3 hours. Agents should tell clients that the inspection could be longer depending on what is found.

One more comment on time...if a house needs more time for me to determine 1) that it is safe, and 2) that the important things have been found, I'm going to give it...even if the agent or the client begin to get restless. Fortunately this doesn't happen much because everyone usually has the client's best interests at heart.

Scheduling an appointment is really easy...click here

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

The Ceiling Fan Farm!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:46:42 -0500

My initial impression of the second floor bedrooms in this foreclosure house was that if you turned on all the ceiling fans full speed, there was one in every room, the roof might blast off!

Just as in houses where there are air fresheners in every electrical receptacle, ceiling fans in every room usually has little to do with the previous owner liking them. They are there for a reason and l set out to figure out what that reason was.

When I had entered the house from the front door, I was aware that on this 80 degree day, the AC was keeping the main level cool. It was 71 degrees on the main level, 69 degrees on the lower level, and 78 degrees on the upper level.

When you think about it like that, it is obvious that the cool AC air is not getting to the upper floor. I showed my client where the air flow in the duct system can be controlled by "flaps" in the ducts called "dampers". In this case there was one damper for the lower floors on the right side of the house and one damper for the lower floors on the left. The damper for the upper floors was very hard to reach and I suspect the previous owner did not know about it.

The concept is simple. Warm air is lighter and rises, Cool air is heavier and falls. In the summer, you want to channel more cool air to the upper floors and let it cool the house from the top down. In the winter the opposite is true, you want to channel more warm air to the lower floors and let it rise to heat the rest of the house.

In this case, the upper floor damper was wide open, which was what we wanted, but the lower floor dampers were wide open too. So we adjusted them to about 1/2 way open, thus channeling more of the air to the upper floor. (You don't want to close the lower ducts all the way as this strains the system. Leave them at 1/2 to 1/3 of the way open. )

The difference was quickly evident. The upper floor temperature came down to 74 within about 20 minutes. My client asked about an attic fan and I told him that he probably can put off installing an attic fan until he's gone through a summer in the house and still can't get the upper floors comfortable, even with adjustments to the dampers. And afterall, you do have the benefit of all the ceiling fans.

I have found alot of people who have made expensive changes to their houses, aka, the ceiling fan farm, or bigger air conditioners, or attic fans, etc., when they may have avoided alot of expense by seeing first if adjustments to their dampers might solve the warm upper floor.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

October 24, 2007 Copyright Home Status Inspection Company, LLC

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Sump Pump

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:41:16 -0500

"Will you talk to my mother?" My client asked. She had just called me and was exasperated by all her mother's concerns about the sump pump in her prospective home that I had just inspected. I told her that I would be glad to set her mind at ease.

This house had ranked on my list of the top 5 houses I've every inspected for being almost perfect. This was a 6 year old single family house which had been beautifully finished out and cared for. It had an integral sump pump system protecting the foundation and draining condensate from the lower level unit of the high efficiency dual fuel heat pump system.

Sure enough about twenty minutes later I got the call from mom who lives in Oregon and who was viewing her only daughter's first house purchase from about 4,000 miles away.

Mom's house, a 30 year old split level built on the side of a hill, had had continual problems with water over the years and she told me at length about flooding in the basement, pumps failing, the efforts they had made to correct the situation, the bathroom plumbing back ups and on and on.

She was frightened that her daughter was buying a house with a sump pump and I had encountered this same fear before...especially with people who are not familiar with modern building techniques. These people view a sump pump as evidence of problems and not as a problem prevention system.

I described how the house was built with drain tiles all around the house next to the footings which collect and transport any water to the sump pump. This prevents water from compromising the foundation of the house.

I also told her that unlike in her house, her daughter's sump pump had nothing to do with the any other septic functions. It did not pump water or waste from the downstairs bathroom to the outgoing sewer line. I was able to set her mind at ease on this point and about the house in general.

Mom's fears are not uncommon. There are few things more traumatic than a flooded basement or backed up toilets. Agents should become versed on the benefits of modern sump systems. Sump pumps and the accoompanying fears are a very good reason to get a home inspector involved. They are not a reason, per se, to walk out of the house.

As with this sale, the big fears may be held by someone in your client's extended family; someone who may raise just enough commotion and doubt that your sale falls through. Be sensitive about this and get a home inspector involved to take the emotion out of it and to get an unbiased opinion as to whether there is any basis for those fears.

I give a 20% discount to Fire. EMS, and Police personnel. Click here to find out more.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Radon Myths - revised

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:03:25 -0500

Some clients and agents do not have correct knowledge about Radon:

Myth 1 - Slab foundations. "We don't need to test Radon, this house has a slab foundation." The agent said this to me as though it was an absolute fact. I told him I wished that were true, but Radon will be in its highest concentrations in the living area just above the slab.

Concrete is a lousy barrier for Radon. This colorless, odorless gas can go through the pores and cracks in concrete with little effort. Houses and townhouses on slabs should be checked and remediated if found to have a level above the EPA action level of 4.0 pCi/L (4 picocuries per liter).

Myth 2. New House Construction. New house construction has no less tendency to high Radon levels than older houses. I have found many new houses to have very high readings. Many builders are now including remediation tubes into initial construction to reduce remediation cost after the house is complete. This is a very good idea.

Myth #3 - Houses with crawl spaces. Recently I had a client say to me that since the house had a crawl space, radon would not be high in the house. This is simply not the case. In fact, I was able to convince the client to test the house and it was good we did because the reading was very high.

Myth #4 - Areas outside the Radon red zones. People think that not being in a high Radon area means we don't need to check the house. Unfortunately while the area's AVERAGE Radon readings may below the EPA's action level, there are highs and lows in that average. There is no way to know which houses have high levels without testing.

Newly added:

Myth #5 - If the sale contract does not have a Radon Contingency, we don't need to do the test. This is one of the most dangerous Myths. Nothing can be worse than the thought that we don't want to test for radon unless the seller is contractually obligated to fix it if it is found. I am very tired of hearing this. If the radon level is high, and someone in the family comes down with lung cancer, the cost of remediation would be so small in comparison to the tragedy of not remediating, or of not knowing about the danger...it is simply a no brainer to do the test.

Other Myths include not needing to test drafty old farm houses, town houses with basements, center unit town houses, and my personal favorite, condominiums. Can anyone explain to me how a ground level condo is constructed any differently than a townhouse? Have them tested.

Radon should be taken seriously. It is the number 2 cause of lung cancer behind smoking. It kills over 20,000 people every year. The effects of living in high concentrations of Radon can take years to develop so people sometimes fail to think of it as a real threat.

Agents, both listing and selling, should be strong proponents for testing. The remediation if a high reading is found is usually less than $1000 and is installed in less than a day. And...everybody can rest easier at night.

More radon information links on my web site - click here

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home and test for radon. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Bill Duncan Home Status Inspection Company

Cat on a Hot Roof!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:40:07 -0500

"Oh good!" I thought to my self as I drove up the driveway. "A relatively new roof, 30 year shingles, and they threw in a ridge vent."

On a 30 year old house, I had expected to see a roof covering that was not original. Worst case scenerio, they had replaced the original roof at say 15 years, and would be looking at the end of life of a second set of 20 year shingles. Best case, the original shingles had lasted longer and the current roof would be newer.

In this case however, the owner had upgraded to a longer lasting "architectural shingle" and had added a ridge vent for improved circulation. We've learned a lot since the seventies about roof systems. Ridge vents and soffet vents, now a regular feature, were rare in the seventies and before.

As I walked up the front walk, however, I noticed that the house, which had an ample roof eave overhang, good for large continuous soffet vents, had no soffet vents! That was unusual, considering the upgrade to a ridge vent on the roof. Why put in the ridge vent unless you were adding to the ventilation in the attic?

The detached garage featured the same roof set up as the main house, and it too, had a ridge vent, with no soffet vents. In the garage attic I found a stack of the original shingles, and, as suspected, it was a standard, 3 tab, 20 year shingle. The nailing pattern as viewed from the interior had no empty holes indicating that either the entire roof sheathing was changed, or the second roof was placed over the original roof. The roof over roof scenario was confirmed on the exterior roof.

Both attics were a very hot 90 degrees on a cloudy 65 degree day. The reason was that on both attics, the ridge was not cut through for the ridge vent. The ridge vent was sitting up on top of the original shingles and was essentially useless because there was no place for the air to flow through.

The blown rock wool insulation in the main attic had been broiled. Originally at about 8 inches depth (I'm guessing), it had deterioated and compacted down to about 4 inches. The only ventilation in this roughly 1000 square foot attic were two small gable vents fashioned from a triangle of gaps in the brick veneer. No attic fan, no passive vents, no eave vents. No ventilation.

Whether this botched roof system was the work of a shady roofing contractor who threw in the ridge vent for some extra money on the job, or the cunning or maybe unknowing work of the home owner, we will never know. The house was a foreclosure, the owner long gone. I told my client that properly installing the ridge vents, and installing new soffet vents should be a priority because the comfort and energy costs of the house would be dramatically improved. It was one of several key items for this house that needed some loving care.

Want to to see my price schedule? It's all up on my web site. Click here.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home even if there is a cat dancing around on the hot roof. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Shut up and Bail!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:17:30 -0500

My client was very excited about owning her first home. So much so that when I started doing my inspection, she started cleaning and doing repairs! Never mind that she didn't own the house yet! She wanted to get a head start and she had come prepared to get some serious cleaning done.

Her enthusiasm was contageous and I forgot one of the unwritten (or maybe it is written), common sense, rules in Real Estate...don't do anything to the property until you own it. (Who knows...there are a hundred ways a deal can fall through.). I had mistakenly thought, how can a little cleaning hurt?

I was not far into the inspection when I found that the water was not draining at the kitchen sink. My client asked what can be done about it and I said that before calling a plumber she could try something simple like Draino. Soon after that I found her pouring Liquid Plumber down the drain.

I went through the rest of the inspection and did not find a drainage problem with the other sinks, toilets or tubs and began to think that the Liquid Plumber might actually work on the kitchen sink.

Back in the kitchen I ran water in the sink and when it did not drain, I turned on the disposer. Presto, the water went right on down. I was about to cross the sink off my list when my client called me from the basement. "Come quick its flooding!" Sure enough, white foamy water was bubbling up from the floor drain and at least a gallon had come up so far.

The floor drain was dry moments before when I inspected it even after running water at all the drains and toilets in the house. The best I can figure is that this foreclosure house had sat so long that a membrane had formed in the basement floor drain keeping it from flooding. There was a clog somewhere in the line and the extra pressure from the disposer along with the drain cleaner had broken the seal.

For years I have carried mops, buckets, sponges, towels for just such an occasion and I got to bailing right away keeping my client away from the clean up as the drain cleaner fumes were quite strong. I added plastic gloves to my emergency kit the very next day as this solution was rough on the hands.

This was an important wake up call. I was fortunate that there was nothing damaged. There could have been hard wood flooring, or expensive carpeting and I would have been responsible for the repairs. It was my mistake letting the client do anything to the house before the house was hers. Seemingly innocent things like this can come back to bite you! On the positive side, we were able to find this defect before she moved in and Roto Router was in the next day.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your enthusiastic client's prospective first home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Bill Duncan Home Status Inspection Company

Uncommon Sense!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:13:14 -0500

I wrote this last year when weather conditions were the exact opposite as they are now here in Virginia. We are currently having our worst drought in years. However, stick around, we will have torrential rains soon.

July 30, 2006

This last week I was called by a lovely older lady to do a Home Wellness Check. A Home Wellness Check is my term for a full inspection on a house that is not for sale.

When I got to the inspection I learned that she had recently hired a water proofing company to install a full blown sump pump system in her basement which had been wet as a result of the recent heavy rains. The system included three sump pumps positioned around her rectangular basement 20 x 40 foot basement. It seemed like overkill to me.

My inspection yielded several likely culprits for the water in her basement: clogged gutters and downspouts, gutters out of alignment, and poor grading around the house which had caused ponding and flow of water toward the house.

While I can't definitely say that she didn't need the $10,000 system, I can say that had she called me first, I would have given her several far less expensive things to do first before taking the step to break up the concrete in her basement and spending all the money.

That brings me to the point. My perspective is completely unbiased. I have no desire to sell a solution to any problem. I only want what is best for my client. Call for my inspection before calling in the heavy artillery.

Likewise when you are showing a house. Water in the basement can get your clients walking out the door quickly, even when they love everything else about the house. In this situation tell them, with conviction, that 80% of the time, water in the basement is due to external causes which can be fixed without major expense.

Tell your clients that a home inspector can give them a clear, unbiased perspective of the condition, and if it is serious, solutions can usually be negotiated.

This all seems like common sense to me...but judging by the glory days being had by waterproofing companies following the recent record rains...maybe it is more like uncommon sense.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your clients prospective home with water in the basement. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Spotting Amateur Work

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:18:08 -0500

If his work were being judged by neatness, Mrs. Norwood, my old english teacher, would have given him an A+. In fact, if you did not know what you are looking for you would think it was the work of a professional.

In preparation for selling his house, the owner spent a weekend in the crawl space of his house. He did some things right. He removed every bit of debris, including all the old tattered insulation, pipe pieces, torn vapor barrier, spider webs, etc.

Then he installed a complete new vapor barrier, using the thickest plastic sheathing he could find. He taped down the joints with duct tape (the first sign of amateur work), and he made sure everything was covered. Actually I don't fault the duct tape on the vapor barrier too much...it's better than 99% of the crawl spaces I've seen which have not tape sealing the seams. However, duct tape just doesn't hold up well in damp slocations. (Or any other location for that matter).

His mistake and the clearest sign of amateur work was that he installed all the new insulation between the overhead floor joists with the craft covered side toward the crawl space. Upside down. No professional installer would do this.

When insulation is installed upside down like this, moisture can become trapped in the space between the insulation and the sub flooring. Moisture condensation can lead to mold and wood decay. Mistakes like this should be corrected for the long term health of the house.

In this business you learn quickly that not all amateurs do non-professional work and some contractors do amateur work. The way I define amateur work is that it shows a lack of knowledge of, or disregard for, the fundamental principles of the task.

Other red flags for amateur work include: Reverse wired electrical outlets; exterior wiring without conduit or exterior rated wire, redundant GFCI outlets, roofs with shingles nailed in a non-standard or irregular pattern; and even the use of standard duct tape (instead of aluminum tape) on HVAC ducts!

Agents can spot some of these things on initial house walk throughs with clients. Insulation installed improperly, roofs nailed irregularly, duct tape used on ducts. Each of these gives clients a good reason for a home inspection...because if one of the fundamentals has been missed, chances are high that there are others missed in the house as well.

See what clients and agents have said about my inspections. Click here

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

Nature vs. Nurture

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:08:44 -0500

Foreword, there may be people that think I should not mention the Virginia Tech tragedy in context of a home inspection blog or news letter. I do so here with the utmost respect for the victums, their families and everyone involved with this incident. At the time, our hearts were heavy and our thoughts and prayers were focused on Blacksburg, VA. Most of our conversations in those days after April 16th included something of the news and events of that terrible day.

My young client wanted to talk about the awful events at Virginia Tech a couple of days earlier and asked me if I thought a monster like that is born that way or was made that way by his parents and society. It was the classic nature vs. nurture question and while I inspected the 15 year old townhome he was about to buy we had an interesting conversation. I told him that I quickly found out in one semester as a Psychology major at Syracuse that I was not cut out to analyse or help the human psyche. Houses, on the other hand are a little easier to understand.

I realized that the contrast between his 15 year old townhouse and the 15 year old townhouse I had inspected the day before could easily illustrate the two sides. "

That other town house, while the same age, was in sorry condition. Almost all of the wood windows in the townhouse had failed seals and tell tale moisture between the glass panes. Almost all the windows also had broken sash cord springs, making them a fire escape safety hazard.

My client's townhouse, by contrast, had only one broken sash cord and no broken seals. The difference? My client's windows had been a better quality window to start with. Good genes I told him. The longer life of his windows had not been due to the care of the owners. The other town house had had one owner for the 15 years. My client's place had been rented nearly the whole time and while it is not always the case, usually there is a lower level of care in rental units vs. with home owners.

When we came to the HVAC, we found a different story. My client's AC unit was only 7 years old, meaning the original unit had failed after 8 years. This one was about to fail too, it responded poorly to my tests. The other townhouse had had the original AC and it had worked well when I ran it. The difference? Nurturing, I told him.

The rentors had not changed the filters and the owner/landlord had not scheduled regular maintenace on the unit. It had cost him alot of money.

So, this illustrates that there are parts of a home where the quality of the original components means more than the care provided by the owner. Windows are a good example. On the other hand, Nurturing means more to an Air Conditioner or Heat Pump. Changing the filters and getting regular maintenance is the biggest factor.

Roofs are a good example of where good genes (i.e. high quality components) can be compromised by faulty installation, or lack of attic ventilation. You nurture a roof by cooling its underside with proper ridge and soffet vents and possibly an attic fan. Thus you start with the potential of long life and insure it with proper installation.

All of my rates are posted on my web site. Click here to check them out.

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection Company

The Fixer Upper!

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:57:11 -0500

"Does this house qualify for one of your email letters? My agent friend asked me with a devilish grin. "Probably about three" I said, and I began to think of the lessons this house could teach.

This was a 29 year old split level on a beautiful mountain lot which showed lots of wear and tear, both natural and man-made. Over the years it had suffered the effects of owner tinkering, bad judgement and bad taste. All of the walls and ceilings were covered with textured ivory paint and all the floors were poorly laid linoleum. None of the baseboards or trim matched within 1/4 an inch. Starting to get the picture?

There was a sun room addition to the house which was clearly not done by a professional contractor. A key sign of this was the roof. The sun room was perpendicular to the main house and its roof created a valley on either side with the main roof.

The valley treatments were a study in what not to do. On one side, the shingles were just run up the other side and then pasted down with roofing tar over top of the shingles of the main roof. It looked like a bad Trump comb over! The tarred seams were still intact but would eventually pull away allowing water underneath.

The other side featured a seam cut in the shingles of both the sun room and main roofs. A bead of roofing tar went down the center. This had already begun to deteriorate would eventually leak badly. The correct way is to run the shingles of one side up under the opposing roof shingles and cut the other side's shingles along the valley line.

These roof defects were not visible from the ground level and fortunately the house's profile provided for safe inspection by walking on the roof. Walking the roof is a good idea whenever the conditions are safe. Also found was the reason for the leak damage on the interior of the screened porch next to the Sun Room. No flashing where the roof met the Sun Room wall.

There were many other fun things about this house, including a 12 AWG Romex wire run in the ground without conduit protection about 100 feet to a shed in the back yard. The wire continued from the shed up a tree near by, still without conduit, to a set of flood lights. The tree's bark had surrounded the wire in a couple of places and drawn it in to the tree as though it was eating it. Yet another reason to use conduit!

But perhaps the best lesson this house had to teach was that every house has a perfect buyer! My client, a Professional Fire Fighter, whose three 12 hour days on, four days off, schedule allowed ample time to work on the house, was not bothered by anything I found. "I can fix all these things, " he said. "We plan to make this house our own over the next ten to 15 years" .

From my point of view, this is a refreshing change from the sometimes poor matchups of clients with limited means and capabilities, with houses that need lots of work. Kudos to my agent friend for finding the perfect buyer for this troubled house.

I have affordable inspection rates - click here to see

It's a good idea to have me inspect your client's prospective home. You never know what you will find.

Sincerely,

Bill Duncan Home Status Inspection Company

On Discipline When Business is Slow

Bill Duncan (Home Status Inspection Company, LLC) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:14:03 -0500

I was opening an old electrical panel and my electric drill didn't have the power to turn the screws, so I reached in my bag for my manual screw driver. It wasn't there. I had to improvise, basically using my electric drill as a manual screw driver. No big deal right?

Well I got to thinking about why my screw driver was not in the bag. As I turned that scrutiny on myself which I use in inspections, I didn't like what I saw. I had been sloppy. I had used the screw driver in an inspection two days before and put it in my pocket. That night I had emptied my pockets on my bedroom dresser. That's where the screw driver was.

When I am doing two and three inspections a day every day, I get into a rhythm. I do the same things every inspection. In this case it includes emptying my pockets of tools and putting them back in place at the end of each inspection. It also includes putting all my rechargeables back in their respective chargers. I keep my self ready to go at a moment's notice.

When I am doing one inspection a day I recognized that I started doing things differently. Knowing I had 24 hours before the next inspection I started getting ready for inspections just before rather than immediately after the previous one.

This lack of discipline had carried over into other things. I've found myself on several occasions remembering something I needed for and inspection after starting to the site, only to turn around to go back and retrieve it. Wasted time and motion, and basically, lack of discipline. During my busy times, this just doesn't happen.

I don't think this is just me, or just home inspectors. Recently the agent for one of my inspection clients found that he had forgotten to bring a contract addendum form to the inspection. He improvised by hand writing a form, but I'll bet that a couple of years ago when he was busy, he would have had a stack of forms at all times.

My best shot at compensating for the tendency to become stale during slow periods is to force myself to maintain the exact same regimen when I am not busy as when I am fighting for every spare second. Every tool is put back in my bag immediately, no exceptions. I've added check lists so that, in a similar fashion as a pilot prepares for flying, I prepare for an inspection. I can't tell you how many times this has saved me from embarrasment.

I am open to any other suggestions as to how to stay sharp during slow periods.

Sincerely,

Home Status Inspection