I see so many of the same issues at the houses I inspect, and document these in my reports. One of the biggest causes of foundation problems is poor grading and drainage around the foundation of the home.

In this case, the two front corners of the home dropped 2-3 inches, and caused a large crack in the garage floor. This also caused the opposite corner to drop significantly, and the floor slopes down in these two areas. The buyer obviously has reservations about purchasing this home, and I don't blame him.

The walkway along the side of the house also sank and is now pitched towards the house, and will further exacerbate the problem. I recommended the concrete walkway be broken up and the property graded.

All the mortar joints on the sides of the house will need repair as they have been washed out, but the mortar joints that the blocks also rest upon are deteriorated, and that is where much of the load is concentrated. A qualified contractor can easily repair these mortar joints, but raising the concrete floor in the two front corners of the house will be impossible.

Major repairs and repouring of parts of the concrete floors in the corners will be necessary to make the floors flat again, but this is a big job, and I told the client most people do not spend the money to fix this issue - they live with the sloping floor.

I could not live with a floor so sloped, but you can if it doesn't bother you that much. The price probably refects this, but that is out of my realm, and I do not comment on the price of the home, or how much the price should be reduced to reflect possible repair costs.

If someone only maintained the grade as the house settled, this might not have been a major issue. - Ray

This is the class that contractor are supposed to be taking so they do not cause lead paint to become friable (make dust that can be breathed in) while performing repairs and/or renovations. Many home owners perform their own renovations, but are also at risk if they are ignorant to these important work safety rules. I blogged about a situation I saw last year, and obviously the workers were ot following these practices at the ome I was inspecting, and the homeowner had no clue.

As of April 22, 2010, federal law requires that contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that damage or disturb more than six square feet of paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 are to be certified and trained to follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.

Although I do not need to take this contractor safety class as I am certified by the EPA for lead basedpaint testing in New York State. This certification is needed for ANY lead base paint testing. I have heard of inspectors offering lead paint testing with those test kits found at paint stores and home centers, but this is NOT A VALID TEST for lead based paint.

I am taking this class so I can increase my knowledge of these lead safe work practices. I wish I had known these when I was working as a painter in my teen years. I have had exposure to lead paint as I scraped and sanded old wood that I am sure had lead based paint.

The class is beeing given at the Western Suffolk Boces Dix Hills campus on April 16th and 18th, and will provide me 8 continuing education credits.

If you are an inspector you can take this class as well. Call 631-667-6000 x 320 to schedule yourself for this class.

And don't be ridiculous, call Meticulous!

The house I inspected in Glen Cove NY yesterday had several structural issues that should not have existed, but due to a builders' shoddy workmanship, these issues were addressed by yet another shoddy contractor, or perhaps the seller. The house was built in 1984, so I didn't expect to find the stuff I find in houses much older. But I did.

The picture is of a screw jack that was used to support an important girder that supports the basement staircase. The girder obviously shifted and sank, so someone bought a couple of screw jacks at Lowes and installed them under this girder.

In this case the screw jacks were not even fastened with proper hardware, loose boards were found between the jack and the girder, and were cocked at an angle - yikes! I did not see signs that they broke up the concrete to pour a proper footing, so this is as amateur as it gets.

I explained that these are temporary columns, and are not permanent columns. Permanent columns are mounted on top of concrete footings, and are fastened at the top with lag bolts usually. This repair is highly inadequate, and I would go as far as to say unsafe.

I have seen these screw jacks used in many different types of situations. But they are not permamnet and do not support the load of a proper lally column.

The buyer was planning to buy this as an investment property, and has a crew that he uses to renovate houses he purchases, so he has some work ahead of him. The work isn't that hard, but must be done to proper codes and building practice.

I just hope he does the job the right way. -Ray

So who should pay? Someone besides my client in my opinion.

I find it very frustrating when I go inspect a house and every room is packed with boxes, debris, trash and whatever else.

How can I do my job? I cannot! I can't even get to windows to open them, and can't see inside closets either. I cannot test receptacles, and look for signs of water intrusion. What kind of inspection is that? A very incomplete one.

I have asked listing agents in the past to make sure the house is inspectable, but I get there and it is not.

I also need access to all rooms, closets, crawl spaces, attic staircases, garages, and basements. All illegal apartments must be inspected, as all closets and all areas difficult to get to.

After leaving a house last week in Rosedale, NY that was packed to the ceilings with stuff, I told my client I need to return to inspect inside two closets and an illegal bedroom in the basement that was locked, and that I would require a return visit fee. The client was not happy, but I told him he should not be paying, that the listing agent should pay, or the seller. His agent agreed.

We all did our jobs, but the seller didn't do his job by making the house inspectable. The listing agent didn't do his job either, because he knew we were coming, and that the client would be paying for this. But what is he paying for if half the house cannot be inspected?

Now of course I realize there are circumstances such as elderly people in poor health that cannot empty the contents of their house, and of course there are hoarders, but the buyer should not have to be unsure of his major purchase of a home if the seller doesn't give proper access. If the seller needs to call 1-800-junk, but chooses not to, sorry.

The fee was paid for by the seller, and in the report I still noted 3 separate times that "it is recommended the _ _ _ _ be reinspected once all items are removed as inspection of this area was not possible.

And what if the seller really, really needs to sell (as was pleaded to me by the listing agent)?

If the client really, really needs to sell, he or she really, really needs to make the house inspectable.

Oh well. The client backed out of the deal, and the house is still on the market.

Who is at fault? Certainly not me nor my client.

-Ray

Many people store gasoline in improper containers in garages, as well as lawnmowers and other gasoline operated qequipment, but improper containers that cannot keep their contents when knocked over can cause a fire if a source of ignition is present.

I inspected a house in Belle Terre, NY yesterday and found an old Clorox plastic bottle with no top, and this 'can' was deteriorating as it contained gasoline, and this type of plastic eventually melts when in contact with gasoline. The container was about to fall apart, and would have released its contents onto the floor - near the gas fired water heater which was in service! Yikes!!

I alerted the seller, who called her husband, and he came home to remove this fire hazard. He also is the one who decided it was a good idead to open a wall from his boiler room into the garage so he can have the water heater in the garage. The only thing is he didn't know all combustion equipment located in garages MUST BE 18 INCHES ABOVE THE GARAGE FLOOR! Double Yikes!!

I may have prevented an explosion yesterday, and now the seller is that much the wiser. But this could have ended in disaster.-Ray

I have performed many repairs on various parts of houses for previous clients, as well as in my own home.

My last blog centered around paint that people apply to their basement walls to avoid water infiltration issues. But this problem needs to be addressed from the exterior. A coat of paint will not stop water from entering if it has penetrated into 8 inches of concrete.

I dug with a shovel and removed all the soil to a depth of 5 feet so I could see the footing and the bottom of the foundation. I then chipped away at the deteriorated mortar joints with a proper stone chisel, and filled these with hydraulic cement - this concrete material expands as it dries, and fills cracks nicely. It dried quickly, so you only have between 30 and 60 seconds to apply this before it dries and cannot be worked into the mortar joints. Some mortar joints were covered with the original tar that was applied when the house was built, so this made the job more difficult, and took more time. In the picture, you can see the many areas that were repaired - especially at the far end.

I also had larger holes in the concrete block which were more difficult to fill, but what I did is mixed a bag of stucco mortar mix, and poured it in little amounts until the voids in the blocks were filled, and the semi-liquid concrete oozed from the gaps and openings below until it reached the holes that were located higher. In some cases, I had to put braced-up pylwood up against the wall so the concrete would not ooze out of the openings. I bit of a pain in the ass, but plywood scraps are pretty cheap.

Once this was dry, I put a layer of concrete where the block meets the footing, and gave it a nice fillet radius (see picture with new concrete fillet raduis atop the footing) which will help runoff be directed away from the joint where the footing meets the block. I then applied tar with a large brush, and did two coats. Once this was dried, I backfilled, and graded the soil so it was higher at the foundation, then gently sloped it away.

The bag of cement was $8.50, two buckets of hydraulic cement $30, the tar was $30, and the brush was $5. The labor was the difficult part, but it did not cost me a dime. In fact, I lost 15 pounds between this job, and the other side of my house, so it was a total win/win.

No, it was not easy, but it wasn't that hard either.

Anyone who tells you you can paint on a foundation repair from the inside of a basement is highly innaccurate! -Ray

I performed an inspection of a house in Baldwin NY yesterday for some clients who wanted to move from Brooklyn to Long Island. I found the usual stuff such as miswired GFI's, sloppy old windows, and termite damage, but one thing that just didnt seem right was a fresh coat of paint on the basement walls.

When I first got there, I found an empty can of 'Drylock' hidden behind the garbage pails outside the house, and then put 2 and 2 together.

Drylock is that miracle paint that everyone loves to paint basement walls with, and the miracle is that people buy it expecting it to work, and keep out water.

If you have water that is penetrating through 8 inches of concrete, a coat of paint, no matter how thick or expensive, isn't going to do didley squat!

This situation is remedied by digging out the foundation from the exterior, and fixing what needs to be fixed, then waterproofing the exterior wall.

A quick coat of paint from the intereior - any paint - is a waste of time and money, and in this case made me suspicious about the real problems the house has.

It would have been better to have the house inspected, so I can find out what the real problem is, then I can make suggestions as to how it can be alleviated. To try to hide something like this is going to cause unnecessary doubts, and masks the real problem.

In the future, it is a good idea for the seller to call a professional to assess the problem, and then there can be a work order on the table for what really needs to be done to fix the problem, as well as an approximate cost to repair.

Just knowing what something will cost is a big help to a buyer who doesn't have a clue as to the price of repairs for such a thing. 

In my next blog, I will show you what I did on my house to fix a similar problem.

- Ray

I see many types of older and newer circuit breaker panels in peoples homes, and there are several brands that, when seen, should be replaced. But other less obvious panels also should be removed and replaced with modern panels, like the one I found yesterday.

This particular panel in the photo has no main disconnect switch, otherwise known as the main circuit breaker. This type of service panel must be updated because all service panels should be able to be shut off completely with one switch. Sometimes this switch is located outside the house at the service meter, but not in this case.

People - even electricians - have been electrocuted because the large switch is turned off but some of the box is still live. These split-buss panels have a section that is still live even though the largest switch in the panel is off.

The buyer of this house in Syossett, NY is aware of this now that the inspection has taken place, and he has taken this in stride. I take the time before the inspection to let clients know these types of things are to be expected in older homes.

He was quite pleased, and now repeats the slogan - Don't be ridiculous, call Meticulous!

I see this in many houses and I just don't get it. Why on earth would you take a chance on having a fire by leaving a candle burning unattended?

I work in many areas of New York, and of course I deal with many people from foreign countries, as well as those born in the US, and I always let these people know that this is one of the worst things you can do.

I'm sorry, but if it is for religous reasons that you leave a candle burning on a table with a tablecloth and unopened mail, you are beyond amateur idioting and have ventured into 'Professional Idiocy'.

If you leave a candle unattended in a room because you like the cool lavender smell, your brain must have been removed while watching Paris Hilton on tv.

If you leave a candle in an unattended room with children, you are DANGEROUS to yourself and to others.

I have seen this more than once, and most of the time the people I am speaking to blow it off like I am making a big deal of something small.

But I say it anyway. -Ray 

Many people who do there own repairs in the home know what they are doing when it comes to basic maintenance, but when a water heater is installed, a qualified professional is needed.

This water heater was recently installed by the husband (now deceased) of the seller in a house in Queens, NY. There were several issues I spotted right away. The buyer was obviously not pleased with the news, but this is not a major repair, and can be repaired in an hour by the right person.

Compression fittings are used for many applications, but home plumbing systems are not one of them. The exhaust piping fits poorly into the breach of the chimney, and has water stains due to water entering the chimney. This can let carbon monoxide gasses enter the home, and is a big issue - especially if there are no carbon monoxide detectors in the area. The other deficiency is the two compression fittings (see picture) on the inlet and output piping.

These should be sweated (soldered) connections, and will have to be replaced as they can leak - especially when hot water exits the water heater through this piping.

I recommended that a qualified heating technician evaluate the installation and perrform the necessary repairs.