Sometimes, when what the builder can get by with meshes with saving money, the buyer ends up getting the shaft. Shortcuts are usually negatives. The wood post below, which I wrote about before, is such an example. This builder has built many homes. He knows what he is doing and is successful in the field. He also knew that hauling the dirt away, after excavating for a duplex, was going to cost money. So he had an easy solution. Once the municipal code inspectors were done with their cursory work, he just dumped the dirt back into the crawl space. Can you say "wood to earth contact." If a post is pressure-treated, those code inspectors probably would have allowed this unnecessary, shoddy and inferior building practice anyway. 

Even with pressure-treated lumber, there is no point in burying it in soil when you have a concrete pier under it. That is nuts. Why take chances with rot when it is neater, cleaner and more professional to have the posts resting on concrete piers? Oh, I forgot -- we were saving money by taking shortcuts.

Simple ethics, and pride, would prevent a responsible builder from piling dirt around the posts. Also, you can see that he cheated on the plastic vapor barrier. There was a vapor barrier, not shown in the photo, but it was poorly installed and did not go even close to the edges.

Fortunately, in this state we have the Washington State Department of Agriculture and they require that all structural pest inspectors (most of us home inspectors at this time) tell clients that wood to earth contact and lack of a vapor barrier are conditions conducive to wood rot. That is a good reason for buyers to go with a home inspector and not to rely on a cursory code inspection which is about as minimal as you can get.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections