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Nice Landscaping, By The Way Where's....

beautiful I do enjoy seeing a nicely landscaped yard. There is something almost intoxicating about pulling up to a home and having my eyes drawn to many different visually pleasing elements. It makes me want to stop and sit a while taking in all the natural beauty around me.

But getting back to reality I have a job to do. My brief moment of admiration is gone as I must forge ahead and look for that which is wrong.

As I was walking around this nice little ranch house not long ago I was drawn in by the park like setting of the yard. Every side of the house was nicely landscaped with various interesting plants and shrubs.

After a few moments of seeing so much vegetation my home inspector's radar begins to blip. There are problems associated with flora and fauna so densely packed against a home. Not to mention what problems those plants may be hiding from my prying eyes.

I begin to look much closer along the edges of the home. Peeking between bushes and pushing aside limbs to see the home behind. I round the corner to the back yard. The plantings are much less dense here with one exception. There is a massive clump of decorative grass in the middle of back wall.

What is up with that?

what's this? I approach the thicket and push aside the grassy blades. What do I see? An A/C compressor. Once again homeowners have in the pursuit of beauty harmed the function of an appliance.

I'm quite certain most people do not realize the damage they are causing when trying to beautify an ugly A/C compressor or the eye sore of a furnace in the basement.

This particular compressor was the unfortunate recipient of a double whammy. After hacking my way around to the backside of the unit I discovered the clothes dryer vent directly behind the unit. Nothing like lint to effectively clog the cooling fins. I would think the installer, it was a newer compressor, would have alerted the homeowners to this issue.

lint factory I would guesstimate that the compressor was losing 10 - 20 % of its efficiency due to all this congestion.

What's that saying; putting lipstick on a pig. Sometimes you just have to let the pig be a pig.

James Quarello
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

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Posted by James Quarello - ASHI Certified CT Home Inspector on 10/05/2009 08:25 AM

Comments (16)

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16 Comments on Nice Landscaping, By The Way Where's....

OCT

James,

I had one the other day where, suddenly, I realized that I had no clue where the gas meter was located. Hidden by bushes.

Mr James,

Would you not agree that flora is more of a problem than fauna...I have never seen a baby deer climb a house.

Nutsy

Well I understand your suspicions when you have to 'hack' your way to the AC unit. Like an amazon movie, machete in hand? They are ugly and noisy and I personally hate them BUT making them work overtime is just plain stupid.