Probably many of you, on first hearing this story, would think that it is never appropriate for a home inspector to TP a house. To make it even worse in your mind, what if the inspector TP's the house with the seller's own TP? Boy, I admit, that sounds pretty unprofessional.
Let me explain, since I did just that the other day and even took a photo of me doing so. Fact: I have a limited number of ways to determine if the bath fans will move the moist air out of the room. I don't smoke and that is bad berries anyway. One practical and acceptable way to take a stab at figuring that out is to take a small piece of TP and hold it up to the fan when it is running. If the TP sticks, or at least is attracted to the fan like a magnet, then something good is happening.
If, instead, the TP comes fluttering down and lands on the inspector's head, then something bad is probably happening and the fan is not doing a reasonable job of doing the only thing the fan is supposed to do -- move air and moisture in the air.
We home inspectors have high-tech and glamorous lives; he said while kneeling beside the toilet and trying to figure out the source of that yellowish-brown stain on the vinyl floor.
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham WA Home Inspections
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