bellingham home inspection: King of the House Home Inspection -- Bellingham Home Inspection Video
- 05/29/10 08:28 AM
King of the House Home Inspection is operated by Steven L. Smith and the firm is based in Bellingham, WA. King of the House, Inc. serves Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties. Steven L. Smith is state licensed home inspector #207 and a state licensed structural pest inspector.
You can view the King of the House Home Inspection video by clicking on the link below.
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bellingham home inspection: When Code Inspectors Are Nuts
- 05/29/10 08:04 AM
The photo was recently taken at a building owned by the city and leased to a leading local restaurant. Obviously, the establishment complies with the various city safety codes. The business in this location attracts adults and their children.
Codes are designed to protect children and adults. Remember that when you look at the guardrail on the upper floor at this busy public spot. It is at least ten feet off the floor below.
The basic rule, with code, is that spindles in a high guardrail or a handrail must be spaced so a four inch sphere cannot pass through. Despite a popular misconception, codes DO … (14 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Wishing I Could Be There -- Rain Camp
- 05/26/10 04:43 PM
So tomorrow is a very hectic day for me. I really wish that I could be attending rain camp in Bellingham, my hometown.
It was not even a year ago that I went to the Seattle rain camp and that was lots of fun. But this year, despite the best of intentions on my part, family circumstances in my life and a multitude of other commitments have made it impossible to get the time off.
I hope that all of my AR friends who are in attendance will have a good day. I just wish that I could be there … (6 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House)
- 05/26/10 04:37 PM
When it comes to home inspection, this is pretty basic and you have heard it before: Keep the bushes, shrubs, trees and vines cut back from the siding and trim.
Not only will the vegetation keep the siding wet, or shall we say damp, but also the vegetation can hide problems and it makes a wonderful freeway for carpenter ants and other wood destroying insects.
Keeping the vegetation cut a foot back from the house is good for the homeowner and the home.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
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bellingham home inspection: King of the House (Bellingham Home Inspection) -- Manufactured Homes
- 05/25/10 03:32 PM
It makes no sense, other than it is cheap to do short-term, but many manufactured homes have a wood skirting around them and that wood skirting is buried in the ground. When wood is in contact with earth, over time, it will eventually decay. That applies to plywood, OSB and you name it. Even pressure treated lumber, in this application, is often found to be rotting behind the skirting.
The probe, in the decayed wood, says it all. A skirting at a manufactured home should be made of either a cement-based product or metal.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
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bellingham home inspection: I Am Joe's Dryer Duct
- 05/23/10 03:17 PM
Years ago there were these series of books about Joe's this that and the other thing -- from his stomach to his large intestine. Since this is such a clever theme, I have come up with my own article which is called " I Am Joe's Dryer Duct."
That is NOT flexduct. That is smooth metal ducting, in a multi-unit complex here in Bellingham that has a shared laundry, and this has not been cleaned in two years. Wow. How that lint does collect. Joe needs to clean his dryer duct.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
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bellingham home inspection: Birds at the Soffit
- 05/22/10 04:59 PM
I was at a home inspection recently, really a high house, and I kept seeing birds entering up under the soffit. Residents of the home were under the impression that the birds were nesting outside, not getting inside the attic.
Since I saw no nests up there, I suspected that the feathered friends were getting inside. When I got a ladder up under the eave, it was evident that the birds were, for sure, making the attic their home. In fact, it looks like they did some chewing just to make it easier access to help them in their role as … (9 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: GFCI Protected Isn't Enough
- 05/22/10 03:25 AM
Often I do inspections and find that outside receptacles are GFCI protected -- as they should be. However, they are still not properly installed because the receptacle is fully and completely exposed to the rain. An example of such a receptacle is below. When it was tested, it was GFCI protected.
But, GFCI protected or not, it is not a device that is designed for water penetration. It is an electric receptacle not a reservoir for water and it should have a protective (ideally a hooded) cover.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
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bellingham home inspection: Meerkerk Gardens, Whidbey Island
- 05/16/10 01:00 PM
Yesterday, and it was enjoyable, my wife and I went to Meerkerk Gardens, a Rhododendron Park on Whidbey Island. This place has one of the most gorgeous displays of rhododendrons that you will see anywhere. I have attached a few photos for your perusal.
Yesterday, checking out the rhodys was a fun day and we enjoyed it much. I have been so busy with work that it is rare to get such a carefree and fun day of playing.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
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bellingham home inspection: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Grizzly Photos
- 05/16/10 12:47 PM
I am in the process of putting together a slide show of some home inspection concerns, along with a voice over. Having worked in broadcasting for 30 years, I am more comfortable with the voice over than the organization of the photos. But, so far, it has been fun and I found this cool program that makes it easy to end up with a professional looking display.
I was looking for a photo that would, no holds barred, get the point across about the necessity of checking the condition of crawl spaces here in the Pacific Northwest. I think this one … (10 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Through The Eyes of a Statue
- 05/16/10 03:55 AM
I first visited the small town of Langley, on Whidbey Island, back in the mid 1970's. Even then, there was this guy standing by the rail, his dog beside him, staring out at the ocean.
I was there again yesterday and I had to look around the crowd of visitors to this pristine waterfront town but, there he was. Thirty years after the first time that I saw him, the same fellow was there gazing into the distance. I decided that the time was now to determine just exactly what he was viewing that was so spectacular as to take … (4 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Dastardly Teredos Held At Bay
- 05/15/10 02:29 AM
Yesterday, over at Bellingham Technical College, I taught my regular course in wood destroying organisms. The class was, more so than usual, interested in the teredo. The teredo is a wood boring clam that historically goes back almost to forever and was much feared by navigators of the great oceans. They called it shipworm and Columbus, for one, lost several ships to shipworm when the mollusk broke through at the most inconvenient time. Glug, Glug, Glug!
In the class, I was reading an article out of New York, where they were talking about what a huge problem the pest can be … (11 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Bellingham WA Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Honeycombing
- 05/09/10 05:38 AM
A home inspector will see many problems at many a concrete foundation. That varies from cracks, horizontal and vertical, to a common condition that is known in the trade as honeycombing.
The voids or bubbles in the concrete above are examples of honeycombing. This dates back to when the foundation was poured -- insufficient compaction of the concrete. Basically, there is too little cement in the mix and too much aggregate that is not melded together with the cement.
For the most part, honeycombing is a manageable problem that might even be a non-issue depending on circumstances. The biggest potential problem … (5 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: A Tiny Piece of Paradise
- 05/09/10 04:54 AM
While I was thumbing through my photos of my last trip to Italy, I found one that I particularly like. My wife and I were standing on a hill, looking down on this large, bustling and classic city. As I viewed the landscape, I noticed that one house had this little tiny yard. Among all the urban activity, it was their piece of paradise.
Notice that nice spot of well-tended green right there in the middle.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
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bellingham home inspection: Bellingham Home Inspections (King of the House) -- Dishwasher Air-gap Device
- 05/08/10 03:15 PM
At a dishwasher the air-gap device is traditionally put in the system to assure a sanitary environment for our cups, saucers, plates and silverware and to protect against a cross-connection that could contaminate potable water. Properly designed and installed, an air-gap allows water to flow only in the desired direction.
The photo below is a very basic diagram of an air-gap installation at a dishwasher and a kitchen sink.
For a close-up of the inside of the air-gap device itself, look at the diagram below. As you can see, this is not simply a continuous hose used as a drain. There is a gap in … (8 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Oaxaca, Mexico -- Pretty Inviting
- 05/07/10 04:33 PM
After a rather hectic week and a week where I have been visiting my wife in the hospital -- she gets to come home tomorrow -- my mind drifts to vacation. I think that, like the past two years, we will be going to the Oaxaca area of Mexico again right after Christmas.
The photo below gives an idea of the beauty of the area. I was, one day, walking down a street near our B&B and I peaked in the doorway of a building. I thought that the scene inside was very pretty and captures the feel of the city.
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bellingham home inspection: The Scary Side Of Craig's List
- 05/07/10 07:50 AM
I periodically post ads on Craig's list. This is mainly for rental houses that I own. I also post an occasional ad for my inspection business, primarily to be another meteor out there that the search engines find in cyber space.
When I post those ads, without fail, I start getting Craig's list spam. Typically it is something along the lines of -- if you have something at Craig's list you must be starving so how about selling some stupid product that we offer. I have also had the letters from overseas, wanting to rent my house. They will plan to … (13 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: I Found A Real Artist In The Bedroom
- 05/06/10 01:24 PM
As a home inspector, like everyone in the field, I am inside a lot of people's bedrooms. I have seen all sorts of things in the line of duty from those shocking pink bedrooms to the ones with violet walls and orange trim.
Very seldom do I ever see a bedroom that was done with care by someone who put tremendous effort into the job of decorating the walls. The photos below go back forty years to my days in high school here in Bellingham. A female friend of mine was a huge Beatles fan. These are etchings off her bedroom wall from … (12 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Washington State Approved Home Inspector Education (Bellingham Technical College)
- 09/26/09 12:22 PM
On an ongoing basis, due to being the program coordinator for home inspection training at Bellingham Technical College, I am receiving calls and Email inquiries from individuals who wish to be trained to work as licensed home inspectors in the state of Washington.
Licensing kicked into place in this state almost a month ago on September 1, 2009. That new law, when it went in, created a commotion for a few in the business. As far as we can tell, it impacted only a few inspectors but there are those who would have been "grandfathered-in" had they completed the licensing process prior to … (16 comments)
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bellingham home inspection: Twin-Pick (Music Trivia Quiz) -- The Beat Went On
- 07/05/09 02:39 AM
One of the regular Twin-Pick music trivia contestants, Barbara Duncan, had a good suggestion. She said I should come up with a Twin-Pick on Sonny and Cher.
Wow, that is an act that goes back. They had their first hit before I was paying any attention to pop music. And, while Sonny was elected to congress but is now gone, the result of a skiing accident in 1998, Cher survived the hippy days and she is still a top draw.
Most people, who heard them, know that Sonny really could not sing. But, he could write songs. Heck, he wrote Needles and … (16 comments)
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King of the House Home Inspection is operated by Steven L. Smith and the firm is based in Bellingham, WA. King of the House, Inc. serves Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties. Steven L. Smith is state licensed home inspector #207 and a state licensed structural pest inspector.
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