bellingham home inspection: Bad Aim, Goal Not Achieved
- 08/03/08 02:43 AM
In this photo we have the goal, getting warm, moist air out of the attic, and we have the target -- the gable vent. Problem is, we have bad aim. The problem here is that we just have a scatter-shot. Most of that high humidity is going to end up in the attic, not outside. This is just not close enough. Shooting warm moist air in the general direction of the vent does not cut it. Instead, there needs to be a proper termination cut in the roof or the exterior wall and the duct attached to that. Being in an unconditioned space, the … (6 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Who Needs A Meter?
- 07/31/08 09:46 AM
Would you need a thermometer to tell you that it is hotter than blazes in a room? Probably not. Sometimes we home inspectors can, visually, pickup on an issue but like to use our high-tech instruments so we have conclusive visual evidence that a problem is, well, a problem. Believe it or not, an inspector can see vinyl, stained and damaged like below, and the seller will argue that there is just no way the biffy has a leak. That inspector is just plain nuts! Well, when the trusty home inspector has the visual evidence of the stain plus the photo of the moisture meter … (5 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Did You Ever Wonder Why Ed Sullivan?
- 07/30/08 10:59 AM
In the middle years of the now dearly departed 20th century, one of the biggest names in show business was Ed Sullivan. He was broadcast coast to coast across the country. He was the man of women's dreams from Searcy, Arkansas to Bellingham, Washington. Okay, that might be overstating it, but he was a huge television star and host of the most powerful variety show that has ever been broadcast on American television.
Especially if you saw Ed Sullivan, you have to wonder why he became a leading icon and performer on TV. He seemed like an odd fit. As … (36 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Furnace Inspection
- 07/29/08 01:26 AM
When a home inspector opens the housing of a furnace for a visual inspection, he or she is looking to see whether or not it looks to be well-maintained. If the furnace has the interlock switch taped on or the unit is full of sawdust, rust or dust, those are concerns. One of the more frequent things I see is a furnace that is full of white condensate -- looks like salt crystals. When that is present, it can also be a sign of poor combustion or venting. I see this condition often in Bellingham. Manufacturers recommend professional service of furnaces annually and, … (9 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Woodstock Was 39 Years Ago
- 07/28/08 02:01 AM
This is not an angle I would have come up with on my own. The wife listens to NPR and they found it newsworthy that the Woodstock Music Festival was held nearly 40 years ago. If you are too young to remember, that was a huge outdoors rock concert in Bethel, New York in August 1969.What most people do not know is that there was a pre-cursor to this festival. It took place two years before, June 1967. That event was the Monterey Pop Festival.Some historians claim Montery Pop was a better show than Woodstock and it was, for sure, the beginning of the summer … (15 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Blaine, Where N/A Does Not Mean "Not Applicable"
- 07/24/08 12:28 PM
I found out yesterday that N/A does not necessarily mean not applicable. I went up to Canada, which is only about 20 miles from Bellingham. Now that the Canadian dollar is worth more, many Canadians come to the US to shop. Then, with school being out, that is quadrupled. Supposedly, to help travelers at each side of the border -- prior to the exits for alternate routes -- a freeway sign that updates is installed and it predicts border waits at the different crossings. Yesterday, it said that the truck crossing was a 25 minute wait. It said that the Peace Arch, the main … (6 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Please Bee Careful
- 07/24/08 06:25 AM
Aggressive hornets and yellow jackets outside the home can really spoil the barbecue. While they are normally a mere annoyance, we have all heard of people killed by bees. Usually that only happens when that person had a bee allergy or was unlucky enough to be enveloped by a swarm while trapped in a confined space, hence being unable to escape. Probably the most common place for this to occur at the home is in the attic. Bees like attics. Actually, I hate to use the word "bees" when speaking of hornets,wasps, yellow jackets. To me, bees are the obvious good guys -- the worker bees, the … (7 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Knock Me Off My Feet
- 07/24/08 02:38 AM
This problem is a pretty obvious design flaw, and not hard to fix. More often than not, I see this mistake made outside a door at a bedroom to the backyard. The problem -- there is a small stairway, no landing at the top, and the door opens out OVER the steps. It does provide a certain element of security as it is just plain hard to get inside without sweeping yourself off your feet. In this case, efforts to keep the crazy canine on the deck led to putting in this gate. Problem is, it is hinged the wrong way. I am … (5 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Today's Very Seedy Blog
- 07/22/08 04:09 AM
I try to keep from getting downright dirty and seedy here at Active Rain. But sometimes, an honest man has no choice but to get down in the dirt in the trenches. This is a seedy blog! We are going to talk rodents, mice and rats. When an inspector goes into a crawl space, one of the first clues that there are "vermin in our midst" is insulation that has been torn or pulled down from under the floor or that has been torn off heat ducts Of course, nothing is ever as simple as one would like and sometimes the … (5 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Does It Really Look Good to the Person Who Did It?
- 07/15/08 05:10 PM
I think that, in this post, I can effectively skirt any concerns about being called a sexist. The repair pictured below is "unisex" -- not specific to a man or a woman. Both sexes are equally qualified, and misguided, when it comes to generating this kind of work. In the world of some, certainly not all, homeowners any pipe that does not leak is a pipe that does not require further attention. I am amazed at the number of drains and traps that are held together with various tapes and glues. Even if there is not gushing water at the exact … (16 comments)
bellingham home inspection: The Silent House Killer -- Anobiid Beetle
- 07/14/08 06:28 AM
Recently, I have been writing a number of posts about the wood boring beetles found in the Pacific Northwest. In my view the worst of the worst is the anobiid or deathwatch beetle. Uninformed people often refer to the anobiid as the powderpost beetle, but that is the wrong terminology and refers to a different species. Especially in our coastal regions -- my experience seems to be that the closer I am to water the more prevalent they are -- this is a frequently seen and highly destructive pest. While I have seen major damage from carpenter ants, the more serious damage tends to come … (6 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Pacific Northwest Music Legend -- Talkin' The King of Crooners
- 07/09/08 04:22 AM
In the past, I have done a few blogs about entertainers who were famous here in the Pacific Northwest. These have always received interest and comments. Many people do not know it but, over the years, the Seattle area has produced some of the biggest names in musical entertainment. In some cases those musicians were born elsewhere and found fame in Seattle. Other times, it was the other way around:They were raised in Seattle but found fame elsewhere. I plan to, as time allows, write a few interactive (thanks to youtube) articles on some of these famous performers. We will start with the … (17 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Goofy People, Crazy Designs
- 07/08/08 06:49 AM
As I have discussed before, we home inspectors see many odd things. Some of them, at least if you think about it, make sense in that you can eventually figure out why the person did what he or she did. There are many more of these crazy designs that make no sense at all. Usually, I see one common thread that runs through these crazy designs. Often the designs are the result of the homeowner trying to repair, or adjust for, some other problem -- real or imagined. For example, I know of a homeowner who did not like the location of the … (7 comments)
bellingham home inspection: God Save The Queen
- 07/07/08 12:52 PM
In this case, not really. God need not save this queen. This is one queen that we would just as soon have check out as quickly as is possible, taking her groupies with her. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this is not a beauty by any standards. This is a photo of a functional subterranean termite queen. The mere mention of the word termite can send a homeowner into a state of depression. Fortunately, here in Washington State we do not have as many serious termite problems as in some other parts of the country -- … (44 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Hold the Peanuts --- Please!
- 06/29/08 10:20 AM
I told my wife, an avid gardner, that I would write this blog. She has a chip on her shoulder about people feeding squirrels. We have a conflict of sorts. She likes to garden and has a green thumb. I like to feed the squirrels. This fellow below I consider to be one of my dependents -- although in all honesty I am still arguing with the IRS about the legality of that deduction, his having four legs and a bushy tail and all. The big problem the wife has is gardening competition from squirrels. It is not that they eat her … (10 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Underground Fuel Tanks
- 06/15/08 04:28 PM
I saw the telltale signs the other day. It was an underground oil tank. Actually, this was a pretty easy find. Often there is way less to see than what I had to go on at this site. The photo below tells the story. You can see the fill tube and the vent or "breather" for an old and abandoned underground fuel storage tank. In this case the fuel was heating oil. One time, doing an inspection, it ended up that the underground fuel tank that I saw had been used to store gasoline. That was an expensive cleanup as it had … (8 comments)
bellingham home inspection: It's All About Flashing
- 05/19/08 09:06 AM
If a homeowner or handyman plans to install a new roof or put in plumbing stacks or roof vents, it sure makes sense to do some reading about the process before getting the ladder out and going up onto the roof. The two plumbing stack flashings below have obvious problems. The one on the left was probably a decent flashing, new out of the package, prior to the "roofer" slathering it up. He had a proper flashing that would work, but he did not get how it works. Instead of putting the flashing in correctly, so it neatly fits up under the shingles … (8 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Mix and Match Wiring
- 05/12/08 04:49 AM
Mix and match might work for some things. However, it does not make for a pretty or safe sight when working with electrical wiring when circuits include both copper and solid-strand aluminum wiring. The panel below has both -- mix and match. The terminal on the left clearly has a solid aluminum wire on the top breaker. The ones below that are copper. Solid-strand aluminum branch wiring, used for a relatively brief period into the early 1970's, has a history of safety problems. I have seen estimates that a home could be as much as 50 times more likely to have a … (10 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Good Lookin' Bad Idea
- 05/04/08 08:09 AM
Crowding. Crowding. Crowding the house. How else would you describe this? I am sure the homeowner likes this plant, probably likes the way it covers the siding. But the problem is that siding needs some space between it and the vegetation. How much? Well usually a foot is recommended. In actuality, you can probably get by with less space than that as long as there is a big enough gap to allow the siding to dry after a rain. Otherwise it retains moisture and is prone to rot. You need some air circulation in there. And the other concern is that those … (8 comments)
bellingham home inspection: Nice Plumbing Repair
- 04/17/08 03:41 PM
My friend Charles Buell is always very critical of duct tape -- the miracle cure of last century and still a hot commodity today. I have seen everything from the skins of mobile homes and fuel tanks to shoes repaired with the stuff. I always love it when I open a cabinet and find it at the drain under the sink. Come on folks, the stuff really is not very waterproof and let's be honest it is a really lousy way to repair a leak. The photo below does a wonderful job of capturing a leak in progress. What --- a … (10 comments)
Steven L. Smith, King of the House Home Inspection, provides information for real estate buyers, sellers and real estate industry professionals.
Blog posts emphasize issues commonly found in Bellingham, WA and Whatcom County. Smith is Washington State Licensed Home Inspector #207, a state licensed structural pest inspector, ASHI certified inspector #252760 and one of the most experienced inspectors in the northwest corner of the Pacific Northwest.
Steven L. Smith is lead instructor of home inspection at Bellingham Technical College and teaches classes for Washington State University and the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Steve was a two-term member of the state licensing board.
In this photo we have the goal, getting warm, moist air out of the attic, and we have the target -- the gable vent. Problem is, we have bad aim. The problem here is that we just have a scatter-shot. Most of that high humidity is going to end up in the attic, not outside. This is just not close enough. Shooting warm moist air in the general direction of the vent does not cut it. Instead, there needs to be a proper termination cut in the roof or the exterior wall and the duct attached to that. Being in an unconditioned space, the … (6 comments)
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