sumas home inspection: Whatcom County Home Inspector (King of the House) Composition Shingles
- 08/28/11 04:04 AM
Here in Bellingham and Whatcom County, it is common, with composition shingles, to find that some of the self-sealing strips have failed to seal, or melt, properly. When new shingles are put in place, if the weather is warm, the tar strips should seal. That holds the front edges down so they are not so prone to being blown off in the wind. When the inspector finds that most of the shingles easily lift
That usually means that it is an older roof, and the strips have failed, given up the ghost, or less likely, the roof is new and … (5 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Furnaces and Pilot Lights
- 08/06/11 06:17 AM
If the gas furnace has a pilot light, then it has some age on it. I have done inspections where someone asked to have the pilot light lit at an ancient furnace. If that is going to be done, then it is not going to be done by me. I limit my lighting gas appliances to my own barbecue and, on one rare occasion, a fellow claimed that after I looked at his gas fireplace the pilot went out. No clue why, but I did (with great difficulty) finally get the dumb thing to start again.
In the case of furnaces, … (7 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Electric Safety and GFCI's -- The Basics
- 06/04/11 03:33 AM
In the State of Washington, regardless of the age of the house, an inspector must recommend that the clients upgrade to GFCI protected receptacles in those areas where they are, today, standard. The state standards of practice dictate that recommendation. Any argument that codes are not retroactive, so GFCI's are not necessary in an older house, fly out the window on this one. The law does not support that position.
GFCI receptacles should be installed in many locations, a few of the most common ones are -- kitchen countertops, near laundry or wetbar sinks, outdoors, in garages, in bathrooms, in unfinished basements.
… (3 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Spring Renewal = Spring Cleanup -- Really!
- 03/20/11 10:11 AM
I have noticed Sally's Spring Renewal Contest and had planned to enter. But I have been really busy between inspections and coordinating the home inspection training course at Bellingham Technical College. Plus, I was having trouble trying to think of a theme.
When you are really busy, morning till bedtime, it is hard to find the time or energy to be creative. Then I realized, this morning, that I do not need to be creative. I can simply rely on being truthful.
Fact is, my spring renewal, and it will make me feel so much better, is going to be removing … (12 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Whatcom County Home Inspector (King of the House) Wide Handrails
- 10/10/10 11:45 AM
It is not a problem at guardrails, but when a handrail at stairs is supposed to be graspable then it needs to be something other than a 2x4 or a 2x6 on its side. Codes have all kinds of specifications that define the term "graspable." With outdoor building, at least around here, we see mainly flat handrails at outside decks and stairs.
More often than not the handrail is a 2x4, but I have seen 2x6's and 2x8's. None of those rails are graspable. A guidelines is that flat material needs to be no wider than 2 5/8". The rail below … (4 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Welcome to the United States: The View From Up North
- 08/26/10 04:37 PM
I have lived on the Canadian border for my whole life. I take it for granted that everyone knows all about crossing the border at Canada and the Peace Arch, etc. Fact is, I even run into people from Seattle, or Bellingham for that matter, who have never, or rarely, travel north.
I do many home inspections in Point Roberts, a US enclave that requires going through Canada. When you come back into the US, Canada side, there is quite a cool wooden sign. I realized that probably most people have never seen it. I see it about every week.
Thanks … (10 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Pardon Me, But I Was Slimed
- 06/15/10 05:03 PM
Recently I was in a crawl space where conditions were damp, even damper than usual, for the Pacific Northwest. One thing I have noticed, and I guess it makes good sense, is that our beautiful official state animal -- the garden slug -- is often very visible in wet crawl spaces. Mr or Ms slug might be down on the vapor barrier, or climbing the foundation walls.
The way I look at it, if there are slugs in the crawl space in abundance, then it is too darn wet to begin with.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
… (9 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Mother's Day Flowers
- 05/09/10 04:49 AM
Since it is mother's day, I thought I would go through my travel photos and find a photo of flowers. I have many different shots of flowers from any number of countries. The photo that I came across today is a flower market in Italy. This is the city of Verona -- if the name rings a bell it was the setting for Romeo and Juliet.
The flower market was right there on a public street, in the middle of this bustling city which, by the way, is probably my favorite city of all of those that I have visited … (2 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Those 70's Houses
- 07/23/09 10:00 AM
Whenever I am inspecting a home from the late 1960's to the mid-1970's -- usually 70's houses -- there is one concern I do not want to miss. I pay special attention at the circuit breaker panel.
Do you see what I see? That lower conductor is copper. The upper four are all aluminum. When an inspector sees aluminum wiring, at least in my book, it automatically requires a referral to a licensed electrician. Even if it does not look bad, in visible areas, we have no clue what it might look like at receptacles or inside junction boxes. I … (10 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Ants Are Falling from the Sky
- 06/20/09 02:50 AM
An observant realtor let me in a house the other day. She mentioned that, when she opened the front door, sawdust or shavings would always fall down from wood trim above the door. When I looked up, I saw the odd shape of the holes in the wood. These holes look like carpenter ant "expel" holes. Since carpenter ants tunnel in wood, and do not eat it, they toss out the wood they have excavated.
I did some non-invasive probing in the open holes. In one I found a Dentyne wrapper. Someone was trying to block it off. As I … (5 comments)
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sumas home inspection: The Weirdest of the Weird -- Remembering Spike Jones
- 05/25/09 05:27 AM
Back when I was a kid, a friend of mine and I stumbled on his folk's collection of Spike Jones albums. Spike Jones, if you never heard of him, was one of the craziest performers ever. He was a band leader popular on the radio, on record, on film and live in the 1940's and early 1950's. Jones was reported to be a good musician but Spike Jones and his City Slickers relied more on zany sound effects and antics than on anything that could be called serious musicianship.
Jones records, and filmed appearances, were orchestrated with gunshots, screaming, horns, rude noises, cross-dressers, short … (17 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Stories Behind The Music -- A Man From Tennessee
- 03/02/09 12:58 AM
Play it again Sam. Play Misty for me. These are all ways of saying the same thing -- "Hey Bub, play me a song that I like."
When I was working in broadcasting, and playing those hits, be they rock or country, we always tried to solicit listener requests. Now, if they wanted to hear trash, that request sort of moved to the bottom of the list. But, usually, the listeners wanted to hear a decent song that others would like too. That way, listeners would "influence" but not control your programming.
I had an amusing flashback, to this kind of … (9 comments)
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sumas home inspection: British Invasion, First Wave
- 09/07/08 08:11 AM
The year was 1963. Do you recall those early days of the British Invasion?
I remember those days well, having been in grade school with a bunch of screaming mimi girls. I think that, even though guys liked the rock music, the screaming, sobbing, near wetting one's pants with excitement, was mostly a female phenomenon -- you did not see many guys screaming and sobbing in the crowd.
The British Invasion came in waves. The first wave consisted primarily of the bands I have selected below. They were very pop, female friendly, compared to some of the other rougher, tougher, bluesy … (9 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Mairzy Doats -- Stuck for 40 Years
- 08/23/08 05:18 AM
Super blogger Ardell DellaLoggia recently wrote about songs that end up in our heads and minds. That got me to thinking about the memorable or irritating songs I have heard over the years. Often those things that are most memorable are also the most irritating. Advertising agencies know that, hence all the radio and TV ads we are exposed to that make you want to damage the set.
Now, having worked in radio, I know some pretty weird or annoying novelty tunes and I have blogged on a few of them. Some of those songs on that list include -- They Are Coming … (22 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Property Upgrade Creates Problem
- 08/16/08 02:52 AM
It is always too bad when work that is done with good intentions causes other unexpected problems.
The photos below are the result of an error made by a contractor. I was inside a crawl space the other day. Rest of the home looked fine. I never would have suspected this, but the slab in this crawl space had significant water present. That is not only bad for structural wood but, also, that moisture ends up inside the home. I called for a drainage specialist. This is not sump pump issue, they need to find out what is causing this.
The … (3 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Legally Built -- Unsafe!
- 08/10/08 03:03 AM
This photo is from Whatcom County, Bellingham area, but it could be anywhere USA. There was discussion the other day regarding a deck I inspected that was 24" off the ground and it had no steps and no guardrail. The photo below is a finished deck, that meets code by being under the radar. It was built by a licensed contractor.
It has steps this time but no guardrail. Again, we are in catch 22 land. We all agree that, from a safety standpoint, this deck should have a rail. However, the builder did not want to go to the … (7 comments)
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sumas 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)
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sumas home inspection: My Achin' Gutter
- 06/08/08 11:43 AM
The list of problems an inspector might find with gutters and downspouts goes on, seemingly, forever. A few of the most common problems include: bent, rusted, sloped wrong, cheesy plastic material that leaks, metal gutters or downspouts that leak, assembled wrong, missing gutters, missing elbows, downspouts that dump next to the structure. The photo below is another typical scenario. The gutter is missing the downspout, altogether, hence there is a big hole to let the water dump like a flood onto the structure below.
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham WA Home Inspections
… (4 comments)
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sumas home inspection: Government's Crazy Solutions to Non-Problems
- 05/21/08 08:37 AM
I thought you might get a kick out of the photos below. They are good examples of city government planners trying to figure out a way to solve a problem that does not exist. In my view at least, what they came up with was more amusing and silly than beneficial.
Regarding the Bellingham warehouse below, my then business partner owned it about 15 years ago, when it was first built, so I remember the details well. I had not thought about it in a long time, but drove by the other day and decided it would be good blog fodder. This was … (11 comments)
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Here in Bellingham and Whatcom County, it is common, with composition shingles, to find that some of the self-sealing strips have failed to seal, or melt, properly. When new shingles are put in place, if the weather is warm, the tar strips should seal. That holds the front edges down so they are not so prone to being blown off in the wind. When the inspector finds that most of the shingles easily lift
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