pleasanton: Duct Concerns
- 04/23/12 02:17 AM
The photo shows both a larger heating/cooling duct and a disconnected dryer lint duct... Can you spot the concerns?During the inspection, it was noted that the soil was very moist.. That the large duct is not supported off the ground... And is in contact with the moist ground.There can be moisture and rodent intrusion, that could lead to health issues.Flexible clothes dryer lint ducts are not permitted for use in a crawlspace and are prone to lint buildup. The open lint duct discharges warm, moist air into the crawlspace making the wood framing susceptible to fungus growth...Lint accumulation under a … (2 comments)
pleasanton: Not White Paint
- 03/28/12 12:52 AM
Not White Paint At first glance, the home inspector thought the bottom of the subfloor had been painted white.Upon closer inspection, the inspector concluded it was a bio-growth. An inspector (unless they’re a certified industrial hygienist) shouldn’t say ‘mold’, as doing so makes them the expert in a court of law.If there’s a bio-growth growing on crawlspace surfaces, there’s a good chance there are issues with inadequate or poor ventilation; leaking toilets, negative grade; no drainage system; downspouts discharging next to the foundation; over-irrigation; leaking water supply or drain pipes; swimming pool leaks; high water table all of which can contribute … (2 comments)
pleasanton: Walking on Water
- 03/27/12 11:08 AM
It’s not everyday that home inspectors can say they walked on water. The photo is a buckled wood floor. Buckling is when wood flooring swells and lifts off of the sub-floor surface.Severe buckling is usually the result of excessive water flooding a wood floor... for example, an overflowing bathtub or toilet; or a water supply pipe break.It this case, the source of water was a garden hose.In the current real estate market, there are foreclosures, short sales, and abandoned houses. Sometimes, disgruntled homeowners damage their house before the bank takes it over.The rear sliding door was opened, a garden hose was … (1 comments)
pleasanton: Telltale Signs
- 02/17/12 12:29 PM
A good property inspector is always on the lookout for telltale signs. A door that rubs its frame… Exposed electrical wires… Loose handrails… Missing smoke detectors, etc. High water marks under a house; usually gets people’s attention. In the photo, the bottom of a heating/cooling duct in the crawlspace is rusted in a straight line… A telltale sign that the duct sat in water approximately 6-8” deep. This isn’t good. Who knows what grows inside a duct when water intrudes. Can’t be healthy. High water marks or silt marks can occur when:-There are no installed roof gutters-Downspouts discharge water next to … (4 comments)
pleasanton: What Happened?
- 01/20/12 03:03 PM
The crawlspace... You know it as the dark, creepy place under the house, filled with spiders and other critters. For the plumber, the electrician and the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) contractors... It's the shallow unfinished space beneath the first floor to provide access to the plumbing, wiring and heating/cooling ducts.Home inspectors ‘love’ crawl spaces, which is why they save crawling under the house usually as their last inspection step. Put a group of seasoned home inspectors together and ask them what they've seen in crawlspaces. They'll tell you they've seen it all. The shoes...What happened? Do they belong … (5 comments)
pleasanton: What's This?
- 01/16/12 06:00 AM
This flexible natural gas connector line is installed through the sheetmetal side panel of a heating furnace... A standard practice in the past.Passing through the center of a sheetmetal cutout isn't so much of a concern, but when the flexible connector is tight up against the edge of the sheetmetal... This is cause for action."What's the problem with this?" you may ask.When you turn on your central heating forced air furnace, a large blower motor turns on to move the warm air throughout your house. As the the blower motor bearings wear... mechanical vibrations occur.The sheetmetal edge is thin and 'sharp'. … (1 comments)
pleasanton: How Many Wires Can be Stuffed....
- 01/12/12 02:16 PM
Apparently, a lot of wires can be stuffed into an electrical junction box... However, this installation doesn't meet the National Electrical Code requirements. You could say, the more the merrier... But not in this situation. Too many wires stuffed into a box can cause dangerous overheating, short-circuiting and fire. The NEC specifies minimum electrical junction box sizes to reduce this risk. What I'm talking about is 'box fill'. Electrical junction boxes all have a certain volume that the wires can occupy. This junction box appears to be a 30 cubic inch volume size. My recommendation was to recommend further review by a licensed … (4 comments)
pleasanton: Venting Hot Air?
- 01/05/12 01:53 PM
Hardly... This partially disconnected water heater exhaust flue is discharging unwanted exhaust gases (including carbon monoxide) into the garage as shown in this photo. In this Walnut Creek house, there was a bedroom above the garage ceiling... not good, if exhaust gases accumulate and there's a breach (gap, hole) in the ceiling. A requirement of a properly installed water heater exhaust flue is that the beginning of the exhaust duct sections be mechanically secured with three sheetmetal screws to the water heater (putty color) draft hood. In the event of an earthquake or the exhaust flue is accidently bumped, … (4 comments)
pleasanton: An Indicator
- 01/05/12 01:32 PM
What are silt marks? Silt marks occur when water rises and then slowly recedes leaving dirt and small debris that was mixed in or floating on the water clinging to the sides of vertical surfaces. Silt marks observed along house foundations, support piers, drain pipes, and/or heating/cooling ducts is a result of rising water that has accumulated in residential crawl spaces and basements. Wet basements and crawl spaces are sources of high humidity, which can produce surface condensation, mildew and fungi, musty odors, rust metal, and can become unhealthy. Excessive moisture can cause deterioration of floor joists, beams, subflooring, insulation, electrical-mechanical systems … (2 comments)
pleasanton: Amazing Tenacious Termites
- 01/04/12 04:53 PM
Happy new year! Termites have lived longer than the dinosaurs and continue to eat their way through all the wood they can find. Termites are 24/7 bugs, which means they eat non-stop - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have hard, saw-toothed jaws that help them to eat lumber, wallpaper, plastics and fabric make of plant fibers. These pests cause up to $2 billion of damages per year. Termite Fact: The total weight of all of the termites in the world is greater than the weight of all the humans in the world... Believe it or not... (don't … (3 comments)
pleasanton: Seeing Double
- 12/19/11 03:10 PM
Double-wiring, also known as “double-lugging,” is a condition where there's two wires under one lug screw on a circuit breaker in an electrical panel. The photo shows there are three instances of double-lugging in this electrical panel. Double-tapping typically occurs when a non-professional is adding an additional electrical circuit... and a new circuit breaker wasn't purchased or there's no room in the electrical panel for another circuit breaker. Why is double wiring/lugging a problem? A little technical talk now... If a wire becomes loose, it can arc. As it arcs, there is a buildup of carbon. Carbon creates resistance making it more … (6 comments)
pleasanton: Duct Tape on Ducts
- 12/17/11 01:53 PM
A partially disconnected duct was discovered in a very moist crawlspace under a 30 year old San Ramon, CA house. The non-professional installation was evidenced by the amount of grey duct tape used and the absence of support straps. Grey duct tape was never intended for heating and cooling ducts (see previous blog on duct tape). With heated air flowing through the ducts, the adhesive on grey duct tape softens and loses its 'grip' on the steel air duct. A disconnected duct wastes a lot of energy and affects the heating and cooling performance in the room where the duct … (2 comments)
pleasanton: Duct Tape Band-Aid
- 12/14/11 02:47 AM
As a home inspector at Pacific Coast Inspections, I encounter grey duct tape being used all the time - mainly on heating and cooling ducts - which turns out to be a non-compliant use of the tape. It's probably true, that duct tape has a 1001 uses. There's even a book about duct tape that you can buy this year at Amazon.com called... you guessed it... the Duct Tape book. In the photo, I spotted a single rust-streak on the duct tape on a water supply pipe above the 2005 model water heater. The tape above the streak was peeled away … (1 comments)
That U shaped piece of pipe under your sink is called a P-trap. The purpose is to create a water seal and keep sewer gas from entering the household. A requirement of a properly installed P-trap is that it has a water seal of not less than 2 inches and not more than 4 inches (between the two horizontal red lines)... the P-trap depth in the photo is about 12". Over time the P-trap will become plugged with anything that is washed down the kitchen sink. Eventually, the sink will begin to drain slowly, as there's not enough … (2 comments)
Learn about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos Home inspectors routinely encounter asbestos materials installed in older houses. What is asbestos? It’s a mineral fiber. It can be positively identified only with a special type of microscope. In the past, asbestos was added to a variety of products to strengthen them and to provide heat insulation and fire resistance. The photo shows a floor register ‘duct transition boot’ wrapped in an asbestos-like material. Is this a problem? The following information was taken from the EPA publication: Asbestos in Your Home… http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/index.html When asbestos-containing materials (older acoustic ceiling tiles, some popcorn ceilings, linoleum floor tiles, … (2 comments)
pleasanton: Disconnected
- 11/11/11 01:57 PM
Disconnect… to terminate a connection. Ask any home inspector, disconnected heating and cooling ducts in the attics are a common occurrence. Why? Because standard gray duct tape was used… It says ‘duct tape’ right on the label… It must be the right tape for ducts. Right? Wrong! During World War II, before it was called duct tape, the U.S. military bought a cloth-backed, rubber-adhesive tape for making emergency repairs on the battlefield. Sometime after WWII, heating and cooling contractors begin to use the tape to seal the joints in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) ducts. This tape … (4 comments)
pleasanton: Drain/Waste Line Woes
- 10/29/11 03:27 AM
Water weighs approximately 8 lbs per gallon.... In a large household, it's conceivable to flush a toilet, take a shower, run water in a sink, and have both the washing machine and dishwasher discharging water at the same time... a lot of water weight flowing through a drain/waste pipeline. With these older plastic support straps shown in the photo, which fail in about 5 years... Or possibly an earthquake occurred at the time water was flowing through the drain line... The drain/waste line came down. Whatever the cause, ABS pipe requires support every 4 feet using approved straps. No wire or … (1 comments)
pleasanton: Not a Tap Dance Step
- 10/24/11 08:41 AM
There’s a term used when two electrical wires are connected to a single circuit breaker lug called ‘double-tapping’.
For most home inspectors, double-tapping or double lugging is one of the top observations found in electrical panels.
In the photo, there are 4 pairs of double-tapped electrical wire.
What’s the problem? It’s not allowed. Only 1 wire should be connected to any single circuit breaker lug, Double-tapping can cause one or both wires to have poor contact and/or cause circuit overloading.
What’s the correction? Contact a licensed electrician. The electrician’s options for repair include ‘pig-tailing’ the … (1 comments)
pleasanton: Photo Worth 1000 Words
- 10/10/11 04:28 AM
Sometimes the home inspector discovers more than one condition requiring attention from a single photo. A 10" floor beam supporting a 1986 Danville, CA house subfloor had been over- notched to accommodate a drain pipe from an addition... Not to mention that the cut end of the beam wasn’t supported with an added post and pier. This can affect the condition of the floor above… such as a sagging floor, a floor that deflects when walked on, cracks may develop in a tiled floor, or cause a door to rub its frame. The 4” ABS plastic drain/waste line didn’t … (0 comments)
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