homnspector

"Probably, but it woudn't be a profitable market. " Hah, that's what they told Gary Dahl.

I always call it out. I saw one in a new construction recently that had gypsum board attached and a barrel bolt to secure it up, otherwise it would sag from the frame as Jim said. Seemed like a good solution. The real question is, why are they manufacturing these like they are? Is there a market for a code-compliant panel?

Thats what I thought, thanks Jim. Time to get another electrician PO'd at me! "did the number and placement of breakers match the schematic? " Yikes, I didn't look at that!

ENJOY IT! (It won't last). I'm serious, try to forget the money woes and spend time doing things you like to do. Spend time with the kids / family, go fishing, read a book. Forget about work, forget the web site. Do the things you wish you had time for when you were really busy. To paraphrase, you aren't going to be lying on your deathbed wishing you had been able to do a few more inspections. I'm seeing a turnaround here (I think it is getting busier). I will give odds that a year from now we are all bitching about how busy we are.

What do you think of this new panel on an old house? The knockout in the upper back of the cabinet was enlarged with a hole saw, is this a fire hazard? No bushing is installed on the lower knockout. Neutrals and grounding conductors are doubled under the lugs. Let me know what else you see (overfilling at the knockout?). Mainly, I need to know how big a deal is the enlarging of the knockout? Image Insert: 61.04 KB Image Insert: 249.13 KB Image Insert: 247.36 KB Image Insert: 249.95 KB

Somebody's got to do that research for us. What the hell is "entasis"? Guess I'll have to look that up in my Merriam's when I have time. It's funny, it seems like we spend the first 10 years trying to do a perfect inspection and the next 10 trying to write a perfect report. I'm still winding up the first 10.

"I spent three hours on this between 4am and 7 am this morning." Wow, and I thought I needed a life. [:-boring]

Main Entry: dis·pos·al Pronunciation: di-'spO-z&l Function: noun 1 : the power or authority to dispose or make use of as one chooses 2 : the act or process of disposing : as a : orderly placement or distribution b : REGULATION, ADMINISTRATION c : the act or action of presenting or bestowing something d : systematic destruction; especially : destruction or transformation of garbage 3 [garbage disposal unit] : a device used to reduce waste matter (as by grinding) I like mechanical pig better.

I don't run into many metal roofs. Is there supposed to be flashing between the roof jacks and metal roofing, that is, secondary flashing above the metal roof? These have a roof jack attached to the roof sheeting and a hole cut in the metal for the vent. The roofing is sealed to the roof jack with silicone. It looks wrong to me as it is not possible to cut that accurately so quite a bit of sealant is needed to fill the gap. Image Insert: 67.24 KB

I knew a guy around here who claimed 7000, seems he had been in the pest business for years and was counting WDO inspections. He is not in business anymore.

I ditched it because a large portion of my software doesn't work on Vista. I am not ready to upgrade Adobe Acrobat, Macromedia Contribute and a few others that are expensive to replace.

I don't see how somebody can own a word that is part of the english language. "The garbage company requires plastic bags for the proper disposal of garbage." How can they claim that word?

The most corroded gas pipe I have seen was the plastic coated type. Water was getting in at the cut end and about 2 feet of pipe was nothing but rust, you could crush it with your hand. Sometimes I wonder if the coating does more harm than good. It definitely makes the deterioration harder to spot.

I do believe that it must be sleeved where it passes through a wall, at least in my jurisdiction (hardly ever is though). I routinely call for leak testing on older gas piping. Anybody else do this or an I paranoid?

I had a girlfriend once who was "aesthetically deficient".

Here it is on Google Earth. Darn, it's not built yet, I guess that won't work. Image Insert: 60.77 KB[/size=1

Walter, there's nothing wrong with that, I just never felt it was fair to the client when I was perfectly capable of walking on the roof without hurting anything. Now I may have to re-think that. It seems like with all the technology available, there must be some way to document the journey up the roof that leaves no doubt that the damage was there already. Something like you suggested about showing pictures to the client from the roof edge before venturing up, but it would be nice to be able to do it alone.

I like to use the term "aesthetic defect". "Cosmetic" has gotten to be such a Realtor term. On new homes, I always report on the more obvious but tell the client I don't report on minor paint dings and such and they should look for and list those on their own. I then include them in the report as "The client is concerned about paint touch up needed at x, y and z. You could literally spend all day looking for things like that in new construction and still miss a few.

"The closest I got to that kind of tile was 50- 80-year-old asbestos/cement tile. That stuff's brittle." It's not even close to as fragile as cement-asbestos. I did make the mistake of walking on one of those several years ago, that ended up being a free inspection after paying the roofer.

For those that haven't walked a flat tile roof, the tiles are really pretty strong, they are about 3/4 inch thick concrete. Yes, they will break if you step in the center or if they are lifted up by another tile. Here is a portion of the e-mail I sent the agent today. I don't know if this falls in the "polite" category but is hopefully not too inflammatory. "There is nothing prohibiting anybody but a licensed roofer walking a roof. If so, most roof laborers would be out of work. Permission to access the roof is implied when the seller agrees to a home inspection. I walk on tile roofs (with the exception of clay tile) a few times a week and can only remember 1 time I have cracked a tile and it was not on this home. I have the photos which clearly show that these cracks and breaks are not new. Chris was on the ground watching me walk the roof. In fact, as soon as I got up the ladder I called down to him that I was seeing a lot of broken tile. I don't know how many of the broken tile would be visible without walking on the roof, probably not many. I will not be paying for replacing any broken tile. I counted about 30 broken tile. It seems the seller or builder is claiming that as I walked I broke the tile. Rather than getting off the roof, I continued to walk and break more and more tile. Not only that, but I took pictures of all the tile I broke! I weigh about 140 lbs, so walking on the roof was not adequate, I actually had to jump up and down, stomp, etc. to break the tile. Does this make sense to you? Oh, and I almost forgot, I would also have to have absolutely no integrity." Comments are welcome (yes Walter, I think there may be a dangling participle or two), thanks for the feedback so far.

"Also, once I got to the top of the ladder (or any other place where I could see the broken tiles), I would've taken pictures of the broken tiles, climbed down the ladder, and shown the pictures to the customers and other interested parties." Good advice, I'll try that next time or on groundhog day.... "Somewhat off-topic, but if I were the owner of the house, I wouldn't let anybody walk on my concrete tiles anyhow. It's asking for trouble." Problem with that approach is you will see what the last inspector saw; nothing.

"I said to hell with it. If I need to do something, I'll do it on my own. To hell with the state," said Allan Schwartz of New Port Richey Hey, now there's a novel approach.

"Be polite, smile" "I would be polite" Not my first instinct but good advice.

I was forwarded a sellers response today that blames me for broken roof tiles. It was a new house, but with lots of little problems. I didn't expect any major problems on the roof. When I first stepped from the ladder I could see several broken tiles. I shouted down to the buyer and agent, "man, there are a lot of broken tiles" and proceeded to inspect the roof, I counted about 30. Seems the seller had a previous inspection that didn't mention any broken tiles who had "viewed the roof from a ladder". These are concrete tiles, I weigh about 140 and can run up and down a tile roof without breaking tile. They spoke to the roofer and apparently are working up a bill for the broken tiles, no doubt to be presented to me. I have several photos but don't know if that will help. Funny thing is I said to the buyer and agent after getting off the roof, "you are my witnesses that I didn't break any tile in case they were not reported on the last inspection". I had a feeling that the last inspection was pretty poor based on the obvious items that hadn't been repaired. Also, the roofer said I had no business being on the roof unless I am a licensed roofer. I wonder how many of his workers are licensed roofers? Is permission to access the roof implied when the seller agrees to an inspection? How would you handle this? Image Insert: 181.23 KB

Surprised nobody mentioned the doorbell transformer in the left cabinet.