hausdok

Hi, Earlier in this thread someone asked what we charge for this service and someone responded that Russell Ray charges $99 per. I hope that nobody thinks that $99 is a fair price to do something like this; not with the potential liability and reputation-crushing risk they entail. Yeah, yeah, I just posted that we require contracts, etc., to protect inspectors and consumers doing these. That's true, but anyone can sue you for anything and when that happens your reputation takes a hit. I guess RR never heard of the fat guy rule; I've subscribed to it for many years - namely, that a fat guy doesn't even climb into his truck for less than $150. You'd be amazed how many folks call up looking for a walk-n-talk who, when faced with paying $150 for a 5-item walk-n-talk without a report are willing to shell out $400 and upward for a 'real' inspection with a written report. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, If there is one thing that I've learned during the 14 years I'll have been doing this gig tomorrow, it's that there are a fair number of so-called inspectors who will actually look for ways to get around SOP's and rules in order to do less work and make more money. Now, I know we all want to make more and work less, but it shouldn't be at the expense of clients or, more importantly, the expense of the profession. A guy that is churning out walk-n-talks all day without there being specific rules about what one of those is, without a contract, and without a written report to show what he looked at, has the potential to do great harm to the profession, if the client then buys the property and never bothers to get a full inspection and it turns out to be a money pit. Once a buyer has dug that hole for himself, it's my opinion that the buyer is more often than not going to blame everyone except himself; and, when his friends ask, "Well, did you get an inspection?" most loudly he'll blame the inspector. We specifically required a contract here that specifies what people look at during a walk-and-talk and we specifically called it a pre-offer and put language into the rules that says that it can only be done pre-offer and that a written report is not required. We did that so that if an inspector agrees to do a walk-n-talk, and the client later buys the house without calling the inspector back to get a full inspection, the client won't be able to take the inspector to court later claiming that the inspector didn't look at something that was actually outside of what they'd agreed to look at. The rule protects, primarily, the inspector; by ensuring there is no ambiguity about what is or is not going to be inspected during the walk-n-talk. It protects the consumer because it can only be done pre-offer; so at the point where the buyer has plunked down money and is locked in contingent on an inspection, a somewhat slick and less-than-ethical inspector can't slide in, without a contract and without a report, looking at just a few things and then leaving a bunch of stuff not looked at that might end up biting the buyer later. We haven't discussed it here, but it came up during deliberations about these things; what about the full inspection where the client wants you to exclude something - say, a chimney when you can see from the ground that it's about to topple and the client has a chimney guy coming out separately to provide him a written estimate for repair? Couldn't you exclude a bunch of stuff and then not write a report post offer and still get away with it? We closed that door; post offer requires a written report and the contract must specifically state what's going to be looked at and the report must state what items were excluded and why they were excluded. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I agree with Olk too; although I wish he'd had his 5th grade teacher review the letter and make some corrections before he'd sent it. She probably would have slapped his hand with a ruler over his use of Council when he meant Counsel. We struggled with this kind of stuff too when we put together the SOP here. In the end, we addressed it in the sections where it gets encountered instead of trying to do a catch-all. For instance, in our electrical section we state that: The inspector will: (d) Report, if present, solid conductor aluminum branch circuits. Include a statement in the report that solid conductor aluminum wiring may be hazardous and a licensed electrician should inspect the system to ensure it's safe. (e) Verify (iii) Ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection and arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) protection where required. (f) Report the location of any inoperative or missing GFCI and/or AFCI devices when they are recommended by industry standards. (g) Advise clients that homes without ground fault protection should have GFCI devices installed where recommended by industry standards. Bottom line - verify that they are there if they were required when the house was built and if they are missing report it; and, if they are not there and the home predates the requirement to advise the client that it would be a good idea to get them installed. An example might be a 1988 home which has GFCIs present at the exterior, garage, bathroom circuits, but only within six feet of the kitchen sink. The inspector would verify that the existing devices are functioning and would report it as a deficiency if he discovered, for instance, that the GFCI protection for the exterior circuit was missing or wasn't functional; but would only advise the client that he or she should have additional GFCI protection added in the kitchen, so that every receptacle that serves the kitchen counter is protected, as required since 1996 by the industry. Sort of like: Ground fault protection needs correction: The ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) that protects the exterior receptacles is not functioning properly. Have a licensed electrician make repairs as necessary. Ground fault protection recommended: Not all of the kitchen countertop receptacles are protected by GFCI devices. When this home was built, only those receptacles that served the kitchen countertop within six feet of the kitchen sink had to have GFCI protection; however, since 1996 GFCI protection has been required at every receptacle serving the kitchen countertop. Though it's not required, as a safety upgrade it would be prudent to add GFCI protection now to all kitchen countertop receptacles. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, I considered it; but after getting to know the guy who does it locally and seeing how good he is at reading those images that look like nothing to me, I thought better of it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

SEATTLE, April 10 /PRNewswire Carpenter's Tower, LLC, the owner of the 25-story McGuire Apartments in the Belltown area of Seattle, today announced plans to vacate the building at Second Avenue and Wall Street over the next several months due to extensive construction defects which are financially impractical to repair. "While there are no imminent tenant safety issues, the experts involved in the investigation and repair of the building have indicated that there will be structural issues that could present safety issues by 2011 and beyond," said Brian Urback, with Kennedy Associates, the real estate advisor for Carpenter's Tower. "The McGuire is not in imminent danger of a structural failure and the experts have advised that the building be vacated by the end of 2010. Under the circumstances, we are taking steps to vacate the building over the next several months and to help our tenants relocate. Since the necessary repairs are impractical, the decision of the owner is to dismantle the building." The building owner has informed officials at the Seattle Department of Planning and Development (DPD) of the extensive construction defects, which principally involve corrosion of post-tensioned cables and concrete material and reinforcement placement deficiencies. The post-tensioned cables are corroding because the ends of the cables were not properly protected with corrosion preventative paint, and the grout used to seal the cable ends and anchors was not the specified non-shrink grout and was defectively installed. As a result, water leaked into these areas and caused the cable ends to rust, and then corrode. In addition, reinforcement placement in the building's exterior frame is defective, resulting in cracking and spalling of concrete, as well as structural impairment. DPD has written a letter indicating it will issue an order later this year finding the building no longer safe to occupy and requiring the owner to "correct the unsafe conditions or vacate the building by December 31, 2010, or earlier." The letter also indicates that the city is "requiring that the owner monitor the building condition and periodically submit inspection reports to DPD." "We are providing an incentive package to help our tenants relocate much faster than the end of the year," Urback said. "We recognize that this is a major inconvenience so we are trying to make it as easy as possible under difficult circumstances. We are providing what we think are generous financial incentives if they move quickly. We are paying moving expenses. And we are having our building staff help them find new apartments." Carpenter's Tower is owned by Carpenters Union, Local 131, and by MEPT, the Multi-Employer Property Trust. Construction of the McGuire was completed in 2001. There are 272 residential apartments and four street-level retail spaces in the building. Carpenter's Tower has filed suit against the general contractor responsible for the construction of the building and against the building's architects. SOURCE Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel, LP TIJ thanks Nolan Kienitz of Nolan's Inspections, LLC, Plano, TX for pointing us to this article.

Nope OT - OF!!! M.

The Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors (EBPHI) seeks three home inspectors to serve the profession as members of the Board of Directors for a two-year term beginning January 24, 2011. The deadline for applications is May 15, 2010. The application form is available at www.homeinspectionexam.org or by email request to info@homeinspectionexam.org. The Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors� (EBPHI) is an independent not-for-profit organization whose mission is to establish the standard of competence for home inspectors and to enhance consumer confidence in home inspection professionals. EBPHI, founded in 1999, maintains and administers the National Home Inspector Examination (NHIE), a content-valid examination for use by regulatory bodies in assessing competency for regulatory purposes. Requirements EBPHI is governed by a board of directors whose members represent home inspectors and the home buying public. Directors are expected to: At all times advocate and promote use of the National Home Inspector Examination in regulatory processes in their own states, in other states and in federal regulation as needed. Promptly and thoughtfully respond to issues and concerns brought before the Board at any time. Diligently strive to educate themselves on the science of psychometrics (test development), to ensure that the National Home Inspector Examination remains credible, valid, reliable and defensible. Participate in two in-person meetings each year and in conference call meetings as needed. Be available to present information about EBPHI and the NHIE to legislators, regulators, home inspectors and others to enhance acceptance of the examination. Eligibility criteriaIn accordance with EBPHI's Bylaws and policies, home inspectors who wish to serve on the EBPHI Board must: 1. Have passed the National Home Inspector Examination. 2. Currently be an active, fee-paid home inspector and have been so for the past five years. 3. Not engage in home inspector training, education or publication of training materials during their tenure, nor for a period of six months after leaving the Board. Exceptions may be granted by the Board of Directors. 4. Demonstrate leadership qualities and experience within the home inspection profession. 5. May not participate on any governing body of a national home inspector association while a member of the Board of Directors. 6. Maintain absolute confidentiality in all matters pertaining to EBPHI. 7. Be available and commit to participate in at least three-fourths of duly called board meetings. 8. Possess education and/or training relevant to the home inspection profession and/or examination development. 9. Be willing to submit to a background check of factual information presented in the Application. 10. Submit a complete Board of Directors Application. Application available All interested home inspectors who meet the above criteria are urged to apply. The application form is available for download at www.homeinspectionexam.org ; by email to info@homeinspectionexam.org ; or by calling 847-298-7750.

Click to Enlarge July 1, 2010 is the deadline to meet all licensing requirements to get your home inspector license! Do you have questions about home inspector licensing? The Department of Licensing is hosting four outreach events to answer your questions about: · Licensing requirements · License verification · License renewals · Home inspector website · Real estate referrals · Standards of practice · Home inspector licensing law · Advertising Home inspectors of all experience levels are encouraged to attend including anyone thinking about home inspection as a career! Date: April 19, 2010 Location: Washington State DOT /South Central Region Office, 2809 Rudkin Rd, Yakima WA 98909 Time: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM Date: April 20, 2010 Location: Best Western Kennewick Inn, 4001 W 27th, Kennewick WA 99337 Time: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM Date: April 21, 2010 Location: Washington State DOT/Eastern Region Office, 2714 North Mayfair St., Spokane WA 99207 Time: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM Date: April 22, 2010 Location: Washington State DOT/North Central Region, 1551 North Wenatchee, Wenatchee WA 98807 Time: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM For more information, email DOLINTHomeInspectors@dol.wa.gov or call 360-664-6487. For regular updates regarding home inspector licensing, subscribe to our Home Inspectors Board LISTSERV. ========================================================================================================== OTHER LINKS... DOL Home Inspector Home page: www.dol.wa.gov/business/homeinspectors/ This is written and produced by the Department of Licensing. Please send comments to Rhonda Myers at rmyers@dol.wa.gov.

It's not the Chinese that pay it, it will be Knauf that pays it on behalf of their subsidiary and any other privately owned companies that are producing it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Randy wrote: Pabco has a spec. sheet, that although they don't "prefer" it, they consider it acceptable. Their detail shows laminated shingles and not 3-tab shingles, however Richard wrote: It seems to me that the horizontal gaps between the tabs would encourage water under those shingles and also direct water under the neighboring laminated shingles. I suspect it is only working, so far, because of the felt. Marc wrote: Mike, I never heard of anything like that. 3 tabs aren't a replacement for an underlayment of 60# felt or 3' roll roofing. Which is why you flip the shingle around backward and place the un-nothed side along the valley. In that configuration it's exactly the same as the laminated shingle except smoother and thinner and allows the shingles abutting the valley to lie flatter and gives it a cleaner look. My father taught me the technique somewhere around 1968 or 1969. I don't even think they had laminated architectural-grade shingles back then. Anyway, Certainteed calls it an "alternate closed cut valley" technique in their master shingle applicator manual. They don't show it used with a metal valley but it works just as well with a metal valley as it does with a closed cut valley. No, it's not a substitute for underlayment; I never suggested that one omit the underlayment or anything else. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, They should have flipped those around so that the joint comes every 3ft., nipped off the corners and adhered that cover to the valley on both sides with a 20inch wide band of mastic. OT - OF!!! M.

Yep, Dec 2001. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Here's an approach I took when I was a rookie. It wasn't the approach approved by the headquarters but it worked. Walk into the open house, approach the realtor, introduce yourself by name and tell the agent that you are a home inspector. Hand the agent a card and say to the agent, "I just stopped in to introduce myself. I know that you've probably got inspectors that you regularly refer to your clients and that you don't want to add any more to that list. Nonetheless, I dare you to refer me to just one of your clients. If you do, I bet you'll be replacing someone's name on that list with mine. Well, I've gotta go. Have a nice day." Don't try to hard sell them, don't hang around to talk, don't hand 'em any 3-fold brochures - none of that - just dare 'em and get the hell out of Dodge. If they want to talk, make an excuse to get out of there. You're too new to be able to talk to them yet without falling into one of their well worded traps designed to find out whether you're a deal killer or a soft soap artist. Leave 'em guessing. Some will toss your card, some will keep it and not call you for a long, long time, some will be intrigued and refer you right away. When you get that referral, ignore the body language and wording they use to try to influence what you are saying and just do the best you can for the client. If the agent is ethical and honest and isn't looking for a soft soap artist, you'll see future referrals without the need to constantly drop off gifts at the office - you truly will be on the list. If the agent is a realtorzoid that expects you to kow-tow and be a toady, as soon as the agent realizes you aren't going to be the soft-soap artist that was expected, your card will go in the round file and you won't hear from that agent ever again - unless he or she happens to be the listing agent on a job that you do and someday tries to take issue with your report, or if the agent someday needs an inspection on his/her own home and was in fact impressed with the way that you did the inspection but didn't want you anywhere near his/her clients. You can spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours just to garner one or two referrals using conventional suck-up marketing practices; or you can not waste a lot of time and money and get your name - and the challenge - out there, leave them guessing and get the work from the curious ones. You won't get a lot of repeat referrals - in fact most will be pissed at you for not paying attention to "the code" but you'll get enough work to to put food on the table until you become more established and your clients spread the word about you to their relatives, co-workers and friends. Understand that you are going to have to be duplicitous; the majority of them when hearing your challenge need to get the impression from you that you're the soft soap artist they're looking for so that they'll refer you. Once you hook up with that client though, you need to be exactly the opposite. The agent will be pissed that you didn't turn out to be what he/she expected but you will have gotten the work. The ethical agents will be relieved that when they took a chance on you that you didn't turn out to be another toady that wastes their time trying to attach his lips to their bottoms. Finding those agents that don't want a soft soap artist is like looking for a 4-leaf clover; in order to find more than just one or two, you need to press that card into the hand of many many more than you'd ever meet doing conventional marketing. Use a map and the Sunday paper to map out a route to open houses and skip those of the agents you've already issued the challenge to so you wont' waste time. Run the route and then if you still have time run a secondary route. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, He's talking about a Viega copper pipe system where the fittings come with a rubber seal preinstalled and when the pipe is assembled a pneumatic press tool is used to crimp the fittings to the pipe. No soldering involved. Go here. The system can be used for potable, radiant or gas and they even have a stainless steel system. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Kewl!

I've seen them used for both potable water plumbing and for hydronic heating systems. Very nice. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

John, Have we violated someone's copyright by cutting and pasting that? If so, please substitute a link to the text. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's a question for you folks down in Portland who might see these old Wesco furnaces. Had one yesterday that looks like it's WWII vintage coal/clinker burner. I'ts been converted to burn oil. Model 22-24 Serial 18401 Any ideas? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hee, hee, Reminds me of when I lost the end of one side of my needle-nose pliars. I was trying to pull some NM cable up into the panel a little more and didn't realize that I hadn't turned off the breaker. Anyway, I levered the head of the pliars on the housing and just about had it up into position when the jaws must have cut through the insulation because I was suddenly inundated with sparks and later thankful I'd been wearing glasses. It was only a 15-amp circuit but the last half inch of one side of the jaws on my needle-nosed pliars was completely gone and there was a nice deep arc groove in one side of the head. No drawer change. My reflexes are akin to a galapogos tortoise's. It was all over before I even realized what had happened. Lesson learned - the insulation on that stuff is not nearly as tough as it looks. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Rocon, your first response made it sound like you wanted mastic applied and wanted to see some UV protection. After your second post, it sounds like you disapprove of applying mastic to PVC but also want to see the PVC protected from UV - have I got that correct? If so, I agree that using a petroleum-based mastic on PVC is probably going to dink it up but I'm not entirely convinced that UV is going to damage it to the extent where it's "brittle" as you've stated. I inspected a 10-year old PVC roof the other day that's not coated with any inhibitors of any kind and it seems to be able to handle the UV just fine. What standard are you using? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

April 2, 2010 In a March 22nd letter to the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC), the Building Officials Association of Texas (BOAT) has asked TREC to repeal certain portions of the Texas standard of practice used by home inspectors. The letter written by Jim Olk, past president of BOAT, states, "The main emphasis of our concern stems from the TREC’s SOPs requiring a real estate inspector report that certain items in an existing building are “deficientâ€

Rheem says a few quarts every month. I don't tell folks to completely drain them. I just tell them to run off about 5 gallons (approx 20 liters) into a bucket once a year. It's always worked well for me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sound attenuation? OT - OF!!! M.

I've always recommended draining the muck out annually and replacing the anode rod somewhere withing 5 to 7 years into the life of the tank. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, As long as the builder installs the thing according to its listing and labeling it should not be an issue. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike