hausdok

Sure, and I wear Gucci loafers for my muddy muddy crawlspaces and my work vehicle is a Rolls. OT - OF!!! M.

Okay, Disregard the previous. I went to the code (IRC 2003) and found this: Now, this is the gas appliance section of the code. I suppose there might be something elsewhere in an HVAC section that talks about where to locate the AC unit that prohibits that, but I don't have time to search for it right now. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Well, I found this after a short search. I'd search that chapter for more details. G2439.5 (614.6) Clothes dryer ducts. Exhaust ducts for domestic clothes dryers shall be constructed of metal and shall have a smooth interior finish. The exhaust duct shall be a minimum nominal size of 4 inches (102 mm) in diameter. The entire exhaust system shall be supported and secured in place. The male end of the duct at overlapped duct joints shall extend in the direction of airflow. Clothes dryer transition ducts used to connect the appliance to the exhaust duct system shall be metal and limited to a single length not to exceed 8 feet (2438 mm) in length and shall be listed and labeled for the application. Transition ducts shall not be concealed within construction. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Chris, Yes, that's one way to do it, but it means you have to keep detailed notes on file with every file copy of the report and you have to be consistent about it. For instance, investigative reports only show what the investigator needs to present to the public, but behind the scene there is always a chronological log kept that details every single step of the investigation. That isn't seen by anyone unless it needs to be used at trial. The same goes for the investigator's personal notes. If one is reporting and keeping records that way, one has to also be careful not to adulterate those notes with stuff that's not supposed to be there. For instance, a favorite tactic of defense lawyers is to ask an investigator how he can be so certain of some of the things he saw, heard, or did during an investigation, when what's on file, including the log, is on file back at the office and he might have been distracted by another case before returning to the office. Almost invariably, the investigator's answer will be that he immediately noted it in his notebook, whereupon the defense lawyer will get the judge to compel the investigator to turn over his notebook for examination. If the investigator has notes in there which can hurt his case, such as a handwritten blurb to himself that says, "Jones probably didn't do this - no reasonable motive," and Jones is the one on trial, they can sometimes get the case tossed on the basis that there was no probably cause to even suspect the subject, in which case any warrants would have been gotten under false pretense and all evidence gathered becomes fruit of the poisonous tree. Smart investigators will take a fresh notebook with them for every case. Today, I imagine they probably plug their notes and hand sketches into a PDA that's linked to a computer somewhere, so that they have real-time notes of what they're doing, seeing, and hearing. They probably also have to be careful about how they archive that info and where. Now, what we do isn't that far away from a criminal investigation. We carefully examine a site for things that are irregular, incorrect, or just aren't supposed to be there, and we note them. In this case, instead of explaining what we're seeing to the DA, we're explaining it to the potential homeowner. Instead of a defense lawyer trying to discredit our notes and throw up obstacles to what we're trying to accomplish, it's a 'zoid, a seller, or an obstinate contractor. If you train yourself to automatically record relevant information about the home without thinking twice about it; and then you carefully record that information and archive it, you'll be able later, even years later, to pull the file, read it, and describe that home in detail to anyone who's challenging your report - whether it be the buyer, because he is accusing you of having screwed up and missed something; whether it be the seller, because he's trying to lay blame on you; whether it be a 'zoid who's trying to lay the blame on you, etc.. Also, it's not always to defend yourself. I often get calls from old clients saying, "Hey Mike, this is _____. Remember me, I had that home on ____street that you inspected for me 6 years ago. I've got a question about that water heater issue....." If you've written your report carefully, you can pull that report, scan just a few pages, and it will key your memory like dropping a DVD into your computer, and you're better able to answer the question. Since we don't have firmly established protocols for how we do this thing that we do, you can do it any way that you want to do it. All I've been trying to make folks understand is that this is serious stuff that can come back to bite us badly years down the road if he don't carefully document what we saw, heard, or did during an investigation of a home. Those pictures that everyone is so fond of? Those are perfect for that if the notes that are keyed to those pictures accurately explain what the picture is meant to depict. I think Kurt's idea of taking pictures with an audio feed is a good modern example of the investigator's personal notebook idea - especially if that data stream can be imprinted with the date and time to prove that it's not been altered. The data can be downloaded to a disk that gets tossed into the file. The customer never has to see it or even know that it's there, but if you ever need it, you'll have it. That will be far superior to handwritten notes because, unlike handwritten notes which a crooked investigator can record incorrectly, knowing that he might one day get asked to show his notes, they will be harder to dispute. The way I see it, you've got two choices; create a detailed report format and inspection protocol that will ensure that you don't miss anything onsite or leave anything out of the report, and record it all in the report, or, create a less-detailed, just-the-facts-ma'am type of report, and keep your handwritten notes, CD's, and anything else in it's own individual file back at the office. Me, since I don't have all of the file archive storage space that I used to when I was an investigator, I put it in my report - mostly because I want to force guys like Chad to stab themselves in the hand with a fork. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I think you'll get a chuckle out of these air force flightline ground controllers letting their hair down a little bit. I gotta wonder whether the poor pilots, confined to that tiny cockpit and strapped in with a pressure suit on were laughing so hard that they had trouble jockeying the aircraft and trying not to wet themselves. While you're there, take a minute to watch Gulf Wars, Episode II.V - Attack of the boredom. I've got to give these kids credit, there's some pretty technically savvy kids out there. Mark Perry, you didn't ever get giddy like this, did you? Click here for the fun. OT - OF!!! M.

Might they test positive for some other illegal substance that's designed to keep them wide awake, alert and on the edge, though? Long races and constant engine noise can have a hypnotic effect, can't they. After all, they are driving at speeds over 200 mph. Maybe some of them think they need an edge. Hmmm? [:-sonar] OT - OF!!! M.

Hmmm, Can't say that's ever been the pattern here. I can think of one message board where it's epidemic, though. Not ragging on you; I've heard everything that you guys have said. We probably should move onto something else, before folks' feelings get hurt. There seem to be too many fragile egos in the home inspection business. [:-eyebrow OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Bob, After half a dozen of my tomes yesterday, did you really think I was going to come around? Remember, you did ask, and when I avoided answering because I didn't want folks to think I was intentionally trying to be mean, you goaded me into saying something. Your's, Kurt's, and Chris's messages haven't been lost on me; I just happen to disagree. The explanation that there are a lot of folks who don't read English in your market doesn't hold water with me. I've already pointed out here that at least half of my clients are from overseas and speak other languages. When I lived in Germany and Korea, I didn't expect folks there to change their way of doing things just to accommodate me. I figured it out. The folks buying these homes have more complicated things than our reports to figure out; mortgages, insurance policies, interest rates, appraisals, etc., and, if I understood one of Kurt's posts correctly, you folks have lawyers that are intimately involved in the purchase transaction in your area, whereas lawyers are not involved in the transaction here unless the buyer goes out and pulls one into it. Last time I looked, lawyers had to know how to read, write, and comprehend English at better than a 6th grade level in this country. We have a dummying down of America going on. I don't like it, and I don't care to contribute to it. I especially don't like the idea that folks in this thing I do are trying to dummy-down what we do with cute colors and pictures. But, to coin one of Walter's phrases, maybe it's just me. OT - OF!!! M.

If Lance Armstrong had believed that, he'd be a domestique today and would be wondering why his team mates wouldn't give him a chance to strut his stuff(IMHO], but I'll leave you to your football discussion and stop messin' with ya. [] OT - OF!!! M.

Exactly the point that I was failing so miserably to make. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Well, in the time it would take me to insert that picture and get the arrow, the circle and the text inserted into the photo, I could have typed: Inoperative cooktop burner: The right front burner on the cooktop is inoperative and needs to be repaired. This cooktop is probably nearly as old as I am, which makes it well beyond the end of its originally expected service life. Electrical devices don't last forever; if one burner is inoperative, it's likely that before long there are liable to be others that don't work. I think the prudent thing to do is to replace the cooktop. Why use a photo for obvious things that don't require a photograph to bring clarity to a statement in the narrative? It's a stove cooktop. How many of them could there be in a house? Even if there were two kitchens it's simple to add the words 'in the basement kitchen' to the comment. If there's an inoperative ceiling fixture in a room do you take a photo of the ceiling fixture and then caption it inoperative ceiling fixture? It seems to me like it's simpler to write: Inoperative fixture: The ceiling fixture in the northeast bedroom doesn't work. I checked it; there's voltage flowing to it and the bulb is fine, so it obviously needs to be repaired or replaced. A 4-word note on my pad and I'm moving onto the next thing. So far, with the exception of the slinky-style dryer duct, which most consumers don't seem to know about, you've shown me pictures of issues that the customer could easily have found without your assistance and where the photo would seem to be nothing but window dressing. Sorry, but that's the way I see it. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kurt, Well, I'm not interested in going to such a large convention and trying to fight all of those crowds. The underlining is mine; I'm kind of interested in this "green certification" program. Seems to me, if they're going to be certifying folks as knowledgeable about green buildings that the ideal people to have trained and certified about the concept should be home inspectors. I'm looking into it. OT - OF!!! M.

Why couldn't you simply say?: Soffit Damage: At __________, the soffit has been damaged near a downspout and needs to be repaired. Why even bother to voice a theory about what's caused it? It's a pretty cut-and-dried issue, don't you think? There's damage; it should be repaired. OT - OF!!! M.

Well, Bob, I was trying to be nice. Sometimes it's better not to say a thing. That's probably why Richard posted what he did. Since you ask, I figured the garish color, tacky clipboard graphic, and confusing crowded page of text over that graphic would make my point for me. Unlike Walter, I didn't bother to proofread it. What's wrong with saying something like: Unsafe accordian-type duct connector: The clothes dryer is being vented with a flexible accordian-type plastic connector from the collar of the appliance to the wall outlet. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been reporting for years that, unless they're cleaned frequently, accordian-type ducts eventually become clogged with lint and will often catch fire. You can learn more about this on the internet at the CPSC website at this link: http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/5022.html To correct this, CPSC recommends replacing the accordian-type connector with a smooth-walled metal connector. Replace the connector now and ensure that you clean the entire dryer duct system at least annually. It's boilerplate so I don't have to retype it every time or insert and position a photo for it, it doesn't take up a whole page and, though a picture of the duct might help the to visualize it better, it's easily understood without a photograph. OT - OF!!! M.

John, I don't "live in fear" and never have, and I don't spend my time writing reports the way I do "for the sole purpose of not getting sued by some dipstick." I do it because I think it's the right way to do things. I know that if I take my time, do the job right, and carefully document what I did, that I'll have very happy and satisfied clients and will never have to worry about them trying to sue me. To me, that's time well spent and is just as "productive" as anything else I do. Sure, there's going to be the odd "dipstick" that wants something for nothing, but I'm not losing sleep over them. I'm not saying that you, Chris, or Kurt shouldn't be using pictures; only that it's important to produce a report that's as accurate as possible and which will help you in the future to describe everything about the day in question accurately, should the need ever arise. I just don't see how a report heavy on pictures but light on an accompanying explanation of events can convey that as accurately and forcefully as the written word. In fact, I don't think it can. If it could, there wouldn't be a market for books and we'd be talking to each other instead of sitting here writing our answers to each other. I dunno, maybe it's my time in the military that has given me this mindset, but I don't sit here typing a report and then look at a sentence and ask myself, "Now, how can I word this not to get sued," I just write it as I'd say it if I were talking to my wife, brother, or mother, without giving the liability thing a thought. I do re-read my reports and rephrase them occasionally, though; when I think I've written something too weakly that won't accurately and honestly depict and describe the circumstances and the seriousness of an issue as forcefully as I want it to, while ensuring that, if I need to, I'll be able to recall that job almost perfectly years later. As far as pissed-off sellers - I couldn't give a rats ass about sellers who are pissed at me and want to sue me. They come with the territory and are mostly just blowing off steam. The only one who's ever gone past threatening me by telephone was easily handled practically overnight with a letter from a SPL. We can still automate and use the internet, but we have to realize that this is serious stuff that we do and doing serious stuff requires very careful and thorough documentation. Take pictures if you want to - just ensure that you include the detail necessary to ensure that you won't forget the circumstances of the job later on. That's all that I'm saying. You can do it differently if you want to; that's your business, not mine - I'm just offering up my point of view. I don't expect everyone to agree with my point of view any more than you expect everyone to agree with yours. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

If anyone is interested, FHB's Fine Workshop DVD's on home construction are on sale right now at 20% off. Just click here to be taken to the Taunton bookstore. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Here're a few quotes I found doing a 5-minute search of the archives. One is clearly from 2000. I don't know when the others are, but I doubt that they've gone backward since then. 2000 Mechanical Code: 501.3 Outdoor discharge. "The air removed by every mechanical exhaust system shall be discharged outdoors at a point where it will not cause a nuisance and from which it cannot again be readily drawn in by a ventilating system. Air shall not be exhausted into an attic or crawl space." SECTION M1502 RANGE HOODS M1502.1 General. Range hoods shall discharge to the outdoors through a single–wall duct. The duct serving the hood shall have a smooth interior surface, shall be air tight and shall be equipped with a backdraft damper. Ducts serving range hoods shall not terminate in an attic or crawl space or areas inside the building. IRC M1501.1 Outdoor discharge. the air removed by every mechanical exhaust system shall be discharged to the outdoors. Air shall not be exhausted into an attic, soffit, ridge vent or crawl space. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Isn't that the purpose of a roof? I was referring of course to the fact that I don't particularly care if it (this flashing method) won't leak, because I don't consider it to be a legitimate method of flashing a roof. If I ever encounter it, I'll write it up - unless, of course, you can show me something from NRCA or ARMA endorsing it. Oh yeah, then there's that devilish little detail of being required to secure that shingle near the end - which is required by the manufacturer - how do you expect a roofer to accomplish that using this method? It's obvious we aren't going to agree on this one so we might as well agree to disagree. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Chris, Well, I'd venture to guess that my clientel are split 50/50 between Americans who read and write English and those who are from other countries - many of whom can't understand a lot of English. My own wife, bless her heart, has a very limited command of the English language, so I'm accustomed to explaining things to people who I know might not be able to comprehend everything that I'm telling them. Not that not being American means that Americans understand any better - a lot of the techie clients that I get have never even touched a hammer or screwdriver let alone tried to fix something, so it comes down to how you present to the client. I've spent hours on the phone with out-of-town English and non-English-speaking clients, walking them through the reports and explaining things to them so that they'll have a good understanding of every issue in the report. I think that just comes with the territory. I don't. When they call me and want to know what kind of an inspection they're going to get, I tell 'em. I tell them that I prefer that they be at the inspection and that they should be prepared to do a walk-and-talk, so I can be sure that they'll fully understand every issue. I tell them to expect to be there not less than 3-1/2 hours and possibly as long as 5 hours. I tell them that if that's not what they're looking for they should contact another inspector. I tell them that they should also explain that all to their reeltor, because I won't speed things up to make it more convenient for the reeltor. Most say that's why they called me - some say they can't find the time or that's not what they're looking for and I recommend they look elsewhere, because getting it right is every bit as important to my own financial well being as theirs and I won't be rushed. Of course I don't make them go up on the roof or into the attic or a crawlspace, but I've never stopped them from going when they wanted to go unless I thought it was too risky. I just tell them to make sure that the spouse or partner has a signed check in hand before they accompany me, 'cuz I have this rule about letting my customers get killed before I get paid. That makes most of them think twice about it and they change their minds. Some don't. All joking aside, I've become a pretty good rapid sketch artist. I can come off of a roof, or out of an attic or crawlspace and rapidly sketch out what I find on a piece of paper,while explaining it to the client - in pidgen if I have to. I don't move on to the next item until I'm sure they understand the issue. When I'm sure that the client understands the issue fully, I move on. Nope, I'm not saying that and I never said it or implied it, and I'm not saying phooey to technology, because I'm too stubborn to change, as you implied in your next post. You're missing part of the point that I'm trying to impress upon you, which is that the document portion of the report is as much for your own protection as it is for the client's benefit. It's essential that what you document is done in such a way that, not only the client, but you will be able to recall what you saw and did during an inspection - even if it's years from now. A captioned photo without a detailed description of the issue won't be much good to you or anyone else years later, if you haven't bothered to carefully document what it depicts and the conditions under which you took it. As the inspector of record, you should to be able to go back to that record, pull it out, read it, and then be able to almost perfectly, if not perfectly, recall all the circumstances of the inspection. You have an engineering background, correct? Aren't engineers taught to carefully support their findings with proper records in addition to sketches, graphs, and photographs? If an engineer makes a decision on a large expensive project and it comes into question years later, isn't he or she expected to be able to fully describe what the decision process was and defend his or her position? Don't you need carefully documented memos and records in the file to do that? Could you do that with a single photo, a few words of caption, and no report to put it in context? I can't, and I spent years training myself to focus so narrowly on the details of a case that I can easily recall very small details of many cases years later, but not so well that I have total recall. We're dealing with homes that costs hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars. It's important to get it right the first time and to document it as carefully as possible. You never know when one of these jobs might come back to nip you in the assets. You can minimize your risk by doing the best inspection that you can do, the one that you'd expect from anyone inspecting a home for you, and ensuring your report is as near to bulletproof as possible. 11-1/2 years - $0 paid out to lawsuits and/or arbitrations and $0 spent on lawyers fees due to unhappy clients. $490. spent on a lawyer to deal with a builder who was pissed at me because he doesn't know how to follow simple written directions, and $1000 paid to an insurance company because I was foolish enough to call them for advice when a wacko client tried to scam me with a bogus claim in order to defer $7K of her $100K remodeling project. Oh yeah, and $175 back to a lady who had unrealistic expectations that the 15-year-old water heater I told her would probably go bad yesterday wouldn't. $1685 in 11-1/2 years. I don't know, but I like to think my carefully written, though "long and boring" reports probably have something to do with keeping that number so low. It works for me, anyway. OT - OF!!! M.

That's exactly right. Some days I can knock out the report quickly and on others it just drags on and on and on. I've often tought that what I'd like to do is just put my narrative onto a digital voice recorder and then send it as a file to a courtroom stenographer and let the te stenographer type the thing up. The problem with that is that first I'd have to train the stenographer to use the software and then I wouldn't have the freedom of being able to individually tweak the final document in a timely manner the way that I like to before sending it out. I probably should try it once or twice though. Hell, maybe just put the narratives on the recorder, have them typed up and then sent back to me for cutting and pasting into the report. One never knows, the time saved by just recording the issue onto a voice file and then forwarding it to a stenographer might be a huge benefit. After all, it works pretty well for court clerks and doctors. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Well no, that's not true, unless you're saying that you'd install a roof with this kind of flashing. Read my post again, I was referring to to those who install these. For the record, I don't care whether it won't leak; I don't believe for a second that this method is equal to properly done step flashings. It looks to me like there's no way to nail the wall edge of those shingles without penetrating that "J" flashing, so they're essentially left un-secured for that last few inches. That alone doesn't comply with manufacturers' fastening instructions. Properly installed step flashings hold that outer edge of the shingles firmly against the roof deck. I don't agree with the idea that we have to develop simpler and easier methods to build homes because those in the labor pool don't have the same training and background as those in the construction business used to have. We're losing critical skills and the proper skills aren't being passed on because people are accepting of shortcuts. OT - OF!!! M.

Photos are important, but without a good explanation accompanying them they can do more harm than good. As a criminal investigator, I used to take a lot of crime scene photos, but those were only rarely attached to reports. Instead, we relied primarily on our hand and type-written notes, narrative descriptions of our actions, the crime scene, and what we learned from victims, witnesses, and subjects, and from crime lab analysis to make our cases. Out of a file with several hundred photos in it, only 3 or 4 might actually make their way into the final report or be used at trial. The rest remained in the file. Today, I only rarely take photos during inspections. A little because I can't find the plug-in-memory thingy for my CMU-sized 8-year old digital camera, but mostly because I'm still not real comfortable with the whole digital imaging and editing thing. If a client is following me around with a digital camera and wants to have the pictures in the text, I ask them to send me an email with the photos attached and I can very easily plug them into the text anywhere I want using the PhotoDrop feature of my Inspect Express software. Otherwise, I rely on my "boring" narrative report and a few graphics that I've found on the net to illustrate my points. I purposely do a walk-n-talk with the clients. I call it "The School of the House." When I'm done, they're not only intimately familiar with the home and what they'll need to do to maintain it properly, they're very familiar with every deficiency; why it's a deficiency and what needs to be done to correct it and when it needs to be done. If I know, I'll give them a ballpark figure of what it will cost to correct. Lots of inspectors don't like this approach; others would like to do it but they're not real good at the whole walk-n-talk thing. I like to teach, so I'm very comfortable doing it. Most of my customers have told me that they like that approach; I can't speak to others' methods. I almost never get phone calls from my clients asking me to explain anything in the report. Since the referral rate from past clients far and away outstrips referrals from reeltors or any other referral sources, I'm assuming that folks have been happy with their reports. Anyone who's ever voiced anything about the report, it's format, and it's presentation have always expressed satisfaction and I've never had a call from anyone complaining that it was too hard to read, too boring, or too technically complicated for them to understand. Now, I suppose that if the client could not be present for the inspection that photos would be a great benefit, but, since most of my clients accompany me on the job, and I tend to write very descriptive reports, I don't think that photos make that much difference. A 5 or 10 word caption on a photo is easy to read, but, unless there is a well-written explanation with it, it's not necessarily an accurate depiction of the scene. Years from now, myself, an attorney or a judge will be able to read one of my narratives and understand exactly what it is that I'm saying. However, if I took a picture today and didn't accompany it with a detailed narrative description of the issue, I'm not certain that I could accurately describe the issue to a jury 10 years from now. After all, out-of-context it's easy to confuse similar photos. From my point of view it's the inspection that I do onsite with the client which is the "product" that I produce. The written narrative report only reinforces what the client has already learned and knows about the house and the report keys their memory. Still, it's not enough to write it so that it just keys the client's memory - heck, I could do that with a couple of words - it needs to be understandable by others reading it who have never been on-site if you want it to be understood by a contractor and defensible at trial. Last year, when a builder threatened to sue me over the fact that I'd reported how he'd built an entire development of houses with incorrectly installed I-joists, I contacted a lawyer. He asked me to write up the issue so that he could understand it and then send the explanation to him. I just cut and pasted the explanations from my reports, added a chronological explanation of events, and emailed the whole thing over to him. He called back the next day and said that the issues had been crystal clear and he didn't have any questions for me. The next day, I received his response to the builder. It was about 95% my narrative. It's been more than a year - not a peep out of the builder or the builder's attorney. I think there are long narrative reports that are full of fluff and gobbledygook, and then there are long narrative reports that aren't, and which people have no problem reading and understanding completely. Like I said previously in this thread - there is no single report writing protocol or accepted method for writing reports. Inspectors have to find what works best, using their own existing skillset, and then do the best that they can with it. I think that a checklist report is fine, as long as the author of the report can pull it out of a file 10 years from now, read it and then fully explain what he saw and did onsite; the same for semi-narrative reports. However, I don't see that happening Hell, I make very short hand-written notes to myself and use them to key my memory for the report I'll write. If I wait more than a few days before I start to transcribe those notes, I can find myself really struggling to remember everything - that's why it's so important to get home and get it fully documented as quickly as possible. Keep in mind, though, that if an inspector's writing skills are poor it won't matter which type of report system he or she uses; that lack of ability is going to increase the chance of something coming back to bite them in the future. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez, Some guys just love to dream up ways of making more work for everyone. [:-bonc01] OT - OF!!! M.

Washington, Oct. 23 The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) announced that it will launch the much-anticipated NAHB National Green Building Program Feb. 14 at the 2008 NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando. The program launch will be the highlight of a day of green-themed activities at the convention, which last year attracted more than 100,000 building industry professionals. The national initiative will link dozens of successful state and local green building programs with a universal online certification tool, national registry of green homes and green builders, and a wealth of educational tools and resources for home builders and home buyers. To date, about 100,000 green homes have been built through programs run or supported by local building associations around the country. “We are bringing green building into the mainstream,â€

Hi Walter, Yes, that was the point of the exercise; to make them understand that not all reports provide truly useful information or are necessary telling them everything they need to know, so that they'll be able to wend their way through the maze of inspector candidates and sample reports and find someone who will be truly working for them and not the seller, reeltor, bank or mortgage lender. We discussed the various tell tales that will tip them off as to whether the inspector is speaking clearly or is trying to minimize something. I think they get it. If not, they'll certainly figure it out by the end of the semester. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike