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By Bob Mulloy (Reprinted by permission of the author) So, you walk around to the rear of the home and there it is - the deck! Every home nowadays just has to have one, and if one is not present, that seems to be no problem for the homeowner. They just buzz down to the local "you-do-it-center", pick up a load of lumber, and bang it together. Bingo, a deck is born! Or, the less handy homeowner might hire Mr. Flybynight, the carpenter who can certainly build a quality deck for a song and a dance. Does the latter scenario sound familiar? Now we come to the thrust of this article, for as you know, we home inspectors must evaluate the deck and prepare a final report for our clients which includes our observations regarding the deck, along with the rest of the home. Where to start? Let’s approach a deck inspection methodology by asking ourselves several pertinent questions: Do the footings appear to be adequate? What holds the deck up? Is the ledger joist anchored to the house and is it flashed? Is the floor frame undersized, over-spanned or over spaced? Do the joists have proper end bearing? Does the deck have a means of lateral bracing? Do the handrails & guardrails pass your scrutiny? Are the stairs safe? Is there wood / soil contact or signs of decay or potential for decay? Are there visible UNSAFE nail pops or splinters in the deck? Documenting access & life - safety issues FOOTINGS - Do the footings appear adequate? I like to inspect the deck from the ground up. I start by examining the visible piers or footings at ground level. If I find patio blocks, cement blocks, or five-gallon buckets filled with cement, then I automatically think "red flag" and investigate a little more carefully by probing. Up here in New England, all footings must extend a minimum of four feet below the ground to prevent frost heave, but all to often I must document "shallow footings beneath deck, potential for frost heave movement." You might include a disclaimer at this point: "DISCLAIMER: The actual depth of the footings that support the deck is undetermined and can only be determined by excavation and measurement." Finding any visible shortcuts causes my inspection antennae to go up. I start wondering just who built the deck, the owner or a contractor, and why were these errors allowed? Was a permit pulled? Shift the burden of proof from your shoulders to the client's by suggesting that your client do a little research at the local building department. While our focus is under the deck, how many times have you seen a crater beneath the deck that will retain surface water & roof run-off that will soak into the ground and end up in the basement? How many times have you seen vegetation left under the deck? How many times have you seen a dryer vent terminate under the deck? How many times have you seen the deck built right over the septic tank or the basement entrance or the oil fill & vent pipes? There are many things to consider that can be easy to miss. SUPPORT - What holds the deck up? Working upwards in inspection methodology, the next components encountered are the columns or support posts and beams. I like to sight down the line of support posts from several vantage points to see if the posts are out of plumb, missing, improperly spaced, or excessively notched. If the support posts are wood, out comes my probe again as decay is very prevalent with wood decks. Some of the deficiencies I see in the area of support posts are downright scary when you think that the deck may be asked to support the weight of numerous people during a cookout. Next, I check the base of each post to see if it is buried within the concrete footing, whether the post falls properly upon the footing and how it is attached. When posts are buried within the concrete, decay is likely in the future even if the wood is pressure treated. More importantly, the concrete footings are likely to blow apart from frost heave because the wood shrinks allowing water to enter each post hole. I like to observe a posts that fall squarely upon the footing and do not dangle half off in space using a skyhook for bearing. Better still are post brackets that provide a means of anchoring between the footing and the post while separating the two to prevent decay. When the posts fall beneath a beam, I like to see a top plate that anchors the two components together, or at least a proper nailing schedule. The presence of extra posts, sticks and braces usually indicate original poor workmanship and attempts to stabilize the deck frame from movement. When the support posts are also used to support a let-in rim joist, floor joists and railing posts, then a whole new series of defects may be present. Over-notching or improper notching seem to be frequent flier problems. Sometimes, notches are cut too deep and the remaining wood is drilled out for bolts, leaving posts that easily wobble when the guard railings are tested with lateral pressure. Imagine someone leaning on the guardrail and the post suddenly breaks in half where it is notched! Ouch! Built-up beams frequently rest upon the deck posts. The beam may be situated at the outside edge of the deck or several feet back to create a cantilevered effect. The problems with the built-up beams seem to fall within categories of improper splicing and inadequate nailing. Quarter-point splicing is best and the splices should fall above a post. However, Mr. Do-it-yourselfer can stretch a 2 x to infinity and beyond with no regard for load bearing, bending or potential collapse. LEDGER - Is the ledger joist anchored to the house and is it flashed? The ledger joist is usually the first piece of stock fastened to the house. But simply face nailing the ledger board in place is not enough to both anchor and support the deck. The ledger board must first be flashed or held off by cleats to prevent moisture damage to the underlying siding, and then it must be secured to the house frame with anchor bolts. Time and again, I find both the anchor bolts and the flashing missing on decks built by so called professionals and inspected and passed by local officials. It seems that every summer there is a news story about a raised deck that has collapsed causing multiple personal injuries - tragedies that could have been prevented. As a home inspector, safety concerns should be paramount in your mind, so look under the deck when possible and check for lag bolts as a means of secure attachment. email, or via his website.[/b][/size]

'course, Then there's Monica and clintonaide. Tsk.

Hmmm, marma and marmalade? esca and escalade? kewl and Koolaid? [:-bonc01]

Baluster is to balustrade as column is to columnade and arch is to archade... As lemon is to lemonade? [:-dopey]

I thought I'd torture those of you who are computer gadget junkies by posting this. Image Insert: 78.2 KB If you'd like to be notified by email when it finally hits the stores, so that you can be one of the first to go down to your local store and play with it - and maybe even purchase one - click here. Bwahahahahahahahahahah!!! [:-devil] ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Wow! That's about 20% of what it will cost around here. At least, that's what a window dealer client once told me. OT - OF!!! M.

Here's an interesting article in the online edition of the September 7th Boston Globe. Some of you might recognize the name of a certain TIJ regular who's apparently not always down in Puerto Vallarta chasing Senoritas. To read more, click here.

Hi Bonnie, I've always suspected that the person that started that was a person who was very spelling challenged, looked in a dictionary for a word to use in place of irrespective, saw the word regardless, and then incorrectly wrote down irregardless instead. After that, this person continued to use the word and spread it's incorrect usage. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Loose vs. lose by vs. buy no vs. know organization vs. origination (Scott []) there vs. their vs. they're our vs. hour form vs. from ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Why would you even want to screw around with this or get into the middle of something between a couple of HVAC contractors? Once it's referred off to an HVAC guy, let him tell them what they need, and if they call you up wanting your opinion of it just tell them that you're the family doctor and he's the brain surgeon; it's his call, not your's to make. If you must know, you can use one flue but it needs to be equal to the area of the largest vent plus 1/2 of all others. A 4 inch vent has 12.56 square inches. A 3 inch vent has 7.065 square inches. 7.06/2 = 3.03 square inches 12.56 + 3.03 = 15.59 square inches. A 5" vent has 19.62 square inches, so it should work fine, if it's ok to use a 3 inch vent on the water heater and a 4 inch vent on the furnace. Do you know that it is? Unless you have years of HVAC work and experience specifying HVAC systems under your belt, it's really not very smart to get involved with specifying stuff like this - especially when it involves venting "old" gas appliances into a cold chimney stack. If you do that and either of them backdrafts into the home and sickens or kills someone, you could end up losing everything. OT - OF!!! M.

Nevada has a new constructions defects law - essentially a lemon law for homes. When a homeowner purchases a new home and defects are found, a Chapter 40 claim can be filed. This piece from KVBC News 3 in Las Vegas is about how "inspectors" employed by law firms are doing free home inspections for homeowners and then filing Chapter 40 claims on their behalf. It's alleged that the inspectors are making up defects and the agreement signed by the homeowners prevents builders from being allowed to take action on alleged defects in the homes inspected. What's more interesting is that the "home inspectors" who are doing these free inspections aren't even registered or licensed as home inspectors in Nevada. To read more, click here.

For me, it doesn't matter what it is; if it's a crappy job that's sure to lead to an expensive fix down the road, I tell folks that in my opinion it's a crappy job. An overly deflected floor? That's a major screw-up; nobody should be placing thousands of pounds of tile on a floor until they know that the floor can take the load without excessive deflection. If that means tearing out a finished basement ceiling over that nice basement rec room to add more joists or a support beam and posts under a kitchen, so be it. A couple of times a year, I see 90 year old bungalows that someone is flipping with the kitchens all decked out with new cabinets, granite counters, a big center island with a granite top, and large heavy terra-cotta floor tiles in a thick bed of mud. Underneath, the 2 by 8 joists that are often on 2ft. centers are sagging like my belly and literally straining to hold up that load. Folks have to know about that kind of thing, no matter how good it looks. I carry a carpenter's line in my bag. It's easy to check and calculate, even for a math dummy like me. When I find it, I tell 'em about it. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi All, Well, speaking for myself, the weight off was a bust. I lost a grand total of 8 pounds and that was what I lost in the first 7 to 10 days when things were slow here and I actually managed to find time to get on the NordickTrack at night. Scott's down practically double what I am, so it wasn't a totally wasted summer. How'd the rest of you do? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Walter, I agree, I don't think that folks actually expect us to tell them about everything that is different today than 20 years ago, and I'm not losing any sleep wondering whether I'll even get a complaint because I didn't tell someone to upgrade something. However, I do think that customers appreciate it when they're made aware of things that can harm them and are informed about ways they can make their homes a little bit safer. We're there in the house anyway, we're the experts, and it takes practically no time and effort to pass the information along. I don't see any harm in doing so - it might even be good for business. Let's look at it another way. Say you're at the local filling station and the proprietor is walking by your car, stops, looks at your tires, and then informs you that you've got a soft tire. He didn't have to tell you about it; maybe you've been driving around on that soft tire for months and months and haven't had a problem - maybe you can drive around for months more and it still won't be a problem, but you appreciate the fact that he took the time to inform you about it just the same. Maybe, dipweed JHPussfart, the proprietor of the other filling station down the street where you fill up about half of the time, has never taken the time to warn you about little things like that. Later, when someone asks you where to take their car for service, you probably won't tell them to take it to JHPussfart, will you? Nope, you're going to remember the other guy. What we do is give folks information about their homes. Sure, all of the SOP's only require inspectors to report certain items and none requires the inspector to make folks aware of things in the home that are perfectly functional and wouldn't be allowed today for safety reasons, but people remember good customer service. It only takes a minute to inform a client that adding a weatherstrip gasket and a self-closing hinge to that pedestrian door between the garage and the house will help to keep smoke and fumes out of the interior of the house and buy them a few more seconds, maybe even minutes, in the event there's ever a fire in the garage, about as long as it takes to read the italicized portion above, so where's the downside to offering a client a safety tip if it's not really placing a burden on the inspector? It certainly doesn't add any time to the report - hell, all that sort of thing is generic and pre-formatted anyway. Click - it's there. About the only place where I've ever seen stuff like that become a hassle is when the realtorzoid, whose been tagging along and listening to every word spoken to the buyer, decides to try and do some damage control by piping up with something like, "Well, that's grandfathered anyway, so it's not an issue," which is their way of saying, "Hey a**hole, shut the hell up. Your anal retentiveness is liable to freak out my buyer and cause him to run away." Ironically, their attempts at damage control for just one item like that can waste more time than all the time it takes to inform a client of every issue like that in a house. However, that's a discussion for another time - I don't see the downside to being a little customer friendly and offering a helpful tip here and there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Me Too, Brand new home two weeks ago built by a pretty skilled builder (He does two homes a year - always side-by-side). The interior was done beautifully and, though there were a few small things, the house was overall a winner; until I inspected the crawlspace, that is. The underside of the OSB sub-floor looked like a leopard skin - blotches of mold everywhere. I pushed the insulation aside at not less than about 30 locations and never found a single fungi-free square foot. Then I noticed one of the flex ducts with two broken straps lying on the floor of the crawlspace. I scooted over to the duct and found it full of water - at least 20 gallons! Two weeks later, the buyer of the home next door hired me. Same builder, another great house. However, when I first walked in the door I couldn't believe the hardwood floors - they looked like a washboard. I went through that entire inspection expecting to find a repeat of the first house, but the crawlspace was pristine and looks like it's been dry as a bone forever. Go figure. Couldn't figure out why the floors looked so bad, though. In the end, the builder agreed that they look bad. They're going to wait a few months to see if they flatten out on their own. If they don't, the hardwood floor guy will be brought back to sand them flat and refinish them. Two houses, same builder. Both had very significant, though different, issues. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Why put yourself in a position to have to defend it? Just tell it like it is. Something like: "You don't have a framajam on your thingamajig. If this home were being built today, there'd be a framajam on the thingamajig because the framajam makes the thingamajig safer, and that's why the framajam is required by current code (cite code). Now, there's no law requiring you to bring your thingamajig up to current code by installing the framajam, but from a safety standpoint it would be the prudent thing to do. Contact a couple of framajam contractors to discuss options and cost." It gets it said. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I do new home inspections all the time. I do them exactly like I do all of my inspections and I write a full report on them. I charge exactly what I would on any other house with the same square footage. Sometimes they hire me to come back at the 11-month point to do their warranty inspections and prepare a final punchlist for the builder. For those, I cut them a little bit of slack - $50 off. It's not a bad deal, because new homes are twofers. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Bois d'arc tree trunks made great piers back in mid- to late 1920s;... And ... they're still working. Many thanks to Nolan KienitzPlano (Dallas), TX

Hi All, This message went out from Watts to all attendees today. I'm re-posting it here just in case someone's spam filters lock it out. The confirmation and course schedule are attached. OT - OF!!! M. -------------------------- Attention Inspectors: We are only 5 days away from your radiant seminar training experience. We are very excited at Watts Radiant and look forward to meeting each one of you. I have enclosed some important information for you to review prior to your arrival. One very important thing we ask is that you be sure to bring at least one pair of close-toed shoes for our factory tour. No open-toed shoes are allowed for safety reasons. I have attached an itinerary and hotel information for your convenience. Students flying in will be picked up at your terminal at the airport. Look for the Watts Radiant signs. If you are flying in after 9:00pm, the hotel will already be notified to pick you up via their shuttle service. After you have arrived and get settled in your hotel room on Tuesday, we will gather everyone and head out for a meet and greet dinner. Class will begin promptly on Wednesday morning at 8:00am and conclude around 4:30pm. Class will also begin on Thursday morning at 8:00am and will conclude after lunch. Each one of you will be given a certificate of attendance indicating that you are radiant certified. Please call me if you have any questions. Warm regards, Ron Miller Training Coordinator 417-447-8055 (ph) 417-864-8161 (fax) millerre@watts.com Download Attachment: ConfirmationWarmU.pdf 183.7 KB Download Attachment: Inspector_TrainingWatts.doc 147.43 KB

OK, You're confusing the hell out of me. Stop calling them mains. Anything past the service disconnect is a sub-panel. Lock that into your head and don't let it go. What do you mean by additional HVAC system; are you talking about a second furnace, heat pump, AC, what? Where do you see a second "SE" as you call it? Besides, stop calling it an SE - if it is not a service entrance. If it feeding a sub-panel - it's a feeder cable. No, a "feeder" came out of the sub-panel and into the enclosure for a disconnect, which, if I'm understanding what you're trying to say, is the one pictured. Because an addition has been added, the enclosure is no longer a disconnect and has been turned into a junction box for an extension of the feeder. However, it looks like that feeder is now powering two separate feeders. Where do these go? Does each feed a separate device or do they both feed the same device? If separate devices; obviously there should be a properly-sized disconnect within sight of each. If that enclosure is within sight of each (and it isn't according to your description) what's missing in that enclosure is the hot bus and breakers. If it's just a junction box for some splices, I don't think breakers would be necessary I can't envision this. I've tried, believe me. So the hole was open but there's a cover on the panel and the splices are fully insulated with tape. Right? How do you know that the splice can't handle a 125 amp load if you can't see it. If this is merely a junction box I don't see this as an issue. It would be better if the cover was secured with screws to keep folks out, but the main thing is that there's a cover. Apparently the power from that feeder is being fed to two different devices. Either that, or it's powering one device through a total of 4 conductors, which would be pretty bizarre. Although,.........if that's the case (which I hope it isn't) is it really over-fused if the two cables together are equal to or larger in diameter than a single cable of the proper gauge? If it's feeding two devices and the load on the feeder from one device doesn't exceed the rating for the feeder and the combined load for the two doesn't exceed 125amps, and the intent is to shut down the entire HVAC system with one throw, is it really wrong? Assuming that, "Additional HVAC equipment was added," means a second heat pump and there's a disconnect within sight of each pump, I don't see the issue. Your description really has me all turned around. Now, don't get upset if I've got this backasswards, 'cuz it was you who confused me with what seems to be some incorrect terminology and electricity isn't my forte. That's why I've got Jim Katen on this forum as the moderator. Image Insert: 131.74 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Yeah, WJ, I caught myself writing that a few years ago and had to retrain myself to stop calling them the wrong term. Around here, it was about 1962 - 63. Sometimes homes from those few years will be confusing because some of our 60's homes still have K & T in the attics. You go through the entire house and find things grounded and then you get in the attic and discover the K & T and realize that all of the ceiling fixtures at the ceiling plane beneath the attic are ungrounded. I've also run into homes from the 62 - 63 timeframe where there are two-slot receptacles on 2-conductor NM with separate equipment-grounding conductors that end on screws in the back of the metal receptacle boxes. With these, a wiggy confirms that the boxes are in fact grounded and one of those 3 to 2 adapters would actually work if the pigtail is secured to the cover screw as it's supposed to be. It's a little counter intuitive - finding a house with fully grounded receptacles a separate equipment-grounding conductor and 2-slot receptacles. When I see those, I've suspected that maybe the electrician was just getting rid of a bunch of the old 2-conductor NM and 2-slot receptacles. This region seems to lag about 1 code cycle behind in most jurisdictions, so I think a reasonable range is about 1962 to 1964 to expect to still find 2-slot receptacles. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Cost of living stateside got you down? Tired of competing with armies of cut rate inspectors who price themselves out of business within a year and whose low-ball prices are artificially depressing local inspection fees? Well, how about moving to another country? One where English is the native language, where the average cost of living is around $16,800 USD per year and a loaf of bread costs about $.60 and a liter of milk about $.70, where your competetion countrywide only amounts to a few hundred inspectors, where exploding new construction and awareness of home inspections is keeping inspectors busier than a one-armed paperhanger. Curious? Want to know more about this Shangrila? If so, click here

Psst, hey Jimmy..... [:-censore

Hi, I recommend level II's all the time. I had a cute situation the other day. I wish I'd had my digital camera with me 'cuz you guys would have loved it. Back in 1978, There was a mason who constructed this particular chimney with the flue just about an inch and a half off center. He didn't brick up or fill the void between the outer wythe of the stack and the flue tiles, so when he reached the top of the stack he had to cut a hole in a piece of plywood, rest it on the top course and then apply his mortar cap on top of that. The trouble is, he must have had one too many brews at lunch that day, because he installed his perfectly cut piece of plywood, applied mortar around the perimeter to hold it in place, and then slipped the flue tile into the hole before finishing up the crown. Now I'm left to wonder whether he'd realized then that the hole wasn't aligned with the flue tiles, because that last section of tile is resting 1-1/2 inches off-center, and I was able to shine my light all the way to the bottom of the cavity between the flue tile and the stack. The opening was at the north side of the stack, so small wonder that the rain, which blows south to north here. had been going into that slot for years. and that the north side of the stack was wall-to-wall efflorescence at the bottom of the stack, while the firebox and the stack itself looked fine. One has to wonder how lazy or stupid that fellow was to have left that like that all those years ago. Then it also begs the question: What the hell have all of the sweeps who've cleaned that flue over the past 28 years been saying about it? [:-banghea[:-banghea[:-banghea[:-banghea[:-banghea[:-banghea

Wow, I'm really disappointed that more folks didn't take advantage of this course. Ron Miller tells me that Chad pulled his registration the other day and that we're now down to 9 attendees; what a shame. Where else can you go and get 12 hours of factory training on a home system and the folks putting on the training are willing to pay for all meals and your lodging and even pick you up and deliver you to the airport? There's still time. It's probably too late for anyone to get plane reservations without paying a fortune, but for you folks that are within driving distance of Springfield, MO - even local Springfield inspectors - this is a good deal; take advantage of it. I'm looking forward to some face time with some of you blokes next week. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike