hausdok

Yeah, you're overdoing it. Your inspection is supposed to find the significant ($) stuff that concerns those major systems and components in whatever SOP you use. Knowing the details of one or two specific recalls, and being able to pass those on to the client, is only gravy. You aren't expected or required by anyone to be an omnipotent being that possessed the entire body of home inspection knowledge past, present and future. You can only advise people based on the body of knowledge that you've been able to acquire and retain. You aren't a computer and can't be expected to know ever recall, any more than you can be expected to know every version of every code, every past code, and how every municipality in your area ever accepted various code modifications over the years and those dates. The more disclaimers you stick in your report or the more convoluted your pre-inspection agreement gets, the more like a weasel you make yourself appear to the client. Don't want to get sued? Just do the best damned inspection you can for every client, and write the best inspection you can, without concerning yourself with whether or not you're being an "alarmist", or a "deal killer", or "too thorough" or whether you'll lose referrals. Do that, stay the course, and you can put the whole thought of being sued out of your mind. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You are talking about up-selling your services. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I think that the best time to do it is before the inspection, so it won't look like you are trying to create more work for yourself on site. You're an inspector. That's what we do. If you want to offer additional services, such as radon, lead, water quality, septic, sewer line, infrared, asbestos, chimney that's you're perogative. Just make sure that you're competent at those additional services, have attained all of the necessary licenses and that clients are aware of, and understand, up front, the full range of services you offer, and what will and will not be included in the inspection that they hire you to do. Offer the additional service up front. If they turn it down, make sure they understand what they are turning down, and make sure that you document the fact that they did so someplace in your report, especially if it turns out during the inspection that the additional inspection would have been beneficial. For instance, if you are qualified to do Level 2 chimney flue inspections, and have the equipment for it, make sure that it's a service shown on the pre-inspection agreement. Offer it to them up front. If they turn it down, ensure that's shown on the contract and then do the home inspection. If it turns out the flue is so encrusted with stage 3 creosote that you can't even see the flue liner from the top or bottom, tell them that on-site and in the report and recommend they get the flue cleaned and then, once the flue is rendered inspectable, have a level 2 inspection done. You'll know that any sweep that comes out to clean the flue will agree with you and you'll have a 50-50 chance of getting that additional inspection once the sweep has confirmed that you weren't trying to sell them a bill of goods. Sure, maybe if the sweep is qualified to do the Level 2, he'll get the job, but your reliability rating will have jumped up a notch. When they recommend you to their friends and relatives, they're liable to say something like, "Oh, and don't forget to have Steve do a Level 2 inspection on the fireplace flue if he tells you it needs one." At least, that's what I think will happen. I don't offer any additional services. I just concentrate on being the best I can be at one thing and I recommend folks to those trades that I'm confident do the same. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You're right, there is no need to do more than that. You can't repair it. So, just tell them what the consequences to the structure can/will be, if it isn't corrected, recommend correction and drive on. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, This is interesting. I just noticed that in just a little bit over 5 months, this topic has had nearly 4,000 views. That's huge. Our oldest topic, after 5 years has been viewed less than 30,000 and the next topic to that only 12,000. Apparently, there's a tremendous amount of interest in this topic. Hmmm, OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Kurt, Start here: http://www.eifscouncil.org/eifs-manufacturers.html Then you can peruse the various EIFS manufacturers' sites for specs, etc. to your heart's content. The dryvit link takes you to the info on their site. Just skip over the intro. Here're some more. The last one is the link to the discussion forums on the Association Of Walls & Ceilings site. That site is populated by a bunch of good 'ol boys in the plastering/drywall/eifts business. Go over there and post the same question and I bet they'll be only too happy to help. I used to hang out there years ago, but haven't had much time to drop in there since I started TIJ and got involved with JLC. http://www.eima.com/specialinterests/ho ... essionals/ http://www.stuccolaw.com/what/frame.html http://www.awci.org/netforum/awci/a OT - OF!!! M.

[:-banghea

I just didn't understand why you would recommend replacement of the entire door. I mean, I don't recommend an entire door be replaced when only one panel is broken. I recommend they get it repaired, 'cuz I know that the overhead door companies have replacement panels. It's the same with the springs and such. I just recommend they fix them. I'm not interested in getting the client a whole new door or what have you - just getting what's there to work right. Does that make any sense or am I being too much of a hard nose about it? OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, I thought that's what you meant, but I wanted to be sure. Why recommend replacement of the door for that? Why not just recommend they have a set of safety wires in stalled in the springs? Good job, Gary. I write unbalanced doors all the time. As for the springs, I only write up the long stretch springs when I see that one or more coils has stretched and the spring no longer closes neatly upon itself. It's pretty easy to tell when the torsion springs over the door have broken. The coil will usually have an easily seen break in a coil or the two halves of the spring will be separated and the door weighs a ton when released. OT - OF!!! M.

I began routinely recommending Level 2 inspections of these, and corrections if necessary, by a CSIA-certified sweep, prior to closing. I seem to recall that years ago the NFPA recommended that homeowners routinely have a Level 2 inspection done on these double-walled vents to ensure that they're still locked together. So, I do it even when the flue looks pretty good because there's no way I can examine 100% of those flues from above or below, and because I remember reading someplace that disconnected flue sections are common. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

OK Bob, Some folks say that I don't have all of my oars in the water, so you'll need to explain that one to me. What do you mean by spring containment? OT - OF!!! M.

It's time to call Schenectady and talk to somone who can look it up for you. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Brandon, Did you take any pictures? Even if you don't use photos in your reports, it's a good idea to take pictures of anomalies like that so that you can post them here. It'll give us a better idea of what your describing. I don't think I've ever seen such an arrangement. What type of siding did it have? OT - OF!!! M.

Yes, A warm welcome to TIJ, WJ. Glad to see you stopping by. Come back often! For those of you who don't know Mr. Jowers, pay attention to what he tells you about report writing and word usage, 'cuz he's got some incredible skills in that area. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Jeez, I was going to take a break for lunch. Now?....

Open the pictures in PhotoDraw or something like that, resize them to something less than 100 Mb and rename them without any special sympbols or spaces in the name. In other words Johnson House.JPG; House(Johnson).JPG or JohnsonHouse#1 won't work. You need something like johnsonhouse.jpg . They should upload after that. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Les, He kind of threw me too. I had to dive over my desk for the pictionary. Looks like it's time to break out War & Peace again and re-refresh my vocabulary. [:-bigeyes OT - OF!!! M.

I'm an agnostic, so I'll just go with Kewl Dude! OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Gary, Sorry, been there, done that. NAHI four years, ASHI four years. No offense to the brethren, but I just don't see anything in any of the national associations right now that makes me feel tingly all over and would prompt me to pull out my wallet, sign a check and send it off. If I did, I'd sign up for one. Not to toot my own horn, but TIJ gives you as much value, for a whole lot less money, than any association does. Yep, I met a lot of good inspectors via the internet through my time with ASHI, and I hope that we are, and will always be, friends, but I never saw where "belonging" did much more than give me a way to regularly communicate with some really sharp folks on their internal forum and thus broaden my inspection abilities. Well, guess what, TIJ does that too - except that here you get to talk to any inspector - independent or affiliated - that cares to participate, and you can do it for what it costs you to get on the internet. What are we missing. Well, I suppose a logo to plaster on your van or all over your business cards, and we don't have any fancy T-shirts, jackets, hats or mouse pads, but we do try to throw up a whole lot of info about where you can find the best informational downloads for home inspectors on the net - for free - and we give you a secure place to talk to all inspectors, without some of the bullying that happens on the other sites. What is a "professional" organization anyway? It's just a bunch of professionals in the same business hanging out talking to one another and comparing notes. Maybe once in a while they put on some training, have a dinner or two with chapter meetings and such. But why is that so important. The logo? Nah, had one on my vehicle and on my business card for years. Nobody every asked me what it was and the number who ever asked me if I were affiliated with any association was minute. The question I did, and do, get constantly was, "Are you a certified inspector," which, since one of these allegedly "professional" associations has diluted the whole idea of being a "certified" inspector to the passage of an elementary school level test, is no longer relevant. Okay, so we don't have the dinners - yet - but there is a whole lot of good communication goes on here, and you can get a pretty good education here, so, as Jack Nicholson would say, "Two out of three ain't bad." Concentrate on being professional and competent, doing as thorough a job as you can - regardless of whether that will piss off some realtor or seller, and never stop trying to get better at the actual inspection and report-writing process. Do that, and your referrals from happy former clients will someday far outnumber those from the real estate related folks or what you'll derive from belonging to any association. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Cleanouts for the footing drain system, perhaps? OT - OF!!! M.

Atlanta - May 9th 2007 Imagine a total energy cost of 41 cents to $1 a day for your house. Thanks to use of geothermal heat pumps, energy costs for two test houses in Lenoir City, Tenn., are that low. Information on five DOE Building America near-zero energy test houses designed, built (within the TVA service territory) and monitored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is shared in a seminar held at ASHRAE’s 2007 Annual Meeting. “The lower heating and cooling loads in high performance houses result in lower group loop requirements for ground source heat pumps,â€

Ditto to what Les said. I came to this business after years as a military cop and investigator. I'd trained my memory years before to focus on crime scenes from an investigator's eyes so I could minimize the amount of note-taking that was necessary and improve my memory at trial. Today, a client can call me and say, "Hey Mike, remember me? I'm so-and-so and you inspected my home for me at such-and-such street about 4 years ago?" My answer to them is usually, "No, sorry, I'm not so good with customer names and faces. Can you tell me one or two things about the house that I reported as an issue?" Then they'll start to tell me what I'd written about and it's like I've suddently had a video tape plugged into the back of my brain and the job will start playing back in my head. Then it's, "Oh, wasn't that the house with the _and the ___?" If they answer yes, I'll then ask them to confirm one or two other things, usually something abscure about the house, to make sure that it's the right house I'm thinking about, and then I'm able to answer their questions easily. It routinely blows them away that I can pull up so much detail from memory. It blows me away too, 'cuz I can't seem to remember what I had for breakfast most days or what day of the week it is or whether or not I'd answered so-and-so's email that I just got. Bottom line. Your brain is a tool that learns. If you train it to think like an investigator, first focusing on the general, then the detailed and then the specific, you'll retain more. Before you enter that home, step back onto the street and size it up. Burn a mental image of the home into your head - what type of architecture, how old it is, whether it's on a flat site or a hillside site, what side the weather comes from, etc.. Then look at the details - whether the roof line is straight or sagging, are chimneys leaning, etc. and commit those details to memory. Then, when you go up to the house and begin looking at the exterior, start looking at the specific - what type of siding, how well is it installed, is it damaged, cupping or nailed on wrong, are there head flashings over windows, rotten window sills, etc.. Get the idea? If you have a library nearby, go check out some books on crime scene investigation and study the chapters on how to train yourself to adopt a pattern of observing and mental and actual note taking. It will help you a lot. Gotta go, I'm already late getting out of here. Relax in your skin a little bit. A house is a series of systems. Get to know everything you can about those systems and become intimately familiar with them and reading houses becomes second nature. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, The first inspection I ever did was on a 4600 sq. ft. 90 year old home and it took me about 6 hours. By the time I'd done about 30 inspection, I had my time down to between 3-1/2 and 4-1/2 hours for most homes and that's where it's stayed for the past 11 years. Back when I was still a franchisee, I used to catch flak from the franchise headquarters about it every once in a while, because their expectation was that it should never take more than 2-1/2 hours. However, I became convinced early on that there's more to this gig than what the schools that turn out the 6-day wonders will tell you and, to do it right is almost impossible in less than 3 hours. In my curmudgeon's opinion, anyone trying to get through a home in less time is short-cutting the client and setting themselves up for eventual failure. As far as writing the report? Well, I write full-narrative reports and, as you can see, I'm a long-winded old bastard, so I just do it as quickly as I can get it all typed without forgetting anything and I don't worry about how long it takes. It gets done when I get it done and not before. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I think it's a question of how you use them. Are they intrusive and up in your face or are they benignly protecting you without frustrating the client. Some of the disclaimers I've seen have been ponderous and take up more room than the actual descriptions or issues reported. That's pretty obnoxious. My reports have an explanatory fine print footnote at the beginning of each section that says what I'm required to inspect. At the end of each section, there's another fine print footnote that says what I'm not required to inspect. The font is size 8, it's bolded and italicized but most people don't even seem to see it. Every once in a while I'll get a phone call from someone asking me about something that they thought I should have looked at that wasn't required to be inspected by the standards of practice that I use. The last call was about an awning, which is a seasonal accessory. Apparently, the mechanism that cranks it into place had stripped gears. I didn't know that and couldn't have known. Number one, I don't test those because they are seasonal accessories and aren't germane to the house, and number two the crank handle wasn't nearby for the client to test it, which is what I normally suggest they do when I see those items. All I did was ask the customer to re-read, carefully, the pre-inspection agreement that he and I had gone over before the inspection and then to look at the fine print note at the end of the exterior section, where it says: Our inspectors are NOT required to inspect or report on the presence or condition of recreational facilities, outbuildings, seawalls, break-walls and docks, window and door screening, shutters, awnings or similar seasonal accessories. He took a moment to look at the pre-inspection agreement, and then looked at the fine print note, and then acknowledged that he'd not bothered to read the disclaimer when reading the report. He agreed that per the agreement and the standards I wasn't required to look at that thing. At that point, I told him that I understood, that anyone can make a mistake, expressed sympathy for the fact that the thing didn't work and suggested he call a local awning installation company. I actually cracked my yellow book and gave him the number of one to call. Works for me. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi David, Personally, I think that a humidistat makes more sense for an attic fan. After all, if you're in a hot climate the roof and attic will be hot anyway. Sucking a bunch of hot air into the attic under the eaves or through gable end vents doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The only way it will cool a house is if there isn't any insulation at all in the attic. If there is insulation, the insulation should already be reducing heat gain from the attic. On the other hand, a humidistat would only operate when humidity is at unacceptable levels and run until it has been lowered. I think one question to ask is whether the humidistate should be sensing humidity in the air or moisture level at the surface of wood. If the soffit vents and high vents (ridge or jack) are functioning correctly, there should be good convective airflow from the eaves to the upper roof and that should be sufficient to remove moisture rising into the attic in air that's diffusing from the house. However, what happens at night when the sun goes down, the roof cools and that convective flow slows or stops? That's when that air condenses on the underside of the roof. Over time and with the right weather conditions, that can allow the discoloration and fungi to develop on the underside of the roof. Would it still do so if there were sensors attached to the underside of the roof that were looking for a slight increase in surface moisture caused by vapor-laden air condensing on the underside of the cool roof? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Manufactured August 1993 most likely. OT - OF!!! M.