hausdok

I've had a few of those houses. When I realized that I had those, I simply informed the client that I don't inspect, nor do I render any sort of opinion about, low-voltage or automated/computerized electronic lighting controls. I limit what I do in those cases to simply checking the on/off on the light switches and testing the receptacles for polarity and grounding and make it crystal clear to the client that I am not the person to call if any of those electronic gizmo's fails. I had one of those houses where I didn't realize such a system was in place and there was an issue. A switch failed and the client called me to tell me that a switch had failed and when an electronic came out he'd learned that it had electronic controls of some sort. He asked whether the issue was covered under the scope of the inspection. I told him that I was sorry for his trouble, but that it did not. I directed him to the pre-inspection agreement and where it specifically excluded those types of devices, and pointed out that, since I never open those Cat V, cable, alarm, satellite TV and other fancy electronic enclosure boxes in closets, basements and garages, there's no way, short of an invasive inspection, that I would have even known that he had such a system. It was unfortunate that it broke, but there it is. I advised him to do a google search for automated switch gear system repairs and hung up. I've never talked to him since, but I did get a referral from him since then, so I have to assume that when he said that he was satisfied with my explanation and hung up that he was. Since you aren't expected to disassemble receptacles, wall switches or fixtures, you had no way to know that that was what you were dealing with. Right? If so, just tell the client that and have him/her contact a smart house specialist to deal with fixing the gizmos. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You know, Back when there were only two major players in the home inspection organization business, I'd joined one and a couple of years later joined the other, so I had a few years of overlapping membership. I found that those who were the most vocal about opposing organizations were those who only belonged to one of them. How these folks became such an authority on other associations they'd never belonged to is beyond me, but there it is. Personally, my affiliation with either really didn't impact my business negatively or positively, so I didn't really see the point. Then, one after the other, as each did something that I considered monumentally boneheaded, I left. Since then, I can't see where leaving has affected me one way or the other. I think folks should get over the fact that other organizations, not their own, don't agree with the way their own associations do things and move on. We've got too many other important issues to deal with in this profession than worrying about which association is better than another. Let's work on raising the bar for entry into the profession, getting everyone practicing the business to prove that they can do what they claim to be able to do, by submitting to on-site peer reviews of their skills, so that those weak in certain areas can get those areas identified and improve their skills. Then let's work at ending this reliance on the largess of those in real estate profession for the majority of referrals to folks in this profession. Let's start trying to develop this into a true discipline that kids in high school can aspire to, instead of a profession populated primarily with old farts like myself who've backed into it from something else. It's high time we began developing higher education for this craft and established it as a true profession. In the past 10 years I've seen little progress on any of these fronts. As one old fart retires, he or she is replaced by another and these folks aren't interested in training younger folks. Nor are they interested in raising the entry bar or skill level, or supporting the idea of a peer review process, because they are afraid that their own places will be co-opted by younger folks or they'll find themselves deemed incompetent before they're ready to retire from the business themselves. Many have essentially said to me, "Hey, I've got no problem with teaching this business to younger folks and eventually establishing a college curriculum and degree for the business and having peer review. Just do it after I retire, so that I can get mine before then." It's my fear that as more and more folks enter this profession from non-construction fields, interested only in doing as many inspections a day as they can at the lowest possible price, so that they can be sure to continue to garner that maximum number of inspections from those in real estate, that we'll eventually lose all semblance of true credibility. I think when the public eventually loses confidence as more and more inspection horror stories, which were once rare, begin to surface, they'll refuse to pay even the ridiculously low average fees that the profession garners now. When that happens, all of the truly competent folks will eventually abandon the profession. All, that is, except for those who're training the armies of burger flippers who're are willing to blow a half-year's salary on a two week school, so that they can jump into the business with two left feet and quietly get paid to experiment on homes for a few years, hoping that they can learn enough before they are sued out of business or go bankrupt, to be able to stay in it long enough to make their pot of gold and then bail out and do something else. I think we're going to see more and more really dumb and ineffective home inspection laws being passed, that only shelter certain special interests, thus not molesting their profit base, and one day home inspections will be 30 minutes long, cost $50, won't involve examining roofs or crawlspaces, or even opening service panels, and the average inspector will be a geriatric doing the work part time. We may have seen our heyday and if that's the case, our demise will be due to a self-inflicted wound and nothing else. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, If they are direct-vent type furnaces that have PVC intake and exhaust pipes, along with a sealed combustion chamber, they can be located in bedrooms per IRC 1701.4/UMC904.5. They'd still need to meet the minimum clearance requirements at the front back and sides, as defined by the manufacturer's instructions, but I don't see a safety issue as long as they do and all combustion air is coming from the outside and isn't being drawn from that room. Of course, the clothes issue is dumb, although the front grill on a high efficiency furnace isn't functioning the same way that the front grill, which is an air intake grill on an ordinary furnace, functions. I'd advise the homeowner in writing to maintain proper clearance around the furnace, but, as long as everything else meets the requirements I wouldn't be concerned with it. Whether the homeowner will heed that advice and maintain the clearance is another issue altogether. You can only lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Joe, If it's flashed correctly behind that veneer, and there're no signs that moisture has become an issue beneath that portico, I'd say you're guess about the ice and water shield is probably dead on. Dead flat or not, there's really no place for water to build up significant accumulation on that roof because there's no outboard curb. However, you don't have x-ray vision, so there's no way for you to know for certain what's beneath it, so, in my opinion, that's what you should say. I don't necessarily think punting it to a roofer for "further evaluation" does you any good. That roofer won't have x-ray vision either. Why not recommend that they contact the builder who applied it, learn more about it and then, depending on what those answers are, take further measures as appropriate? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Washington, DC, Dec 28th - Release #07-071 Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Progress Lighting Inc., of Spartanburg, S.C., recalled about 12,800 trim accessory kits for recessed lighting fixtures, due to a falling parts issue that can cause injuries. The manufacturer recommends that Consumers stop using the recessed light fixtures containing the recalled trim rings immediately and contact Progress Lighting to arrange for installation of a replacement trim ring. According to the manufacturer, heat from the light bulb can cause the fixture's plastic trim to soften and melt, causing the trim and lens to fall. This can result in laceration injuries to consumers. Progress Lighting has received four reports of the trim rings melting but no injuries have been reported. The recall involves trim assembly kits that attach to recessed light fixtures installed primarily in bathroom ceilings. The trim assemblies include a 7 3/4-inch white plastic ring, a glass lens and a metal reflector. These were sold by electrical and lighting distributors nationwide from July 2006 through December 2006 for between $9 and $27. The affected models were made in China and have model numbers: 8009-60, 8010-60 or 8011-60. The model number and country of manufacture are located on a sticker attached to the inside and outside of the reflector. Models made in Mexico are not included this recall. For more information, call Progress Lighting's toll-free number at (877) 369-4548 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or log on to www.progresslighting.com. Inspectors can download or print a copy of the official CPSC recall by clicking here.

Who the hell said that I was retiring? However, I gotta tell ya, there's more to that B & B stuff than meets the eye. It isn't anything to scoff at and can actually be pretty lucrative. About 10 years ago, my step-mother turned my Dad's massive 1906 Dutch colonial into a B & B. They had something like 5-6 rooms they'd rent out. Within just a few months, they found themselves booked up virtually every weekend year-round and 7 days of the week during the spring and summer months. They discovered that most of their B & B clientele were well-to-do and would network a lot. So, word got around and their client base grew quickly. One of those clients, a lady executive from Boston, not being a very good driver, managed to talk my Dad into driving the 300+ miles every Friday from his home up to Boston to pick her up. Then she'd stay the weekend to spend it riding her horses at a local high-end stable and he'd drive her back on Sunday evenings - all for a pretty sweet fee. Maybe she could have flown it more cheaply, but she apparently wasn't very comfortable flying. So, besides the houses he had under construction at the time, he started a limousine service on the side, picking up the city folk who were coming for the weekends and hauling them back to the train station at the end of the weekend. He found out that it paid pretty decently. Remember, he was in his late 70's at the time and had cut way back on his construction projects. Then, a few years after they began the process, the lady executive in Boston decided that she wanted something a little more sure-footed than the Lincoln he was driving. So, she purchased one of those big BMW SUV's and left it with him. He'd pick her up on Friday, she'd use it all weekend, he'd take her home on Sunday, and then he had the thing all week. Pretty sweet! By the time they sold that home, built a new one and set up another B & B down the street, my step-mom had a steady year-round business, they'd established hundreds of new business contracts, had made many new friends and he had dialed way back on their construction involvement, thus reducing his stress level to the point where they could comfortably take several vacations a year. Eventually, it enabled him to be able to have another house built in Florida and he finally retired and moved down there last year. If it hadn't been for the fact that they wanted to move to warmer weather, they'd still be at it in New York and would still be doing pretty well for themselves. That second B & B was up for sale in New York (Dutchess County). It sold, but then the financing fell through for the buyers, so it went back on the market. I don't know whether it's re-sold again. Anyone interested? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Denis, Is the first photo of a building built from pre-cast concrete modules? I'd heard that technique was often used in Russia to shorten construction time in large apartment buildings. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Here's the B & B project for the guy or gal who wants to get well away from the rat race. http://www.historicproperties.com/detai ... y=Mwcen001 OT - OF!!! M.

Yeah, I hear the question marks. What the hey. Guess he felt we'd have an interest in it, so I left it. There's probably something there that can teach us all a thing or two. Not about home inspections, but one never knows when information about magnesium is going to come in handy. Might be good topic for keeping the distracting client distracted. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Somebody's modern interpretation of a Seattle blockhouse 4-square. You're right Jim, pretty damned ugly. OT - OF!!! M.

Go here: http://www.buildabetterhome.org/ ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Thanks Chad, I'd suspected as much. Denis, I lived in masonry buildings like that during my tours in Germany when I was in the military. Very comfortable and solid, but they were a bit of a challenge to heat. About mid-way through my 1st German tour, they added E.I.F.S. to the exterior of the building and it was very comfortable after that. Before everyone starts carping about how terrible E.I.F.S. systems are, try to remember that they've been used in Europe since after WWII and when they're used over masonry they work really well. E.I.F.S. manufacturers can blame themselves for rushing the system into practice on this continent without conducting adequate research first on how the stuff would perform when installed over wood framing and then not training applicators well. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I write it exactly as Chad has described. That's how I'd interpreted the requirements of structural sections of SOP's. I think that folks have lost track of the fact that the report is as much for the author as it is for the client. We need to produce something that will accurately describe what we've inspected and will serve to key your memory when needed later on. I learned how to write reports in the Army as a criminal investigator. Cops don't have the luxury of picking and choosing what they describe about a crime scene in a report, they must accurately describe everything that they see. Since cases often don't come to trial for months or even years, the investigator's memory hinges on how much, or how little, the investigator includes in the report. When I get calls from someone asking questions about a home that I did years ago, I can pull up the report, read a page or two and the report will key my memory. It's like plugging in a video-tape in my head. Then, when I read further into the report, even though I might think that I'm remembering everything about the home, the report will remind me of all the little things that I'd forgotten. In the end, I'm able to clearly remember and describe what I saw and why I came to any conclusions in the report. For instance, I occasionally run across old homes around here which have had the roofs framed with site-built trusses using 2 by 3's for the top and bottom truss chords. Off the top of my head, I can't remember which houses they were, but I can guaranty you that, even if my clients hadn't paid attention to that fact in the report, that it's there. So, if we ever get a freak snowstorm here like we had in 1996-97 that dumps a large amount of snow onto roofs, and I get a call bitching me out over roof damage, the report will ensure within seconds that I'm able to intelligently and confidently discuss that particular home, without any hemming and hawing, even before going out to take a look at it. I'm absolutely certain that I wouldn't be able to do that with a checkbox or semi-narrative type of report. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Dennis, They're still relatively rare in this country and they are referred to as "double envelope" facades. The new Seattle Justice Center was built with that kind of envelope. Here is a google search string using "commercial cladding" http://gaia.lbl.gov/hpbf/design_g2.htm You will find a url on the second page where you can find that building. It begins with "LBNL - High Performance Commercial Building Facades". With a little research, you can probably find out the name of the sub-contractor that applied that facade and then contact them to see if they are looking for any new tradesmen. I've met both Russian and Ukrainian Siding and E.I.F.S. applicators here. You also might try and find out if there are any Russian community organizations here in the Seattle area or elsewhere in the U.S. that can help you with your search. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Denis, We don't build cavity wall brick homes in this country anymore. The brick houses that we do have are brick "veneer". In other words, they are built with a wood frame and then a thin layer of brick is applied to the outside to give the appearance of a structural brick home. I suppose the brick might help to keep a house floating off it's foundation like the one above, but it really doesn't add the kind of strength needed to resist the force of a hurricane. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Welcome to TIJ. Check Monster.com under the constuction trades category for work in the mason category. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi all, Well, this one isn't too old - only about 60 - 70 years - but if you're seriously into woodworking as a hobby, you're on the middle eastern seaboard, you've got your own shop and your own lumber shed, this probably looks like manna from heaven. If I still lived on the east coast, I'd probably already have a truck leased and would be packing my tools and I'd drive all night to get to this sucker first. It's free to the fellow who's intrepid enough to deconstruct it, stack it on a truck and haul it away. Click here for more details. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

By Ted J. Osterberger, P.E.; David M. Nelson, P.E.; and Frank E. Woeste, Ph.D., P.E. Lateral support of deep multiple-ply beams to prevent twisting in service is extremely important to ensure proper product application. Without lateral support on the compression side, the natural tendency of a beam or header is to twist when loaded. When the compression side of the beam is not sufficiently braced, the top section of the beam (in compression) or header acts somewhat like an unbraced column and can buckle under a relatively low load. Typical flush beam or header applications receive lateral support from the perpendicular roof or floor framing system. However, some applications or framing practices call for “droppingâ€

Washington, DC - Release #07-063 On December 19th, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Crown Boiler Company of Philadelphia, PA, recalled about 400 Bermuda BSI and Cayman CWI series boilers due to a carbon monoxide poisoning hazard. Consumers are warned to stop using these switches immediately unless otherwise instructed. According to the manufacturer, these boilers can produce unacceptably high levels of CO in the flue, thus posing a risk of poisoning. Though the manufacturer hasn't received any reports of injuries, they have received one report of high levels of CO in flue gases. The recall involves Bermuda BSI and Cayman CWI Series gas-fired boilers designed for indoor installation. The model and serial numbers included in the recall can be found at the CPSC site, and are located on the rating plate. The boilers have a two-tone, red and gray jacket enclosure with the controls and piping on the right side of the unit. The rating plate is a silver label located in the upper left hand corner of the right side panel. The boilers are made in the United States and were sold through plumbing and heating wholesale distributors to plumbers and contractors nationwide from October 2002 through October 2006 for between $800 and $2,100. The manufacturer recommends that consumers who have not already been contacted by their contractor should immediately contact their installer or Crown Boiler Co. to arrange for a free repair and reminds consumers to install a CO alarm outside all sleeping areas, or make sure their current CO alarms have working batteries. For more information, contact Crown Boiler Co toll-free at (877) 597-3321 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site. Inspectors can download or print a copy of the official CPSC recall by clicking here.

Washington, DC - Release #07-062 On December 15th, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the Square D Company of Palatine, IL, announced a voluntary recall of about 27,600 general duty safety switches. According to the manufacturer, consumers should stop using these switches immediately unless otherwise instructed. Name of Product: Square D General Duty Safety Switch Units: About 27,600 Distributor/Retailer: Square D Company of Palatine, ILL. Hazard: The safety switch can continue to supply electricity even after being placed in the “OFFâ€

Hi Randy, Yeah, that's exactly why I've always written it. I don't need to get that call. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hmmm, OK, I've got a better idea. Instead of replacing all of the siding and the roof so that repairs will match, why not tear the whole house down and build a new one? (Tongue firmly planted in cheek) OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Check with your AHJ. Regardless of the code, lots of municipalities allow stud and joist bays to be used for return air. I've seen plenty of homes around here like that. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that I think the majority of homes with forced air that I look at are configured that way. It's been allowed around here since the 1940's. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Huh, Well, it's still out. The danged cable TV works. I guess that's something. Keeps the Korean Konnection from driving me up the wall 'cuz she's bored, but I've harranged the down hall, the superintendent of public works, the cable company, the power company and everyone else and that damn tree is still leaning on the line by Plywood Supply Company and I'm sure that has to be what's causing this. I've a good mind to rent a chainsaw and go down there and cut the damn thing off the line myself. OT - OF!!! M.

Jeez! I could swear I've inspected that house before. Of course, they're as fleas on a cur, seams like, so probably not. I hate 'em. Seems like 99% of the builders who build these monstrosities have no idea how to properly flash windows or doors and they're almost always leaking into the walls. OT - OF!!! M.