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Omaha - September 7th The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) approved National Property Inspections for listing on its national franchise registry. The registry is a list of franchise companies, or systems, that have pre-qualified for SBA loan eligibility. Acceptance to the list means an expedited process for SBA loan programs saving time and money for all involved. To be accepted, NPI was required to submit a completed worksheet and copies of all franchise agreements for SBA review. The documents were approved in March 2006. “We want to be proactive in helping people get started in small business,â€

There's a new profession spreading throughout New Zealand - that of Property Presenter. According to an article in the online version of The New Zealand Herald, these are not real estate agents or home stagers, but are consultants who charge to do a walk-through of a property with a homeowner and provide a list of essential things to do to prepare the home for sale, or give tips on improving a rental property so the landlord can achieve a higher return or attract better tenants. Does this sound like a way that home inspectors in the US and Canada could expand their range of services? You decide. To read the entire article click here.

In this article in the September issue of RisMedia's Real Estate magazine, WIN Home Inspections - formerly known as World Inspection Network International - promotes their brand to real estate professionals by explaining how technology, and their policy of also considering the real estate professional, in addition to the buyer, to be their "customer", sets them apart from other home inspectors. For a text version of the article, instead of the online magazine version, click here. TIJ is certain that some home inspectors might want to write to this publication to comment about this article. If so, click here.

Hi Scott, Around here average life is 10 to 15 years but I often see them far older. The oldest that I've ever seen were Hotpoint electric water heaters and those were seen months apart in the same town over on Whidbey Island. Both were from 1951!!!! Big tall pale yellow monsters with cast iron legs and banding on them. It was back before I had a digital camera or I'd have photos for you. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Jason, Do a search for CO and you'll find this has been discussed plenty of times. Pass your cursor over forums on the menu bar above to produce a drop-down menu and then choose "search." Alternatively, just click on "home" on the menu bar above and there's a search box displayed prominently at the top of the page. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, They've only got two choices: 1. Live with it of 2. Remove the toilet, strip off the vinyl, replace the deteriorated underlayment or flooring and then replace the vinyl and toilet. If the deck is OSB and is just swollen but not rotten, they can save a little time by grinding down the high spots versus cutting out the flooring, but there's no easy way to make anyone happy in this scenario unless they're willing to live with it. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, No, I don't think so. Like I said, I've seen literally thousands of them and they've been fine. Houses that I've seen them in go all the way back to the 30's. I've never seen one with a problem. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi Danny, Uh, Uh. Besides the idiocy of using the hangers upside down, there aren't any stiffeners between those doubled up joists (See Figure 5a-Alternate Method 2 on page 10 of the APA manual at the link in my previous post. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Okay, Well, being in Georgia and with what's happened right there in Lawrenceville (the lead on this thread), he'll be more cooperative. Here're a couple of other sources. The first is an article that we'd previously run here on TIJ written by Frank E. Woeste Ph.D., P.E., and Joseph R. Loferski, Ph.D. that discusses deck connections to houses. The second is the permit and construction guidelines for decks under the 2003 IRC. The third is from the Gwinnet County website. Click here for the Woeste/Loferski article. (Check out example 2.3b) Click here for the IRC document. Click here for the Gwinnet Country site details. Lastly, I spoke to Bill Grove, President of the Wood I-Joist Manufacturer's Association (WIJMA), by phone about 30 minutes ago. Grove disagrees somewhat with Clark and says that it really depends what the manufacturer of those I-joists specifies, but, if one were to back up the siding and sheathing with a stiffener between the webbing of the I-joist and the sheathing, that it should work just fine. That detail is detail 1f of the APA I-Joist manual and can be found at the bottom of page 4. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I just got off the phone from talking to Ray Clark at the APA Help Desk. He said that they would not recommend that application because it would place unacceptable forces on the web of those I joists. Just on the off chance that they might have something not on their site, he then searched his database to see if he had anything. He doesn't. Other than their detail for attaching a deck to an APA-rated rimboard, which isn't anywhere near as weak as attaching to an I-joist, they haven't published anything because they don't recommend it. His take - add posts under that ledger to support the load and then anchor the posts to the sills to prevent it from pulling away from the structure. Here's the link to APA's manual. You'll have to register at their site to get it, but it's free and they do not spam you. Once there, you've got access to tons of really good information. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, It's a heated location, it's short and they won't be pushing any lint up through it, so it's never going to get clogged. As long as there's a damper in the micowave/fan exhaust outlet it should be fine. OT - OF!!! M.

It'll be fine. I've seen thousands of them done that way and never saw one that had any problems. As far as holding heat, the bricks act like a heat sink and draw heat off that box more efficiently than air will. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Fixed. Thanks. Semetimes the mind sees it but it doesn't register. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, That depends on what type of fungi it is. There are literally thousands of species floating around out there and some require almost no moisture to thrive. Some can live off the natrual ambient moisture in wood. Whatever it is though, it looks dead to me. I'd just use the BoraCare to ensure that beyond a doubt. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Yeah, I'd also say that's some type of mildew or fungus. If they're nervous about it, a topical application of BoraCare will nuke it. It won't remove the staining, but it should put their mind at ease that it won't spread after that. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Electric dryers use both 120volts and 240volts at the same time. With the old 3-pronged plugs, the neutral circuit was connected to the frame of the dryer - in other words, the neutral and ground shared the same prong on that plug. Think about standing on a wet laundry room floor if the washer overflows with the frame of the washing machine essentially being hot. Can you imagine what could happen if you lose the neutral leg of that 120volt circuit? That was code until 1996 and then it changed. After that, the frame was grounded using a separate equipment-grounding conductor. Now you've got two hots, which power the heating elements, and a hot, neutral and equipment-grounding conductor to the drum motor. Does that answer the question? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Xypex is a crystalline waterproofing material (CWM). It's a catalyst that reacts with the concrete and causes crystals to form in the first 3-4 inches of concrete from the surface. It prevents the concrete from absorbing water. In your area, it might work to prevent absorption and spalling of the surface. When it's applied, it looks kind of like a rough paint job. I'm sitting here working on a report with two windows opened up on my computer. One window displays the 'active topics' page and refreshes every two minutes and I'm working on the report in the other. That's how I was able to spot that post so quickly. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Is that paint? If not, it's probably been coated with xypex. The crack is a curing crack and is where it should be - at the control joint cast into the slab. I don't see anything to indicate salt erosion. I think the inspector must've stopped by the local pub before he came over to do the inspection. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

You'd think that after more than 15 deck collapses that injured people in 2005, officials in every city around the country would be automatically inspecting every deck within their city limits. Not so - at least in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where a second-story deck collapsed as the house, which is a foreclosure that's up for sale, was being shown. To read the entire Atlanta Journal Constitution, click here.

Hi, I call it tannin, because I don't know what else would seep out of wood other than tannin and I don't know what else to call it. I see it a lot though and it's always under old ceder roofs. It seems to appear the most on those that are the least ventilated and hottest in summer. There are tons of them around here. Many years ago it was considered perfectly normal to cut away the perimeter of a shingle roof, lay in a perimeter of 1 by 8's or 1 by 10's and then roof-over with felt and an asphalt cover. Somehow, the perimeter one-bys never got used much but it's very common to find a home here with two or three layers of comp shingles over a cedar shingle deck with those shiny black stains all over the underside of the cedar and the skip. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

No, It's not fire in the first photo. That's tannin that leached out of the original cedar shingle roof that used to be installed over that skip. I see it every day. It's nothing to be concerned with. The second photo does look almost like the wood's been super-heated but from that angle and with that resolution it's hard to tell. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

In this article, Robert Blake (No, not that Robert Blake), author of the book Mortgage Secrets Exposed! and host of The Mortgage Insiders Show, tells consumers how they're being duped into committing load fraud by real estate agents and mortgage companies that talk them into becoming involved in side agreements. This is an interesting read. To read the entire article, click here.

This article by Barrett Niehus in BrokerAgentNews.com addresses the impact that the internet is having on the real estate profession and how consumers may soon be able to purchase homes without relying on agents. To read the entire article click here.

In recent chapter elections, NOVA-ASHI elected Reggie Marston of Residential Equity Management Home Inspections, Springfield, as president, Jim Funkhouser of Fairfax Home Inspections, Inc., Nokesville, as vice president; and Brian Koepf of LuxRE Inspections, Reston, as secretary. To read the entire article click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

By Mike O'Handley So you've inspected the home, noticed a number of issues that could be considered violations of the IRC or one of the other model codes, but have no idea what code the local municipality is using. It's too late at night to call the municipality in question and you know that catching a local code guy for a telephone conference is like snipe hunting. Besides, when you do reach the city, without the name of the right official, you'll undoubtedly get the runaround. So, what do you do? Well, in this internet-savvy world we live in, it's pretty simple, you go to ReedFirstSource.com and you look up the town in question to see which codes are in effect. Arranged by city and state, this site lists local building, plumbing, mechanical and electrical codes and contact information for community code officials and local utility providers. For a tour of the site, click here.