hausdok

They didn't intent to put in "Exterior Ventilation" - they retrofitted the home with blown-in insulation. It's possible that they used UFFI in the exterior walls and the slits in these caps helped the UFFI off-gas and cure more quickly, but I don't think the intent is to ventilate the walls. If the intent were to "ventilate" the walls why wouldn't we have it in every wall of every home? We see retrofits of blown-in a lot here. Many times the plugs are solid and when you poke your finger behind you find cellulose. Many times the plugs are slitted like those and you poke your finger in there and you find UFFI. Sometimes you find the ventilated caps used for both types - sometimes the solid caps are used for both types. You are correct, painting the slits in the caps reduces their "ventilation" ability, but it doesn't seem to make any difference in building performance unless water is actually getting into the wall and it usually isn't getting in through those. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

The looky loos will always drive you nuts. For a price difference of $20 they'll spurn a guy who's been in business 15 years and will be in that house for 4 hours for a guy who's been in business 15 days and will be in and out in an hour. A guy that I'm mentoring asked me the other day how I price my business. It's not rocket science. If it were, I sure as hell couldn't figure it out. Figure out the maximum number of inspections you want to do per year; and then, using last year's expenses adjusted for inflation, figure out how much you need to charge per inspection for your company to break even. Then take what you want to make for personal income that year, divide it by that maximum number of inspections, add the result to the break even price and then add another 10% for fudge factor. That give you the minimum inspection fee you'll charge. From that point, just add on a set amount per set square footage and create a chart. Once you've done that, refuse, come hell or high water, to go below that. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I'm told by two guys on the board I sit on that I'm way too cheap, so take this with a grain of salt. .15 cents for square foot on the big house = $1650 plus $425 for the finished carriage house/garage. That's $2095. If I have to drive more than 20 miles to get there, I add an additional $30 per 20 miles (60 miles = $90 added, 90 miles = $120 added etc..) ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Are you allergic to any plants? Maybe it's not inside at all; maybe there's something outside the home that's producing pollen or some kind of spore that's being carried into the home on your clothes when you pass through/by it. Have you spoken to an allergist? Seems like an allergist should be able to pinpoint what it is that's causing it and then you can concentrate on finding that specific thing there. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Members here don't "fuel" anything. We state things the way they are with no obfuscation. What's your alternative - not tell him/her the truth, hide from the facts, pretend everything is OK? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

What I've never understood is why, since they've known for a lot of years that humidity in crawls causes major issues in South Carolina's really humid climate, is why they don't routinely treat the underside of houses there with a fungicide before they finish them off. Hell, if the builder would have only gone under that house and saturated the hell out of everything with BoraCare before having the insulation installed, the underside of that house might have gotten damp but it would have stayed free of wood fungi. $500 - the cost of a couple of gallons of BoraCare and the labor involved with having a Snuffy go under there with a pump sprayer and nuke everything. $500 per hour - the cost of a lawyer for one of the hundreds of hours he'll be dinking around 'defending" the builder when a homeowner sues over rot like that. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

That's Advanced Energy. They probably know more about crawlspaces than anyone in this country. Go here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!!![:-bonc01][:-crazy][:-drunk][:-eyebrow[:-hspin][:-jump][:-jump2][:-jester][:-monkeyd[:-propell[:-spin][:-timebm][%|]

Doesn't any report that runs in MS Word have all of that? Learn word and you can use any of those report formats that are based on Word without the steep learning curve. OT - OF!!! M.

Yep, Understood that; that's why I gave him mine for whichever column he wants to assign it to. OT - OF!!! M.

John, If a future buyer doesn't like it, he or she can always change it. So what if others don't like it - they aren't the one's who're living there. It's your house and you're the one that's going to have to live with it and look at it every day. If you and your frau like one of those two designs, go for the one you like the most. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

When I got this box, I just backed up everything onto a 500 gb backup drive and then installed it on my new computer as "Old Computer" and now I can access all of the old stuff plus new stuff. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, I had one like that a while back. The only thing the guy didn't take was the gas fireplace. Guess he couldn't figure out how to take it without the chimney chase on the end of the building coming down. He stripped the house down to the drywall and even took the piping. His possessions were stacked on the front lawn where the Sheriff's department had supervised a crew from the millionaire's club that removed everything before they locked the door. As I was working my way through the trash littering what remained, I couldn't help but notice several notices from the IRS warning the guy that if he didn't respond to their past letters he was facing seizure of all of his assets. Guess he decided to sell off everything he could to pay his way to the next place and left all of his assets in the house for the IRS to have. I doubt if they lasted long on that front lawn. Several times during the inspection cars slowed down so folks could rubberneck and assess what was there and a couple of folks actually stopped, got out of their cars, walked up to the edge of the property and stood there on the public sidewalk staring at all of that stuff - undoubtedly mentally noting the location of everything they intended to take the minute I was done and my vehicle had turned the corner. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I learned about all that in language school and I'll be damned if I can remember the details 30 years later. They even have a specific term for it. What little I do remember is that you can purchase or rent homes two ways - with or without fixtures and wardrobes. When you think about it, from a landlord's perspective it's a good deal. You aren't responsible for the cabinet door that falls off because the hinges are worn; that ceiling fixture that gets broken isn't your responsibility, the kitchen stove that fails isn't your responsibility to fix, etc.. Renters move out, they sweep it out, you come in prime and paint it with white paint and the next guy in is welcome to paint it any way he wants and decorate it any way he wants. No security deposit disputes over worn carpets, etc.. Same for a builder - the builder doesn't have to listen to a persnickity wife complain about the choice of electrical fixtures, faucets, etc.. You sell them the home and they're presented with a blank canvas to create whatever they want. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Sounds like an inspector that would a comment like that would assist in the mass hysteria regarding vermiculite. Anytime ones makes a statement like that to a typical, uneducated owner they would certainly make a big deal out of it for no reason. If someone tells someone to get it removed would surely start another "black" mold argument with the seller, buyer and the asbestos abatement contractor. Oh Yeah? Guess I screwed up, 'cuz I haven't scared anyone off a home yet by tellling 'em not to disturb this stuff. Let's see, in two more months I'll have been doing this 16 yeras. How the hell would you know what kind of inspector I am? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Seriously, Bill? Have you any idea what a big deal the Seattle P.I. made of Vermiculite around here? I believe they won a friggin' Pulitzer over it. No way, with the screwball way the government can't seem to make up its mind about Vermiculite am I going to not recommend folks step lightly around the stuff. I'd rather be safe than sorry. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

If you couldn't see any mold in your old home and were never ill, and now you can't see any mold in this home, I don't see why mold would be a concern. It's around you 24/7 and you've been breathing it your entire life. I'd bet it is something else. Are you allergic to pet dander? Perhaps the former owners had a dog or cat. Have you looked down in the bottom of the supply plenum to see if it's full of pet hair? I've looked inside dozens that turned my stomach. Are the ducts holding water? I've been in about a half dozen houses over the years - some of them brand new - where water leaks had drained into the supply and return air ducts under the floors and stagnant water sat in those ducts producing god only knows what with air passing over the water. That can't have been healthy. Have you checked with the local P.D. to see if the place had ever been occupied by meth heads? There have been some cases of folks unwittingly buying houses that had been used as meth labs and not figuring it out until they began experiencing symptoms. Maybe it's cooties. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I see vermiculite once, sometimes twice, a week; not in insulation but in brand new direct vent gas fireplaces. I see it at least once a month in non-direct-vent fireplaces equipped with gas log sets and with a pile of exposed vermiculite in the hearth where every breeze coming down the stack probably sends fibers into the house. Homeowners have to open those direct vent fireplaces about once a year to clean the sulfur off the glass or the glass will eventually become etched and they'll never get it clean. I tell 'em there's vermiculite in the firebox, tell 'em to assume it has asbestos and to be careful and open the front of those things very slowly so as not to disturb it when they clean the glass. The exposed stuff? I tell 'em to assume it contains asbestos and have the seller get it removed by a pro before closing. Haven't had any pushback from builders and nobody has run away screaming yet. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Weren't you the folks who'd gone from baseboard heat to forced hot air? Maybe it's not a question of too much moisture but not enough. Perhaps you're simply not used to the dry eyes, throat and nose that one experiences with FHA heat. Have you tried a humidifier to see if it causes the symptoms to ease? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Check out Inspect Express. You can use it in either semi-narrative and narrative format and can customize it and the boilerplate any way you want. The full narrative version is somewhat similar to jim's report format but the boilerplate style isn't anything like his. If you dn't like the boilerplate you can always create your own very easily and edit it as you see fit. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, Don't know if you can cold fog BoraCare. A 5 gallon pump sprayer with a deft touch should do it though (it'll be a bitch to keep agitated). Isn't concrobium that white stuff that looks like Kilz? If it's clear when applied, I'd say go for it; but I wouldn't use it if it looks like everything is coated with Kilz when done 'cuz it screams "toxic mold" in the minds of lots of home buyers and inspector folk who don't know any better. OT - OF!!! M.

Some kind of white fungi. Easily nuked with a light mist of BoraCare. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

This is why I've always leased and never bought. Once they get miled up, scratched, dented, and start making noise, You can turn them in for a new one and not take the hit for depreciationDented? You talking about a car or wives? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Cellulite. []Oh, I'd always thought of that as hail stone damage. [:-jump2]

What bothers me is having to first sift through the checklist and then refer to the comments after the checklist. Gong back and forth back and forth. The list of stuff that's not wrong but could be wrong is woefully too short in some cases and why have it there anyway? If something isn't wrong why leave the unchecked comment there to busy up the report? Why not remove the unneeded boxes and headers and move the explanation from the end of the section to the box where these square boxes are so that folks don't have to go in search of every comment and then double back to find their place again? I saw where there were three issues noted in a section where it said see comments below and then there were like ten comments below because he/she had lumped all of the issues together with some helpful advice/tips and disclaimers. Put the disclaimers on one page at the front of the report and put the table of contents on another and move that contract to the back - once they've read and signed it you don't need the contract cluttering up the body of the report. Take all of the helpful hints and advice and move them to their own section at the back of the report so they aren't cluttering up the report. Get rid of the blue ink. It hurts the eyes. Have you ever seen anything except advertising copy and safety warning use colored ink? Stick with black and increase the amount of white space so the report is easier to read. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Do they commonly pin a garage floor slab to the house foundation there? I guess I'd be wondering why it's settling first and then whether it's settling uniformly. I'd probably recommend they wait to see whether it's stopped settling before attempting to do anything. Once they know it's no longer moving, and as long as it's settled uniformly, still drains well and isn't too unsightly, paint a little binder on the divot, let it dry and then fill the divot with some concrete patcher and level it. It's been five years. That's plenty of time for poorly compacted soil under a garage slab to consolidate. If that slab is still moving they need to find out why. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike