Chris Bernhardt

It just amazes me that there are morons running around making calls with IR like that. I wonder if he took any of those expensive classes and did that? Chris, Oregon

I don't use it very much in the summer. Come the rainy season around here and it see's heavy use. It's done what I expected it to do: brought me more biz, taught me to be a better visual inspector and caught a few roof leaks that I would have missed. Chris, Oregon

If you have ever read autopsy reports, you'll find that there is usually no description of unremarkable features. Liver - Unremarkable I use to focus on the details that were wrong. I have learned from the old farts to focus on the problems that are likely to occur. I touch on the problem in the narrative and leave the details for the picture and ensure that my recommendation will cover all necessary ground. Because I might have 2 or 3 photos covering a particular issue I have long used a comic book format, an idea that I stole from Kurt M., to publish the photos in the report. Otherwise I have an ordered summary that is the report in the style of Jim Katens narrative. Time after time when I talk to clients they jump right to Kurts comic book formatted photos to discuss the report. The narrative seems to be relegated to the official bantering between the agents. Chris, Oregon

I'm way ahead of you guys. I stole, uh... I mean borrowed Jims narrative style earlier this year. I have talked to Jim about his style and I don't think he had even realized the pure genius in it. I'm lucky in that I get to trap him, regularly at our monthly ASHI chapter meetings and pepper him with questions and get to listen to all his sage advice in person face to face. Chris, Oregon

Well, while were back on the subject of report organization, how important is the placement of disclosures and disclaimers? IMO they are so unimportant I threw all my at the back of my report to be read when they ran out of sleeping pills. But, what say yee? Chris, Oregon

Mike is what you're describing any different then a dutch basement? I see those a lot around these parts but had thought thats how they had built them from day one. Chris, Oregon

Thanks, for the replies. It doesn't appear then to be obvious evidence of an issue. I was talking with an HVAC contractor at a recent vendor fair and he was talking about the blower size, CFMs and duct size with respect to proper sizing of the A/C like Kurt said. I am curious to know more about how to design a proper system and how to avoid the uneven heating between the 1st and 2nd story. Do you think I can do that without buying manual J and manual this and that etc.? Chris, Oregon

There are 10 supply registers whose agregate area adds up to more than the area of the return by at least 2 supply registers but of course I don't know the size of the ducts. It just seemed weird. In this type of house I usually will see at least two returns: one downstairs and one upstairs both set up for filters. I don't want to get a call back that there is not adequate cooling upstairs, the evaporator's freezing up and some dildo saying that I should have caught the obviously undersized return. Chris, Oregon

New construction, 1738 sf, two story, in Forest Grove, Oregon. When I went looking for the HVAC system filter, there was none and I could only find a 2 square foot floor return in the upstairs hallway. The A/C has a 2.5 ton capacity. Doesn't that return sound a little small? Digging around on the internet what I found was 144sqin/ton is the bare minimum with closer to 180sqin recommended to prevent the evaporator from freezing up. Stick a filter in that return, maybe it's sure to freeze up. Chris, Oregon

What about: Normal settling? Normal shrinkage? Normal sag? Normal this or that? Would you recommend striking the use of the word "normal" and like words from narrative used to indicate any anomally as being non-significant? Walter, I imagine you told them that verbally on the walk & talk. Did you also back it up in the report the same? Chris, Oregon

Kurt indicated that with drywall, perhaps plaster, that he would state there are cracks that will need repairing next time the walls, etc. are painted (Statement absent any language that the cracks have no structual significance). Walter are you saying that you would go further and make it clear that you don't know why they are there or if they will get bigger, but if they want them repaired then they will need to hire the appropriate hairdresser? I guess what I want to ask is if you are sure that what you are looking at is a shrinkage crack, you still would never use any language that would indicate that the crack is not a concern? Chris, Oregon

WJ recently said that an inspector is asking for trouble by characterizing cracks as normal, minor, etc. We all see cracks that we would characterize as non-significant but to most clients any crack is a call for concern. I will often preemptively address stress or shrinkage cracks in drywall or in concrete and do just that make some sort of statement to the effect that they don't imply any sort of symptom of a deeper problem, that their signifcance is cosmetic and offer some advice in some cases if they wanted to correct the issue. I would be happy to not report on non-noteworthy cracks, but if I don't I know the clients will be asking about it; particularly, clients who don't attend the inspection. How do you handle those kinds of situations, and what kind of report language do you use? Chris, Oregon

That's another pit fall with the traditional sectionalized report or rather sectionalized thinking; inconsistencies in reporting between sections and failing to point out the forest from the trees. Chris, Oregon

Yea, I second what Inspector joe said. Chris, Oregon

Yes, I call out unmarked or apparently mis-marked circuit directories; I just don't verify them. My summary is my report. IOW, I make an ordered list of the things I found that I want to bring to the clients attention. There's no need to do things twice. After the ordered list of findings, are picture pages, then a section of required descriptions, ending with a section of all my disclosures and disclaimers. My report is not broken into a section on roofing, a section on electrical , a section on plumbing, etc. You'll get lots & lots of arguments to the contrary, but IMO sectionalized reports by roofing, electrical, plumbing, etc. are obsolete (the old and traditional way of doing things). In ten years of inspection I have never produced one. What I have found time after time after time is that clients jump right to the ordered list of pictures. The comic book format pioneered by Kurt M. I think is the wave of the future. Chris, Oregon

Hi Phillip, The reports a mess like Walter said. I know that Walter says that old dogs can't learn new tricks, but if you want to give it a try, this is what I did and what I continue to do. Comb thru and garner everything that WJ, Jim K., Mike O., Kurt M., Chad F., Les and Jim Morrison have said on the subject of report writing and put it into a single document for review. Pin your favorite quotes on your office wall behind your computer for easy reference when writing reports. Relearn the rules of grammar & punctuation; lots of stuff on the internet to help with that. Get a copy of one of the most current reports from the above brethren for reference. Get Bonnie's book and read it a hundred times. Post narrative occasionally for review on TIJ to try out your new report writing rules. I have learned just as much from Walter as I have from Jim K. and Walter has some cool style tricks that I have not seen anywhere else. It will probably take you about 2 years to revamp your writing and of course it never really ends. You'll be very happy with the results. Chris, Oregon

Looks like the condensate catch pan drain plugged and the pans been overflowing forever. I would want a new everything. It will never make it to see its expected service life. With repairs, you got nothing but HVAC equipment whose expected service life is limited to the length of its warranty ( typical warranty period five years). Chris, Oregon

Absolutely. I don't see a lot of BUR roofs but just about every one I look at needs replacing. There is no doubt in my mind that, that one needs replacing; not any sort of repair. Roofing over "blank" is very deteriorated (list of facts). The roof could could leak if it's not already. Replace the roof, the sooner the better. Chris, Oregon

Mike is that chasing the house only? Also I imagine you doing bigger houses than I do. The newer stock around here in the under 2ksf range vacant can easily be done in 2 hours, but the older stock is a crap shoot. It could take me 3 hours or longer to do a messed up pre - 70's thats in the 1000sf range. Chris, Oregon

I have started bumping mine up for areas greater than say 20 - 30 miles away, particularly areas of the valley I don't care to work anymore. I'm quoting higher fees on the order of an extra $25 or more to cover the cost of gas. Chris, Oregon

Like Brandon said "To each his own" There is no best way, there is just the best way for you. I do no data entry on site. For me it disturbs the flow of the inspection too much, some worse than others. I only have 2 - 3 hours onsite and I use every bit of that time chasing the house around. For new construction or newer houses I will occasionally do the report on site on request, otherwise I take notes by shooting lots of pics and then take it back to the office and write up the report on a desktop computer that's fast. I have a really nice laptop also but it still lags behind my desktop. If you don't suffer from flow disturbance like I do, then you will save signifcant time doing some amount of data entry onsite, but I would have to imagine at the expense of some quality if you need to limit yourself to three hours on site. There are HI's out there who claim they can do the whole inspection and spit out an onsite report in 2 hours. Realistically, if you are going to do a quality on site report I would think you're looking more at 4 - 5 hours. If it wasn't for all of the hand holding and state regs, I would think in theory one could design an onsite report writing system that would fit the 2 - 3 hour time frame. Chris, Oregon

I use to write that way all the time and I found it very hard to shake off. You want to give as much useful information concisely as you can to the client. It turns out that the passive voice mind set will have you doing just the opposite. At first when you're trying to repent it feels silly to add what you might think are extra words: the doer of the action. But later as you become more accustomed to thinking again (reframing) in the active voice you'll see that you will actually be comunicating more useful information.id="blue"> That's a common misconception. Passive voice thinking walks you right into commiting logical errors. Active voice thinking will help steer you away from them just like WJ said.id="blue"> Chris, Oregon

Hi John, What's glaringly missing is whats wrong with the furnace. For the sake of argument, if you don't know whats wrong then describe what you did and what happened as a result. For example "When I turned on the thermostat, the furnace did nothing." That's a whole lot more information than "There's a problem with the furnace." However getting to whether it's better to say "I recommend ..." or the imperative "hire, repair, fix, etc.", it depends. What I do is if the condition is something rather serious in that it follows that not doing anything about it will make matters worse or perhaps cause injury, I use the imperative. If it's something minor like a door binding or a missing door stop, then I use a WJism like - If you don't want holes in your walls, you'll need to install door stops. If I see something wrong, and I can't figure out exactly whats going on and it's neither deserving an imperative recommendation or a WJism then I might say something like " My advice is to ...", which is the equivilent of "I recommend ..." I also use an O'Handleyism a lot - "Talk to a (type of contractor inserted here) or two and get options and costs for ..." If I feel I need to make a point, or alert/warn the client I might say something like - "Understand that ...", which I picked up from Jim Katen. IOW, don't limit yourself to just the imperative or "I recommend ..." What you want to do is give good advice. Beg a copy of one of Jim Katens reports; he's the master at this. Chris, Oregon

Yes & No. Yes you can have a highly boiler plated/auto text report writer but the law of diminishing returns will set in at some point. More time can be spent finding the right wording and editing it to fit the particular problem than the time it would have taken you to type the whole thing by hand faster. Also, for some inspections your boiler plate will sound like, uh boiler plate. Years ago that was how I use to do it. I had an elaborate library of boiler plate in english and spanish and I spent a lot of time editing it and adding to it. For about the last 5 years I have started with a blank slate and type it on the fly. But now I can type pretty fast. Not as fast as Walter however. I like the control which it gives me to start with a blank slate, and how it forces me to think and ensure that what I am saying makes sense and covers all aspects that need covering for any particular issue. It allows me to lump a lot of issues together for a particular component when they share a common recommendation. Otherwise you tend to end up with a less efficient list which can miss the forest for the trees. IOW, there's advantages and disadvantages for doing it either way. Chris, Oregon

Like Randy said, his biggest obstacle is going to be typing speed. Chris, Oregon