Chris Bernhardt

Besides using my still camera I wish I could just strap a video camera on me for the whole inspection. My greatest time saver has certainly been my camera. I take a ton of pictures and even video. only the half or less makes it into the report but it sure cuts down on the onsite note taking and the thinking that goes with it and its a life saver later if I forgot to consider something and can go back and look at the pictures. Ive been thinking about sticking my moisture meter on a paint pole so I can easily scan ceilings and floors. Man and I wish I had one of those sewer cams to look in ducts, drains and vents. Chris, Oregon

What do you say about items beyond their expected service life that appear to still have service life remaining? ASHI SOP requires that they be reported. For example 30 year old gutters that look like they could go another 10 years. If you just report the fact that they are beyond or at the end of some arbitrary service life the client will almost always interpret this as a defect and then will ask how much life do you think I could still get out of this thing? Chris, Oregon.

Well let me back up and try this again. However it may turn out to be one of those ask the wrong question but get the right answer sort of deals. My original question was concerning conducive conditions on items that we are required by our SOP's to report on. It is impossible for some clients, if not many, to see the house as we see it; separated between the systems and components that make the home habitable and the ones that are essentially embellishments that increase the enjoyment of the habitation. We have the duty to report on the former but not on the latter but one is more than free to do so, however as an industry doing so just muddles it all up. My question concerns strictly the systems and components needed for habitability and not the embellishments. And where a condition in the best judgement of the inspector appears to be something that poses a potential risk. Mike, I think is saying if it's not correct in your mind then write it up for correction or discuss the risks with the client. There is another point of view that says that our duty to consider conditions as adverse stops if there is no apparent real threat now or in the proximate foreseeable future. But then Mikes point is that it could have been fine for 50 years and then next week, bang your dead. Les, I thinks is advocating that in the world of conducive conditions its far better to discuss them with the client verbally rather then get into trying present them on paper where a proper discussion of them cannot take place anyway and in some cases you can just fill up a report discussing nothing but potential risks making them appear as actual problems and again digressing into a practice that muddles up the industry. As Kurt would say, there is no correct answer. At least I think it was Kurt who said it recently. I apologize if it was instead one of the other brotheren. And I am fine with that, in fact I am really comfortable with that. That is where I want to see it go because it demonstates that we maybe are at the line in the industry. Even if that line is still black and white or cut and dry to many. Chris, Oregon

I know that this is thread drifting into venting issues. Although I have never been hit with a complaint concerning vent issues after reading some things lately I have gotten nervous. This is certainly one area that you want to be careful about punting to an HVAC contractor with all due respect to the ones that know what they doing. I want to know the correct way things should be vented and what to look for. I see evidence of condensation on or in venting fairly often but its seems to never be addressed by the HVAC guys when I come around on a reinspect but what I have read is that you are really not suppose to have any if your venting properly. Chris, Oregon

Had a realtor friend sell everything he had and went down to PV and built a house. They literally chip away the concrete to make wiring runs then cement back over the wires. I think he said the largest approved residential electrical service was a 100 amps or so. They installed the largest service allowed then he paid the contractors a bribe to install a 200 amp commercial service. He also got guide business going down at the port and was in seventh heaven for 2 years until one day the new port authority came by and asked for a $10,000 uh special fee to keep operating. That ended his mexican dream and he's now living in Arizona. My Ex wife moved down there for a year also being talked into by her mexican realtor boyfriend about how great it was and how much better life was down there. Like I said if it was so great why was she back a year later. There is no better place for a family man on god's green earth then the good ol United States of America! Chris, Oregon

I use to have common sense when I first started this business. Then - Zoids here and there started complaining why I didn't write up this or that condition cause their last inspector always writes that thing up or they make some comment as to why I didn't write something up but the FHA appraiser did and then there were those near misses where the client hired another inspector after he got pissed off at me and the next guy wrote everything up including the faded paint etc. So much for common sense. It became a business decision to try to fend off the idiots out there by writing up conditions that were not problems and probably would never be a problems leaving me now with this question of how do the brothern deal with this stuff. Chris, Oregon

Sparked by comments by Les in the roof narrative thread reminded me of questions concerning writing up grading and things like it. For example what is uneven grade in the absence of evidence that the improper grade is adversly affecting the house? It doesn't appear to be a problem or a syptom most of the time. Well it might be a symptom of a lazy builder or ignorant homeowner. I would characterize it as a conducive condition. For instance I have seen poor grading that judging by the evidence has been that way for many wet seasons with no apparent affect on the house. Would you still write it up aggressively for correction or do you educate the client on the risks of poor grading? There are a number of other things that I can think of that are similar in nature in that they for a particular house are not really a problem nor are they a symptom but they are a condition known to present risks. No kickout flashing but no evidence of deterioration. Improper sidewall clearances to roof with no deterioration. Less than 6" of siding clearance to ground cover with no deterioration. Please comment on your opinion on writing up conducive conditions where no actual problem exists or even is likely to develop. And the list goes on and on. Chris, Oregon

Every new house with a single car garage that I have seen lately with a gas furnace and hot water heater hasn't had any combustion air source vents from the exterior or anywhere else. The cubic feet of these single car garages wouldn't be sufficient under the 50 cu/ft per 1000Btu rule. Has something changed in the code to allow them to do an install in single car garages with out vents from the exterior? I know there are some complicated looking air leakage formulas in the code. Are they some how using these? Chris, Oregon

Can one connect B-vent directly to the draft hood of a gas fired hot water heater? My understanding is that your not suppose to. B-vent is designed and listed for connecting to other B-vent and that listed transition pieces have to be used to interface to different vent types. Chris, Oregon

Zeb, did you read the other moisture meter posts here? Several good threads. There is no one meter you can buy to satisfy all of your moisture scanning needs. I have the Tramex moisture encounter plus but if theres any moisture or dryed piss on the floor it will peg the meter. It scans a little deeper then the GE surveymaster but the surveymaster doesn't have the same problem with wet or contaminated surfaces as I understand it and it can get you into tighten spots. I have used both and would prefer to have both but just have the tramex. The tramex is a little easier to use then the survemaster in that I found that I could handle it easier when scanning larger areas quickly and like I said its more sensitive and it can pick up moisture anomalies deeper then the surveymaster. I actually have two moisture meters and the other one is a pin type. If money was no object and your really into moisture scanning I could see having several different models. If I had to choose its a toss up between a Tramex moisture encounter plus and the GE surveymaster they both have offsetting advantages and disadvantages. Chris, Oregon

Jim, I was studying your sample reinspection report under my reinspection post in the home inspector qualifications & professionallism forum and I noticed that you never use the word recommend. Instead I see that you use the words: have, install, provide, patch, and remove to start your recommendation sentences. I have been saying - Recommend having a qualifed contractor repair condition. Something like that with every recommendation sentence starting off with - Recommend or now I recommend - You appear to be dropping the - I recommend language and just cut to the chase and say - have the thing repaired. In fact I didn't see that you even used the words - qualifed contractor in your recommendations for repair. Was this a style thing for the reinspection report only or do you say it any different on the orginal report? Chris, Oregon

Ok to sum up some of the things I learned from this exercise - Start with location first and use first person. Try and write in no more then 2 sentences. Is the condition a symptom or is it a problem? If I am looking at basically symptoms then be sure to state what I think is the problem. The sequence of problem vs. consequence depends on what tells a better story. Whether to lay out ones internal thought process depends on whether resistance is likely to ones conclusion. If not then consider foregoing the written analysis to keep things pithy. If source of the problem can be found in your judgement then order qualifed person to find source and repair problem. If determining the source of the problem is a problem then educate client on the potential risks. Further comment? Chris, Oregon

Mark, you said that your picture pages are in a different format or at least I assume that is what you meant. If so what program are you using? You can suck your pictures into word or word perfect and format and mark them up pretty much any way you want. Does anybody use a separate program to make picture pages that they think is better? One thing I learned and it took me awhile to get around to it was to knock the size of my pictures down to around 50K or otherwise adobe takes a light year and half to convert them. Chris, Oregon

Jim, I stated first the first and only physical fact that I observed and made that the priority. In the way you wrote it instead I think you purposefully stated the logical fact that the roof is leaking and the stain secondary to that. I don't know where I got it in my head but I have always listed the observed facts first and then conjured up a logical conclusion of the facts 2nd. Do you recommend besides stating the location first also to state the logical conclusion first before the facts? It seems to make sense as listing the facts followed by the conclusion leaves them hanging like not describing the location first. Chris, Oregon

Randy, I did measure it with my moisture encounter plus but there was no significant elevation in moisture. My conclusion was based mainly on the fact I could see no repair. A girder truss and rafter crossed each other directly above the stain and the rafter ran right up to the ridge vents on this hipped roof and I have run into this problem before and have seen it first hand dripping leaving no mositure stains what so ever on the framing and decking on another house. If it wasn't for Marks post I would have wimped out and aknowledged the stain with out really pursuing further other then something like inquire with tenant or owner and monitor, or something stupider. Les, concerning the we thing its frickin nasty habit that I keep letting myself fall back into. I known I not suppose to write that way. I am doing a lot better, maybe not in that example, but to start off with location first and have been trying to use I and not We as if I was the Queen or something. Chris, Oregon

I was obviously too long winded huh, Master Yoda! Lot to learn here. Chris, Oregon

I use adobe acrobat to merge my report build which is made up several files in MS word. I was to afraid to try the knockoffs or depend on them. I just hate it when the client or rather the realtor is bitching at me about getting the report out to them this instant and then my software starts going nuts. Chris, Oregon

Kurt had suggested in my other post that we start a separate thread for specific narrative critiqing. After Marks post and a stain I found in a bathroom ceiling I thought this would be a good exercise to get Katenized on this one. Chris, Oregon

I found this detail on another house in a different city. I think this detail makes sense. Compare it to the 1st picture of this thread. Download Attachment: jse_IMG_8895.jpg 50.95 KB Chris, Oregon

Interesting comment. But for some reason my brain seems to work in two different modes, one for the screen and one for the print. I prefer print for some reason as it seems to trigger deeper thought with out all of the distractions of the screen. Chris, Oregon

Rob, now that I am aware that you have a legal background I met no disrespect by my comments concerning broilplating by your definition vs. canned jive which is what I am talking about. However it would seem to me to write real broilerplate would require the assistance of a lawyer since our laws and practices vary state to state and even then like I said it would be hard to write real broil plate to cover more than half of what we might report but maybe I am not seeing it the way you are considering it. Do you believe that a universal broilerplated report system is possible that would span laws across the states? Chris, Oregon

One of my on going questions has been concerning our duty in the area of reporting energy/comfort related items and if they are even present in the SOP or rather our Oregon SOP which is similar to the ASHI SOP. Am I correct in assuming that the nature of the insulation and ventilation portions of the SOP do not include performing a visually conducted energy audit? Am I correct in assuming that the nature of the insulation and ventilation portions of the SOP relate to its effects on the condition and performance of fixtures? Fixtures meaning the items of inspection not considered accessory. Do we have any duty under the SOP to report energy/comfort defects and deficiencies not a defect or deficiency of a fixture or rather an item of inspection? Chris, Oregon

Great thread! My 2 cents conjured up after considering what has been said. An amenity is an enticement. It may come in the form of an accessory or an appurtenance that is intended for the greater enjoyment of the fixture etc. i.e. an affixed toilet roll holder or towel bars are accessories if affixed are provided for the greater enjoyment of the fixture (the wall or cabinet or bathroom) but are not functionally necessary as one can always employ a free standing toilet roll holder or towel rack etc. Fixtures are considered functionally necessary, a sink, a toilet, a tub a bathroom door, a light fixture but not the mirror, medicine cabinet, toilet roll holder and towel bars etc. What this thread clarified for me is that we are in the business of inspecting fixtures or rather the aspects that make something a fixture but not the aspects of a fixture that are accessory to it. Chris, Oregon

I thought the FED required all states to have a building code starting in the early 70's? Chris, Oregon

Whats your opinion on web sites? Right now mine is the most plainest janest one that one can develope. Always wanted to have a fancy one like so many of you have. Chris, Oregon