denable

Pete, How old was the house? Are you sure it had 7 layers? The most I have ever found was 4. If you are viewing the cross section at a gable end, how many actual shingles are you seeing piled up? If there was actually 7 layers (you would be able to count around 14 shingles)they would have to use railroad spikes to make it to the sheathing and the weight of the shingles, especially with snow on them would collapse the roof.

How the heck do you expect to get referred again by that agent if you suggest the client budget for replacement. They are not leaking now are they? So simply tell the client to "monitor" the situation. That shouldn't alarm anyone and you've done a real service for the client.[:-dunce][:-paperbag]

Gerry, I have lost my mind, but that's a topic for another thread. I kind of figured that there was some electrical activity going on with the GFI's. I can't believe this was the first time I detected the difference and actually thought about.

Wondering if anyone knew whether a GFI receptacle with nothing plugged into it, would normally be around 5 degrees warmer than the surrounding wall. I happened to find this by accident. When I was re-setting the test button after tripping it with a circuit tester, the receptacle was slightly warm to the touch. Using a infra-red theromometer a found the receptacle to be 70 degrees and the surrounding wall next to it at 65 degrees.

Jim, If you let me boast about IHINA and let me sell my how to make a million dollars in home inspections without real esate agents on this forum, I'll promise to stop inspecting in apple country. Dennis[]

Tony, Bear with me, I'm typing this with my nose. My wife had to restrain me when I found your post. She duct taped my hands behind my back and stuffed a sock in mouth. I would love to respond to your question, but the censor would delete it as soon as it hit the screen. Instead I'll just post a link for you. http://ablehomeinspection.com/conflictsofinterest.html

I used to do that, but got tired of writing: " Realtor commented on the rugged good looks of the inspector". It get embarrassing! I actually had a female agent comment last week that I was the best dressed inspector she ever saw. Since I had nothing fancy on, (the usual black work boots, clean Dockers, sweater and a run of the mill wind breaker) it made me wonder what the other inspectors were wearing.

At the begining of my reports I have a little statement that says something to the effect:"If the property owner, a representative of the property owner or agent for the property owner has made a statement/s pertaining to some situation regarding the property, such as a system condition or age of a component, those statements may be incorporated into this report." After a couple of years of putting all the "stupid" statements agents make during inspections into the reports, there are very few agents who make comments during my inspections now. []

Brian, The argument about bigger ad budgets was made to me in one of the "hate" mails I received last year. The inspector who complained to me was charging less than $225 per inspection. My point to him was that if he was charging $400 and providing his clients with a great (useful) service and the agents did not interfer with the inspector selection process, he wouldn't have to worry about his ad budget. I don't want to have a tread drift here, but I usually check out the web sites of inspectors who log onto inspector forums. The one thing that stands out is the pricing. Why do inspectors feel compelled to display prices? Especially when their fees are less than $200. Most do it to complete with other inspection companies. Prospective clients are being taught (by home inspectors) to find the cheapest inspector. When 70% of the inspectors get 70% of their referrals from agents, it's easy to see why I get a lot of flak from inspectors when I suggest removing the agents from the inspector selection process. The reaction must be "oh my god, you mean I would have to depend upon the actual people who use my service to keep me in business"?

Dan, Do I dare reply to this issue? I can just see some inspectors out there waiting to pounce on me if I say something negative about agents. One of the arguments I made for the MA law that prohibits selling agents from referring inspectors was the point you stated, "We always say time or the marketplace will take care of weeding out the bad apples." In the home inspection field, however, we have "middlemen" who interfer with the natural selection process that would weed out "bad" inspectors or help "good" inspectors. We all know of inspection companies who get sued on a regular basis, yet, these same companies are on the short list given out by the real estate agents. The end user of our service (the home buying client) has little to do with helping good inspectors expand their business or helping to get rid of the bad inspectors. In most areas of the country the marketing effort and the "pleasing" effort are directed to the people who are responsible for suppling inspectors with the majority of their client leads. I get several e-mails each week from inspectors in the US and Canada who have been "blackballed" by the agents because the inspectors were "too thorough", or "took too long" or "delayed the sale". I got my share of hate mail from inspectors and agents when I was pushing to have agents removed from the inspector selection process. It really scared some inspectors that they would have to let the end users of their services decide the fate of their business, rather then the agents referring them. Licensing for home inspectors will not change the status quo. Changing the real estate licensing laws to remove agents from the inspector selection process will and has changed the status quo. BTW, Brian G., I like your favorite quote. I can relate to it.

The condos were in the same building. Around here all the systems have the circulator pump on the return side.

I found the remnants of an old oil line near the boiler. So I was figuring that this boiler was installed at the last "energy crisis", which was 1978. That's when a lot of people were "scared" into dumping their oil systems for clean, cheap, abundant natural gas systems. I have an oil system myself and pay $1.19 per gallon, which is cheaper that the equivalent amount of natural gas. I think someone figured out that oil would have to be $1.70 per gallon to be the same current energy cost as natural gas.

George, The pipes from both boilers connected into the pipe that ran to the tank. It was the older metal non-diaphram type tank. It sounded around half full. Didn't take a photo of the tank, but I took one of the boiler. Care to take a guess at the approx. age? Dennis Download Attachment: boiler.jpg 38.55 KB

Did a condo today. Two units in one building. Each had a forced hot water by gas heating system. The odd thing was that they shared the same expansion tank. Never seen it done that way before. Any potential issues? It apparently has been like this for around 15 years.

Brian, I have found the file upload does not work with Netscape. I use Explorer to upload stuff. Dennis

Is fiberglass ductboard the thick black stuff I sometimes find lining the ducts?

Being only a year old, I don't think there would be enough dirt / dust on the insulation. No way for an owl to et into the attic. Dennis

Where's the site that whacks realtors?

H clips, are you kidding? I find the correct spacing between OSB and plywood sheathing in about one out of 20 new houses. Dennis

Sorry, couldn't get the agent to sample it. Speaking of which I had a kind of related funny incident. There was a strong odor of gas in the basement which I traced to the water heater. The TIFF 8800 was singing real loud. The female agent claimed she couldn't smell anything. My client looked at me like he thought the agent was lying or had no smell sense. I asked my client for a match so that I could visibly show the agent where the gas leak was. You should have seen her bolt out of the basement.[] (No I really don't pinpoint gas leaks with a match.) Dennis

Dan, The damaged areas were right where the nails were driven in. You know how plywood is, if you apply a strong force in a small area it will rip out like a shotgun load going through it. Dennis

Dan, I don't think there were any other inspectors up there, but that sounds like a possibilty, something a construction worker could have done. Dennis

Hi Willie, I have probably posted this before. Whoops, I forgot I have to change browsers to upload a file. Dennis Download Attachment: marketingwithoutagents.pdf 12.65 KB

Found this material on the attic fiberglass insulation of a one year old house. Attic was well ventilated and had no leakage. The substance was found in only one small area. No signs of any animal presence and there were no trees near the roof and no visible openings around the roof / attic. At first I thought it might be animal droppings, but I've seen raccoon, bat, squirrel & mice stuff before and this was nothing like I've seen before. It almost looked like a puffy type of mold, but the attic was dry and I don't believe mold would thrive on fiberglass. Any ideas? Download Attachment: attic2.jpg 12.27 KB Download Attachment: attic.jpg 17.23 KB

Found plywood roof sheathing damaged at three areas of a 1 year house, in one case a nail end was visible and in the other two cases the nail shot all the way through into the attic. I'm I justified in being concern that there may be a number of shingles damaged by overdriven nails? This was a two story colonial steep pitched roof so I did climb the roof. Download Attachment: sheathing2.jpg 16.15 KB