John Dirks Jr

Thanks Brian. Great point. I need to make mistakes in order to improve. The more I make now the better I will be then. I am happy I stuck my neck out. I will probably keep doing it if I believe I can gain from it in the long run.

I will take what I can from this forum and use it in the most positive way I can. If you like what I produce or not, I doubt I could get criticism more stringent elsewhere. I do give myself some credit. After all what I think is what matters the most. Having said that, it does not mean I can't adapt or that I am unwilling to change. I am learning and growing. I intend to be doing just that for many years to come.

I do need training and education Les. Many of us do. As a matter of fact, I never intend to stop learning, ever. Thats one of the reasons I hang out here. I can roll with the punches too. They help shore up the mentality as well.

Of coarse there is no way possible for any HI to cover all the possible things that could happen no matter how he chooses to construct a report. To say that an HI should not make an extra effort to report what they recognize to be a potential safety hazard because he could never be entirely inclusive is a cop out isnt it. Now who is worried about liability? Speaking about liability you could have a disclaimer statement at the beginning of the section indicating the impossibility of full inclusion. Not in those exact words but legal mumbo jumbo stuff. I know, some of you may think I am suggesting making the job more complicated dont you?

I was thinking just that. Go to Home Depot and just check all the different sizes. As far as service cables are concerned , I bet the sizes are far enough apart with a bit of studying I wont even need a gauge. I am pretty good at judging sizes. You can throw a bunch of combination wrenchs down and ask me to pick up a particular size for instance. I can do it by eye without looking at numbers on the wrenchs. So with a bit of studying the different wire sizes I suppose I will be able to do the same there.

Is there a feeler gauge available for measuring the core of a wire to determine its gauge? If so where do I find one? I am mainly interested in one that would work for main service conductors.

I am creating a list for kitchen counter top materials. Can some of you help me by listing various materials used in the construction of counter tops? Please list both common and uncommon types.

I have been thinking about this some more. I am not convinced its a bad idea to have a section devoted to safety items. Sure these things can be listed elsewhere in the report but having an additional section gives you a second chance to catch something you may have missed. In addition, this way the client would not have to pick through the entire report to individually locate these particularly important issues. It would all be there in that extra section. How could this be bad? I see it as a benefit to the safety of the home occupants as well as additional liability protection for the HI. Am I missing something here?

Steven, based on your observation I am going to edit 3.06 occupied/time by adding 6a. inspection begin time 6b. inspection end time Great input! Thanks again for helping me refine.

Steven, At page 4 step 7 (4.07) I confirm an error. It should not read "concrete/block". It should read "wood framed". Good catch. I will look into possible confusion by 3.06- occupied/time being joined. Thanks

Thanks for the opinions everyone. Walter, I am glad to hear you say it is important to come across as a likeable person to ones clients on sight. I think I am pretty good at that. As far as your opinions on "writing", I think it would be helpful if you could post an example of a report. Post one that you think is acceptable, or better yet, one that you think is good. Can you do that? Pictures do say 1000 words and I plan to use them in greater numbers in future reports so that advice is well taken. Neal, Thanks for picking off the lack of info in the heating and electrical sections. It is obvious you had to spend enough time actually reading through the entire report to catch those omissions. On the electrical part the options are on the check list but I just didnt select them. In the heating section there is a lack of a step list for furnace info. I need to construct a step list for furnace types and fuels. Lets see, what should it include? Heating system; 1. Oil a. hot water b. steam c. radiant d. forced air 2. Gas, either nautral or propane. a. hot water b. steam c. radiant d. forced air 3. Electrical a. baseboard b. forced air 4. Geothermal a. ground b. water source 5. Solar either passive or active a. hot water b. building orientation c. forced air What else should I add if anything?

This particular report is the same template as the first one. Since exporting it from the PDA I have learned how to completely remove steps that are not applicable to a particular job. So future exports will not have so many "not present" comments. Instead those steps will be edited out all together. Since this one had already been exported prior to my learning the edit function, the "not present" remain in this sample. They wont be there in future reports.

On this one I converted to PDF and added pictures. The on line viewing format looks much better now. I also changed many of the comments to reflect a more narrative style. I have much more work to do in editing and adding comments to my lists. It is a challenge to construct comments in a narrative fashion and also have them structured in a way that they can be used in a broad range of circumstances. I see myself as probably always needing to fine tune a bit before printing or submitting reports. Anyway, I believe I have made some improvements thus far. I hope a few of you will agree. Still open to the critics. Below is the link to the new sample. http://home.comcast.net/~mailmanusa/sample.pdf

Woah!!! Thats like a junction box without a cover x 100 to the tenth power. When you consider that heated wires from overloaded circuits are most likely to happen in the main panel, its quite dangerous to say the least.

OK then, the idea is to pay attention to safety issues and mention them the report where ever they apply. Does that cover it well enough? I agree the additional category would be redundant in many respects. I never thought about it as a possible increase in the risk of liability. Cant put anything past the trial lawyers I suppose. For now I wont spend any time building a safety category in my report structure then.

For the sake of conversation, does anybody care to explain why their answer is no to the inclusion of a safety category in their reports?.

Do any of you use a separate safety category anywhere in your reports? For instance, a separate category with steps such as, Safety Check 1.2nd floor bedroom fire escapes. 2.Smoke detectors. 3.Exterior door deadbolts. 4.Window latches/locks. 5.GFCI locations 6.Stair railings; interior/exterior 7.Hot water heater/furnace venting. 8.Fireplace/woodstove; placement/condition 9.Chimney/flue condition. 10.Hazardous materials; lead paint/radon I know much of this might already be mentioned elsewhere in your report, but do you think it is wise to include an additional category to summarize the safety items? What do you think of the above list? Would you edit it and how?

Dont bother fixing it when all you nead to do is manage it. Image Insert: 39.31 KB

One thing I have going for myself is I can adapt and Im easy to get along with.

NACHI does have a local chapter in my state. So does NAHI. Heres links to both. http://md.nachi.org/nachichesapeakechap ... nt136.html http://www.mdahi.org/

I pretty much figured it was a bad idea. I was just wondering if anyone had tried it. I agree natural daylight is always the best bet for full exposure. Especially for judging drainage and the overall grade of the landscape with respect to how the structure sits on the property.

I trust the word of you two. Thanks for responding and supporting my decision.

Speaking of lighting, has any of you ever used flood lights to inspect an exterior after sundown? I was wondering because of the posibility to accept evening jobs during the winter months when the sun goes down early. I mean some kind of serious battery powered flood light. Something like the one that Dawg the Bounty Hunter uses but maybe with a fluted lense to distrubute the light evenly. Does such a thing even exist? Any ethics or standards of practice issues involved in inspecting exterior after sundown with flood lights?

I was trying to make this decision myself. I am leaning towards NAHI to start with. Heres why. In my State of Maryland one of the requirements to qualify for licensing is to complete a coarse from a NAHI approved learning institute. So I went to the NAHI.org site and saw that they listed my school of choice Buildingspecs.com as approved by them. So thats it. My state mentioned NAHI and NAHI mentioned my school. Dont know if thats a good reason or not but it pushed me in that direction. Any good reasons why I should'nt join NAHI?

Actually a good question Les. I was wrong with FRP. I meant to say FRT. I second the motion on the thanks Jerry. Thanks for putting up the link too. Good info there.