John Dirks Jr

Where I live, Yellow Jackets nest in the ground. You'll be mowing the lawn and the next thing you know, you're under attack. I take care of those myself by pouring gasoline in the hole. It's always done the trick.

I just had my pest control guy take care of a nest we had in a tree in the back yard. The hole was about 5" in diameter and about 20' off the ground. As you can see by the picture, these bald faced hornets get pretty big. Click to Enlarge 58.29 KB Click to Enlarge 48.8 KB

I don't do mold inspections. Sometime people ask me if I do. I've been responding to them as they come and rarely do I loose an inspection as a result of my answer. I'm looking to save time by canning a standard answer. Here's what I've begun with. If you think this could be better, how would you spruce it up? I do not do "mold specific" inspections. However, during my general home inspection I am always looking for what looks like mold. When I see it, I report it as such and may recommend further evaluation. Additionally, I look for and report on any conditions conducive to mold/mildew growth such as any kind of water leaks and poor ventilation conditions.

Perfect to provide contrast and separation. All the more reasons people will learn to hire someone like you Les. When you realize the challenge at hand you quote your price. The potential client balks at your fee and hires the two day wonder instead. You are now open for the more relaxing opportunity that awaits. It happens that way for me sometimes. And sometimes they bite at my higher quote and its game on. Either way, it doesn't bother me.

It's clear this fan was working on the day of the inspection. Click to Enlarge 67.19 KB

I have not come across asbestos cement roof shingles yet.

Could you recline the passenger seat and fabricate a hanger bracket of sorts to hang the ladder up off the floor? Or would the dashboard still be in the way?

Thanks Marc. Did you notice my comment was intended for siding shingles?

Grab Sampling is what its called. I don't think its intended for use in determining the need for mitigation. Its intended mainly as a diagnostic tool to try and zero in on radon entry points or to compare potential in different parts of a building. http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/devprot3.html#2.6 http://radon.radonaway.com/inventoryD.a ... 337&CatId={F5887B8D-C4A5-46FD-807D-19B8F295CA10}

For houses that have asbestos cement siding shingles that are intact and in good shape, do you mention it to the client, put it in the report as informational, or both? I wrote this long winded informational boiler plate. How badly does it suck? The house has cement based siding shingles which are likely to contain asbestos as part of their makeup. The material is intact and very durable. If it's not tampered with or broken up there should be no health concerns. If you decide to remove and discard these shingles as part of home repairs or renovations, you'll need to hire a qualified contractor who is knowledgeable of the rules and regulations with regard to disposing of asbestos cement shingles. On the day of the inspection, the shingles were in serviceable condition and not considered to be a health concern to occupants.

Aren't the PB valves made up of the same acetal type material which is the main concern for failure in the fittings of PB distribution systems?

That's why I ask. If I can't second guess myself, then what? How will I learn?

Why would you need to access the controls when the door is closed? I see two of three of these a month. Even when the front of the dishwasher doesn't sit on the finish flooring, you can't really get to the controls and, even if you could, you can't see what's what anyway. They're designed to have the buttons pushed before the door is closed. I figured if you wanted to push cancel you wouldn't need to open the door and risk a potential leak by stopping the machine in mid wash cycle. Is that silly thinking?

Been building them like that for quite a while. You might better be looking for how it's secured to the counter top. If some knucklehead installed one like that with the controls exposed, the front tabs you secure it with, would be exposed beyond the nosing of the top. Screwed through the sides into the cabinets was the securing method. But it's not about how far the door protrudes laterally from the cabinet or counter top into the room. The smaller clearance is because wood floors were added but the counter top and cabinets were not raised accordingly. It crams the top of the dishwasher closer to the underside of the counter top making the controls not accessible because the gap is too narrow to fit your fingers in. But I'll let it go.

Good point, thanks Bob.

Alright then, I'll pass on the write up. It just threw me with the raised floor level and all. Normally the unit is lower and the controls are still accesible with the door closed. As far as being petty is concerned, there is certainly no need for that on this house. There's lots of stuff to sink your teeth in to. I'm just a tad worried about this one though. The client said some things that caught my attention. Things like, "you have insurance dont you? and, "I'm not crazy about your limited liability clause"

The home has a factory built wood burning fireplace. The hearth extension dimensions are big enough but due to the fact that hardwood floors were added after the original construction, the hearth extension is now recessed. This is the first time I have seen this. There is a small gap at the transition between hearth and wood flooring. My thinking is that an ember could hit the edge and fall into the crack and thereby increase the likelihood of starting a fire. Are there any rules/regulations which can support me writing this up? Click to Enlarge 39.77 KB

Shouldn't a correct installation include the ability to reach the controls while the door is closed? In this house they had installed hardwood floors up to the cabinet edges and set the dishwasher feet on the wood floor. The result is inability to access the controls while the door is closed. I wrote it up but I'm wondering if you would do the same. BTW, they didn't remove the knockout in the disposal connection for the DW drain line either. Click to Enlarge 37.55 KB

I know. I suppose I posted this in the wrong category. Anyway, my write up included the suggestion of either extending the the deck or having another receptacle installed which would be accessible to people using the deck.

Whoever planned this through wasn't quite with it on that particular day. There was a bunch of other typical stuff but this made me chuckle. Click to Enlarge 47.5 KB

here here

Many factors can change things but a ball park figure would be $800-$1200. That is considering a reputable qualified contractor.

Yes, I now see the typo errors in #18. That probably happened from errors in dictating with Dragon Speak. I usually catch most of it in proof reading. Thanks for nabbing it. Did you fix it? I don't see an error, but then I read text like a guy in a rush to get the answer. [] John, that is an interesting approach to reporting, and it nails all the bad stuff up front. For a while I was supplying a brief one page list of defects in text at the beginning of the reports, then the body with pics of good and the bad, then the computer generated summary in text. Now with the new software, I'm reporting the systems with good and bad, plenty of pics, followed by a summary in text. Not saying any way is better, not sure which works best. I have not fixed the error yet. As for my report format, I want my clients to open the book and instantly begin to see what they paid me for. Actually, list of concerns first and sop stuff later is an idea I heard from Kurt a while back. Again, it was the limitations of the software that had me arranging it this way. In the end, I kind of like it.

Yes, I now see the typo errors in #18. That probably happened from errors in dictating with Dragon Speak. I usually catch most of it in proof reading. Thanks for nabbing it.

Here's the explanation on the duplicated narratives; I like numbered lists of concerns as you see in the summary. 1 through whatever - no duplicating numbers regardless of what section the concern is listed in. With this software, the only way to create such a numbered list is to have the program create the summary and number it for you as I have mine configured. So, I configure the software to act on a rating (concern) I created. I tell the program to take any item I mark as a concern and put it in the summary. I have several ratings but as you can see in my report, I configure the software to omit the rating from the printed report. The only thing I use the rating system for is to prompt the program to put the item (concern) into the summary. Prior to using this software, my Word created reports did not use a summary. But if I want a numbered list of concerns using this software, it has to be done by creating the summary and configuring the software to number the items automatically. With all that said, the software creates the summary from the main body by duplicating the narratives written in it. That is why the narratives are duplicated in the latter part of the report. I agree it would be cleaner if I could take them out, but as of now, the way the program is designed, I cannot. As for pictures, I can prompt the program to put the pictures in the body, summary or both body and summary. It's important for the flow of my information delivery to have the pictures in the summary so I put them there. To keep the report file size smaller, I omit the pictures from the body. Anyway, so far that's the best I've been able to configure things the way I want. Palm-Tech has been responsive to my suggestions for improvements in the program and claim to be passing them on to the development team. I first got Palm-Tech because they had the iPhone app available to work in conjunction with the PC software. It also has the ability to use the iPhone built in camera to put pictures into the template while on the inspection. I thought this would be a great time saving feature so I jumped on it. I later discovered that the phone app has a difficult time compressing the rather larger default pic file size that the iPhone incorporates. It causes the app to shut down. When it does work, the pic file size is too large and the resolution is well below what I want in my reports. So interestingly, I don't use the very feature made me decide to buy the software. Instead, I use my regular digital cam to take pics which I drag and drop into the template on the PC program. That approach works great and maintains more flexibility and very good picture resolution while keeping the file sizes reasonable. Zoom on the report and you'll see how well the resolution is maintained. I think if you're going to have poor picture resolution, why bother putting pictures into the report?