sepefrio

Did an inspection recently where I had to go back and sweep the entire kitchen cause of the mess I dragged in (a rainy day). I'm just curious, how many of you all use shoe covers? Do any of you bring two pair of shoes, one for inside one for outside. I've just thought that taking the covers on and off all the time is such a hassle and most that I see don't look like they would last an inspection. The cheap ones are really cheap. So, just curious what you do, shoe covers, 2 pairs of shoes or just make sure your shoes are clean before you go in the house? P.S. For those that use shoe covers, got a link for some decent priced ones that will last more than 5-10 steps?

I was once told by a contractor that that is concrete over spray or the like. According to him that is very common at a construction site (like the stack of sheathing is next to a concrete mixer). But a word of caution on this, this same contractor also told me it's a common practice of his to use lintels as a ramp from the street to curb. But yes, I once went into a crawl with a mold and moisture guy on my heals and we discussed it a bit and he said yes it is mold. He gave me the probable type but words with more than 15 letters in them don't stick in my head too easy.

When I was doing ride alongs a few years back, one little tip I was given was to always check the water meter. Not just for leaks, but to see if it is running. I was told, a good hint of a water leak in the house (i.e. running toilet or such) was if the little triangle was moving back and forth which indicated water flow. Well, this has turned out to be one of the better little tips I received and has proven mostly to pan out. Until today. Now the simple answer could be a broken meter but I thought I would ask anyways. In another thread "Brave or just stupid", I talked about a flooded crawlspace. I did a re-inspect today and there has been some good work done. But in the front corner of the home, where no work has been done yet, I found a rather large water leak. If I had to guess, I would say 2-3 gallons per hour. It was coming out of a spliced in T-joint and shooting out maybe 3-4 feet. There was a large pool of water again in this area about 2-3inches deep. No way to tell if the leak is what helped cause the initial flooding or was brokenby one of the repair guys? And that's not my question. When done in the crawlspace, I went and checked the meter again. ZERO movement. Nothing, nada, zip. So, first, do you use this "tip" and how effective of a tool do you find it. Second, I would think a leak that size would cause movement of the meter triangle. Would you comment that the meter may be broken? This isn't the actual meter, but same style. Click to Enlarge 100.16 KB

From Saturdays inspection....Deck built to code BFUM 3427.3 New floating pier design (yes there is 2in between pier and footing) Click to Enlarge 32.62 KB Click to Enlarge 30.62 KB And here is how we prevent pier from contact the soil, sit on on a retaining wall member. Click to Enlarge 29.25 KB

There was a fire at this home. When repairing the damage, they added two large dormer type extensions. They are within feet of each other. I can understand doing it right or wrong, but doing each one a different way. Just poor poor work, IMHO. Click to Enlarge 27.78 KB Click to Enlarge 27.27 KB Click to Enlarge 52.81 KB

You can't even close the bi-fold door. It strikes against the freon line. Click to Enlarge 15.32 KB

Dipped in chocolate and they taste GREAT!

The damper was mechanical, as in you had to manually open/close it. And no, the supply's and returns are not backwards. I thought the same thing at first and actually walked each line to make sure where it went and drew up my first sketch while in the attic with it. I gave it to a HVAC buddy of mine. He first started laughing then said yeah this is a simple case of massive over engineering (and over cost)a good thing. The two units are in fact inline units. The 2.5 ton fires first and cools the whole home. When more is needed, the 1.5 ton kicks in to assist. He said the biggest problem is you would never know if one unit is dieing and the other is just taking up the slack or what. There were 2 zone control panels all "Bubba" wired in, as well as sensor valves at the duct openings. Had to be a dozen of them. Two thermostats as well. Everything was Trane. It is still the craziest set-up I have ever seen. These are at each duct. Click to Enlarge 30.02Â KB The zone control panels. Click to Enlarge 56.4Â KB It's hard to see the damper here so I circled it. It really just looks like a gear shift sticking out. No wire or other connections seen, This is at the center T BTW. Click to Enlarge 33.75 KB

I have never seen an arrangement like this before. I have a bunch of pictures, but I tried to draw a picture instead to give a more complete look without all the other junk in the way. This is in the attic. There are two condensers and two thermostats as well. Dark blue are supply line Light blue return the red is a damper Why would it be hooked up this way? If you can't make out what I mean I'll post more of the pictures. Click to Enlarge 48.4Â KB Click to Enlarge 13.53Â KB Edit - This is suppose to be a zoned system, but the way I am looking at it, with the supply connected, no matter which unit us running, it goes to the entire house. Also, why would a supply be connected to the return plenum (even with a damper valve). Is this set up just fubared that bad or am I missing something?

You know, this actually makes me feel good after thinking about it. Especially since I have one agent who gives me TONs of work. I always had a small voice in the back of my head doubting myself. Well, I don't anymore. See, there is a bright side to everything!

LOL, just got an Email, there are problems with the contract. Inspection tomorrow canceled.

I am doing it because although he is the agent, he isn't the client. I made a promise to the client to do an inspection at a certain time and I will keep that promise no matter how big a jerk the agent is.

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking while reading this thread. If it's the third inspection then the client should know enough to have the check ready for you. I can honestly say I've never left the inspection without money in my hand. Now, if you submit the report like you want to submit it, the zoid's gonna bone you. If I get boned, trust me, I won't be nice. This agent happens to use blogs and facebook and such quite a bit. Won't be hard to encourage him to pay me.

This was not my first inspection for him (3rd actually) and I'm the sucker type I guess. I usually give people one chance if it doesn't mess me over big time. And a simple inspection fee, to me, yes is a loss, but not worth being a jerk. Now, like I said before, I have another inspection set up with him on Thursday. If I'm not paid by then (for both), I'm not inspecting.

I can't agree with that. If it's a house for sale and the report is being prepared so that a buyer can decide whether the buyer wants to purchase the house or not, the client is the buyer regardless of who is paying for the inspection. To assume anything else just puts one between the rock and the hard place. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike I agree 100% Mike. The buyer is my client. Thanks.

Steven, um no (I think), my ORIGINAL client, and the person the contract is made out to and signed by is the potential buyer. But I was now told, the agent will actually pay me as he is taking care of it for the client. So by contract, the buyer is my client, the agent is just paying me right? What I am going to do is, when I finish writing the report, I will call the buyer and talk to them, tell them what happened and ask then to pay me directly. As for the diagnosis, lol, that is a good example and I know what ya mean. The thing, I don't have HARD evidence of major problems. I have a gut feeling of it with a bunch of small things. Sure it could have just been handy homeowner sealing the cracks so that water didn't get it. But it could also mean there is more I didn't see because of cosmetic repairs. I also know for a fact, if I call out my feeling, he will just get his "contractor buddy" who diagnosed it over the phone to him before to come in and say no problems. Yes I would be off the hook, but my clients wouldn't. I think I owe it to them to protect them a little, nay, a lot. For right now, I think I am going to write it all up as separate events, but then do one summary comment and recommend an engineer.

Um, wanna add a twist to the story. I have just been informed that I will be paid by the agent who spoke to me, not the client. The contract is signed by the buyer, but the check is now coming from this agent. As for how did I respond? Besides imagining his face on a target as I played with my M-4, I did not respond to him. I know my hot temper and felt it better to keep it under control and the situation under control as well. I told him I knew what he was saying, and just turned and resumed the inspection again. It took him a minute or two to realize I was not going to talk or confront him so he then just left the property. As for the property, the above aside, it's actually in VERY good shape with an awesome pool and waterfall/garden area. The biggest concern after the above was the effect the pool's solar panel feed lines were having on the roof. They crossed a small flat valley and were creating a damming effect with the pine needles and other stuff and creating a ponding effect. But as soon as I removed some of the debris, the water drained right off. But considering the above pictures and my "gut" feeling something is affot, how would you write it up and would you recommend Bob the engineer?

That's just it, I can't see the foundation at all. The owner even covered the garage floor with linoleum (the bathrooms had carpeting wall to wall). And no, one by itself or a few are not a big concern. My big concern is that the cracks can be found everywhere. Those are only about half the cracks. After a while I just stopped taking pictures. No evident bowing of the exterior. All the doors and windows did open and close properly, no binding. No extra load on the truss that I saw either. I am more concerned about what I can't see instead of what I actually see. There has been so much cosmetic repair (caulk, Spackle and paint) to the home that I'm convinced there are more hidden problems. All the cracks, interior and exterior can be explained separately or it could also be one big thing. The one area that concerns me the most, is the front right. All the cracks there point in the direction of that corner of the house settling. Again could just be random or the corner is settling. The rest I could not put a real pattern to them. Maybe because the client told me she "had a home in the wetlands with a bad foundation" and that she is a lawyer has me thinking a little extra, lol. As for this agent, my first decision is what do I do about Thursday. I have another inspection with him then.

As I replied in another thread, today I had a bit of fun today. But a little background. I arrive at the inspection and the only one there is the one of the "Team" members, not the agent who set up the appointment. I was told the buyers were out of town and would not make it. Well I start the inspection and finished the exterior. When I went inside, I saw a second lady there. I thought maybe she was the listing agent, but no, she is the buyer. Cool I thought, no need to mail reports/contracts. So I did my contract brief and got everything signed. At the end I asked if she had any concerns or special questions she wanted answered. She said "Yes, I used to own a home in some wetlands and the foundation here worries me". Well I told her about some of the things I had found so far (all the cracks) and that I was looking more into it. I also told her if there is foundation damage, I may not be able to see the damage itself, just signs of it and a more destructive inspection by Bob the engineer may be needed. Well I guess the agent sent to watch the inspection got scared and called her boss. About 45m later, he arrives and comes looking for me. He goes into the a rant about me scaring his clients about foundation, mold and termite damage. I was like what? The ONLY thing I said about mold or termites was my disclaimer, I hadn't seen any signs of either so far. As for the foundation, I had answered the clients question, period. He told me to just do the inspection and not talk to the clients anymore. I was just to write the report and submit it. He also said he called a buddy of his who said it was probably all good and if anything it was the footing and not the foundation. All that based on what this agent told him on the phone, lol. Anyways, here are the pictures of what I saw. Couple of notes, like I said, all the cracking had been caulked up and painted. If you can't see the cracks in the picture look for tha caulk. If you still can't let me know I'll highlight them too. I did highlight a few I thought were hard to see. Also, on the inside, there were a tremendous amount of drywall seem cracks and what looked like Spackle patches in the top and or bottom corners of windows and doors. The entire interior was freshly painted (except ceiling) but these patches were clear. Click to Enlarge 64.37 KB Click to Enlarge 52 KB Click to Enlarge 48.83 KB Click to Enlarge 39.06 KB Click to Enlarge 36.99 KB Click to Enlarge 51.83 KB Click to Enlarge 39.58 KB Click to Enlarge 41.23 KB Click to Enlarge 48.68 KB Click to Enlarge 42.68 KB Click to Enlarge 74.1 KB Click to Enlarge 58.76 KB Click to Enlarge 66.51 KB Click to Enlarge 50.09 KB Click to Enlarge 46.74 KB Click to Enlarge 59.32 KB Click to Enlarge 44.55 KB Click to Enlarge 58.9 KB In the attics, you can see the web pulling away from the gusset plate. You can see where it was, the scraping and where it is now. About 1/3 of them (all same web) were like this. Click to Enlarge 35.27 KB This is the house. Click to Enlarge 76.6 KB

I just had a very similar inspection a few hours ago. The brick is cracked in all directions, horizontal, vertical, stepped etc, and all the cracks were filled with caulk and painted over again (all the brick is painted white). I also was "spoken too" by the agents boss. I was told not to talk to my clients and to just write the report with my finding and not to scare them. I'll post some pictures in a bit, I am still mulling over just what and how to say it.

Bill, if that was the cause, and that makes sense (the fertilizer), is there any actual damage to the pipes? Will they just get worse or do they need to be replaced? Would air or soil samples reveal this as the possible cause?

Yes it is a crawlspace with a good vapor barrier . City water. Yes we have identified cases of the Chinese drywall here, but the house had no odor until we turned on the water then it was horrible. The Electrical panel and the few receptacles I removed showed no evidence. The evaporator coils, well I could not see them due to the type of unit, to gain access would require vent removal, real pain in the butt. But the evaporator was gurgling, the exterior of the case frosted over and the heat exchanged (under the coils) was rusted (the repeated frosting and defrosting sent water onto the exchanger)The water (from all faucets) was also full of sediment. I think the water heater may be likely rotted out from the inside. I bet they just let the water sit stagnant in the water heater for the last 3 years. So there are signs but not the ones I'm told are the most conclusive, inside the receptacles. Chinese drywall was my first guess especially after my clients agent asked if it was. I told them there is no way I can be 100% sure either way. But after talking to a few folks here in town, they all agree it's not the drywall but just separate events. But each also gave a difference possible cause to the pretty purple pipes. BTW, the agent also called the builder and asked if it was the drywall and the builder swore up and down they Chinese drywall free.

What would cause the underside of the copper pipe to turn purple. I could not scratch it off and it felt smooth still. The only parts that are purple are the exposed underside in the crawlspace. New home - Built 2006, never lived in Water had a horrible rotten egg smell and quite a bit of sediment in it. I've had other locals tell me it could me from moldy conditions (there is mold there) to the pipe being over heated, to Chinese Drywall. I doubt it's drywall though as I checked for other signs and it doesn't fit. Anyways, any ideas? Click to Enlarge 9.24 KB Click to Enlarge 8.97 KB Click to Enlarge 13.72 KB Click to Enlarge 13.64 KB Click to Enlarge 16.96 KB Click to Enlarge 12.92 KB

No safety hazard there. I bet when he falls, he just lands on his head. No harm no foul.

Power was cut off at this receptacle (master bath) when using the installed test button Power was cut off to other baths receptacles when mater bath test button used Power was not effected in any receptacle when using the tester at any receptacle All receptacles tested had a good ground