Jim Morrison

$195.00/hour field time. Truth is, I'd much rather inspect a 3BR ranch or two in the same day. Easier work and better hourly rate, but you gotta do what you gotta do to put beans on the table.

Brian, Welcome to TIJ. You can search the archives for lots of threads about how to get started in this biz. The very best thing you can do for yourself is start going to all of the www.ashinewengland.org meetings. You will rub elbows with some of the best and brightest in this field. After a while, if you work hard at networking, you will find someone whose style is similar to yours and they'll take you on a few ride-a-longs. But you have to go to them. They aren't going to come looking for you. They're a great group of guys you should at least be familiar with. Good luck, Jimmy

This is a great issue for HI's to punt on. Maybe the best. Advise your client that vermiculite could contain asbestos and point them to the EPA website for the latest information. Boom, done. I have no idea how much of it actually contains asbestos. I'd expect some regional differences given the number of mines, though. Truth is, there's probably so little hard data to go on that there's no way you could make any kind of a meaningful generalization about it.

You should get in touch with Jeff May at: www.mayindoorair.com

You're going to have to totally rebalance the system.

The only downside to geothermal heat pumps is: you have to live to be 240 years old to reach the break-even point on the investment. Oh, and you'd better have a whole lotta faith in the installer.

Better to undersize your furnace slightly than oversize it. Ideally, on the coldest day of the year, it should be running almost continuously.

I'll take Mike's word for it that he's good people, but in a single column he managed to reinforce the two worst HI stereotypes out there: 1) The "Deal Killer", and 2) The "Refer Every Buyer to Every Specialist Every Time Guy" There's nothing good for the HI profession in that column. Jimmy

Haters gonna hate.

Kevin, I think our goal should be clear writing that is easy to understand. That's not quite the same thing as dumbing things down. Mark Twain's writing would probably score consistently low. He's very popular and very accessible. Don't dumb it down. Clear it up. Also, it's been said on this forum a thousand times, but it's worth repeating, the active voice is much clearer than the passive voice. Jimmy

And your score was? Had to be high. How kind. I popped in a random chunk of text from my last inspection at scored a 10.43. @Marc- What about telling a client something along the lines of "The return ducts are leaking air which will raise your electric bill. Get the duct joints sealed now." I think the Gunning-Fox index is a fairly useful (and did I mention free?) diagnostic tool for HI's looking to become better (that means clearer) report writers. It's certainly worth the cost of admission.

This is a free online writing analysis tool that I just came across I think might be of some use to us. It estimates the years of formal schooling (8=8th grade) a person would need to understand your text. I would submit that home inspection reports should be scoring in the 8-10 range, but never higher than 12. It's imperfect, but it's free. Cut a few hundred words from your last report, paste them in the box and see how you score. Jim

I used to write things like that, but I don't anymore. Here in Boston, we get just about every kind of weather, some times in the same day. Even a good flashing will leak in a Nor-easter, so I got to thinking: "What am I telling them to monitor for?" For the leak I know will eventually come, because this flashing aint right? If I came across the flashing in Steven's photo tomorrow, I'd tell them that the flashing was poorly installed and will leak. That chimney should be properly flashed by a roofer now. No one in their right mind has ever monitored a questionable -or any other kind of- flashing. Flashings are in that special and fat category of things like our spleens and fuel injectors. Very few people even know what they do or how they do it. Most of us just go about our business ignoring them at all times, until they fail. Then we panic and overpay the first fool who offers to fix 'em. These days, when I see a bad flashing, I tell people that shingles rarely leak, but weak flashings regularly do. I say: "Get it fixed so you can go back to ignoring it with confidence."

Yet.

There's an old idea that says if you can't explain something in a way that makes it both plain and simple, then you probably don't understand it well enough yourself. I think Kurt's dead-on. Clear writing is very, very difficult. Longer sentences and longer paragraphs typically cloud things up, not make them clearer.

I think you need a vacation.

Hey, I think you said that once about me, too.

Not only do the joints leak, but the rest of the copper gets perforated. I don't know what flies in other parts of the country, but we rarely see copper risers on a steam system, and when we do, it's obvious why it's such a bad idea. Type K brazed copper? Never seen it on a steam system.

Congratulations cousin Mike, I had to go to the Urban Dictionary to learn what the hell wolf tickets are. Two years of marriage has civilized me to the point that my slang is now lagging behind TIJ's. I'm not sure what to make of that, but there it is.

Also, copper risers? That is an unfailing sign of an installer who doesn't understand steam systems.

Great inspectors are not necessarily great TV guys, and vice versa. I don't watch TV, but I would no more expect a TV inspector to be a great home inspector, than I would expect Frank Oz to be a great sow. Apples and oranges, folks, but more power to the folks who can make either paradigm work for them. Happy Thanksgiving, JM

Since that house is in the neighborhood I grew up in, I'll just chime in and say that you probably can't blame the city inspector for this, most folks don't pull permits for stuff like this. Sad story, but better to die doing what you enjoy (even if you don't do it that well) than to die in front of the TV watching other people do it.

Our collective loss. All good things, Jimmy

I'll just need a bank-certified check for $780.00 before I can answer that.

Is anyone denying that smokers fill the air around them with carcinogens?