MMustola

It looks like they bought that house at the top of the real estate bubble. Now they want all their money back. I bet they got the idea to sue to avoid loosing a lot of money in house value.

I ordered the hard copy. Sometimes I just like the feel and look of a real book. I have the IRC both as a PdF and hard copy. I mostly read and refer to the hard copy but it's nice to have the PDF for cut and paste into reports.

It's very common in an area of my county where the availability of ground water is very poor. At a depth where water in plentiful the water is too salty to use. The usable water is very shallow, about 20 or 30 feet deep, but it is basically surface runoff. In order to get an adequate volume they have to drill two shallow wells separated from each other at different ends of the property.

There is a transfer switch of sorts. There are two double breakers connected by an pivoting lever. one breaker is fed with power from the generator and the other is fed from the main panel. So to circuits that are powered by this sub panel can only be powered by the power company or the generator not both at the same time. I have never seen a set up like this before.

I inspected a sub panel that contained only the circuits that were being back fed from a generator. The only wiresw that terminated in this sub panel were the hot conductors. The grounds and neutrals remained in the main panel. Is this the correct way to do it? I called it out as a problem and now they have a sparky telling me that I am wrong. That's fine, I have been wrong before. The only thing I can find to support my opinion is: E3306.7, which basically says all conductors of the circuit needs to be in the same raceway, cable, or cord. That may be what was stuck in my head why all wires should terminate in the same panel. I have no problem telling the customer that I was wrong but I don't want to just take the sparkies word for it. Of course no permits were pulled from this subpanel.

I tried copying my pdf version of the 2006 IRC from one pc to another via a thumb drive and I could not open the file on the second computer.

I have always called out the lack of an electrical in a half bath. People expect there to be one for things like: air fresheners, night lights, hair dryers etc.. I think most clients would be disappointed to move into their new home and discover that there was no outlet.

I see no reason the door can't open into the garage, just build a landing to remove the fall hazard.

Then there is this requirement. R1004.2 Hearth extensions. Hearth extensions of approved factory-built fireplaces shall be installed in accordance with the listing of the fireplace. The hearth extension shall be readily distinguishable from the surrounding floor area

I always thought the problem was that you could not draw combustion from a bathroom or a bedroom not that you could not have a gas appliance in those rooms. Many fireplaces and decorative gas appliances have vents to draw combustion air from outside. Also un-vented gas logs are not allowed in bathrooms and bedrooms. As far as the clearance from the bathtub I don't think it's addressed in the code and I doubt it's covered in any installation manual.

I have been to 5 inspection worlds in the last 18 years. The times I went I always felt it was worth while. I am not attending this year because of money. I have more pressing needs for the limited funds I have. Next year is in Los Vegas an I will definitively attend. Out of the 5 I have attended 2 were in Vegas.

Chad, Of course you are right, they are painted. it's common in my area to refer to it as being 're-glazed'

We had the tub in the kids bathroom re glazed. I think that like most things the quality of the end result is in proportion to the time spent in preparation. The guy we hired spent about 4 hours sanding and prepping the tub. This was done about 5 years ago and it still looks great. Like most of you I have seen many tubs that were peeling. I always make a point of documenting the re-glazed tubs.

I am about 50 miles from Les in the Flint area (murder capital of the US) and I can tell you he is not exaggerating. About 80 percent of the houses I am inspecting are HUD owned. You can not imagine the condition they are in. They have ALL been striped, gutted, vandalized, copper stolen, basements flooded, light fixtures missing, full of mold, etc. etc. etc.. The inspections would not be so bad if they were straight forward - list wants wrong to help the buyer figure out what they have to put into them. Unfortunately the young buyers all think the $15,000 house they're buying is a great deal and will be worth $80,000 again next year. When they hear from the inspector how much money (that they don't have) they will have to put into the house to make it habitable they get pretty bummed out. The buyers become upset, the Realtors get mad, and the inspector get pressure from both sides. It can be very depressing.

It seems like I have used my 17' little giant ladder everyday of my life for the last 18 years. I open and close it exactly like Joe. I find it very easy to use, although I agree it is a bit heavy. The only fall I have taken in all my years climbing roofs, ladders, stairs, etc. was when I pulled my little giant up on a garage roof so that I could than climb up to the second story. Coming off the second story the ladder slipped on the garage roof and I fell from the second story to the garage roof. Fortunately my only injury was a badly sprained ankle that caused me to miss a few days of work.

Mike, I really enjoyed reading your post. It was very well written. Thanks.

If all you had was a furnace with sealed combustion drawing air from the outside, then yeah It would not matter. In this area 99% of all houses have the water heater right next to the furnace. Electric water heaters are almost unheard of. So we still have a concern of a furnace running without the blower door drawing in combustion gases from the water heater. I have seen many furnaces with loose fitting blower compartment doors that would not keep the interlock switch depressed. In most cases the home owners have disabled the switch. This is a serious safety issue that I think should be reported. As far as the blower over coming the draw of the flue, I have seen a couple of houses were the bathroom exhaust fan would depressurize house and cause a water heater or furnace to back draft. I am not out to correct all wrong doings so I did not complain to the contractors boss. For all I know he is the boss. He did not harm me or the client, or damage the furnace. He just did a laughable job. I thought some of you would identify with my experience and enjoy the story.

Here is and except from a furnace manual I had on hand. I sure I can find others if I take the time to look. BLOWER DOOR INTERLOCK SWITCH The purpose of the switch is to disconnect electrical power to the furnace should the blower door become dislodged, removed, or not properly reinstalled such as performing a filter change. ALLOWING THE FURNACE TO OPERATE WITHOUT THE BLOWER DOOR BEING SECURELY IN PLACE CAN CAUSE COMBUSTION PRODUCTS TO BECOME CIRCULATED THROUGHOUT THE LIVING AREA WHICH CAN CAUSE SERIOUS ILLNESS OR CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING. To test the operation of this switch, place the furnace in operation and remove the blower access door. The burner flames will extinguish and the venter and circulating air blowers should both stop. To restore the unit to normal operation, shut off the electrical power to the unit, replace the blower access door and restore the electrical power.

I think that HI schools do have some value as a starting point. They weed out a lot of guys. Out of every class how many guys actually become home inspectors. If you can't grasp the information or find it boring in class than you are not cut out for this business. OTOH, if after a two hour class on bonding, you lay in bed thinking about it and in the morning you have the urge to Google, then you just may have the right stuff to be a home inspector.

At today's morning inspection a heating contractor showed up at the client's request. The Realtor suggested that a heating heating contractor would do a more indepth inspection on the furnace than I would. So far I have no problem with this. Plus, it's like a get out of jail free card regarding the furnace. When the contractor was there I tried to remain within ear shot because I thought there might be a chance to learn a thing or two. This is what I overheard: The contractor found a pillow hanging out of in the combustion air make up vent. The client asked what the vent was for and all he said was " it's needed because you have a mid efficiency furnace. If you had a high efficiency furnace you would not need it". No mention of the fact that you would still need combustion air for the water heater. Next, when he removed the blower door and the furnace stopped the client asked why that happened. The contractor told her "it is so you can not stick your hand in there and cut off your finger". There was no mention of the safety aspect of the blower possible sucking in combustion gases and possibly CO and blowing them Throughout the house. And finally while he is kneeling in front of the furnace with the cover off and the data plate 12 inches in front of his face he says to the client "this furnace does not look to old. How old is the house" when she tells him the house is ten years old he says "it's probably the original furnace". I honestly don't think he knew to look at the data plate. For a grand total of $60 all he did was turn up the thermostat, removed the front covers, and make a few stupid comments. He did not even bring any tools into the house' The saddest part about the whole thing was that the Realtor was so impressed that she asked him for some business cards because she was "looking for a good heating contractor to refer".

I always fill them up and run the pump for about 5 minutes.

If you have an Attorney asking about your E&O coverage than you already have a big problem. Of course, the key is never letting a complaint get that far. I know that is easier said than done. I have often heard inspectors claim that insurance carriers are quick to settle. They are loss mitigators, if it appears to be cheaper to settle than it would be to prove you are right then it makes sense to settle. Wouldn't you do the same thing if you where in that situation without insurance? Some inspectors prefer to take the chance that some attorneys will go away if there are no deep pockets to dig into. This may be true in some cases but not all. There is no right or wrong answer as to whether an inspector should carry E&O or not. Everyone should make their decision based on their tolerance for risk an what makes them comfortable.

Your insurance sounds very expensive. I know there are many variables but my E&0 through BRP costs about $7.00 per inspection. If I had to pay $40.00 I would not carry it. Here in Michigan we are not licensed or required to carry E&0. I have it for piece of mind because it is reasonably priced. Also, a huge percentage of people in Flint are UAW union members and they receive fee legal services. It costs them nothing to pursue legal action.

I have accepted credit cards for many years. Probably about 10% of my customers pay with a credit card. I don't think I would have lost any business if I did not accept them but many customers are excited that I do. Some customers like to use their cards because of reward programs and many young buyers live by their debit cards. Also, when a customer is out of town and won't be at the inspection it's nice to get the payment over the phone at the time the inspection is scheduled. Over all the small fee (about 2.5%) of the transaction is worth paying because of the positive feedback I get from customers www.ValueCheckinspections.com

I still print about 90% of my reports onsite. If the house is large, has a lot of defects, or something that requires more research, then I will finish the report at home and email a PDF version to the client. I use a HP 460 desk jet. The print is wireless and can be run on a battery. Click to Enlarge 23.18 KB