Paul MacLean

I just got a call from a client I inspected a small condo for last July 7. This is an 8 unit complex and his unit is on the ground floor with a unit directly above him. The building is 20 to 30 years old. The problem is that he is hearing a loud, sporadic bang, thump or knock coming from the living room ceiling. He says it sounds like someone bouncing a hard ball off the floor in the unit above. The guy above says he is not making the noise and that he doesn't hear it. This has been going on for about three weeks and occurs mostly at night (keeping my client from sleeping). The noise will start in the evening and become more frequent as the night goes on, and then gradually stop in the morning...no banging during the daylight hours. We talked about the possibility of water hammer, but the frequency doesn't seem to correspond with any faucet operation, etc. He knows what the popping of a water heater with deposit build-up the tank sounds like and says that's not it. The building is all electric and the HVAC system I reported is almost 20 years old. The heating system is forced air with electric coils and a central AC with a common blower. The ductwork is all hidden between floors. I didn't think to ask if he changed out the system as I recommended in my report. Any ideas out there? I'm just trying to help my client out and don't know where to go from here. Who should he call (like they are going to come out in the middle of the night and wait for the thump)? Any and all ideas will be appreciated. Paul in Austin

That's basically what I use, but then when the houses are only ten feet apart it's had to tell. For me it's a judgment call and I don't worry to much about "code". We have some areas of town that are table top flat and you won't get a 6" drop in three lots.

I really didn't want to talk about branding before InspectionWorld, and now that I have been to InspectionWorld and seen Branding I still don't want to talk about it. I'll use what I can and dump the rest. I'll shut up now.[xx(]

"That is why I don't charge extra for pools. I use the normal controls, and perform a visual inspection of the surface and equipment. ANY problems get referred to an expert. I can see someone charging $XX.00 extra for a pool inspection and not testing the water that the seller just dumped 5 gallons of chlorine into to make the water clear again. Buyer jumps in the next day and WHAMO they are blind for the next ten minutes and there hair and suit are now white." Boy, I screwed that quote up[:-banghead] I do the same and charge extra because it's extra time on the job. I don't test the water, tell'em I don't test the water and tell'em to get the water tested. All on the report.

Hey Brian, I too am not a heavy user of foul language, but you're got to admit the story wouldn't be the same without it. Willie, Thanks for sharing, now go sleep it off[:-bonc01]

Sounds to me like a couple of inspectors bragging at InspectionWorld...[:-party][:-propeller][:-splat]

That was me hiding over in the corner. I was afraid somebody would try to make me dance.[:-paperbag] I won't dance, you can't make me. I won't dance, you can't make me........[:-shake]

My Streamlight Ultra is about two years old now and on it's third switch. Fortunately a local dealer takes care of the repairs. The only bulb replacement came when it rolled off the roof and fell 12 feet to a driveway (ouch!). I love it for general use. I had problems with switches on a 500,000 candle power baby I had and finally gave up on it. The Streamlight is not as bright, but does the job. My old 3-cell rechargeable Mag Light now serves back up duty. The Streamlight is brighter and lighter then the Mag Light.

Willie, Bad ethics is sending a Realtor to Cancun, not planting a sign. Go for it!

I'm with Kurt and Jim and see no real harm with branding. As long as you anti-up your $250, you can continue business as usual and ignore branding. As I see the programs, you can take'em or leave'em.

An Austin inspection outfit, used to place small yard signs after every inspection, but I haven't seen any in the last couple of years. He would leave them until they got carried away. Don't know how much good it did, but this was the same guy who, many years ago, put Realtor cards in a hat for a free trip to Cancun with every referral. Don't know how well that went either, but the ethics sure stink.

I'm off to Albuquerque in the morning [:-propeller] I hope to see some of you guys there. The rest of you keep Mike busy sweeping up the broken glass and mending chair legs.[:-dev3]

Well Willie...in Texas we have TAREI, and TAREI is a good group with reasonable continuing education. But some states don't have a strong inspector group, and it's important to belong to at least one good organization. If you have half a brain, you can't help but benefit from associating with other inspectors, both good and bad. Of course there is one "national home inspector organization" that is strong on promotion and weak on qualifications...and then there are the wannabie inspectors who care only about $$$ not quality inspections. Not much can be done to force someone to do a good job.

I have a question...how do you count inspections? 5000 was mentioned above as a good number to indicate experience. I have been inspecting for 14 years and have only done 3000 honest, fee paid inspections. I do not count WDI's as a second inspection. Doing a thorough inspection, I can't get out of a house in less than 3 to 4 hours, and many larger homes require 6 hours or more. So a really busy week for me is 6 to 8 houses. Allowing time for education, vacations, etc. I am probably inspecting 225 days a year. Assuming I can schedule every possible day available for inspections, I could do maybe 330 inspections a year. Of course that doesn't allow for any scheduling problems. So... 5000/330 = 15+ years. I guess that's why my eyes roll when I hear someone who's been inspecting (I use the term loosely) a couple years say he's done 10,000 inspections.[:-indifferent] I'm happy with 225 - 250 inspections a year. To borrow Chad's phase - OK, I'm through now.

A little drift, but close: A few weeks ago on a three year old house, there appeared to be almost no mortar between stones on the limestone exterior on some walls and full mortar on other walls. I wrote up the missing mortar and recommended a qualified mason. The next day I got a call from the agent who said she talked to the builder who said it was suppose to look like dry stack stones, and the stone was completely sealed on the backside. I asked why I could stick my pen completely through the wall. She said she would get back to the builder.[:-boggled] I never did hear the final outcome.

Knowing that the IRT measures surface temps, I still use it to "guesstimate" AC D/T. I just make sure the AC has been running 30 minutes or more to bring surface temps close to the air temp. I also check every register in the house. It's amazing how often I come up with 8, 10, 12 even 15 degree differences between rooms and even registers in the same room. I write it up as poor air distribution. This has worked well for me. I can't recall ever being questioned about my AC calls.

They measure the surface temperature of whatever they hit. They do not measure air temperatures. For example, if you use your IR thermometer to measure the temp at a AC supply register you're measuring the temp of the grill or the ductwork behind the grill (or, if you're not careful the surfaces around the register). Hope this helps!

Texas has over 2600 active inspector licensees now. In Austin there's probably 80 to 100. Competition is fierce, but in reality, that's good for the consumer.

I can't argue with any of the comments above. So far I haven't seen enough to have an opinion, so I voted undecided. I will agree that it seems like an awful lot of money has been spent on hype to members so far. InspectionWorld will be interesting!

Dan Bowers said in part: I voted for licencing on the poll. Licensing won't do any of the things above. What it did in Texas was make sure inspecting wasn't done by hairdressers. But the real benefit has been that virtually all resale homes are inspected. Licencing made home inspections legitimate and agents universally recommend that buyers get the home inspected. Of course this says nothing about the kind of inspection the agent wants; that varies all over the map.

I've got a copy of the JLC Field Guide. It's a great reference, especially for those doing phase inspections for new construction. Lots of good illustrations.

Hooray! Now we're cooking. Thanks Mike![:-bouncy]

David, Go to the home page. The history is: T.A.R.E.I - An Unofficial History.

Mike, I went back to look at my article from the home page and when I clicked on read more, I got a request for a password. It would not accept beta or my new password. If it will copy and paste, here's what I got. You are logged on as Paul MacLean Home Forums MenuAll ForumsActive TopicsActive PollsPhoto AlbumsFile ListerFile Library >Events Calendar MenuEvents CalendarDailyMonthlyYearlyEvents List >Members MenuMembersMy ProfileMy Subscriptions >Guestbook MenuGuestbookSign My GuestbookView My Guestbook >About MenuThe RabbleFAQ Active Topics | Active Polls | Resources | Members | Online Users | Live Chat | Avatar Legend | Search | Statistics [ Active Members: 1 | Anonymous Members: 0 | Guests: 1 ] [ Total: 2 ] [ Newest Member: John ] [ PM Inbox Paul MacLean - You have 0 message ] [ There Are 1 active topic since your last visit ] There Was A Problem You must enter the password for this forum. Go Back Return to the forum Briefback, The Inspector's Journal Inspectors-Only Forum © 2003 all topics or replies that are posted are copyrighted material of The Inspector's Journal A division of Kenmore Residential Services LLC. This page took 0.12 seconds to load... Powered By: Snitz Forums 2000

Kurt, In the big dirty you have had a lot more to deal with then a little old inspection format. It's like anything else. You get used to it and go on with life.