Paul MacLean

My ride is a '97 Ford Ranger with a rack to carry my 24' extension ladder. I guess I'm lucky in my area because it has only 85,000 miles on it. I'm going to nurse it another 2 years then retire. My Ranger is a 4 banger, but if I had it to do over I'd buy a 6. Another inspector I know has the Honda Element. It looks great and he says he loves it. Hummer...bummer!

My wife's sister and her husband have a home on Old Ocean Blvd in Ocean Ridge, FL. It's across the street from the beach and I'm sure Norm knows where it is. Their house was messed up by a storm about five years ago and they finally got everything back to normal about two years ago. Now it looks like its "deja vu all over again" to quote Yogi. They are in Chicago for the summer, but we're thinking of them and Norm and everyone else down there. A friend who lives in Boston, now spends five or six months a year in south Florida and really loves it. When asked if they were going to buy a place there instead of renting every year, this real estate savvy friend replied, "No....., I don't think so." With Francis looming, I think I see why!

It worked for me...the article, not the defects...

Nice work Mike! It isn't easy gettin' it off.

"PS: I also found my wife at an inspection." Now that's scary!!!

Long before my home inspection days, I drove into Del Rio, Texas the day after a hail storm...soft ball size hail that is. What a mess!

Yesterday. Vacant house. The buyer hands me a 22-caliber hollow point bullet. "Where did you find that?" "On the carpet over there." Not as scary as those of you that have found bullets in roof shingles...

Donald, FWIW I don't call out gas valves behind ranges, dryers, etc. I do call'em out if they are out of reach and the appliances can't be moved for access (i.e. a water heater). Besides, unloading the cabinet beside the range to get to the gas valve is more trouble than moving the range...

Well thanks Scott![!] That's all we need in Austin is another fur-in-ner invasion. We have imported carp to eat the duck weed in the lakes, hunters to kill the deer in the garden and fireants to help keep the fur-in-ners out. All to no avail. Now you want to send us Kudzu...geez. Truthfully, I spent about ten months in Jackson, Yazoo City and the rest of Mississippi in 1988. Until then I had never heard of Kudzu. Now I know it on sight. I preferred the Natchez Trace. Y'all come to Austin! It's a great place to visit, spend a few dollars and then go home...[:-bigeyes]...what am I saying. I make my living off all those folks moving to Central Texas.

What Donald said. Here the T&P drainpipes and the pan drainpipes are plumbed separately to the exterior. Frankly, I've never seen the water heater in the attic cause a problem, but I've seen lots of ceiling damage from AC's in the attic. I take it back. My son had to have his attic water heater replaced and the plumber stepped through the ceiling trying to get the new one up there. Call out the lack of a safe walkway and work platform. I write up missing walkways and platforms all the time.

We have several vines (no Kudzu though) that will climb brick, stone or any other siding around here. Vines do no good for anything. I addition to all the comments above, they hold moisture against the wall, hide rot and other problems and are conducive conditions for termites, carpenter ants, etc. No good can come from vines on the house...tell'em to remove the growies. Oops, "growies" is left over from architecture classes in the 60s.

I agree that client's can slow you down and be a pain. That said, I strongly encourage all my clients to follow me around, watch me work, ask questions, etc. The time spent answering questions during the inspection is frequently made up when we go over the report. " Yep. You showed me that." "Oh yeah, that was the thingy on the water heater," etc. And most buyers want to be there. It's a learning experience for them. I want the buyer to know exactly what I did and what I didn't do. But most of all, I want them to know and like me. That translates to fewer callbacks and more referrals. Almost every problem I've had has been from someone who wasn't at the inspection.

Donald said: "I dislike 1 year warranty inspections. They take longer and I hate having to deal with the homeowners following me around. For example. Yesterday the wife was home with a 2 month old baby. She kept asking if we could be quiet..did I have to go into the baby's room...did I have to check the smoke alarms...did I have to open all the windows...why was I filling all the tubs...etc, etc. Drives me nuts." The homeowners can be a pain. Last week I walked off a one-year warranty inspection because the homeowner would not listen to what I was telling him. He wanted me to see through walls, leap over buildings in a single bound and move faster than a speeding bullet. After about a hour of this, I finally told him that he wasn't listening, I wasn't going to be able to satisfy him and he should find another inspector. For 14 years I have satisfied thousands of clients. This guy was the first I walked away from, and I'm not looking back.

Same here. Every gas appliance has its own flue. I never see flues connected even when the appliances are sitting side-by-side.

Thanks everyone! I'm going to pass your collected wisdom on the the buyer. I'm sure he is going the buy the house. This place wasn't built to standards and had a lot of electrical and plumbing issues. I wouldn't spend my money here; but then, it's not my money.

OK. Here are the images again. I've thrown in the chimney crown for grins. Download Attachment: abc.JPG 41.5 KB Download Attachment: abcb.JPG 44.56 KB Download Attachment: abcc.JPG 50.38 KB Download Attachment: abcd.JPG 49.12 KB The loading speed for these images was like molasses on a cold day!

[:-banghead] The forum said the pictures were successfully posted, now they won't open for me. What's up? OK. I'll try again. Download Attachment: 04g2310176 (2).JPG 44.58 KB Download Attachment: 04g2310173 (2).JPG 50.39 KB Download Attachment: 04g2310174 (2).JPG 41.52 KB Sorry, I give up. They're posted on the ASHI board.

My inspection today. A strange one for Central Texas. Concrete block exterior walls with a 'rubberized stucco' finish. What's the finish material. Any and all opinions welcome. Download Attachment: 04g2310176 (2).JPG 44.58 KB Download Attachment: 04g2310173 (2).JPG 50.39 KB Download Attachment: 04g2310174 (2).JPG 41.52 KB

Now I'm in the DUH category. I know about this concern, but isn't that "fill your glass w/ toilet TANK water, which is potable water?" This wouldn't backsiphon toiler BOWL water, would it? How could it? Kurt, Now that you're gonna start looking in the tanks, you'll be amazed at what is growing in some of them...mold, scum like you wouldn't believe. THAT is what you'd be drinking with a cross-connection. And, you'll be amazed at how many "short" fill valves are installed by homeowners when the original valve fails, creating a cross-connection. Also, anyone with thoughts on those tanks where the low-profile white fill valve is mounted to the bottom of the tank? If that ain't a cross-connection, what is? Thanks Jerry! You said it.

I don't worry about those little fill hoses unless they're not tied down and squirt water everywhere. Some run into the overflow tube and some directly into the tank. Another note: Using toilets to date houses doesn't work here. The City of Austin has been promoting the 1.6 gallon commodes (even giving them away) to cut down on water usage. As a result old toilets hardly exist anymore. Several years ago I saw a demonstration by the Texas Board of Plumbing Examiners on possible cross-connections. One example was an improper flush valve in a toilet tank. With a loss of water pressure, you could turn on a sink faucet and fill your glass with toilet water.[:-sick] Texas SOP says look in toilet tanks.

The fill valve, flush valve, whatever you want to call it should be at least an inch above the top over the overflow tube in the tank to stop back-siphoning and prevent possible cross-connections. Think of it as an air gap. New guts for most toilet tanks can be had at the big orange box for less then $10. I tell'em they come with directions and if you know a few four letter words, it's a do-it-yourself project.

I've never priced a pretreat for a slab around here, but $0.58/sq ft (that's $1450 for a 2500 sq ft house) sounds about right for treating and existing house on slab in the Austin area.

Hell, I don't even have a pool and I have one of those![b)]

Me Too! Tell us who you are.

I use a template based on MS Word that fits Texas required SOP in a lap top that stays on the kitchen counter-top. I have lots of my own boilerplate. I gather information with cryptic notes and periodically transfer it to the computer. The basic checklist format is a guide and is supplemented with narrative descriptions of problems found. My average inspection is five to six hours (one to two preparing the report). Reports are completed and printed on site. Or if the client asks, email or electronic copies are available. No one complains about the time preparing the report on site, and when I get home all that's left is a little record keeping. Works for me...