Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, WA Home Inspector (King of the House)

A general guideline, reinforced by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, is that substructure lumber must have minimum clearances from soil. The clearances are defined as 12" from grade to the bottom of beams and 18" from grade to the bottom of joists (they rest on top of the beams.)

These clearances were not dreamed up to be mean, or to give inspectors an easy excuse to duck going in the crawl space. The fact of the matter is that, if wood is much lower than that, it is extremely difficult for workers to do any jobs in the crawl space -- plumbing, HVAC, electrical. And when wood to soil is not in the ballpark as far as clearances, it reduces potential ventilation and proper air circulation.

There is another side to it as well: If the home inspector or structural pest inspector is tenacious and tries to do the job, as best as is possible, even when clearances are tight, it can lead to pretty uncomfortable crawling.

Here is a photo of a friend, average size man, who is, like me, trying to do the best job possible in a crawl space where joists are, at no point, higher than 12" over grade and in some locations they drop down to 7" over grade.

All of this crawl space was difficult access and half of it was inaccessible -- no way to get around safely. Getting stuck is not an option.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I see this often while working as a Bellingham home inspector who serves all of Whatcom County and the outlying areas. Many builders, often dating back from eons ago, choose to leave old scrap lumber and debris in the crawl space. You know the story: It does not hurt anyone if they cannot see it.

That may not be true in the case of leaving cellulose scraps in the crawl space. Wood destroying organisms, often first rot and then wood destroying insects, tend to be attracted to such materials.

Below are examples of problems:

The bottom photo is an old cross-tie, used in pouring the footing and the foundation. This rots away and not only do you have decayed wood but also a water entry point into the crawl space where the open gap exists, after the wood is gone. Clean is better in the crawl space too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

In a climate where it freezes in winter, like here in Bellingham and Whatcom County, WA, it makes sense to have the new frost-free  hose bibbs. When I do home inspections and find that the faucets, or worse yet, the pipes to the faucets are exposed to the weather then I know that one of two things will happen in winter. (1) The homeowner is going to have to find a shutoff and drain the pipes or (2) they will end up frozen.

The best tip I can give is for the purchaser to install frost-free hose bibbs or frost-free yard hydrants. It saves lots of hassle. I know that first hand because, up until last year, my wife's outside garden faucets were not yard hydrants and they would freeze prior to yours truly getting the water shutoff in the winter. Happened more than once. This year I can go to Mexico in January and not sweat that one.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

My wife works at the county and today she came home and told me that a fellow I used to be a friend with, in the 1970's, died. This is a man who, like me, worked in radio broadcasting for many years. His name was Joe Bates and he had become the spokesman for Whatcom County.

Joe and I, early 70's, college guys, drove clear up to Diablo Lake, up in the mountains in Washington, to watch them film a movie called Parallax View starring Warren Beatty when he was young. The movie involved Beatty, and the bad sheriff, being flooded as they stood at a river. I will never forget watching all the Hollywood stunts, and how the poor stuntman for Beatty and the camera crew about drowned in filming the movie. The opened a dam and flooded the valley. The movie, which you can rent on Netflix, was a political drama.

Then, for years, Joe and I worked in broadcasting, for awhile at the same station. The ironic thing about it, that has my wife upset, is that he was one of two serious ladder accidents this weekend -- he hit his head when he fell off a ladder. In another one, a Whatcom County judge is now in the hospital. Being a home inspector, my wife is always upset by ladder accidents. I only saw Joe occasionally in recent years but, when I did, he was always friendly, decent and a real honorable guy. I feel bad.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

When a home has an unconditioned (unheated) crawl space, most building codes require that there be some form of crawl space ventilation. This comes in various forms but, at least in Bellingham and Whatcom County, more often than not the builders put in foundation vents -- typically a few feet from each corner and spaced quite evenly from one another, every few feet.

The preferred vents are those with wire mesh, typically 1/4" galvanized screens. Often, instead, I will see vent screens like the one below.

This is a louvered vent screen and the average person may not know it, but the louvers seriously impede the "net-free" area. In other words, if the goal is to have some air movement then these are of marginal design. With a few exceptions, I typically suggest that these vents be replaced with proper vents that do not impede venting. There is some controversy in some areas, where inspectors recommend that vents be closed. If a WSDA licensed inspector in this state suggests that, he or she is likely to receive a reprimand. Crawl space vents that are blocked are a state mandated conducive condition. As an inspector, at least in this region, I can say that I never encourage blocked vents. When I inspect older homes with few, or blocked vents, it seems like anobiid beetle infestations are often a part of the equation.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

People love their pets. They want to make the pets comfortable and make them part of the family. Instead of giving the pet a key to the house, they often choose to make a pet door or two so the pet has unfettered access from the backyard into the house, maybe clear through the house into the garage.

When there is a large pet door, such as the one shown here, it is a potential security breach into the home. A human could easily go through that door. And often they allow rain and moisture into the home as well. The other location, where people cut pet doors, is in the garage/house door. We are talking a "firewall" breach here.

My advice to homeowners is to be carefully when hacking doors apart. It might be better to give Rover and Tabby a key. Of course, since they have no thumbs, it might be tough getting them to use it.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

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The next Fundamentals of Home Inspection course, and field training, at Bellingham Technical College begins this Monday, August 30, 2010.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

First, I will admit that I have not even opened a page in this book. But I will tell you that the title is enough to put me off. I saw this book in a hardware store just today and, being a home inspector, I see the results of people trying to do what is espoused in the title of this book. You can see the cover below.

Now this might be the greatest how-to-do-it book ever, but the title appeals to the lazy in people and represents a problem that I am seeing over and over again in the real world -- People, sellers for example, are doing lousy repairs by themselves with no regard for the quality of the work nor the durability of the repair. Their goal is to, per title, "slash time, save money" and in so doing they throw caution to the wind.

I hope that the repair methods taught in the book are not like that but, regardless, I wish that the author or publisher had picked a title that did not lend itself to justifying cheap repairs instead of having the work done right. The title appeals to the sloth in people.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Here in Bellingham and Whatcom County I run into many helpful animals on home inspections. Once I ran into a herd or flock of goats, that danced on my vehicle. Then I have run into any number of deer out in rural, and not so rural, areas. And I have seen many helpful dogs and fewer helpful cats. Cats tend to hinder the inspection by vanishing and then showing up where you do not expect to find them.

My most recent helper was a very nice dog. She was in and out of the residence any number of times during the inspection but she never really got in the way, despite following me around much of the time.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I have lived on the Canadian border for my whole life. I take it for granted that everyone knows all about crossing the border at Canada and the Peace Arch, etc. Fact is, I even run into people from Seattle, or Bellingham for that matter, who have never, or rarely, travel north.

I do many home inspections in Point Roberts, a US enclave that requires going through Canada. When you come back into the US, Canada side, there is quite a cool wooden sign. I realized that probably most people have never seen it. I see it about every week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith