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

Sports and athletics is big in Whatcom County. And it tends to be an even more important way of binding communities together in the smaller cities.

I cannot remember a local athlete who has created the excitement of Jake Locker, who was a star football quarterback at Ferndale High School a few years back. Jake led his team to the state championship.

Then, when he was recruited by the ever popular, and historically strong, University of Washington football team, well that was big news.

Jake is in contention for the Heisman Trophy and he was back in his hometown of Ferndale yesterday for the parade and kickoff to the 115th annual Old Settler's Picnic.

To read more on this bit of Americana, I will direct you to the Bellingham Herald article. Another famous resident from this area is Hillary Swank, the Academy Award winning actress.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

It seems that everyone I have run into has heard of carpenter ants. Next to termites, carpenter ants are an infamous wood destroying organism.

Another ant, tends to be smaller, that can really raise havoc is the moisture ant, or cornfield ant. These ants are not as aggressive as carpenter ants. Carpenter ants will move into sound, non-distressed, wood.

The moisture ants move into wood that is extremely wet, soft and rotten to begin with. Below is a photo of what is called moisture ant "carton" and it is below a toilet that was leaking in Point Roberts, WA. Replacing damaged lumber and repairing a leak should take care of this pest. If you want to see a list of all of the wood destroying organisms found in this region, you can check out my recent video.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Over the years, I have had any number of local inquiries from individuals who wanted to know the names, and the various species, of wood destroying organisms that might be found in Bellingham -- not Eastern Washington, but in Bellingham and Whatcom County.

This narrated slideshow will, in detail, provide that localized information to inquisitive real estate professionals and to buyers and sellers. Simply click the start button, center of the video link below, to see the presentation.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Recently I wrote about the proliferation, or population explosion, of rats here in the Pacific Northwest. You can read that here. I will tell you right now, that this increase in rats is not a problem at my house.

First off, inside the house we have the three boys. And while they look a bit lazy in the photo, they are real animals when it comes to anything that looks like rodents -- even toy rodents.

In fact, the boys are actually the second line of defense. They are from feral stock in the neighborhood orignally and, while we managed to get most of their family members on the outside neutered or spayed, the boys have a number of other family members, including mom and dad, who are still mainly feral and they live in the backyard.

I would give someone a better chance of breaking into Fort Knox than a rat getting through this gauntlet of felines.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

In the wet Pacific Northwest, it is important to keep water out of the crawl space and/or the basement. There are many ways to keep runoff out of the substructure areas. For example, gutters and downspouts routed to adequate drains will help.

A much more basic means of shielding the home is purely common sense. Perimeter concrete -- patios, sidewalks and driveways -- should slope AWAY from the home. Taking this to the most basic level, the grade of the soil should also be sloped away from the house.

This can often be done in the course of gardening. The lot below has soil sloped toward the house, my grubby paw is emphasizing the slope issue.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I am working on a video presentation involving wood destroying organisms and my friend Dan Suomi, WSDA, brought me some photos of extensive damage from subterranean termites. For every other insect pest present in the state I have good samples and photos of damaged wood.

But that is not the case with the "subs". They are found in Whatcom County, but not with anything close to the frequency of many of the other insect pests. Here are a few photos that were provided to me by Dan. In the top photo the termites are caught in the act. But check out the last photo, the mud tube that they use for going from underground up into the lumber.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

When Dan Suomi from the Washington State Department of Agriculture spoke to the home inspection training class at Bellingham Technical College recently, he stated that some areas of the northwest are having a rat population boom.

I have got to say that I sure do see a ton of rats anymore. I see them in low-end houses and also in high-end homes.

Dan said that the intruders are a combination of Norway rats and roof rats (no relation to Nutsy S. Wallenda).

Below is a photo of Dan with one such critter that is going nowhere in a hurry. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

When schedules can be worked out, Dan Suomi, of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, is a presenter at the Fundamentals of Home Inspection Training program at Bellingham Technical College.

In the old days, a year back, anyone who was a home inspector in the State of Washington was required to be licensed by the WSDA as a structural pest inspector if any conducive conditions (moisture or problems that could cause rot or attract insects) or instances of rot or wood destroying insects were cited in a report.

With the creation of the sole "home inspector", a result of licensing, a home inspector with no WSDA license may now mention rot and conducive conditions but he or she may not cite specific problems with insects in the report or verbally. If the home inspector has any suspicion, at all, of there being insect problems, the wording  that is allowed by WSDA is limiting.

In my market, Bellingham, it seems that we inspectors are keeping our structural pest inspector licenses so we are dual licensed. I have heard that in other areas, the now, and newly licensed, home inspectors are dropping the structural pest inspector licenses. That is a personal business decision at this point. And consumers, on the other hand, also need to make a personal decision as to whether or not they wish to hire only a home inspector or if they wish to hire an individual with a dual license, who is legally allowed to provide them with more information. In many states that segregation has been the case for years, in Washington realtors and buyers have come to expect, in most instances, a structural pest inspection with a home purchase.

Historically, in my market, some of the biggest "deal-killers" involve the wood destroying insects -- anobiid beetles or carpenter ants.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Don't get me wrong. Having great search engine optimization as a result of Active Rain is, how else can I say it -- swell and a very good thing.

However, now how do I say this gently, there are times when that SEO prominence sucks. You are probably wondering when that might be. The answer is when you are doing research on a topic that you have written on heavily in the past at Active Rain.

In the last few days I wanted to do additional research on the insect pest known as the anobiid beetle. When I googled "anobiid beetle" the creepy crawling wood destroyer in the photo below, some of the main hits on the first page of google were articles I have written over the years here at Active Rain. 

I was, also, doing additional research on the L-P inner seal siding signature knot and, same thing, many of the photos and the information that I found were images and words that I had posted in the past here at Active Rain.

So there you got it, unless you are satisfied by being "Your Own Einstein" then this enhanced SEO really sucks. You cannot find out anything new. All you get with searches is stuff that you already knew in the first place.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I have written about this dozens of times. But I shall write about it until the problem is resolved. Fat chance!. In our damp climate in the PNW, and with our unconditioned crawl spaces, we have foundation vents that are designed to be left open and unimpeded. People may keep vents open but they pay no attention to the soil around the vent at the outside. Example below:

Not only does that soil block the vent, but if you go inside the crawl space you will find that the dirt is cascading down inside the crawl space. There are a couple solutions: Remove soil in front of the vent or, more practical usually, put in a well in front of the vent that will hold the soil back. So simple, but it does take a bit of work.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith