A Bellingham WA home inspector sees an awful lot of issues with wood destroying organisms. In Washington State, those of us who do structural pest inspections must be tested and licensed by the state. We are regulated by the WSDA. One rule that sometimes upsets sellers, or their agents, is the state stipulates that an inspector must call out as inaccessible -- and say that it should be made accessible by whatever means is possible--any area of the crawl space that cannot be accessed with a reasonable amount of effort. General guidelines are a joist should be 18" from grade and a beam at least a foot from grade. Most of us will go to extra effort to get in and check a crawl space, even if those measurements are off the standards by a reasonable amount. However, sometimes it just cannot be done. The photos below will take you under such a crawl space. The captions explain some of the horrors that await, primarily because of the damp conditions and the proximity of the structural lumber to the soil. These are problems nobody wants to have to deal with when buying a new home and a good reason to have an inspection report.
There were about 4" to the structure. No plastic vapor barrier and many pieces of scrap lumber were discarded as well.
The joists had serious damage from both rot and dampwood termites, an insect that will only get into very wet wood.
This was interesting, and a good example of why you do not want to leave scraps in the crawl space. The aggressive white fungus was identified, and confirmed by WSDA, as a form of wood decay or rot fungus.
Thanks for going under with me.
Steven L. Smith
We home inspectors spend lots of time up on rooftops. What we are usually looking at is the installation of, and the condition of, the roofing materials. That includes the flashings, appurtenances, the chimneys, B-vents and other things that we can see up on the roof. One of the things we look for is sewer venting. Proper venting is crucial if the drains are going to work properly. You have, in real life, probably experienced the scientific principle this is based on. I remember, as a kid, trying to pour Hawaiian punch into a cup from a big can, with only one hole. My folks came along and pointed out that, if I made the tiniest hole at the other side of the can, I could pour a full glass without all the dribbling and gurgling. The sewer vent is the same idea. Recently, working as a 
The photo below has got to be one of the most misunderstood safety devices in all of plumbing. Safety devices in plumbing? What could be the big deal, you ask. After all, as one plumber explained to me once: Plumbing is pretty easy, if you put water in a pipe it runs downhill. That theory is not bad for drains at least. The logical question is, so what is the safety issue? There are some more subtle safety concerns, like air-gaps on dishwashers, back flow prevention devices to keep gray water out of the potable water. But the main safety device home inspectors look at is the water heater temperature pressure relief valve and the drain from it. I would say that about 30 percent of the time, the drain line is defective. Usually it is routed up. But sometimes it is the wrong material, like PVC or a garden hose serving hot water. Other times there is no drain line so a discharge would be directed into a room or straight out. People, who know no better, will argue that it does not matter if it goes up -- steam will be discharged in an emergency. The problem there is that, periodically, these devices might operate to relieve instances of high water pressure, but not extreme emergency situations. If the system is correctly plumbed that is a very rare occurrence, but if it is a closed system with no expansion tank, the TPR might drain during times when lots of hot water is being produced. And when that happens, we are not talking about big bursts of steam, just a half a cup or so of water running out. Obviously, if this is seen, the problem in the basic system should be addressed as well. So, if the drain runs up, this quantity of water that is basically routed by gravity -- no fireworks -- stays in the pipe down by the TPR valve. Over time, that can damage the valve mechanism so, when the big one comes -- it is locked shut. Hold on to your hat, and whatever else you have that might be loose. This is gonna be a real blast! Check out the 
Many people feel that if they buy a new home they can count on the state, the city or the county code inspectors to catch anything that is wrong. Sometimes that is true, but not all government employees are created equal and some of them are swamped with inspections. I have seen electric panels that had obvious safety issues, that were missed by code inspectors. It is not necessarily the inspectors intention to be easy or to let something slip by. I have known of code inspectors, who are very busy, who talk to a builder and get an agreement that the project will be signed off as complete and the builder or the homeowner agrees to finish of a final detail. Sometimes that part of the work is not done, at least not in a timely manner! This is common with decks and sundry final details like railings. I was told by a resident that the code inspector had signed off on this house and I know for a fact that people had been living in it for a couple weeks at least. Think about it, if you were to walk straight out the front door, and so easily step off onto the second or third step down, you are almost bound to fall hard. And this is a high area as you can tell by the number of steps. No handrails or guardrails. Broken limbs likely. This sort of detail is a good reason to have a qualified home inspector come through after the code inspector. Multiple trained eyes are better than one set.
There is always something happening on Railroad Avenue. It might be good and it might be bad, but something will be going on. Railroad, historically, was a center for street car and train operations in Bellingham. Those industrial uses are gone and today it has a huge assortment of people -- street people to professionals -- and there are a number of shops. Most of them are related to food: coffee, bread, bagels, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then there are the specialty stores, mixed in with the pawn shop, that sell jewelry and boutique clothing. The city has spruced the area up with flags, and it really looks pretty good. Despite the decorations, you will still run into pan handlers or sometimes see street fights and altercations. On one side of the street are a couple old-time (I mean going back to when I was a kid) pet, farm and garden supply stores. I took some photos of their flora vs their fauna.
I have to be careful here that I do not make this too boring, as it is more detail oriented than what I would normally write about at a non-technical forum. If you are a realtor, have you ever had an inspection report where the inspector made some comment about the "bonding"? While similar to grounding, bonding is not identical. A bond, in essence, takes two metal surfaces to the same electrical potential vs establishing an earth ground. The earth ground is the electrode out by the meter. The bond is that wire and clamp at the water pipes and/or the gas pipe. That is straight forward enough to check, but one thing that really throws novice inspectors, when we teach this at the Bellingham Technical College home inspection class, is figuring out the bonding differences between the main electric panel and the distribution or sub-panel. Without beleaguering this, at the main electric panel, the neutral buss (white wires) should be bonded to the ground conductors and the two also attach to the panel. This is usually with a green screw or a strap. That is correct at a main, yet at the sub, the ground and neutral wires are kept apart from one another. A sub-panel exists at most condos, and mobile homes, where there is a main breaker out on a pole or at the end of the building. In a sub, the ground goes to the metal panel, but the neutrals float. The top panel below, being a sub panel, is wired wrong. In this condo, the main ground is coming in through the metal conduit that is seen below. The problem is the neutrals and grounds are co-mingled and bonded with one another, hence improper wiring. The solution is pretty easy at this panel, minor changes, but if an inspector sees something like this (indicating electrical work done by an inexperienced party) he or she will usually call for repair and evaluation of the system by a licensed electrician. The issue with having neutrals and grounds bonded in the sub-panel is that this co-mingling of conductors results in the every day ground wire being in use all of the time. In theory this is a safety feature and is not designed to be carrying everyday voltage or current. The lower panel shows a green bonding screw that would be left in place in a main panel, or removed in a sub-panel. I know this is all complicated, if you are not into it, but this is the sort of attention to detail that makes it important to recommend a well-qualified inspector. I have run into literally dozens of inspectors who are doing inspections in the field and have no clue about this rule.
