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

I know that I have talked about this before, but below is an excellent photo of how dryer flex ducting should not be used.

Okay, let us be practical. People like convenience and using a short little section of this accordion style flex duct right behind the dryer is par for the course even at new homes. They are known as "flex transition ducts" and they are allowed by codes but with some stipulations: They cannot be concealed in construction (crawl spaces, attics, going through walls and floors) and the maximum length must not exceed 8 ft. Even for these short runs the semi-rigid ducting is better, just do not crush it.

The ducting in the concealed space must be, again per code, smooth interior ducting with joints in the direction of the airflow and with zero screws to catch lint. How long the smooth ducting can be depends on the number of elbows and the manufacturer's instructions. 

The duct above, situated in the crawl space, is more problematic than most similar crawl space ducting. In this case, the duct is taking so many twists and turns that, no doubt about it, it is a potential fire hazard and it can be hard on the appliance above if the vent is, essentially, restricted. The other thing with this flex duct is that it tends to tear or come apart. Therefore, before long, you end up with the dryer spewing into the crawl space. Since we are setting the record straight here, not only should ducting under the house be smooth metal, it should, also, have R4 insulation around it. That reduces the amount of condensation that forms in the ducting when warm air is running through the duct in the unconditioned crawl space.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

This is one that people seldom think about. Either the food disposal grinds and operates, it does not grind or it leaks. What they never think about is how the disposal is wired. I would say that, at least 25% of the time, I find that disposals are wired with the wrong cable.

The disposal should NOT be wired with unprotected soft-sheathed cable. In fact, at the disposal below, there is a ding in the insulation on the cable. This is from damage or repeated twisting.

The proper wiring for a disposal is either a soft appliance cord or wiring that is protected inside an approved flexible or armored conduit.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Here outside Bellingham, we have what you might call a bedroom community on Lummi Island. Lummi Island is a small island, part of the San Juan Islands. The last census, another one is going on now, put the population at 822. A real estate office on the island states that, as a result of the building boom a few years ago, there are now about 900 houses on the island.

I know, and have known over the years, many people who live on Lummi Island. They work in Bellingham and Whatcom County and take the ferry off the island a couple times, or more, per day. The ferry, the Little Chief, has been operating from Gooseberry Point for as long as I can remember and that is a really long time.

It is a small ferry and the crossing takes about ten minutes. Despite being small, it tends to handle the travelers most days. However, this might all be changing over the next five years. I have been following the newspaper stories in the Bellingham Herald. The county is at loggerheads with the Lummi tribe which actually has control of the land with the ferry terminal on the mainland side.

And the latest is that if the county wants to renew the lease on the terminal for another five years, then the tribe wants some improvements made. That sounds uneventful enough, but the other part of the story is that the tribe has said that at the end of five years the ferry terminal must be gone. At this point, county officials are scrambling and saying that they might have to move that terminal from the present location to another location that is closer to Bellingham but farther from Lummi. If they do that, it will turn that short ferry ride into a 50 minute trip. Presently, again, it only takes 10 minutes.

If this all comes to pass over the next five years, I think it could have a very negative impact on Lummi Island and the population over there. It sure would not help the real estate market if people could no longer count on quick transportation onto and off the island. They need good access for shopping, doctors visits, work, etc.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Homeowners don't always do it, but most of them know that they should have their furnace cleaned and professionally checked-out and serviced about every year or two. On the other hand, it seems that these same people have no clue that the gas log fireplace also requires periodic cleaning and a professional safety evaluation.

The fireplace above, from the standpoint of a home inspector, needs to be professionally serviced. The general guideline is that these devices, if used heavily, should be serviced annually. If, on the other hand, they are only used primarily for aesthetics then go with service every two to three years. Those guidelines were given to me by a friend who is an HVAC professional.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

The other day a seller gave me his blunt opinion of home inspectors. He made it clear that he disagreed with the general idea of a home inspector citing a problem at an older home if that problem might be, reasonably, expected at a home of that age.

I guarantee you that if an inspector used that theory, as a business model, he or she would be spending more time in court than out in the field working. The man said that inspectors use codes retroactively and that is not the intent of codes and should not be allowed. Now, what he says has some degree of good sense and truth. Old houses will not meet all new codes and, in many cases, that is no big deal. In others situations, it is a big deal. Mainly, I am talking safety issues.

Most inspectors are trained to know many codes but not to specifically cite them as the reason a repair or modification is required. A high deck with an unsafe railing on a 100 year old house is still a problem, whether codes were around when it was built or not.

The person, or the parents of the kid, who was to fall off this 25 foot high deck built over a valley at an older house, would not be sympathetic to the inspector who failed to report this as a safety issue for fear of offending the sensibilities of a sensitive seller who was afraid the inspector might complicate his deal. Get real! Should an inspector not suggest lag screws or positive connections at the ledger board on a high deck when it is simply toe-nailed in place? Should an inspector ignore a deck of flimsy construction that feels unstable, or neglect to recommend installing smoke detectors in an older home since the devices had not been invented yet when the house was first built?

Now we get into a specific part of the inspection law in this state that can really rile up sellers. Here it is in bold print: CODE IS NOT THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF THE LAW: WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RULES OFTEN TRUMP BUILDING CODES.

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WSDA rules regulate all licensed structural pest inspectors -- those inspectors who are legally allowed to inspect for and report on all of the wood destroying organisms. These laws, and they are state laws, apply equally to 100 year old houses and 100 day old houses. There is a zero grace period. All houses are equal and there is no rule allowing an old house to have "just a little bit of rot" unreported.

WSDA rules, in some cases, require an inspector to cite a construction method as a problem even though it is allowed by codes, the minimum standards. For example, building codes will allow the use of pressure treated lumber in contact with dirt. WSDA requires that an inspector, at a minimum, probe any such material and automatically report that pressure treated lumber will eventually rot and it would be best to eliminate wood to soil contact. Around here, per the code inspectors, builders can leave treated wood form ties in the foundation. WSDA requires the inspector to probe the wood and to suggest that these ties should be removed. Codes do not require gutters, WSDA cites a lack of gutters as a conducive condition.

Even though the inspector must cite these various issues, there is no requirement, by law, that the builder or seller must do the work -- like digging out a crawl space with low clearances to soil. The WSDA rules apply to the inspector and require specific reporting guidelines. Once the inspector has done the report, to WSDA standards, then the buyer and the seller can work out what is to be done and what is not going to be done.

When the seller screams foul, simply because something meets code and it is reported as a problem by the inspector, that may or may not be a valid complaint. It varies and one has to use common sense and look at the WSDA rules. And often, when some seller claims that a design meets code, just because he or she hired someone else to do the work, that is just naiveté and wishful thinking on the part of the seller. The person who was hired, licensed or not, may have taken shortcuts. We inspectors do not specifically report code violations, but most of us know the codes better than the average upset homeowner.

Here in Washington state the vast majority of home inspectors are licensed structural pest inspectors and we are just doing our jobs. Failure to comply with WSDA law, if you are a structural pest inspector, can lead to WSDA fines and a blemish on one's professional reputation. Additionally, if WSDA investigates a complaint, and determines that an inspector did a sloppy job, that official state report may end up as evidence against the inspector in a court of law. And, needless to say, a judge is likely to be swayed by a document from the state citing sloppy work or incompetence on the part of an inspector.

Sometimes what sellers look upon as picky inspectors is nothing more than inspectors following a set protocol that is dictated by laws and standards of practice. All the armchair quarterbacks telling an inspector what we should and should not report, are often full of hot air and inexperience. Walk a mile in our shoes: These experts should, for one month, try the job. They would change their minds quickly when the phone started ringing not with business, but with complaints and demands from past clients who wanted the lousy inspector to pay for omissions in the report. Gee, knob and tube wiring and galvanized pipes would be expected in a 100 year old house. I can even guess that one over the phone. Does that mean we inspectors do not report the conditions? I think not, since I do not want to have to pay to re-wire or re-plumb someone's newly purchased old house.

What the seller does not know is that, virtually always, the buyer has a mindset more like the inspector. The buyer wants and demands a detailed and critical report. And, as an inspector, you learn early on in this business that it is better to have one hundred unhappy sellers than to have even one seriously unhappy client. The people involved in the sale, who complain about tough inspectors, are not the ones who get the upsetting calls after the buyer has moved in and has found something amiss, either real or imagined.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

It seems like almost everyone knows that wood to earth contact is and will lead to rot. That is one fact that I find even novice clients have been told, and pickup on, during inspections.

But, the thing that fewer people know is that even the various masonry sidings should not be down in the soil either. The standard guideline, set by the IRC code, is four inches clearance from the masonry to soil. That would include brick and stucco products. Now, that still gives those products a break. They do not have to be as far removed from the soil as is the case with wood. Wood siding requires a clearance of six inches.

This siding is too close to the dirt. So now you know.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Since I was a kid, I have heard a number of people refer to those of us in Washington state as "moss backs." I am not sure it is all that flattering a description but it is, also, not all that untrue either. To get that point across, I will show you some photos of our moss. Our climate, no doubt about it, produces some of the finest moss known to mankind.

Many homeowners mistakenly accept moss like that as normal. Fact is, it is not and that seriously shortens the life of the roof. This moss was under a big tree that overhangs the roof. When you have trees over roofs, you get ideal conditions for growing moss. A number of chemicals can be purchased at home stores and they will kill the moss. The products need to be applied carefully but, when moss it growing to this degree, something needs to be done sooner rather than later.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

In the wet Pacific Northwest, it is essential that roofers put metal flashings or even a shingle over the various rafter tails or fascia that extend out from the house -- typically at the ends of the gutters. When that simple step is neglected, it ends up that, inevitably, there will be deterioration and rot in those areas of the home

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That photo above is an excellent example of the problem. Despite that, some folks do not learn. The photo below is a newer addition at the same house. I guess that people do not know what to be careful of, and what to do to make it better, when they do not know what they are looking at in the first place.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Sometimes I find the psychology of working with clients interesting or even amusing. I think that, to a large degree, that is the result of the general public not really knowing what the home inspector is looking for.

Are we there to straighten the pictures on the wall, or something more significant? It seems like a number of people feel that we are on the lookout for cosmetic issues -- not the case.

The kind of situation that amuses me would be like the one described here. These are photos I took several months back at the site of an inspection. I arrived at the house, got out of the truck, and the buyer says: "I am just really anticipating what you are going to say about the roof."

Now there is not really any big surprise here, so the client is needlessly waiting for the big news. The fact is, I can tell without even going up there -- but of course I will go up there -- that the roof is shot. It is covered with moss all over and the shingles are brittle and numerous unprofessional repairs have been made. It has a multitude of defects.

Sometimes what the home inspector tells the buyer is not going to be too different than what the buyer might intuitively know -- at this house you need to buy a new roof.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Vinyl siding is a very common siding in my area. Some people love it, others hate it. I have found it on high-end homes and low-end homes. I knew one fellow who had it put on a very high-priced custom home because he never wanted to paint.

As the years go by, vinyl tends to get brittle. I think that the UV rays and hot and cold eventually take a toll. Below is a photo of a typical patio in front of a duplex. Many of the multi-unit homes and condos in this area have vinyl siding.

Normally a home inspector does not move furniture and belongings around. But, when the siding is vinyl, it is usually best to do at least a bit of poking around behind all the things on the patio. Especially if there are barbecues -- look for wavy and melted siding.

In this case, no melted siding, but look what I found behind all the stuff.

This kind of damage is common with vinyl siding. It is often a victim to weed eaters, barbecues, kids with balls and who knows what other abuses that might be inflicted by mankind and the elements.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith