Steven L. Smith's Blog

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A Thousand Words of Warning

I was taught back before I had any gray hair and when I went to home inspector school that using those concrete blocks, with the channels in them, for piers was a bad idea if the channels were placed horizontally. That is the wrong way to go about it. You know, like this.

The channels should go up and down. I see blocks used the wrong way in homes some of the time, but they are used the wrong way in manufactured homes nearly all of the time. Honestly, I think that such installation is the "norm" in the manufactured home inspections that I do. As an inspector, I was taught that blocks with that channel in a horizontal position will easily crush. Far as I can see, even the so-called professionals who put in manufactured homes for a living apparently do not buy that crushing theory.

When I see them installed that way -- read that as usually -- I always tell the clients that the blocks are prone to crushing, destabilization. I think that most of the clients think that it is another rambling from a worry-wart home inspector running when he is not being chased. That changed recently. I was actually able to write  this concern into my report in a manner with real teeth -- no sooth saying, see the photo.

In this case a picture was worth a thousand words of warning.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

13 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 30 2009 11:08PM

It Doesn't Take A Rocket Scientist

Boy, it is really hot in Bellingham. That is the lead for this blog post.

There are those home inspectors who would lead you to believe that the details and concepts that we inspectors have to remember are so complex and baffling that they are overwhelming to the mere average soul. Those types  just got their comeuppance here in Bellingham.

Talking complicated theories: How about convection and convective loops? Where does the hot and cold air go and how does it get there? Some people could spend hours explaining how hard it is to figure out just why the air currents circulate as they do and these people are wary to predict what parts of the room will be hot in summer and which parts will be cold in winter.

Okay, so it sounds complicated. But how complicated can it be when one of my office assistants figured it all out in about three minutes? His epiphany involved scorching weather, an open window, an electric fan, and a comfortable chair with a cushion.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out where the air goes.

 

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

20 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 29 2009 05:20PM

Don't Let The Water In

It is common place to find that a repair has been made, yet it is not done correctly. The photo below is a good example. The original receptacle at this outside corner of the home had not been a GFCI protected receptacle. The seller hired someone to upgrade all of these -- good! While most of the work, from what was visible, looked to be okay, there was a dead giveaway that the work was not done by an electrician.

Any electrician, or so we hope, would know that this is not an acceptable, nor waterproof, arrangement for a receptacle that is exposed to heavy wind, rain, snow, etc.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

6 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 29 2009 09:56AM

Picture This: Washington State Approved Home Inspector Education

One of the things that I do, as the program coordinator for the Bellingham Technical College home inspection training program, is to work to assure that our students will qualify for their Washington State home inspector licenses. That is the goal of taking the class.

We provide detailed instruction in all aspects of the field in our fundamentals course and we create tests and quizzes for the class that are designed to serve as refresher material. Our students have lots of materials to help them along the way. Some of those materials, after classroom training is all over, can be accessed online from their own living rooms. Plus, anyone who takes the class can Email or call any of the instructors and we will gladly supply advice on procedural issues that come up.

Most people do not write online tests. I do, for after class work. Again, my tests are not part of the class curriculum, they are for later, to refresh the memory after the class.

Active Rain helps me with this endeavor. When I make a test, I often want to have a photo in the test. To do so, at most online test sites that I use, I have to enter an URL of where that photo can be found. Thank you Active Rain. This site is reliable, solid and I can write a blog on a topic, put in a photo, and count on that photo being there, at that URL for as long as I need it.

If you see my crazy assistant Nutsy, acting scatter-brained and posting, in comments at the King of the House blog, that he has way too much to do and way too much to remember...and then he has all these little photos of what he has to remember --well that is his way of helping me out. I can link to each one of those tiny photos yet they are full-size at my test. Frankly, Nutsy came up with this idea and I thank him, and Active Rain. Nutsy is no dope and while he might act, scatter-brained, it is all an act. He stores my comments just as carefully as he stores his mother's acorns. Thanks Nutsy!

Years ago, I used to store the photos form my tests at various other websites I could access. Forget about it -- AR is just so easy and so reliable that it is now my only source for about everything I link to. I can post it and be using it seconds later. If I do not like it, just change the photo plus I get a blog post or a comment out of the photo too. Below are examples of a couple test questions and the photos are interwoven in various of  Nutsy's comments such as the link here.  Man, that is one valuable squirrel!

 

 Question 97 of 300

The component above would be found in

  a)

a natural gas or propane furnace
  b)

an oil furnace
  c)

a coal boiler
  d)

a steam heating system

Points: 1

Question 156 of 300

In the heating system shown above (sometimes known as an octopus system) air is distributed from one location to another by

  a)

fans and blowers
  b)

registers
  c)

radiation
  d)

gravity

Points: 1

Question 233 of 300

The system of wiring shown in the photo above was common from

  a)

1920 to 1950
  b)

1952 to 1976
  c)

1890 to 1915
  d)

1976 to 1995

Points: 1

 

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

12 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 28 2009 11:19PM

It Should Be More Than Just a Piece of Wood

I would say that, about half the time, the door on a crawl space is inadequate. There is nothing particularly unusual about the arrangement below.

The problem, if one thinks about it, is pretty obvious. First, the various flaps of wood are touching the ground so they are rotting. That condition is conducive to attracting wood destroying insects as well. After that, how about all the gaps and openings. It is not uncommon to have rodents under manufactured homes, at least in my experience. And when they have this kind of access, you can figure they will move in. And, based on the gaps here, you might get raccoons, possums, skunks, cats. Who knows? It is a common sense matter that is commonly not figured into the overall scheme of things.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

20 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 25 2009 11:25AM

Can You Guess the Culprit? Crime Scene Below.

I was inspecting at a manufactured home that was located out in the country just the other day. The two downspouts out front were as flat as pancakes. I will put a photo below.

This crushing was from just above my head down probably three feet or better.Since there was more than one downspoutlike this, it got me to wondering what caused this issue. Then, as I walked around the site, it became apparent to me what dastardly deed had taken place. Anyone care to venture a guess? I can tell you that the clue, as to what really took place, was found on the lawn.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

14 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 24 2009 09:17AM

Those 70's Houses

Whenever I am inspecting a home from the late 1960's to the mid-1970's -- usually 70's houses -- there is one concern I do not want to miss. I pay special attention at the circuit breaker panel.

Do you see what I see? That lower conductor is copper. The upper four are all aluminum. When an inspector sees aluminum wiring, at least in my book, it automatically requires a referral to a licensed electrician. Even if it does not look bad, in visible areas, we have no clue what it might look like at receptacles or inside junction boxes. I can tell you that some of the most grizzly connections I have ever seen involved overheated aluminum wiring. There is, usually, no easy solution for it. One can live with it, have it replaced or get it "pigtailed" a process done by an electrician. The problem is, that is not such a cheap little process either. The clients need to be informed of all options, and costs, by an electrician.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

10 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 23 2009 05:00PM

Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Aging Furnaces

There are times when, just glancing at a furnace, it does not look so bad. But a look up under the draft hood can be the first clue that time is not on our side.

The furnace above was in that category. Further investigation showed that it was installed in 1981, so that makes it 28 years old. That puts it well-beyond the high end of the design life of a gas furnace. There were other issues with the venting and the room it was now in had been converted to a bedroom. When a furnace is in a bedroom a number of very specific steps must be taken to assure proper combustion air, adequate venting and isolation from those sleeping. None of that was taken into account either.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

19 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 23 2009 08:37AM

Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) -- Paging the Engineer

Trusses that you are likely to see up in attics are engineered components. They are designed by structural engineers and truss manufacturing companies that have special software. That software has sophisticated math that has been figured out as far as loads, spans. The catch is you cannot monkey with a truss. The builder or homeowner cannot start cutting. The basic rule is that when a truss has been cut, the problem should be passed on to an engineer. Sometimes it takes some studying to figure out if a truss has been altered or not. There are other times when that fact hits you in the head. The other day I opened an attic access and viola!

It may irritate the buyer when an inspector has to refer this issue on. Some buyers think the inspector should figure it out, what to do. Fact is, I talked to a man who designs trusses for a leading company in Whatcom County. He uses that fancy software that I talked about above. He said that even his firm MAY NOT suggest corrections for this type of homeowner modification -- with one exception: if it can be put back exactly as it was, then that may be a solution. So, even the guys who design the trusses for truss manufacturers refer this kind of amateur handiwork out to engineers. Remember, a little cut here and another one there can be a major headache down the road!

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

8 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 22 2009 04:33PM

Not Quite Strapped In Bellingham

There is no doubt about it at all. The person who installed the water heater had planned to put seismic straps on the tank. Now this was not a professional installer, that was for sure because the TPR drain was routed up and through flex drain. That is not the way to go about that.

But when I looked at, and touched the tank, it shifted around more so than it would if it had any type of bracing or brackets on it.

In a case like that, you always wonder if the installer did not know the tank requires straps in our seismic zone. But then I noticed something in a new box down beside the tank. When I touched the box, it was heavy. Bottom line is, while we thought about it, we are still not quite strapped in Bellingham.

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

7 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • July 22 2009 09:09AM