Steven L. Smith's Blog

A couple weeks back my wife and I decided we wanted some time off so we went south to McMinnville, Oregon. It is a small town, very pleasant, and like stepping back in time. Bellingham was kind of like that when I was a kid.

One day we went on some winery tours. They have real wine growing country there. Some of the hillsides with the grapes remind me of Italy. One winery we visited, and liked the samples, was called Duck Pond. When we were leaving, we went around the side of the building and there was this pretty pond.

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Steven L. Smith

When dis-similar metals are in contact, it tends to lead to corrosion. Probably the place where the home inspector is most likely to see this problem is in plumbing systems. Often steel bonding clamps, designed for steel gas pipes, are connected to copper. If the clamp has been there a long time, it is likely that one will see some deterioration of the copper. Probably the most common place to find galvanic action is at water connections on hot water heaters. 

In the photo, galvanized steel nipples were used to connect the tank to the copper flex lines. This is commonly done by amateurs who do not realize that they should spring fro the extra few cents to buy proper dielectric unions. They look like galvanized nipples to the uninitiated eye but, in fact, they are not. Dielectric unions are designed to allow the connection of dis-similar metals without corrosion.

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Steven L. Smith

On an ongoing basis, due to being the program coordinator for home inspection training at Bellingham Technical College, I am receiving calls and Email inquiries from individuals who wish to be trained to work as licensed home inspectors in the state of Washington.

Sometimes those on-site problems that lead to more significant issues are subtle enough that the average homeowner completely misses the clues. Some homeowners or buyers will pick-up on dirt that is too close to, or up over, wood trim or siding. They know that is bad. But most of these folks do not notice soil that is sloped in such a way that it routes runoff water toward the home. There is another even more subtle condition. The level is one tool that can be used to detect the problem.

The bubble indicates that there is a slope toward the home. Concrete, since rain will not settle down into it, is a vehicle to deliver heavy runoff into the foundation or on to the structure. The slope at this patio has led to runoff water being routed toward the home and, over time, that has caused rot at door trim and problems with the nearby doors opening and closing. If one lived in a dry climate this might not matter, but it sure does end up being a problem in Bellingham and the wet northwest corner.

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Steven L. Smith

A hot water heater, gas or electric, requires a drain on the temperature pressure relief valve. And, when a water heater is inside a home, it is best if there is a drain pan under the tank and, we hope, a drain to outside.

Both of those things were present in the photo below. So what is the defect?

The defect is that the TPR drain, the copper tubing, is bottomed out on the bottom of the drain pan. One thing an inspector looks for is possible cross-connections. This is a subtle one, but this drain should end ABOVE the flood rim of the drain pan. Getting it higher by just a few inches ought to do the job. In the realm of repairs, not such a difficult job. Wish they were all that easy!

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Steven L. Smith

It was so common as to be the norm only a few years back. Now it is frowned upon. What am I talking about? How about this: Electric receptacles (outlets) installed over the top of electric baseboard heaters. It seems like every 60's and 70's house that I see, if there are baseboards, the receptacle will be right over the top of the heater.

The problem, if one thinks about it, it pretty apparent. People tend to drape lamp and other appliance cords over the heaters -- which get hot inside -- and this will at best cause the insulation on the wires to deteriorate. At worst, if the cord really gets down inside the heater, it can lead to serious damage to the cord or even a short-circuit if insulation burns off a cheap lamp cord.

What do people do about it? Well, my experience is that most people live with it and try to route the cord away from the front of the heater. Otherwise, they could do the best thing and have an electrician move either the receptacles or the heaters.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

When my wife and I were in McMinnville, Oregon on a short vacation a week back, a great getaway place, I saw something interesting on the door at the train station.

This train station was classic in appearance, an old fashioned train station. When I was admiring it, I saw something that I have never seen before, at least in Washington. On all the entry doors, there was a sticker warning that the building may contain asbestos

I really think such a sticker is kind of strange. Now, maybe, the idea is to warn any workmen who do jobs there that they need to be careful with what they tear apart. On the other hand, it seems like the location of the sticker would, more than anything else, scare someone who knows zip about asbestos. I remember a similar situation 20 years ago when I owned a radio station. At that time the Feds decided that any transmitters that contained any transformers or capacitors that might contain PCB's had to be marked as such. Fact was, even the manufacturers had no clue which parts did and didn't and then there were that parts that had been replaced. An old transmitter has usually blown any number of capacitors and transformers.

Anyway, all we could do was post a sign on it that was almost identical. I made mine from white poster board and worte it out with a black sharpie. It said: "Warning, some components in this transmitter might contain PCB's".

That sign was still on the back panel of the unit the day I sold the radio station. The sign did not explain the problem with PCB's. nor tell you what to do with them should you find them. It was in the same league as the asbestos sticker in the window. It might be there, but what are you going to do about it?

As long as asbestos is not friable, airborne, then it is not a risk. The biggest risk in this building is to any workers who might tear things apart. Needlessly scaring the people who walk through the door is probably not the intent of such a sign, but it might be the result.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I will recount a recent and story, of coincidences, that is really quite amazing and amusing. People who take part in Active Rain are often writing about someone they met at Facebook or Twitter or at Active Rain. My story of mistaken identities might take the cake.

About a year ago, I had a comment left on a blog post that I had written. It was just a nice little comment and it came from a young female realtor in Moses Lake.

This is the photo she was using. You might have noticed Heather Adkinson here at Active Rain.

She had picked up on, and added to,  a comment I had made about Bellingham and Lynden. She said that she was raised in this area of the state and that her dad was a builder. I thought that interesting, but did not think anything more about it. She did not tell me her last name had been Smith.

We commented back and forth in blogs from time to time. Then a couple weeks back, I made a comment on her blog about having owned a radio station. She sent me a private message that it sure was a very small world because she had an older cousin, named Steve Smith, who used to own a radio station in Bellingham!

Okay, something is weird here, Heather. I spent years in local radio, know who owned all the stations back to about 1940, and I was the only Steve Smith who ever owned a Bellingham radio station. I am starting to think that Heather must be my relative and neither one of us knows it. I mean, as an older man you feel weird writing to some young woman and telling her that you are her relative, maybe.

You have to understand this side of the Smith family. Relationships can be hard to figure. My dad was older when he married my mom. He had a previous family so I am about 25 years younger than my half-brothers and sisters. About then, and I had seen it coming, Heather wrote to me that her dad is Don Smith. Puzzle solved, Don is my half-brother John's son.

Don and I, and his brothers and sisters, acted like we were cousins around one another, heck he is a couple years older than me so it was weird for those kids to call me uncle. But that is, in fact, what he is -- my nephew. So Heather is my great niece I guess. The last time I saw her she was a little kid and I was one of the old adults. She is about the same age as my daughter. I had been scratching my head, when all this started, trying to remember if Heather was Don's daughter or one of the other Smith kids.

At this point, let me share some family photos. Heather may have never seen these before. Below is me, with my mom and dad. My dad is her great grandpa Lee. This would have been mid-1950's. My dad, at that time, was just about as old as I am now. He was mid to late 50's.

The photo below, probably 20 years old or more, is Heather's immediate family. That is her dad, Don, in the upper left. Next to him is her uncle Ron, Raymond next to him. Then you have her aunt Arlene at the lower left, her grandma Phyllis, her grandpa (my half-brother John) and her aunt Evelyn.

Unfortunately, my half-brother and her grandpa, John, is deceased. So where did all these connections come from? My dad of course. He was quite remarkable. In this photo he was about 90 years old. Next to him is my half-sister Sarah, who took dad back to Manville, Alberta. Why? To see his old car. Back in the earliest days of the Model A, my dad and his first wife drove with two kids from Broken Bow, Nebraska to Manville Alberta to start a farm. That is the Model A. Can you imagine four people, in that car which kept breaking down, going all those miles? Dad passed away at age 105.

And, to bring the story full circle and back to Heather, the next photo is my great niece Heather, and her kids. She is a realtor in Moses Lake so please say hello to her. She is family so treat her well.

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Ain't Active Rain fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

They always say that if you want to improve your mind, then hang out with smart folks. One of the greatest scientists and inventors in the history of the USA goes back to the days of Benjamin Franklin. What comes to mind is Ben standing in a lightning storm with a kite. But I know that he was involved in much more than that. He had a very creative mind.

I really got a kick out ot fhis bench on a public street in McMinnville, Oregon. It was a pretty appealing place to be on a nice day. Move over Edison, here comes Ben Franklin and the King of the House is on his way.

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Steven L. Smith

Well, yesterday I asked Active Rain members to help me pick my new high definition photo. They got to choose between me with my cat and my grandson. In the long run, and probably better for me as far as not being killed by my daughter, the grandson won, tummy exposed and all.

I have never changed my AR photo before, so It seems strange after all these years. At least the youth of the grandson helps add some vitality to the photo of the old bird.

For those of you trying to upload the new photos, the sides of your photo must be a minimum of 600 x 600 pixes. So a photo of 620 x 599 will not work...one side too small. On the other hand, a photo of 601 x 600 would work. Or you can put in a much larger photo. The problem with that is the AR system then tries to crop it for you and it might not crop what you want cropped. You can make very minor adjustments. From my standpoint, I chose to use a cropped photo that was pretty much centered exactly where I wanted it. At first I tried a wider photo, to get all of my logo in, but the AR system gave me a basic choice -- either cut off part of the logo or cut out part of the kid's arm.

Good luck to everyone updating their photos. Because I work in the field that I do, I have some good software for cropping and resizing photos -- you know -- so we inspectors can alter our inspection photos to provide proof of our pre-conceived notions and crazy calls. Only kidding there!

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith