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

Drainage around the home can be a problem. Drainage, or bad drainage, is one problem that I see over and over again working as a Bellingham home inspector at King of the House. You know the result: Water ending up in the crawl space or even in the garage. Around here, at many lots, the slope of the driveway is toward the house. With the heavy rain we receive, that can lead to rain in the garage. To get around that, often a drain is installed in front of the garage door. Then, from there, there will be some reverse slope back toward the drain.

The plan is good, until the homeowner moves in and never thinks to clean the drain. Those drains in front of the garage are like gutters -- they are NOT self-cleaning! Sometimes, to make things work, homeowners have to put some elbow grease into maintaining their properties.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

As a home inspector, who is interested in marketing and has a background in it, I like to see good looking ads and flyers. With that in mind, I try to make sure that the materials I post on Craigslist provide a professional look. I am not much impressed with the average Craigslist ad that is drab and looks like a classified in the newspaper. I do not find Craigslist a big factor in my business, not compared to general SEO efforts, but I have had some calls, over the years, as a result of Craigslist ads.

I borrowed from realtors here, who know how to make good looking flyers. The links below go to a couple flyers that I made and that are now active. This top one is a link to the Craig's list flyer that represents my home inspection firm, King of the House, Inc.

http://bellingham.craigslist.org/rts/1697597847.html

The lower one is a link to a flyer that promotes the Bellingham Technical College home inspection training program. 

http://bellingham.craigslist.org/rts/1706373596.html

I think these color flyers with logos and information are a huge improvement over the average Craig's posting.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

We are about a week out from the next state approved "Fundamentals of Home Inspection" training course at Bellingham Technical College. Once again, we will have a few students who are there to take the "supplemental" course as well.

Often people come in to attend the course from out of town, so I like to distribute an online map to let people know how to find their way around campus. This one, published by the college, is helpful but for a more detailed version of this campus map, click here,      

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

In Washington state a common term among home inspectors is "conducive condition." I know that the local real estate agents in Bellingham and the whole region see this terminology in reports. It refers to a condition that can lead to attracting wood destroying organisms -- rot or wood destroying insects. The definition is pretty broad, rooted with WSDA, and it can mean anything from a leaking drain to a bad downspout or dirt against cladding.

One conducive condition that I have seen three times this week is firewood piled up against the house or stored in mass under the deck. Firewood often has wood destroying insects working in the wood, such as carpenter ants. And it is not uncommon for rot to be present as well. 

Any homeowner who burns firewood should NOT store it against the house, under the deck or in the attached garage or in any structure that one is hoping to keep in good shape.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

The topic of this post is probably not exactly what you might expect it to be based on the title. Over and over again, in this wet climate here in Bellingham, I run into planters and pots that are resting on wood decks. Homeowners are often surprised when an inspector tells them that that is a problem.

There are a few issues with this (1) when the pot is watered, the deck gets wet, (2) when it rains, the deck gets wet, (3) since there is no gap under the pot, the deck stays wet, (4) wood destroying organisms are attracted to wet wood.

This photo illustrates the problem well.

My recommendation is to keep the pots off the deck. But, if you cannot help yourself, at least put spacers under them so the wood has some chance of eventually drying.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

We have less than two weeks now until the beginning of the next fundamentals of home inspection training class at Bellingham Technical College. Monday, May 3, is the day.

This is a four week course and the first three weeks are comprised of 120 hours of fundamentals training and instruction while the last week consists of 40 hours of field training.The student who passes the course, both sections, will be approved to sit for the state home inspector licensing exams. This is, of course, a fully state approved course, approved by the Washington State Department of Licensing, Home Inspector Division. And, for those who require the training, we will concurently be offering a supplemental course. Anyone wishing to obtain more information may call 360-752-8796 or 360-676-6908.

Steven L. Smith

I have been busy the last couple weeks, but it is great to see that Dennis Chamberlain has a blog here at Active Rain.

I first met Dennis and his son, Cody, when they took the Bellingham Technical College Fundamentals of Home Inspection training course and field training earlier in the year. Dennis had lots of experience in the field, but wanted to add the finishing touches.

You can check out Dennis right here.

This father and son team is a great concept and I think they will do well at Pro-Sight Property Inspections (their firm) working in the Ritzville and Moses Lake markets -- serving that whole area.

If you have not stopped by to say hi to Dennis, then make sure that you do so. Dennis is on top of marketing. Just tonight I got a google alert that my firm name had been found by the search spiders. When I checked it out, google had found my comment that I had left at Dennis' blog. He is getting attention already.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

When I was at the butterfly house in Seattle Center the other day, there was a photo that I just had to take. Problem is, these butterflies land almost everywhere and anywhere and a few of them end up squished. As a result of that, they made up this clever sign.

Take a close look at the sign. The photo is more amusing than it appears to be at first glance.

I have been so busy working lately, no rest for the wicked, that I barely have time to keep up with Active Rain. I was looking through some photos, trying to find one that I wanted to post this evening. I have yet to find that one but, while looking, I saw this photo.

This is a photo from the visit that my wife and I made to Salt Spring Island, in BC, this past winter. I think this is a really nice photo of the little harbor in Ganges.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

On a home that has any age on it, here in the northwest, it is not uncommon to find significant moss growth on the roof. We really are moss-backs. The rainfall and wet environment leads to moss on driveways or sidewalks, where the surface can become too slick to safely walk. Or, more often than not, the inspector will find it on roofs and wood decks. The moss will lead to wood decay and it impedes drainage and greatly shortens the lifespan of most roofing materials.  I would like to say that the roof below is among the worst specimens I have seen but, fact is, it is not. 

This roof has many problems and leaks at this time. At this point, the best thing to tell a prospective buyer is to plan to replace the roof and sheathing.

'Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith