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

My wife works at the county and today she came home and told me that a fellow I used to be a friend with, in the 1970's, died. This is a man who, like me, worked in radio broadcasting for many years. His name was Joe Bates and he had become the spokesman for Whatcom County.

Joe and I, early 70's, college guys, drove clear up to Diablo Lake, up in the mountains in Washington, to watch them film a movie called Parallax View starring Warren Beatty when he was young. The movie involved Beatty, and the bad sheriff, being flooded as they stood at a river. I will never forget watching all the Hollywood stunts, and how the poor stuntman for Beatty and the camera crew about drowned in filming the movie. The opened a dam and flooded the valley. The movie, which you can rent on Netflix, was a political drama.

Then, for years, Joe and I worked in broadcasting, for awhile at the same station. The ironic thing about it, that has my wife upset, is that he was one of two serious ladder accidents this weekend -- he hit his head when he fell off a ladder. In another one, a Whatcom County judge is now in the hospital. Being a home inspector, my wife is always upset by ladder accidents. I only saw Joe occasionally in recent years but, when I did, he was always friendly, decent and a real honorable guy. I feel bad.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

When a home has an unconditioned (unheated) crawl space, most building codes require that there be some form of crawl space ventilation. This comes in various forms but, at least in Bellingham and Whatcom County, more often than not the builders put in foundation vents -- typically a few feet from each corner and spaced quite evenly from one another, every few feet.

The preferred vents are those with wire mesh, typically 1/4" galvanized screens. Often, instead, I will see vent screens like the one below.

This is a louvered vent screen and the average person may not know it, but the louvers seriously impede the "net-free" area. In other words, if the goal is to have some air movement then these are of marginal design. With a few exceptions, I typically suggest that these vents be replaced with proper vents that do not impede venting. There is some controversy in some areas, where inspectors recommend that vents be closed. If a WSDA licensed inspector in this state suggests that, he or she is likely to receive a reprimand. Crawl space vents that are blocked are a state mandated conducive condition. As an inspector, at least in this region, I can say that I never encourage blocked vents. When I inspect older homes with few, or blocked vents, it seems like anobiid beetle infestations are often a part of the equation.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

People love their pets. They want to make the pets comfortable and make them part of the family. Instead of giving the pet a key to the house, they often choose to make a pet door or two so the pet has unfettered access from the backyard into the house, maybe clear through the house into the garage.

When there is a large pet door, such as the one shown here, it is a potential security breach into the home. A human could easily go through that door. And often they allow rain and moisture into the home as well. The other location, where people cut pet doors, is in the garage/house door. We are talking a "firewall" breach here.

My advice to homeowners is to be carefully when hacking doors apart. It might be better to give Rover and Tabby a key. Of course, since they have no thumbs, it might be tough getting them to use it.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

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The next Fundamentals of Home Inspection course, and field training, at Bellingham Technical College begins this Monday, August 30, 2010.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

First, I will admit that I have not even opened a page in this book. But I will tell you that the title is enough to put me off. I saw this book in a hardware store just today and, being a home inspector, I see the results of people trying to do what is espoused in the title of this book. You can see the cover below.

Now this might be the greatest how-to-do-it book ever, but the title appeals to the lazy in people and represents a problem that I am seeing over and over again in the real world -- People, sellers for example, are doing lousy repairs by themselves with no regard for the quality of the work nor the durability of the repair. Their goal is to, per title, "slash time, save money" and in so doing they throw caution to the wind.

I hope that the repair methods taught in the book are not like that but, regardless, I wish that the author or publisher had picked a title that did not lend itself to justifying cheap repairs instead of having the work done right. The title appeals to the sloth in people.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Here in Bellingham and Whatcom County I run into many helpful animals on home inspections. Once I ran into a herd or flock of goats, that danced on my vehicle. Then I have run into any number of deer out in rural, and not so rural, areas. And I have seen many helpful dogs and fewer helpful cats. Cats tend to hinder the inspection by vanishing and then showing up where you do not expect to find them.

My most recent helper was a very nice dog. She was in and out of the residence any number of times during the inspection but she never really got in the way, despite following me around much of the time.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I have lived on the Canadian border for my whole life. I take it for granted that everyone knows all about crossing the border at Canada and the Peace Arch, etc. Fact is, I even run into people from Seattle, or Bellingham for that matter, who have never, or rarely, travel north.

I do many home inspections in Point Roberts, a US enclave that requires going through Canada. When you come back into the US, Canada side, there is quite a cool wooden sign. I realized that probably most people have never seen it. I see it about every week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

I was moments away from entering a crawl space which the seller told me had, in the past, been a hangout for rats. This was an inside the house crawl space hatch. I had just opened the hatch, put on my respirator and it was time to go down under.

It just so happened that, next to me, was a mirror. I took this photo of one home inspector who is dressed in his SWAT outfit to deal with the unknown creatures below.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

We are only a few days away, class starts on Monday, August 30, 2010, from the next fundamentals of home inspection training class at Bellingham Technical College. That will include a week of field training at the end of the course.

Inevitably we have students from different parts of the state and, often, they do not know their way around campus. The course, this session, will be in Morse Center, #221.

Morse Center is the building at the upper right corner on the map, listed as MC. See all you students bright and early next Monday morning, 8am.

I probably see this more often on older homes than newer ones, but I see it a whole lot at both types of houses. Somewhere along the way, the house is painted. And, in so doing, either with tape or paint, they end up sealing shut the louvered vent hoods or the backdraft dampers. I always try to run fans and see if air comes out. It is often amusing to hear the range hood, the bath exhaust fans or even the dryer cranking like crazy, but there is no airflow.

This is an easy one for a seller or a builder. Turn on the fans and see if the air exits the house. If not, fix the ducts or get the gunk out of the draft hoods. The one at the right was half working, the others not at all.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith