In a blog yesterday I wrote about Washington State mandated conducive conditions. Conducive Conditions -- In this state, they are a big deal to any home inspector who is properly licensed and operating in a legal manner. Below is a photo of one of the most common conducive conditions. Over and over again, the home inspector sees decks that have wood to earth contact in many different locations. In this case, there actually is a concrete pier under the post, but the homeowner has piled dirt around it and up onto the post. It has probably been this way for a longtime. This photo gives a great example of why this is bad. You will see the moisture wicking up into the wood, near the bottom. This makes the wood very wet and wood with a moisture content over 20 percent is likely to rot. The moisture content in this is way above 20 percent. By the way, wood in contact with gravel, beauty bark, etc is also a state mandated onducive condition. Wood such as this is susceptible to wood destroying insects and wood destroying fungi.
Thanks for looking.
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham WA home inspector
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