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

Please Shut The Door

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:39:00 -0700

This is an amusing and a revealing photo taken recently at an inspection at a large commercial building. It was dark inside the building, and bright sunlight prevailed at the outside. The picture tells the story, pretty poor energy efficiency at this door. You might be thinking that I should have shut the door before snapping the photo. Well, look again, fact of the matter is that door is shut and latched.

All that daylight is the result of a poor fit, lack of weatherstrippings and a threshold. When you put those missing ingredients together, you have a door that does not protect the interior space from moisture, wind or cold weather. This photo brings home the point that not all doors are created equal.

The best way to check your door for gaps is to stand back and take a look at it when it is bright on the outside and dim or dark on the inside. Verifying that doors are a decent fit, and doing their intended job, is a good way to get started at preventative home maintenance.

Check out "This Day In History" -- music and vintage television from the 1950's through the 1980's. I enjoy writing these articles because they take me back to my days in radio broadcasting. Click on Elvis' gold record, below, to revisit those golden hits of yesteryear.

Bellingham Technical College Home Inspection Training Course -- June 2013

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:30:05 -0700

Several years ago now, Bellingham Technical College's Fundamentals of Home Inspection was the first course in the state to receive approval from the Washington State Department of Licensing.

This course attracts many students, from around the state who wish to be trained, in an approved course, to work as home inspectors. The next class will begin on June 3, 2013. The four-week session includes 120-hours of fundamentals training and 40 hours of on-site field training.

The way the law is written, regardless of background, anyone who wishes to enter the field of home inspection must take a 120 hour fundamentals training course and complete 40 hours of approved field training prior to being allowed to sit for the state exams.

At BTC we provide a fast-track program that takes a student from start to finish in four weeks. After the course, we have materials that help students prep for the state test. We have yet to have a student, who took our course, sit for and fail the state exam. For an overview of the BTC course, please watch this short video.

Anyone interested in this upcoming course, should contact Steven L. Smith, directly at 360-676-6908, or Bellingham Technical College at 360-752-8796

B-vent Clearances -- Fire Safety

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:26:49 -0700

Based on my experiences, working as a Bellingham, WA home inspector, I would say that one of the most misunderstood components to be found in the home is the B-vent. The B-vent is commonly seen at gas furnaces, gas water heaters or gas fireplaces...it is that metal chimney like device you see coming out roofs. Since the vent is double-walled, it seems that everyone thinks it can be in direct contact with wood, cardboard, plastic flex duct or attic insulation.

The fact of the matter is, a B-vent requires 1", minimum, clearance from combustibles. It says that right on the B-vent in most cases, if the label has not worn off. As often as not, the B-vent has attic insulation packed around it. Sometimes the insulation around a vent was cleared away at one point, but it has been disturbed and ended up around the vent anyway. The photo below is an example of that....close, but no cigar and the situation will probably get worse since nothing is really holding back the insulation.

The best solution I have seen to remedy this problem is a metal insulation shield. The shield goes around the vent. Insulation can be tight around the shield, but the shield provides the proper clearance from the vent to combustibles. In case you are wondering, insulation may not be all that combustible, but it is still considered to be a combustible when taking it into consideration when installing a B-vent.

Unchain Your Gutters....Please!

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:06:21 -0800

Working in the wet Pacific Northwest, as a Bellingham home inspector, I have often thought that substituting chains for proper downspouts was a poor idea. Honestly, I think a house with chains on the gutters would do just as well if the gutters were left open -- nothing attached. Chains are no better than nothing!

I have some pretty conclusive evidence. I was at a house with chain downspouts when the rains came. As you view this video note the extremely wet corner that is being splashed. Uncontrolled runoff water will damage building materials -- rot was apparent at siding that was being splashed on an ongoing basis. Those dark areas, face of the corner, had been wet way too many times over too many years. At this point, the house needs not only downspouts but siding repairs at some locations.

The video tells the whole story, check it out.

Moral of this story, get rid of those chains before you wreck the house!

Roofing Worry: Prone to Failure

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:19:56 -0800

By design, many manufactured homes have composition roofs that are low-sloped. A general guideline is that composition shingles are suitable for a roof with a slope of 4/12 or greater. But, in fact, most inspectors do not worry much about a roof that is sloped at 3/12 or greater. The roof slope gauge, below, indicates that this roof is under 1/12 slope.

The concern has to do with basic roof functionality. A roof with composition shingles is not designed to be water-tight. The sufficiency of the roof depends on runoff water quickly exiting the roof. When a roof has a slope that is minimal, the water may be retained on the roof surface and it might even work under the shingles. In that event, whether the leak damages sheathing or not is dependent on the quality of any felts that were installed under the shingles. In most cases, other than trying to peak at an eave to see if there are felts at all, the inspector cannot verify the absolute integrity of underlayments.

I have seen obvious leaks, in attics, under this type of improper installation. From the standpoint of home inspection, usually the safest procedure for the inspector, when a very low-sloped composition roof is seen onsite, is to refer the roof and any of its obvious problems, to a professional roofer. It is my experience that, seldom, does an actual roofer put composition shingles on a very low-sloped roof. Usually, a real roofer selects a different and more suitable roofing material, the exception being at manufactured homes.

Oaxaca Travels (La Casa de Mis Recuerdos) Oaxaca, Mexico

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:33:40 -0800

My wife and I have been leaving the damp northwest (Bellingham) and heading down to Oaxaca in Mexico each winter for the past five years. We love the area and we really enjoy and appreciate the families at the B&B that we keep returning to year after year -- La Casa de Mis Recuerdos -- "The House of My Memories." The proprietors, the Valencia and Gutierrez families, are great. English speaking travelers need not be afraid of any language barriers, William and Nora at Mis Recuerdos speak fluent English and they are more than happy to help out with any situation that might get complicated.

Ever since our first trip, my wife has asked me to prepare a narrated video slide-show that describes our annual excursions to Oaxaca. This video below, my effort in that regard, includes photos and narration from 5 years of traveling to Oaxaca. Oaxaca is down almost as far as Central America and we love it and find it relaxing and lots of fun. I hope you watch the video and consider traveling to Oaxaca.

Anyone who likes cooking has simply got to take Nora Valencia's cooking class which is described near the end of the slide-show. Nora was born and raised in Oaxaca and she is one of the top cooks in all of Oaxaca. Nora is friendly and fun, too -- a great combination in anyone's book!

HUD Manufactured Home Foundation Certifications in Bellingham, WA

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:40:04 -0800

People today have too little time in the workday. Reducing the amount of chasing around, paperwork, the number of phone calls and Emails involved in a business transaction benefits any home buyer, home seller, real estate professional or lender.

Locally, I know that many lenders and real estate professionals become frustrated when the federal government is involved in financing a manufactured home sale. The home will probably require a HUD compliant certification inspection stating that the foundation meets with HUD Permanent Foundation Guidelines for Manufactured Homes -- a requirement for FHA-insured loans.

Photo: View under manufactured home in Whatcom County, WA

This HUD foundation certification must be signed-off on by a licensed professional engineer. That requirement complicates the process because buyers, real estate professionals and lenders are accustomed to relying on home inspectors for their inspections and not civil engineers.

I am pleased to announce that King of the House Home Inspection has partnered with a professional engineering firm and can now take care of not only home or wood destroying organism inspections but, also, my firm can provide HUD compliant foundation inspections.

The on-site part of the foundation inspection will be performed by King of the House and the data collected will be submitted to, and analyzed by, a professional engineer who will then determine whether or not the manufactured home foundation can be certified as HUD compliant. If so, the certificate will be issued to the client.

This foundation certification inspection may be purchased as a stand-alone inspection, but it is highly recommended that clients should contract for a full home inspection as specified in the Washington State Standards of Practice.

To schedule an inspection in the Bellingham area or Whatcom County, or to obtain further information on HUD compliant foundation inspections, please contact King of the House Home Inspection at 360-676-6908 or Email kingofthehouse@comcast.net

So Have You Ever Misplaced Your Keys?

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 07:15:37 -0800

Do you ever misplace, or worse yet, lose your keys? If so, let me tell you about a nifty device.

Over the years, my wife and I have each lost a set of keys. At the best, that is inconvenient. At worst, especially with the transponder car keys that cost money to replace, losing keys is a big inconvenience and a bummer.

I am more likely to misplace keys that to actually lose them. On inspections, I try to put the keys in a special place while I am working. But, a few times, for one reason or another, the keys were not where I expected them to be at the end. And at the end of an inspection, hunting around for keys, so you can go home, is not too appealing and a bit nerve-racking.

Getting ready to head out the door in the morning, it can be a pain to look in all the places keys might end up or to sort through coat pockets. My plan is, always, to hang them on a hook so I can locate them -- fat chance of that working all the time.

Enter a device Key Ringer. I bought four of these a year ago. One goes on my main key ring and another goes on a key ring I put in the glove compartment of my truck. The other two go on my wife's keys and on a ring that goes into her purse.

The key ringer device is smaller than the remote control for unlocking the car. By pushing the ringer's button twice, the key ringer will beep. The key ringers find one another so, if one is set off, it will try to find the others in the set be they in purses, hanging on walls, deep in coats. The devices work over quite a distance, the manual says up to 300 feet. I find they are very responsive even when the keys are at the other end of the house or in the basement or under magazines, etc. I made a quick video so you can see how the invention looks and works.

Here is another cool feature: If you record the key ringer sound on your phone, note book, tablet, etc. then your tablet can find your keys even if you do not have another key ringer handy. My wife and I have different models of key ringers so mine will find all of my keys and hers will find her keys. But, by putting her ringer sound on the tablet, along with mine, I can activate either set of key ringers from my tablets computer.

The key ringers can be put on objects oater than keys. For example, I could stick one on my tablet, on my camera, my tool bag or whatever. If you might misplace it, you can attach a key ringer. As is, my keys seem to be the item I am most likely to loose -- usually in the house although, once, I actually tossed them in the recycling bin along with a handful of paper and junk I was transferring from my truck to the trash.

We have had these key ringers for over a year now and I find they have simplified my morning routine. When I need to go to an inspection, with moments to spare, if the keys are not where they ought to be, I activate the key ringer with the spare ringer or with my tablet and, sooner rather than later, out the door I go. It creates much less panic in the morning.

If you are interested in the devices, they cost around $30 for a pair and you can see them at www.keyringer.com

Homeland Insecurity By Pet

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:11:15 -0800

In the Pacific Northwest, everywhere I suspect, we all like our pets. Some of our pets are larger than others. And many of us decide that we want our pets to be able to enter and exit the house at will. When a pet is large, the size of the pet door required to provide access can be a significant security risk. I remember at one house I inspected, when an agent locked the key inside, I was able to get back in by squeezing through the pet door. Since I weighed 200 pounds at the time, that was not a small nor a secure pet door.

This pet door (above) is a good example of an entry point into the house that an uninvited human could pass through. Not only could an uninvited human enter, so could rats, various other rodents and even large animals you do not want in the house such as raccoons. I have a neighbor with a pet door and he has to clear raccoons off the back porch several nights a week and that species can be nasty.

Holes such as this pet door compromise the integrity of the house door and they defeat any efforts at energy efficiency and weatherproofing. Often, buyers plan to replace exterior doors that have been damaged by pet doors. Other times, the buyers have big dogs themselves so they keep the altered doors.

Large pet doors may accommodate the big dog but, if the big dog is on an outing, or if he moved out of the house, then that big pet door is a great big open invitation to a burglar.

An Attached Garage is Not a Fire-Rated Assembly -- Despite What You Might Have Been Told

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:15:01 -0800

I hear the remark, even from home inspectors, that the garage is not fire-rated or 20 minute fire-rated. Home inspectors are not code inspectors, but this kind of talk is based on codes and a misunderstanding of residential code requirements. Let's look at garage/house separation requirements. The book, Building Code Basics: Residential, was published, in part, by the IRC (International Residential Code) which dictates most of the codes that apply to modern construction. Codes may vary from one jurisdiction to another. Below (bold) are explanations, from the IRC, that apply to garages. Below that are my comments.

"Dwelling separation from garage -- Unlike separations between dwelling units, the separation between a residence and the garage, attached or detached, is not a fire-resistance rated assembly. Likewise, penetrations through the separation are not required to meet the rated penetration requirements for fire-resistant assemblies. "

Interpreted: Dwellings that are connected to one another, such as condos or zero-lot-line structures or townhouses, require a fire-resistance rated assembly between the various units. However, the garage at a residence does not have the same requirements.

"Attached and detached garages, within 3 ft of the dwelling, require installation of 1/2" gypsum board on the garage side to provide "limited resistance" to the spread of a fire. When there are habitable rooms above the garage, the code requires the installation of 5/8” type X gypsum board on the garage ceiling and the bearing wall supporting the ceiling framing requires the application of 1/2" gypsum board on the interior surface. Garage floors must be noncombustible."

Interpreted: The proper terminology, in the case of garages, is "limited resistance to fire" and that is way short being a fire-rated assembly. Simply installing suitable drywall (often referred to as Sheetrock) in appropriate locations, will go a long way toward providing "limited resistance to fire." At any shared walls (garage to house), a noncombustible surface or drywall must extend from the floor up to the underside of the roof sheathing. When there is a habitable room over the garage, or if the attic over the garage leads into the attic over the dwelling, a noncombustible surface or drywall must be installed on the garage ceiling and on the bearing wall that supports the ceiling framing. The flammable attic access cover, in the photo above, is a breach of fire-resistance if there is a bonus room over the garage or if the garage and house attics are connected. The garage floor, most of the time, consists of a concrete slab. If that is not the case, then the floor must be noncombustible.

"Doors between the dwelling and the garage also provide some resistance to fire but they do not require a fire-resistance rating. Any one of the following types of doors satisfies the separation requirements: 1 3/8" thick solid-core wood door; 1 3/8" thick solid-core steel door; 1 3/8” thick honeycomb-core steel door; listed door with a 20 minute fire-resistance rating."

Interpreted: The door must be suitable for the purpose, but it need not be fire-rated -- even a wood door is acceptable if it is thick enough. Here is another requirement: There should be an operational self-closing device on all garage/house doors. The garage-house door, in the photo above, is standing wide open. That is a problem.

"Openings from the garage into a sleeping room are prohibited."

Interpreted: That rule is self-explanatory -- doors or windows from the garage, any openings, cannot lead into bedrooms.

"The IRC requires, minimum, # 26 gauge sheet steel for ducts in the garage as well as ducts penetrating the walls or ceilings that separate the dwelling. Ducts are not permitted to open into the garage. Other penetrations, such as steel or plastic pipe, require only that the space around the penetration be filled with approved materials, such as fire-resistant caulking."

Interpreted: Ducts that pass through the garage must be made of steel and ducts cannot open into the garage. B-vents, conduit and pipes that go through walls or ceilings should be sealed, around the penetrations, with fire-resistant caulking. The duct at the garage furnace, in the photo above, is not an acceptable installation, nor is it acceptable to have that hole around the conduit at the garage/house wall.

I am not downplaying the need to design a garage in a manner that ensures safety, but the proper terminology, to be accurate, is not "fire-rating" or "fire-rated." The proper wording is "limited resistance to fire."

King of the House Home Inspection -- Bellingham Home Inspection Video

Sat, 29 May 2010 15:28:41 -0700

King of the House Home Inspection is operated by Steven L. Smith and the firm is based in Bellingham, WA. King of the House, Inc. serves Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties.

You can view the King of the House Home Inspection video by clicking on the "start" button below.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

Wood Destroying Organisms in Bellingham and Whatcom County, WA

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:19:41 -0700

Over the years, people have asked me for information on the various species of wood destroying organisms that might be found in Bellingham and Whatcom County.

This narrated slideshow provides localized information on that topic. The information will be helpful to homeowners, buyers, sellers and real estate agents. Simply click the start button, center of the video link below, to see the presentation.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steven L. Smith

State Approved (WA) Home Inspector Training -- Bellingham Technical College

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:55:28 -0800

Potential home inspectors, you can avoid the big city traffic in King and Snohomish counties by obtaining your state approved home inspector training at Bellingham Technical College. The campus is in beautiful and non-congested Bellingham.

We are less than two weeks away from the beginning of the next " Fundamentals of Home Inspection" training and field training on campus at Bellingham Technical College. This course, mandatory for those who wish to enter the field of home inspection, attracts students from around the state. The next class will begin on February 4, 2013. The four-week session includes 120-hours of fundamentals training and 40 hours of on-site field training.

At BTC we have a fast-track program that takes a student through all of the training, start to finish, in four weeks. After the course, we have study guides to help students prep for the state exam. For an overview of the BTC course, please watch this short video.

Anyone interested in this upcoming course, should contact Steven L. Smith, directly at 360-676-6908, or Bellingham Technical College at 360-752-8796

Down Mexico Way -- Huatulco

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:23:53 -0800

My wife and I are just passed the half way point in our two week Mexico vacation. We spent the first week in Oaxaca City, a favorite place of ours. But we, also, enjoy going to the beach and viewing the ocean. Therefore, we always end up in Huatulco on the Pacific Ocean. This is an area of multiple beaches and guaranteed hot weather. The days are in the high 80's, so warm but not overwhelming.

Yesterday we went snorkeling, with mixed results and satisfaction, but we did see lots of very colorful and, to us, unusual fish. Cab rides are cheap and here is a shot we took, from an observation point, on the way to the beach. It gives an idea of the beauty of the coastal area.

Washington Approved Home Inspector Course:Bellingham Technical College

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:32:18 -0800

Here in Bellingham, at the time I am posting this, we are just about a month away from the next course in residential home inspections and field training. Bellingham Technical College is one of only a few approved providers of home inspection training in the State of Washington.

The state law requires anyone who wishes to enter the field of home inspection to complete a 120 hour course in the fundamentals of home inspection. Mandatory training, also, includes obtaining 40 hours of field training. If any prospective inspector does not meet those basic requirements, he or she is not allowed to take the state exam. I receive many inquiries from potential students asking about "online" courses. Washington law is written in such a manner that only classroom training counts toward obtaining a home inspector license.

The next four-week program, offered by Bellingham Technical College, is scheduled to begin on Monday, February 4, 2013. The fundamentals training will run for three weeks and there is a week of field training so, all in all, the course lasts four weeks.

For additional information on course offerings, contact Steven Smith, lead instructor, at 360-676-6908.