ARCHIVED BLOG POSTS

2012 

21 Comments
  One of the interesting aspects of being a home inspector… Is that you never know what the next home inspection may bring. Most of my unusual photos come from the garage or under the house. It’s not too often that a sign is posted on a bedroom door: “Do Not open or touch this door Very importan...
01/24/2012
1 Comments
Drywall (sheetrock) panels makes up a large part of today’s house interior walls and ceilings. As home buyers walk through an empty house during a home inspection, they tend to focus closely on the quality of the interior finish. Many people react negatively when they spot a hairline crack in th...
01/20/2012
1 Comments
Today, many heating furnaces and air conditioning evaporator coils are installed in the attic. It frees up closet/storage space in the house and it’s quieter when the heating/cooling is on.When an air conditioning evaporator coil unit is installed in the attic (the silver box in photo), a condens...
01/20/2012
5 Comments
The crawlspace... You know it as the dark, creepy place under the house, filled with spiders and other critters. For the plumber, the electrician and the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) contractors... It's the shallow unfinished space beneath the first floor to provide access to ...
01/20/2012
1 Comments
This flexible natural gas connector line is installed through the sheetmetal side panel of a heating furnace... A standard practice in the past.Passing through the center of a sheetmetal cutout isn't so much of a concern, but when the flexible connector is tight up against the edge of the sheetme...
01/16/2012
Apparently, a lot of wires can be stuffed into an electrical junction box... However, this installation doesn't meet the National Electrical Code requirements. You could say, the more the merrier... But not in this situation. Too many wires stuffed into a box can cause dangerous overheating, shor...
01/12/2012
3 Comments
What is a P-Trap? Take a look under any bathroom or kitchen sink.  If the plumbing was professional installed, you'll see a u-shape pipe with a pipe 'leg' running to the back of the cabinet... It looks like the letter P laying down.   This is called a p-trap. Its design has two purposes: First, ...
01/05/2012
4 Comments
Hardly... This partially disconnected water heater exhaust flue is discharging unwanted exhaust gases (including carbon monoxide) into the garage as shown in this photo. In this Walnut Creek house, there was a bedroom above the garage ceiling... not good, if exhaust gases accumulate and there's a...
01/05/2012
2 Comments
What are silt marks? Silt marks occur when water rises and then slowly recedes leaving dirt and small debris that was mixed in or floating on the water clinging to the sides of vertical surfaces. Silt marks observed along house foundations, support piers, drain pipes, and/or heating/cooling duct...
01/05/2012
Happy new year! Termites have lived longer than the dinosaurs and continue to eat their way through all the wood they can find. Termites are 24/7 bugs, which means they eat non-stop - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have hard, saw-toothed jaws that help them to eat lumber, wallpaper, plas...
01/04/2012
Rainer
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Glenn Stewart...

Can a house talk? Yes it can
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If a house could talk...