Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

     I made the switch and it is awesome.  Now I can compose my blogs in Word like I always have----limited only by whatever Word can do. 

     Take this for example!

        Or how about this!

       I can then copy and paste it into my blog and everything transfers to my blog exactly the way it looked in Word without any fiddling around with all the HTML/ WYSIWIG stuff (once you copy and paste into your post and publish it it draft mode, you will notice some extraneous HTML code that you will need to go back in and delete before publishing out of draft mode).

     There is also an add-on to Firefox called Scribefire that allows you do do all of your writing and then transfer directly to your blog post.   Scribefire is a little more limited than Word----but not much----and what is cool about it is that you can open it and it takes up the bottom half of your screen where you can reply to all the gazillion comments to your blog post without having to scroll up and down the comments to get to the last person you commented to.  Plus you can make your comments look COOL----just like whatever you do with your post----and all without that nasty HTML/ WYSIWIG stuff.

    I think one of the coolest things about all this is that because there is no going back and forth between HTML/WYSIWIG, there is no problem going back and editing things later on----especially when it comes to pictures and links.  Now if only I could figure out how to include pictures in the copy and paste.  That can be done old school after the post has been copied into your blog.

     They can only do one simple thing----and they can do this one simple thing VERY well.  They can see temperature differences on the surface of things.  Because of the camera’s ability, the Thermographer (with proper training and experience) can give you a pretty good educated guess as to what those different temperatures mean.  When areas are found that may indicate moisture, these areas are then checked/verified with different kinds of moisture meters----or areas are opened up to verify the actual presence of moisture.

     Because these cameras are so good at reading temperature differences, they are extremely useful in Energy Efficiency Analysis of homes, so that money can be spent the most wisely in reducing energy costs. 

     I by no means pretend to be an expert in the use of these cameras----and I do not own one.  Generally speaking they are considered to be a tool that is outside the scope of a Standard Home Inspection.  I have called for IR evaluation of homes when I suspected issues, and could not verify what was going on “visually.”  I suspect that as costs for the cameras come down, more inspectors will have them, and they will become more common place in the course of Standard Home Inspections.

     When I went to the dentist yesterday morning----which was nothing like my Last Visit----I couldn’t help but notice how Mother Nature was doing her own IR scan of the roof of the building----with frost.  But just like the IR Camera----all we can tell is that there are temperature differences on the roof surfaces.   Some of the possibilities are:  warm air moving in the air space between the insulation and the roof sheathing, missing insulation, insulation out of place, batt or foam-board type insulation, inadequate insulation at wall top plates, recessed lighting, and/or a combination of these possibilities.

     This kind of information from Mother Nature is all “frosting” on the cake. 

Charles Buell

     Right in the very tire tracks of yesterday’s post about old galvanized drain pipes comes today’s post about inevitable repairs to those pipes.

     I have seen all manner of attempts at extending the life of these pipes, and the picture below eloquently speaks for most of those attempts.

     If the water goes down----what can possibly be wrong with it? 

     One of the advantages to making plumbing repairs with radiator hoses is that you can get the drain to go anywhere you want it to go.

     Can you imagine turning the key to open the house door and hearing the engine start up?

Charles Buell

     Galvanized water supply pipes were the most common method of providing water to homes and inside homes from the early 1900’s until the early 1950’s.  While there are a lot of factors that can contribute to how long these pipes will last, it is generally recognized that these pipes have a life expectancy of 40-50 years.  By these guidelines there is likely none of this piping that is not past its expected life.

     I have to say “likely” because I inspected a home 4 years ago where all of the original plumbing had been replaced with brand new galvanized piping----very unusual. 

     At the same time period that these supply pipes were being used, the same type of piping was used for drains as well.  One should conclude that these pipes are also at the end of their expected life.  When I find them I usually recommend replacement of both supply pipes and drain pipes for cost efficiency.  Once the plumber is there why not have them replace both.  Here is a picture of a drain line that has reached the end of its expected life.  The stalactites of corrosion are where the pipe is leaking and re-sealing itself through a process called Auto-genic healing.  This process will go on until the pipe can no longer seal itself and total failure will occur with much leaking/flooding being the result.

     When your pipes look this bad on the outside it is a safe bet they look much worse on the inside.

Charles Buell

Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters.

     First of all what the heck are they?

     According to Square D, a leading manufacturer and innovator of electrical equipment, "Combination AFCI circuit breakers provide an added dimension of safety for homeowners by sensing and responding to both parallel and series arcing incidents. Series arcing is often associated with damaged devices or cord sets. A series arc is an arcing incident across a break in a conductor. A common example is a cut across one of the two wires in a lamp cord, with a dangerous arc forming in the gap. Combination AFCI circuit breakers detect the arcing condition and turn off the circuit, thus providing the enhanced protection."

     In the early days of these breakers, there were some reported problems with "nuisance" tripping and they only protected against "Parallel faults"-----that is like when you crush an extension cord where you have run it through a window and the "parallel" wires start to arc from one to the other.  They were initially required in most jurisdictions in bedrooms---because they had to start somewhere and it was calculated that bedrooms are where most house electrical fires start.

     In 2002 the code required that all 120 volt "outlets" in the room be protected.  Well to many people---even experienced electricians---this was taken to mean the receptacles (places to plug things in).  To the National Electrical Code, an "outlet" is any place where a device is connected whether it is a receptacle, switch, smoke alarm/detector, or hydronic heater fan.

     As of the 2008 revision of the NEC (National Electrical Code) ARC Fault breakers are required to be the "combination" type that also detect "series" type faults.  A series fault is more like a loose connection or a break in just one of the conductors that a spark might have to jump across to complete the circuit.  This is an AWESOME improvement as you can imagine.

     I had a client tell me that they had their ARC Fault breaker taken out and changed to a regular type breaker because the vacuum cleaner kept tripping the ARC Fault breaker!  They didn't realize that this was not nuisance tripping----it was an indication that there was a problem with the vacuum cleaner.  Contrary to popular believe and the skepticism of some electricians these devices have become very reliable and are a great improvement to overall fire safety in the home.

     In many jurisdictions the 2008 NEC also requires that ALL 120 volt circuits in the home be AFCI protected.  A lot of jurisdictions have amended the NEC to limit the requirement to just the bedrooms.  I think some of this is due to cost---but in general due to arrogance and "short" (pun intended) sightedness in my opinion.  The cost of these things is coming down every day and the difference between doing all the circuits in an average home and just the bedrooms would be about $300.00-$400.00 dollars----hardly a deal breaker in my opinion. 

     So to get back to the original question, of how much of a safety issue is it?  They were required when the house was built and in the jurisdiction the house was built in.  How much of a safety issue it is might only be determined when someone dies.

Charles Buell