Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

     As both a Licensed Structural Pest Inspector and a Licensed Home Inspector in Washington State, I provide my buyers with the kind of service that has become expected of Home Inspectors in Washington State.

     This is a little bit unusual when compared to other parts of the country, but here in the NW, were we have such a wide variety of wood destroying organisms, the home inspector really is in the best position to assess all the areas of a home that these critters might show up in.  While recent licensing of home inspectors in Washington State allows Home Inspectors to identify Rot and conditions conducive to Wood Destroying Organisms, if the home inspector encounters Wood Destroying Insects he or she is required to “….refer the identification of or damage by wood destroying insects to a structural pest inspector…” (RCW 18.280.190)

     This of course assumes that the Home Inspector knows the difference between Carpenter Ant Frass and the scraps from Uncle Harry’s Hobby.  Some inspectors say they will get around this issue by recommending the evaluation be done by a Licensed Pest Control Operator (Includes the Structural Pest Inspector License).  This approach ignores the obvious conflict of interest in having the guys that treat for bugs also be the ones that figure out whether they are present or not.

     Other inspectors don’t want the additional liability implied by having the license and missing something.  This ignores the fact that if you miss something that is destroying the home----you are in deep doo anyway.

     A home inspector that is also trained to identify wood destroying insects can not only call for the appropriate trades to make whatever repairs are called for, but can also call for proper treatment by the Licensed Pest Control Operator when necessary.

     Take Anobiid Beetles for example.  These little critters are very common here in the NW and are primarily an insect that is opportunistic.  In other words they like to infest wood that has elevated moisture levels.  They really like under-ventilated crawl spaces without vapor barrier/ground covers and spaces with poor clearances that prevent adequate air circulation.  They are really good at totally obliterating the interior of the wood while leaving the exterior surface relatively normal looking except for their exit holes.  The home inspector that, in the course of their inspection, does some random probing of structural components in the crawl space and disintegrates a support post with their rock hammer would have to “….refer the identification of or damage by wood destroying insects to a structural pest inspector…” (RCW 18.280.190)

     Am I missing something here? 

     Wouldn’t it be a lot more efficient for the Home Inspector to just be able to deal with it in the context of their inspection instead of having to call for another one?  Even with that there could still be delays for getting repairs for estimates----but at least one step would be eliminated.

    More or less-----one stop shopping.

 Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     “They sure don’t make them like they used to.”

     Everyone has heard this----most of us have even said it.  Usually I am likely to say something like, “And that is a good thing that they don’t”

     Now you are probably wondering how this relates to whatever you are thinking about---especially those of you looking to get tossed in The Active Rain Gutter.  But this time I am talking “beams.”

     Take a look at this Beauty!

     She’s a 10 x18 x 16!

     Now those are some measurements!

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     Life can be viewed as a room full of doors connected to rooms full of doors.

     All we have to do is figure out which doors to open and which doors to leave closed.  As long as they don’t hit us in the butt when we go through them we usually do OK.

     While it might be “comfortable” to not open any doors----we kind of opened the door about “opening doors” when we were born.  By the time we get old enough to realize that we have a choice about the doors we open (even between seemingly identical doors); we have already opened quite a few of the wrong doors----along with the many correct ones that we have opened. 

     Some of the doors that we learned how to “pick” the locks on----perhaps should have been left locked.  There were likely lots of other less attractive doors that remained unopened----and some that were just not recognized as doors.

     While some doors will let us back-track into previous rooms----others slam shut with the certainty of a sunset---or a sunrise.  Even rooms that we do find our way back into never look quite the same after being in the others.

     And don’t you hate those doors left seductively ajar?

     And yes, it is a good idea to avoid the ones with bars whenever possible----but sometimes even those are required of us.

     There are very few rooms with no doors to other rooms----except perhaps the last one. 

     When you find yourself in such a room----with seemingly no door----you might have to use a window.  There is usually a way out---or in---depending on how you are looking at the situation.

     Then there are the doors that merely take us to the place where we already are.

     And isn’t that the way it is anyway?

     Then again perhaps life is a box of chocolates after all.

PS

     Was the internet invented because of the demise of keyholes?

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     Sometimes we have those “light-bulb” moments in our lives where something just “clicks” and we understand things in a way that we just could not grasp them previously.

     The “mechanisms” for these moments are not well understood, and yet sometimes it is actually hard to understand how we could possibly miss some of the details around us. 

     We have all had these moments haven’t we?

     The other day, something came up on the inspection that got me to thinking about this.  The problem I have with the issue that I found is:  1. how could the original installer NOT have had a light bulb-moment about it; and 2. why would everyone put up with it for 27 years?

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     Does anyone actually believe that you can not teach old dogs new tricks? 

     While this may be true of dogs, I like to flatter myself in thinking that this is not necessarily true of human beings.  To watch the actions of some people though, one does have to wonder. 

     It seems as though, most of the limitations we place on what we can learn is placed on us by our own thinking.  While it may be true that younger minds are perhaps more adept at certain kinds of learning they will always be limited by their lack of experience.  As we get older we tend to let that very experience limit us.  This is especially evident with older people and their unwillingness to embrace the internet and computer technology----like it is just another language they do not have time to learn----or have no need to learn.  They seem oblivious to the worlds it could open to them.  For me I am still very excited by all kinds of opportunities to have new experiences----to learn new things.

     The older I get, the more I become aware of how much more I can still learn because of all the space created by all the things I have forgotten.  Just like Monte Python’s Mr. Creosote----there is always room for one more bite!  When was the last time you exploded? 

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     The drain.

     Yes, without a drain a bathtub would be a quite painful apparatus----and probably wouldn’t get used very much----or the water would just sit there until it turned green and foul.  It was probably part of why our ancestors bathed once a year whether they needed it or not.

     Every house that has a basement should be thought of as a home covering a giant bathtub.  Without a drain we are just plain asking for trouble. 

     Do you remember the rubber hoses on your washing machine I have warned you in the past about changing to braided stainless steel hoses?  Well because you didn’t change them, and then you went to Baja for a month, when you came home you found two feet of water in your basement----all because there was no drain!

     Well if that was NOT you---do you know where your basement drain is?  Do you know if it works?  It is always a good idea to verify the function of floor drains in basements to prevent major flooding that would cause way more damage than if there was no drain at all.

     As an inspector I always do my best to locate basement floor drains.  I found this one rather interesting.

     Filled flush with concrete----good thing it was dry basement----for now anyway.

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     If there is anything that makes the lives of inspectors difficult, it is house defects that have somehow “stood the test of time.”

     Every inspector has heard from sellers and agents on both sides of the deal say, “But it has been that way for………”

     The only thing I can equate this to is the recent collapse of one of the great arches in Arches National Monument-----Wall Arch----which had stood there perfectly content for more than 10 thousand years.  One night, with no one to watch, it decided it had had enough of obnoxious sightseers, petroglyph carvers and sport climbers and just disintegrated under its own weight.

     Inspectors often use the term “stood the test of time” to describe conditions of homes that may not be “proper” by current “standards” yet they appear to be functioning just fine.  We have to be VERY careful using this term because of the “Wall Arch Effect.”  Another thing that works against most man-made and natural made features is that things rarely get better with age----so sooner or later there is bound to be a mighty roar and cloud of dust and it won’t be the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

     Take this stair stringer attachment for example.  You know a stringer don’t you?  It is the long diagonal white board in this first picture that supports all the stair treads.

     It has likely been just the way you see it---except for perhaps the nice white paint---for at least 103 years.  This certainly qualifies it as having “stood the test of time” and it will not likely “spontaneously” collapse like Wall Arch.  However, all bets are off when a couple of guys too big for their clothes try to wrestle a refrigerator up or down the stairs.  As an inspector I can not afford to pass these stairs off as safe with so little supporting the top end of the stringer as shows in this next picture.  There are just a couple of toe-nails driven up into the joist and very small amounts of the top tread bucking against the joist.

     That the stairs have “stood the test of time” is not an excuse or a reason to let the issue slide----they still need to be fixed----especially when adding proper support will be so easy.

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

     A very nice Mountain in Hawaii asked the question, “What was life like before activerain?"

     While this may sound like a straightforward enough question, the problem is----that I can not remember!   Come on now, get a grip---was there really life before activerain?  How can that be?

     Those brain cells have long since disappeared into a rainyfog of endless blog posts and comments both directed at other rainaddict’s posts and responding to those that have been nice (or weird) enough to comment on my posts.  Wringing out the grey matter----looking for one more word to pound relentlessly into the keyboard----is all that remains of what was once a respected, useful, optimistic human being.  (I used to be different and now I'm the same.)

     And what is the point!

POINTS?

     Who said that?

     NOW I remember----the points. 

     Where would we be without po↑nts?

Oblio---help me out here please!

     I am now a mere shell of my former self, with nothing better to do than to find something to fill that shell up----and empty it again in an endless stream of consciousness----like a river of chocolate lava from a volcano.  Of course there is no shortage of flavored fillings to gorge on here at activerain! 

     As we inch forward at a snails pace up a mysteriousmountain of points, we get an endless view of the more than 162,114 other mountains around us----some taller-----MANY shorter----all we can do is marvel at the view----each mountain making a color all its own----like a great carpet of fall colors.

     And chuckle,

     And smile to ourselves----all the way to the bank!

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

      Sorry if I have offended any cigar smokers out there, but by the time the smoke clears maybe you will forgive me----then again maybe not.

     Inspectors are always harping about how hot heat lamps and electric heaters can get.  The following pictures were from an inspection of a home that was less than a year old.  A far shorter period of time than it takes to age a good cigar (some might say this is an oxymoron---but what do I know----I just don’t like cigars).

     When the door is left ajar it parks itself right under the heat lamp with the obvious result that the heat lamp is smoking the door.

     It was really hard to get a good picture of the top of the door but there is a large depression in the edge where the wood has become charcoal.

     Leaves one to wonder about the smoke alarm/detectors in the home doesn’t it?

     My buyer seemed to take it all in stride and just said they would be sure to remind their teenage son to be careful not to park the door under the heat lamp.

     This time it was the inspectors turn to “freak-out” at the inspection, as I told them, “NO---this was not acceptable----and MUST be fixed.” 

     Someone needs to relocate the heat lamp so that it is not in the swing of the door.

Charles Buell

Click on the Rose to check out:  AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.