Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

     Necessity is the Mother of Invention----Frank Zappa knew that.

     In a recent crawl space I came across one of the most BIZARRE examples of where someone took the concept WAY too far.

     The house was a very small house.  In small houses I often see the heating systems and water heaters installed in the attic and/or crawl space in order to not take up space in the house.  In this case they decided to put the water heater in the crawl space---unfortunately it would not fit----at least it wouldn’t fit the way it came from the factory.

     Someone figured out that if they took the metal covering and insulation off the inner tank they could get the thing in the crawl space (Wonder what that did to the warranty?).  When I found the heater it was sitting there naked as a shaved squirrel.

     The interesting thing is there was evidence that they had created a chicken wire enclosure around the heater and stuffed insulation between the chicken wire and the tank.  Most of the wire and insulation was long gone---carted away by the long standing rodent infestation in the crawl space.  In this first picture you can see the white insulation and the chicken wire still wrapped around the bottom of the tank.

     The most positive aspect of the “installation” is that it was not functional at the time of inspection.  The white rectangular box to the right side of the tank is the cover for the electrical connections and heating element thermostats.  This next picture shows the thermostats and some of the wiring. 

     One can only marvel at what the completed installation must have looked like.  Perhaps it doubled as a rodent control device with all that exposed wiring.

     People will do amazing things to keep themselves in hot water. 

Charles Buell

     Are home inspectors ever completely “off-duty?”

     For myself I find it very difficult to walk around with blinders on.  Being trained to identify defects to the point that we “allow” them to jump out at us----how can we really just turn this training off?

     The other day I was called to help a client figure out why their windows were falling out of their house.  It turned out it was not nearly as dire as all that and the fix would not be all that difficult.  What did come up though was the fact that the porch---some 7 ft off the ground----had no barrier railing of any kind, the TPRV on the water heater had no drain pipe, one of the exterior doors could be easily “unlocked” from the outside, and that some of the windows could be removed from the outside.  These were just a few of the things that “jumped out” at me.  I was not looking for them----they found me. 

     While these were not the issues I was called to look at, I did in fact point them out in the course of figuring out the issues I was called to look at.  I also recommended that if they would like I would be happy to come back and do a full home inspection for them----so that they would have a better understanding of the house as a whole.

     I wrestle with how best to deal with this issue without sounding like I am just trying to create work for myself.  In the end I feel some responsibility to share what I know----because it is really not possible for me to ever be completely “off-duty.”  And, I don’t eat doughnuts anyway.

Charles Buell

     It is amazing how often this Seattle Home Inspector finds whirlpool baths with no access to the motor or its electrical connections.

     Sometimes the receptacle is a GFCI type with no access.  A while back I had one that no one could figure out why the thing would not run (had not been used for years) and it was because the GFCI had tripped and, since there was no access, no one could find it to reset it.  I don’t need to go into how nasty the jets can get in this situation.  To put it euphemistically----one should never see tootsie rolls coming out of their whirlpool jets.

     This tub I inspected the other day----new construction by the way----at least had its GFCI protection located in the adjacent closet.  I was lucky enough to be able to stick my camera up under the tub through the opening around the drain in the crawl space. 

     The picture clearly shows the pump plugged into a receptacle-----all nicely covered over by the tile skirting around the tub.  The next picture’s red outline shows where there should be access in the skirting.

     There must always be access to these motors and electrical connections----even if the openings do sometimes detract from the esthetics----time to get ones “esthetics” re-aligned me thinks.

Charles Buell

     While “Nurse Logs” were recognized for their value in the eco-system, there is an old saying amongst the Tree People, “Never send a tree to do a termite’s job.”

     What? 

     You have never heard of the “Tree People?” 

     No wonder you have never heard the saying.

     There are lots of things that trees are good for.  They have been used for thousands of centuries for everything you can imagine.  In terms of the environment, they probably do more good rotting in the forest than they do stuck away in some building for a thousand years.  But that would not have gotten Columbus or the Pilgrims to America----on their WOODEN SHIPS.   Lots of modern day materials have replaced wood in many instances----sometimes for better----sometimes for worse.

     I think it borders on being a crime to use wood that is better suited for other uses.  For example cedar is a really poor choice of materials to shingle a house with for many reasons.  A hundred years ago when old growth cedar shingles lasted 50 years it might have been a little more justifiable than the ones milled today that last 20 years----if you are lucky.  Couple longevity with the dangers of fires, and metal roofing starts to sound like a “Greener” alternative.

     Nostalgia and sentimentality tend to keep us stuck in our choices of materials sometimes.  Sometimes it is really hard to tell the difference between “purist” and “reactionary.”  Why would anyone choose wood clapboard siding (that is going to be painted anyway) over cement board siding?  There is not only the savings in material costs there is also the savings in maintenance costs over the life of the materials as well.

     Wood---properly protected----can last indefinitely.  Add moisture and it can become food for a wide assortment of critters----plant, animal and in-between.

     I guess the old saying of the Tree People is true after all, “Never send a tree to do a termite’s job.”

Charles Buell

    When I tell people that trees too close to the house can create problems with the foundation, I am sometimes met with skepticism.  After all, how can a measly piece of wood move heavy concrete?  Well trees do it one cell at a time.  As the tree grows it can exert tremendous force on the wall leading to cracking or even collapse of the wall.

     When I first looked at the wall in the picture below I thought that perhaps someone had run into it with a vehicle----as it is a barrier wall at the parking area in front of the wall.

     But on the “tree side” of the barrier, one can clearly see that it is the tree that is slowly moving the wall.

    One cell at a time.

Charles Buell

     In modern construction the use of steel reinforcement in concrete has become the norm.  It was not always this way.  There are not usually too many problems that arise as a result of doing this as long as the concrete is of good quality and the steel is far enough away from the surface.  The concrete itself creates an environment that “naturally” protects the concrete from corrosion.  If a pathway for water and other corrosive elements like salt can find there way to the steel, rusting can then happen.  As steel rusts, the oxides build up on the surface causing the steel to expand.  This causes the concrete around the steel to “spall”----to peel away.  This then exposes the steel to even more direct adverse conditions leading to an even faster rate of corrosion. 

     In this first picture one can see where the surface of the wall has been pushed away exposing the rusting steel.

     In brick homes, steel lintels over doors and windows can cause the same sort of problem resulting in lifting of the bricks that cause diagonal cracks that radiate away from the ends of the steel.

     I saw some of the most extreme examples of this condition at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.  This fort utilized tons of iron to reinforce the areas around the gun ports----to provide greater protection to these areas of they were to be struck by cannon balls.  Previous to this fort’s design giant pieces of stone work were used instead of steel.

     If someone were to sit down and figure out how they could install steel in such a way as to cause its quickest demise, they would come up with “Fort Jefferson.”  None of this steel was truly encased in protective concrete.  Instead it was installed in the very porous coral fill behind the brick veneer and within the brick veneer itself.  It was also vulnerable to round-the-clock “condensation.”

     The roof of the ramparts all around the fort were covered with earth and easily allowed rains to be absorbed into the structure where it would find its way to the steel.

     These conditions mean that the steel reinforcement is continually being attacked from within and without.

     In most cases the reinforcement was not small diameter rods like we use in modern construction but was instead massive iron plates weighing hundreds of pounds.  Take a look at this picture.  We can see three gun ports.  The one on the right has been rebuilt and appears pretty much as intended----minus the gun sticking out.  The two ports at the left show extreme spalling all around the ports and much of the brick and steel is in the moat.  If you look carefully you can see several of the massive steel billets that used to be around the ports.  They measured approximately 6” x 16” x 48”----approximately 1500 lbs each.

     This next picture is one of the gun ports close up showing the large heavy iron plates around the openings.

     As these metal components rust and expand they simply push all the bricks and themselves right into the moat.  The complexity of maintaining such a structure is immense.  Hopefully as they rebuilt the areas around the ports they are not replacing the iron but are instead utilizing materials that are more conducive to the environment----given that the gun ports are not likely to come under heavy cannon fire any time soon.

For more information on Fort Jefferson and Dry Tortugas National Park see my previous post:  Dry Turtles! Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas

Charles Buell

     My Sweetie and I recently made a trip to the Florida Keys----including the Dry Tortugas National Park.  A single blog post can not possibly cover all the things we did, but I do want to do at least two or three posts on some of the more impressive aspects of the trip.  Other details will likely come out in comments and/or Wordless Wednesday pictures in the future.

     Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the trip was our visit to the Dry Tortugas.  I am by no means a “historian” and have little interest in merely recapping the small bits of information imparted to us by our guide for the day.  There are lots of resources one can find on the Internet or in the Library that can go into more meaningful detail than I could ever do in a blog.  While I find the history of these places fascinating, it is how they fit into current information and how they are useful to us today that I find interesting.  This post will set the stage for a post to come later---perhaps tomorrow. Each picture will have additional information if you run your cursor over it.

     In a “coconut-shell,” the Reader’s Digest version of the Cliff Notes of the Fort is that construction on the Fort----known as Fort Jefferson----began in 1846 and took 30 years to build----but was never actually completed as designed.  Designed to house 4000 soldiers it never had more than around 2000.  No cannons were ever fired outside of practice rounds.  The fort's biggest guns could throw a 242 lb ball of iron 3 miles.  Surely any wooden ship would think the sky was falling.  The fort was designed to function as a support facility to provide supplies for naval ships that could control the gulf.  So even though the fort itself never saw action it was hugely successful as a support facility for the ships that did.  The fort itself took so long to build that its smooth bore cannon were outdated by newer technology before it could be completed.  Working conditions were horrible with yellow fever running rampant and no knowledge of what caused it.

     Anyone that has ever been to the Florida Keys knows how hot and muggy it can get.  Now add to that, building a brick fort in the hot sun with your clothing being made of a type of crude wool popular with the army----winter or summer.  Oh and did I mention “winter” is really just a designation on a calendar as opposed to an actual event?  Oh and did I mention the mosquitoes?

     My guess is that no one involved in the tedious business of moving the tons of granite and slate used in the floors throughout the prison could have ever in their wildest fever induced dreams foreseen the bikini clad snorkelers encircling the island today.  These could not have been happy times for anyone at the fort and “paradise” would not have been a prominent word on the enlistment brochures at the army recruiting stations of the day.

     One of the first things one notices about the fort is that it is hexagon shaped----and that the sides are not equal so as to better fill up the shape of the island.  Another striking characteristic of the fort is that there is a moat all the way around it.  Well everyone knows a good fort always has to have a moat around it, plenty of alligators in the moat and of course a draw bridge.  Well in this case the moat was simply a deep depression all around the fort that was dug out to get fill for the walls of the fort.  Construction of the fort was simply a double wall brick structure inside and out and the center was filled with coral sand/debris mixed with lime which solidified into an almost limestone like concrete----very good at absorbing impact.  The over 16 million bricks were used as more of a façade to hold this coral construction in place.  This fort became one of the largest if not the largest fired-brick fortification in the world.  Tremendous amounts of this fill were needed to create the fort structure----all of which had to be dug----BY HAND-----from around the fort where the moat is.  At some point the builders realized they needed to keep the ocean from directly impacting the fort so they built the moat wall that you can see surrounding the fort.

     The fort is made up of three types of brick---two types of brown brick that came from the South (Georgia and Florida if I remember correctly) and red brick from New York.  The first brown brick they tried didn’t hold up very well to salt water, so they had to get a second kind.  If you remember back to the date of the start of construction you can see that the 30 year construction time frame lapped the time frame of the civil war.  This fort stayed in Union Hands during the war but obviously the south was not about to co-operate and provide the brick any longer during the war.  So they brought it all the way from New York.  You can see the clear color change of the top layers of red brick that run all around the top of the fort.  The moat wall is also that same red brick and thus consistent with the moat being constructed at this later time.

     Another interesting foot note is that all of the floors that the cannon sat on inside the fort structure were made of giant slabs of slate and granite.  Each had to be set----BY HAND.  These granite slabs were interspersed where necessary with the slate because the granite would hold up better to the iron cannon guides and supports.

     It is the use of iron in the structure that would become the tragic design flaw of the whole fort.  This flaw has created what will perhaps be an insurmountable barrier to long term preservation of the fort.  And now the stage is set for the Second Post in this series.

Charles Buell

     Garage overhead doors are the single biggest moving component in most people’s homes.  There are many aspects of these doors that must be inspected and maintained to not only provide proper operation of the door but to prevent injury to persons either using the door or even in the vicinity of the door.  In this post I am not going to discuss all of these things.

     For further information about how to inspect and test your garage overhead door check out the DASMA Testing Protocols.

     Today I just want to share with you this picture of one person’s solution to installing the automatic opener for a door.  In the 60’s when everything was “groovy” we would say that it is “out of sight.”  In this case that is also where the opener is.  In order to make it “out of sight” the garage ceiling under the upper bedroom had to be compromised.  This violates the fire-rated surfaces and could allow the spread of fire into the ceiling structure, and would not be considered “groovy.”

     There are some “far out” openers that can be installed right at the door opening when there is no room on the ceiling "far out" from the door opening.

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.

     Current requirements call for their being GFCI protection of ALL 120 volt receptacles in your home's garage.  There used to be exceptions for dedicated refrigerator circuits and garage door openers but now these exceptions are no longer allowed in most jurisdictions.

     Some people argue that putting refrigerators and freezers on GFCI protected receptacles could result in the refrigerator or freezer not having any power and this might go un-noticed resulting in the thawing of foods.

     I think in time refrigerators and freezers will all have lights and alarms to let you know when power has been lost----some do already.  There are also some handy little devices called the:  THP 207, POWER FAILURE ALARM & SAFETY LIGHT, that can be purchased to do the same thing.

      These devices plug into the receptacle that the refrigerator or freezer is plugged into.  They are also great to use in conjunction with sump pumps.  When power is lost, an alarm sounds and emergency lighting comes on.  They are designed to hold a charge for up to 8 hours----enough time for the homeowner to wonder what the heck that noise out in the garage is----and go turn the tripped GFCI back on.

     Inspectors will love these things too when they inadvertently trip a GFCI and they can’t find the location of the GFCI.

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.

     When I first started building houses over 40 years ago in Upstate New York, I got to know the local electrical inspector pretty well.  At some point he told me that when I called for an inspection I should always leave some minor glaring defect right out in plain sight.  This way the inspector---if it was not him----would see the obvious defect and feel that they had “accomplished something” and would not have to dig so hard to find “something” else.   

     While I never did this intentionally----I did notice that inspections did seem to be a lot shorter when the inspector found something right away.  I suspect that if it was something major this might not be the case, but in this scenario we are talking about established relationships between builder and inspector where the base level of expected quality of workmanship was well established.

     I was thinking about this the other day in relation to me now being an inspector and whether homeowners might leave some glaring defect right out in plain sight to give me something to write about.  Unfortunately, if this is the motive of a homeowner, someone forgot to tell them that to a home inspector, defects are like “seeds” and once they get planted they tend to grow----not wither.  They also don’t take into account that I don’t know them at all and do not have a “working relationship” with them that would allow me to conclude anything other than that this “sacrificial lamb” is but the tip of the iceberg.

     Nothing was moved in the above picture----this is the way the ceiling looked at the time of inspection.

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.