Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

    Finally, some serious relief from the glut of disinformation, wrong information, and just plain hype about mold----however well intentioned it might have been. 

     In 2004 the Institute of Medicine's mold study group concluded that there was "insufficient" evidence to find a causal association between the presence of mold and ANY of the claimed adverse health effects.  Now---hot off the presses----comes the July 2009 position paper of the World Heath Organization on indoor molds and indoor air quality.  What comes out of this position paper is that the association between "damp" living spaces and "some" slight increase in adverse health effects, has less to do with mold and more to do with a wide variety of factors associated with "damp places."  The entire backdrop of the damp environment has to take into account a host of other factors that are just as likely to be a part of any damp environment.  Here is a partial list of co-conspirators of, "THE DAMP"----dust mites, bacteria, termites, protozoans, endotoxins, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, pesticides, viral survival, and poor ventilation.
     With this latest information it becomes not an issue of "mold remediation" but instead an issue of "correcting the damp."
     Don't you just hate it when things just turn out to be logical and common sense after all?

As agents,

As brokers,

As inspectors,

As mortgage brokers,

As appraisers,

As stagers

As real estate attorneys----

----we all have to, almost daily, deal with the hysteria that has “grown” around mold.  (In fact it is a kind of fungus all its own.)  This information should counter some of the hype, and I suspect the only ones that will be disappointed are those geared up to make money off of the hysteria.
     Please don't take my word for it though. 

     You can read the well documented story here at:

Health Effects of Moulds (Molds): State of Knowledge  

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 Fungi go marching one by one, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching one by one, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching one by one,
The little one runs to avoid the sun,
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching two by two, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching two by two, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching two by two,
The little one has a spore to spew
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching three by three, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching three by three, ah-choo! ah-choo!

The Fungi go marching three by three,
The little one stops to cut make the cheese
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching four by four, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching four by four, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching four by four,
The little one stops to release some MORE spores
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching five by five, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching five by five, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching five by five,
The little one stops to munch----so good to arrive
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching six by six, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching six by sex, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching sex by six,
The little one stops to do its tricks
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching seven by seven, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching seven by seven, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching seven by seven,
The little one stops to bloat like leaven
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching eight by eight, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching eight by eight, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching eight by eight,
The little one stops to say it’s TOO late
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching nine by nine, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching nine by nine, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching nine by nine,
The little one stops to bask in his prime
And they all go marching up, from the ground
To get into the wood, SQUISH! SLIME! SQUISH!

The Fungi go marching ten by ten, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching ten by ten, ah-choo! ah-choo!
The Fungi go marching ten by ten,
The little one stops to say "THE END"
And they all go marching down, to the ground
To find some new wood, CRASH! SLIME! BOOM!

Seattle Home Inspectors and Structural Pest Inspectors look for fungal growth.

And this is what the Fungi did to the floor joists along one side of the 30’ long crawl space.

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

 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.

     It is not too unusual to find missing or out of place furnace filters----or even non-functional Electronic Air Cleaners.  All furnace filtering systems need to be maintained and even more important they need to be there!

     If they are not there at all, the same old air keeps circulating through the heating and cooling ducts.  When not present the supply ducts will get very dirty and the dust will circulate back into the home.    If you have air conditioning and/or heat pump components installed, the coils will become very clogged with this dust----making the unit inefficient or not functional at all. 

     Re-circulating this dusty air into the home works against most people’s distain of dusting.

     Home inspectors in Seattle should always check furnace filters.

     Take a look at this furnace installation.  The blue highlighted arrow shows the flow of return air to the furnace as it arrives at the Electronic Air Cleaner.

     With the Air Cleaner access cover removed we can see that the internal components of the filter are missing (pre-filters and Electronic coils).  The orange high-lighted area is the opening into the furnace plenum below the blower area of the furnace above.  That space left of the orange highlighted areas would normally be the location of the electronic coil components of the air cleaner.

     What makes this installation “unusual” from what would otherwise be a very common place defect found in many heating systems, is the presence of another air intake that is the wrong side of the filters----that aren’t there.  This next picture----high-lighted in green shows that return air intake that goes through the plenum to an adjacent space.

     So even with all the proper components in place and well maintained, this air intake would likely be the major source of unfiltered air to the heating/cooling system.

     How dusty is your house?

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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 inspecting attics it is sometimes a good idea to turn the flashlight off and see what happens.  Admittedly it is not a good place to be afraid of the dark, but if you stay very still, chances are the boogie man won’t get you and you won’t end up in the living room below. 

     Home inspectors in Seattle are required to traverse attics when it is safe to do so.

     Sometimes this is a good way to get an idea if there are any “obvious” ways for critters to get into the attic.

     This procedure can tell the inspector where they may need to venture a little closer to see what is going on.  In this case the light at the end of the tunnel was a very large opening that even Darth Vader or Nutsy the squirrel could get through.  I have no idea how long this opening had been there but there was no evidence of ANY critters in the attic (except me of course).  This surprised me, given that it is pretty unusual to not see signs, either past or present, of critters of one sort or another in the attic.

     Regardless---time to eliminate the open invitation, and install proper flashings/enclosure at the exterior to close the door to rats, squirrels, mice, raccoons, cats, birds, bees and Darth Vader----did I say Nutsy?

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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.

     Because I love to cook----it surprised me a while back when my daughter asked me for my infamous Rice Pudding recipe and I realized that I have never really done a recipe post here in the Rain.   So here goes, it is not the infamous Rice Pudding recipe, but all it is really missing is the rice and the raisins!

Super Easy, Non-Dairy,

Baked Custard

-----with Cinnamon and Nutmeg

Ingredients:

4 cups “plain” rice milk (Pacific Foods brand preferred---although other brands and soy milk would likely be fine)

     5 eggs

     ¼ teaspoon sea salt

     4-1/2 tablespoons Agave Syrup sweetener

     Tiny pinch of Nutmeg sprinkled over the top

     Cinnamon “lightly” sprinkled to cover top

Preparation:

     Beat like crazy with a whisk (for 2 minutes, twice, 2 minutes apart), the milk, eggs, salt, and sweetener.  Place cups in a pan that is the same height (or close to it) as the cups.  Pour mix into the custard cups.  Fill the pan with hot tap-water nearly to the top of the custard line.  Sprinkle on the cinnamon and nutmeg and bake at 325 degrees F, for about 90 minutes----or until custard is set.  This varies widely with the depth and size of what you are baking the custard in.  A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.  Makes 6----1 cup size----Pyrex custard cups.

     Best chilled after baking-----then enjoy like crazy!

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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.

     We have a lot of those 60’s and 70’s ranch style homes in the NW that just never did have enough space to meet the needs of the modern world----or at least many homeowners seem to think so.  Many of the attached garages of these spaces have been finished off in order to create spaces for family rooms, bathrooms, home offices and extra bedrooms.  While finishing these spaces off creates its own list of problems on the “inside,” I am more interested in this post in how it affects things “outside” the home.  Seattle Home Inspectors should be checking these meters for bollards.

     People still want a place to get the car out of the weather, so----often we see carports (or actual garages) added onto the end of the house.  While this solution (another thing that gets done in the middle of the night) works for the car, it can create other problems if the addition is not designed by someone that knows what they are doing.  For example in the picture below, before there was a carport, the gas meter was just on the end of the house minding its own business.  Now it is a target for anyone pulling a car under the carport and it requires that a Bollard be installed to protect it.

     A simple enough thing to fix, but another example of what can happen when one doesn’t know what one doesn’t know.

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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.

     I always note the presence of ordinary cloth type duct tape when it is being used to hold ducts together.  I include a general CYA about the potential demise of the material.  My feeling is that even if it is in place at the time of inspection it won’t be forever.

     This picture shows what happens----sooner or later-----to duct connections that rely on duct tape.

     One can see that the duct has fallen away from the vent fan above.  Now all that moist bathroom air will vent directly into the attic.  This flexible, plastic, insulated ductwork has an inner plastic liner surrounded by insulation and then the outer black plastic covering.  While I am not a huge fan of this type of ductwork, it can perform satisfactorily for this application----venting a bathroom exhaust fan.  The inner liner should be mechanically fasted to the metal/plastic adaptor on the fan unit and then the insulation and outer covering should be pulled over that inner attachment and again attached with a mechanical type fastener to the adaptor.

     Just another duct tape story.

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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 I will have an idea that leads to a question.  It seems like I am so much better at coming up with good questions than I am at coming up with good answers.  For example, “Does Seattle weigh more at night or during the day?”  Now, there is a question to twist your brain around for a while.  Regardless it would seem that we truly have to learn to live in the questions because it doesn’t seem that answers are always forthcoming in a time frame that would be acceptable----or at least in a time frame that would keep us from starving to death or keep us from killing each other.

     It leads me to ask the question, “Is there anything BUT questions?”  Aren’t answers sort of the booby prize after all that “energy” of the question?  Isn’t it the question that really gets our blood boiling---the thing that makes us know we are alive?

     I also do not want to imply that I am against finding answers----I am just not into making up answers when there aren’t any, and I am not into creating religions around the idea that some things just don’t have answers.  Maybe the right questions just haven’t been asked.

     It seems that there are a whole bunch of different trains we can get on to take us to where we think we want to go----to get our questions answered.  But how do we know that the train is actually going anywhere?  I am sure there must be signs.  But if we could read them----would we?  Could we?

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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.

     I frequently get comments on my blog from people who say they could not do what inspectors are asked to do.  Whether it is climbing on roofs, crawling through crawl spaces, traversing attics or dealing with dead rats, spiders, snakes and raw sewage----most say they couldn’t do it.

    While there are some aspects of the job I could live without, most of the things that really bother me don’t even make this list----although some only come about because of things on this list.  For example the absolute worse thing for me about crawl spaces and attics is not how difficult they are to get around in sometimes, or the bugs and critters that are sometimes found in these places.  It is the INSULATION in them that is more likely to get me unglued.  English has no word to accurately describe how much I dislike fiberglass and rockwool insulation and that nice itchy feeling that one gets after being near it----that feeling that makes a person want a different skin to live in.  Even thinking about it makes me want to go take a shower.

     This is really about the only thing that immediately comes to mind on the physical side of doing home inspections----all the rest is not nearly as humbling or all that difficult to deal with.

     There is a whole psychological side to doing home inspections that does not often get discussed that I think most inspectors could live without (although there are those that have business models such that one would swear they are not affected by it at all). 

     STRESS. 

     It can be very stressful doing home inspections.  For every buyer, the inspection is maybe one of 2 or 3 inspections they will go through in a life time----while it is merely one of several hundred inspections the inspector will do in a year.  Inspectors cannot afford to ever treat an inspection like it is not, “one of only 2 or 3 inspections they will go through in a life time.”  This can be very difficult----perhaps the most difficult thing we do---and it requires a great deal of vigilance.  When we go away from this principle all manner of bad things can happen----all with the end result of having unhappy buyers.

     This is called, “beginners mind.”  The ability to see everything we do as if it were the first time.  It is kind of like the beginning of a relationship where we are still wearing the rose colored glasses and still having fun.  When we are stressed and not having fun it is time to step back, put the rose colored glasses back on and remember why we are there.  It is this beginner’s mind that we must draw upon when we get to the inspection we have allowed 3-1/2 hours for and it ends up taking us 5 (“What do you mean there are 3 crawl spaces!”).  The inspection taking whatever it takes is a beginner’s mind kind of attitude----and it is so true.  When we have this frame of mind (on top of all that we have learned) we can truly take care of our buyers.

     And isn’t that what it is all about?

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.

     Do you have endangered Roof Turtles on your property?

     If you have areas of washed gravel areas around your home, like in the picture below, your property may be home to the endangered and rarely seen Roof Turtle (so named for there propensity for building their nests under roof overhangs.  This is especially problematic for homeowners, as the turtle's protected status prevents homeowners from removing or destroying their nests and thus the value of the property could be negatively impacted. 

     These turtles have a strong homing instinct and tend to return season after season to the same property and even to the same exact nests.

     Left to do their thing, the Roof Turtle’s nesting habits have been known to result in damage to siding and to undermine house foundations----resulting in rotted siding, foundation collapse and flooded crawl spaces.

     So what is the solution?

     The only lasting solution, that I know of, is the infamous, “middle of the night” solution.  This solution, I hear, has also been tried with underground oil tanks and with those nasty (possibly) asbestos ridden ceiling tiles----but you DID NOT READ THAT HERE----and seems like an utterly foolish course of action to me!

     Without a steady source of “cascading” water, these turtles have no interest in nesting near your home.  So if you correct the gutter and downspout issues that keep dumping water at these locations the turtles will find a better place to build their nests.  Sometimes, depending on the types of ground cover you have around your home, the nests may not be as “obvious” as that in the picture, so another thing that homeowners can do is put on their raincoats and walk around the house in the pouring rain and look for waterfalls from their gutters.  And remember, the harder it is raining the better!

     OK----so tonight----grab your flashlight-----you know what you have to do!

PS:  These nests are very similar to, and often confused with, the illusive "Land Salmon"----but the solution is still the same.

Charles Buell

Seattle Home Inspectors, ASHI Home Inspector, Structural Pest Inspector, Charles Buell Inspections Inc, Seattle, WA

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.