Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

This is another one of those form or function posts where, in this case the way it was done originally was superior to the way that supposedly “looked” better.

 Take a close look at the following picture:

Note the downspout and how it runs through the decorative trim work.

Notice the water shining on the edge of the trim work---wet from the leaking downspout connection at the very top.

Notice the wet darker color brick behind the downspout below the trim work.

Notice the whitish efflorescence on the brick at both sides on the arches above the windows.

Now if you look VERY closely you should be able to see a slight notch---about the width of the downspout on the edge of the trim work---in line with the current downspout.

Originally the downspout wrapped around the trim work instead of running through it.  Changing it so that it “looked” better actually has created a problem much worse than the way it looked.  With the downspout right against the stucco and brick there is no way to adequately seal around the pipe where it runs through the trim.  Any water that hits the stucco (whether from the leaking downspout or wind driven rain) and finds its way behind the downspout is going to get into the wood trim as well as the brickwork below.  Over time, this water inrusion has caused some rot in the wood trim as well as the the efflorescence and intrusion into the brick that are evident.

The best solution is of course to wrap the downspout around the trim work---the way it used to be and properly patch the hole.

Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

Growing up on the farm in rural Connecticut in the 1950’s, like kids everywhere, we had a “real” tire swing.

You know the type.  You take a discarded, worn out, tire from the pile of junk headed to the dump and drill two holes in it---opposite each other---one for the rope and one so that it won’t hold water when it is hung in the tree.

It was great fun hanging on the inside of the tire and then having one of the other kids wind it around and around until the rope looked like a bunch of knots---and then let the tire spin.  Of course trying to walk a straight line afterwards was next to impossible.  I am not sure why kids like to get intoxicated in this manner---but it seems pretty universal.

Sometimes we would just simply see how many of us we could get on it at once.  With 9 of us, three families of three kids each, there were always enough kids around to create a pile of laughter under the tire swing after it had gained its freedom.

Can you feel the cotton clouds as you lay on your back looking up at the tire making great pendulous arcs in the blue sky?

All these thoughts of tire swings came back to me at a recent inspection where I found this different sort of tire swing.  All made from one single tire---quite clever really. 

And morphed into a horse---what more could a kid want.

Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

Form follows function---or not!

I know I am tilting at windmills when it comes to even suggesting that the shape of things should have anything to do with function.  We have gotten so good at making things, that we have come to expect, even demand, that things look the way we want them to---regardless of that thing’s function.

Whether it is the quest to make a better mousetrap or whether it has more to do with the simple fact that we make things look the way they do because we can, humans seem to find no end to being “creative.”  We use the excuse that we are trying to make something better, but it seems that more often we are merely making it different looking because we can.  In some cases, to justify our jobs perhaps.

While I can make a strong case that it has less to do with being “creative” and more to do with being “inventive,” I don’t want to bore you with the distinction in this post---although having that discussion in the comments might be fun.

At an inspection the other day I came across a sink that epitomizes this problem.  This sink pushes the envelope of “form” so far, function is truly secondary.  Now while the problem with this sink is little different from a sink that has no overflow at all (something I would argue is a problem regardless) this sink does have an overflow---it just isn’t functional.  When there is in fact an overflow present, wouldn’t it be logical to take the leap of faith that it might actually function?

When this sink is filled, water actually flows over the low edge before it goes down the overflow---I know, I learned the hard way. 

Fortunately I always carry a sponge in my bag of tricks.

Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

The focus of this blog post is the upper level balcony visible in the following photo.

Standing on the balcony, it is about 16 feet to the carport floor below.  Surely a fall from this level, onto the hard concrete below, could prove deadly or result in injuries perhaps worse than death.

The problem is the barrier railing. 

The issue with the railing is not readily apparent, and from the ground it certainly looks fine.  From the deck itself however, we can see that the barrier railing is spliced right in the middle---and merely toe-nailed together. 

This barrier certainly would not resist the impact that could be produced by a couple of kid’s rough-housing, as kids are prone to do.  The barrier can’t just look OK---it has to be OK.

At the very least it should be one solid piece the length of the deck, and a secondary solid piece under the top piece the whole length of the deck would be even better.

Let’s hope it gets repaired prior to something bad happening.

Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

As I was leaving an inspection the other day I drove by the house pictured here.

I have seen many attempts at putting roofs on these houses designed to look like old English Thatch roofs.  While I can appreciate the desire to mimic the old look, I have to say that I have never seen one pull off the mimic with much degree of success.

What is it about human beings that we have to make new things look like old things?  There is no end to the number of faux materials out there.  We see it in non-wood flooring made to look like wood.  Non-wood siding made to look like wood.  Non-wood roofing made to look like wood.  Painted wood made to look like wood.

Notice a theme here?

We love wood.  Wood is life.  Most of civilization revolves around the use of wood.  Second only to wood is stone.  Think of all the products made to look like stone.  How about faux-stone siding?  Stone imprinted concrete flatwork. 

Both consciously and unconsciously, we know that we can breathe a certain amount of life into synthetic materials by making them look like natural materials.

In the case of the roof above the use of natural materials to mimic natural materials is likely not going to be successful in the long run and was likely VERY costly to do.  I have seen this same type of roof covered with asphalt composition shingles done more successfully than the wood shingles.

No matter what is done, the roof will never look even remotely like thatch. For that reason we might as well choose materials totally suited to curved installations---like metal---or even asphalt.  No matter how you look at it, this is an expensive roof to build, to cover, and to maintain, so choosing the appropriate approach should probably have started back on the drawing board.

When someone said, “I want a house that looks like an old English Thatch roof house,” the designer should have said, “That is not possible.”  They then could have shown some of these various attempts and likely (or perhaps obviously in this case) the buyer would have chosen one of those possibilities. They could have been informed of the heavy cost of these possibilities that were going to end up not looking like the real thing.  They could have been informed of the considerable maintenance involved in the various possible choices.

If you look close at the curved areas of the roof, one can see the extent of the face nailing that was necessary to force these wood shingles to conform to the roof. 

Every single one of those shiny spots is a nail head.

For wood shingles to perform properly there should be no face nailing like this.  Every nail represents a possible leak point.  Some of the risk of leaks can be mitigated by various types of roofing underlayment, but I still consider the risk a nightmare over time.

Sometimes getting what we want is difficult.

Sometimes we end up faced with wanting what we get.

Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector

Compact florescent bulbs have become quite popular.  With any new technology, even if it comes with instructions, there will be a learning curve for most users. 

A light bulb is a light bulb right? 

When the old fashioned incandescent bulb burns out, what could be simpler than to replace it with a CFL?  Just take it out of the package and screw it in.

Most of the time that is going to be OK, but if one reads the instructions, one would have read that the bulb is not dimmable.  Now dimmable ones are made, but they may require replacement of the switch as well.

There goes all that savings you were counting on.  

It is for this reason that if you have lights that need to be dimmed, it is best to buy the more expensive LED type bulbs in my opinion.  These LED bulbs last so long that it is likely that real estate agents are going to have to deal with whether the bulbs are going to convey with the property or not.  I can envision stories of where the house is purchased and at move-in time the new buyer finds all the expensive LED’s have been replaced with CFL’s or worse yet the stored incandescent bulbs---saved for just this day.

The following is a VERY short, 15 second video of what happens when you install regular CFL bulbs on a dimmer.

Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector

I don’t have a long winded blog post for you today.

I just have one simple question---followed by a bunch of pictures.  After you have looked at the pictures, I hope you will answer the question in the comment section below.

THE $64,000.00 QUESTION?    

At what point does one realize there is something not quite right?

Sometimes the worst things about questions---are the answers.

Sometimes the answers just create more questions.

Sometimes things are more than just poor "housekeeping."

Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector

"Rules are made to be broken" they say and, given permission to stretch the rules, people will do what they want---because they can.

There are so many examples in real life of things that should not be done even if one can.

For example, take a house where the main drain for the house is either below the city sewer or the septic system leach field and the house has to rely on a sewage ejector pump to get the effluent from the house to the sewer or leach field.  On my planet this would not be considered a buildable site and would never get a permit to be built at that location.  For me, every home should have at least one toilet that drains by gravity to its appropriate location.  There are however, MANY sites that require these systems---especially around waterways.  Many of these sites fall under "grandfathering" clauses that allow for what might not be allowed for new construction---all kinds of "compromises" to avoid the devaluation of the property (Devaluation means less taxes for the jurisdiction---you knew money was going to be involved didn't you?).

Slowly we have regulated where we are allowed to build in order to protect the environment.  People that own properly next to waterways often try to manipulate the rules.  It is not hard to understand the forces behind this desire.  After all who wants to own a piece of property that one cannot build a house on----if one has the desire to build a house?  This is especially true if the property was owned prior to the passing of rules against building in such areas.

Sometimes people go to great extremes to "get around" the rules, as can be seen by this riverside residence.

It is hard for me to imagine how this has increased the property's value.  I am not sure where the house drain goes to on this one.  



Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector.

Without dirt, the biggest trees in the world would not amount to much.  Redwoods may not be the biggest trees in terms of volumn but they are the tallest trees on earth---reaching as high as 378 feet---that is longer than a football field including the end zones.  They grow in dirt and when they eventually die, as much as 2000 years later, they return a lot of dirt to the earth as well.  Even the great redwoods succumb to wood decay/rot and wood destroying insects.

It is very common to see support posts in crawl spaces that are impacted by dirt.

Just like it took dirt to grow the trees that these support posts are cut from, so too will the dirt return them to the earth.  This is all part of the natural cycle of life.  

In our homes our goal is to  this process down.

In crawl spaces where the support posts are vulnerable to damage from eroding soils, they must be adequately protected from the dirt.  When dirt covers the wood, the wood becomes susceptible to moisture and wood destroying insects.

In this first picture one can see the stain on the side of the post where it used to be buried in dirt.  Someone knew this was a problem and put a barrier of concrete blocks around it to protect it.  Unfortunately the blocks, and the black plastic that covered them (before I moved it out of the way), only help in trapping moisture in the bottom of the post.  While the decay is slowed it still will continue quicker than if proper clearances for air circulation had been created.

As we look down inside of the space next to one side of the post we can see that the dirt at the bottom is wet and the post is badly decayed.  Even though much of this decay occured before "repairs" were made, the repairs have been insufficient to stop the progress of the decay/rot.  This whole post will need to be replaced with ground-contact pressure treated wood or other suitable means of support.

Remember.

The dirt giveth and the dirt taketh away.

Even if you are a mighty Redwood.

Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector

This past vacation, down the Oregon coast, led to an interesting experience at a motel

Now I know what you are probably thinking, but this is not your typical racy story about fun activities in a "notell-motel," it is about how a home inspector never really leaves his work behind.

This motel was a very modern, new construction unit, built in 2007 (according to the water heater and refrigerator date codes----you know I had to look).  

There was a little kitchenette in our unit and the unit actually looked newer than 2007, it was so well cared for.

In the morning, my sweetie decided to try out the toaster and immediately proceeded to make charcoal.  To avoid setting off the smoke alarm, she turned on the kitchen range hood but nothing happened.  The smoke just sat there.

I decided to open the kitchen window to see if that would help.

As soon as I opened the window the kitchen range hood actually started to do its job and air poured into the room through the open window.

This was a great example of how all modern, tightly constructed homes function.  

When we turn on the exhaust fans in our homes, there has to be a way for the air that is being displaced by the fans to come into the home from somewhere else.  If it cannot, a negative pressure is created on the home and the fan will not function.  It will just sit there and whine.  The fan will spin and spin doing nothing but spin.  As soon as the window was opened the spinning fan could start to do some work and move the smoke from the room.  The fact that the fan was actually "working" could be detected in the sound difference as soon as the window was opened.  The fan got noticeably louder and the smoke started leaving the room.

The best thing of all---the smoke alarm never went off.  

Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector