Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

     Second floor decks are very common on all kinds of construction but particularly on all the townhouses sprouting up like Kudzu (this allusion is for all my Southern friends) all over town. 

     These decks, with no stairs to the ground, usually only have one access----the door from the home. 

     A VERY common issue with these doors is the use of locksets that allow someone to lock themselves out on the deck.  As one can see in the picture, the locking mechanisms for this door include a lockable handset and a separate dead-bolt.  The handset is the type----as it should be-----that when you turn the handle it lets you out of the door without having to fiddle with the locking mechanism of the lockset.

     The problem with this particular type of lockset is that it doesn’t actually “unlock” the mechanism.  When one goes through the doorway onto the deck and then closes the door, one is locked out on the deck.  A “safer” system would be to change the handset to a non-locking type lockset and rely on the deadbolt----or multiple dead-bolts depending on what part of town one lives in or how paranoid one is.

     People go to great lengths to put the most complicated and redundant locking mechanisms on doors when “actual” security can be measured by the closest brick----especially when the door is all glass like this one is.

     Locking oneself out on the deck can rate anywhere from mere embarrassment----if it was pitch dark when one stepped out to look at the stars naked-----or result in hypothermia and death if no one is around to hear ones screams.  Climbing down is not usually a good option and most downspouts---contrary to the movies----will not support a person weight.

     Can you lock yourself out on your deck?

Charles Buell

     All a bollard is----is a post installed next to something you don’t want whacked by anything.  Out in the wild, one can see Bollards next to electrical transformers, gas meters and gas pumps at the ESSO station.  You might also find them in the middle of a road, if the road is not for public use.  The bollard can then be removed to allow authorized vehicles to use the road.  Lots of parks and forest service roads have these kinds of bollards.

     In homes you will find them primarily in the garage to prevent the furnace and/or water heater from getting hit by vehicles----as in this picture.

     So, how does the inspector inspect these bollards?  A really good test would be to get in the car and give the car a good go at it.  Of course this could have disastrous consequences that would also likely result in the inspector never doing another inspection.

     There is actually no really good way to test the effectiveness of a bollard because it is a function of scale.  No bollard can stop a 2000 pound car going 20 miles an hour with no breaks.  In that scenario the water heater is going to eat the car.  I am not sure that the bollard could even stand the same scenario at 10 miles per hour; however, I do think it should be able to withstand a moderate karate kick from a 62 year-old.

     The one in the picture did not.  One good kick pulled the bolts right out of the concrete. 

     Mechanical type bolts should never be used to resist “pull-out” type forces.  Epoxy type bolts should be used for this type of installation.  Epoxy bolting will break the floor before it pulls out the bolts.  Some jurisdictions don’t allow bolts but require that the post be imbedded in concrete----steel pipes filled with concrete.  The nice thing about bolting them is that they can be removed to make replacement of whatever they are protecting easier.

     A bollard should not just give the “appearance” of protection----it must actually perform as intended----to protect against moderate forces applied to it.

    The best solution of all of course is to stay sober, make sure your breaks work and keep the keys away from 6.2 year-olds.

     This post is not so much about all of the various doodads and whatchamajiggers in the picture, as it is about the fact that the doodads and whatchamajiggers are not properly supported or protected from damage.

     On the far right, the Blue PEX pipe coming out of the floor is the main water supply to the house.

     Next, in line, is the Main Water Shut-off.

     Next comes the Pressure Reducing Valve.

     Next is the Musical Instrument Back Flow Prevention Valve.

     Again I am not here today to talk about all these items, but how this set-up is vulnerable to mechanical damage,
including damage from leaning things against it, and collateral damage from a hard night of partying----being in the garage and all.

     Approximately 2 feet from the left edge of the picture the pipe takes a 90 degree bend through the wall.  There is about a 2-3 inch gap all along the set up to the wall surface, making the 90 degree elbow vulnerable to breaking if force is applied against the assembly.

     The assembly should be properly bracketed to the wall as well as have a protective “bollard” (thingamajigger---post) installed to prevent being whacked by large moving objects----party wagons----even a well kicked soccer ball. 

Charles Buell

     The title of this post is only loosely related to the post----it is a super inspirational movie that is based on a true story of a real Rocket Scientist.

     I wish my job was Rocket Science----but for the most part it isn’t. 

     Home inspectors need good observation skills.  Some would argue that teaching that part is the difficult part----if it is possible at all.  With enough time and commitment one can learn everything one needs to know, and can become very good at figuring out things, but the ability to “SEE” is more difficult to learn and teach.

     When things are not right, the things that are “not right” must jump at the inspector like a hungry tiger---almost as if the defect is finding the inspector as opposed to the other way around.  Beginning inspectors are so intent on finding defects that they often look right past things that would otherwise have them for lunch if those things hadn’t already eaten the previous inspector.

     That said----some things jump out of the shadows more easily than others.

     Take this picture for example----if there is anything I can’t stand it is obviousness (to loosely quote Mickey Rourke in “Barfly.” 

     Perhaps the plumber didn’t get paid.

     Perhaps someone ran out of weekends.

Charles Buell

     The blue lines in this picture trace the “high-water lines” from previous flooding of the crawl space.  The interesting thing about this past flooding is that the three "flood lines" that one can see on the furnace indicate that the furnace was not replaced after any of the flooding.  The one blue line on the water heater, which lines up with the middle blue line on the furnace, is consistent with only one flooding of the water heater.

     I was so glad the gas was shut off to the building so that I didn’t have to worry about whether they worked or not.  High water lines on gas appliances makes for an easy inspection.

     There is no shortage of “blog fodder” created by inventive homeowners as they come up with novel ways to solve every problem under the sun.  Typically discussions of the “repair” would take a “bubba” approach, where----with humor----we might “point out” the absurdity of the repair.

     This post is a little different. 

     This “solution” to a problem was cool.

     Now an electrician could have been called to move the light switch----but short of that, this was kind of a fun solution to the problem of the light switch being stuck in a difficult place between the wall and the refrigerator.

     In the first picture one can see the inaccessible switch with the pull rod connected to the handle.

     In this next picture one can see the handle above the refrigerator that is connected via a rod to the switch below.  By pulling up and down on the rod the light can be turned off and on.

     Add a proper switch cover and it is good to go.

     There can be lots of places for leaks to develop under bathroom sinks.  One of the most common places is where the pop-up stopper arm enters the drain.  If the nut that holds this arm in place is too tight, it will be very difficult to move the control arm up and down.  If the nut is too loose the stopper won’t stay in the down position, making it difficult for water to stay in the sink, and small amounts of leaking can be expected.

     When the attachment nut becomes completely detached, as in the following picture, a great deal of leaking can occur.

Charles Buell

     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