Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

Another striking example!

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:43:08 -0600

For some reason this defect at a door lock-set reminded me of that movie Airplane (can no longer remember which one) and the play on the word “striker,” where the word was not only some guys name but also what was done to one of the stewardesses. In a similar way this Strike bolt, struck me as kind of funny----even though no stewardesses got hurt and no little kids had to see Peter Graves naked.

It does make me want to strike myself in the head though.

Charles Buell

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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.

This is your tub’s drain----this is your tub’s drain on glugs!

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:24:48 -0600

I like to think that almost anyone could look at the following picture of a tub drain and know that something is just not right with it.

When one looks at their tub drain they should never see the threads and gasket that shows inside this drain.

Most tubs have a polished chrome or brass fitting (that the stopper sits on) that threads into the threaded portion that shows in the picture. It is what makes the gasket tight against the bottom of the tub and keeps the whole thing from leaking at the connection. It makes the water glug down the drain instead of around the drain.

Given that this tub was over finished space below, I expected to find damage to the ceiling below. It was not much of a surprise to find my suspicions confirmed by moisture meter when I checked the space below.

Charles Buell

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

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.

Home Inspection with X-Ray Vision

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:34:37 -0600

This is a good post by Troy that can't be emphasized enough----and the comments to follow the post also add a lot to the conversation.

Via Troy Pappas - Virginia Beach Home Inspector (Safe House Property Inspections):

Recently I was watching an episode of Holmes on Homes that I had recorded. This particular episode was about issues that were missed by a home inspector so it kind of caught my attention. I do enjoy this show even though I don't think it is appropriate to label others as incompetents while building yourself up which seems to happen quite often on the show.

What really caught my eye was that the show focused on all the work that had to be done to the home even though a home inspection was performed. Now there were some serious issues in the home that the Holmes crew corrected which of course is great.

The majority of the show consisted of all the issues that were found after cutting and ripping into the walls. Without being able to review the inspector's report to see if any of the issues were mentioned or not it seems a little presumptuous to deem him an incompetent. A home inspection is a non-invasive assessment of the major structural and mechanical systems of a home. If one were to take a hammer to the walls of most homes I am sure that you would be able to see a lot more going on than what is evident from a strictly visual inspection.

Now I will continue to enjoy the show, but remember what it is I am hired to do when I conduct a home inspection. It would be easier, but these items just aren't in my tool bag.



........................................................................................................................................................

   Troy Pappas

    Safe House Property Inspections

    757-418-0944



Site: Virginia Beach Home Inspector

Email: troy@safehousepropertyinspections.com

   Join me on:

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

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.

Tiddlywinks and character flaws.

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:49:46 -0600

Your house foundation.

It is what holds your house nice and level and keeps it from sliding down driveway and out into the street.

Foundations in new construction are designed for the slope of the land, as well as soil conditions, numbers of stories and other factors. Not long ago I inspected a home where, way back around 1900, four trees had been cut off on the site and these cut-off trees became the four corner supports for the home. In the following picture one can see one of the tree stumps that is now surrounded with “additional” foundation that has been added over the years.

Yes it was very small and was most likely nothing more than a get-away cabin that was built before the area became overrun by “progress.”

A tree is a relatively good analogy as to how foundations work. We have the support post (the trunk of the tree) and the footing (the roots that spread the load out over a bigger area). Any tree, when impacted by forces it was not “designed” to deal with, can become uprooted and the tree will topple over. The footing of trees is pretty much designed to secure the tree in place and counter the forces placed upon it by wind. A bunch of trees together will do more to help each individual tree than any lone tree can do.

A house foundation is similar. If it is supported by four corner supports and we loose just one of the supports bad things are likely to happen to the furniture, and occupants---never mind the structure itself. Now if we divide the spaces so we now have 8 supports, we go from catastrophic failure to something in between “catastrophe” and “sloped-floors”----commonly referred to as “character.” If we divide those spaces again, we now have supports at 16 points and it becomes even less likely that loss of one of the supports is going to be as problematic. Of course this is all relative to the distance between the supports and the type and size of beams spanning those supports.

Obviously if we fill all the spaces between the supports we have what we call a continuous foundation and some of that foundation could be effectively taken away without much consequence to the whole house. If one thinks about a foundation in this manner, it makes it easier to understand how inconsequential some cracks can be. Of course one still needs to be able to interpret the cracks----because they could mean something more.

We still have a fair number of post & pier type foundations around the NW that were built around the turn of the century----the 20^th century. They almost always have inadequate supports even though the spacing of the support posts would likely be adequate by current standards. What was usually NOT adequate however was the size of the footings under the support posts. Lots of times these posts were simply placed on large stones----including both stones found on site as well as cut blocks of stone brought to the site. Sometimes they were merely set on blocks of wood----or as previously stated---tree stumps.

These houses almost always have “excessive character” that would not be tolerated in any other type of construction. The best solution almost always involves either replacing the support post footings with ones engineered for the soil conditions (always considerably bigger than the ones originally used) or install an actual full foundation under the home.

These post & pier homes can be very difficult types of houses to “fix.” Fixing usually involves making a decision about whether one can live with the amount of sloping of the floors or not. If one cannot, and the house is to be leveled, factoring replacement of all the lath and plaster throughout the home will become a necessity as opposed to staying a cosmetic “feature” of the home. This gets really complicated if the house has undergone interior work to counteract some of the settlement. Floors that had been leveled to compensate for the sloping may now become out of level. Windows and doors installed level and plum will now no longer be level and plum.

Most people opt for simply “stabilizing” the home with proper supports and/or foundation and bank on retaining the cosmetic “features” and “character” of the home.

At a recent inspection all or most of the support footings had been “upgraded” at some point in the past---maybe 50 years ago. Because these footings were undersized and located so that the post was not centered above them the house has continued to settle and is about to play tiddlywinks with the footings.

These supports will need to be re-done or a new foundation poured under the house----they did not succeed in stabilizing the house at all with this repair.

Charles Buell

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

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.

Who says modern builders don’t care?

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:47:26 -0600

Two years ago today, I got my second featured post when I asked the simple question: “Why is there a BARGE on my roof?”

Two years later, this post is still a pretty decent post----even if it isn’t as “pretty” as the ones I do now.

As a sequel to that post I thought I would share something I saw at an inspection the other day. It not only shows how nicely the barge rafter end can be shingled to protect it, but shows how even the small amount of water that would otherwise run off the end----bypassing the gutter----was re-directed into the gutter by the installation of a simple little metal diverter.

Pretty cool----no?

Charles Buell

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

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 Conservatory, Volunteer Park, Seattle, WA

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:02:23 -0600

In another one of my shameless promotions of one of my favorite places in Seattle, I thought I would share some recent pictures.

What is a Seattle Home Inspector to do when they finish their inspection and there is no report to write? In this case, because the inspection was only a few blocks from The Conservatory, I decided to see what was blooming. This is a place where it is really hard to be disappointed. There are always orchids present, but on this day there was an exceptional number of orchids in bloom. When you enter the Conservatory you immediately enter the Orchid area. If you go east you head toward the Desert House. If you Head west you are headed for the Tropics.

On the way to the desert house, I had to check out the Mirror Ball.

I was going to use this picture of myself as my new profile picture but decided to not scare little children needlessly.

The desert house has always been one of my favorite areas. I have always been fascinated with the spiral patterns of the cacti.

And the juxtaposition of hard and soft----or at least the “illusion” of soft.

Of course the Tropical Houses are never ones to be out done.

When you visit Seattle make sure this place is on your list----and maybe you will even see me there.

Charles Buell

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

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.

Holy Cannon Balls Batman----the Powder Room is on Fire!!!

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:43:36 -0600

Transparency is apparently all the rage as blogging takes over the universe----can you imagine the impact this can have if it takes hold in the rest of our lives? We tend to think that some things are just so “rock-solid” they can never “be” transparent or never “benefit” from transparency.

Metaphorically speaking I came face to face with solid stone that was more transparent than one usually thinks of stone being. And while the Powder Room was not really on fire, it sure looked like it.

This Marble countertop, when lit from beneath, appeared to be “on fire.”

It also made for a very fun “night-light.”

Transparency really is more than it is cracked up to be!

Charles Buell

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

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.

Are you a Shower Person or a Bath Person?

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:49:55 -0600

It seems as though people either love a good bath or hate baths.

While inspecting homes I can not always tell if the occupant likes baths or not----and I don’t really care----but if there is no stopper for the tub to be found anywhere----there is a pretty good chance that they are “shower people.”

While I love a shower----I like a nice relaxing bath occasionally too. I like my bath in peace and quite----without the noise of a jetted tub as well. I love my sister-in-law’s outdoor hot tub in Bellingham, WA----which I get to use when I stay at her house while I am teaching my week of the Residential Home Inspection Training course at Bellingham Technical College. I like to lay back and listen to the stars instead of the jets.

At a recent inspection I got to thinking about this question. The tub installation was one I have seen before, and it is prove that no one ever screws up anything “uniquely.” Someone somewhere has done a similar thing before. All I can conclude is that I hope the users are “shower-people,” otherwise it makes for a very uncomfortable bath.

I hate having to take a bath with a helmet on----that is best left to other activities (inside joke).

Charles Buell

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

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.

One can’t make this stuff up----really----I try!

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:08:53 -0600

At a recent inspection when I was looking across the roof from a porch roof I could see a strange bump with some discoloration around it----just to the right of the chimney near the top. Can you see it?

Any guesses as to what it might be?

Well if you were strange enough to guess the “vent cap” for the kitchen exhaust fan you would be correct. If not, well I guess you could not have made it up either.

Charles Buell

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

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.

Don’t you hate being watched while you work?

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:13:21 -0600

Well normally, except for the buyer, no one usually watches me work while I am doing Home Inspections in Seattle----or anywhere else for that matter.

On a recent inspection I had the pleasure of being under the watchful gaze of three nefarious characters that likely only rival Nutsy in intellectual capacity (times three).

They had a clear view of me while I walked around their side of the house and they had a great view of me while I was on the roof. Being in a rather permanent “vegetative state” I doubt they would have been much use to me if I had fallen----unless I was lucky enough to shoot all the way across the street and land on them.

I am sure they are supposed to be likenesses of famous TV stars but have likely morphed over time into identities all their own. If they had even a hint of femininity I would call them the Hedgettes, but I think they are perhaps a bit closer to the Grumpsters.

They kind of remind me of this other creature I found in a vegetative state (with a little help of photo-shopping) while I was traversing a roof.

This is Oscar the Grouch----and I did a post about him a while back.

Charles Buell

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

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.

Seattle Home Inspector looking for the Big Picture in the Little Picture.

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:08:59 -0600

When Home Inspectors look at homes, they must have both a “big view” and a “little view” of the home. In other words they have to be careful to not get so focused on the details that they miss the big things. They must also be careful to get in close so as to not see just the big things.

In the following picture we can see the detail of the picture up close but it is only if we move away from the screen a few yards that it becomes clearer----at least a little bit.

So what is it that you are seeing close up and what does it tell you from far away?

Charles Buell

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

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.

Wordless Wednesday in Shoreline WA

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:04:22 -0600

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

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 advertise in the Lost & Found?

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:54:13 -0600

I don’t loose many inspections to other inspectors once the call for an inspection comes in.

I lost one the other day for a reason that has not come up for me before----but it is a reason that is likely to become more common.

I lost the inspection because the agent recommended me to them.

While it is logical to see a conflict of interest in agents recommending a home inspector, I really don’t have any experience of this being an issue. Most of the agents that refer me do so because they know that I am thorough, and will take care of our buyer in a way consistent with their own business model. Yes I know the old wives tales about agents recommending inspectors that will minimize concerns----but they are few and far between----and again, outside of my own personal experience----more “urban legend” than anything substantial.

Today’s consumer is way more savvy than home buyers of the past. They go online and check out all kinds of things about the home buying process-----including finding a home and finding a home inspector. I think this will be a hurdle that agents, that want to make sure their buyers are getting the best possible service, will have to reconcile.

As an agent how do you reconcile this issue, or do you feel there is nothing to reconcile?

I have been on both sides of this scenario now. More and more I am doing inspections for buyers that have found me online, and I thus meeting the agent for the first time at the inspection. While this usually gains me a new agent to get referrals from, I often see the watchfulness and concern in their eyes. As I answer their questions, I get the sense they are making an assessment of me to make sure their buyer is going to be well taken care of.

When I first started inspecting I learned that the vast majority of inspections would always come from Agent referrals----with the possibility of building a referral base from past clients and friends of these past clients. As a newbie inspector the best way to get agent referrals was to approach agents that were also new. The old timers already had their “stable” of people to refer----including home inspectors.

After the “bubble burst” and many of these newbie agents did not survive, the referrals from these agents naturally dried up as well. For me much of this slack has been offset by increasing contacts from the internet. These contacts would not be happening if I was not blogging consistently here on activerain. This is not a “direct” translation of: “Post + Call = Inspection.” It works more like: “Blogging + Calls = Inspections.” It takes time. By consistently blogging, and by posting content that people are looking for, you will get found by the search engines.

The more you get found the more you get found.

Google is like a giant “Lost & Found” in that respect. If you don’t let Google know how lost you are----you stand very little chance of being found in a timely manner. The more of “yourself” you can donate to the Lost & Found----the more Google----or Bing----or Yahoo, will like you.

Charles Buell

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

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.

Why is Elvis under my Maple Syrup?

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:25:52 -0600

I am sure we can all remember looking at clouds, pretending to see shapes of things in the clouds that were not really there----either chemically induced or not. From our earliest times, humans have tried to find patterns in what they see. I mean, does anyone really think that there is actually a “Big Dipper” a real “Bear” or a live “Virgin” up in the stars? (Leave a goat herder alone in the wilderness for a few months at a time and no telling what they will come up with.)

And that is exactly what happened, because, once upon a time, some lonely goat herder smoked some funny-stuff and was able to “connect the dots” and did find “patterns" in the stars. Then all he had to do was convince all his friends that they could see them too----which worked to distract them from wondering what he was really doing with the goats.

Does anyone actually think that Elvis would grace the swirls of a pancake, the shape of a birthmark, or the mark on a calves’ forehead with his likeness?

The human eye loves to find patterns in the world it sees, and the joy of finding those patterns is expressed in art, whether it is painting, photography----or other art forms. Sometimes we “ritualize” the patterns in brush strokes to create patterns within the patterns. Other times the patterns need no embellishment and “blow us away” all on their own.

I have, for a very long time, had my own personal crusade against pretending to "see things" in the patterns I see----not wanting to risk diluting or limiting my experience of the patterns. It can be very easy to end up never seeing them for what they “actually” are.

On a societal scale, when we accept the visual interpretations thrust upon us, it homogenizes our collective experience and makes us more “controllable” by whoever feels they need to control us----whether it is a government or a religion. We have learned to not trust our senses----we can no longer simply enjoy what we see without judgment, analysis, prejudice or fear.

From a survival standpoint, there was a time when it was very important for us to be able to pick out the tiger in the camouflage of the jungle in order to not become dinner. We now have more freedom than our ancestors in that respect----or at least we can entertain the “idea” of having more freedom.

Pretending there is a tiger in the woods when there is none may result in our not allowing ourselves to enter the woods at all.

It is no wonder we are not out of the woods yet.

It is the ultimate freedom to enjoy things the way they are----as opposed to the way we wish them to be, want them to be, need them to be-----or even imagine them to be. The human eye (and the brain it interacts with) has an incredible ability to find and enjoy patterns in all things----whether it is the stars in the sky, frost on a window pane, sands at the beach or numbers on a spread-sheet. When we allow ourselves to see the patterns around us, endorphins are released and the world becomes a beautiful place.

The key is “trust.”

The language of patterns is “built-in”----there is nothing to download, tweet, upgrade, repair or re-boot.

Will someone pass the Maple Syrup please?

Charles Buell

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

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.

Home, Home on the Range, where…….

Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:18:49 -0600

Kitchen ranges have always had safety issues associated with them----whether they were old style wood or coal burning units or modern gas and electric units.

Back in my “hippy days” my first wife and I lived, for four years, in a Ferro-cement dome-house-----a quarter of a mile off the main road----without electricity. Our means of cooking and heating the home was a stove much like the one pictured on the left. You could cook just about anything with the thing----there was just a significant “learning curve” is all.

One safety concern that often gets overlooked with kitchen ranges is making sure that the surface of the range is higher than the surrounding countertops----especially when those countertops are made of materials that will burn and/or melt.

The idea is that if the top of the stove is lower than the adjacent countertops any big pots or pans that extend past the edge of the stove can come in contact with the countertop surface (as can be seen in the picture below).

This next picture shows a gas stove.

One can see where the flames have spread out under a large pot or frying pan and have charred the countertop.

Charles Buell

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

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.