Plumbing
Foreclosure Inspections
March 5, 2009 by David Helm · 1 Comment
Many Realtors and Mortgage brokers have written articles on short sales and foreclosures. One point the haven’t touched on is what is necessary to prepare a foreclosed home for inspection. When banks own the home they often (usually) have them winterized and often allow propane tanks to empty. Other utilities are usually left on. It is understandable that they would want to protect their investment as much as possible. Unfortunately, this protection makes it impossible to do a thorough home inspection.
When buying (or selling for you Realtors out there) a foreclosed home, it is very important to insist that the bank has the home de-winterized and has propane put in the tank. Without these items being taken care of, the water heater, heating system and plumbing systems can not be fully evaluated. I just returned, today, from a re-inspect of one of these homes for just the reason I’ve stated. Not only did this slow down the process, it also cost the buyer an additional fee for me to go back out to the site ( a rural one and some distance to drive). So please, on foreclosure sales, get those utilities back in operation!
David Helm, Bellingham home inspector
No Support!
February 6, 2009 by David Helm · Leave a Comment
I have done a few blogs on this site about various things that are found on home inspections. This one is structural. We inspectors spend a lot of time in crawl spaces, looking at many things. One common one is caused by plumbers and HVAC technicians. This isn’t to badmouth them. They have their job to do and may not know about how structures are supported.
Massive cut
The joist to the left has been deeply cut to make room for the waste pipe. Now this particular picture isn’t of a brand new house, but the effect is still there. This joist was originally a 2X10. With more than half of it notched out it is effectively a 2X4. Definitely not strong enough to support floor loads.
Joist ccompletely cut through
This joist has a section completely cut out of it to accomadate heating ducts. This was a retro fit furnace duct, the HVAC tech decided that that section of floor didn’t need support (I guess).
In both instances, with a little thought, these cutouts could have been avoided. What were they thinking?
As always, thanks for reading.
David Helm, Bellingham home inspect
Pest Inspection: What is it and what does it cover?
February 5, 2009 by David Helm · Leave a Comment
Back in the early days of home inspections all that was done was called a pest inspection. These days, a home inspection is much more comprehensive, covering grounds, structure, roof, crawl space/basement, all systems and of course, pests. The term for pests is Wood Destroying Organisms (WDO). This is a state mandated term that covers very specific things. A WDO inspection searches for evidence of all the state recognized WDO (see my earlier post on WDO) and conditions that are conducive to WDOs. What are conducive conditions? They are things like plumbing leaks, inadequate ventilation, restricted or non functioning gutters, vegetation touching siding, earth to wood contact, failed or missing caulk or grout in water splash areas and conducive debris (cellulose based or storage that restricts air flow) in the substructure. These are all important issues and generally represent at least 50% of issues found in home inspections. In order to report on these issues, according to current Washington law, an inspector must be licensed as a Structural Pest Inspector by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
As always, thanks for reading this.
David Helm, Bellingham home inspector
