Mark P

I thought this was interesting.

Here is one from yesterday, the conduit comes up thru the concrete driveway. Click to Enlarge 30.7 KB

I had someone leave me a bad review. I looked him up in my records and could not find him. I sent him an email asking for the property address, he provided it, and I had never inspected the house. I explained he had the wrong company / inspector and would he please remove his review. He responded that all he new was the inspectors name was "Mark" and that was the end of it as far as he was concerned; he did not remove the review. I found out he is a dentist so I left him a bad review. HA! Revenge of the reviews.

That is an amazing amount of damage, to my untrained eyes. Did the young man survive?

I don't know the answers to your questions. However, I would not be concerned with if the deck met code when it was built 37 years ago. I would be focused on if the deck was safe today. From my experience a 37 year old deck should have been torn down and replaced years ago. I'd be interested in seeing pictures if you could post some. I have never heard of a Fire/Life Safety report. Is that a OR thing?

The summer is hot a humid, many areas flood, but I don't think this house is in a flood zone. It is not near a river.

Clean vacant home built in 1908 in Southern Illinois. Throughout the house and mostly unfinished basement there is substantial discoloration of the copper water lines and exposed coper wiring inside the electrical panel (basically they are black). But a few wires look normal, I can only assume they are newer...? From what I have read this could be have been caused by: Chinese drywall (but there is no drywall in the basement and I have never heard / read of any Chinese drywall in this area). storing fertilizer or swimming pool chemicals inside (but there is a detached 2 car garage, and no pool). The house is on city water so it can?t be sulfur from well water. Is this a possible sign the house could have been a meth lab? There are some black lights installed in the basement ? are black light used by drug manufactures for some reason...? hell I don't know. In the report I will describe what I have seen, but am not sure what to recommend. Environmental testing firm? This is new territory for me so I appreciate your experience and knowledge. Click to Enlarge 54.02 KB Click to Enlarge 50.04 KB Click to Enlarge 60.32 KB Click to Enlarge 36.36 KB Click to Enlarge 71.1 KB Click to Enlarge 36.61 KB Click to Enlarge 48.15 KB

It was actually a regular size room probably 12 x 12. It just goes to show how much folklore and misinformation there is out there. Now Jim says there is no requirement for a closet either - gee-whiz, just when I thought I knew it all. I'm sure I'm not alone in having thought code required a heat source and closet inside the room. I've heard it repeated so many times over the years.

I was researching this because there is a room being listed as a "bedroom" but it has no air duct or other heat source, so I thought it could not be listed as a bedroom. The room is off a living room and they put on a louvered door (I know cheesy) there is a register in the living room. I was taught that in order to be considered a bedroom the following had to be present: a closet, 7 foot ceilings, an egress window, and a heat source. But is seems I was taught wrong because I can find nothing requiring a heat source inside the bedroom. So if a room does not have, say a window, it cannot be considered a bedroom and that impacts the value of the home. I don't want someone thinking they are buying a 4 bedroom house only to learn when they go to sell it is only a 3 bedroom house. Anyway the buyers are aware.

I have always thought that a bedroom was required to have a heat source inside the room. However, in researching this I cannot find anything to support this assumption. It seems that the heater just has to be able to heat all habitable areas to 68?F regardless how it is distributed. The following is taken from the 2006 IRC R303.8 Required heating. When the winter design temperature in Table R301.2(1) is below 60?F (16?C), every dwelling unit shall be provided with heating facilities capable of maintaining a minimum room temperature of 68?F (20?C) at a point 3 feet (914mm)above the floor and 2 feet (610mm) from exterior walls in all habitable rooms at the design temperature. The installation of one or more portable space heaters shall not be used to achieve compliance with this section.

A verbal understanding between me, the seller, (or the sellers rep) and the buyers, may not stand up in a court, but it is not completely worthless either (IMHO) and it has served me fine up to now. There are some occasions after I explain that there could be a major gusher and I'm not responsible that everyone looks at each for who is responsible and ultimately the water stays off. More important to any verbal understanding is being just being careful.

I'll light most any pilot or at least give it a good honest effort (some exceptions may apply). If the gas is off at the meter, but not locked, I'll turn the main on. Around here, on vacant homes, the utility company will remove the lock but leave the valve in the off position. They place a tag on the meter explaining how to turn on the gas and light the pilots. If it is locked it stays locked. People pay me good money and I'm not looking for excuses to not provide a good inspection. I'm with Katen on turning the main water valve on. I'll do it as long as everyone (including the listing agent and / or owner) is aware I'm not responsible for any leaks or damage and they acknowledge this. First I go around and make sure all the faucets, water heater drains, TPRV, etc are closed, then I'll ask whoever else is at the house to help monitor the different areas and yell if there is a gusher. Once I turn on the main I check each bath / kitchen for leaks, but most important is listening to the sound of the water. After the toilets have filled (a minute or so) I should not be hearing the sound of running water. If I do hear running water I figure out (very quickly) what is running and if need be turn the water back off. I've had a few major leaks, but not many, and they were quickly spotted. If the water is on to the house, but off to a sink or toilet I don't touch it.

I don't think I'd write it up.

Does anyone ever see self-closing doors between the home and garage? In 10 years of inspecting I've never see one.

He makes it look so easy, I almost want to try it myself.

It just pulls off, some of the insulation remains on the paper, but it sort of just peels off like a layer from an onion.

Yes you can remove the paper, but if it was me I'd wait until someone made an issue of it then I'd remove it - just to make them happy. Most buyers wont really care.

For the benefit of those who have not run across this before here is a picture of a lead water line. This is the main line that runs in from the meter. The bulb shape sections are the unions between the pipe and the valve. These bulb shaped sections are a sure way of identifying lead pipe. Also lead is very soft and can be easily gouged or scraped with a nail or screwdriver. In 10 years of inspecting this is only the 4th time I have run across an active lead water line, but in all cases the homes were over 100 to 125 years old. What is the experience of other inspectors on this toppic. Click to Enlarge 83.35 KB

I agree. I had a LED the made a buzzing sound. After some research I found the list of dimmers for that model of bulb. Not all LED dimmers work clitch free with all LED bulbs.

I say save your money and don't buy a CO detector, use your nose. I have not pulled mine out in over a year.

It has to do with the dimmer switch. What brand LED bulb are you using?

Looking for opinions on what this material is. Click to Enlarge 49.23 KB Click to Enlarge 129.58 KB Click to Enlarge 35.22 KB Click to Enlarge 79.37 KB Click to Enlarge 32.47 KB

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crenelated In case your like me and had no idea how to pronounce the word.

Thank you Bill, Kurt and everyone else. Just when I thought I knew it all... I went back out to the house and sure enough it is in fact 2 coat stucco over old bricks. I have never even heard of this being done. I?m sure glad I asked. When I was doing the inspection (by myself) I never questioned what I was looking at; I expected it to be brick, it looked like brick, the entire street is an historical district of old brick homes. A good lesson learned.

Interesting points made. Here are some more pictures. I'm going to stop back by and take another look. I don't understand how another layer of brick (facade) could have been added and still have the wood detailing just under the gutters on the front. Click to Enlarge 52.19 KB Click to Enlarge 57.6 KB Click to Enlarge 73.22 KB Click to Enlarge 97.76 KB