Gerry Beaumont

Hi to all, the 18 inch rule is in the US an "urban legend" perpitrated on many of us by Carson Dunlap, the show a slide in their illustrated home series that only relates to Canadian code, I have seen this information in at least 3 different electrical courses in the US, and in terms of the NEC it is just wrong. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Stan must have taken our entry level exam, as the link that I poted here to the Beta version of the new exam was disabled months ago, w are still adding questions to the new one and tweaking the system based on responses from users. including suggestion made by users of this board. Update, I just check again our webmaster ha pointed the beta test link that I used on here to our entry level exam. sorry for the confusion Regards Gerry

Hi to all, I would also have written this "as needing further evaluation" as it does not sound like professional work due to a lack of proper footings. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Steven, I would report this as a potential problem, my guess is that the sump float is set too high, and therefore the high water level is impeeding the radon removal,just a guess but it should be evaluated. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, I apologize as to my use of English, as I have not yet learned how to speak American, however Websters appears to support my usage of terminology. Main Entry: in·dus·try Pronunciation: 'in-(")d&s-trE Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural -tries Etymology: Middle English industrie skill, employment involving skill, from Middle French, from Latin industria diligence, from industrius diligent, from Old Latin indostruus, perhaps from indu in + -struus (akin to Latin struere to build) -- more at END-, STREW 1 : diligence in an employment or pursuit; especially : steady or habitual effort 2 a : systematic labor especially for some useful purpose or the creation of something of value b : a department or branch of a craft, art, business, or manufacture; especially : one that employs a large personnel and capital especially in manufacturing c : a distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises d : manufacturing activity as a whole 3 : work devoted to the study of a particular subject or author Reasonably accurate I thought ? Main Entry: pro·fes·sion Pronunciation: pr&-'fe-sh&n Function: noun Etymology: Middle English professioun, from Old French profession, from Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin profession-, professio, from Latin, public declaration, from profitEri 1 : the act of taking the vows of a religious community 2 : an act of openly declaring or publicly claiming a belief, faith, or opinion : PROTESTATION 3 : an avowed religious faith 4 a : a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b : a principal calling, vocation, or employment c : the whole body of persons engaged in a calling . Ah, now I see the light !!! Regards Gerry

Hi Crusty, I fail to see how NACHI has lower continuing education requirements than most associations, when I would say we have higher ones: http://www.nachi.org/cont_education.htm We are also still the only trade organization in this industry that has any type of entrance exam. As to your comments on our marketing prowess, that is coming too close to praise. Regards Gerry

Hi Sue, If you would like another, highly bias opinion as to he merits of NACHI please feel free to contact me direct. In fairness to most of my friends on this board associations are not a "One size fits all" proposition. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, the first thing to realise here is that the UK house buying market is not like anywhere in the USA. the concept of pre-purchase or pre-listing inspections realy does not exist there. Typically there is little or no seller disclosure and the only inspection that is done is done for the lender not the buyer, and in most cases the buyer is not even given a copy of the "Survey" dispite the fact that they are paying for it !! So most buyers are buying blind, the Survey report that is done for the lender has little or no relation to an inspection report as we know it here, a survey in the UK is much closer to a FHA/VA report and centers more on valuation rather than condition. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out over the next couple of years (and whether Tony Blair's party remains in power to see this legislation through) Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Many thanks to all the users of this board who had a go at this exam and for the suggestions that you all made, also thanks for the professional courtesy shown here, I was fully expecting at least one fist fight, and Jimmy having to work overtime to keep order.[] OK, now that we have pulled the non-member link to this exam down, its time to have a look at the results from the last round of "beta" testing, here are the basic stats. Basic Statistic Total Exams Taken: 171 Average Grade: 56.64% Number of Exams Passed: 54 Average Passing Grade: 78.91% Number of Exams Failed: 117 Average Failing Grade: 46.37% This equates to a 31% pass rate, which I concider to be quite good on the basis that not one had studied to take this exam, like you would for say a state license exam (I bet if we charged $195:00 a pop for it the pass rate would go up)id="green"> As a sidebar issue, those who approached me through this board and were given a generic ID & password (by the way they were all thesame ID so I don't know who did what) scored an average 71% with the scores falling between 51% and 87% id="green"> Grade Brackets Grade Bracket Total Average Scores of 1 to 10 24 14.04% Scores of 11 to 20 1 0.58% Scores of 21 to 30 2 1.17% Scores of 31 to 40 2 1.17% Scores of 41 to 50 9 5.26% Scores of 51 to 60 29 16.96% Scores of 61 to 70 56 32.75% Scores of 71 to 80 29 16.96% Scores of 81 to 90 12 7.02% Scores of 91 to 100 7 4.09% As you can see from the grade bracket averages nearly 33% of takers were within 10% of passing. I believe that with some additional study that 60% of respondents would pass this exam. id="green"> Category Stats Interiors: 53% correct on average Electrical: 55% correct on average Structural: 47% correct on average Roofs and Attics: 62% correct on average Plumbing: 65% correct on average Heating and Cooling: 55% correct on average Exteriors: 59% correct on average Environmental: 58% correct on average Ventilation and Insulation: 61% correct on average Fireplaces, Stoves and Chimneys: 46% correct on average. I have highlighted the "problem areas" in terms of topics, the structures area is a cause for concern especially as we know from insurance stats that this is the biggest area of claims against HI's. And I am disapointed with the scores in the Chimney areas, as this has major safety issues, however I do recognize that chimneys and fireplaces can be somewhat a regional thingid="green">. I again would like to thank all who have taken this exam, and offered opinions on its style and performance, your suggestions and comments have ben most helpfull, and have been listened to. Regards Gerry

Hi Charlie, I wondered if that's what you did, yes we the current exam that you took is just our entry level exam for new members and those new to our profession, we are also developing a second exam that is more of a test of existing inspectors knowledge, but it is through this link only: http://exams.nachi.org/exambeta/ You can use the same user ID and password that you used for the other exam. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Just a reminder to anyone who has not yet had a go at this, and wants to the link will only be active until tomorrow night, I will post the stats on this exam over the weekend. Again many thanks to those who have taken the time to take this and especially those who have taken the time to offer suggestions for it's improvement. Regards Gerry

Hi Matt, Thanks for the feed back, as someone else said you don't see too many fireplaces in AZ, 1)I am a little limited on picture size due to noty wanting to slow the system down too much for those on dial up connections, but I will be changing the picture questions anyway as these are a new development. 2)I hope that I've included in the question the fact that some have multiple answers (but I will go back and check). 3)Typo's yes, everytime I look at it I find one or 2 more. 4) I am undecided on telling members which they got wrong, on balance I am against it. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Charlie, not to doubt your abilities, but which exam did you take, was it our existing entry level exam, or the exam link in this thread. People have complained before that our entry level exam can be done in 15-20 mins in the 90's, but no one has been able to do that on the new one (me included). If you did indeed do the new one at 95% in 17 mins my hat is off to you. Regards Gerry

Hi Kurt, I don't know whether this would stand up in court, but if I see an area of damp, I first test several areas of the same wall or ceiling that appear to be un affected to establish a base line, then I take a reading in what appears to be the visible middle of the area and every 12 inches working outwards until the meter readings return to the baseline. Sometimes I document where the B/L readings were taken and all the reading on the damage. Regards Gerry

Hi Chris, Thanks for the feed back, I can see why you're weak on boilers & fireplaces, I guess there's not much call for them in AZ. I do study all the question responces to weed out underperforming questions, and if need be re-write them or in some cases change the available answers, this will be an on going process through the life of the exam. Thanks again Gerry

Brian,I really think the whole issue is moot, as inspectors regardless of affiliation we all inspect about the same stuff in roughly the same way, so any test of knowledge is going to focus on the same areas, and have pretty much similar questions and answers. I like every other trainer have thousands of questions on hand from various sources, some I know have been used on NHIE, I took that exam myself quite some time ago and you can bet that I wrote down after the event as many questions as I could remember, that sure as hell don't mean that I had them down verbatim, there are also many supposed NHIE question sets floating about on the internet (try Ebay). I have to say from a personal stand point that if I had access to the NHIE pool I would not want to allow anyone to see them, helping members understand their weaknesses ad pointing them in the direction where they can get more knowledge is what I'm all about, Trying to invalidate NHIE is pointless, even if I could give someone all the answers what does that prove ?? it would not make them good inspectors, it would only help them pass a one time exam, my interest is in helping members develop their skills and make our members the best that there are out there. That and only that makes us a strong organization IMHO. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Brian, what is relevent or not is very subjective, I also agree with your comments about HI's having a code certification (That's my personal take). Initially there will be one version of this exam, I do have plans to regionalize it later, and yes theroretically some one could memorize all the answers, good luck to them, I have audited every question on this exam (hundreds of questions) and I still can't ace it. As to If/how/when it will be taken and whether moderation will be a feature of it, As I said before that is undesided. Brian, you know me better than to drag me into a Nick discussion, he is a big boy and can speak for himself, if he wishes to. All I can tell you is that this is a NACHI education project, and Nick has had no inputon it (nor did he wish to have) Regards Gerry

Hi Brian, thanks for your in put, yes this exam is a little "code based" at this time as we used a lot of Code references to validate many of the original questions and answers, having said that is it a bad thing when alot of what we report on ulimately are code issues, anyway that aside, as you will no doubt have seen i have started to include a lot of picture based questions and multiple answer questions which will change the feel of the exam somewhat. As to how this is going to be administered, that has not yet been determined, there are many options open to us, and that desision will ultimately be made by our members, for now it will be open for our members to use to help them understand their weeknesses, and act as an exam prep for state licensing exams. As to the question of Nick's NHIE quote he misunderstood the question sources that we had available, yes many questions have been reported as being from NHIE but that is only to say that we collect questions from many sources, not the least of which is from members (and my students) that have taken that exam, and every other training org does the same thing, I have very many crib sheets in my posession that were prepared by the training schools from exactly the same sources. Regards Gerry

Hi Jim, thanks again for your input, the initial picture questions that I've loaded are some what simple, as I did not want to push the system to far without validation, but I think the inclusion of real inspection issues will set this appart from other tests (heck when I took NHIE the only visual questions were some realy naff diagrams, that were one their 50th photocopy reincarnation) The ability that we have to include real reportable issues, and test members ability to report on multiple issues, is I think a major step forward. Regards Gerry

Hi Jim, thanks for the feed back, I don't know when you took this exam, but yesterday (Sunday) I added about 50 picture based questions to the exam pool, to start de-bugging that system, it is not perfect yet but some of the visual questions invite the respondent to study the picture and select potentialy more than one answer based on what they see (and would need to report) from the picture. If you have the time please take it again and you will get an idea of where we are taking this system. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Just a quick up date, with thanks to those who have taken the time to try this out, and especially to those who have made meaningfull suggestions. Total Exams Taken: 111 Average Grade: 53.73 Number of Exams Passed: 28 Average Passing Grade: 79.46 Number of Exams Failed: 83 Average Failing Grade: 45.05 As you can see about 25% are passing this exam at this point, and I can see from the stats that the weak areas are about the same, interestingly the results this week leaving it open to non members are about the same as with our original beta test group (only 2% higher pass). I have today loaded up about 20 picture based questions to play with, now that we have validated the basic system, it will be interesting to see how these questions perform with the added benefit of visual stimulation. This exam will be left up until next Friday for all to play with. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Jim, the initial Beta version that you will see is somewhat like NHIE, however the second phase of it is technologicaly so far ahead of NHIE that it ain't funny, your idea of using pictures and interpreting the visual information within them is already in the works together with some pretty advanced systems to support this style of question, but for now baby steps I have to validate the system before I make the next change. However if you do have a go at the exam you have a 50% chance of seeing a visually based "test" question that is in their to check the system. Regards Gerry

Bill, It is a little early to do much analysis of the results, but there appears to be very little difference between the results of the NACHI member results, and those from outside of our organization, as I said I will post more details after next Friday when I have a better handle on the stats. In very rough terms about 22% are passing the exam, with about 35% failing by a small margin.This I think mirrors somewhat the stats of other exams where the first time pass rate is somewhat small, but the subsequent attempts (normally after further study) are more successful. One of the major goals of this exam is to help inspectors to analyize their own weaknesses, and to that end the back-end reporting shows how a respondent has faired in each of 10 catagories. Regards Gerry

Hi to all, Bill and Brian, I have e-mailed to both of you a username and password that I have set up so that if you wish you can look at this in a "spam free enviroment" If anyone else has the same fears but would like to look at this please e-mail me. Regards Gerry

Hi Scott, yes, you are quite correct, that is one of the reasons for allowing non-members to have a go at it at this stage, we have looked at the questions on a case by cse basis over the last few weeks to weed out poor performing questions, and either edited them or replaced them with others. but as you say the best way to analyse the performance of questions is to check the responses. Interestingly, last week we had to re-write or replace 2% of the original Beta questions, dispite having had them previously audited by the whole question setting panel. also we took the time to make some modifications to both the system and the type of questions based on previous feed back. i find the analysis of this exam and it's components very interesting, and will shre some further Statistics with you all when I have pulled the link down, but one that I can share now is that the weakest area is consistently "structure" which is not surprising concidering that this is also the area of most E&O claims against home inspectors, I am also disappointed to see that Chimney scores are low concidering the liability and safety issues involved. Regards Gerry