SonOfSwamp

Here in assbackwards Nashville, a few homeowners decided to put cedar shingles/shakes on their roofs. Every one I ever saw was rotten. Most were just 10 - 15 years old. It gets hot and humid in Nashville, but nothing like coastal hot and humid. If I were to build a house on or near the coast, I'd go with terne, or terne-coated stainless. Some terne roofs in Charleston and Savannah are 400 or so years old. You get your money's worth with terne. WJ

And with that, you have described perfectly the debacle that was the year 2008. WJ

Most likely, you can call the manufacturer, and/or check their website, and get explicit instructions on how to install the vent. Mfr. specs trump code. WJ

Here in Middle Tennessee, I've seen plenty of 10s-20s houses with no ridge board. WJ

FWIW, there are knowledgeable lawyers who tell HIs to avoid arbitration agreements. There are times when the HI is a lot better off in front of a judge. You might want to get the upside/downside on arbitration before you stick it in your contract. WJ

That's well and good for greenliness in newish houses. However, if one were to yank, say, perfectly good 100-year-old 9-over-one windows and have the usual wham-bam installer cobble in new double pane windows, the homeowner would lose thousands of dollars in resale value. Nobody wants a 100-year-old house with new-but-ugly replacement windows. And while I'm on the subject: No savvy old-house owner with tasty original light fixtures will want to install any of those wormy-looking poor-fitting CFLs. (Mercury on a stick!) Of course, in this case, I am not wrong, WJ PS: Beware of foam.

Ever try Turbostats? I use their software for softball, and I've found it wondrous. www.turbostats.com WJ

Best I know, you want you contract written by a lawyer who is proficient in contract law and knows how the HI biz works. Just my humble opinion, but I strongly suggest that you do not (a) write your own, or (b) use one written by a home inspector. There are lots of generic HI contracts out there. Most of the ones I've seen are wretched. WJ

Two things: Maybe it's just me, but I dislike websites that have moving stuff -- like the blue lines that "draw themselves" on the website. I'd suggest that you modify the website to make the moving things hold still, and then get comparative input on that. Photos load slowishly here. I'm on Comcast cable. WJ

For those who like the gizmos and gadgets: Take a look at www.compusa.com Terabyte hard drives for $119.00. A 1080p Toshiba 40-inch TV for $749.00, and my favorite: The Logitech Harmony universal remote control for $39.99. (Down from $100.00, refurb but with warranty.) WJ

Do you really want to retreat into passive voice InspectorSpeak? "Non-professional electrical work?" "Possible hazard?" Just so you'll know, non-professional is a term that defines a person as someone who is not a professional. It doesn't apply to electrical work. Electrical work doesn't have a profession. You might call a jackleg sparky a dabbler, a dilettante or a dumbazz, but he's not a non-professional. FYI, the correct term in this context, describing the work itself, would be "unprofessional." IMHO, it's not a good idea to characterize defects with an invented hyphenated adjective. I'm not sold on "possible hazards," either. If it's a hazard, why not just say it's a hazard? Maybe it's just me, but these passive-voice invented words and phrases seem to weaken and soft-sell defects. Why not just tell 'em that the thing's not right, and they need to get it fixed? I know, I know. I'm being all picky. But words mean things. Fortunes are made and lost because people write what they think they mean, and their words end up meaning something else entirely. Like it or not, all HIs are professional writers. WJ

Or maybe just a red arrow pointing to the fuse, with the notation, "goofy improvised repair." Then a little text in the body of the report, saying, "Get an electrician to fix the 'goofy improvised repair' noted on page X. The sooner, the better." WJ

Toyota builds a lot of its cars in Kentucky, just up the road from me. FWIW, We're still driving a 17-year-old Toyota Camry wagon that has no meaningful issues. Replacing the odd failed part (EGR valve, etc. is next) is cheap compared to a stinkin' car payment. I've replaced a radiator, two door handles, two window regulators and a power steering rack. About 135,000 miles on that one. Oh, and our 9-year-old Toyota van is working fine, too. However, it did have a water leak that dumped water in the driver's-side floorboard. Cost $900 to fix that. And there was the $300 for the replacement of the liftgate handle. And the $600 for the new alternator and battery. About 120,000 miles on that one. I have no sympathy for the Big Three. As my daddy would've said, "They did it to their own selves." WJ

Thanks for putting that up, Mike. There are days when I just don't want to think about defects, but I do enjoy some whimsy. WJ

Might be a redneck if... WJ

Let me gently suggest whitewash, or something like whitewash. Maybe "pickling." WJid="blue">

Maybe it's just me, but I'd leave it just like it is. WJ

Yup. And the chimney flue was built for coal too. Affectionately known as an octopus furnace. Yep. That's the kind of furnace that blew up the hotel in "The Shining." WJid="blue">

It'll leak. Somebody's going to have to remove the shingles around the chimney, get some real flashing and start all over. It'll be costly. Mud ain't flashing, WJid="blue">

How are they stripped from a car? With a hacksaw? I'd kick someone straight in the nuts if I saw him squiggled beneath a car ripping off a catalytic converter. Sawzall. WJid="blue">

Pardon me for jumping in before the answers start rolling in, but I just have to say: I put in 20 years in the HI biz, and I never took a class in anything. Staying away from HI "instruction" did me no harm, and saved me piles of money, time and aggravation. WJ

Yeah, and gunfire at a Toys R Us store. Can't remember the location... WJ

There are at least two problems: 1. The few college grads who want to be journalists aren't adequately educated. 2. The people who own/run the media don't have enough ready cash to hire first-rate people. And it'll get way worse before it gets better. New Zealand looks better every day. Besides that, I heard on TV today that a huge house in a gated community on the beachfront in Mexico goes for about $300K. (US equivalent is over $1M.) Might be time to go see Charlie... WJ

I agree that the skills of home inspectors and TV reporters are generally weak. But there's not much home inspectors can do to "fix" either group. In my humble experience, many HIs are willfully and proudly ignorant. It should be clear to any reasonably-well-educated person that many -- maybe most -- home inspectors are disconnected from any meaningful knowledge base. Best I can tell, most are handymen bluffing their way through, relying on folklore and sometimes the voices in their heads. With the exception of some buyers who've been truly burned by an HI -- enough to suffer through litigation -- few people really care what home inspectors do. I think most buyers see the inspection as something recommended by a "real estate professional," so they pay up, skim the report, throw it away and move on. Regarding media coverage: from what I've seen -- and I worked for a newspaper for 13 years -- reporters aren't interested in HI stories. We've all seen enough HI stories to see that the average HI just advertises his willful ignorance. Reporters don't want to bother with such stories. My experience says that print journalists are generally sharper and better-informed than TV reporters. But keep in mind that over the past several years -- and even more so over the past several months -- print reporters have been fired by the busload, columnists are disappearing from newspapers, and newbie journalists work for low, low wages. Savvy and accomplished HIs and similarly-skilled reporters may be able to find good niche work, but IMHO, your average HI and your average reporter -- print and TV -- will continue to degrade. It ain't going to get any better, WJ

Being one state south, and having been to KY a fair bit lately, I can tell you that major ice/snow is unusual in KY/TN, but it's unpredictable. I've seen two days here in Nashville when the thermometer read 15 below. Wind chill was 50 below. But heck, I got 18 inches of snow in SC in 73. Al Gore lives right up the road. Maybe I'll go ask him... WJ