Marijuana Grow House - Oops....

[robert1966]

I did a house last week that was abandant, the listing realtor said it had lots of junk left behind........He ment to saw, Man they took this 1800 SF house and coverted it to a grow house. The Houston police did not seem interested in checking it out though. There was enough pot left behind to get the entire forum high......I did not stick around any longer than I had too. Boy, they left behind power tools used in the grwoing process, personal information and several nice suits hanging in the closets.

They had place foil over the walls and ceilings and converted the HVAC ducts to vent the rooms, placed lights every where and even water mister systems from the shower heads and sinks.

What was really funny, they had a copy of Texas Hydro-Farming magazine put out by the state.....

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[John Kogel]

Just curious - Did you report it as a grow-op, suspected grow-op, or just a house full of defects and junk?

[waynesoper]

looks like stems to me, i would have to ask the listing broker if they honestly think the house was made ready for inspection and when they said YES!!! I would have said, Well, where are the papers. How can I inspect without papers.

papers from the health departments of course, indicating the house is safe to enter[][][]

[robert1966]

I reported it as a grow house, the term the HPD use. But they were not to concerned about it....They said they could not enter without permission from the owner of probable cause? Go figure.

[gtblum]

I reported it as a grow house, the term the HPD use. But they were not to concerned about it....They said they could not enter without permission from the owner of probable cause? Go figure.

I'd stop short of doing police work without proper training. I don't think I'm qualified to determine, or obligated to speculate whether or not the previous occupant held naked square dances on the third tuesday of the month. I'm there to report on the condition of the home, and only that. I'll leave that sensationalized self serving dangerous stuff for Jack Wagon's like Mike Holmes to puke out. But hey that's just me.

[todd_b]

I reported it as a grow house, the term the HPD use. But they were not to concerned about it....They said they could not enter without permission from the owner of probable cause? Go figure.

I'd stop short of doing police work without proper training. I don't think I'm qualified to determine, or obligated to speculate whether or not the previous occupant held naked square dances on the third tuesday of the month. I'm there to report on the condition of the home, and only that. I'll leave that sensationalized self serving dangerous stuff for Jack Wagon's like Mike Holmes to puke out. But hey that's just me.

Mike is a friend of mine. Please share with us why you think he's

a "Jack Wagon" (presuming you mean the same Mike Holmes on the

show "Holmes On Homes". that receives hundreds of thousands of

emails from homeowners ripped off by unscrupulous contractors who

do shoddy work).

[gtblum]

Hi Mr Todd,

You're a friend of his who just happened to stumble upon this?

Mr Todd, after thinking it through, I can see I'm clearly in err for ever suggesting your friend might be a "Jack wagon". The man is nothing less than a genius. He has two TV shows. He teamed up with a Canadian reporter and went after incompetent inspectors for not recognizing a grow OP. A grow OP he would have easily spotted at the age of eighteen. He then went on to tear a section of carpet and flooring up to expose an alteration to one of the structural members to make room for part of the grow op system. Brilliant!

Problem is, home inspectors don't tear up floors. Ever. So, If a guy is sitting home watching this and has nothing to go by other than what the righter of all that is wrong with contractors or home inspectors says, what's he going to believe? Does the guy on TV set the standards? Did the guy on TV mention anything about the difference between what he considers a grow OP, or junior using the attic and mom's tin foil to grow a few plants? Is the tin foil and hydroponic set up there for weed, or did grandma see it on the internet and have grandpa set it up to get a head start on this year's garden? Should home inspectors be responsible for what the previous occupant did in the home? Hell no! Is it irresponsible and "jack wagonish" for someone the public trusts to lay that responsibility on a home inspector and suggest to the public that this is a standard they should be held to?

There are tens of thousands of registered sex offenders in this country.

They move in and out of neighborhoods. Is that the next thing a home inspector should be trained to recognize and be held responsible to report?

[TopSarge]

I reported it as a grow house, the term the HPD use. But they were not to concerned about it....They said they could not enter without permission from the owner of probable cause? Go figure.

I'd stop short of doing police work without proper training. I don't think I'm qualified to determine, or obligated to speculate whether or not the previous occupant held naked square dances on the third tuesday of the month. I'm there to report on the condition of the home, and only that. I'll leave that sensationalized self serving dangerous stuff for Jack Wagon's like Mike Holmes to puke out. But hey that's just me.

Mike is a friend of mine. Please share with us why you think he's

a "Jack Wagon" (presuming you mean the same Mike Holmes on the

show "Holmes On Homes". that receives hundreds of thousands of

emails from homeowners ripped off by unscrupulous contractors who

do shoddy work).

Your buddy won't receive any props here. The standards for this profession were outlined when he was still a kid. It's a tenate of this profession that inspections are non-invasive and inspectors are not permitted to cut into walls and are only permitted to disassemble certain components of a home to perform inspections. Yet, there is Mikey, week after week, going into a home where he's being allowed by the current homeowners to use extensive invasive techniques, opening up walls to find concealed things that no reasonably competent inspector would have been able to find; and then he broadly paints the entire inspection profession as a bunch of incompetents - except for his own inspectors, of course.

We've known for decades that there are problems with the home inspection profession. You won't find anyplace with stronger critics within the profession than here; the people that hang out here and make TIJ what it is are the most dedicated to improvement of the profession in the entire business. They spend countless hours here trying to improve the profession by educating their fellow inspectors and together they have helped, even if just a little bit, to raise the bar in the profession. Holmes hasn't done that, he just shouts criticism without providing solutions and paints all inspectors with the same brush - except his, of course.

If home inspectors had carte blanche to tear into any home they inspected, without worrying about the seller demanding they make repairs and/or suing them in court, we too would be able to position ourselves as super persons. Unfortunately for us, we can't and it's unlikely to ever be the case.

This profession could have been populated by his most ardent fans. He chose to trash it; now this profession is anything but Mike Holmes friendly.

Top

[Jack Ahern]

I watch Mike's show.I too have a problem with his trashing the home inspector profession.

He does spend some time "beating up the idiot homeowners" for allowing? shoddy work. Most everybody in this business could find the problems, if they would be allowed to and paid for some destructive testing. Home inspectors do a visual inspection!

How come there is never a ---cost to repair the damage???

The magic of television transforms a unprofessional hack job to a nice renovation. Never a cost to do this!!!

We never see the home owners weeping over their checkbook.

My 2 cents. [:-banghea[:-banghea

[hausdok]

I watch Mike's show.I too have a problem with his trashing the home inspector profession.

He does spend some time "beating up the idiot homeowners" for allowing? shoddy work. Most everybody in this business could find the problems, if they would be allowed to and paid for some destructive testing. Home inspectors do a visual inspection!

How come there is never a ---cost to repair the damage???

The magic of television transforms a unprofessional hack job to a nice renovation. Never a cost to do this!!!

We never see the home owners weeping over their checkbook.

My 2 cents. [:-banghea[:-banghea

It's only a guess on my part, but I think it's probably something like the Extreme Home Makeover model where the producer combs through reams of applications from homeowners that want Holmes to work on their homes. They narrow down the list to a manageable number of likely candidates; and then they go out and look at the houses closely to see whether the particular house and the problem will make "good television." If it does, the owners are forewarned to be available for all of the shooting and asked to participate in the work to a certain degree; and in exchange for all of that they get the whole thing done gratis.

Like I said, it's a guess.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Terence McCann]

I watch Mike's show.I too have a problem with his trashing the home inspector profession.

He does spend some time "beating up the idiot homeowners" for allowing? shoddy work. Most everybody in this business could find the problems, if they would be allowed to and paid for some destructive testing. Home inspectors do a visual inspection!

How come there is never a ---cost to repair the damage???

The magic of television transforms a unprofessional hack job to a nice renovation. Never a cost to do this!!!

We never see the home owners weeping over their checkbook.

My 2 cents. [:-banghea[:-banghea

If it does, the owners are forewarned to be available for all of the shooting and asked to participate in the work to a certain degree; and in exchange for all of that they get the whole thing done gratis.

Like I said, it's a guess.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

I would doubt that it is done for free - perhaps a reduced fee maybe??

[Tom Raymond]

I watch from time to time. There is actually some very good building science going into his projects, not that he'd bother to talk about it. That, and it's really fun to look for his mistakes. There's at least one in every episode.

[gtblum]

I watch from time to time. There is actually some very good building science going into his projects, not that he'd bother to talk about it. That, and it's really fun to look for his mistakes. There's at least one in every episode.

That's all good, Tom. But, that's not what we're talking about here. The Monday morning Quarterback show with the unlimited budget is one thing.

Misleading folks who don't know any better about the limitations of a home inspection and suggesting unrealistic expectations is what this is about.

Mr "make it right" should practice what he preaches.

The more important part of this is, whether or not any home inspector should be sticking their neck out on the chopping block by calling someones home a grow op. Anyone have a clear legal definition of what determines a grow op? One plant? Fifty? Intent to distribute?

I know there's a couple of retired cops here. How long and how much training should an HI have before they're ready to defend their call in a court of law?

[Tom Raymond]

The house in the OP was being used to grow a hell of a lot of something. It's clearly a dwelling unit and not a green house, so if I could identify what was being grown (and I'm pretty sure I could) I would have no problem calling a spade a spade. What is unclear is if the house was listed as is, or if someone moved in and trashed it. Either way I would think the cops would want to see it, a third party report of drug activity seems like probable cause to me.

[gtblum]

The house in the OP was being used to grow a hell of a lot of something.

Not a good answer when being questioned by the pissed off seller's attorney.

It's clearly a dwelling unit and not a green house, so if I could identify what was being grown (and I'm pretty sure I could) I would have no problem calling a spade a spade.

I don't see anything growing in the OP's pictures. Do You? I see a half an oz of weed in a closet, next to a suit with a hole in it, some unidentified sticks, foil, and some electrical defects that should be corrected. For all we know, this person might be using the foil to contact Marshall Applewhite for a ride.

What is unclear is if the house was listed as is, or if someone moved in and trashed it. Either way I would think the cops would want to see it, a third party report of drug activity seems like probable cause to me.

Yup. It's a police matter.

[Tom Raymond]

Not a good answer when being questioned by the pissed off seller's attorney.

Sure it is. There are dead plants in the trash, the shower has been converted to an irrigation system, there is enough ventilation there for laundromat, and the place is wrapped in enough tin foil to make hats for half of Bellvue.

In my professional opinion, there's more there than Granny getting a jump on her tomatoes.

...some electrical defects that should be corrected.

That's funny!

For all we know, this person might be using the foil to contact Marshall Applewhite for a ride.

The puveyor of that operation ain't into that kind of cool aid. They're making too much money to off themselves in order to hitch a ride with ET.

[robert1966]

I appreciate the above advise as I will look at this and future experiences differently. I am going to have to Google Jack Wagon and Mike Holmes, it seems my 3 year old does not watch that channel. What really made me mad was the guy whose stuff was in the house was prior military. I have been in the Army Reserves for 26 years and I would have put a boot in his butt.

What I did not disclose was the amount of plant stems and left over dried out weed in the closets and garage. It was a major harvest. There must have been 1000 or more plate stems in the home, as I stated before, the entire 1800 SF home was converted to grow weed. Everythng in the house was there for one purpose, growing weed. What gets me is the lack of concern by the authorities.

[robert1966]

Ok, I am back, I got the meaning of a Jack Wagon now.....I also looked at Mike Holmes home inspection web site and all I can say is if you pay the price he has on his web site for a home inspection, your are a jack wagon!

[Jim Katen]

Ok, I am back, I got the meaning of a Jack Wagon now.....I also looked at Mike Holmes home inspection web site and all I can say is if you pay the price he has on his web site for a home inspection, your are a jack wagon!

I think that his pricing is one thing that he's got right about this gig.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Tom Raymond]

Yeah it's a funny thing, once a guy earns a respectable wage he generally won't go back to working for peanuts. What's truly amazing is that it's such a hard lesson to learn.

I find his pricing differential smack in the middle of the fifties to be a bit odd, there's not much difference in construction around here at those vintages. Except for the windows, a house built in 1940 is gonna be very hard to tell from a house built in 1960.

[Jim Baird]

A carpenter I know was paid to go into a subdivision dwelling and screw plywood on the inside casing of all the windows and doors but one. He found out later it was used as a "warehouse" for herbal shipments.

[todd_b]

Ok, I am back, I got the meaning of a Jack Wagon now.....I also looked at Mike Holmes home inspection web site and all I can say is if you pay the price he has on his web site for a home inspection, your are a jack wagon!

Interesting statement. What is the price point where it's considered

excessive ? It would seem to be the height of hypocrisy to suggest a

qualified, experienced, contractor *not* charge a good wage (if the

local market will allow it).

I've been in this (home building) business for over 30+ years. I build

"high end" custom homes (and charge accordingly). I am not familiar

with whatever "pissing contest" is going on between Mike and the

'home inspector' community. All I know is, his show will CLEARLY point

out (without destructive teardowns) the sloppy workmanship that

shady contractors have done to a home. I have not seen the shows

(as claimed here), where drywall has been removed to find a

defect. The defect was pretty obvious from the beginning. For

example, mold/water marks on the outside of drywall. Mike traced

it back to the roof (and showed for the cameras, the sloppy

flashings). Then got a moisture meter, THEN told his crew to tear

down the drywall. Confirming the rotted framing underneath.

Or how about shoddy electrical work that's obvious to any

competent sparky. Do you need to do a destructive tear down?

I don't think so !

Then the homeowners will describe the crooked business practices

that the contractor engaged in. With regard to the "grow house"

episode. If you had viewed it, any fool would've been able to tell

something illegal was going on (the first clue would've been the holes

drilled into the foundation to run a tap off the mains before the

electric meter). I take it (from the attitudes displayed here), that

no one here would bother informing anyone of this theft-of-service

"modification". (ie. see / hear evil, document it, forward it to client,

but speak no evil/none-of-my-business). yes ?

As an aside, I forwarded this discussion link to some clients and

people not-in-the-business. The overwhelming comments i've heard

from them are "what is their problem ? jealousy?" (and compared it

to the anti-Bill Gates hysteria of people criticizing him - not knowing

the Gates Foundation has given away BILLIONS in charity $$$). Mike

has done several of the shows, where he's personally donated either

funds or materials to help a broke homeowner (who has seen their

life savings stolen by corrupt contractors).

Mike is a hero to the public, the fact that you guys are on here

bad mouthing him as if you're all without sin is amazing. Everyone

that personally knows Mike will tell you he's a straight up, honest,

down to earth guy. He originally did not want to do the show.

The producers persuaded him it would be helpful to the consumer.

Given the large number of hacks out there ripping people off. He

also participates in programs aimed at educating new students in

the building trades, to "do it right" (vs. the 'this-is-the-way-it's

always-been-done').

One of the biggest complaints (of the trades) on the show was,

the constant stop/work/stop/work that goes on during a project.

It's a TV show ! the producers/camera crews/editing people -

they need to compress a project down to 1 hour. It's tough on

everyone.

I've been a lurker on this board for about 2 yrs. It pisses me off

to witness (as someone who's grown up around building houses),

the crappy, shoddy workmanship that hacks engage in (that i've

seen in the pictures you guys post). Keep up the work. Educate

the homeowner.