Identifying rooms in mega mansions

[Marc]

This is from an adjacent thread.

Yep, I had one 1100sf POS last week and three big homes this week!

This week I have two McMansion's and one Mega McMansion home! Their inspection fees equal what I would get for 8 normal size homes!

Just wondering how other inspectors go about identifying all the rooms in huge houses with 5 or more bedrooms, multiple living rooms and such.

Does anyone draw rudimentary floorplans and number the rooms?

Marc

[Scottpat]

This is from an adjacent thread.

Yep, I had one 1100sf POS last week and three big homes this week!

This week I have two McMansion's and one Mega McMansion home! Their inspection fees equal what I would get for 8 normal size homes!

Just wondering how other inspectors go about identifying all the rooms in huge houses with 5 or more bedrooms, multiple living rooms and such.

Does anyone draw rudimentary floorplans and number the rooms?

Marc

I try to list rooms by floor and location. Second level, left rear bedroom; Second floor family room; Basement family room; First floor center half-bath; First floor bathroom between bedrooms; etc, etc..

I know that largest of the homes I'm inspecting will have 3 kitchens. One is what is called a "summer" kitchen that opens to the pool area. Another is for entertaining and the third is the family kitchen. This home is in the 17,000 sf range.

[kurt]

Chicago's on a NSEW grid. It's easy. NEBR, SEBR, 1st fl. NEBR, etc.

For the very few homes I look at that aren't on the grid, I still try to use compass coordinates.

If it's not feasible, I do pretty much what Scott does.

[mthomas1]

I use floor + cardinal direction, where needed I use something like:

"in the the second bedroom from the north, off the west side of the second floor hallway" - the way I have my report writer set up it's no more than two clicks to build any such location descriptor I need, or a I can just type it freehand.

When on a diagonal street or for properties which are well square of square on the lot there is a note at the front of the report stating something like:

"For proposes of identifying locations, the front of this property (abutting Clybourn Ave..) is assumed to face to the west.

I've also made up a set of compass roses I can insert into pictures if I *really* need to do so, but I very seldom use them.

On a few occasions I've pulled pull down the GOOGLE Sat view of a property, inserted it, and marked roof locations or similar, or designated identifying letters for various structures or units at a multi-building condominium.

Whatever works, basically.

[Jim Katen]

I use bright orange spray paint to write numerals on the doors of the rooms.

[hausdok]

I generally use cardinal directions too and will desribe them as the northeast, north-center, northwest etc. Those times when I've done very large homes, apartment buildings, condo buildings or motels, I simply explained that I would number them from west to east or north to south.

Works for me; except, instead of the orange paint I like that day-glo green like they use for traffic equipment to mark the doors and walls.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[mgbinspect]

This is from an adjacent thread.

Yep, I had one 1100sf POS last week and three big homes this week!

This week I have two McMansion's and one Mega McMansion home! Their inspection fees equal what I would get for 8 normal size homes!

Just wondering how other inspectors go about identifying all the rooms in huge houses with 5 or more bedrooms, multiple living rooms and such.

Does anyone draw rudimentary floorplans and number the rooms?

Marc

I try to list rooms by floor and location. Second level, left rear bedroom; Second floor family room; Basement family room; First floor center half-bath; First floor bathroom between bedrooms; etc, etc..

I know that largest of the homes I'm inspecting will have 3 kitchens. One is what is called a "summer" kitchen that opens to the pool area. Another is for entertaining and the third is the family kitchen. This home is in the 17,000 sf range.

17,000 SF! That's truly amazing! 8400 SF is the largest home I've ever inspected out here, and that's a monster home in thies area. Now, when I lived in Purcellville, and worked on homes out in the Middleburg area (horsey country) I was mansions like that. One had seventeen masonry fireplaces! But, here in Richmond, all the biggest homes are large row houses on Monument Avenue, which range in the age of late 1800's to early 1900's.

[Scottpat]

This is from an adjacent thread.

Yep, I had one 1100sf POS last week and three big homes this week!

This week I have two McMansion's and one Mega McMansion home! Their inspection fees equal what I would get for 8 normal size homes!

Just wondering how other inspectors go about identifying all the rooms in huge houses with 5 or more bedrooms, multiple living rooms and such.

Does anyone draw rudimentary floorplans and number the rooms?

Marc

I try to list rooms by floor and location. Second level, left rear bedroom; Second floor family room; Basement family room; First floor center half-bath; First floor bathroom between bedrooms; etc, etc..

I know that largest of the homes I'm inspecting will have 3 kitchens. One is what is called a "summer" kitchen that opens to the pool area. Another is for entertaining and the third is the family kitchen. This home is in the 17,000 sf range.

17,000 SF! That's truly amazing! 8400 SF is the largest home I've ever inspected out here, and that's a monster home in thies area. Now, when I lived in Purcellville, and worked on homes out in the Middleburg area (horsey country) I was mansions like that. One had seventeen masonry fireplaces! But, here in Richmond, all the biggest homes are large row houses on Monument Avenue, which range in the age of late 1800's to early 1900's.

Heck we have a bunch of big homes in this area. I would say that my average home is in the 5,000sf range. The largest home I have inspected was 26,000sf, it took 2 1/2 days. Country singer Alan Jackson sold his 28,000sf home this past summer and he is now building a home that is reported to be around 30,000sf. Right now he is slumming it in a 15,000sf home till the new one is complete sometime in early 2012!

[mgbinspect]

Nice, well, as I'm sure you know, most of the folks from your horsey set know folks in Middleburg, if in fact they don't own places in both areas. The mansion I was referring to was one we did the masonry on. It started out with a budget of 1.5 MIL and ended up at 3 MIL. I wouldn't name the folks, but their last name can be found on tire sidewalls, although there's no correlation.

Middleburg, somehow, became a little mirror of the Tennessee and Kentucky horse race crowd.

[Jim Morrison]

I use whatever identifying information seems most meaningful to my clients. The 'tiny' bedroom, the 'blue' bedroom, the 'girl's' bedroom, the back bedroom, whatever... I just ask my clients what they call a particular room and use that. That said, I'm pretty sure that I've never inspected a home that was more than 8000 square feet before.

[Ben H]

8000 sq ft is my biggest, and honestly I didn't enjoy it. Too big. I get a few calls every month for the 5-6k homes, but there's some jack-a&^ pricing a 5k home for 299 in my area. I get asked to match that, and after I stop laughing, I decline.

[Scottpat]

IMVHO, the larger homes are usually easier to inspect. For the most, they just have larger rooms. I find that the larger and more expensive homes are usually a heck of lot cleaner and generally in better condition than smaller homes.

[mgbinspect]

IMVHO, the larger homes are usually easier to inspect. For the most, they just have larger rooms. I find that the larger and more expensive homes are usually a heck of lot cleaner and generally in better condition than smaller homes.

Exactly! Folks in mansions can usually afford to keep them up, and in fact, fix just about everything the second it happens. Monster homes go pretty fast - usually just a lot of extra empty space and maybe an extra HVAC system or two. (I think five HVAC systems is the most I've ever seen on a big house).

Write-ups on mansions are typically pretty insignificant.

With all that in mind, even if you have to give up a little on price, the pay per hour on a mansion is comparatively speaking HUGE!