inspections Archives - Page 8 of 9 - Charles Buell Consulting LLC

March 31, 2012 by Charles Buell

Difficult Crawl Spaces—fools rush in where angels fear to tread

Everyone can relate to how “inhospitable” crawl spaces can be, and I am not going to delight you with more horror stories typical of those places.

Houseboats can have the worst crawl spaces

This is more about what contortions your inspector will endure to get him or her self into these spaces; and what limitations are logical and necessary to keep them out of the “hospital.” Obviously, the fire department cutting through the living room floor to retrieve a stuck home inspector would be very embarrassing no matter what the inspector found. But what great blog fodder that would be! For me, it is my head and shoulders that have to fit—-an opening of 10” by 14-1/2” is plenty big enough. If I can get my head and shoulders through the opening—-I am in there.

So what about heating/cooling ductwork in crawl spaces? Most inspectors are usually dealing with how to get around, over or under these installations—-without doing more damage to them than the last wanker did.

But what about the INSIDE of the ductwork—-should the inspector go INSIDE the ductwork if he can fit?

Well of course I am kidding—-sort of.

A while ago, at an inspection of a houseboat of all places, I had to inspect a crawl space that was the heating system plenum—-the cold air return to the furnace. This was not the first houseboat that I had inspected but it was the first that had a crawl space. It is kind of weird to be in a crawl space that you know has water slapping against the foundation all around you—and water flowing underneath you. The floor of the crawl space was at water level or a little below.

One might think that this crawl space would be a water nightmare, but in reality it was one of the driest crawl spaces I had ever been in—-and no vents either. It was a great example of why venting of crawl spaces is unnecessary and should not be allowed. By making this space what we called “conditioned” space it ultimately has no higher moisture levels than anywhere else in the house—-assuming there are no plumbing leaks to fill it up. This space has performed as designed for 26 years.

The problem with the installation is that clearances throughout the space (1000 sq ft) were a little less than desirable—-with less than 14 inches from the floor to the joists above. When there is this little room, I am more than likely accurate in guessing that few other inspectors have considered the space “accessible.” It has likely gone uninspected for 26 years. This just reinforced even more the importance of me being the one that gets to do it. I did get my exercise as there were three bays to inspect and all were dead ends.

Crawling around in crawl spaces — Candid Camera in the Crawl Space

Some days we get to have more fun than on others.

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Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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March 22, 2012 by Charles Buell

Babes in the Woods—the Home Inspector “Profession”

As Home Inspectors I can argue that we are all just babes in the woods.

While homes have been “inspected” to varying degrees for many years, as a profession we are really still in our infancy. This helps explain the huge range in quality of home inspections and the reports that arise from those inspections.

There is much bickering among home inspectors and various associations as to which association is the best, and inspectors will argue themselves blue in the face as to why they are better than inspector “X.” The point I would like to make is that—-unlike doctors and lawyers—-or even hair dressers—-or even massage therapists—-we generally have NO SIGNIFICANT TRAINING that supports our arguments as to what association or inspector is any better than any other.

That is not to say that there are no GREAT inspectors out there. Those that are great typically got to be great through their own efforts as opposed to formal training they could have done to get them there.

Until there is peer review of all inspectors and training that takes longer than a week or even a month, it is pretty much a stretch to call ourselves a profession.

I do think that we are becoming a profession and can still provide an invaluable service to our buyers, but 25 years from now we will be as similar as a witch doctor is to a brain surgeon—-perhaps even more distinctive. Some of the inspectors that have been involved in this profession from the beginning are being dragged kicking and screaming to the next level. No one wants to admit that this is NOT as good as it gets. What we do now as inspectors will be unrecognizable when compared to what the profession will look like in 10, 20, 30 years from now—-just as it is barely recognizable from what it was 30 years ago.

Real Estate Agents are also part of this equation because they need to keep up with the growth of our profession as well.

Thanks to the internet, consumer expectations of home inspectors increases every day. This in itself results in better inspections, with inspectors spending more time at the inspection and providing more detailed reports. The days of the one hour inspection are justifiably disappearing and the 4 to 5 hour inspection is becoming more common. In time they will likely become even longer.

Home inspectors are all a bunch of “Alpha Wolves” and it is easy for them to get all caught up in their own self-importance. This makes it especially difficult for consumers to know which inspector is actually going to give them the best information possible in the short time that inspector is at the property they are looking at.

With modern report writing software it is pretty easy to create reports that “looks” great, but may be weak on content. In other words the average consumer may not be able to tell what the inspector did not include in the report. The inspector, himself or herself, may not even know what they did not include in the report. There is currently no level playing field. While there is some “minimum standards” of information out there that inspectors rely on, it is VERY minimal in relation to what we could be providing consumers.

My recommendation to consumers is to do as much research as possible about the inspector they are considering. Google their names, their businesses and Professional Associations for more information about them. Check their websites, read their blogs, ask friends who they used, compare their sample reports—–there is no easy way—-but if the consumer does their homework they can find one that is as competent as today’s industry standards allow. Perhaps most importantly, I would advise consumers to consider the cost of the inspection last of all. Although a low cost inspection is likely to be consistent with lack of information.

There are no brain surgeons yet—-but the diapers are getting uncomfortable and we are slowly earning our big-boy (or girl) pants.

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Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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November 21, 2011 by Charles Buell

Home inspections sometimes result in the need for re-inspections

I don’t do Re-Inspections very often.

I like to maintain the illusion that it is because my reports are so detailed and well written. I can only hope my reports describe so completely what is necessary, that everyone “lives happily ever after.” Of course, I really don’t have any idea why, but it likely has more to do with the fact that most people don’t want to pay the additional fee to have me back.

Re-Inspects can be tricky for the inspector because what if the inspector finds something the second time that they didn’t see the first time? Ouch!

In addition to this, we are being called back to check on the work done by a “Higher Power” (Licensed XYZ Contractor) and then we are asked to sign off on their work.

This reason alone is why some inspectors won’t do Re-Inspections at all.

First of all, lets discuss finding something the second time that we missed the first time.

While no inspector likes to admit that they miss anything—-we all do. We are only there for a small amount of time and site conditions can be vastly different at the time of the second visit. (For example the house has gone from completely furnished and occupied to vacant and empty.)

Rather than seeing the inspection as an “End” in itself, the inspection can (should?) be seen as a big first step toward “building an understanding” of the home—–with additional info likely (or should I say “guaranteed”) to follow. So, the Re-Inspection might be seen as an opportunity to add to that overall body of information. That said, the things discovered the second time better not be of the “Deal Killer” variety or something of consequence. That could certainly be a problem.

The second issue, regarding checking up on the work done by contractors with supposedly more “authority” or “credentials” (regarding their particular trade) than the inspector does. If this was a realistic argument we couldn’t justify doing any new construction inspections, because all of the work was supposedly done by contractors with qualifications that trump ours.

When contractors come in to make the repairs we call for, there is no way to know who’s interests they have in mind—-sometimes it is obvious that it is only their own. It is a little different matter if the buyers are hiring the contractor and paying for it themselves.

But even so, I see no reason an inspector can’t do a “visual” inspection of the completed work the same way they look at work done 1 year ago or 100 years ago. Why would anyone think we would be responsible for declaring the work was done “properly?”

We often cannot tell whether the work was done properly no matter when the work was done.

All we can really do is state what we can see—-“repairs are evident”—-or, that there was “no evidence of repairs.”

I know that people would love it if we could just wave our magic wands or turn on our x-ray vision and make “categorical” declarations about things. This just is not possible—-all we can do is tell the story of what we see. What people do with that story is up to them.

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Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector

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