Your Seattle Home inspector, when writing about the defects they find in homes, will report their “Findings,” the “Implications” of those findings, and then what they “Recommend” be done about those findings.
I like to recommend the specific trade or trades that I want to see perform the repairs.
For example, in the State of Washington, we are required to recommend that treatment for Wood Destroying Insects be performed by a State Licensed & Bonded Pest Control Operator.
One has to question the abilities and training of home inspectors that do not know which trade to recommend for a repair. And while I, as a home inspector, could conceivably be taking on some additional liability by doing this, I think it is worth the extra risk in order to provide better service for my client.
Recommending that licensed and bonded trades do the repairs is no guarantee that the repair is going to be done professionally or properly—this of course translates to job security for me. Sill—such recommendation should be more often successful than recommending repairs by Uncle Bubba or Uncle Bubba’s cousin Dubba.
On an inspection I did some time ago, I called out for repairs, by a licensed plumber, of an improperly terminated TPRV on a water heater. In this case the drain went up hill.
We all know that drains can’t drain up hill—-gravity can be a pain in the butt sometimes but some things require it to work properly. Water that stays trapped against the valve can corrode the valve rendering it non-functional or the water in the pipe could hinder the escape of steam and water released under pressure—creating an explosive condition. (I urge you to watch this video from Mythbusters if you doubt what can happen.)
Eventually I was called back to re-inspect the property, including the repair to the water heater TPRV drain—-supposedly repaired by a “licensed plumber.”
While the “changes” are obvious, the “repaired” drain will still trap water against the valve.
Once again I had to repeat my recommendation for “proper repairs” by a licensed plumber.
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