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Termites Living in Asbestos Insulation

We want to "disturb" the  termites......like have them be gone. On the other hand, we do not want to disturb the asbestos pipe insulation.  This is a job for a very good professional.

This is the type of thing we regulary find when we inspect homes.  

DIRTY A-COIL IS A SOURCE OF ASTHMA TRIGGERS, ALLERGENS AND MOLD

This is a dirty "A Coil" This is the part inside of your furnace that becomes cold when the air conditioner is operating. The blower pushes air over the cold A-Coil and the house chills. This area also collects condensation just like a glass of ice water would sitting out on the 4th of July. That water collects on and in the tray under the coil.

However, when a coil is this dirty, mold also grows on the dirt and moisture on the coil.  As apart of regular furnace maintenance, this cleaning is usually ignored. Even more surprising, we often find that the A-Coil and furnace blower are not cleaned when the ductwork is cleaned. This blows the mold and dirt into the ductwork and air in the home as soon as the unit turns on. So much wasted money and effort for cleaning the ductwork....if these other areas are not also cleaned    

WHEN DUCT CLEANING IS NOT ENOUGH

The owners paid over $ 800.00 to have the furnace ductwork cleaned, but take the furnace blower was not touched. This was in a Pittsburgh home where I wsa the inspector.  

Imagine what happened with the clean ductwork when this blower turned on for the first time after the cleaning.

Make sure that the blower and the A-coil for the air condioner are cleaned when the ductwork is doen or you are throwing your money away.  Tp check if this is clean, remove the front of the furnace and inspect the area of the blower.

Finding the best surveyor for your property  

In answer to your question as to who is  the best surveyor to hire:, I do know some very good surveyors, but they are not likely the best choice for these clients.

That may sound silly at first, but let me explain how a survey works. There needs to be a starting point for measuring.
It needs to be a dependable starting point. A surveyor new to an neighborhood must canvass the area and locate as many points placed by others that they can. It is sometimes pegs placed by other surveyors and sometimes points on sewers or other systems marked on drawings of the area.

Now the problem is that they depend on accuracy of the points that they find. That old "garbage in-garbage out" axiom.
To give them the best chance at accuracy, they find the many points and run each against the drawings. They then eliminate markings that can not be correct and do an overlay to see if a consistent set of points from several sources are available.

They then mark the points on the property they are surveying from that collection of most reliable points.

Back to where I started. The first time any surveyor in Pittsburgh or any other are does a neighborhood it is a very expensive and time intensive process. However, if you have done a neighborhood and have starting points, it is a much simpler and hence very much less expensive job.

The bottom line is the you need to find the surveyor whose stamp is on a plot plan of the home. Often a retired surveyor has sold their prior work to a practicing surveyor if you find that the company whose stamp is on a drawing is not longer in business. The next best surveyor is one who has done a survey as close to the lot in question as possible or the firm that has surveyed for the sewer authority or water authority on that street. If a new street or bridge project was done nearby, there is likely a firm that preformed that survey.

If you can not find a neighbor who knows anyone who as surveyed on the street, it is a good plan to just pick up the phone and call the local professionals and ask if they have done the neighborhood. 

 

Just because the foundation is sinking..... don't worry, the  inspector won't see it.

Amazing. The only things the seller left at the home was this stack of materials, perfectly located to hide the fact that this additiona has settled mor than 4" in this corner.

JUST LOOK TWICE

The steps are pulling loose from the framing. Close inspection will show that the post of the railing is coming loose and the area under the steps is not accessible because of the plaster. Since you really do not want to have your steps or railing pull loose, this will require some expensive custom carpentry work.

68 Year Old Hot water Tank

This is a 68 year old electric hot water tank. So how does this inpector  answer the question: How long should this last ? This is like asking how long a 100 year old man should live....It is amazing. The only older hot water tanks that I have seen were "Side Arm: cast iron tanks and experimental aluminum lines tanks made by Alcoa Aluminum Reasearch. Alcoa "grew up" in Pittsburgh, and the reasearch center was very near the inspection where the Aluminum tank was found. 

CSST GAS LINE and BOND CLAMP  The yellow coated gas line is Coated Stainless Steel Tubing (CSST) This was a great idea. The flexible pipe means that far fewer fittings are needed than with the traditional solid black iron pipe. The problem with this pipe is the when a home is hit with lightening, well, the pipe gets a big hole and blows up the home.  To protect this from happening, a ground bond such as this is required.  Almost 1/2 of the homes with this line that I have inspected do nbot have this simply, low cost, safety feature than can prevent  a home from blowing up.   

December 16, 2010

February 22nd, 2010

Why Is There Mold In Homes?
By Dan Howard, Founder of Home Inspections By Dan Howard

There is no place on earth where there is food and water without something growing. That something can range from fish to algae to redwood trees and elephants, but where there is food and water, things grow. The life that lives in any particular set of conditions, or climate is the best suited for that set of conditions. The homes environment is why there is mold in some homes.

In the mold world, different molds live in different conditions. Some of these molds affect the health of people. The molds that tend to live in the wet areas, tend to be more toxic to the health of people, particularly those persons with poor health.

Climates differ within even a small area inside of a home. A moderate moisture mold can live on the exposed wall surfaces such as paneling or drywall, while “wet” molds can be living inside of that very same wall. A wall covered with the white fuzzy mold known as Penicillium, can have a potentially toxic mold living on the interior side of the wall. The difference between those two areas is that while an exposed surface can dry out between the leaks that are the source of the moisture causing the mold, the interior of the wall can’t dry out. This is similar to having grass and trees on a hillside and the pond plants such as cat of nine tails living in the soggy marsh at the bottom of the hill.

There are many types of mold and these are not easily identified using the naked eye.
Because we can’t see on a microscopic level, we need to test for types any quantities of mold inside of a living area. Identifying the type of mold is considered a qualitative test. These are done using air testing and swab testing. Air testing consists of pulling a measured amount of room air thought a small cassette containing a glass microscope slide that collects the spores on a sticky surface. The swab test is a cotton swab that is the same product as you may have has used to swab your throat to test for Strep Throat. “Tape lifts” are glass slides used in the same manner as the cotton swab to “lift” the spores so that they can be placed under a microscope.

The limitation in swab or tape lift test is that it is not “quantitative” or “all inclusive.” The air test has a measured volume of air, with a predictable method to calculate the amount of mold in the air we breath in a particular room. The air test can capture spores from mold living in the areas we do not touch with the swab. The carpet or drapes, or windows could have mold that is not on the area we swabbed. These are molds that are missed or not included. It also can’t tell us anything about how much mold is in the air we breath.

The air test is not an absolute test. The air tests are measuring spores, and not the total number of mold plants inside of a building. This is like counting the number of tomatoes that a garden produces to calculate the number of tomato plants. With the moderate size and weather tomato plants, that can be a fairly accurate method. However, we need to adjust for the type of tomatoes. We know that “grape tomatoes” make lots of tomatoes per plant. When we see those, we need to adjust the number for that factor. We also know that Beefsteak tomatoes are huge and wonderful tomatoes, but you do not get as many of those per plant. Knowing these differences is important in interpreting your mold test results, and reason to have a very qualified professional. Is is one thing to understand why there is mold in your home and another to k now how to keep I from returning.

February 19th, 2010

The Missing Link In Senior Care Services
By Dan Howard, Founder of Home Inspections By Dan Howard

When we think of senior care services for parents, we usually start with the most obvious questions. Should they stay at home with help from caring providers, or should they go to a long term care facility? How will we know when it is time for them to go to a long term care facility? These questions are important in considering senior care services, but they’re not the only ones to be addressed.

Many seniors have lost their savings with the current economy. Staying at home as long as possible is not just a luxury of maintaining an independent quality of life, it is sometimes an economic necessity.

It takes a trained eye to be able to evaluate an entire home for potential safety hazards. This should be the first step in your process in adding senior care services to keep parents safe in their homes as long as possible . Even the best traditional in home senior care services only inspect for issues such as access, railings and tripping hazards.

The Senior Home Safety Network is a service skilled and dedicated to looking at the systems of the home for safety. This network provides inspection services that check for hazards such as carbon monoxide, electrical hazards, plumbing defects and many other basic safety hazards for clients needing Senior Care Services.

Traditional Senior Care Service companies do not have specialized tools such as carbon monoxide or combustible gas detectors, nor do they have the training required to use this equipment. The traditional service providers are involved with the people who they care for, the Senior Home Safety Network inspectors are focused on the home.

As an example of how important the distinction can be, consider that a Senior Care Service health care provider orders “in home” respiratory care. This is important as respiratory issues can be the cause of a senior’s decline in health. Very often, the trigger or cause for the respiratory illness can be mold or a water intrusion problem. No matter how many “in home” respiratory sessions are performed, the senior can’t get well until the cause of the illness is removed from the home. This situation is where the Senior Home Safety Network Inspector can find the cause of the problem and suggest the best way to correct the cause of the health problem.

The Senior Home Safety Network brings the experience of the best home inspectors into the team of caring professionals that can keep them in their homes as long as possible. The Network is teamed with the American Society of Home Inspectors, also known as ASHI help bring the best in experienced home inspectors into the senior’s homes. The network checks all inspectors for state police clearances for the protection of its clients and provides each inspector with photo identification badges to add the level of security and safety that should be a part of Senior Care Services.

Make your parents’ golden years safe as possible while protecting their financial position. They may need their nest egg for more serious health issues than they are facing today. Keep them at home. They deserve the quality of life it provides.

February 17th, 2010

Aging In Place Is A Right
By Dan Howard, Founder of Home Inspections By Dan Howard

Nursing Homes are quite often a scary place to your parents. While they are now much less “institutional,” they still often represent a loss of freedom and quality of life to a senior. More people are opting for “aging in place”. While in their homes, they can be surrounded with their possessions and memories and choose the simple things like when have lunch or retire for the evening.

Before most of us were born, it was simply a matter of course that the aging population was cared for by the younger generation. As time moved on, this became less the norm, and the older generation came to expect to live in nursing facilities.

Aging in place is a concept born out of necessity. With the baby boomer generation hitting retirement, nursing home populations threaten to exceed our resources. New ways of thinking about caring for our aging population are necessary.

Thus was born the Home Health industry. This went a long way toward enabling the aging population to stay at home. Aging in place became a real option, as home health care services were brought to the patients’ homes. However, this doesn’t effectively deal with all the needs of the at-home elderly.

After retirement, too few of the senior population are able to maintain their homes. They often have to scale back in their living expenses, and that sometimes even includes living in less expensive homes. The aging in place seniors may have to rely their children who are often living in another part of the country.

The senior may not notice that the wiring may be old and worn. Plumbing or heating issues may be a problem. These and many other hazards are potential issues that the aging in place often face that are serious health risks

Whether they manage to stay in their homes or live with their children, the aging in place still have increased safety issues to consider. As people age, their body is more frail than it once was. Immune systems fail. Skin tears, broken bones and infections are much more serious issues as MRSA or Legionella and other exposures can harm seniors.

To this end, Senior Home Safety Network inspections can be a godsend. Even the most conscientious children do not have the experience, tools or time to check all of the potential problems in a parent’s home. Safety problems can fall through the cracks. You see it all the time in the news.

The benefit Senior Home Safety Network Inspections provide is that they specialize in helping the aging in place. The senior home safety inspector’s attention is in providing the information on home safety, not trying to sell the construction services that are needed. Contractors not properly identifying what is needed to keep the seniors home safe is a major consumer complaint in our nation.

Children of seniors living away from their parents can have peace of mind knowing that their parents are safe. When each of us were children, our parents kept us safe. Now it is our turn to keep our parents safe.

February 14th, 2010

Hire An Honest Inspector:  Buyers Asking Their Inspector To "Adjust" The Report
By Dan Howard, Founder of Home Inspections By Dan Howard

There is a related set of issues. Imagine the “buyer” client who wants a report or findings adjusted to benefit them in the negotiations. Attempts with me have ranged from the flat out “I need to have the price adjusted $10,000 and need you to say it is a bad roof” to the other end of the spectrum which is “I really want this house and need a passing test on the septic system”. The rationale used by clients is nothing short of amazing. One approach is the simple “that is why I hired you”. I personally take that approach as fairly insulting, I assume, which is not appropriate for an inspector to do about anything that I am hired because I am trustworthy and a highly skilled and trained professional at inspecting a home. The concept that I am hired to benefit my client by misrepresenting the truth does not work for me. You should hire an honest inspector. If an inspector will cheat for a client, they will also cheat a client.

I do share with a client a number of thoughts. The first is that I make a very good living because I tell the truth, and am not willing to change that business plan. I also observe that if I adjusted my opinion for them and a few years down the road, I inspected a home they were selling, what would that do to the sales process ? If I had been adjusting my opinions of fact to serve my client’s interests, my words and opinions would not have meaning for the negotiation they were involved in today. Again, the best policy is to hire an honest inspector.

Then there s the “just for fun” answer. I mention a local inspection company that will adjust any findings. They have never disappointed anyone, so to speak. They will report anything you want, at a discounted price. Hiring an honest inspector usually costs more than hiring a cheat.

The “write your own report results company” is the only competition that has been around more than 15 years. Agents tell other agents to get that company for the “difficult to sell” properties. They are busy, busy, and busy. However, they are also on the verge of going out of business due to the lawsuits. It seems that the buyers who will do anything to get a home through the mortgage process so that they can live in the dream home, sometimes ( only sometimes) loose the gleam off the new toy and decide that someone other than them should pay for the needed, but undone repairs, that they now live with as owners. Oh well, at least that inspection company is busy, even if they are spending their money on attorneys. The legal system needs a stimulus too. The best policy is hire an honest and thorough inspector.

January 10th, 2010

Home Warranty Insurance Fraud
By Dan Howard, Founder of Home Inspections By Dan Howard

The furnace has several cracks in each of the four chambers of the heat exchanger. This was verified using a video boroscope.

The buyer was able to see the cracks and the agent was offered the opportunity to view them. That offer was declined. You have heard the expression….”see no evil, know no evil….even if you heard the evil”

Other than the fact that the heat exchanger was cracked, there was little else wrong with the 80year old house, There were some minor electrical issues, live termites and carpenter ants, but not much else. This was an estate and the deal was easily going forward even with the furnace and wood destroying insect issues

The report was near done and the buyer’s father came in to speak with me. He had just gotten off the phone with the agent and she had told him how she wanted the furnace issue handled. Her suggestion was to have the buyer purchase a home warranty on the house. The plan was to wait until closing and then have a furnace technician come to the home and THEN “discover” that the heat exchanger had cracks. This is Home Warranty Insurance fraud.

The buyer and his father wanted to know what I thought of the plan. I had three major thoughts, but only shared two with them.

The first thought was simply the words “ Home Warranty Insurance fraud”. Pretty simple, to get the claim paid, the insurance company would need to be defrauded. That is a crime throughout the country, but where we are at, Pennsylvania, it is not only a crime, it’s an aggressively prosecuted crime. Now I also have a strong ethical objection to the plan, but he was asking if he could get away with it, and that was probably the most compelling argument.

The second thought was even more practical than the argument that being put in jail and having your reputation and life ruined is an experience to be avoided. Many of the home warranty insurance companies will reject claims for heat exchangers. Cracks in heat exchangers are usually the result of wear and tear and can be inferred to be pre-existing conditions.

The third argument was kept to myself. The Realtor was putting the buyer in the position of, at the very least lying to an insurance company and several other parties to the transaction. She was also putting herself in the position of convincing other parties to join the fraud in order to get the house to “close” and thereby provide her with a commission. Here is the lesson: this agent will lie to obtain her commission. If she will lie to the insurance company, she will lie to the buyers. She can’t be trusted. People are who they are. If they are unethical, they are unethical.

Almost every home inspection or realtor skill can be taught. Integrity can’t be taught and is very difficult to reclaim if it is lost. The buyer wanted the report to reflect that the furnace did not have a problem, just to help the plan. Nothing big here, just do not say anything about the furnace, be a good guy and help everybody out. If I had agreed to provide the documentation to support “the plan”, I too would be untrustworthy and not referable. That is a very bad business plan in addition to the whole soul part of standing for the truth.

No, I will not participate in such schemes. It was not the first time and will not be the last time I am asked such a question. Each time, it is the same answer. End of that story.

January 5th, 2010

When Caring For Parents, Don't Forget The Senior Home Safety Inspection
By Dan Howard, Founder of Home Inspections By Dan Howard

An issue that we will all probably face in our lives is caring for our parent’s needs as they age. Our parents cared for us when we were children and we should care for them as they face declining health and loss of independence. Eventually, as parents, we will come to rely on our children to assist us with our needs, as they in turn may need to care for us, their parents.

Caring for parents as they get older can take its toll physically and emotionally. as once independent persons need more and more help. Their memory may be slipping. Those creaky bones may not carry them as well as they used to. They may become more susceptible to illness making it difficult, if not impossible for them to care for their own, home.. As children, we are often kept away from helping them by competing time commitments, or by geographic distance. A child in California can’t easily care for parents a few states away.

When caring for parents as they get older, denial is the enemy. They may often believe that they are better or worse than they actually are. They often work hard to cover their problems to spare their children. You have to often be the realist.

A parent can stay in their home with dignity, their memories and independence with the help of family and professionals when you need to.

All the same, when caring for parents, you should aim for as much independence as possible. Staying at home isn’t usually just a pipe dream; it can be done, and it’s better for their dignity to do so.

Home Health Agencies can often be called in to take care of their personal needs such as medication management, exercise and hygiene. Of course, this will require a lot of adaptation.

One often overlooked aspect in caring for parents is the home environment itself. As the body ages, it becomes more susceptible to injury, illness and infection. Bones and skin become more brittle, the healing process often takes longer, and their immunity is usually decreased. Prevention, as they say, is the best medicine.

Typical features in a home can become dangerous. When caring for parents, you have to be able to take into consideration all health and safety hazards. Many of these aren’t as obvious threats as others. Rugs, for instance, can provide a tripping hazard, which can lead to bruising, abrasions and broken bones. If your parent is living alone, this can spell disaster.

It is a proven fact that medication errors and environmental hazards are top dangers of the at-home elderly, and are a top concern when caring for parents. Home Health Agencies can address the first issue readily, but they often lack the training to handle the second.

To answer the demand for home safety, Senior Home Safety Inspection services are beginning to appear. Leaving the caring for parent’s personal needs to you and the Home Health Agencies, they focus on how to make the home safe for them to stay there. If you are faced with caring for your parent, it is in your best interest to include them in your list of agencies.