Michael's View: August 2008

Home inspectors don't have all the answers to all of the challenges encountered during the inspection process. Sometimes we have to rely on 'subtitle' clues, and take the SWAG (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess) approach to reach a conclusion as to what the problem could be. While inspecting a 'challenging' property in another county, I had to use the above technique to determine if just maybe there might have been a drainage issue going on with the plumbing for the sink. What do you think?

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Hurricane Fay brought some 2" of much needed rain to the middle Tennessee area the other day, helping relieve some of the drought conditions here. As I was getting ready to do my evening walk, I was able to capture a few frames of the last of Fay as she left and moved north. The double rain bow formed a perfect arc in the eastern sky and lasted but a few fleeting moments...

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

After moving the grandfather clock from the Den to the foyer, 'ol Pop quit working. Well, being a typical male, this should be an easy fix I thought, so I fiddled with this, and that, and could not see why the clock would not run. Getting frustrated I thought that I would get back to it later or call a clock smith. Well, about 6 months later, I thought that I'd see what's wrong with Pop. Once again, I started tinkering not knowing what I was really doing, but after all I'm a male and we can fix anything, or so we think...

Not having too much success, and getting a little frustrated again, I by chance happened to glance down and see an instruction booklet.  H-m-m-m-m! Well maybe, just maybe, there may be a solution to my problem here. I know that this may sound insulting to most males as we don't need no stinking instructions. It's a male thing ya know...

Well I'll be dipped... AFTER reading the instructions, it seemed as if all that was wrong with Pop was that he had lost his beat. Has to be a clock thing now. After FOLLOWING the instructions, I made the necessary adjustments to restore the beat and 'ol Pop is just a tickin' and chimin' away just like ever before.

The moral of the story? DUUH!! Guys, sometimes it helps to read the instructions if you don't know what you are doin'. Just don't let your wife know. After all, we got to save face if you know what I mean... 

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Having lived on the left coast of central Florida for several years after I got out of 'Nam, I am aware of the tremendous destructive force of the wind and rain from a full blown hurricane. However, once the fury is spent, and the storm has deteriorated to mostly rain, it can be a Godsend to areas of the South, like where I live, that have been in a severe drought for the past several years. This year is no exception as this has been the driest August on record.

As hurricane Fay starts to break up, many of us in this area are really hoping that that we can get the much needed rain from this storm. Many cities and towns in this area which rely on rivers, lakes or local reservoirs as their main source of water, have watering bans in place in an attempt to conserve this precious resource. This week the weather forecasters are giving us a 60% chance of rain for the next few days. I hope that we get all 60% of it…

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Home inspectors do not have the equipment to inspect the throat and flue of most chimneys. However, thanks to pocket digital cameras, a missing damper and smoke shelf, this badly damaged fireplace lent itself to get a good logs-eye view of what the inside of a chimney really looks like.

The lack of rain caps allowed water into the chimney and intense temperatures of wood burning fires caused the water to expand and pop out the mortar between the fire brick. Through time and neglect the original damper and smoke shelf was eventually destroyed and burned away leaving the bottom of the flue liner exposed. Needless to say, this fireplace is unsafe in its current condition and will need to be repaired before using.

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

I may be starting a new politically correct term here for the home inspection industry, but here lately, I have been dealing a lot with properties where there are no codes inspections or enforcement or the properties were built before modern building practices took effect. Which ever the case, it is still the duty of the home inspector to point out to their client of any issues that are structurally deficient. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to inspect a home owner built property in the Nashville, TN area that was built before codes were adopted.

The stone pier in this picture is supporting a girder that is undersized for the imposed load. No, it is not a 'fig newton' of your imagination,  the girder is bending due to lack of support on either side. Typically, piers are place 8 - 10 feet apart depending upon size and load.

Occasionally, gravity takes effect and rock piers get a little 'tipsy'. The red arrow shows the downward pressure being applied. Supports such as this need to be replaced to add stability to the structure.

Rehabbers often take the short cut and use what ever they find under the property to 'shore-up' inadequately supported framing members. In this case, the rock bearing pad and block are not adequate to support the weight of the structure. Remember, the weight of the house has to be properly transmitted to the earth. Furthermore, the block is placed against its structural strength.

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Invariably, while inspecting older challenging properties, real estate agents will catch me somewhere when the client is not around and want to get a ‘sneak peek’ of how the inspection is going. Not wanting to jump the gun and tell the boys to get the D8 off the trailer prematurely, I generally tell the agent that there are a few things under the house that I want to check first.

Yesterday was no exception. I was inspecting this ‘charming’ cottage in Nashville, TN that had ‘lots of character’. Now mind you, two other buyers had walked away from this property due to ‘structural inconsistencies’ I am using this term loosely – very loosely. I guess that the agent had this in mind when he asked me this question and heard some of the flooring start to give way under my feet. And, in the meantime, the buyer was looking to find a place to put her piano. Piano? Goodness, gracious, there were places that could not hold up a potted plant much less a piano…

This is where the client was thinking of putting the piano...

As is my practice, I was working VERY HARD to tell them at least 10 good things about the property. The obligatory crawl was very telling as to the reason that there were so many structural irregularities (new politically correct term here for all you home inspectors). Needless to say that there is a weeks worth of blog fodder from this place. My crystal ball says that sellers will receive a visit from a structural engineer, foundation contractor, or a D8 sometime in the not too distant future.

OH, BTW did I find any deal killers? Yeah Buddy….

Yesterday, I was fortunate to be in an area where the price of gasoline was much less than it is here in Davidson and Williamson counties – much less – about 30 cents per gallon less! Why is that? Same fuel, same distillery, same distributor, same brand of station. It can't be the city because one can drive out to the Percy Priest Lake area and get gas for 25-30 cents less than other areas of the county...

And, while the price of gasoline keeps going down, $3.299 my last fill up, the price of diesel stays well above the $4 mark. This is another thing that really has me scratching my head with an ice pick, as diesel takes less refining than gasoline. Maybe EXXON is doing the Michael Phelps thing and going for the GOLD. The GOLD record of $75 billion in profits for this quarter…

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

The metropolitan areas that do not have codes inspections by city or county officials get to be quite challenging for home inspectors, as the prevailing building code is… Well there ain’t one. These areas are real “Bubba’s delights” as builders and other tradesmen can get away with real slip-shod, “willy-nilly” workmanship.

The past few days I have been working in the bordering counties where there are no codes departments or inspections other than electrical – thank goodness. The finished product (term used very loosely here) provided by this ‘good ol’ boy’ network of builders and unhandymen is enough to scare the living daylights out of even the bravest of souls. Even scarier are that many of these properties do not have a home inspection before closing. The result is that the seller is left with a mell of a hess on their hands and now they are faced with the financial burden of cleaning up the mess. And, the buyers feel like they are buying a “pig in the poke”.

On the few new construction properties that I have inspected, the builder gleefully says. "There ain't no codes out here so I don't have to fix it. If you want the house fine, otherwise I'll sell it to someone else..." I really hate getting into these situations as I feel like I am really walking a fine line as to what is “acceptable”, and what isn’t. So the dilemma for many home inspectors is, what can one say about a property that as been built in an area where there are no codes inspections? I don’t know about other inspectors, but I wind up choosing my words VERY carefully…

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Throughout my many years of inspecting houses, the main argument that I hear for not getting new properties inspected is, "Oh, it was inspected by the Codes Department, there should be nothing to worry about." Yeah Right! To date, I have never seen a codes official enter a crawl space, unless it was one of those where you could walk around.

One of the items that home inspectors are to check is functional flow. Functional flow is the volume of water produced when the faucets are turned on to multiple fixtures. This is not to be confused with water pressure which is the force behind it. While inspecting a new construction property, I was wondering why the functional flow to the bathrooms were weak.

I finally found the problem in the crawl space where the water lines enter the property. It looks as if the plumber got a little careless and lazy when installing the main water line to the property. Construction defects such as this are never caught by the codes officials and if not caught during the inspection process, can cost the new owner a lot of grief and financially.

This is the main reason that I tell clients that inspecting new houses is just as important as pre-existing ones...

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.