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ABI is proud to announce our new guest blogger Mr. Mike Fogle.  Mike is a Realtor in Louisville, KY and the definition of what a Realtor should be.   Let’s see what he has to say about getting homes inspected.    If you would like to contact Mike, shoot him a email at mike@mikefogle.com.

In my five years of being a Real Estate agent I have always recommend to my buyers to get a home inspection.  Its really a buyers last out of a Real Estate contract and can save you a ton of money.    A good home inspector such as Ben is trained to spot problems  that you and I couldn’t see just by spending a few hours in a house.

Without getting a home inspection you are leaving yourself vulnerable to the unknown.  Which has the potential to cause serious financial stress on you and your family.  Most buyers I work with only consider their monthly cost to be the mortgage plus taxes and insurance.  What they don’t consider is the cost of repairs to be made and maintenance that needs to be done.  When buyers are in a house and start talking about making changes here and there I make sure they take those cost into consideration when thinking of their montly payment.  A trip to Home Depot or Lowes once a week can quickly add up.  To make matters worse, if that buyer doesn’t get a home inspection their monthly cost are really unknown.  A small leak in an attic causing wood rot and mold can potentially cost over $10,000 once you start replacing roof sheeting and shingles.  A leaky toilet or pipe in a crawl space can also lead to mold and rot which cold be thousand of dollars and a huge health hazard.

That’s why I always recommend to my clients to get a home inspection they are usually just a small drop in the bucket compared to cost of what repairs could be and especially the cost of buying a home.  Its the most important thing you can do to protect your family when going through the home buying process.

-Mike Fogle

Rainey Jones and Shaw Realtors

The Prelude:

Last week, I was at a home inspection for a client on a house that was 4 years old.  The seller of the house had the home built new, by a custom builder.  What tons of folks seem to not understand, or just don’t know, is that a home builder is only as good as his sub-contractors.  A builder, typically, is no more than a middle man who schedules the different tradespeople like carpenters, plumbers, and electricians to show up when they need to, do their job, and move on to the next house.  If a builder, possibly your builder, doesn’t choose the best people to do their jobs, but instead chooses the cheapest person they can find (so they pad their own bottom line) you pay for it.  There is nothing more true than: pay me now, or pay me later.

Back to last week.  My inspection of this home was actually going quite well.  Until I went to the backyard.  The two-story vinyl siding house had a good sized deck off the second story, like many, many other  homes I’ve inspected.  And like all the others, the deck was a disaster.  I say all, because I’ve inspected 87 homes with second story decks this year and not a single one was 100% built correctly. Not one. Nope, not a single solitary one.  Now, I don’t have the time to post, nor do you care to read about each one.  But this deck, on this day, stands out.  Simply because of its’ age.  4 yrs old.

The Problem:

The ledger board (the main board that is bolted to the house) was not properly flashed.  Not being flashed properly will cause water to get in behind the siding and cause severe moisture damage to the deck, wall, sheathing, structure, etc… it wreaks havoc.  The worst part about this situation is this:  the home is 4yrs old, one owner, and that owner is flat out screwed.  Typically, you get a one year warranty with a new home, and once that time has elapsed, it’s your baby.  The deck in question was not done correctly from day one.  No two ways about it.  But when it’s brought to your attention 3 years too late, there is not much that can be done about it except fix it. On your dime.  If you want to sell that house, that is.

The Solution:

It’s pretty simply really.  Since the problem (at least one of them) was the very first thing the deck builders did wrong, you start over.  Yup, thats right, you tear it down. Remove the siding and cross your fingers and toes that the crap work on the deck was caught early enough that there is not massive moisture damage to the house.  Luckily, there wasn’t on this house.  The seller got out cheap, all things considered… it only cost him $8,500 to tear down the old deck, repair the flashing/siding job, and rebuild the exact same size deck back on the house.

This was $8,500 he didn’t have to spend.  If he would have had a home inspection done before closing on the home when it was new, depending on his inspector, there’s a good chance it would have been caught and the builder would have made his sub-contractors fix it.  The important thing is, the money to repair the deck doesn’t have to come out of his pocket.  Some  folks will tell you that having an inspection done on a newly constructed home is a waste of money.  Tell that to the man who just cut a check for more than 2000% of the cost of the home inspection.  Yes, that number is correct. 2000%.  There is a big difference between a code inspector and a home inspector.  Learn the facts.  A building code is nothing more than the minimum requirements to remain legal. It’s mind boggling really.  Nobody accepts the minimum of anything, but the minimum of construction standards is considered fine by some people.  Don’t settle for less.

Let’s talk about something that many, many people get confused about, or just don’t understand.

I get asked on a daily basis if the home I just inspected “passed.”   There is no pass or fail when it comes to a home inspection.  Only code inspectors declare a pass or fail for a dwelling.

What is a code inspector?

Good question.  A code inspector or AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) is a person that checks to ensure a home or dwelling has followed certain laws and safety requirements for their local area.  Every area of the country is different in their rules and laws; rules like footer depth and width requirements, proper construction techniques, etc.  It sounds like code inspectors have an important job.  And they do…but there are problems with the system.

Part of the problem can be assigned to the fact that AHJs are severely overworked.  These guys are busier than a one legged man in an $#@ kicking contest.  They literally do not have the time to spend  more than 20 minutes on any one home.  These conditions leave many mistakes in their wake.  Then there is the darker side of things….

It’s a small world, and that can work against you as a home buyer.  For you see, builders see the same code inspectors on a daily basis. They develop relationships with these people–dare I say….friendships.  It’s at this time, lines begin to get thin and start to blur…and before you know it, approval stickers get handed out of car windows with a hearty pat on the back.  This means the building codes people put so much stock in can be worth less than a million shares of Enron.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure there are many, many hard working, honest, GOOD code inspectors.  But I assure you not all of them are.  60% of the things I write up during a home inspection are against code, and should have been caught long before any home inspector ever set foot on the property.  Things such as improperly installed water heaters, stairs that aren’t constructed correctly, attic framing that’s  just flat out wrong.  The list goes on and on.

What does all this mean to me?

Even better question.  It means you should take some things with a grain of salt.  Perhaps your new dream home was checked during the building process by the most scrupulous code inspector on the planet.  Perhaps not…the cold hard truth is that today’s homes are not built to yesterday’s standards.  Materials have gotten cheaper in quality.  Laborers don’t take pride in their work.  It’s  bad recipe.

I hate being all doom and gloom. Perhaps it’s the cynical side of me.  But, when you see fifteen water heaters every month that have been “checked” by a code inspector and they are not even close to being installed correctly, it makes one think.  The system is flawed…

Water. The substance of life.  We can’t live without it.  And there’s nothing better than indoor plumbing.  Don’t think so?  Ask your favorite senior sometime about walking through 12 inches of snow in sub-zero temperatures just to use the bathroom.  But with all the greatness that indoor plumbing holds, people have made a few mistakes along the highway of plumbing technology.

Between 1978-1995 plumbers all across the country fell in love with a product known in the industy as simply PB (short for Polybutylene).  This stuff revolutionized the plumbing of a home.  Speed is the name of the game when it comes to construction, and the faster you can get a job done, the faster you can get another job started.  PB was the key to the Promised Land to plumbers.  It cut install time and material cost in half!  Which,  of course, doubled profits.  Win-win right? For awhile, yes.  However, PB pipe had a deep dark secret that was lurking in the shadows…

I was in a home just last week doing a home inspection on a pretty nice house.  This was the second home inspection for the same client in two weeks.  The first home was suspect, to say the least.  I thought that she had found a winner this time…then I opened the kitchen cabinet under the sink.  And buried behind all the usual under-the-sink “stuff” sat a bomb.

There, with time ominously ticking away, was PB pipe.

Nothing but fire will destroy a home faster than water.  PB would prove this to be true.  You see, PB water supply lines had one critical fault.  They failed at the crimp joints, flooding homes in the process.  Many, many people have come home from a hard day at work to find water pouring out of their front door.  Nearly everything they own destroyed in a flash.

How can you tell if you have PB pipe in your home?

Exterior – Polybutylene underground water mains are usually blue, but could be gray or black. They are normally 1/2″ or 1″ in size, and may be found coming into your home through the basement wall or floor, concrete slab or crawlspace.You should also check at the meter by the street.  Although you may have copper in the home, your main line could be a PB buried in the yard.

Interior – Polybutylene used inside your home can be found near the water heater, running across the ceiling in unfinished basements, and coming out of the walls to feed sinks and toilets. It it normally battleship grey in color and could have a red stripe on it.  You may also find the text PB2110 SRD11. Bear in mind that you may have PB concealed in the walls, and copper “stubs” protruding through the walls for sinks and toilets, giving you the false impression that you do not have PB in your home.

What is the problem?

It is not certain what the exact issue is.  Many professionals suggest that the chemicals added to city water supplies, such as chlorine, cause the plastic resin in PB to break down over time from the inside out.  This means you CANNOT look or touch the PB in a home and tell if it is failing. Blame has also been placed on installation error.  While it is very feasible that problems could arise from a faulty install, it is difficult to find and check EVERY connection in a home.  That could easily amount to the hundreds of connections. The reality is there is no safe or good PB installs.  Many plumbers now state that  it’s not a matter of if but when it will fail.

What do you do if you find PB in your home?

If, after reading this, you look under your sink and see what appears to be PB, call a plumber.  Tell them you think you have PB in your home and you would like to get it checked out.  Just because you’ve never had a leak, doesn’t mean it won’t happen.  This stuff is calm like bomb.   If you are looking at a home to buy and suspect PB plumbing in the home,  get an estimate on having the home re-plumbed with copper, PVC, or PEX.  It might not be a deal killer if you don’t make it one.

Call your insurance company.  Many won’t cover a home with PB installed in it.  Although the question may never have come up while you were getting the property covered, it may be hard times for you if they deny the flood claim because of some fine print on page 538 of your contract.

Be proactive. It’s always cheaper in the long run.  You may find PB in your home, and think, “It’s fine, this stuff has been here since 1990.”  While this may be the case,  you may come home next week and find you have to replace not only the plumbing, but the drywall, carpet, tile, cabinets, sub floor, baseboard, insulation, doors, cat, dog, etc… You get the idea.  It’s never a problem until it leaks.

Nasty stuff.  Nasty stuff indeed.  But what classifies a person to be considered a “Mold Professional.”  This is where marketing spins start to twist like a F5 tornado.

I do not advertise mold inspection, I never will.  Why?  Because it would not be honest for me to do so.

The first thing I do when I come across mold in home is advise my clients to check out the EPA’s website about mold.

After they review the stuff on the EPA site, and they think it’s bad enough to need to hire a specialist, I tell them: Don’t hire any home inspector claiming to be a mold specialist. None of us really knows anything about mold, regardless of what we claims our qualifications are, and you’ll just be blowing your money.  If it’s bad, instead of someone with a two-day crash coarse and a certificate of authenticity, you will want to hire a real indoor air quality firm with a real scientist on staff who actually knows something about mold.  End of story.

I can give you one piece of advice. Bleach is not an acceptable remediation technique.   Now of course, if you have a “little mold” growing on grout in your bathroom, then bleach will certainly help get rid of the discoloration, but the growth will return.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are an estimated 15,500 fires, 10 deaths and 10 injuries every year due to clothes dryer fires.  Several hundred people a year are also subjected to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning from improper dryer vents. The total damages come to nearly $100,000,000 yearly.  That’s one hundred million dollars a year. Sometimes, it’s a faulty dryer that’s the problem…but more times than not, it’s the vent.

You know the vent…that  pipe that NEVER gets seen once the dryer is smashed up against it.  THAT my friends, is the problem.

You probably have one of those flexible vents.  These things are HORRIBLE for venting.  The ridges in the wall of the vent really cut down on the velocity of the air.  Ve·loc·i·ty: Rapidity or speed of motion; swiftness.

When you dry your clothes, only a portion of the lint is captured by the trap and the rest of it gets funnelled out the vent pipe with the hot humid air.  When you have one of these flexible vent pipes, the inner wall of the pipe is nothing more than a place for the traveling lint to get stuck.  And just like your arteries after 25 years of cheeseburgers and fries,  they get clogged up!  Over time, this clog gets so bad it can back up into the dryer.  This can happen even if you clean your lint trap every time you run a load (which you do, of course). And just like that.  Dryer heart attack.  Dryer fire.

There are a few signs that might indicate you have an issue:

1. The clothes are taking a long time to dry.

2. The clothes come out hotter than usual.

3. The flaps on your vent cover (you know, outside of your house where the dryer vents to the outdoors) don’t move while your dryer is running (this could mean your have 100% blockage and it’s time to get it fixed–NOW.)

But how do I know for sure if my vent is clogged?

I have a very easy, fool-proof secret for you…..look at it.  You must take the vent pipe loose from the dryer and visually inspect it.  This is not a hard task.  If you can turn a screwdriver, you can do it.  It just might save your life.

P.S. – NEVER leave your dryer running while you’re not home, or especially when you’re asleep…you just might wake up dead.

Priming…Most people hate it.  Why? They think it’s extra work.  I’m here to tell you it’s not, and your finished product will turn out much better with its use.

I used to be a manager at a certain big retail giant…let’s call them “Glowe’s.”  One busy Saturday at Glowe’s I was stopped in the lumber department by a customer with a question.  The  gentleman and his wife were looking at T-1-11 siding.  That’s the siding with grooves every 4-6″ inches.   You see it now mainly on sheds and storage buildings.  It’s made from plywood, and is usually pretty good stuff.

The man stopped me and asked if it “had to be primed.”  I told him, “No; but if you want the paint to stick well,  the wood not to warp and rot, and the project to last, then Yes.” He did not like my answer.  I wanted to tell him a simple Yes, but that would be untrue.  You can “get away” with not  priming just about anything, and most new paints will kinda stick.  However, I only suggest this if you like sub-par quality finishes and re-doing things.

Why don’t paint companies just make a good paint that both primes and paints?  Good question.  Actually Behr has just recently released its new Premium Plus Ultra Primer & Paint In-One. Supposedly, it cuts your painting time in half by eliminating the priming and drying stage.  Does it work?  I don’t know; I’ve never used it.  But I’ll be sure to write a review as soon as I do.

Primer serves a couple of functions.  Without getting all “techy, here we go:

1. It’s a sealer.  Primer goes on easy, and dries fast.  When it seals the material’s surface, it helps the paint soak in more evenly.  This means your color will be more uniform with hardly any blotchy spots.  It also means less paint is needed to achieve the same look (because less paint is soaked up).

2. It sticks to just about anything.  Although paints have come a long way in the past decade, they still can’t beat primer.  Anyone who has painted anything and used primer knows how hard it is to get it off your hands.  That’s because primer is formulated to stick, period. This gription (yes I made that word up) means your coat of primer will ensure a good bond between your paint and surface.

3. It’s a stain blocker.  Have you ever had a water spot on drywall?  A couple quick coats of a good quality primer followed by paint, (assuming the water penetration was not severe) and you’ll never see that nasty old spot again.  Try that with just paint and you’ll pull your hair out trying to rid yourself of the spot.

When it comes to primering wood, take heed of my advice.  All sides of the surface must be covered! This is due to the fact that wood is constantly moving.  As it absorbs moisture, the fibers in the wood will move, swell and shrink.  If only one part of the board is primered, that part of the board will be “sealed” and  absorb less moisture, and therefore swell or shink less.  The rest of the board that is not primered will absorb more moisture than the primered side and will swell or shrink at a more dramatic rate.  When this happens, you end up with warped or twisted wooden boards.

Primering all sides of wood also helps stop rot.  A fully primered board will “reject” moisture and really slow down the rotting process.  Even wood trim used today that will be wrapped in metal or vinyl needs to be primered and sealed before it is wrapped. Does this happen? Not very often.

Some people only use one coat of primer when painting.  Sometimes that’s all you need.  Sometimes it’s not.  Here’s my personal rule: If you can tell what color the surface is under the primer coat, you need more primer.” Embrace the primer.  Give it love.  It’ll pay you back tenfold…

I think I going to patent the word gription…

Does your home weep?  If you live in a brick veneer home, the answer better be yes.

What  are weep holes? The short answer is that they allow water to drain out from the inside of the wall, and allow air to circulate on the backside of a brick wall to help dry out the moisture.  They also help to equalize air pressure on both sides of the wall, making it less likely that wind-driven rain will penetrate the wall.

What if I don’t have them.  Is it really a big deal? That’s not an easy question to answer.  However I’ll give you my personal opinion.  Yes, it is a big deal if they are missing, clogged, or not properly installed in the first place.

Let’s get into it: As I  stated above, a weep hole is usually nothing more than a void in a vertical mortar joint around the bottom of a brick wall.  When a brick wall is constructed, there should be an “air gap” between the wooden wall and the brick you see on the outside.  House are built this way because they must breathe.

It’s WHEN, not IF water gets behind the brick veneer that  weep holes become vital.  These little silent soldiers allow air to travel up the backside of the wall and dry out the moisture that has seeped in. Water can infiltrate an area as small as 1/100 of a inch.

Sadly, most homeowners and even some contractors don’t know what weep holes do, or how they work.  This lack of knowledge leads to mistakes like filling the weep holes in, thinking that they were a mistake when the home was built.  You can typically see this because the mortar will be a different shade or color all together.

What if I don’t have weep holes in my brick? If you don’t have weep holes, you might want to consider having them drilled out.  Now, you can’t just go nuts with a drill bit.  There are rules you must follow in order to get the correct results.  If you have done the research and feel confident in tackling your weep hole issue, then by all means get to it.  If not, call a professional.

What can happen if I don’t have weep holes? Unfortunately, there’s not a rock solid answer.  The absence of weep holes may occasionally allow so much moisture to accumulate that metal brick-tie fasteners turn to rust and fall apart, wood-destroying insects are encouraged because of the large amounts  of moisture, or wood rot develops.  The other side of that coin is that occasionally, nothing at all will happen.  It’s really difficult to pinpoint what could happen to a home without weep holes.   Nevertheless, you shouldn’t just turn a blind eye to the issue.  Preventive measures are always cheaper than the aftermath.

This just another prime example of why you should get a home inspection when buying a home.  Many NEWLY constructed homes are missing weep holes.  A quality home inspection can catch things like this, and you can require them to be corrected before you close on the home.  It’s much easier to get things done before you sign the contract.

You guys will LOVE this.  My first  home inspection of the day was an older home, built around 1932.   From the outside, the house looks to be in decent shape.  A quick walk around it showed only minor problems.  I do my thing outside, and head indoors.  Nothing too shocking here either.  I head upstairs and start in the bathroom.  I noticed the shower curtain pulled closed…..hmm.  Why would a vacant home have the shower curtain pulled closed?

After checking the electrical outlets (which had problems of their own) I shifted my attention to the toilet.  Floor wasn’t soft. Good.  Flushed OK, check.  No leaks. Toilet seems sound.  It must be looked at closely.  A leak can cause serious damage to the sub-floor, the floor joists, and the ceiling below.  You don’t want that.

I slide the cutain open (which I believe was closed to try and “hide” something from me–sorry.  I’m perceptive.)   I could hardly contain myself.

For what do my eyes behold… Oh just a HVAC vent CUT out of the tiled wall surround in the shower.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It appears that when someone decided to tile the shower walls, they thought it was good idea to install an air vent IN the shower.  Nice.

Now please understand that it’s not a good idea to do this.  It’s not like the vent was in the ceiling.

Heck, it would kinda, sorta, maybe, but not really be OK for the vent to be in the shower wall… but up high.

This vent was about 16 inches from the top of the tub…in the ONLY bathroom in the house.  So you can figure at least twice a day, it was used.

Let’s break down the facts.  The average home uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute @ 80 psi.  I’d say the average shower is around 15 minutes.  So that leaves you with a shower of 37.50 gallons used.  We all know that ALL that water is not going in the vent, but lets say that 10% of that water is.  That’s 3.75 gallons of water per shower.  Holy Smokes!

If you agree with the fact that the shower on average gets used twice a day (which is probably a low figure) that’s almost 8 gallons a day!  In the vent!

That comes to 2,920 gallons a year!  Or 584 five gallon buckets!

All that water is pouring back into the furnace, wreaking havoc.

The moral of the story is this.  People do strange, stupid things to their homes.  Most of the time they are not as evident as this, but just as severe.  If you are buying a home, get a home inspection.  Find a good home inspector; don’t take the cheapest bid, as this guy will NOT help you.