October 21st, 2008
I frequently run into situations where I am asked to provide information that is out of the scope of a traditional home inspection. Things that specialists do. Yet it seems that there is a grey line as to where that is and what that means. This grey line exists for those of us who are in the industry, so I can only imagine the confusion for people who are not in the industry. People who just want to know what a home inspection is and what to expect from one. I wanted to take the time to answer some very common questions that I receive on this subject. Some of these are actual questions and others are crafted from many related questions in order to give you the whole answer. Wait a minute - I just gave you the first topic when I said specialists above.
“I did hire a specialist to inspect my house, right?”
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Tags: generalist opinion, home inspector, specialist opinion
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September 10th, 2008
Normally in southwest Missouri, termites will swarm once a year (typically in the spring). As a termite inspector, I am trained to look for the swarming type of termite and report on its presence (along with all other termite evidence). Smarmers look very different from the worker and soldier termites (which are most commonly found in an inspection), as they are black and have wings. This past week, however I found swarming termites in a crawlspace in Branson West, Missouri. This is not very common to find a second swarm, but the weather has been right and it looks like there might be another round this year.Swarming is where members of the colony called the reproductives (the black ones I mentioned earlier) fly out to new locations to start new colonies. This is when properties can get new infestations where they previously did not have termites. I mention this as a recommendation that if you have a property in Springfield, MO or Branson, MO (or anywhere is southwest Missouri) that has not been inspected or treated in the last few years - call a professional inspector to have a look. It usually ranges from $20 to $50 to have an inspection from an inspector tat does not treat, and usually free for inspectors that also treat. This is a necessary part of any home maintenance plan, and is well worth the investment.a CLOSER look, inc is solely an inspection company and performs no treatments or repairs of any kind. Our fee for a termite inspection is $50, and we would be happy to perform and inspection for you today.
Tags: termites
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September 5th, 2008
I finished school as a home inspector in May of 2003. There were so many things they teach you in such a short amount of time. Water heater good, roof leak bad, me make fire (but never on an inspection :). Now, I am unique as a home inspector for many reasons, but one is that I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from the University of Kansas (go Jayhawks). I also minored in Chemistry, which gives me a deeper understanding of molds and radon than most of my competition. We learned about radon inspections in school, but I thought to myself, “Radon isn’t a problem in Southwest Missouri - is it?”.
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Tags: lung cancer, radon, radon inspection
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August 25th, 2008
This is big topic these days and we have a great deal of expertise on this subject. The EPA recommends that any home be remediated if the radon level is reported as 4.0 pCi/L (pico Curries per liter of air). Well, how do they get reported? Radon detection should follow EPA guidelines which stipulate a procedure for placing the detectors, length of time to detect, number of detectors, and so on.Our company uses Air Chek brand radon detectors, which are a charcoal based detector (you can read about why we use Air Chek radon dectors in our procedure post). The EPA states that if charcoal detectors are used then there must be two detectors and they should be placed close to each other, then the results from each are averaged to a final number. What this is designed to do is reduce error from the individual detector. Now we have a possible problem. Click here to read the rest »
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March 25th, 2008
I have been inspecting homes for five years in the Springfield, Missouri area (and Branson, Missouri too :). As you might guess, I have heard a lot of questions from my customers about what we look for in a water heater inspection.
“Did you inspect the water heater?”
“My water heater has a leak, didn’t you see it during the inspection?”
“How do you know the water heater was working during the inspection?”
These are all questions that I have been asked through the years (more than once). This post is designed to allow anyone to look at how a CLOSER look, inc performs a water heater inspection from a procedural perspective. Click here to read the rest »
Tags: water heater
Posted in Procedures | No Comments »
