Curses.. Foiled again! The foibles of faulty .... what is it?..... The gold brownish colour that you see is not true. That's a reflection of the wood paneling colouring. You can see the true colour in the section by the floor and if your guess was aluminum foil insulation / vapour barrier you
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03/10/2011
Nope! This is not an icicle. It's too warm outside, the grass is growing. This is overhead at the top floor rear balcony of a 4 floor condo building that is less than 10 years old. The edge we are seeing is the concrete roof slab which extends out to cover the building-wide balcony areas. So it's
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03/07/2011
Climate difference does mean different construction details. A North Carolina inspector showed me the following diagram of foundation details. We were discussing differences and water problems that crawlspaces have. The construction shown would not be built for Canadian climates but is OK for N
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03/05/2011
“Visual", "non invasive" and "not technically exhaustive" are terms used to describe our inspections. They can be found in various forms or versions in our contract wording or standards of practice. As you use more and more testing and sensing equipment, the less visual your inspections become.
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03/02/2011
Yes. I throw rocks at houses. I started in back high school. I've resisted the temptation for years but fell off the wagon a few years ago. I'm back at it. And my rocks, they aint' pebbles. No sir these are big. Big chunks of granite (when I can get my hands on them). But no homes are ever damag
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02/28/2011
Invasion of the house snatchers! They’re not teenagers but they’ll eat you out of house and home! It happened here. At a million dollar estate, a beautiful house in semi rural 'horse' country. With big beautiful evergreens towering behind the home. Picturesque. The Tree -Up close; -It’s away f
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02/27/2011
The GUILLOTINE O.M.G. (OMG: Oh My God) This is a photo from an inspection I carried out last summer (July 2010). It had what I would call an O.M.G. (Oh My God) situation. Can you spot it? In the photo all the lights are on, plus flashlights, plus the camera flash. It's still hard to see. I had l
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02/24/2011
What’s it for? (Valentine passion pink panels) and What is it? This home had two of these, one on each slope of the roof. There are two obvious problems. One is that the gutter empties onto the roofing shingles and the other is that it is built on top of the shingles. Another issue may be that
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02/19/2011
Got to this site; http://www.lcnclosers.com/ (do the cut and paste thing to your browser address bar). I was having a conversation with another inspector yesterday. We were discussing door requirements between garages and houses. I decided I would send him a link showing an excellent
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02/18/2011
What’s wrong with this loose pedestal sink? (not counting that it’s loose) If you looked underneath or ran your hand down the drainpipe, everything is smooth, straight, clean, no leaks. The drain stopper lifter needs adjustment, but that’s just maintenance. The taps are good, tight, no lea
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02/14/2011
