Reuben's Home Inspection Blog

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Home Inspector - Structure Tech Home Inspections
Home inspection topics in the Minneapolis / Saint Paul area.
RECENT BLOG POSTS
  I find a fair amount of water heaters in Minneapolis and Saint Paul that backdraft.   Backdrafting happens when the exhaust gases from a fuel-burning appliance,  such as a water heater, spill in to the room rather that rising up and out of the house through the vent.  This is a potential safety...
08/30/2010
In November of 2009, a home inspector in North Vancouver was ordered to pay nearly $200,000 after a faulty home inspection.   I read about all of the mistakes that were made at this inspection, and the most important piece that I came away with was that the judge decided that the home inspector ...
08/23/2010
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When an electric panel is filled with standard circuit breakers and more circuits need to be added, the solution is sometimes to install tandem breakers.  These circuit breakers allow for two circuits to be installed under one space, so they're often call cheaters.  A few other terms that I comm...
08/17/2010
  I was recently asked whether or not HUD homes require Truth-In-Housing evaluations, and my thought was sure, they’re required on all properties… but I said I’d check on it.  I did some research on this topic, and I was quite surprised at what I found: The rules don’t apply to the federal govern...
08/13/2010
  I'm sure we all have a few phrases that we hear on a regular basis that make us cringe.  Here are a few of mine (all of which I recently heard in one day).   Confident Real Estate Agent:  "You won't find anything wrong with this house." If you brought your infant to the doctor for their one mon...
08/09/2010
Vacuum breakers (aka - backflow preventers) have always been one of those pesky Truth-In-Housing repairs for homeowners in Minneapolis and Bloomington, but those aren't the only cities where they're required.  They're actually a requirement of the Minnesota State Plumbing Code, section 4715.2100...
07/26/2010
  An improperly installed drain hose is by far the most common defect that I find with dishwasher installations, but it's also one of the easiest things to get right.  In the photo below, which was featured as a Structure Tech Photo of the Day, there are several plumbing defects, two of which are...
07/19/2010
  If you watched the news this weekend, you probably heard about the deck collapse that happened in Coon Rapids on Friday.  On WCCO news, they even had an expert speculate that the deck collapsed because it wasn't properly secured to the house.  When I hear news stories about a deck collapses, th...
07/12/2010
As standard procedure for every home inspection that I perform, I check the toilets to make sure they're properly anchored to the floor.  Almost every time I find a toilet that's loose, I also find missing caulk at the base of the toilet.  The two go hand in hand.    When I find a loose toilet I...
07/06/2010
As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, I find a lot of gas leaks, and I always try to make it easy for a repair technician to find the leaks.  I take a photo of the leak with a bunch of soapy bubbles coming out of it, I mark the exact location of the leak with orange tape, and I write “Gas Leak” o...
06/28/2010
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Reuben Saltzman

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Home inspection topics in the Minneapolis / Saint Paul area.