What I'm Seeing Now

It would be difficult to explain what this configuration looked like when I first saw it.  There were a multiplicity of problems, all identified on my original inspection report, and the seller agreed to many repairs.  This is what we saw when we returned to what is apparently thought to be the Bestway* to do it.

The list of what was wrong to begin with was enormous. These repairs are as you see them.

The water heater exhaust hood is still disconnected where it exits the unit.

The previously single-walled furnace vent is now a new double-walled vent, but still angled downward.

It exits the wall on the left, but we can't see if it is still touching the wood framing.  But it is still horizontal inside that chase above the water heater, coming from 15' to the left.  It hooks downward at a dramatic angle to turn again as it extends to the chimney.

It no longer loosely enters the chimney (on the right) as it is attractively glued with polyfoam.  We see polyfoam in so many places used in so many ways!  It is as ubiquitous as duct tape!

It is time for thermal images!

The furnace is on the ground in the crawl space to the left of the first image above.  The vent goes up and inside the chase, after it makes many turns.  It is a single-walled vent inside that chase!  It touches wood framing, drywall and the AC line seen in the photograph above.  That AC line follows that furnace vent along the entirety of the 15' chase.  It can't be in a good condition.  The middle image above is similar to the photograph at the top.  The hottest spot, as demonstrated by the white color, is just to the left of the left tube connecting to the top of the water heater.  That spot is 183F!  The corner, where all the tubing makes many turns and goes downward, is 177F.  Imagine how hot it is inside the chase!  The right image shows where the two tubes enter the chimney.

I think that when they connected the double-walled vent to what existed before, they disconnected things inside the chase, accounting for the high temperatures.  Heat doesn't vent downward well!  It clogs, as you can see, and builds up.  I don't know what is going on at the chimney connection.  I suspect the wide gaps between the vent and brick work are still there behind the metal plate.  It still lacks a clean out port.

* Bestway Construction asked to have me call them with anything that might still be wrong or not to code.

I'm sorry, a home inspector's purview is not to tell a supposedly licensed "construction" company if their work is wrong or not to code...  Any company worth it's salt, um, soy sauce already knows that!

My recommendation:  Hire professionals to do work when repairs need to be done!  And remember, heat should be vented upward!  It isn't heat that flows downhill...

No, it's not what you are thinking.  Sorry, but these boobs were something more like stooges, maybe even the Three Stooges!

This is one of many repairs effected by the Bestway Construction Company.  Yes, that is their name.  I am not kidding and I am NOT making this up!

During our inspection a couple of weeks ago a very loose and dry hose bib was in this location.  It pulled out of the wall about 1/2".  Since it was hidden behind drywall in the garage we could not see the inside.

The buyers wanted it repaired, by a "licensed plumber, with receipt provided."  Instead, the agent employed a company she said "does everything perfectly, the best way possible," and that's why she uses them.

The Bestway Construction Company discovered that the bib was connected to nothing, so they removed it completely.  That "repair" is indoor, bathroom silicone.  I don't know how much they used, but it is classic!  Water tight, long lasting, hardly noticeable!  That section of siding is only about 18" long, easily replaced.

The buyers called me because they got back a letter from the same "repair" company for everything on their addendum list.  No licenses, no receipts, no guarantees, just a letter saying what was repaired.  They called me back and we did a re-inspection.  Many of these repairs will appear in future posts!  Sadly...

My recommendation:   You might not get what you are expecting despite being very specific on your repair addendum.  And construction companies may not be populated with professionals!  Sometimes what is advertised as the best way turns out to be a real boob job, so to speak.

Arriving early at a home inspection in a condo development, just after sun up, I did my usual walk around to check out the general upkeep of the units.  It was very cold.

This gives me information about the condo association and how on top of maintenance it is generally.

I was met by a lady standing on her  lower-level patio.  She saw the sign on my car and thought to take advantage.  She said her column was rotting at the bottom and would I mind looking at it.

"Why is it rotting? My neighbor's column on the balcony above mine isn't rotting."

Glancing upward she was right.  But I could immediately see why hers was rotting.

I said, "Ma'am, your column is rotting because of the long arm of the law."

"What?!"

So I said, "The law.  The law of gravity.  It never fails."

"Do you see the frozen splatter on the bush beside your column?  Look up.  Where do you think it is coming from?"

She did and saw.  "It is even dripping now, from the melting dew on the roof," I added, as she watched.

The bush you see is below the column above, but right beside her column.  This had been happening for a long time.

Appreciative, she went back inside.

My recommendation:  If you see a home inspector in the neighborhood and have a problem you think he might be able to quickly diagnose, ask him!  He won't mind!  It might just be as easy an answer as the one above.

Stone foundations are famous for leaking.  But especially if the soil outside it is not graded, water from downspouts not extended away from the foundation.  And certainly if a sump pump is not discharging well away from the house, and onto a graded slope.  It can become a circuit.

When all three of those things are present, well, a life raft may be in order.

This is another view of the stone foundation in the historic property in Manassas VA.  It leaks.

It leaks so much and so regularly that everything in the cellar is up on stilts of some sort.  Even the water heater, partially seen on the left.

The concrete directly ahead probably used to be the coal chute, which was sealed at some point with a concrete foundation.  It does not look original to the house.

The stone foundation leaks.  The concrete foundation leaks.  And not much has been done to arrest that leaking.

So they deal with it.  They installed a sump pump.  And not very recently!

This inundated cellar is only about 10'x10'.  And when you leave the room you need to pay special attention to clean your shoes of the Virginia mud which is thick on the floor.  The sump pump pit is nearly full of mud and must be cleaned regularly.

If you aren't going to arrest the water flow, this was the only place to put a sump pump.  The companies that would "dry" your basement would have wanted a drain pit all along the stone/concrete foundation, all around the cellar.  That would have been a huge mistake.  That system would erode the soil under the foundation walls and completely compromise the house in time.  Stone foundations have no "footers" as do our modern concrete foundations.  The underside of the walls would literally wash away!  Big, big NO, NO.

My recommendation:  It is best to get advice from a landscaping architect on how to keep water away from the house.  Houses do not make effective boats.  But if you have water getting inside, consult an engineer with historic home experience to create a solution that will not compromise the whole house!

These photos came to me from my thermal infrared friend in Maryland, John Evans.  It isn't often we thermographers get such an opportunity to photograph this.  Windows are one of the things routinely looked at during a thermal image sweep of a house.  We look for many things, not just leakage.

Andersen Windows has had problems with seals breaking and argon gas leakage in windows manufactured 1989 - 1993.  What most don't realize is that broken seals create pressure inside, literally drawing the two panes together.  John installed these windows in 1991.  These are images of the same window taken from indoors.

Andersen has agreed to repair this seal problem.

And apparently hundreds of thousands of them.  The window on the left is before the repair.  Thermographers call this a "Bull's Eye" pattern.  It is classic!  I have seen it before but have never been able to photograph such good before and after images as this.  You rarely get this opportunity!!

The image on the right is after Andersen's repair.  They sent two techs to this house.  The repair involves drilling a hole in the top of the window to relieve the pressure.  Argon is then re-inserted and caulking placed over the hole.

Note the temperature on the left where the two panes are actually touching!  And note the uniform temperature of the same window on the right, after the repair.

My recommendation:  If you have broken window seals, it might pay you to contact the manufacturer.  One that is proud of its product may just come to your house and take care of the problem.  It sure beats a local window guy charging $250 - $450 each to replace the damaged ones!

On the inspection of the historic Manassas VA house, I encountered a new, very-well-done metal roof.  It was framed all around with a very nice cap.  At first I wondered where the gutters were, since I saw them around the front porch roof.  Then I realized that the main roof did in fact have gutters.

They are hidden.

I really like the look.  But there are disadvantages.

For example, it is very hard to tell if the gutters are clogged. 

And it is similarly hard to tell if the gutter is inclined properly, cracked or leaking - it is very hard to see. 

Any such leaking can get into the structure and rot it, totally hidden by wrapping the soffit and fascia.

A leak can get into the house, and can be there for a long time before it is actually discovered.

I looked and looked around the house to see any evidence that there might be a crack somewhere.

Anywhere.

All I needed was a hint.

Anything at all.

An indicator *, something from which I could deduce any problem.

I looked and I looked...

My recommendation:  One thing really does lead to another.  You can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.

* OK, there is an indicator on the shutter - ice!  From that gutter extended an ice trail down the roof and an accumulation of ice at the edge.  And on the other side of the house, the north side, was a huge icicle which apparently had dropped and broken into 50 large pieces.  Might just be a clogged gutter over there!

I had a pre-drywall inspection a few weeks ago in Maryland.  It was disappointing in many respects.  The builder's agent was supposed to meet me at the site.  I called her five minutes before I got there and she was to be there, but never showed up.  The house was quite unkempt, with debris everywhere.  Trip hazards abounded.  The stair cases had no protective safety guardrails, especially on the upper level.  It would be easy for anybody to fall to the next level below.  They apparently didn't care who walked through.

And there were many bay windows which were not strapped.  Strapping looks like this:

This is the left and right sides of a bay window on a recent pre-drywall inspection in Virginia.  Looking closely, you can see straps which are nailed high at the top plate, in the middle and low at the bottom plate, and on each of the mitered joints.  My understanding from engineers is that these windows have a tendency to bow outward, even when located on top of foundation walls.  The straps help them to hold their shape and maintain their integrity.  They are utilized by builders in all of the counties in Northern Virginia.

The agent representing the buyers of the Maryland house called me during their walk through with the builder.  He asked me about the straps, which I explained.  He said the supervisor and the architect had never heard of such straps.  While this baffled me all I could say was, "Well, then they have never heard of them!"

My question to Realtors and other inspectors is this:  Do you see straps in your area?  Are they required?  Or is Northern Virginia just ahead of this loop?

My recommendation:   I often see builders who put straps not only on box and bay window penetrations, but also any high wall corners and even the exterior corners of the house.  Even if straps are not required by the code, there is nothing to prevent anyone from exceeding that code.  Remember, the code is the minimum standard required by local authorities - it is the floor from which construction begins.  The best builders use the code as the starting point, not simply to get by.

I heard a reporter this morning tell the story of entering the capitol city and witness the damage of all the buildings they passed.  Then, almost off hand, he said they passed the largest American Embassy building and saw that it was intact, "without any visible damage."  That's all he said about it.

That was very interesting to me!

I have done some research during the day.  Most buildings in the capitol have collapsed, including various embassies from around the world, a cathedral, the dictator's palace, etc.  Most residential housing is rubble.  The building techniques there involve concrete blocks (which some call cinder blocks) and corrugated tin roofs.  In residential areas they have the tendency to stack these "houses" on top of each other.  They are not strengthened with metal rods or concrete inside the walls.  So when they collapse, not only do these houses crumble, but badly and concrete blocks are very deadly.  Apparently there are few building codes or standards.

The very new US embassy compound is a 10-acre campus with various buildings. They moved into the buildings in 2009.

During the day the only indication I have been able to find of damage to any building is described as "slight."  The surrounding wall also sustained "minor damage."

It is being used now to treat injured American citizens who have made their way there for safety in the now very dangerous city.

So, how come all the other buildings around have serious damage or have collapsed and our compound not?

We home inspectors often tell people that building codes are "minimum standards."  And they are.

But they are STANDARDS!  And a floor from which construction can be made better.

Now obviously our buildings there are made to handle a possible terrorist blast, and probably have bullet-proof windows, as well as other things.  They are probably stronger than average buildings.  But our commercial building codes are even more stringent than our residential codes and for sure our architecture, building techniques and materials worked to make our buildings there safe, even in the face of a 7.3 earthquake.  For sure, the "code" was employed as the floor of the standards used to construct our buildings.

I find this to be significant and indicative of who we are as a society and a nation.

While we hope for the best for this beleaguered nation and people, this circumstance is obviously very, very bad.  And again, because we are who we are as a society and a nation, we will certainly be the biggest fountain of aid.

Every now and then I run into squirrels in an attic.  Sometimes I have advance warning that they might be there.  This is what advance warning might look like, at least it did today:

This cute couple had made a fine home in the attic by pushing insulation into a little igloo.  They were pretty safe.  The house has been empty for some time.  They could come and go at will through the hole you see here.  They had done a lot of damage to the wood inside and outside the attic.  They can also do damage to wiring, although I did not see any.

The whole time I thought,

"THIS IS JUST NUTS...!"

Sometimes when things are done improperly the result can lead to other problems.  

When, for example, a stone foundation is improperly repaired it gets wet.  If it gets too wet it can collapse.  When it collapses small gaps become huge holes.  (See my two previous posts)  Huge holes that didn't used to be there cause other things to move or separate.  Air moves more freely and rapidly and can enter the house where it isn't supposed to.  Such was the case in the recent stone-founded historic house. 

This very pretty picture shows lots of things.  It is a thermal image of a floor register, seen as the white spot lower left.  The register is blowing warm air onto the wall and window sill.  You can virtually see the air move upward and onto the window.  It is orange and yellow.

There is competition going on.  This window is right over the spot where the stone foundation wall partially collapsed.  A gap has obviously opened up, unseen from above or below, and air is moving freely inside.  That purple stripe is 31 degrees F.  The gap there is blowing its air upward also.  Can you see how it, too, is making its way up the wall and is restrained by the warm air?  Or is the warm air restrained by the cool air?

So, is cool the absence of heat or is heat the absence of cool?

There is a desk is just to the right of this image.  I bet somebody's footsies have been real cold!

My recommendation:  One thing really can lead to another.  When repairs are needed, it is best not to let them go.  It is also best not to try to do them if you don't know what you are doing.  Hire a professional!  Small problems can lead to larger ones that can themselves lead to chronic ones, like you see here.  How long has the battle between heat and cool been going on in this room?