kingofthehouse's Blog: All Categories

I do not understand how so many people get through their lives without major fires and that applies doubly to those who carelessly use electric heaters -- especially the baseboard heaters. I know, from experience,  that it can be easy to do something dumb with a baseboard heater. Years ago, I dropped the hose of the shop-vac on the floor in front of an electric heater. I had not noticed that it flopped over and ended up touching the heater. When I came back the next day, the plastic hose was burned, melted and had a big hole in it. Thank goodness for good luck.

That incident was in the "accident" or careless category. The instances that really floor me are the people who, day after day, setup a fire hazard and then they get by with it. The photo below is…

Things are changing in Washington State now that a home inspector licensing law has been passed and signed by the Governor. The way it will all work out, ultimately, is going to be determined to a large degree by the home inspector licensing board. At Bellingham Technical College, where I am coordinator of home inspection training, we worked closely with legislators on this bill. At this point, while generally established, the specifics on the education and testing are not yet formalized, although new inspectors will have to have 120 hours of training with 40 hours of field work to receive a license and that comes after passing a test. Despite some unknown right now, one thing is certain -- the the more training and experience one has, he or she is in a…

"Pyrolysis" The word shares a root word with the term "pyromaniac".  That is not a coincidence as both involve fire. Pyrolysis is sometimes present when hot things, like metal chimneys, are too close to wood -- such as the rafters in the attic. Or it might be present if a wood stove, a fireplace insert or even a B-vent is too close to a combustible. Pyrolysis is a known scientific phenomenon, that has been witnessed and defined by the scientific community. The facts:

Pyrolysis

When the temperature of  wood reaches 248 degrees Fahrenheit pyrolysis reactions can start. First the hemicellulose breaks down in the wood and, as the temperature rises, this is followed by the cellulose and lignin. As the temperature goes up even more, the wood dries faster and…

I did an inspection the other day and found something rather dramatic in the crawl space. If you look at the top photo, this fine sawdust or shavings (at the sill plate) is a condition that a competent structural pest inspector will be on the lookout for. That is the classic look of carpenter ant frass. These ants live in the wood and they do not eat it. They spit out the shavings, hence we see frass like this. Now, honestly, sometimes an inspector wonders how big a problem it really is, because he or she might not see any insects or any other damage. The problem is, the ants might be working at the other side of the house, and they are dumping the frass in yet another location. The next step, for the inspector, is to take a handful of the frass and…

The picture below is an interior ceiling area that is located right below a flat roof. By a flat roof, I mean a low-sloped roof --even a flat roof should be designed to have some drainage so the water runs off the surface. The flat roof in the photo, looking from above, did not look bad. But, from below, there was this obvious stain and another one nearby too. This visual evidence creates a dilemma. The question is: Does the roof presently have a leak, or has the roof been repaired since this damage occurred? If it has been raining, the inspector can get a clue if it is leaking by checking the moisture levels at the ceiling but, if not, then it is all a big guess. Especially, if there is ceiling damage like this, about the only thing to do is to call for…

As a home inspector, I see quite a lot of standing water in crawl spaces and, less frequently, in basements. I have found, over the years, that the amount of water that is actually in the crawl space can be deceiving and way more than is initially expected. For example, once I was in a crawl space with two different large "pools" of ground water.  One was at one end and the other was at the other side. At the first location, the area was about 15' x 15' and the water was an average of 3" deep. If you put that into one of the handy and easy to use online calculators, for converting to cubic gallons, that ends up being 56 cubic feet of water or 420 gallons. At the other side of the crawl space, the water was in an area about 10' x 10' and it was 2" deep.…

I have done a number of posts online about the anobiid beetle -- which is so common in crawl spaces here in the Pacific Northwest. The insect leaves exit holes in soft lumber under our homes and will live for years and years if the conditions are right -- literally destroying much of the home. As a home inspector, I knew more about locating the pest and its biology than how to chemically treat it. In this state that must be done by a licensed pest control operator. A week back, while I was teaching at Bellingham Technical College, Dr. Dan Suomi of the WSDA offered to speak to the class. He is an entomologist, the main state enforcement officer we home inspectors might see, and did graduate level research a few years back on a common chemical control used…

A few times I have seen homes where the wood stove (burner) was some concoction designed by the homeowner. This dual arrangement of old metal barrels (photo below)  probably took the cake in my book. I remember seeing a number of single barrels like this, as wood stoves, in the 1960's but not in more recent years. This fellow wanted to get a roaring blaze going with two ganged together. Devices like this would not even come close to meeting today's wood burning emissions guidelines. Basically, when I see something like this, I state that it is an old fashioned, probably homemade, system that is certainly no where near the quality of today's wood burning products and it should be fully gone over, and likely replaced, by a wood stove professional prior to…