Tagged : lake whatcom home inspector

As a busy home inspector in the wet Pacific Northwest, I often have prospective buyers ask me what they can do to keep the house in good shape. They want to, as much so as they can, reduce the risks of having the house rot or become infested with carpenter ants, anobiid beetles, termites, moisture ants and the various other wood destroying insects that can be found in the northwest. After some thought, I decided that the best way to describe some of the conditions that lead to such problems w... Read Full Post

As I have posted here previously, I have been experimenting with attaching some short narrated video slide shows to a few of the more common and more complicated to explain home inspection concerns. At first I was doing longer, all inclusive, videos that were taking five minutes or more. Those still exist in cyberland. But, for those times when I want a very quick and direct informative piece, I have cut them down to single topics. For example, one of the most often found problems in the cour... Read Full Post

Building codes, despite what some people might lead you to believe, are not the end all be all in construction or good living. Building codes are "minimum" standards. Building a house to meet only codes will lead to the poorest home that a person can "legally" build. In the case of many builders, and homeowners as well, it makes sense to have building codes because, if they were not there, who knows what a mess might be created. Codes are common sense guidelines but they frequently leave lots... Read Full Post

The average homeowner never goes into his or her crawl space, nor does he or she ever perform many of the most rudimentary matters of home maintenance. For example, as a working Bellingham, WA home inspector, I find heavy moss on roofs at more than half of the homes that I inspect. But, one of the most neglected matters has got to be the gutters. They are, more often than not, full of organic debris, golf balls, tennis balls, badminton birdies -- you name it. The condition of the gutter in th... Read Full Post