It seems at times, home inspectors are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.What should report write-ups about home defects look like? If you talk to 100 agents and 100 inspectors you will likely get 200 answers.If you talk to clients, you will not likely get nearly so many answers.Since ob
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04/17/2016
There has been some discussion about whether push-to-connect type plumbing fittings (Shark-Bites are a common brand name) maintain electrical continuity when using them on metal piping.As near as I can tell, the unsatisfactory answer is that they are not tested or listed for continuity through t
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04/16/2016
I recently did a post about the homeless living under bridges and other areas around Seattle.It is not uncommon to see folks with their shopping carts, cardboard boxes and blue tarps set up in the doorways of buildings almost anywhere.I have seen them in the doorways of buildings I was at to insp
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04/14/2016
Everyone knows if you want to stay warmer when it is really cold, your sweater will become much more effective if you wear a windbreaker over it. This is because the windbreaker decreases air movement into the materials that are keeping you warm---making the sweater more functional.A while back
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04/02/2016
Anyone living in Seattle would have to be living under a rock to have not heard about “The Jungle.”The Jungle is a fairly large piece of vacant land under and around the highway south of downtown Seattle. While this post is about Seattle, it is a story that is playing out in most cities all arou
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03/28/2016
The disSTINKtive odor of natural gas or propane is hard to miss–and for good reason. Since the gases have no natural odor of their own, if we did not put stuff in the gas to alert us to when it was leaking, we would have exploding structures all over the place.One of the most common gas leaks I f
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03/25/2016
Issues in homes often speak loudly.The inspector merely listens and writes down what he hears. Of course this is a metaphor, but sometimes what we “hear” is actually what speaks to us. We need all our senses really to sometimes get the whole story.Most of all though, we need our brains to make se
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03/20/2016
What is intuitive to one person may be strange and unbelievable to another.The other day a friend of mine bought a desk lamp.She wanted a lot of light at her desk. When looking for a bulb for it, all she could find around the house was an 18 watt, 100 watt equivalent, LED bulb which she was hesit
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03/16/2016