Almost everyone in California is familiar with earthquake bracing for their water heater. However there are two situations I come across frequently where they braces have been installed incorrectly or one brace is missing.First, if a blanket is used for the water heater then the blanket must be
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02/22/2008
Last night on the news I saw a story about Los Angeles County (luckily I don't live in Los Angeles County). It seems the county supervisors have a grand and novel idea. Here's the background first:You see the county has been so busy spending their money where it isn't needed that they've neglec
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02/22/2008
Okay, we all know there's a lot of short sales, foreclosures, REO's, etc. So therefore the utilities many times end up being turned off since no one is paying the bill. The gas company will put a lock on the meter like the one below (circled below), and other utility companies do similarly.Then
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02/21/2008
I recently came upon this home improvement during a home inspection. By just looking at it, it looks quite nice and has provided a nice space in the backyard where there used to be a slope. However...There are quite a few problems with this new patio.1. The patio is over 30-inches high and the
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02/21/2008
As Home Inspectors there are quite a lot of items we look at during a home inspection. And though some of the items we normally look at are fine in 95% of the homes, you still have to check. For instance, cabinetry. Most of the homes in my area are pretty well built. I honestly rarely see pro
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02/20/2008
... or at least they shouldn't. Just last week I inspected a 4,200 sq. ft. house with a pool and spa and a 500 sq. ft. pool house going for $1.2 million. Wow, with such a nice and expensive house there must not have been any problems... right?Wrong. The main panel had two serious issues. The
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02/19/2008
This is Part 5 of the common errors I see for concrete roof tiles. Part 1 was about metal risers blocking the valley, Part 2 was about valley flashings that should extend past the roof edge, Part 3 was about weather blocking and Part 4 was about roof to wall flashing kick outs.The roof is obviou
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02/19/2008
This is Part 4 of the common errors I see for concrete roof tiles. Part 1 was about metal risers blocking the valley and Part 2 was about valley flashings that should extend past the roof edge and Part 3 was about weather blocking.The roof is obviously an important part of the house, yet so ofte
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02/13/2008
This is Part 3 of the common errors I see for concrete roof tiles. Part 1 was about metal risers blocking the valley and part 2was about valley flashings that should extend past the roof edge.The roof is obviously an important part of the house, yet so often concrete roof tiles are installed inc
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02/12/2008
Today I did not have an inspection scheduled in the morning so I thought I'd help out with the dishes. I loaded up the dishwasher and the started on the hand washed items. After about 10-15 minutes I smelled something weird. I stopped and looked around and saw something by the dishwasher. I w
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02/11/2008
