Chicago Home Inspector

One of the things that I look for in a home inspection is the presence of loose window blind cords.  The cords present a serious life safety hazard to small children.  It has been estimated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that a small child dies from strangulation in a window bli...

How often should I change my smoke alarm batteries?  According to the National Association of State Fire Marshals  (NASFM), you should change the batteries on your smoke alarms at least once a year.   Many people get into the habit of changing their batteries when they set their clocks forward in...

Are you looking for a home inspector in the Chicago area?  This is a great post from Seattle home inspector Charles Buell.  I wanted to share it with my friends in the Chicago area home inspection market because I think he does a terrific job talking about the scope of a home inspection. Many peo...

How do I prepare for a home inspection?   If you're about to sell your home, one of the best ways to prepare for the home inspection is to have your house pre-inspected.  Many inspectors offer this service, which allows you to become aware of the sorts of items that may end up on the buyer’s insp...

  One of my Favorite Things   The TPR.  The little thing that keeps your water heater from turning into a bomb. Think I'm being alarmist?  Deadly steam explosions were routine back in the 19th century.  They're not nearly as common today, thanks in part to the invention of the safety device known...

Do I really need a home inspection on a brand-new luxury condo? This is a reasonable question to ask. At a certain price point, you’d expect everything to be perfect. There’s a saying in home inspections: “There’s no such thing as a perfect house.” I remember once I was conducting a home inspecti...

A couple months ago, I was on an inspection.  I'd gone over the scope of the inspection, the procedures, the paperwork.  I'd made some light conversation with my client, and I answered any lingering questions she had had about the process.  At that point, I began my inspection. Imagine my surpris...

An important aspect of any home inspection is checking for the absence of carbon monoxide alarms and smoke detectors.   They can be easy to miss... the inspector is often looking for things that are THERE.  Things that can be seen.  Things you can touch, hear, or (ugh) smell.  Loose toilets, leak...

About two weeks ago, Inspector Jay Markanich wrote a great article about an attic vent that looked like it was made from jiffy pop. That must be a home inspector's universal term; we talk about jiffy pop from time to time here in Chicago as well.  Often, when I call out jiffy pop, it's in connect...

If you didn't know, I'm writing as part of the "31 in 31" challenge for March.  I have a number of sketches, quotes and notes in my draft folder, but nothing that really got my juices flowing for today.   I thought I was stuck, until I read a preview of today's New York Times, and there's an arti...