GStewart

During a recent San Ramon home inspection, the inspector was surprised to see a fallen drain/waste pipe under the house. In a large household, it's conceivable to be flushing a toilet, taking a shower, running [...]

After several thousand home inspections, The House Whisperer is still amazed about what’s discovered. Just when you think you’ve seen everything… the home inspector spotted something embedded in an Oakland roof. It turned out to [...]

The home inspector is looking at a damper plate in the exhaust flue above a wood burning fireplace with a gas log lighter pipe. When the damper is open, it allows exhaust gases and smoke [...]

The home inspector occasionally finds within an electrical panel, a condition known as double-lugging. Double-lugging or double tapping is where two electrical wires are connected to a single screw or lug - usually done by [...]

Occasionally, home inspectors discover several things requiring attention from a single photo. Here’s what was in the inspector’s report: A floor joist under the Danville subfloor was over-notched to accommodate a drain pipe causing the [...]

Are you looking to build a retaining wall in the front yard without too much effort? Here’s how to build a retaining wall that’s inexpensive and requires little masonry skill - although you do need [...]

Throughout most of the 20th century, asbestos products were hailed as a ‘wonder fiber’ that insulates up to intense temperature. Due to its outstanding resistance to heat, its fibrous structure and low cost - asbestos [...]

When the home inspector rounded the corner into a Pittsburg family room… He did a double-take, as a full size deer was staring at him. The inspector stared back. Definition of stare: To look directly, [...]

The home inspector was meandering through a vacant Oakland craftsman house built in the 1930s. The inspection was discovering the typically items - double-hung windows that were painted shut - large cracks in the plaster [...]

Many people are injured by trips and falls in their own home. Most homeowners don’t give interior stairs a second thought, but our certified home inspectors do. When the inspector thought he’d seen it all [...]

As the home inspector made his way under a Concord house – he spotted a large accumulation of clothes dryer lint in the crawlspace. Clothes dryer lint is microscopic clothes fibers and is highly flammable. [...]

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates there are 15,000+ fires associated with clogged clothes dryer lint ducts. The danger lies with the clothes dryer lint that builds up inside the lint duct between the [...]

The home inspector during a Berkeley home inspection spotted this electrical safety concern. Illumination is a requirement in a bathroom bathtub and/or shower area, so you can see what you are doing - a good [...]

One of the biggest threats of having rodents in your attic - is that they gnaw on electrical wires.  Squirrels, rats and mice are all rodents. Their teeth grow non-stop like your fingernails. Just like [...]

During a Walnut Creek home inspection, the home inspector had just finished entering an inspection comment about the wide spacing between the vertical components of the guard railing. The white vertical posts in the photo [...]

As the Concord home inspector walked into the house, he noticed that some of the windows were ‘fogged’. There’s a good chance windows have failed seals in homes built between 1986-1992 with dark frame dual [...]

As the home inspector looked in a Walnut Creek walk-in crawlspace,the inspector was amazed by the number of electrical wires stuffed into an electrical junction box. A junction box or J-box is a place where [...]

A picture is worth a thousand words - the discolored wall is a sign of an electrical overload - over-heating and possible wood charring inside the wall. Electrical circuit overloads can happen when more electricity [...]

In the past, stucco siding was plastered on the house walls and continued down over the foundation. The top of the foundation is just below the ventilation screen seen at the right side of the [...]

As the home inspector rounded the side of a Pleasanton home - there it was - a weed growing out of a downspout. Gutters and downspouts are part of a drainage collection system designed to [...]

When is the last time you looked under your kitchen exhaust hood or at the air filter under the microwave oven above the cooking range? A good home inspector looks under exhaust hoods and microwave [...]

The garbage disposal is a device electrically powered and designed to shred food waste into tiny pieces small enough to pass through drain/waste plumbing. The home inspector noted that the electrical black power cord passing [...]

Did you know that the older galvanized steel pipes in homes cause 90% of water flow problems. After 35-50 years, steel pipes rust from the inside out. As water passes through the steel pipes, corrosion [...]

A bedroom had been added onto a 55-year old San Leandro house. As the home inspector walked across the floor - there was a discernible sag/slope in the center of the room. A large steel [...]

During a Pleasant Hill home inspection, a section of the garage ceiling had been removed to work on plumbing pipes. This was a two story house with a bedroom above the garage. At first glance, [...]

This deteriorated Orinda fireplace was flagged by the home inspector. There are still people who live in older homes with fireplaces where gaps have developed between the bricks and/or the fire bricks are cracked and [...]

This Walnut Creek homeowner had plugged in multiple power cords into a garage power strip. Every year, thousands of fires result from surge protectors, power strips and electrical cords being over-loaded. The U.S. Consumer Product [...]

Have you ever had the urge to grab a roll of electrical wire, a couple of junction boxes and a few wall outlets and switches and connect them together? This wiring mess was spotted in [...]

As home inspector climbed onto the Lafayette roof - he saw that the spark-arrestor/raincap assembly was absent from the top of the chimney flue peeking over the roof ridge. At the top of roof ridge, [...]

Did you know that man-made fire logs aren't known for the one thing that is often sought after when building a fire – They don’t produce heat? Fire log production started in the 1960s when companies [...]

Home inspectorsencounter grey duct tape used all the time for many household repairs. It’s true, that duct tape has 1001 uses. There’s a book about duct tape that you can buy on Amazon called… you [...]

Under a San Ramon house, the home inspector discovered a partially disconnected heating duct in a very wet crawlspace. The amateur installation was evidenced by the excessive use of grey duct tape and the absence [...]

Winter time and not a plant in your area can be found poofing pollen particles into the air. So why are you still sniffling, sneezing and wheezing? It could be your furnace heating ducts. If [...]

Many home inspectors take many photos on an inspection site and archive them in the event there’s a future complaint. My mentor told me, that when an inspection photo is taken… be sure to ‘study [...]

The home inspector couldn’t believe his eyes - water from a corroded cast iron drain/waste line was leaking and had formed a small lake. From the looks of things, the dripping water had been going [...]