Home Inspection Blog

An experienced home inspector knows that this older Pleasant Hill house chimney was constructed without the use of reinforcing steel and that brick mortar is deteriorating. Brick and mortar chimneys have three common failings - [...]

Before a home inspector enters a crawlspace, they will remove the access panel and take a quick look with a flashlight. Finding water under a house is not a good thing. Swimming in a pool [...]

The crawlspace (area under a house) is a home inspector’s favorite place to inspect. Crushed or disconnected heating/cooling ducts are discovered more often than you think in the crawlspace and can definitely affect heating/cooling performance [...]

After thousands of home inspections, it sometimes begins to look routine. That is until the home inspector encountered this San Leandro mobile home creatively using crutches to support the side door awning. At first glance, [...]

Home inspectors “love” crawl spaces, which is why they save crawling under the house as their last inspection step. Put a group of seasoned inspectors together and ask them what they’ve seen in crawlspaces and [...]

An experience home inspector will follow the signs… silt marks on a foundation, a ceiling water stain. One of the definitions of the word sign - is something indicating the presence or existence of something [...]

Note the location of the electrical wall outlet above the kitchen cooktop, a common 1950-60s installation for electric skillets or crock pots. If a kitchen electric appliance is plugged in - there’s a good chance [...]

Home inspectors find interesting conditions in crawlspaces, an area under a house and in attics. Under an older San Ramon house, the inspector noted the heating ducts terminated at a ‘transition boot’ wrapped in asbestos. [...]

What do coffee drinkers and home inspectors have in common? They both get a buzz. Coffee drinkers get the caffeine kick and home inspectors get excited when they observe the creativity of home owners. The [...]

The inspector was using his flashlight to peer inside the 35 year old fireplace flue in Walnut Creek, and to his amazement light was reflecting back and glistening. From the top of the roof, he [...]

The Richter Scale was developed in 1934 to measure the magnitude (strength) of earthquakes from 1 (small) to 10 (extreme) The home inspector observed this cracked chimney and rated it an 8 (very severe) on [...]

Many Oakland home inspections can be entertaining. Founded in 1852, Oakland was recently declared as the most diverse city in terms of various ethnic populations. Around 150 languages are spoken in the Oakland metropolitan area [...]

Home inspectors love their job and the best inspections stories seem to emerge from the crawlspace… you know, that dark and creepy space under the house where all the Dr Seuss critters hang out. Deep [...]

It was hard for the home inspector not to stop and take a photo of this side yard walkway in Fremont. Nearly every backyard concrete patio and driveway will crack after installation, if not properly [...]

When’s the last time you checked the air filters under the kitchen exhaust hood or under the microwave oven above the cooktop? Kitchen air filters help remove greases, steam and unpleasant odors during cooking. Over [...]

During a recent Concord home inspection, a mystery was identified. For years, the homeowners sometimes smelled sewer gas inside their house built in 1989 The home inspector discovered a crack in the main drain and [...]

Believe it or not - It’s estimated that for every human on earth there may be a 1000 lbs. of termites. Termites have lived longer than the dinosaurs and continue to eat their way through [...]

The House Whisperer home inspectors will look for tell-tale signs during an inspection of a crawlspace. In a dark and muddy Antioch crawlspace, the inspector spotted 6” high silt marks on several of the concrete [...]

The House Whisperer inspector went into the attic and came back down seeing red - under the air conditioning evaporator unit water containment pan - not a good sign. Rusted water in the pan suggests [...]

The purpose of a plumbing trap under a sink is to prevent odorous sewer gases from entering the house back through the sink and tub drains. There are two basic types of traps: P and [...]

This was a 10 year-old, heavy-duty asphalt shingle roof in Danville with a 40-year warranty. Provided it’s safe, home inspectors climb onto roofs to look at the conditions. The roof field looked great, but every [...]

A section of this Castro Valley property retaining wall was leaning. The three most common signs of imminent retaining wall failure are leaning, cracking and bulging. The main cause of retaining wall failure is poor [...]

With cold weather comes rats, raccoons, possums, mice, squirrels, birds and bats seek shelter and can find their way into attics and crawlspaces. During a Blackhawk inspection, the home inspector discovered that wall insulation had [...]

This is a water heater temperature, pressure safety valve. When something goes wrong within the water heater, the safety valve is designed to open and release high temperature water and excessive pressure through a discharge [...]

During a recent Pleasant Hill home inspection, the inspector discovered what you’d expect to see coming out of a volcano - lava. This is the top of a water heater tank that’s heavily corroded and [...]

The home inspector was crawling under a San Jose home and while shining his flashlight, illuminated blackened subflooring and floor joists - he couldn’t believe his eyes. Nearly all of the subflooring and crawlspace support [...]

During a Los Gatos home inspection, the inspector spotted a gaping hole in the outside air conditioning (AC) unit. Upon closer inspection, the inspector knew that there had been several pit stops by a male [...]

During the Great Recession of 2008, the home inspector rounded the back of a vacant home spotting the remains of where an air conditioner unit once sat. The air conditioning unit had been stolen, as [...]

During a recent home inspection in Moraga, the home inspector discovered aluminum wiring in an older garage electrical subpanel. Aluminum electrical wiring was installed in houses from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s during a [...]

During a Pleasanton home inspection, a creative solution for cooling the attic space was spotted. Yes, a table top fan was tied to the roof directly under a roof vent. On a hot summer day, [...]

Home inspectors who check the dishwasher drain cycle - routinely finds that 15% of dishwasher drain hoses are blocked with food sludge or are kinked - causing water to spray out of the air gap [...]

The older San Leandro house had been upgraded with new kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, freshly painted and was beautifully decorated… a showcase. The House Whisperer was beginning to get nervous, as no discrepancies had yet [...]

Throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, people will awake from sleep, sit straight up in bed and listen intently… “What was that?” Then silence, but then the silence is broken again… a scurrying sound... gnawing... [...]

At an older house in Walnut Creek, the home inspector spotted a flexible brass gas supply pipe going into the side of the heating furnace. Flexible pipes are very thin wall, so that they can [...]

The home inspector spotted this unstable support post under an old Oakland house. The San Francisco Bay Area is in earthquake country and a small tremor could cause these stacked bricks and wood post to [...]