If this is where you’re beginning, you may want to go back to “Asbestos in Your Home, Part One“, in order to get the full picture … The asbestos fibers are one of those dangers that we can’t see without special equipment, and symptoms of asbestos exposure usually takes 20 – 40 years to develop … but they’re almost always fatal. So, getting yourself... 

As usual, many of the “scary” things in our homes are scary because we don’t have any background / knowledge about them. One of those “things” is ASBESTOS - a mineral made out of microscopic fibers.Exposure to a high concentration of asbestos airborne fibers puts us at a great risk of developing asbestos related diseases, and no safe level of asbestos... 

This is a very extensive topic, so please use reference links to my other posts, especially if everything is new for you and you really want to do most of the inspector’s work. The house roof / attic needs to be ventilated for its own and home owner’s benefit – non or poor ventilation might create the perfect mold growing environment … so let’s take a look at it. The general idea... 

NO CLIMBING ON THE CHIMNEY! 1. First, examine the chimney from the ground, binoculars might be very helpful. 2. For brick chimneys (it would also apply to stone and cinder block) – check the condition of mortar lines between the bricks, and the bricks themselves. Heavily deteriorated / missing mortar qualifies chimney for tuck-pointing. Sometimes, portions of bricks and significant amounts of... 

Roof – the safest way to inspect it would be … to hire a licensed roofing contractor (from the ground of course), and sometimes, it will be the only possible way without using some special equipment or a combination of ladders. Don’t attempt to access its surface if it is too steep (you have to determine that yourself), covered with snow, ice, frost, moss, looks uneven, or any other... 

Hello brave one I just hope that you are fully insured because some of the things on my checklist requires acrobatics, resistance to the high voltage current, swimming through the flooded crawlspaces, crawling through the scary attics, and many more nasty things – yes my friend, this is what I ,and many other home inspectors, do. This is actually your last chance to turn around, pick up the... 

Being a home inspector puts me in an awkward position for writing this post because I don’t want it to sound like a commercial about me. But, let me assure you that (at least in this case) I’ll let you be the judge. In 10 years of my home inspection business-adventure, I was hired twice to perform my services for a house seller and once for a home owner who just wanted to know what their houses’... 

// < ![CDATA[ google_ad_client = "pub-0360944017767954"; /* 120x600, garage firewall top */ google_ad_slot = "7508399933"; google_ad_width = 120; google_ad_height = 600; // ]]>Garage fire wall / separation wall between the house and an attached garage is very often mistreated  by the home owners. I’m assuming that they are simply unaware of the fire safety requirements and how critical... 

// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ google_ad_client = "pub-0360944017767954"; /* 250x250 carbon top */ google_ad_slot = "5757563374"; google_ad_width = 250; google_ad_height = 250; // // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> //... 

Having a garage door opener has become so standard, that I rarely see a garage door without it. However, because it is a mechanical device, and if improperly installed, combined with a 400 pounds garage door (give or take some), it will hurt you badly! It might even kill you! There is a well known phrase – “if it works, don’t touch it” (or fix it) – but maybe there should... 

Usually, the largest mechanical thing around your house is the overhead garage door – the one you’re driving your car through, sometimes without even opening it – I know that you do.The major, and the most dangerous component of the overhead door is the garage door spring – (or springs depending on the design), which supports the entire weight of the door panels (sometimes... 

Maybe because I’m a home inspector, or maybe because I have my own children, I over-react sometimes (mentally – my personal imagination just takes off) in situations where common sense and a little imagination is required. I always prefer taking extra safety precautions; it makes sense for me to go that one extra inch just to be sure that possibility of an accident has been minimized. But... 

There are still communities in the Chicago land area with houses utilizing oil fueled heating or converted to gas heating appliances with oil tanks remaining on premises. I’ve seen several abandoned oil tanks in basements and crawlspaces (in a few thousands of properties I’ve evaluated, not one had an active oil fueled heating system, but I was lucky to accidentally discover a couple of... 

With new laws invading our lives on an every day basis, the Illinois Radon Awareness Act became one of them in the Real Estate business starting January 1, 2008. It’s just another form to sign, attached to the transaction contract called “Disclosure of Information on Radon Hazards.” This new law only applies to residential properties containing between one and four dwelling units (single... 

// --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // --> // -->I’ve been fighting my personal allergies for years now and... 

Let’s digg a little bit more into the the attic mold and why is it growing in your attic. There are actually several different reasons that might be responsible for the mold to appear under the house roof… and sometimes compromise your real estate transaction. That is why attic evaluation and attic mold treatment (if you’re out of luck) should be performed before even putting... 

Smoke detector is a very inexpensive and extremely important type of a life saving device, but one of those we tend to forget about, or sometimes disconnect when they start chirping / calling for a new battery. Smoke detectors began their journey into our lives in 1890 (as a fire alarm), and evolved into residential, commercially available alarms in United States type between 1969 and 1971… for... 

It’s in a human’s nature to believe that bad things happen only to others; unfortunately, reality works its own, unpredictable, and mysterious ways. Any time I see basements with a sump pump and no battery operated backup pump, especially finished basements, I always wonder about calculations. A battery operated sump backup pump starts around $300.00 and a finished basement starts around $30,000.00...