Phoenix Home Inspection

How do you slowly blow up your neighborhood?

How to keep your Phoenix closet toasty warm.

Loren Green, Phoenix Home Inspector & Designer (Greens Home Design L.L.C.) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:43:41 -0400

How to keep your Phoenix closet toasty warm.

Many times people use various kinds of space heaters to heat a particular room. They come in all shapes and sizes. Most of the time it is the living room or the bedroom, but never the closet. Here in Phoenix there are maybe one or two months where space heaters are used. You can open your blinds up and heat up a room very quickly this time of year. Here is a picture I took with an infrared camera recently at an inspection at a Phoenix home.

At first glance you might think that this is just a window without blinds. It is actually an attic hatch in the closet ceiling. The attics in Phoenix get very hot. When there is only a half inch piece of drywall between your house and the attic it is the same as installing a window.

Here is a simple fix to this problem. Normally builders just provide a piece of fiberglass batt on the back of the drywall. Once that comes loose from the drywall it never gets put back on. The simple fix for this is to get 2" thick rigid foam insulation. Cut it 1/4" smaller than the drywall. Glue two layers on to the back of the drywall. Place weatherstripping on top of the trim that the drywall sits on. This eliminates drafts.

Implement this simple fix and you can eleminate hot closets.

For all your Arizona House Plans and Phoenix Home Inspection needs contact me.

602-326-4061

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What not to do when listing a house part 2

What not to do when listing a house part 2

How do you slowly blow up your neighborhood?

Loren Green, Phoenix Home Inspector & Designer (Greens Home Design L.L.C.) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:19:19 -0400

This is a follow up to the post What not to do when listing a house part 2. I said that there was another disturbing addition at this property. It seems like common sense to know that a tree can get large and damage a foundation. I usually like to see large trees at least 10 feet from the house.

Another component of the house that doesn't play well with roots is the plumbing system. Roots can cause leaky pipes and plug sewer lines.

Here is one location where I just had to say get it out now while it is small.

The side walk is to the right. The trunk only has one place to go. When it does it will break the gas meter and leave no way to shut it off. When it does cause a leak and the home owner goes out and starts their car in the garage just 3 feet away the whole neighborhood could go up like something you see in the movies.

For all your Arizona House Plans and Phoenix Home Inspection needs contact me.

602-326-4061

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What not to do when listing a house - part 2

Loren Green, Phoenix Home Inspector & Designer (Greens Home Design L.L.C.) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:40:46 -0400

Believe it or not, but I found another thing not to do when listing a house. This Glendale fixer-upper has some char to it from the outside, except for the target practice someone did to the front wall.

The problem, however was on the inside. At first glance there is a nice new 50 gallon water heater.

The label says that it was built in 2009 and that it is electric. So far everything looks fine. On top I discovered that the water lines were hooked up. Then things got a little interesting. Can you see two glaring problems in this picture?

The T&P line from the old water heater is cut off and not connected to the new one. The other problem is that there is no electrical supply to it. Not only is there no electrical wires supplying power to the water heater, the only fuel source that is available at the water heater is gas.

What you really have here is lipstick on a pig.

For all your Arizona House Plans and Phoenix Home Inspection needs contact me.

602-326-4061

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Phoenix Home Inspection: Here is what happens with poor oversight.

Loren Green, Phoenix Home Inspector & Designer (Greens Home Design L.L.C.) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:44:49 -0500

Phoenix Home Inspection: Here is what happens with poor oversight.

While inspecting this home yesterday I noticed an anomally. The attic access hatch was in the utility room. In the garage there was another one not more than 4 feet away. This seemed kind of pointless to me. When I climbed into the attic I found out why. The framer had blocked out a location for the hatch in the hallway. The electrician put the light switch and convience outlet near that hatch. The mechanical contractor oriented the air handler properly for that hatch. Somewhere along the line someone decided that the hatch shouldn't be in the hallway and put it in the utility room. This put the hatch at the other end of the air handler. When someone goes up there to service the airhandler they have to climb over the ducts and reach out 4 feet past the platform to get to the light switch and outlet.

The decision to move the hatch gained them very little in cosmetic appeal. The potential for physical harm to anyone working up there far outweighs anything they gained. As I write this post I can't help but wonder if this was done by the builder or by a previous homeowner. There was some break marks in the platform plywood. This suggests that the homeowner broke some of the plywood out to move it to the other end of the platform.

What do you think? Done by builder or homeowner? Good decision or bad one?

For all your Arizona House Plans and Phoenix Home Inspection needs contact me.

602-326-4061

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Two things not to do when listing a house.

Loren Green, Phoenix Home Inspector & Designer (Greens Home Design L.L.C.) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:14:40 -0400

Two things not to do when listing a house.

The first thing I do when I enter a house to begin an inspection is to verify that all the utilities are on. Just a few days ago I did an inspection in the Tartesso subdivision way out west in Buckeye on Sun Valley Parkway. First thing comming in the door I rang the doorbell. The doorbell rang so I knew that the electricity was on. Next I went to the kitchen sink and turned it on to see if the water was on. Nothing came on. I went out to the main shutoff valve and turned it on. I went back inside and turned the dishwasher on so that it can run through a cycle while I am inspecting. Then I went out to the truck to get something. When I shut the truck door I saw a large amount of water gushing out of a pipe in the wall by the garage. I quickly shut the water and the dishwasher off. I then went to the garage to see what was happening. It turns out that someone had opened the t&p valve on the water heater and left it open. I closed it and turned the water back on. Everything is working now.

Next I went into the kitchen and tried to light one of the burners on the range. The gas was coming out, but there was no spark from the igniters. I went out to the electrical panel and found what you see in the picture. Three of the kitchen breakers were turned off. This is unsafe because someone viewing the home might turn the knobs and walk away thinking it is not on. The gas would fill the house and either asphyxiate someone or blow the house up.

When you are listing a house it pays to do a few simple things to make sure it is safe and operable.

Every chance you get you should operate every faucet in the house and flush every toilet. This keeps the water from evaporating out of the p-traps and letting sewer gases into the home. This also keeps the toilet flappers from sticking.
Take a look in the electric panel periodically to make sure the proper breakers are on.
Check the gas appliances to make sure all the knobs and controls are off.

For all your Arizona House Plans and Phoenix Home Inspection needs contact me.

602-326-4061

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Amateur or Professional?

Loren Green, Phoenix Home Inspector & Designer (Greens Home Design L.L.C.) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:42:37 -0500

I came across this quote on a friends facebook page and had to share it.

"What's the difference between an amateur and a professional? It has nothing to do with money. The professional corrects his or her mistakes. The amateur doesn't even know they made one." Darton Drake

Having Bentley Architecture, with all its 3d-modeling, rendering and animation capabilities, a dual monitor cad workstation and a plotter does not make me a professional designer. Knowing what to do with them does.

Having Home Guage inspection software and lots of tools to inspect homes does not make me a professional home inspector. Knowing what to do with them does.

For all your Arizona House Plans and Phoenix Home Inspection needs contact me.

602-326-4061

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