Blog
Inspecting Garage Doors
by Nick Gromicko, Rob London and Kenton Shepard Tweet Garage doors are large, spring-supported doors. Garage door openers control the opening and closing of garage doors, either through a wall-mounted switch or a radio transmitter. Due to the strain that garage door components and openers regularly endure, they may become defective over time and need […]
Update on New Carbon Monoxide Detector Law
Our Home Inspectors will start checking for CO detectors New law requires Carbon Monoxide Detectors STAY UP TO DATE ON THIS IMPORTANT NEW LAW BY “LIKING” OUR FACEBOOK PAGE (Click above) This is an updated post regarding California Senate Bill 183 which was signed into law in 2011. California Senate Bill 183 was signed into […]
The Long and the Short of it
Shorten Long URL’s for Twitter or Text Sending a link to a listing or website is a great way to share information. But try sending a link for a listing to someone via text or Twitter. Many links, or URL’s, are so long that you will exceed the 140 character limit of most text messages […]
Rats like your house as much as you do
Rats are cute, but they can carry disease and damage your house Rats are a fact of life in San Diego County. They are found everywhere from downtown and rural areas, to poor and rich neighborhoods alike. But you should not put up with rats living in your attic. Rats can carry disease, and you […]
Cure for the Cell Phone Dead Zone at Home
Finally, there is a “fix” for people who have cell phone deficit disorder syndrome. Do you or someone you know suffer from poor cell phone coverage at their home or office? A Cell Phone Dead Zone? I had to run out my back door every time my cell phone rang so I could talk to people […]
The Care and Feeding of your Disposer
Simple tips to extend the life of your food waste disposer There are a few misconceptions about disposers. First, they are not “Garbage Disposers”. They are “Food Waste Disposers”. You would be surprised at what we sometimes find in the disposer which prevents it from working. For some reason, we find a lot of rocks […]
Stop, Look and Listen
Checking your own house periodically can prevent disasters Home inspectors use all of their senses when inspecting a house. An experienced inspector can draw several conclusions within the first few minutes of a home inspection. Actually, as soon as we pull up to a house, we can pretty well determine what we are in for. […]
Making Sense of the Housing Crisis
A must-read for anyone in real estate While we are seeing an increase in “traditional” transactions, the majority of the houses we inspect lately are short sales or forclosures. So how did we get here? And what can we do about it? My friend and Real Estate Broker Marian Anthony has published a book that […]
Avoiding Property Damage From Plumbing Leaks
Ever since the first indoor plumbing system was installed, homeowners have had to deal with leaks. Early drain lines were made from metal, often by black smiths, out of lead, steel or brass. Little was known about hydrolics, venting, or drainage. But indoor plumbing was seen as such an advancement in sanitation that people put […]
Knob and Tube Wiring
Knob-and-tube (K&T) wiring was an early standardized method of electrical wiring in buildings, in common use in North America from about 1880 to the 1940s. The system is considered obsolete and can be a safety hazard. Home inspectors should always report knob-and-tube wiring during their inspections as a safety hazard, and advise replacement. Facts About […]
