Detailed Home Inspection According to the Standards of Practice

okay yeah baby screaming okay we can't hear it just curious this be available to view after a reliable yep so everyone who registers for an attic TV webinar I'll send you a link to a video recording on youtube and you can watch it later so if you have a job schedule go do the job you can always watch this later alright my name is ben gromicko from internachi the international association of residential commercial property inspectors for a trade organization and this is a free live online interactive webinar that we do once or twice a month sometimes I'll teach them sometimes I'll have a special guest presenting and this one is about performing a home inspection in detail according to the standards of practice so we're gonna go step by step and inspect a house according to the standards of practice you can find all of us at NACA dot org slash contact and that's where you'll find all of the staff at internachi and we all essentially work for you so feel free to contact anybody on staff and ask them what can you do from my home inspection business and today is January 17th so welcome to class everybody we're gonna need to inspect this mansion I inspected it it's in a cold climate in Pennsylvania and it took me about three hours to inspect I did about 500 digital inspection images and some video and we're gonna go over most of them as we go through the house inspection again internachi is a federally tax-exempt 501 C 6 non-profit membership trade organization and headquartered in Boulder Colorado and if you wanted to visit internet Chi that's at nachi org na CH i dot org and if you want to see like how many inspectors are there in the world you can click that link for our membership stats and there we are so we've got the map and you can zoom in if you want to do see where other inspectors are or you can scroll down the page and see where they're how many people how many inspectors are there in California or in Florida and then where international so we have home inspectors all over Canada and all over these countries internationally the internachi's school is the only nationally accredited tuition free college for home inspectors accredited by the US Department of Education and we're also a member College of the National Association of career colleges of Canada and if you want to get more information there visit internachi dot edu edu is a domain name that accredited organizations institutions post-secondary education institutions colleges universities we all use dot edu so if you're looking for a school in order to become trained and certified and to grow your business as a home inspector careful do research not all schools are accredited some are but edu is a good indication that that school was accredited and internachi is a college for inspectors and we're also a tuition free tuition free it's absolutely free the education provided by internachi school is free the members of the trainer organization that I just mentioned so you joined internachi as a member and you have free unlimited access to everything internet she provides our members in order for them to be successful in inspectors we'll talk a little bit about that so free online accredited college for home inspectors that's it internationally d you and everything you need all in one place is that notch or slash everything that domain there so all these hope you have a pencil and paper notch org slash everything is where you'll find everything that you need to be a successful home inspector if there's anything that you need and you can't find it feel free to contact us at that contact page that I mentioned earlier and you're on at GTV that's live interactive classes about inspecting business marketing websites you can watch the videos there at Nagi TV at that URL in achi no TV while certified master inspectors perform home inspections and write inspection reports don't pull out thousands of dollars in order to get trained and certified as a home inspector and also well because internachi provides everything you need all in one place the trade organization offers a free online tuition free school so you can get trained and certified continuing education to renew your certification or licensed professional development classes we have an online inspection community we have a network of mentors we have business and legal documentation and free advice we have a marketing department that works for you to design all of your marketing like your logo design business cards flyers and all that design work in consultation is free so we have everything you need if you're thinking about going to a school and it costs thousands of dollars to do that careful if you want hands-on training we have that also we have a network of schools all over the world that provide hands-on training mentoring and ride-alongs so come to internachi at nachi org and test it out if you're interested in joining and you're not a member email me at that address and I'll offer you a big discount an offer you can't refuse we'd love to have you join the Internet let's inspect this house okay according to the standard practice I'm going to try to look at your questions as we go along there's again 500 of you just registered for this class so yep Russell says Mike our window is open so I can't hear it yeah it's probably closed your car window and careful driving let's say thank you okay are we accredited in Ohio yet Ohio hasn't finalized everything quite yet but you certainly are we have been grandfathering in home inspectors in that grandfathering window apparently has been stretched out so there's more of our opportunity but every day the board changes almost the regulations so especially in the way they in enforcing the grandfathering window so go to NatGeo doric slash ohio if you're interested in more details on how we can help you with Ohio in any state or province that you're in we're going to perform a home inspection going to the standard practice and that's the internet Qi home inspection standards of practice available at notch org slash SOP let's just quickly go there and check it out what's it look like and in your inspection report and in your inspection agreement you should refer to the standards of practice through a live link because every year our our Advisory Council and other master inspectors review the standard practice to make sure it needs if there's any revisions or updates needed so what you don't want to do is copy paste the standards of practice in a Word document or something and have it static and you're not aware that it's actually a live document that changes according to code changes when it River gets revised every three years all the codes change every year or three years and we review everything the curriculum we update the curriculum update the training or update the examination update the continuing education requirements and also those things our practice and code of ethics so everything is reviewed so that's always updated and current so what you want to do is link out tell your client the standards are practiced which I performed at home inspections at majid of our slash SOP and it looks like this it's inspections we exterior basement foundation Heating Cooling plumbing electrical fireplaces or let's just say click something heating and it tells you what you are required to do and what you're not required to do inspectors not required there's a long list of things that you're not required to do there's a short list of things that you are required to do and in the standards of practice it's kind of broken up into three tasks I would say you have to inspect describe and report so the inspector shall inspect this is what these are the housing components that you need to inspect the inspector shall describe these are the things you have to describe in your reports and subscribe to your client in detail and the inspector shall report as in need of correction these are the lists of defects that you recommend getting corrected for example any heating system that didn't operate well you are required to report upon that as a need of correction right inspect describe and reports it's very easy very minimal the standard practice is the absolute minimum you are required to do to perform a home inspection now exceeding the standard practice we can talk about that you'll find that your clients are going to ask you to find problems that are not specifically listed in the standards of practice and you may need to exceed the standards of practice for example one could argue that because the word flash light doesn't appear in the standards of practice you're not required to use one but you'll find that in reality you have to have a flashlight during the home inspection okay the seems to practice being in the absolute minimum it's the absolute minimum you want you don't really actually want to be down there because you'll find that when you perform home inspections you want to look for things that are beyond the standards of practice right so you'll be asked to do that as well and we'll talk about that as we go along in the class yeah oh and it's also the same as the practice is also a checklist essentially for example here is let's see cooling plumbing here's the electrical this is my favorite the electrical section lists all the things that inspectors shall inspect the service drop the overhead service conductors serve said the mass electric meter so if you're wondering what should I inspect during an inspection well the standards of practice is essentially a basic simple general checklist of things that you need to inspect you're required to inspect so use the standards of practice as a starting point a foundation upon which to build a great inspection process and also an outline to write the great inspection report every chunk every section of the sales practice could be a chapter or a section within your inspection report it could be not necessarily again let's inspect this house according to the standards practice in the first section in the standards of practice is the roof section now you're not required to walk upon any move surface many home inspectors do many in internachi members have been trained and certified to fly a drone if to be FAA licensed as well you have to take that pilot exam we have training materials to help you pass that exam but according to the same as to practice you're not required to walk upon any roof surface even if it's a flat roof ten feet above ground nor required not required to bring a ladder or either so the standards to practice also describes your limitations it describes the scope of your inspection not required to do for example inspect for every defect in a home it's impossible what you're really required to do is report upon those defects housing issues problems that you both see observe and beam to be a really bad problem that's where we regret so you're not trying to find all the not required to find the roof leak if you can't observe it right so ideally you wants to be able to access a lot of things in the home have everything opened and turned on for you have the water turned on prior to you showing up at the property for example some inspectors use a lot of so they can get up to the gutter or the ease or the gable end to take a look not necessarily walk along the roof some use drones some use extendable sticks with a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi camera connected to their device some use binoculars some use other advantage points to look at the roof but you are required to inspect the roof if you can't see it I would disclaim it which means explain to your client why you weren't able to inspect the roof as required by the standards of practice I was a home inspector who liked to walk upon the roof surface I live out there I carried the big ladders 40 foot aluminum for the barns 32 foot fiberglass 28 foot fiberglass for the roofs down to a 12 aluminum for like a one-story roof or a garage and t-touch garage they're lighter to carry around crawl space gear step ladder to get into the attic space and crawl space I'm gearing so I went from the very bottom to the very top and I see that the Sanders to practice consistently for all my clients if I could walk upon the roof so that they knew if they were reading one of my inspection reports and they saw me on the roof they can expect me to try to get up on them their roof right and it's also part of my brand so what you do is you try to figure out what you're really good at and if you're good at inspecting roofs you should convey that in your marketing so if that is part of my brand which identifies me as a unique kind of inspector well how am i different from all the rest how do i distinguish my services from other inspectors in my market area one way was I tried to walk upon every roof surface I brought big ladders that's my brand your brand is the answer to the question why should I hire you instead of the other person and your marketing is the way you send that message that brand out so I communicated this I always took a picture of my feet on the roof and stuck it in my marketing in my inspection report which is essentially the best marketing piece that I could create so if you're wondering whether to exceed or not exceed don't worry we have a really good article for you to read and notch it up org slash exceed or not exceed so these are the pictures that I took during the inspection and I like to take a picture of just about everything that I'm inspecting it forces me to inspect everything as much as I can and I take a picture of every slope every field every surface of the roof and every component that I come across like this fella this chimney stack if you are wondering how to inspect a roof go to our education page and enter Ruth in the search field so we have many courses on how to inspect a roof and they're all accredited nationally accredited so if you go to our education page and national research education and in the search field here type in roof and on the right all these roof courses will show up so I like this one how to inspect a roof how to perform a roof inspection and you click it and when you're a member and you identify yourself and you go through the course and it's very easy there are quizzes along the way there's a final exam at the end there's a certificate of completion and your name is on it and the date and it's a really nice way to educate yourself to gain the knowledge skills and abilities that you need to perform a home inspection we also broke it down into system so if you are weak at mmm electrical you can go to our education page and type in electrical and gain the knowledge skills and abilities that you need in order to perform an electrical system inspection yeah so we have everything you need and again the internet you school is tuition free for members so join internachi and that's at forty nine dollars a month or a four nine to nine year unless you have a discount code and then that training that you need to become trained and certified and highly qualified and competent to perform inspection is all online and free according to the home inspection standards of practice the inspectors shall inspect from the ground level or the eaves the roof covering materials the gutters the downspouts the vents flashing skylights chimney and other roof penetrations and the general structure of the roof from the readily accessible panels doors and stairs so what do we want to do let's take a look at the roof coating materials so that is what we're gonna check and I like to get up close and touch things that I'm inspecting I often find that when I walk upon a roof which is dangerous we do not recommend it it's not required it's hazardous a fall can be fatal it's fine things that I wouldn't normally be able to see without going up on the roof so that's what I'm looking for I'm looking for those things that I couldn't see from the ground maybe and I'm looking at just about everything and I'd like to hug the ridge especially when the roof is steep so that I can take a look at the roof covering materials and feel very confident when I step down from the from the roof on my ladder and down to the ground and meet my kinds because I get to the inspection early and I do the roof inspection before my client even shows up so the I don't take my client up on the roof so I do the roof inspection I take all the pictures all the video and make my comments in my mobile software and I come down the ladder and I shaking my hand I shake the hand of my client and I tell them about the roof condition and I feel very confident in doing that because I've been up there and I've seen it for myself and I've touched it and I've walked upon it and I talk about the roof covering material and you have to use the right terminology especially when you're talking to your client and writing an inspection report it's a legal document essentially driven in your opinion so your mouth is a tool for your success you have to use the right words if they're use the right terminology and to help you write a great report which reflects what you said during the inspection of what you wrote on all the notes that you took and reflects also what you know the knowledge that you have we have resources for you and they're based upon code in fact all of internachi's training is based upon the most recent code so for example we refer to the 2018 international residential code and if we go there and take a look at definitions let's take a look and because a roof there's a section here it has a lot of definitions of our roof there's the roof assembly there's the roof coding roof covering roof covering system roof deck roof recover roof repair roof replacement and so you want to use terminology that is accurate and correct and because we're an accredited school this is a standard by which all credit in schools develop their courses you know based upon we're not code inspectors but we use code a standard by which we can all agree so if you were up on a roof and you're talking about something to a contractor and you refer to something with the wrong terminology that contractor is going to be in conflict with you so you want to use the same terminology that all certified code inspectors for example use and one of the things that we use is roof covering when you inspect a roof you're looking at the roof covering or the materials of the roof covering all the roof covering materials that's defined that shows up in code so we're not code inspectors but we want to use a standard by which to perform an inspection and communicate with our mouth our words our report that's according to a standard it's very easy very simple roof assembly is not what you want to refer to you want to refer to the roof covering and the roof covering is defined as the covering applied to the deck for weather resistance fire classification or appearance that's the roof covering that's what you see you don't see the fastening you don't see the underlayment so why talk about it but you are inspecting is the covering the roof covering the roof covering materials it's not the system a system is this it's the roof assembly that's everything let me read it to you a system the roof assembly is a system designed to provide weather protection and resistance to design loads obviously the system consists of a roof covering and a roof deck or a single component serving as both the roof covering in the roof deck so right there I can't see the roof deck when I'm looking at the roof with my eyes member a home inspection there's a visual only inspection it's like putting both hands tied behind your back and inspecting the residential building so you can't comment upon things that you don't see just like defects you can't comment upon defects that you don't see you can only comment and report upon defects that you both see and deemed to be material serious but we'll talk about that later so a roof assembly includes the roof deck underlayment roof covering and also can include the thermal barrier ignition barrier insulation and a vapor retarder now you're not commenting upon that you're not inspecting that you're inspecting the roof covering which is that surface material that you can visually observe so be careful with what you say and how you say it and feel confident that that's how internet she's nationally accredited training programs are based upon ok according to the Holman specialist dentists practice at home a special report shall identify in written formats and written format defects within specific systems and components defined by the standards that are both observed and deemed to be material by the inspector the reports can also include other comments and opinions so what is a material defect it's not the roof covering material it's not the same kind of material here's a material defect material defect is is a specific issue with a system or component of a residential property that may have a significant adverse impact on the value of the property or that poses an unreasonable risk and the inspection report shall identify those defects that are both observed and deemed to be material and you'll find that your client is going to want you to find other defects that's the reality of the situation because some clients will want you to identify things that won't have an adverse impact on the value of the property and doesn't pose an unreasonable risk but they want to they want to negotiate on that repair with your report describing the problem and your recommendation for it to be fixed so an example would be a crack in a tile in the kitchen floor several cracks in the tiles in fact let's just imagine that there there there's ten of them cracked right that doesn't have an adverse impact on the value of the property and it's not posing an unreasonable risk someone safety but it's a major defect and you'll find that your clients will just want you to will demand that you put those types of defects in the report so when you perform a home inspection according to the standards of practice you're required to find only one type of defect material that you both observe and deemed to be material but in reality there are other types of defects then we can go over that so are there other types of defects in addition to the material defects that I could observe yeah what kinds well it's up to you to describe them well enough in your inspection report but one thing you could do is go to our glossary and type in defect defect signature org slash glossary and there are four defects defined in our glossary one is material we've already talked about that the other one is major defect minor defect and cosmetic defect I kind of like these you're not required to use them at all but they may be helpful for you to think about how you use your words to communicate your observations in a major defect is something that's in need of correction repair that we need a contractor to do like a hole in the roof right it doesn't have an adverse impact on the value of the property it's not posing on the reasonable risk so it's not a material defect it's not minor a minor defect is something like a dirty air filter not related to home maintenance something that a homeowner can do without really any special skills or knowledge changing the air filter every homeowner should be able to do that right they sell the home depot bolt and pull up right cosmetic defect is like a stain on the carpet a dent in the drywall that's cosmetic a lot of cosmetic problems donat do not show up on it on home inspection report some do maybe it's just courtesy to your client so maybe that will help you identify help you identify and describe to your client the type of defect the severity some kind of distinction between a dirty air filter a crack tile a hole in the roof or something that's going to kill someone right there all defects they're all problems you can use a lot of words to describe each one but your clients I found a lot of new homeowners just simply do not understand is it low priority or high priority necessarily cost because say a missing GFCI in a bathroom mmm it's really a safety issue it's a major defect it could hurt somebody could be fatal really if it doesn't function properly and safes it's designed to save lives it's not working you know that's that's a big problem right but excuse me the GFCI itself is recently a less than $100 hmm so how do you define it I wouldn't define really careful about cost being your distinction between a major defect in something that's cosmetic so careful the term defect is in our glossary to help you figure out how to communicate in the best way possible your observations the next thing we need to inspect are the gutters you can do that from the ground just so you can see the underside of the gutter have to see if it's leaking that'd be great it feels filled with water and dripping that's a good indication of a defect major defect because you need a gutter person to go out there and fix it's cleaning the gutters maybe it's a service kind of like a humming as they kind of minor so those are the colors they look good they're fastened I'm not grabbing each one making sure the fasteners are properly installed it's impossible so there's a standards are practice by which you perform a home inspection which helps you essentially set the expectation of your client then you're not there to find every in the house only the hose that you both observe and deemed to be material gotta check the downspouts there's the downspouts gotta get them diverting water or lave from the house so that one's good that has a splash block there's the gutter and the downspout elbow right there there's the downspout making sure it's fastened then when I lose downspouts I like to grab the downspout pipes and see this is a painted bud if you cut grass to always move that so what the homeowner could do is take this and go underground and then have a discharge to grade not necessarily a defect at all but it's something that I'm interested in because it could be an indication of water intrusion in the past so if you see a homeowner discharging downspout pipes far away from the house using big pipes that are obviously in the way they're very conspicuous and kind of ugly looking right why would they do that there must be a mean to get that water away so maybe there was a problem with water intrusion in the past so I'm going to have my client ask the homeowner or occupant have there any been there and have there been any problems with water intrusion you know water entry water leaks flooding in the basement crawlspace or in the house itself so I'm gonna use that as an indication that there could be something to follow up on so to help better communicate particular housing concepts in your report use internachi's gallery of inspection images and illustrations you can also study from these illustrations as well and we have them in English and Spanish this is rain and this is drainage so this is growl drainage wall drainage flashing and site drainage so if you to communicate to your clients particular concepts if they're having problems with what water intrusion with the house and you're you're trying to inspect try to describe and communicate what you are inspecting in relation to rain when it's when it's a sunny day maybe an illustration like this can help you where do you imagine water rain water hitting the roof being collected by the gutter is controlled by the downspouts being discharged away from the so you have site drainage and maybe if there's water intrusion coming up from the base maybe there's problems with the drainage system the sump pump system the underground gravelled maybe there's flashing problems that where there's components like a deck or a lighting fixture or a window you know are the flashing tight installed properly is the flashing diverting water away from the house everything around the house exterior should be diverting water away right in any climate now now that climate is changing so I also want to make sure that it's attached properly so I'm taking a look at that and behind that downspout I see a crack it turns out to be just a stucco coating crack the foundation is poured concrete foundation and there weren't any structural problems there but I'll make sure that I say into what I see on the outside and then bring it that knowledge and reference on the inside the next thing I'm required to inspect are the vents so that's the ventilation roof that's that's a ridge vent there and that's the soffit vents there so the soffits are at the eaves the underside there's soffit vents there it's also a vent there you can see it that's probably coming from the bathroom but I'm not sure so I have to see if I can take a look at that there's another soffit vent there and there's another event one of those vents so maybe the second floor that's - so probably the second floor hallway bathroom in the second floor master bathroom have fans in the ceiling other fans and they need to exhaust outside by code we're not code inspectors by standard best practice all mechanical exhaust systems for bathrooms need to go outside all the way outside and the vents the soffit vents I can't really see them from the attic but I know that they were installed they're flashing that's where anything of the roof member we're still in the roof section ain't anywhere where the roof covering meets something else like a wall so there's flashing there's step flashing counter flashing at the siding there I try to see you know it's impossible to comment upon all the pieces of flashing there's hundreds of them but I'm trying to look for anything like missing flashing in one particular area so that looks good skylights well we don't have any skylights on this house chimney hmm we do have chimneys so I think sort of that is a chimney right I don't know if there are fireplaces not sure if this is a big enough chimney for a fireplace or is it the fuel gas from the heating system like a gas furnace maybe there's a gas fireplace hot-water tank not sure what's going on but this is it it's a typical common fuel gas vent chimney termination there's another one right so I need to figure out what's going on here do I have to fire up to a heating system to like hot water I don't know but that's flashing proper flashing and a nice cap on the top and also have another kind of chimney it's not related chimney but this one is from the fireplace and there's actually two fireplaces and this is the direct vents you could say and there's a fireplace on the inside and on the outside is a determination where fresh air comes in and the hot air comes out soft gases come out and in the house itself I have two gas furnaces gasifier furnaces so that's where the the vents are right so I also probably have a fuel fired hot-water tank right so and I can see that a couple things are combined into one termination into one flue say be event so if you want to know more about fuel gas band determinations chimney stacks and things like that taking the gnocchi's free online how to inspect fireplaces stoves and chimneys course let's go there take a look this is an example of what I mean where what you want to do is get really good at you want to know everything you need to know to perform a very good home inspection so how do you do that let's say you're brand new well you're a contractor moving into the home inspection field and you have certain skills and knowledge well you can take our online exam and that will tell you where you're weak and where you're weak you take training in order to strengthen that weakness and ideally what a good idea is what I recommend is find the place or in the training school the accredited institution the organization that provides the training for free and online so you don't have to sit in a classroom for five ten fifteen days days who has that much time to sit in it sure maybe you get up and you do something there's a there's a hot water tank you can touch or something or maybe there's one or two homes that you go through the or stuff like that that's not going to make you a home inspector what you need is a an accredited home inspector certificate program right that's according to a national standard and it's accredited which means we prove that when you graduate from our program you actually have the knowledge skills and abilities to perform a home inspection after you graduate the internachi's home inspector certificate program you are qualified to perform a home inspection you're a trained and certified to perform a home inspection because we're a college for home inspectors other schools I don't know I don't know what what standard that when you graduate there knows if you are actually competent performing an inspection right you should be nervous if you go to internachi or an accredited school you will have the knowledge skills and abilities performance direction so if you if you go to the fire play ups so you go to our education page and you type in what chimney there you go how to inspect those fireplaces and chimneys course and there's some a chapter on fuel gas terminations we show you exactly what they look like and we refer to code we talk about how the minimum height in the feet that that fuel gas termination should be and it's according to the slope of the roof so most most vent gas terminations fuel gas terminations that you'll find will have a minimum height of 1 foot because most roofs are from flat to 6 12 pitch flat to 6 12 slope sorry and the 612 is really really steep so that most homes are like 412 slope those you can walk on 612 get to a little steep and if you see a vent a fuel gas vent termination it needs to be at least a foot high that is not that is very different from the 3 to 10 rule for masonry fireplace chimney stacks right they need to be 3 feet and 2 feet above anything within 10 feet so that's a different type of chimney and how do you know the difference don't guess and don't go through the unaccredited school started keep beating on this you want to go through a training program that will teach you exactly what to inspect and how to inspect it according to a standard and according to the standards practice you have to inspect the roof penetrations and this is anything that comes in contact with or goes through the roof covering materials that we mentioned earlier right so as the vent pipes there's the vent pipes there I can get to them closely enough but I'm gonna zoom my camera in and take a picture everything looks pretty good I don't see any tears or damage to the rubber membrane material there are internal inspection stands practice the inspector shall describe the type remove covering materials and so that's asphalt asphalt covering that's what we're covering laminated shingle asphalt shingle something like that the inspector shall report as a need of Correction any observed indications of active roof leaks and we didn't find any inside the house and in CNE I like to look at the second-floor ceilings the drywall if there's a water stain especially before I'll inspection they usually paint that up if I actually see a water stain what I'll do is I'll get my moisture probe no probe it right so this is a so it's a extendable it has two pins if something is wet it'll give me an audible signal in a visual signal I'm not measuring anything as a home inspector I don't have to measure a thing ain't just approximate for example the depth of the insulation and this also helps for me let's see if I can see it in the camera here there we go helps me probe through carpeting into the padding into maybe the basement floor the concrete floor or the wood flooring the deck is substrate something through the carpeting or through the drywall it allows me to probe but I can touch a ten-foot ceiling with this baby also that's a really cool tool makes me to home stretch over there also this is the color and infrared camera it allows me to see things that you wouldn't normally be able to see without it it's a clear situ is only a few hundred bucks from inspect at all that that's where you get all your tools okay where it was I oh so if I see a stained something or watermark a bunch of watermarks or maybe done in the crawlspace dried watermarks dried mud or something I'm going to call that out as a and we need to find out that as an actively Cordray even if it's probed in fermented moisture meter and it's all dry I'm gonna call it an active roof leak until somebody tells me nope that was fixed sorry we didn't paint it nope that water mark was from when the house was built and we just simply didn't mapa okay great but until then I'm going to assume I'm going to side on the side of my client that it's an active leak and somebody needs to fix it or tell me that was already fixed we're tell my client that was already fixed so learn how to write really great inspection reports using Internet use to report writing sources resources you'll have to go anywhere anywhere else to learn how to write a great inspection report we have sample reports that you can look at they're written by certified master inspectors and compare how you write something like a defect like a watermark how would another inspector write that up how do you write your observations about your roof inspection inspection of the roof system right the roof covering the gutters downspouts and alright how did you figure out how to write that what do you say we have sample reports a ton of sample reports you even look at we have three inspection software it's a basic checklist you can use it I wouldn't use it for your client but I would use it to practice so if you're brand new what you do is get a free inspection software it's free to members and you inspect your house ten times you want to do it right along you forget that you want to pay somebody to watch you inspect forget that use our free inspection checklist and it will tell you what to inspect and you go inspect it you take a picture of it and you write it up you go to the next thing you do that ten times right and then you get software and you learn how to do the same thing ten times using software you get really good with your software there's no need to hire somebody to watch you screw up on software that you haven't practiced on yet so practice on our free inspection software by software real software from the suffered provider that provides discounts to our members and start to learn how to write a report using the resources like the sample reports and the online training courses we have online training courses that teach you how to inspect a defect find a defect inspected describe it and write a report we also have report writing videos you can watch a certified master inspector perform an inspection and write a report right in front of you there's nowhere else you need to go we also have step 11 at this URL nachi or e slash everything if you go to net 2 there are slash everything it's a 15 step checklist on how to become a successful home inspector so go through step one step two is that the yeah the step 11 is where you find all the resources to write great and special reports so you you're not alone what you have as an internet remeber when you join internachi a whole world of resources open up to you and they're all free because you're a member of internachi and this is one chunk of information just to help you write great inspection reports so I would go through this if you're new I would go through all of these resources and after you're done you should be a fantastic author of amazing inspection reports okay okay let's see oh man oh man looks like I have a lot of questions let me finish up the roof section and then we'll hit some questions okay oh that's it that was the roof so the next section is exterior we can do the exterior next but let me see Danette didn't [Music] how will students of this class receive the seee credits what you do is you download the certificate certificate of completion that comes with the class so you'll get an email saying thanks for attending the class and you download their certificate and then as an energy member you upload that credit into your education transcript and your education long you log it in so that when you print on your transcript if you wanted to that's recorded in there loud and clear even towel rips yes so Michael we have a really good course on tile roofs on how to inspect tiles and even some training videos on how to walk a towel roof without cracking all the tiles where's the maximum slope you you've what I've done some crazy stuff where my clients were roofers and I followed it him up on the roof that's the worst thing and a home inspector can do is follow a roofer on a roof because they're like dear I just go right up Mountain Goats at 6:12 is when I get uncomfortable but I was a home builder before I was a home inspector are you safety equipment I've been trained we have a couple um ladder safety courses so if you wanted to be safe with a ladder please don't use a ladder without taking the ladder safety course first from internachi and again it's free and online a lot of people are saying that the audio goes in and out looks like it's good on my side sometimes it's just the glitch you can refresh your screen or log back in make sure your audio is on sorry about that there was when you register there was a little link to test the audio maybe you could do that what is Ben's opinion with me a software that adds dollar or dollars to items of issue not quoting a price but it's just an expense yeah I think we kind of just that Amy that's um you know the example was a fifty dollar GFCI is a major defect actually so it would be a one dollar but it's a major defect that I point out because it it helps people not get electrocuted right so if a GFCI is not working or is missing that's why I inspect a home without any regard to the age of the house because in old 1885 Victorian home was built according to code back then and GSG eyes didn't even exist but when I inspect a home I inspect it I don't care when when the house was built if there's missing GFCI for example missing GFCI protection in the bathrooms for example and then 1880 Victorian home historic home it's in my report as a major defect I'm not going to give it a one dollar sign or anything like that we call it a major defect and a recommendation to correct it excuse me hope that helped Ajit any idea you can give as to how you can charge the edge of the roof don't you don't have to the age of the roof only is clear to me when it is absolutely at the end of its service life when it's falling in pieces in my camp when the top granular surface of the material roof covering material of the asphalt shingle is just flaking in in pieces and cracked and that's the only time I can say this is an old roof everything else is just a guess so if my client really forces me to guess the age of the roof I'll take a guess just out of courtesy I'll try not to write it down so I don't want anybody to pin it on me what I really will do is I'll make sure that in my report I tell my client to ask the homeowner or occupant about the history of the roof performance or there any roof leaks in the past that usually starts the conversation about the actual age of the roof and when that roof was installed or last repaired and why was it repaired Scotty referenced in the comment about several crack tiles in the kitchen floor you were saying it wouldn't be something to report I think it was it's not a material defect that's that was the I was trying to distinguish between something that's gonna hurt somebody like material defect and cracks in the top I would report the cracks on the top in fact I love it I love knocking on and used another stick to knock on the tiles so I don't have to bend over because you do this 100 times you know after 10,000 home inspections you get kind of tricky so you you just and the sound of tile changes when it loses its adhesion to the substrate it sounds hollow and I love doing that or with your knuckles that works too that's why I bang on the walls of the tile tile walls on the shower and tub area enclosure just to see if my hand goes through and if my hand guns turned for example because I'm pounding on the tiles because if I faint see a crack tile in the shower - I'm gonna make a recommendation it's a major defect needs to be repaired because it's not a home maintenance item that a homeowner can fence I'm going to take a picture of it if my hand goes through oh this is fantastic some some backing in the shower stalls are so bad that you can push the towels in and it goes in it's really bad I take a picture of it if I am banging on something it falls apart in my hand if I if I grab one of the soft brass chrome plated traps under a sink and it crushes in my hand I don't hide it I take a picture of it found the defect that's what you are there to do you're there to break things if something rotten cracks in your hand if you grab a window sill and it's all rotten and your screwdriver goes right through it and you make a big hole in it that's fantastic leave the screwdriver in there take a picture of it put it in the report you didn't break anything you're there to find problems if you hit the garage door opener button and the garage door come slam down and follow them into pieces freeing all the panels pop off and the wheels fall off the drive that's fantastic good thing you're there imagine you're your client moving in and then doing that guess who they're gonna call last person at end that's you you're gonna be blamed you're not reporting on the problems that you've found so obviously if you find wood rots and your screwdriver goes right through take a picture up and report it so yes I sometimes go off on a tangent sorry about that model of that probe go to inspector coach inspector coach inspector coach calm and click the tool store tab or go to inspector outlet comm inspector outlet calm and click the tools I think they have them there that's called a Hydra shark inspector coach just uses Amazon you can find any us up to it but you know she finds the tools for you already so just click it and then this is called Corona it's a three time ho t ine o I heated up one time and straightened it and the other ones are for hooking things like insulation above AB and rim Joanna Bay and we're I'm Joyce and putting it back and though the straighten the thing is for probing obviously you know so you can prove something and poke it like that it's extendable it's actually a gardening tool that's beyond the standards practice though so if you want to stick to the same sprite don't use any of those tools where can we find extendable propia so Pat David that's inspector coach calm inspector coach calm inspector outlet calm we're divided tools probe like this till purchase that type of meaner gonna my in para we're kind is asking about the age of the roof right we already talked about that floor insurance forms require us to put this estimated right so if you're doing if you're in Florida Florida and certain parts of the country are unique especially the coastlines because the weather has changed the kindness change and now the wind is much stronger frankly right so now the problem is historically we have homes with roofs that are not attached to the structure and they blow off entire roof systems including the deck and the structural components they lift off the house and we don't want that to happen anymore so down in Florida or on the coastline you do different kinds of inspections it's not according to a home inspection it's going to like a roof certification or a wind mitigation inspection sorry and you're looking for how that roof is secured down it's even fastened and adhered differently according to this Dan there's different standards by which if you're down in Florida you perform a roof inspection they like a lot of insurance companies just want to know about the roof right there are other types of inspections like 4-point inspections where you inspect only for systems in a home and not the entire home does an inspector determine the line between exceeding the standards our practice for the customer benefit books on the client and opening themselves up for liability for example garage door resistance test yeah great question maybe so there's 10 steps to perform a garage door opener inspection according to a standard the tenth step is really optional to you they're all optional okay you just there's a couple things in the standards of practice home especially there's prices you're required to do but in Internet she's training we have a 10 step checklist and you bring that checklist into your mobile software so you can remember all 10 steps and the tenth one is the physical contact test and we don't recommend using your hands we recommend the physical contact if you're going to do it according to a national standard bite asthma which is using a flat line 2x4 board you could keep a two-by-four I don't have my toolbox but you can put a 2x4 about a foot long in your toolbox tool bag it just pulling out and you lay flat and you close the garage door with the garage door opener or ma brain controls in it supposed to bounce back that's the physical resistance you don't have to do this because there's no standard to this like my this is different from Amy's this and how do we know if this is good or Amy's this is we look so dumb so internet cheese training that's based upon national standards and we caution you in doing this resistance test and we refer to you to a national standard on how to an inspector garage door opener and we'll talk about that later good question Amy I put number of years with proper maintenance or something to that effect David I put I'm not sure if that's a question but in relation to maintenance we have a home maintenance book internationally produces publishes a home maintenance book you can buy one or a hundred or a thousand and a low price of two dollars and seventy cents you get a discount as you buy more and you hand that out to every client and their agents and the homeowner or a home sellers agents and the homeowner so there's like for home maintenance books that you need to hand out during every inspection why because it's a physical weight to your service because we're in the electronic world my reports are in the cloud I barely bring any paper I know straight credit credit cards right all these things are online really do we print anything out I'll print on a summary which is the top things the major material defects that need to be fixed immediately and they can start negotiating or you know I'll attach that to the top of them put that on top of my homemade inspark which is a hundred page holiness book published by internachi it's only a couple bucks a lot of people don't do it because they're they they think is too much so a $2.00 phone I mean that's like ten dollars if I hand off for for everything special that's like that's a lot of money no just raise your feet ten dollars but raise your feet five dollars and give out one home a nice book now your kind is essentially buying their own home maintenance book off of you and enough money for a cup of coffee that's how I see yeah don't add to your overhead and increased your fee and have someone else your client pay for that product right so it could inside the home a nice book are these life service life expectancies in years you may be interested in that David okay the seat can you change can they charge you if anything breaks I mean anybody can sue you for anything but you're there you've already agreed that the home sellers is a real estate transaction at home especially during real save as a transaction the home solid has already agreed to having a home inspection performed according to a standard and in that process if you pull on the window blinds and they fall right I'm gonna take a picture of it I'll try to put it back because I think I can put back a window blind a false but if it doesn't that's okay you're supposed to find problems even to the point of window wise right you move a slider door and it falls off its track it's not your fault alright you are there to find problems and this is a problem when the spider daughter falls off its track David each other make sure it's not gonna fall on anybody you know one time I a lot a couple of times but one time I inspected a deck from below and the main load-bearing beam was completely rocky nobody knew about it because it was capped with aluminum I went up I informed everybody no one is allowed to walk upon the deck cuz the deck could collapse its imminent I love saying my word that means it will fall so if you step on the deck it's going to fall and kill you right so those are the kind of things that I didn't force the deck to fall but I tagged it as an imminent material defect hazard to someone safety and I told everybody just don't brought on it so just because it hasn't broken or fallen the deck dome doesn't mean I don't have to put in a report right I'm there to find problems and if they happen to crack or fail in my hand well all the better somebody should be you should turning your back looking for a pat on the shoulder so you're there to find problems now if you pay something right that's not really part of the inspection then it's on you for example I've done 10,000 demonstrations so I have a lot of examples I was inspecting something after what it was but it was behind a TV set or something I was trying to look at a corner or something and my head went down and as my head came back up I hit this shelf there's a little shelf and there were ceramic baby shoes on it and the shoes fell and cracked it was just terrible because it is like whose baby shoes were that you know and wait a minute why would they on a wall behind the TV hung by two pen needles it was like a booby trap and I'm the booby and I I got trapped and so I paid for them right there was very special and all that stuff so I made the client hole I mean sorry the homeowner hole so when when it failed right I made a big deal out of it apologized took pictures I wrote a handwritten letter to the homeowner because they weren't there I scooped it up and put it up down I wrote my contact information left my business card told them I will pay for everything I paid for the replacement of it right and I made sure that everyone knew about it because when you make a mistake they kind of hide it I am someone finds out later it's not good so when I made a mistake I made sure I made the other person whole and then I told everybody about it and all the real estate agents loved it because later on it worked they actually referred to that remember when you pump those shoes you know that what you made in the hole you know you made you fixed it and everything was great now when somebody or refers to you they know if you make a mistake you're gonna own up to it you're gonna be responsible you know make people whole so it doesn't matter because mistakes happen the problem is when you make mistake any trying to run away from it right so I also tripped the GFCI in a garage and I destroyed a lot of cold wine right I paid for that wine I brought a replacement wine a check and flowers and made everybody whole that make sure everybody knew about it they talked about that wine replacement four years later because they know if I make a mistake everything's gonna be okay but finding a defect is not a mistake right having a shingle slide under your feet is not a mistake but not supposed to slide shingles the slide earning feet are not fast and properly take a picture of it hope that's clear I hope that helped okay let's keep going we're on the exterior right going to a home inspection students practice the inspectors shell inspect the exterior wall covering materials each soffit fascia representative number of windows all exterior doors wherever it's on a number of windows you know the second-floor windows can you get to but all the exterior doors make me one two three four exterior doors you get them all flashing a trim that Jason walkways and driveways stairs steps Stoops stairways ramps porches patios decks balconies and carports railings gardens and handrails vegetation and service drainage retaining walls yada so let's do exterior wall covering and we use exterior wall covering because that's what code refers to exterior wall code so the exterior wall covering is a brick oh we use exterior wall covering in your report why because 2018 IRC chapter 2 definitions refers to exterior wall covering so we'll we'll just leave it at that we already went back for roof covering number so your terminology is important so it's some siding even if it's observed from walking on the roof that's vinyl siding so there's brick vinyl siding there's vinyl siding it's basically a vinyl siding house there's other materials like the stucco on the exposed foundation wall at the top of the foundation law and the tree is in contact or very close to the house of branches so I'll actually report that you've become a certified tree inspector through internachi if they'd like we have an online course and so I'll mention that the tree is in close proximity to the house siding and some of the exterior I can get to because of the dense vegetation and some of the windows I can't get to because they're above my head but I'll take a look at the mortar joints or the brick and look for cracking the masonry when you're looking at masonry basically you're looking for cracking and plumbness looks real good I like to check where different materials come in contact with each other so the masonry reacts differently and moves differently expands and contracts differently than vinyl siding vinyl settings always moving expanding contracting and so there's going to be a little separation so it'd be good to have some flexible sealant there exterior-grade still out there were the two materials mean there's inside the house you can see the fire plates there's the flashing there around the curve the windows that's good there's a door actually they're not used as a door but it can be opened up and at the bottom I like to see like at a window or a door way I like to look at the bottom left bottom right top right top left I like to go counterclockwise and I like to look for wood rot down there and deteriorate and paint and up here flashing problems and crack so it looks pretty good but behind this grill what's it called where binds grow up trellis and behind it like a chair a couple chairs and there's like this ornamental thing it's just coincidence they weren't trying to hide the Melton's vinyl siding but there's melted vinyl siding there from a grill that used to be there and got too close to the vinyl siding and melted the vinyl siding and I'm looking I like to touch things like to show the judge that if I ever get pulled in small-claims court that I got as close to the problem areas that I suspected as much as possible there's my hands touching the door tread of one of the doorways exterior doorways again bottom left bottom right top right top left there's someone wrought and deteriorated paint at the garage door no big deal just to be painted up so again I'm tapping certain success suspect areas for wood rot and I like to use a combination six and one screwdriver and you know there's all kinds of fittings you can use this to take certain panels off the heating system off right so um but I use it as two tap tapping you think it's a great way to find wood rot using your ears after you tap to help identify house components we recommend studying the illustrations in international inspection images and illustrations at natural gallery and these illustrations can also boost the quality of your inspection report so if you're trying to describe what a soffit and facia is to your clients you can just stick this illustration high-definition illustration into inspection reports and this will help you so there's the there's the face shot the vertical board and soffit and stop events and this is the ease okay next thing a representative a number of windows so we'll take a look at the windows the problem is the inspection restrictions so I make sure that my inspection images are not taking just pictures of things that I inspect with my eyes but everything else particularly the inspection restrictions because I just can't see everything I mean look at this thing who knows what's behind there there could be a huge hole in the siding now is that going to show up in my inspection report no am i required to report upon that whole inciting behind this bush nope I'm required to report upon the defects that I both observe and deemed to be material so that could be a material defect I don't know maybe it's a lot of termites or something but if I can't see it Your Honor I can't report upon things that I don't see I can't see then look at this big Bush here I can't see behind that this is a visual only inspection yep understand what the standards of practice is used for it's the basis foundation upon which to build a really good inspection process because you know what you're required to inspect and what you're not required to inspect and when you're not required to report there's a window well I always take a look looks okay little covering all exterior doors I took a look at all the exterior doors they look good this one is not used I mean there's there's furniture there you know so it's a trip hazard if you're going to so in my report I'll come in you walk out this door you know you're gonna trip because it's a long way down adjacent walkways in drivable ways so I took a look at that there's a crack it's been patched no big deal the patio looks good the driveway asphalt it looks great little puddle but you know it shouldn't be there after 48 hours Stairsteps tubes balconies decks carports railings handrails everything looks good one loose tile at the corner of this entry patio no big deal so all that is looking great vegetation service drainage retaining walls and grading of the property where they may adversely affect the structure due to moisture intrusion this is a concern I'm gonna make note of this a mental note in my head when I get into the house I think there's a full basement I'm gonna take a look at the basement to look for any reason why this huge big hose was attached to the downspout but the grating looks good it's just there's a lot of vegetation I can't see everything no idea what's going on in there it's like a jungle on there pushes up against the house it's okay but the trees the full adult trees up against the house is no good especially where the branches come in contact with the exterior covering the inspector shall describe the type of exterior wall covering materials that's easy vinyl brick and there are other components on the exterior you can inspect you can inspect them now and where you put them in the report is really up to you exterior faucets I put them on the exterior but you can put them under plumbing like a plumbing inspection you're not required to inspect fences but I will out of courtesy especially if I see a defect like that and all exterior receptacles need to be GOC I protected and there are other components like this dryer vent hood the inspector shall report as a need of Correction any improper spacing between intermediate balusters spindles and males from it'll have a we're at the basement now basement foundation cross basement structure according to the home inspection centers of practice the home inspector shall inspect the foundation basement crawlspace and structural components let's just do that all at once right but all that might however it's a visual only inspection half the basement is finished can't see everything so I'm taking pictures I'm gonna put these pictures at least three of the inspection restrictions in my inspection report so that everybody knows that I can't see everything look at all this stuff so I'm required to inspect the type of foundation and location of the location of the access to any crawlspace but we don't have a crawlspace type of foundation is poor concrete foundation very common in this area it's hard to inspect everything I can't see everything it's a visual inspection so I'm just gonna look for major problems the foundation for the floor of the house is wooden two by tens they're insulated I can't see everything installation looks pretty good it's an unfinished unheated unconditioned basement that's great I'm not required to remove or move drop ceiling towels there's a lot of them I have no idea what's going on above my head not required to inspect furniture I move furniture sorry there's a lot of restrictions the carpeting obviously is covering the basement concrete floor but what I'm really looking for looking for is signs of water intrusion with water marks and structural problems in the basement and here I do find that and it seems like it's coming from the kitchen sink above so I have a couple of water lines plastic pipes a hot coal and it's going to a drain pipe so that's um there's something and there's water marks below it and the insulation has been removed so I'm gonna put this in the report as an observed indications of active roof leaks and I'm gonna recommend that my client ask the homeowner about this prior roof leak prior plumbing leak in the see what's going on there I also have a crack in the foundation and this is just below an exhaust pipe right through the foundation and those two could be related a dot going through the foundation wall and that's about all I need to do I'm gonna look for a large opening or a displacement so I don't want the wall surface to be like this or a displacement don't want the crack to open up it is a poor crumb clean foundation so it has cracked at the weak point which is okay there are no control joints there's a control joint here and may have cracked along the control control joint which is okay because when the concrete dries and cures it shrinks a bit so this is a shrinkage crack pretty typical however the watermarks make it different so I see water marks I see efflorescence which is the salt deposits left behind when moisture moves through masonry and then dries if you want to learn about efflorescence we have a training program about efflorescence and a couple inspection articles about identifying moisture intrusion in masonry and efflorescence so i'm gonna put this in the report see it's nice and tight the crack is nice and tight as it goes down towards the footer so it's a typical hairline crack in fact the crack actually just disappears before it gets to the photo so typical crack but the concern is there's water and I'm sure it was just coincidence that they put stuff in front of the crack like the window screens so [Music] I'm gonna put that in a report as an active roof leak sorry as an active leak moisture intrusion through a hairline crack of the foundation wall below the duct so and take a picture of that somebody needs to come in it's probably gonna be an easy fix with epoxy sealant so they're gonna squirt some glue Internet the epoxy sealant is a structural bond between the pieces of concrete and it's actually stronger than the concrete itself so I'm looking for water intrusion remember those downspout diverter pipes going far away from the house a little bit of a concern there so I'm looking for reasons why and here's a reason so I don't see any water marks on the wall but there's dirt on the floor as if dirty water was on the floor and the water evaporated and left a mud you can see like they didn't mop it up or anything there's stuff furniture on the floor the bottom pieces here are not wet they're not rotten they're not water marked there's particle board here which absorbs water very easily it's not dry it's dry it's not been damaged or what so this could be something in the past I don't care you know I see I'm not there to diagnose problems I'm there to report upon problems that I see observe and this could be an indication of a active leak or prior leak I'm going to write that in a report and we want further information don't need to be an investigator a diagnostic magnet ition or something you don't need to diagnose the problems you do need a report upon the problems that you find them there's cardboard boxes at these if the bottom of the cardboard box is found in the basement were deteriorated and damaged you know that's a good indication but it seems like this is from when the home was built but I don't understand why the Builder didn't wash it off completely seal the basement floor or the homeowner didn't clean up so I don't know this as far as I want to know I'm just going to report upon the things that I see and asked for further information or correction and repair or something like that will monitoring this is a moisture meter so again I'm probing again through the carpeting of the basement along the exterior walls looking for any kind of moisture indications I'm using my extendable three time how to move insulation looking for water marks or water intrusion to get your inspection tools and equipment go to inspector outlet comm and click the tools tab on the left go to inspector coach comm and click the store tab on the top the inspector shell report as a need of Correction observant indications of wood in contact with or near soil observe and indications of the active water penetration and we have that of observations I'm sorry observed indications of possible foundation movements such as sheet rock cracks dry wall cracks brick cracks out square door frames and the mobile floors we have a foundation crack observed cutting notching and boring of framing members that may and the inspectors opinion present those structural safety structural or safety concern but don't have that so we have that crack in the foundation we have indications of water intrusion heating is next and to learn how to inspect the heating system don't worry intern actually provides everything you need especially if you're trying to learn how to inspect something so you visit our education page and you type in HVAC so again it looks like this go to our education page use the search thing and type in HVAC and on the right I like this one advanced HVAC training for inspectors and it's basically a video primarily a video course with all these videos and it's a really great course we went to a community college thank goodness for community colleges because we've lost that knowledge on how to do things practical things in our homes with our hands and we went to a community college we've got an expert instructor and we tore apart a ton of heating and cooling equipment appliances and inspected the heck out of them all and recorded them within this course so it's really good every component of every kind of appliance we tore apart and explain how it works how the component works as part of the system a system is uh is like a bunch of interdependent parts all working together and when one part of the system doesn't work very well well it affects other parts of the entire system so when one part of the burner of a heating system doesn't work well it's going to affect the entire system according to home specialists and practice the inspector shall inspect the heating system using normal operating controls one of the what does that mean thermostats thermostat then was that have three thermostats in this house hmm an emergency shutoff switches so if you wanted to turn off the electricity supply to the heating systems from afar from a safe distance Yukiya so we have to eating systems there there's the zone controls that's why I have three thermostats so we have dampers on the docks near the furnace the the difficult part is determining where the condition here it goes right from which system so you can put your hand on you can use an infrared camera a thermal laser point this one is prettier this wasn't done in the basement in me and that register is all nasty dusty and dirty that's kind of fun figuring things out and there's a shutoff switch so that's a normal operating control as well oh you turn it that off they get it to the air filter there's two systems so there's two switches we have a free gas furnace inspection checklist available if you wanted to inspect why don't you download there's a good idea download this checklist it's downloadable and inspect the heating system of your own home right so go to this URL natchan org slash home - inspection checklist see you know that she has everything you need and there it is gas furnace inspection checklist you click it and you can download the word format or the PDF format either way or you can just use this to create your own and every bullet point is essentially something to check or report on so it's a big checklist so what you do is you grab these free inspection checklists that Internet you provides and you incorporate them into your mobile software that you're using so that when you're in front of the gas furnace and you want to inspect it you can go by the sensor practice which is the absolute minimum or you can go by a checklist which you can customize to suit your needs and you look really smart because you're not missing a thing having a checklist and inspection process checklist with the mobile device does two things it reduces mistakes so it reduces your liability and it makes you more accurate right same thing but you're not guessing in wasting time so it makes you more time efficient you are a better manager of your time so you increase your efficiency and you make more money well let's say you make when you explain let's say you make five hundred dollars during an inspection but it takes you all day right you're not making a lot of money takes you out eight hours to do a $500 inspection so what you want to do is you want to increase gross revenue and Internet GE has resources to help you increase your gross revenue and we also have resources and training to be more efficient in your time so what you want in business is a fraction where the numerator at the top is really big the amount of money the gross revenue is divided by a small amount of time you want to shrink your time by becoming more efficient I'm not saying run through the house and blow things off right no you want to inspect everything but be efficient with it so get some mobile software incorporates the standards of practice is a foundation enhance your inspection process by incorporating internachi's inspection checklists according to your needs you can get very good reduce your liability and reduce your time and you make more money right so let's see so download that checklist and inspect your if you're not going out on a date tonight inspect your heating system so you can a date with your eating system tonight according to the home inspection standards of practice the inspectors shall describe the location of the thermostat for the heating system the energy source and heating method that's very easy to describe an inspector shall report as a need of correction any heating system that didn't operate or you couldn't access it so let's go to the thermostat I'm gonna describe the location of the thermostat with a picture of all three thermostats energy source gasps I see gas that sees see SST tubing supplying gas to the furnace and we talked about that yellowjacket adore black jacketed tubing there's a difference between the two and it's bonding is the issue and no big deal if you see that there's a couple things you need to know and we have their training for it on the outside when I was doing the exterior tripped over this this is a buried gas tank to the tank underneath the ground coming to home specialists and surprises you're not required to inspect not responsible for anything was buried actually so but I see this and there's a couple gauges I'm gonna take a look and this is some standing water in there so I'm gonna report that and then the pipe comes up and there's a shutoff valve and a pressure regulator before it goes up to the house wouldn't worry too much about the surface rust I'll comment upon it in the heating method well that's ductwork so if you see air filters that's forced air so as the heating method report has a need of correction any heating system that didn't operate we didn't have it everything turned on and everything was accessible so I'm going to take a look at the controls normal operating controls of the heating system each one I don't like how the condensate is draining into the basement floor it should be training into a condensate pump that's why they created condensate pumps to discharge that condensate out to control that condensate out in the summertime gallons of water can be produced by the air conditioner and it drains and it's supposed to drain what through a hole into the gravel drainage gravel remember that the Spanish terminology of drainage gravel in the illustration from our gallery supposed to drained into that and then what happens after that goes into what sort of something there's no song copters it just goes what so if you wanted to finish the basement you're dumping two air conditioners running in the summertime dumping gallons of water underneath your basement floor and you have a finished basement really nope so it should be collected and discharged the outside properly so that there's two I test the safety switch when you open up the furnace with the panels with the in front of the blower door that should be turned off I open up the panel in front of the burners we got three ports here with the manifold I'm just looking for anything obvious anything abnormal and one of the things I see is a lot of rust on the burners you can see the ports see the rest surface rust when is the rest doing there well it could be excessive heat or water which shouldn't appear at all oh there's a fan a draft inducer fan a draft assist fan and the food pipe is metal so I have a draft fan with a metal blue pipe that means it's not category 4 it's not a condensing furnace there isn't any condensate that's supposed to be produced in the exhaust connection pipe coming from the furnace the fuel fired furnace this is a category one now what are these gotta go we'll go over it but it's not supposed to be condensing water but I see this mineral deposits coming from water condensate in the flue pipe as a defect improper combustion could be a venting problem I want an HVAC technician to further evaluate because not only do we have indications here that I observed but we have rust and corrosion below so we have a major defect man when I find a major defect like this it could be a safety issue could be a serious problem I get all happy and giddy because I'm charging about 500 bucks I'm thinking man I found problems on the outside the exterior the structure yeah now I'm bringing incredible value to my client that's what I'm trying to do I'm trying to overwhelm my client with incredible valuable information because in business if the if the general rule is if the perceived value if the perceived value is much greater than the cost then it's a good decision it's a good product or service all right that's what I want to do I want to overwhelm my client with so much information is so valuable to them feel good about my fee that way I can increase I can increase my fee that's one way to increase your fee so make sure that you are providing incredible overwhelming value to your clients there's several ways you can do that and we teach that in our business and marketing courses can you identify the furnace type or category or deficiency if you can't you can go to our free online how to inspect HBS use SI systems course and there's a chapter called for furnace categories and there's this nice little table about if it's condensing or non condensing and if the pressure in the flue is negative or positive and there's category 1 category 1 old furnaces have a draft hood and they just don't make them anymore so if you find a furnace with a draft hood it's beyond and service life expectancy it can be replaced this one has a dropped assisting fan remember the fan on our furnace well there's a nice little illustration what it does is it sucks air through the burners through the burner chambers the combustion gas goes through the heating system and the draft fan essentially pushes the exhaust outside right so that's a mid efficiency there about 80 percent efficient and if you see a draft assisting fan that's a category one 80% mid efficiency fuel fire and heating system category for category two is commercial stuff and category three is oil furnace things category four is very common to because it's high-efficiency we're in the 90 percent efficiency or greater which means it burns it uses most of the fuel very little heat is and fuel is wasted up the flue and there's a secondary heat exchanger to grab that extra heat and in doing so water it condenses inside the exhaust flue vent pipe and so you'll find a plastic pipe for the vent okay so if you wanted to learn about identifying the type of furnace that you're inspecting you should be able to identify the type of furnace or the category or efficiency so you can so you can speak with your mouth words that you know will be written in your report their technical and accurate make sure you can make sure you go to the right training program so there's the blower and all the controls I have condensate dripping out of one of the air conditioner pipes and it's actually dripping wet that's my hand and it's wet so that's why that the other furnace has rust and corrosion on it so that's a major defect let me get that inspected by an HVAC technician and corrected there's a humidifier in the wintertime if you want to humidify your air you do it like that that needs to be replaced all the filters need to be replaced every year and that also drains into the floor so in the wintertime there's gallons of water training into the basement fires just not a good idea there's just a cheap thing from the Builder cheap way to handle the condensate there's two dock dampers to control the heating and cooling and speaking of cooling going to the home inspection standards of practice the inspectors shall inspect the cooling system using normal operating controls and it's just like the heating system describe the thermostat location in the cooling method and report any cooling system that didn't operate or was deemed inaccessible so on the outside I take a picture of the manufacturing labels I don't put them in the report but it may use them later in order to figure out maybe the age or the size or if there was something wrong or somebody needs to refer to something electrical service switches with inside of the units the the electrical lines a conduit the liquid line action line is insulated the base is fine the fins are not damaged looks pretty good I just don't like the condensate plumbing is next let's see do you have questions I'm not sure Amy says I'm not trained for motors best to serve I suspect mold or the house is of the age for possible asbestos what do I put in that as high priority or low you can become a certified mold inspector through internachi we have a mold program a training a certification program you get a logo you can perform them all in special and we have connections to laboratory resources the world's largest laboratory is Pro lab down in Florida we have a connection with that and a partnership with them and they can get you equipment what I did was I had the equipment to perform an entire mold inspection but I carry sorry I just I keep looking when I'm before my tool bag I don't have it with me I carried a a swab sample so if I suspected mold I turned him on to my client said while I'm here I wouldn't you know that I see I observe some areas of moisture intrusion or some mold or so there's something going on there if we if you want to confirm that it's mold I have to swipe it because who knows it could just be something dirty so if you wanted to tell your client that it's actually mold if they ask them permission would you like me to while I'm here it's a good way to start off selling answer or ancillary profitable services while I'm here would you like me to swab for him while I'm here or you want me to do a radon test while I'm here would you like a mold sampling of the entire home that's one way to sell ancillary services using the terms using the phrase while I'm here and we also have in a marketing department you can order a pack of rack cards that help you sell ancillary services and that's one way to increase your gross revenue not just do a home inspection but to do a home inspection with a radon test and no mold sampling that's that's a lot of money and if you can do it without increasing your time keeping it efficient then you're doing really well you're being very profitable so asbestos is different asbestos is hazard health hazard and if I saw indications of asbestos material I would say it's you know potential absorbs something that looks like something else like I think it's more I think it's asbestos and I recommend further evaluation by professional can't take asbestos sampling can take lead sampling although I was I was a EPA certified LED hazard risk Assessor so if you're not trained and certified to take sampling don't but I wouldn't write my observations that I observed indications right past tense I observed indications of possible mold growth and I advised my client to take a mold sampling and then you could have them actually sign something and says I refuse to take a mold sampling even though my home inspector found it hmm do you encourage anyone to obtain a license to do wood destroying insect inspections yes especially if it's regulated in your state what states do is they regulate pesticide applicators and those pesticide applicators are essentially the termite treatment companies and they do not like home inspectors who perform the visual inspection so some states like Florida you're allowed to inspect for registering organisms you just can't identify the actual bug you're not an entomologist and you know the licensed pesticide applicators so you're not spraying chemicals but you are performing a home inspection a going to establish practice and part of that service is to identify anything that damages the structure especially the wooden structure of the home and what damages wooden structure well moisture mole and buds so you can include that in your report but if it's regulated and you're not quite sure sure take the state test I did in Pennsylvania yep it's administered by the local office of the Department of Agriculture typically and they'll give you preparation materials you study it and then you take the test so you can write out a form with your license number on it before any other I'm looking at the questions Mike says the problem with that I'm not sure is what everyone says just raise your fees however you can only raise so much and everyone is in the business of selling yeah so we have a really good home inspection business course which includes a couple chapters on marketing strategies we also have a marketing department we also have marketing videos and business resources so one of the things that you want to keep in mind is that well that there's a way to charge a profitable fee there's a way to calculate a profitable fee it has nothing to do with your feelings has anything to do with what your competition is charging has everything to do with math and so the business course under the home inspection business course it's actually free and open everybody you don't have to be a member of internachi to take your home especially business course there's a there's a calculation that you have to go through you have to figure out what your desired annual salary is what your overhead costs are those are business costs that you have regards to whether the phone rings when you do it on this pressure or not like office rent and other fees and then your desired profit margin 20% is good and you divide that by essentially your time there's different ways to do it in Chapter 11 there's a section where we go through John as an example was trying to figure out what he should charge for inspections so that it's profitable so when the phone rings he knows that it's a profitable phone call it's going to make enough money to reach his desired salary cover his costs and make some profit so it's about math and we teach those skills in our home inspection business course see Internet she has all the resources you need to be successful but it's really up to you to take advantage of it so if your beginning out as a home inspector or if you're a veteran inspector and you want to boost your business like hire more inspectors and expand and we have the resources available to you you just have to put in the time so you no longer watch 2 hours of TV a night only watch maybe an hour or half-hour and the other half is on your business you work on your business right so my brother always said that the best way the best tool to use to increase your business to boost your business or the best tools to use as a hammer and you smash your TV you no longer watch TV work on your business and it could also goes back I'd like to value so I was a home inspector operated a home inspection business for a dozen years or so in a really difficult market suburbs of Philadelphia where there's what 200 inspectors really good home inspection companies within an hour's drive a 20 mile radius and we were number one because the value that we provided was so incredibly overwhelming that the cost was worth it so for example you go to Macy's right or Nordstrom's or another store and you go to the men's watches right burrito the latest watches wherever and on the left side you have the cheap watches for 10 bucks and on the right side there's 100 watches and on the right side is that watch for $1000 they all do the same thing in fact watches is it's a commodity like Home Inspections is essentially a commodity we all are performing a home inspection according to the same standards of practice we write the same reports inspect the same stuff we say the same things we're kind of interchangeable the difference is what price right if people shop by price then lowest price wins and that's bad but why are there a hundred watches under the glass and these are worth ten dollars and these are worth a hundred five thousand dollars it's because of value the value proposition so distinguish yourself in the market you'd have to show obviously the value proposition so if the value of the perceived value is much greater than the cost then you can drive up your price that's why this commodity of a hundred watches some from a ten dollars somewhere a thousand dollars this they do the same thing is they tell time each one tells time they do the same thing can't get much more than how to go watch than that they do the same thing the thousand dollar watch they can demand it because of the perceived value if I think that thousand dollar watch is worth it I'm a buyer and that's why it's in the case because they're they're all promoting their own distinctive value proposition for the cost so how do you become the thousand dollar watch value and how do you create value you have to work on your brand you have to distinguish yourself from all the rest yet the figure out what you do is different from all the rest and we teach that in our marketing team and our consultation services and our home inspection business course and our marketing research resources so we have everything you need in order decrease increase don't get bogged down by the home inspectors at the chapter meeting or you know complaining about the phone not ringing right you ask them well have you taken advantage of all the internet resources to boost your business they're probably saying no so you be quiet and you take advantage of the internet resources and boost your business drive that demand up by providing overwhelming value so you can increase your feet there's a method to increasing your fee a lot of questions I'm just going to go through a couple including picks should have read including picks I don't understand what that means I had a window Farah and break and cost me 48 dollars to fix you know I once went to an Ashley chapter meeting and someone told me my home inspector said I turned on the dishwasher and leaked all over the floor we're all listening you know I'm on the edge of my seat he said I know and I resolved the situation I'm like wow I wonder how inspector resolve this situation you know how that a she group does it you know how they resolve this situation we're eternal and dishwashing then leaks and it breaks and it floods the entire kitchen with water how do you know said I replaced it I paid $600 and I had that thing replaced by the next day that's not a solution to the problem that's the dumb solution to the problem that's the solution to get you out of business where you paid for things that break during your inspection right you turn on a dishwasher it leaks all over the floor and floods the kitchen floor gets carping wet and the last off that's fantastic that is why you're there you take a picture of it and put a new report as a defect major defect that needs to be fixed you don't go replacing dishwashers that leak on you during your inspection you don't go replacing the loose that leak on you after your inspection not responsible for these things and so that actually chapter meeting is so much fun to go to yeah what was gonna on that one yeah that's not a way to handle the situation right you're there to find problems so that's your job to find defects something breaks in your hand ah you turned something on and it breaks a little fantastic that's why you're there so if you had a window I had a window a second-floor window I cranked it out and it fell thank goodness no it was below fill out the whole casement window just fell and smashed onto the second floor 20 feet you know I didn't face the window no no I put it important Wow turn cranked open the window it fell out and crashed it's fantastic yeah I didn't pay for anything Russell looking in the house home from outside how do you tell the difference between the block foundation and a poor concrete information yeah just experience you know there's certain key things you look for you know it's very difficult but after a while you understand you even know what the neighborhood is like because you know you've been going around the neighborhoods that are being built and just waiting waiting anyway you know to market yourself in that book so you know an entire neighborhood is built out of concrete block or poured concrete I see children play in the basement would you mention anything about opening fiber lessons you know there's a lot of things that you could put in your report so there's an entire program about that internachi has an entire program called the healthy homes inspector certification program so you can go in and promote yourself as a certified Healthy Homes inspector there's a lot of training involved but there's a checklist and at the end at the end of your service you're essentially helping someone determined whether there are unhealthy aspects of the health and one of them is indoor air quality or indoor environmental hazards things like that something that can be friable in the air and float and get into your lungs and so exposed insulation is part of that you can you could be true I wouldn't I wouldn't comment upon anything like that unless you're trained and certified and in turn actually has those training and certification programs good question James how much moisture is too much moisture right your moisture meter will tell you but I don't really care if I see moisture indications of moisture but with my infrared camera I'm gonna keep my mouth shut until I probe it if it's wet if this probe tells me there's something going on that's all I need to know I don't care I just don't care what the percentage of the moisture is inside the particulars of straight right that is like bulk moisture it's not gonna get it's it's gonna determine it's going to tell you whether something is wet with your hand that's what I that's the kind of tools I like the gross aggregate kind of approximations I don't measure things with a moisture meter and mention anything about the moisture content of the wood substrate too much let someone know if it's wet what's the temp for not testing the AC II some say 60 some say sixty five right it's actually a general rule it's not encode a lot of manufacturers will mention something like that there isn't any consistent standard however the general rule of thumb is if it's cold outside you don't turn on the air conditioner if it's hot outside you don't throw any here comments no you know that we have a chapter we have a chapter and then several paragraphs of information about that topic well what are your restrictions do you turn something on or turns not turns according to environmental conditions so I would say refer to internachi's hvac course anyways test both AC and a temperature difference yeah so I always turn on both the air conditioning in the heating system I don't heat the entire ambient air I don't change the actual air temperature of the entire house in order to test a system I basically see if it turns on and goes through the entire cycle and that cycle is described for example for a gas price in the free downloadable gas furnace inspection checklist provided by Energy we go through the cycle if anything is abnormal I put it as a defect then I turn on the air conditioning there's a cycle for that so you have to know how all the components work and how the system works and in cycles so that when you turn it on using normal operating controls a defect literally just jumps out at you because you've been trained on how things are properly installed you've also been trained on how to identify defects like the common defects like a rattling fan a blower fan obviously is a common defect that sounds like something it looks like something you just put in the report but you won't be able to tell that unless you actually turn on the system and let it run through the cycle where it's tricky letting air for example in a furnace so I try to turn on everything but I'm not trying to attain to change the temperature of the entire house Stevens where to find it to you email me for a discount if you want a discount to join internachi and this is only for non-members Bennett internachi org okay there's a lot of a lot of questions I'm gonna try to keep going with the webinar another report is they in the same report new insulation on the furnace is okay HVAC to use rolled flashing materials to retrofit yeah retrofitting a heating system sometimes you know you got to put a square peg a square in a circular peg hole you know now I'm trying to say so you there's a lot of customizing with the ductwork but one of the things that I look for is unsealed gaps or unsealed connections in the first duct work because that's a energy deficiency even though on an existing home the ductwork should be you know mass spect painted with that gray mastic sealant and then insulated so it's up to you how far and we have training materials own about how to comment upon home energy efficiency okay I'm a family keep going with the heating system how the home inspection would be great try to not too inspection in the services in the near future yeah so we have a full comprehensive nationally accredited healthy home inspection certification program where you get trained and certified and you including checklists on what a healthy home looks like and what a unhealthy home looks like as well according to the same is practice in the plumbing system main water shut-off valve ah so this isn't the public system this is the components of a private well system and I see that with the tank there's an air bladder tank giving pressure there's a shutoff valve there's a pressure regulator a check there's a particulate filter and there's a some controls for the wall pump and there's the change in type of pipe with a water valve and there's the well head outside and I couldn't open up the cap because the boat was rusted sometimes the inside the cap the well driller will date the cap date the drill I am the depth and the gallons per as inflow so it flows in through the regulator and the components and there's a water shut-off valve the pressure regulator tank giving pressure the tank looks good looks new there's a control switch there's a submersible pump electrical components there's a water filter it's not leaking you become you can become an Internet you certify the water quality tester through our certification program you go to NatGeo doric slash certification and on that page we have over forty five types of inspectors certifications and there are all free and online to internet you members so if you want to do ancillary inspections which is wherever the profit is you can add you know just doing a home inspection is one thing but doing a home inspection with ancillary services attached to it in a nice package people love bundles of services for example you can do water quality training and certification program online I think it's about a a ten hour of course according to the home inspection students are practicing inspectors to inspect the main fuel supply shut off valve and at this house we have a buried fuel tank propane tank and there it is there we saw this before there's a shutoff valve right there pressure regulator the water heating equipment including the energy source venting connections temperature pressure relief valves bracing there's a hot water tank there gasified there's the controls it's 40 gallons cold water going out shutoff valve fuel gas shutoff valve CPR extended to the floor from the hot water tank every TBR has a discharge pipe there's the vent gas connection in the bottom of the tank looks okay did you know there's 14 requirements for discharge pipe on it CPR valve there's fourteen things you could check do you know them all one of them is the discharge pipe kit so up up has to always be sloping down hasn't discharged in a conspicuous place in the same room as the hot-water tank if you see a discharge pipe going through a wall that's a major defect if you see a discharge pipe going up that's a major defect so what we do is we refer to the code to help us perform good home inspections we're not code inspectors we can't enforce the code we can't force anybody to do anything we just report upon the things that we observe well what do you want to observe on well there's 14 things that describe a properly installed TPR discharge pipe how are you going to remember all that I can't remember that can't remember what I ate yesterday so you include the checklist the 14 things in your mobile software so you look really smart and you know what you're doing reduce liability and be efficient with your time mmm sounds pretty cool check the interior water supply cleaning all the fixtures faucets by running the water and all the toilets by flushing them in all the sinks tubs and showers for drainage so this could include the exterior water faucets you're looking for the water supply to the faucets to the fixtures and then looking for leaks at the traps looking at the toilets for problems filling up the tubs the handles the stoppers the shower divers the kitchen sink things like that the drain waste and vent system well this is a clear indication that it's a septic system that as an alarm system with sensors and switches and buttons and horns and lights and the electrical line follows the drainage pipe whenever you see that electrical lines multiple electrical lines following a drainage pipe out of a house you probably have a septic system that is that's bunch of pups and folks and so that's what we have so in the rear yard there's a pipe coming out it's not a public sewer pipe that's when I clean out that's not trap that's how strap that's a port for a septic system and that's a tank right there that's another tank and you can become trained and certified as a septic system inspector and not need to do any septic system inspections I subcontracted that out actually but I wanted to be knowledgeable enough so that I can inspect the components that are related to the septic system that are visible during the home inspection so that's what I recommend and there's the interior drainage pipes they're all sloped properly supported properly glued adhered can't see everything what you're looking for connections loose connections watermarks cracked pipes things like that I love cast iron left trying to put my screwdriver through cast iron making sure the PVC is supported well there's a water supply pipe in the gas lines so you're required to describe whether the water supply is public or private I'm location Oh there there's the well so it's a well so it's a private well and it's not a public water line this is a typical common public water supply where the water pipe comes through the foundation through a shutoff valve through a meter and another bell and there's a jumper cable and all that stuff that's not what we have here well the location of the main water supply shut off valve yeah that's required I described the location of the main fuel supply shut off valve yep that's outside the next thing and next to each other appliance the location of any observed fuel storage system well it's on your ground but I can see where it is and the capacity of the water heating equipment as the hot water tank and it's 40 miles reports as a need of correction and deficiency in the water supply by viewing the functional flow and two fixtures operated simultaneously that's basically in the bathroom so what I do is a flush the toilet that means the tank is filling I run hot and cold water at the sink and then I turn on the shower and it should be functional flow that's subjective and say in my opinion report upon deficiencies in the installation of hot and cold water faucets that's basically hot is on the Left colas on the right if it's switched right active plumbing leaks that were observed during the inspection we didn't have any during this inspection Twilight's that were damaged had loose connections to the floor we're leaking or had 10 components that didn't operate we're all pretty good with the toilets and you can group the bathrooms together in your inspection report to make it easier for your client to read reports that are easy to read and clear to understand provide more value so you may want a group it's not required anywhere but you may want to group the bathrooms together as an easy read so this is the first floor a half bath a sink GFCI second floor master bathroom tub that's tub there that's the shower there's no access to the shower through a panel no leaks there that's the tub hot and cold no leaks at the valves or the p-trap and the tile is covered by carpeting there's a vent in the light second floor a full bath that's the Holly bathroom toilet flushed it's table on the floor tub and shower work there's no access to the shower and panel is not there that's okay second floor full bath sink is fine the drainage pipes and the valve second floor full bath GFCI the receptacle is not GFCI protected so actually do one of these things that means this doesn't work so the GFCI protection is not there it's not there so that's a that's an X so needs to be fixed metanor / sop is where the standards are practices and we're in the electrical section and this is the fun part there's a lot to inspect the inspector shall inspect the service drop overhead service conductors in attachment point the service head gooseneck and drip loops service mast service conduit and Raceway electric meter and base service entrance conductors main electric service disconnect panel boards and overcurrent protection devices grounding and pardoning representative a number of switches including AFCI protected receptacles ground faults GFCIs and presence of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors let's do service drop what is the service drop well electrical service terminology related to the service components is available in our free online course how to perform residential electrical inspections so let's take a look at that because it's kinda handy to get your terminology right so thinking look at this picture the service entrance cable the sec that's the blue arrow and that's a line of service conductors here the three areas are pointing to the three service conductors it's located between the terminals of the service equipment that's the main disconnect could be a main disconnect on the outside just a disconnect all by itself or at the main panel and a point usually outside the building clear building walls where they're joined by a tap or splice that's the orange arrows to the service dropped or overhead and service conductors those are the electric lines from the like the telephone pole and its overhead three lines are tapped or spliced to the service conductors the blue arrow is pointing to a protected or sheathed SE service entrance cable that's the thing that comes down the side of a house typically the service point is the point of connection that's the orange arrows between the overhead service drop or the facilities of the service utility and the house wiring that's the connection overhead service conductors or the white arrows there so the overhead conductors between the service point where they're tapped and the first point of connection to the service entrance conductor as the blue arrow at the structure and the surface equipment is the necessary equipment usually consisting of circuit breakers or switches and fuses and their accessories connected to the load end of service conductors to a building and intended to constitute the main control and cutoff up a supply that's the service equipment and it's understood that raceways fittings and enclosures housing service conductors are also a part of the service equipment meter socket enclosures are not considered service equipment meter enclosures do not have interrupting ratings disconnecting means or over protection of a current protection so those are the terminologies that we use that's what the electrician's use so if you're talking to an electrician Bop overhead service conductors or SEC or she se cables hmm you should probably get trained a little bit right it's the most difficult part of being a home inspector the electrical I would say what's the surface job you're talking about service drop what is grounding and bonding we can talk about grounding and bonding and then our electrical course goes over rods and water pipes and jumpers and connections and roofer grounds so if you're weak on electrical go to our free online how to perform electrical inspections course that are really helped firstly there's terminology so we're supposed to inspect the service drop in the surface drop are the red arrows that's the lines overhead dropping from the telephone pole right and coming to the house right going through the splice the connection the tap to the service entrance connectors that go to the main disconnect and the service drop here are the red arrows there should be 10 feet above sidewalks and frontal grade from the bottom of the drip loop and 12 feet above yards and driveways and 18 feet above this treat we don't have a service drop we have an on ground service coming up from the ground from the street coming out from the ground over telephone pole coming up for them ground into a conduit right so we shall inspect the overhead service conductors in attachment point again we don't have overhead but in this inspection picture the overhead conductors are the white and red arrows they're the overhead conductors and the attachment point are the orange arrows and they're connected at that tap or splice and that point of attachment for the service drop should be below the Weatherhead have installed but we don't have that we have been underground service we're also supposed to inspect the service had to do snake and drip loops the we don't have that at this house played in this inspection picture just for training purposes there's no service cap or letterhead component in this inspection picture and the overhead service entrance conductors must have a service whether head or cap or an improved gooseneck but we only have that again we have underground a service mast service conduit and Raceway well there's no service master raised away Raceway or which is a pipe or conduit in this inspection picture but there is that sec that service entrance cable and that's here that's the service entrance cable that's the mast that's the drip loop that's connection that's overhead service conductors but we have an underground service through a conduit there's a service entrance conductor from the meter to the main disconnect at the panel and we're supposed to inspect the electric meter in pace and we do I like to grab it see if it comes off the house main services connect it's right there two fingers for me means 200 amps the main service disconnect must be clearly marked the main disconnect must be either inside or outside the house as close to the service conductor where they may enter the house where it enters house it can't be in a bathroom no more than 6 breakers can be used to disconnect the service conductors we're required to inspect the panel boards and overcurrent protection devices that's a long phrase for cert breakers so there it is there there's the main panel in this house there's the main disconnect and it's labeled 200 amps the service grounding and bonding mmm typical concepts but we have the chaining for you to figure it all out so we have a grounding electrode conductor which is that copper wire this has some patina on it the grounding electrode is the Buried rod and bonding so bonding is required where needed to ensure electrical continuity and the ability to carry up a fault current to the path to grounding the metal water pipe in a house must be bonded to the service equipment enclosure and that's my code an electric bonding and grounding training for home inspectors is available in an Internet she's free online how to perform electrical inspections course and we already took a look at that talk about what is grounding there's grounding grounding electrodes and the next section is bonding in the bonding components what that would include okay we're also required to inspect the representative number of switches light fixtures rough receptacles including receptacles observed and deemed to be arc fault circuit interrupter protected using an NFC AFC I test button if possible so a representative number for me is one per room then there's the fixtures and there's wall switches you can't turn on everything it's a visual inspection and we don't have any AFCI breakers installed in this house again I inspect at home without any regard to the age a lot of people will say well this is grandfathered in it was built a code back then and home inspectors you usually inspect existing homes that were built to code back but a home that was built let's say 10 years ago 15 years ago have defects major defects simply because they were built 15 years ago and code has changed for example all counter receptacles in the kitchen kitchen counter receptacles have to be GFCI protected a while back it was only the receptacles near the sink within six feet of the sink now it's everything a while back there were no AFCI but there was no air eaf see high production at all and now it's required in just about every room there is you know so I like to inspect a home without any regard to the house age know without any regard but I'm not gonna focus on anything that is related to grandfathering or if someone says it was built to code back then all homes with defects were built to code for example the space between the spindles can't be large enough for a foreign sphere to pass through many homes I inspect were built to code right and they were grandfathered or something but the space between the spindles is more than four inches at six inches that means the home that I am inspecting right now is unsafe for children because they can fall through the ramp going because the space between the spindles is big enough for a child's head to fall through so that's for me a hazard a major defect and I'm going to call that out without any regard to when the house was built because I know that house was built to code I know the house is built to code back then but I don't care I'm trying to protect my kids that are going to move in here so I'm going to inspect the house according to modern building practices modern standards if a house is supposed to have smoke detectors all over the place I'm gonna put it in my report carbon monoxide detectors I'll put it in my report GFCI space between the spindles afcis I'll put my report okay so something to consider let's see where are we there we go we're required to inspect GFCIs essentially and remember we had a missing GFCI protection and a receptacle in the bathroom the kitchen and the exterior that's all good presence of smoke and carbon monoxide monoxide detectors will smoke alarms must be powered by the building wiring and a battery backup they need both they should be interconnected so that one alarm activates them all and you can test them each bedroom outside each sleeping area and on each story including the basement carbon monoxide detectors are required for houses that have fuel-fired appliances or an attached garage with an opening to the house outside of each bedroom inside of each bedroom with a fuel-burning appliance and they're interconnected just like the smoke detectors you're supposed to describe the main service disconnects amperage rating if label in a type of wiring observe I have 200 amps and normal type enemy inspectors shall report as a need of correction deficiencies and the integrity of the service entrance conductors installation triplet vertical clearances from grades any unused breaker panel opening that was not filled with how many problems with that presence of solid aluminum brand circuit wiring without any problems with that it's all copper any tested receptacle that had a problem we don't have any problems with that absence of smoke or chrome enacted mock aside detectors we don't have any problems with that national door / SOP is where the scenes of practice is located and we're at fireplace and we do have a fireplace and there's the exhaust on the outside looks pretty good there's a switch turn it on it turned on this controls no fan option there's the other one other fireplace turned on controls though dusty all good attic insulation and ventilation the inspector is required to it inspect the insulation in unfinished basis and ventilation so in the Attic there's no floor so I really can't crawl around too much I'm going to inspect the underside of the roof deck in the structure there's the thickness of the insulation are thirty thirteen inches of bloom and fiberglass insulation everything's looking pretty good on see any defects from the attic access no roof leaks no structural problems that I see and the attic access is insulated and this is my pick is my step ladder right there that's my picnic blanket I put a picnic blanket on top of the shelf if this is a closet access just to show that I'm being clean and respecting other people's property and you're required to inspect the mechanical exhaust systems in the kitchen bathrooms and laundry area the kitchen is recirculating ideally it would go outside the dryer exhausts outside we saw the vent on the outside earlier and the bathrooms have a fan and also windows inspector shall describe the type of insulation observed fiberglass blown insulation fiberglass bat approximate depth of the insulation observed in the unfinished attic area are 30 that's good the inspector shall report as a need of correction the general absence of insulation ventilation on through spaces going back to the insulation thickness it's it's good to understand about insulation and the way code increases the house efficiency by increasing the insulation thickness so a while back our 30 was good it's probably now in that area in that zip code if they incorporated the code it's probably our 38 or 40 something like that so you could inspect a house that has inadequate insulation and you can recommend more insulation according to modern standards I'm sure that someone's gonna say well it was built to code back then right like a house that is 100 years old had no insulation and somebody could say well why are you recommending insulation in the Attic it was built a cone back then so hopefully you understand that concept I just don't care if the house is 200 years old or 2 years old there should be enough insulation according to certain some kind of standard it's typically code and you can find that in the International residential code and also if there's inadequate insulation and you're going to recommend more insulation than installed be sure to add air scaling because insulation doesn't stop air leakage air leakage is the real it bleeds conditioned air out of the house if it's not sealed so adding insulation doesn't stop that especially fiberglass we call it filter glass because it's basically a big air filter that's not the purpose of insulation you have to stop the air leaks so it's nice and tight especially the top floor ceiling and then cold climate that'd be great and then add it insulation so if you're gonna rake make recommendations if you find that the approximate depth of the attic floor insulation is inadequate don't just recommend more insulation recommend air sealing and insulation and you learn about that in our online training courses the home inspector shower report has a needham correction the general absence of insulation if we don't have any everything's insulate do really well nothing missing the next section is doors windows and interior in this interior part you can include the garage the laundry the bathrooms the kitchen that's what I did the inspector shall inspect a representative number of doors and windows by opening and closing them floors walls ceilings stairs steps landing stairways and ramps railings guards and handrails so I take a look around the interior and I take pictures of everything that I'm inspecting everything seems to be pretty good no major defects in this house the windows are great representative wall receptacles switches ceiling fans oh there's my here's my truck oops there it is put in the driveway all those big tall ladders no major problems really I try to inspect a representative number of everything so it looks really good no major defects make sure I take pictures like this because I don't know what's going on underneath the carpeting I'm not required to remove furniture in carpeting so there could be a defect on there but well I don't know I didn't observe it inspector she'll inspect groj vehicle doors and the operation of garage vehicle door openers using normal operate controls so I had a section of my report called garage there's three car garage two openers and one was manual I used normal operating controls to see if they open and closed there's a stent ten step checklist for testing or garage door opener if you wanted to try that this manual door was locked and it was damaged and there was stuff on it so it was a lot inspection restriction it was damaged and it was covered by storage so I couldn't get to it so I put that in report as a defect all GFCI receptacles were tested the drywall looks good the structural components look good load-bearing components the poles inspection restrictions I can't see everything not even in the corner there there's a car in the way a lot of inspection restrictions there in that picture the floor looks good it's sloped to the opening the inspector shall describe that garage vehicle door is manually operated or installed with the garage door opener so I had two openers in one manual garage door and there's ten steps to inspect a garage door opener inside this free online how to inspect attic installation of ventilation interior course I think amy was talking about that earlier in the class and there's the video about the tents too and there are the 10 steps made in release door panels warning label springs hardware at door operation spring containment wall button location the photoelectric eyes non-contact reversal test and then the contact reversal test and we just don't recommend using your hands or a part of your body in order to conduct a contact reversal test there's another way to do it according to a standard the inspectors child report as a need of correction improper spacing between intermediate balusters we didn't have any of that and also photoelectric up is or good and no cracked or damaged or fogged Windows the laundry room is a section of my report I put the laundry room specific items and components in there there's the electric in law dryer clothes washer braided pressure test and hoses that's good there's the dryer vent going out but there's no catch pan I like to catch me in the clothes washer kitchen run hot and cold water at the sink dishwasher sprayer this sprayer the garbage disposal the drainage pipes the valves all it's good GFCI protection all kitchen counter receptacles testing them turn on the dishwasher short cycle while I'm there wrapping things up turn on the range the oven microwave fan we have a little microwave detector tester you can use that it's like the shock and awe of using that everyone what are you doing well I'm testing to see if there's microwaves inside the microwave but you can heat up a wet rag a cup of water or something like that and that is our home inspection and on nachi TV the value of natchok TV is that it's free and open to everybody and you can follow along if you want to mentor you can essentially follow along in energy certified professional inspectors certified master inspectors and watch them perform home inspections and rights and special reports at going to exchange to practice so that's a great value of nachi TV internachi home specialists in terms of practice is available at match org slash SOP we are a free online accredited college for home inspectors and that's at internachi d you and everything you need all in one place we try to put it all in one page and that's at notch org slash everything and I want to thank you all for being with me that was a long course long webinar but I hope you had some fun if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me again I have it just a few more questions let's see I'm looking sir I'll try to reply back to individual questions let me see if there's something that I could share with everybody in in case there isn't sufficient space clearance and from the electrical panel then it is a major or minor issue and an inspection I have a washing machine in front of the panel I would call it an inspection restriction if you have like something blocking the panel it's an inspection restriction right if it's movable right then it's not a major defect that's just an inspection restriction I can't get to the thing that I want to inspect because this thing is in the way you know when the owners move out everything is going to be cleared out and then you have access to it so this is a great opportunity for you to sell they walk through inspection after the house is emptied and just before your clients during a real estate transaction just before your client signs on the line to buy the home your client has an opportunity to walk through the home one last time and you can offer that service right according to how much money you want to make per hour I would say and walk through and make sure that everything that was inaccessible is now accessible and you can take a look at it real quick and write up a an addendum to the inspection report it's a really great service the other idea also I've been promoting is when you're initially scheduling the home inspection scheduled next year's annual home maintenance checkup so for every client that you perform the home inspection for you should come back in a year make sure everything is still in good shape because the first thing you do in any home maintenance plan is to perform a visual inspection you take a look around and see if everything is okay and most people just don't have the time or the knowledge a skill to do that so when you're initially scheduling your home inspection service schedule next year's annual home maintenance checkup and discounted rate that's really smart because now you're scheduling a home inspection and you're also scheduling next year's inspection so you're filling up your calendar for next year Wow it's pretty good idea is there a way to test pool bonding yep so we have a free online course that's about how to inspect pools and spas and there's a section of electrical in there as well any practical tips for testing a FCI's I just used the botany however we do have inspector coach inspector coach comm inspected coach comm I clicked the store tab at the top and she has one of these available it's a GFCI nasc eye tester it's pretty good and there's some I like it it's also the common GFCI test you every home inspector needs this and a flashlight and a screwdriver and then you can make a ton of money with those same tools the early entry of Stanley kitchen it's not that I don't so all receptacles in the kitchen need to be GFCI protected there's typically two GFCI testers sometimes it's in the in the electrical panel but yeah they all have to be downstream of a GFCI device [Music] Rianne asks are we as home inspectors allowed to write protocols on how to remediate mold or does that depend on what state you are in I'm in Alabama I'm not too sure about the state specific I want a fella PMO regulates mold inspectors if they do then they have the standards of practice by which you follow and including the mitigation or remediation protocols but internet she has an online course and inside the course there are protocols that you'll learn about how to standards by which you sample mold take mold samples and also reports upon moment samples and what are the protocols to fix the mold problems and how do you clear how you come back as an inspector and do a clearance of that remediation work we have all that okay that's looks pretty good I think we're done with the class so thank you everybody for being with me and taking the class on how to perform a detailed home inspection according to the standards of practice and that's on nachi TV and achi TV live interactive online webinars for home inspectors I'm free and open to everyone Nachi TV and ACH I had no TV so i'm ben gromicko from internachi I'll check you out later thanks for attending the class and I'll see you on the next one bye right you you

Channel: InterNACHI® Ben Gromicko

Views: 10,034

Keywords: internachi, ben gromicko, home inspector, home inspection, home inspection training, home maintenance, detailed home inspection, standards of practice

Id: acikNqTmSys

Length: 159min 40sec (9580 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 18 2020