What the Inspectors Inspect

Part 10: Interior

Jeff Nichols

Edifice Inspections, Inc. 

Home buyers typically spend the most time viewing a prospective home on the interior. Are the rooms going to work for what they need? Are there sufficient bedrooms and baths and are there any issues that would typically be spotted by the average home buyer? When a home inspector enters a bedroom for example, he/she is making many observations. In what condition are the walls, floors and ceilings? What are they made of? Do they indicate any symptoms of structural issues? Do the doors and windows operate properly? Are the electrical receptacles correctly wired? Is there sufficient HVAC air flow in the room? Do the ceiling fixtures operate as intended? Have there been obvious repairs and what do those repairs mean? Are the cracks in the drywall a result of settling or just a drywall joint separation due to the framing drying out? 

This inspector prefers to inspect the interior of the house from the top down. Once leaving the attic, I usually start the interior part of the inspection on the highest floor. Any bathrooms are also done during the interior inspection as they appear in the inspection progress. This is done for two reasons. Bathrooms are inspected as the inspection proceeds and all plumbing fixtures are turned on and inspected. If there are plumbing leaks they will be visible when you get to the lower floors. Secondly, structural issues like cracked drywall or settling are amplified in the upper parts of the house. A slight sag in a framing member in the basement can produce a much larger result on the second floor. Possible settling issues are noted as the inspection proceeds and the cause of the settling is looked for as you descend the building. 

A point should be made about what are called cosmetic issues. It should not be the intent of a home inspection to identify every paint blemish, insignificant drywall ding or carpet stain. An unsophisticated buyer and/or an over-eager real estate agent can reduce the intent of the inspection to a nit-picking hit list of items that just may screw up the sale. Unfortunately, there are those inspectors that also put too many cosmetic items in their reports to try to make the inspection appear to be very thorough. It has been my experience that the many-page inspection report detailing one minor cosmetic item after another has more than likely missed some important defects in the property. Quantity does not always mean quality. There will be more about this in a future article. Cosmetic items do, however, have a place in the inspection of a new house. I once heard a real estate agent tell our customer, “A new house should look new.” Almost everyone should be in agreement with that statement. I encourage my customers to put together a list of their own cosmetic items and to bring them to the builder’s attention during their walk-through inspection. The builder will respond much better to the prospective buyer’s concerns than from a list compiled by a home inspector.

The standards state that a representative number of doors and windows should be inspected. This usually means one per room. Does the door open and close easily? Is all the hardware installed and operating properly? If the door frame is not square, this may mean there has been settling and further investigation is required. The type of windows and the condition must be identified and if they are operable. This is very important in bedrooms where at least one window must be operable for egress purposes. If the windows have burglar bars, this too should be noted because they not only keep the bad guys out but they can prevent egress during an emergency.

The type and condition of walls and ceilings have to be noted. And yes, old plaster ceilings and walls usually have some past cracking evident. They kind of wear their history and it is not necessarily an indication of problems. Settling in ceilings can be difficult to spot but it is an important observation that must be made. Sagging ceilings may mean over spanned joists. This condition can only get worse if unaddressed. All moisture stains should be measured with a moisture meter to determine if the stain is the result of an active leak. This is why we ran all the sinks, showers and toilets when we were upstairs. 

The type and condition of floors also has to be identified. Because of carpeting and household furniture, uneven floors are also difficult to spot. Sagging floors in older houses are very common around Atlanta. Many framing members will settle some over long periods of time under their own weight. Consider an eighty year old house with furniture and people in it. The inspector has to look for unusual structural reasons for the settling and to talk their customer through their concerns. Is this pretty typical or is the house about to fall down? 

Stairs can be an unsafe part of the house. All efforts must be made to identify any possible problems that might cause a bad fall or accident. Are the treads and risers evenly spaced to prevent trip or fall hazards? Are the railings properly installed and of the right size and height? Do the railing components have larger than standard openings that might be a hazard to small children? Is lighting sufficient? 

The fireplace is one of the home’s components that just kind of sets there quietly like a big piece of furniture. Everyone likes to have one but most people don’t know much about them. Fireplaces range in size and simplicity from the enclosed glass front gas unit with the on/off switch on the wall. Turn the switch on when you want the fireplace to light and turn it off when you are done with it. The next jump up is the open fireplace with gas logs but no vent, ventless. That’s right the heat and what’s left of the combustion gases rolls out into the house. Don’t worry this is the same operating principle as the gas oven and cook top, no vent to the outside. Although it is important with all fireplaces, it is more so with the ventless fireplace that all operating instructions be carefully followed. The next in complexity would be the typical fireplace with the flue that can burn wood or use installed gas ceramic logs. This type is the most common in homes built in this area in the last twenty years. The last type we want to talk about is what some of us call “real fireplaces”. These are fire brick lined fireplaces with a real lined masonry chimney. These guys can burn real wood or use ceramic logs if gas is installed. The inspector must be familiar with all these units and their operating characteristics. Flues and dampers must be checked and their general condition accessed. 

Some municipalities require fire sprinklers in residential housing. Most in town condos and townhouses also have sprinkler systems installed. Although the testing of these units is beyond the scope of the home inspector’s inspection, the report should state the inspector checked to see if there were sprinklers in all habitable rooms. If possible, determine if the system is charged and to what pressure. It is also during the inspection of the interior that the inspector looks for any red flags that might suggest there could be a mold problem in the property and how to proceed. We will discuss this in detail in the article on environmental testing of the property.

Next time, “Everything you didn’t want to know about plumbing”. 

You can view this and all past articles on our website: edificeinspections.com

What the Inspectors Inspect

Part 9 Mold

Jeff Nichols

Edifice Inspections, Inc.              

I know I promised you a tour of the interior next, but I thought this next article was important enough to go to the head of the line.

Several weeks ago, our office received a call from someone who wanted to know if we tested houses for mold. Cheryl took the lady’s number and I called her back later in the day. During the course of our phone conversation, she told me that she and her family had moved into an apartment about a year ago. Since then, both she and her husband had been hospitalized for respiratory ailments and what felt like very strong cold and flu symptoms. Both of her children had on-going sinus problems, colds and other mild ailments that would not go away. When I asked her why she though the health issues were caused by mold, she gave me the history of what had happened during the time they lived there.

The apartment had the furnace/air conditioning (HVAC) unit located in a hall closet, typical for this kind and age of construction. Occasionally the condensate discharge line from the air conditioning section would clog and over flow. This caused the carpets and the drywall to get wet around the HVAC unit. The maintenance people would show up, clear the clogged line and the unit would work properly for a month or so and the line would clog again and the sequence would repeat itself. Finally, the tenant complained enough that the maintenance people eventually removed damaged drywall and repainted the compartment area where the HVAC unit was located. The health issues continued but the property management people chose to ignore the tenant and she sought legal help. Her attorney suggested she contact someone to test for mold so they would know what they were dealing with, hence the phone call to Edifice Inspections. The story sounded completely credible to me and we agreed on a time to do a mold screen.

Upon arriving at the apartment, the tenants showed me moldy pieces of drywall that they had saved in a garbage bag as evidence of the past leaking and mold problems. The area around the HVAC unit had new drywall and paint but one small section of stained drywall had been over looked by the repair folks and it indeed had what appeared to be mold.

The above picture is from another home Edifice inspected. 

The accepted procedure for this kind of situation is to take an air sample on the interior and compare it with an air sample collected from outside. If a particular mold shows up on the interior sample and not the exterior sample, then the mold is originating from the inside. I explained all of this, took my air samples, dropped them off at the lab for analysis and awaited the results. 

When doing environmental testing, the best one can hope for is that there is a smoking gun where you can say, “Yup, that’s what’s making you sick”. Some times that is not the case because there are no threshold levels for mold. We all react differently to all kinds of molds and mold levels. At best, you can give the customer your best evaluation based on your experience and make recommendations on how to correct the problem. In most cases that is sufficient. 

When I received the lab analysis on the apartment, there was a smoking gun. Eight different molds were identified, all of them classified as allergens. The smoking gun, however, was the highest level of Stachybotrys I had ever seen. Stachybotrys is the “bad mold” that gets all the attention. It is called “black mold” and “toxic” mold and is always the mold of choice when articles are written about mold, the nightmares it creates and the health issues associated with it. Although the medical community does not all agree that Stachybotrys is toxic, they do agree that it is a dangerous mold that can lead to severe health issues. I was so concerned with the high levels of this mold, that in the mold report I compiled for the customer, I included a sentence that stated that the house was not healthy for them to live in. It was the first time I had used such language in a mold report. When I called the customer the next morning to be sure they understood my warning, she told me they were packing and moving out that day. 

The above situation is indeed rare. Our mold screens often discover elevated mold levels but the context of the testing is more important. With our customer with the sick family, the water and resulting mold issues were because of a leak. Moisture is always the key to mold growth. We have found elevated moisture levels in houses from a number of sources; a roof or plumbing leak, an improperly operating HVAC system, disconnected or leaking HVAC ducts, leaving the windows open in the summer time, turning the A/C unit off when no one is in the house, a finished room or basement not connected to the central HVAC system, leaking fish tanks and just having the utilities turned off in a vacant house.

In most cases the fix is pretty easy to understand. Stop the water entry or lower the moisture content and depending on the extent of and kinds of molds found, a simple thorough cleaning is usually sufficient. In the incidence above, however, a professional mold remediation company should be used to bring the apartment back to habitable status. 

Edifice can answer your mold questions. Give us a call. We also have approved classes for realtors on environmental issues. 

Jeff Nichols

Edifice Inspections, Inc.

Edificeinspections.com

What the Inspectors Inspect

Part 7: Attic

Jeff Nichols

Edifice Inspections, Inc.

One of the least glamorous but more important parts of the inspection is the attic. A hot July afternoon in Atlanta can make you wish you had gone into a different line of work. Attics can easily reach temperatures exceeding 120 degrees and the inspector does not look his best when he finally comes down the attic ladder. The trip is necessary however because it is one of the few places in the home where the framing is exposed and a general assessment of the quality of the framing can be made. The exterior inspection of the roof is critical but the attic can provide evidence of current or past water entry that may not be evident anywhere else in the house. Since the attic, like the crawlspace, is a place the home owner rarely goes, there may be problems in the attic that are not known to the occupants of the property. Remember, one of the biggest complaints against home inspectors is missed roof leaks. Although both an exterior and attic inspection of the roof is important, this inspector believes that more information on the quality of the roof condition can be obtained in the attic.

The standards require that the type of attic access be identified. Pull down ladders, scuttle holes, stairs and door access are the typical means. How was the attic inspected? Some attics can be walked and others because of construction or stored material must be inspected from the furnace platform or the top of the ladder. Whatever the means used must be identified and the reason why the inspector did not walk through the attic. Also identified are attic areas that were not accessible. The information gathered in the attic usually falls into five categories, insulation, ventilation, framing, leaks and pests. Any inspection information on furnaces in the attic is contained in the Heating and Cooling section of the report.

The energy efficiency of the home is primarily determined by the quality and condition of the insulation. The attic is one space in the house were the insulation is exposed and can be inspected. The type, depth or thickness and condition of the insulation are all identified while avoiding estimates at R value. R value is how insulation efficiency is rated and can change if the insulation has been disturbed or compressed by stored items or pests that have found their way into the attic. Blown-in Fiberglass and cellulose insulation and Fiberglass batt insulation are the most common types. Older homes may have only several inches of insulation or none at all. In contrast, newer homes can have 10 to 12 inches in similar spaces. Since the quality of the insulation is a reflection of energy efficiency, many inspection reports recommend the installation of additional insulation in those homes where it is deficient.

 One of the key elements of house dynamics in conventional construction is how well the attic is ventilated. Household moisture finds its way through walls and ceilings and much of the moisture ends up in the attic. Consider too a hot afternoon with the sun shining on the roof. The attic gets very hot. A well ventilated attic will remove heat and moisture in both the summer and winter. In colder climates, icicles can form in poorly ventilated attics in the winter time. In warmer climates, high attic temperatures will cause the air conditioning to run longer. In any climate, high attic moisture can lead to mold growth and wood damage. Passive attic vent types include soffit, roof, ridge and gable end. Power vents or fans are also used and their operation needs to be determined. The type of venting used is less important than how they were installed. A properly ventilated attic will have ample vents along the lower portion of the attic space to allow air in. The upper part of the attic space must also have sufficient venting to allow hot air and humidity to flow out. Roof style of construction can dictate what type of upper roof venting is best. The inspector must be able to make a judgment about the type, amount and condition of ventilation and make recommendations on any suggested corrections. 

Some homes have a large fan in the upper part of the house that vents into the attic. These are called whole house fans. As the name implies, these are house fans and not attic fans. They are intended to move large amounts of air through the house with the intent of drawing cooler air from the outside. For those us living in the South the whole house fan should only be used for those few weeks in the spring after pollen season and before air conditioning and in the fall after the humidity has left us. For those of you who have no experience with whole house fans remember that the windows you open for outside air must have screens on them or you will suck in every bug in the neighborhood. We will talk more about air conditioning and air moisture in the Heating and Cooling article. 

As stated earlier, the attic may be the only place in some houses where you can actually see the framing. Framing crews usually frame the entire house so accessing the quality of visible framing may suggest how the unseen portions of the house were framed. In the article covering the interior we will discuss things to look for that indicated structural issues. The attic framing and roof sheathing remember is also the back part of the roof system. Proper construction practices are essential to assure the roof system is not only sufficient to hold up the roof but also to protect the house against high winds. Hurricane Andrew in Florida proved we didn’t know as much about roof construction as we should have and caused building practices to change. Also, just because the State or municipality may adopt a revised building code word does not always filter its way down to the guy actually building the house. In new construction, the inspector must follow the building code in place when the permit for the house was issued. 

We stated earlier that the single biggest complaint against home inspectors was missed roof leaks. As leaks or water entry points age, the amount of water being allowed into the building shell increases. A small or insignificant leak today may become a major water entry point in a few months. Stained roof sheathing and framing, stains or water marks on vent pipes going through the roof and insulation that is matted or has changed texture are all signs of water. If you know that the shingles on the house are original and you see staining in the attic, you have a leak. It may have been patched and is no longer leaking but it is a valuable piece of information and must go in the inspection report. The Holy Grail for the home inspector is when a stain indicates elevated moisture with a moisture meter. “Active leak”,game over. It also gives the prospective buyer a possible bargaining chip in the buying process. 

The last item on our attic hit list is pests. If squirrels and rats can get on the roof, they will find their way into the attic. Traps, droppings, matted insulation, chewed wiring and wood framing are all signs of unwanted attic critters. Health and safety concerns are the issues here and should always be reported with a recommendation that the condition be handled by a qualified pest control company. Any other evidence of pest found elsewhere in the house should also be reported with the same recommendation.

I have purposely not included termites in our discussion of pests. Some home inspectors also do termite inspections but most do not. If the home inspector finds evidence of active or past infestation it should always be reported. However, the wood destroying organism industry is a State regulated industry in Georgia and termite inspections should only be performed by licensed members of the pest control industry.

That concludes our tour of the attic. Don’t forget to rehydrate and probably put on a clean shirt. Our next article will cover Heating and Air Conditioning.

What the Inspectors Inspect

Part 8: Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning

Jeff Nichols

Edifice Inspections, Inc.

The heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are a technical and critical part of any inspection. Like plumbing and electrical, the initial work should have been done by a licensed trade person. In the South, the air conditioning half of the system is almost always present as part of the central HVAC system. It is important to understand and inspect the HVAC components as a system. The HVAC components not only supply heating and cooling to the house, but they are also a critical part of the health of the home. We will discuss these aspects as we examine each HVAC component. It is also important for the inspector to be sure the customer is comfortable with the system’s function as the inspection proceeds. Remember, the customer may have never had air conditioning, gas heat, a heat pump heating system or replaced a furnace filter before. All these areas should be discussed with the customer to prevent future questions and relieve some buyer anxiety.

 As standards dictate, the location of the HVAC units must be identified and the areas of the home that are supplied conditioned air by these units. For our discussions, “conditioned air” will mean circulated air that has either been heated or cooled. Depending on the size and layout of the house there may be one or multiple HVAC units. Each unit must be inspected. A determination should also be made on which part of the house each unit serves. Particular attention must be given to finished basements and additions. It is not uncommon for a finished basement to not be connected to a central HVAC system. This discovery can be unwelcomed information to a prospective buyer and more unwelcomed to the inspector if it was missed during the inspection. The air handling section of the HVAC system can be located in the attic, basement, garage, crawlspace, outdoors or in a closet. The location of these units can also provide a separate set of conditions that impact the operation of the units and the air supplied to living spaces. Consider the hot attic we talked about in a previous article or a wet crawlspace. We will discuss the health and operational aspects of these locations later.

 For the ease of understanding we are going to discuss the heating and cooling functions separately. Many components, like the thermostat, are common to both the heating and the cooling cycle. It is the only HVAC control that should be needed to operate both functions of the system. Its operation, location and general condition should be considered. The thermostat may be the first indication the house has a heat pump heating system. Heat pumps may not always be able to keep the house warm during some of those cold January days when the sun is not shining and the wind is blowing. A thermostat for a heat pump system will have an additional setting called emergency heat. As the name implies, it is an added electric heater that can be used to supplement the heat pump during those times when the heat pump alone can’t quite keep the house at the desired temperature.

 The type of fuel is also noted. In this part of the country the heating fuel is usually natural gas but could also be electricity or propane gas. Home heating oil or kerosene has been used in the past but most of those systems have been replaced with gas or electric heat. Remember our first article when we discussed the buried fuel tank in the yard? The gas supply piping to these devices also has to be inspected for proper installation and leaking.

 The distribution of the conditioned air to and from the air handler section of our system is the area most apt to hide problems. In an ideal system, the same air gets recycled through the supply and return ducts. If ducts are not properly sealed, ambient air can be draw into the system. If the furnace is located in a hot attic or damp moldy crawlspace that air is being drawn into the system and delivered to the living space. Properly operating ducts and vents are important to the health of the house. In many cases where mold or high humidity is noted in the house the cause is an improperly operating HVAC system. The supply and return vents should also be checked to assure sufficient air flow. Duct work and metal plenums have to be checked for Asbestos. Using Asbestos tape to seal duct work was an accepted practice before the health effects were known.

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 With gas heating we also have to deal with combustion air and venting. Finishing a basement can result in enclosing the gas furnace. If specific accommodations have not been taken, the enclosed gas fired devise may not have sufficient air to support proper combustion. In some older homes with basements it is not uncommon to find a gas fired water heater and furnace in the laundry area, all of which has been enclosed. This is a double problem. Not only do we not have enough combustion air, when the clothes dryer starts, it takes air in the room, heats it, blows the hot air through the wet clothes and is blown outside. This can cause the furnace/water heater vent to back draft and draw combustion gases into the laundry room to replace the exhausted air. Not a good situation. Luckily, most combustion air deficiencies can be easily and inexpensively corrected. Talk it through with the inspector.

 The type, location and condition of the system’s air filter also have to be noted. Air filters have to be replaced or washed periodically. A clogged filter can slow air movement that greatly affects the efficiency of the unit. If sufficient air does not flow over the air conditioning coil, the A/C unit can freeze and stop working. Standards also require the inspector to note the age, size of the furnace and its general condition. The inspector has to note excessive rust, neglect and the general operating condition of the units. It is the results of these observations that may prompt the inspector to recommend service by a qualified HVAC technician.

 The air conditioning components are located outside and in most cases on the top of the furnace. The size and age of the outside unit has to be determined along with its general operating condition. The A/C unit because of its function, removes humidity from the inside air. Keeping the interior at the proper relative humidity is essential to preventing mold growth in this climate. It is in this role that the A/C unit plays an important part in the health of the home and its occupants. Not all home inspectors may be trained for this type of analysis.

 The adequacy of the A/C units cannot always be determined but the inspector can produce a rough estimate of recommended A/C tonnage based on the amount of square footage being supplied with conditioned air. Care must always be taken when finished basements are connected to the central HVAC system. Was the size of the basement furnace and A/C system sized to accommodate the finished basement or was some of the conditioned air simply stolen from the unit only sized to cool the first floor? During colder times of the year the inspector will not turn on the A/C function for fear of the cold damaging the unit. As with the heating components, the general condition and operating condition will determine if the units need servicing.

The next article will deal with the Interior and our search for clues to structural issues.

All articles may be viewed on our website at edificeinspections.com