Bob Elliott (Chicago Property Inspection)

Is this your dream kitchen?

Updating a kitchen is important if you are selling your home to increase the value as now in days most people want lots of work space ,layout and nice appliances.

Find a contractor who will help you by giving you ideas,options ,and prices

Potential buyers look for newer appliances that are often preferably stainless steel to go with granite counters and wood cabinets.

With so many foreclosures and short sales it is a buyers market however not everyone wishes to step into a fixer upper .

If you are buying a fixer upper style all is not lost as you may have paid much less and remodeling a kitchen on your own is worth it.The Home Inspector you hire will let you know what has to be improved and you will also want to know you are not adding any problems so let me help you out on that end.

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Even if the space is not large there should at least be usable workspace and this in most cases can be acheived.

One way to acheive this is by opening a wall into the next room which may be a dining room or living room space.

Layout also needs to be concidered and may be very important if there is no way to increase traffic area.

If possible you should add a window in the room if one does not already exist.

My end of it has nothing to do with design but everything to do with inspecting the proper hookup and function of all systems and componants so I will focus doing it all the proper way .

Over the coming weeks I am going to take you step by step in my inspection process and reveal what I actually look at and the issues I find.

Will also discuss other facets such as design,brands,paints,tiles, etc and anything else I think of along the way.

Will be researching in between to see what what I can find for those of you interested in Kitchens.

Pictures will be included along with illustrations showing what went wrong and how it should have been done.

We will look at cabinets,appliances,sinks,fixtures,outlets and lights,floor tile,drains,walls,vents,windows,etc and anything requested if you stop by.

Feel free to suggest ideas for what you would like to see focused on.

Thanks

Condo Bob

Porch and Deck safety

Now that I have posted a few examples of badly constructed porches ,and decks have been mentioned here, do you know what the difference is between porches ,balconies and decks is?

A balcony has no support at all from the ground (no posts for support)and hangs off the structure.

I often refer to Chicago code since it at least on paper is tough and has good detail I can reference so according to local ordinance (and other national sites seem to back this up) the following is what makes Decks and porches different .

A porch is a roofed but unheated portion of a building that has stairs for entering and exiting a building and also a floor area separated from the principle building.

A deck is open with no roof and is used in conjunction with the building (meaning not just for exit and entry)

Also a deck can be attached to the building or it can be detached as in self supporting.

Admittedly there is a grey area between the two as many use their over sized porches for entertainment and think of them as decks.

If you are an Agent representing a client,a person looking for property, or already have a deck or porch and simply wish to feel safe ,it is a good idea to know what you are looking at.

A inspection either by yourself or a professional should be performed at least once a year.

I honestly think I can explain the basics here as it is not rocket science and there are many good checklists on the internet.

This past summer alone there were at least 100 injuries and a death.

These figures may go up as the United States has an estimated 40 million decks that are over 20 years old.

Many have the issue I mentioned in part one of using nails that in many cases are ready to give at the ledger board attachments and pull right off the structure.

Free standing or detached decks have there own set of issues such as poor footings and lack of cross members that keep the post in solid position.

Have no idea what I mean?

Do not worry cause as Chris Currins mentioned in his comment on my first post it all starts at the bottom.

My next part three will get into easy ways to understand these structures.

I love pictures and illustrations so do not get used to this all text post.

Please return and feel free to ask away .

I am not all knowing (just think I am) but with 190,000 plus members at this point I think we can get an answer.:)

It has been a long time since my last blog (2008) talk about brain freeze so lets break the ice with a subject I care about that involves saving lives.

Back in 2003 13 people died when a porch deck in Chicago's Lincoln Park collapsed.The porch was not built to support the weight of those on it and was built incorrectly.This led to a citywide crackdown on porch code violations

The city had a special task force to crackdown for 3 years but old news and fading memories caused them to disband it in 2006.

Not sure what they did during those 3 years as it seems like half the porches I inspect are not safe or are violating city code.

Last month we had another one with injuries and many before that but this one made bigger news as the same thing happened in Tinley Park the night before.

There are many different problems making them unsafe but the biggest I see are ledger board connections.

Contractors often with little skills come in and nail these supporting boards in to brick.Nails are not made to be used in brick and these boards must be bolted in.

If you are not sure what a ledger board is this photo shows the picture on an actual porch I inspected the day after that last collapse in September.

The board is nailed in and is pulling out of the wall causing tears in the wall covering which in turn just happen to be causing water intrusion and mold to be introduced to the inside walls.

This very same day I went to visit the site of a porch collapse where 10 people were injured at the 3700 block of north Ashland here in Chicago.

I was in luck as the clean up crew allowed me on to the property to inspect the site.

Most of it had been cleaned up but from what I saw a large reason for the porch falling was due to lack of once again improper ledger board support.

Here are a few pics what I saw. Bear in mind 10 people were on it at the time and 4 went to the hospital.

Why does the city let this stuff go under the radar.

I have done a few inspections for Condo associations that got fined by the city up to 10 years after buildings were rehabbed by developers and passed by city inspectors then the association gets left holding the bag years later.

Think your client does not need the inspector to look at the whole building and inspection is between the walls? (wrong)

These porches are not cheap and the last one I looked at was costing the association 18,000 per porch to rebuild.

Talk about special assessments.

Stay tuned as I am not anywhere near finished here and I would like to go over the codes and show thumbnails of the newspaper headlines once I go over the Active Rain rules on that.