Steve Vacha

Being cold is bad, insulation is good, sometimes. Periodically I find homeowners who will use white bead board insulation for ceiling tiles or as insulation in unfinished basement areas. (This white insulation board is what cheap coolers are made of.) This material is called expanded polystyrene . This is safe to use only if it is covered with drywall or paneling, for burn protection.

When this expanded insulation catches fire it will create fumes that will knock us out, or keep us from waking up!

This is a fire hazard and should be removed or covered with drywall.

Sometimes you will see a more dense insulation board used, that is often blue and a more dense material. This material is called extruded polystyrene. This material has a fire retardant applied, but the manufacturers still call for it to be covered inside living areas.

Steve Vacha, Home Inspector

Home Standards Inspection Services, Omaha, Ne

Brad Andersohn, Community Builder, for Active Rain presented a 5 hour presentation at the OmahaArea Board of Realtors, OABR. I am an inactive member of Active Rain, not quite believing in the profitability of blogging. Brads presentation and vision pried open my hard head enough to see the significance of this new world of electronic idea sharing.

I've had such a hard time believing in the power of search engines to organize the unfathomable amount of information out there. I'm still catching up on the power of a website and its potential. Now, Brad tells me, blogs and networks like Active Rain are up staging web sites.

I'm stretching Brad. So I went home to google my name as Brad suggested we do. When I did this 11 months ago I was about number eight on the list of Steve Vacha's. Today I found I was in the the top two entries of a google search and listed in 8 of the ten listings on the first page. I realized the two Active Rain blogs I completed 10 months ago and joining several other networks put me at the top of the google search engine for my name. I was impressed. (Don't mention this to the other Steve Vacha's in the world).

I know my business world is all about connections. Brad Andersohn was inviting all of us at that conference into a whole other realm of connections that I need to stretch to fathom. I'll keep stretching one baby step at a time.

Steve Vacha

Home Standards Inspection Services