Ian Niquette

Have you given any thought to your electrical panel lately? Probably not in most cases. Do you know where it is located inside your home? Most of us do know that, it is behind that big pile of boxes in the basement, right? Unfortunately, this is the case many times during one of my home inspections. I am not a moving company, if items are blocked, I cannot inspect them.

In regards to the electrical panel in your home, there are certain clearances that you want to be observing. These clearances have been established for a number of reasons, so it is important that they are allowed for. The biggest reason for these clearances is safety of the home occupants. If, for whatever reason, the power needs to shut of immediately, it can be very hard to do with a pile of boxes in the way.

By maintaining the proper clearances in front of your homes' electrical panel, you can access it much easier when needed, such as when a breaker trips. If you need to have repairs done, it will also be appreciated by the electrician that will be performing the work. He's not a moving guy either.

The following clearances should be maintained around the electrical panel in your home. The minimum head room should be 6 ½'. You do not want to have to be all crouched down to access the panel, as you could stumble and fall into the panel, resulting in severe injury, or worse. In front of the panel, we are going to want to see 3' of clear open space. This will allow someone to stand directly in front of the electrical panel, and not have to lean over anything to perform work or switch the breakers in the electrical panel. Also, around the sides of the panel there should be 30" of clear, free space. This should eliminate anything falling into the panel if the cover is off while performing any electrical work on the panel itself.

Remember, for your own personal safety, please observe the above stated clearances in front of your homes' electrical panel. Do not store items in front of the panel, as emergency access will be hindered. If you are storing items in front of your electrical panel, please move them for your families' safety. If there are problems in your electrical panel, you may not notice them as quickly if you have it buried behind a wall of boxes.

The best practice is to keep your electrical panel unobstructed and have a clear path to access it in case of emergency. Go check your panel out right now. Is it easily accessible?

©Square One Home Inspection 2009

While doing some scanning on the radio in my truck this morning I heard a very funny commercial. The commercial was for a radio program for a guy some of you may have heard of. Mr Jeff Foxworthy. Very fun guy.

Anyway, one his characters stated that the future is where you will spend the rest of your life. This got me to thinkin' about the future. The choices we make today will either pave the way there or create roadblocks for us. Every choice we make today will affect us somehow down the road.

In short, try to make the best choices that you can and spend your time wisely. You never know what the future may hold, but you will spend the rest of your life there.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

©Square One Home Inspection 2009

An earlier photo that I posted got me going on this subject today. Lets talk about chimney crickets and how they pertain to home inspection. Do they matter?

First of all, we need to know what a chimney cricket is. Without spelling out the technical definition, lets make it easy. It is a small peaked roof built on the backside, or high side, of a chimney to direct water and debris away. When a cricket is installed on your chimney, debris will be less likely to build up behind the chimney and therefore will not deteriorate your roof material.

Lets take a look at a chimney cricket. Nevermind the shingle job over this cricket, we are only concerned with the chimney cricket here.

Now, if we disregard the shingles, we will see that water running down the main roof towards this chimney will be directed away as it approaches. A chimney cricket will help keep the back side of your chimney free of debris and water puddling or ponding. Picture this in early spring in a northern climate. Water trickling down the roof in the day time begins to freeeze as the temperatures drop. Now if that water freezes right behind the chimney, you may have an ice dam issue. By having the chimney cricket, the water will be directed around the chimney, rather than gathered up directly behind it.

Now, lets take a look at a chimney that does not have a cricket installed. You will notice a small amount of debris, if you look really hard.

Notice how the lack of a chimney cricket has allowed the debris to be gatherd up behind the chimney. There is actually a maple tree growing behind that chimney. Not something your home inspector really wants to find. A cricket would have prevented this build up. Hopefully this will be cleaned up before it gets out of control and does some damage.

As a rule of thumb, chimney crickets are recommended on chimneys that are over 30" wide. Do not be fooled by this rule however. If you are having problems with debris behind your chimney that is less than 30" wide, you may still want to consider a chimeny cricket. A good home inspector will note the absence or presence of a chimeny cricket for you, and may also make recommendations as to the effectiveness of a chimeny cricket.

If you are unable to access your roof to see behind your chimney, hire a home inspector or other chimney professional to do a proper examination of the area to see if a chimeny cricket is needed behind your chimney. If a chimeny cricket is needed, hire the proper professional to do the work for you, and have it inspected upon completion of the work or repair.

Chirp! Chirp!

Ok, I need just a few moments of your time to vent on a situation I encountered a few days ago. This promises to be quite interesting reading for some of you. I have discussed this situation with a few others and gotten several opinions on how to best handle this. What's your take?

I had just finished up my morning inspection and was on my way to have lunch with a friend. I get about half way there and my phone rang. I answered it, and it was a gentleman wanting to hire me for a home inspection. In 4 hours. I told him I was very busy that afternoon, could it be done later in the week. He says he needs it today, so I tell him to let me make some phone calls and I will get back to him. I did have an inspection of a roof scheduled for that afternoon, but the woman told me it would be no problem if I arrived later in the evening or even the next morning. Great!! Now I can go do this other home inspection and help this guy out.

So, I call him back and he tells me that his realtor says he doesn't need an inspection, because he has a report for the same property from two years ago. What? Are you $#^&*@ kidding me? So, I kind of chuckled and told him I wished him good luckj and to have a nice day. He asks me why that is so funny. I explain to him that the inspection was not performed for him, nor paid for by him, and that in the event of a problem with the home he would be left holding the bag so to speak. He asked about the legality of this idea, and I told him while it may not be illegal, it is highly unethical business practice. He agreed with me, and decided to do the inspection after all. Great, I will see you in a few hours.

Now, I have been out to lunch, discussed this with a friend and had a few laughsd about it. But something just isn't sitting right with me concerning Mr Realtor. So, I head home to grab a few things before I have to head over to the home inspection. I get about ten minutes from my home, about an hour before this inspection is supposed to begin. And guess what. Correct, my phone rings again, and it is Mr Homebuyer. Now this is where it gets really good. Apparently, Mr Realtor has found someone that will do the home inspection for fifty dollars less than I will. So I tell Mr Homebuyer that as we talked about earlier my fee is blah blah blah. I procedd to explain to him why mmy price is justified and that I am NOT working for his realtor and he will be getting a very unbiased inspectionn and report from me. So guess what now. Right, the inspection is back on. See you in about an hour Sir.

Now about this time I have had it up to my neck with this Realtor, and this guy for that matter. I pull into the driveway, and ring ring ring. Mr Homebuyer on the line. He is having some problems with the seller and needs to cancel for today. He ends up giving me this whole story about it, but I'm not buying it. When he is all done, I say, did you decide to go with the other home inspector. He says no, you are my guy. I have to work some issues out with the seller, and I will call you back at the end of the week. It may not be for this house but you will be doing my next home inspection. So, I tell him thanks, and have a great afternoon.

So at this point I am really steamed about this whole situation, but I am looking for the silver lining. Do I believe this guys' story, probably not, but I may have just found a very grateful client, that may recommend me to more clients. The bottom line is that I held my ground and didn't completely bend for this guy. Yes, I shifted some things around to accomodate him, but I didn't let him and his realtor dictate the rest of the situation. Mr Realtor probably won't recommend me, but that's OK. Who knows, maybe this guy will never call back, and made up the comments about the realtor. I don't know. But if he does call back, he will know that he can completely truct my home inspection and my report. And if he has that, his recommendation will be better than any other.

So, now I ask you, what would you do in this situation. Would you call and talk to this realtor, and find out if this story holds water? I am quite perplexed on this one. Any

Hello everyone.........haven't been here in while. But I wanted to stop by and let everyone know that my wife and I are expecting our first child. We are so excited, and happy to be parents-to-be. I cannot wait for the big day to arrive. On my website, I have a raffle set up for anyone in my service area to participate in. Even if you are not in my area, feel free to place your guesses, sorry, I won't drive or fly that far though.

Here is the link, if anyone is interested...www.squareonehomeinspection.com