Robert Butler, Montreal, Canada Home Inspector

Do you think this is an inviting Halloween walkway?

It's actually the morning after Halloween but can you spot the 8 safety concerns here?

No I'm not talking about the absence of handrails or the disrepair and neglected landscaping around the walkway though those improvements would be recommended.

Neither am I talking about the soil that has slumped or eroded away from under the original pair of steps 'hanging' on the house. All the concrete is in good shape. The surfaces are good. There are no cracks. And everything is level.

So can you spot them?........

Maybe not…………..

So visualize walking them………….

A ha!......

Every, and I mean EVERY step is a different height and a different depth (measuring front to back). Every riser is a different height! And every tread is a different length!

So what happens when you walk it? You’ll stumble, you’ll adjust, you might over compensate a little. But you could fall or turn an ankle or worse. That is in the daylight. Imagine what it’s like a night. Quite the Halloween trick – something’s’ off, a little wrong, but you don’t know what it is…spooky!

I’d put up a temporary handrail on both sides, until corrections could be made. If you lived here you could get used to it but it would always feel wrong.

Stairs are to be made a certain way. There is a formula for it that carpenters, builders and architects use. There are variations. They are not all the same, especially outdoors. But one thing will be the same. Every set or flight of stairs will be even and groups or runs of flights separated by landings or walks will be even.

That means in that set all risers and tread runs will be identical. You adjust to it, its rhythmic. You go up and down the stairs automatically with out thinking about it. We all do it, even running.

But one odd riser can send us for a spill. Here you can’t adjust. There’s no rhythm. It’s just wrong.

The young, the old, the pregnant, the ill and inebriated will have difficulty and we’ll all fit most of those categories sooner or later.

N.B. Home owners and contractors who install new floors with out planning for the change in height of the floor risk creating trip hazards at the tops and bottoms of the stairs. The floor may have to be adjusted near the stair.

As an inspector I’ve often heard "I don't need to get an inspection, it’s a new house." Big mistake, made by the inexperienced,most often young couples. New construction is where the biggest problems exist. The problem is not 'glue verses wood' or any other technological innovations. Each technology selected is a working durable system and as long as it is fully implemented and integrated into the home construction it's fine. The knowledge is there.

The problem arises from lack of supervision both in the architectural decision stages and the on site management. It used to be the norm that a building was erected by a general contractor who put a full time supervisor on site and directly hired (on payroll) all the required manpower and tradesmen. Only materials suppliers were subcontractors.

Now there are no general contractors like that, they are project managers, and everyone working on the building is a subcontractor. So there is no supervision, or very little, and no one has detailed responsibility for any given building. Developers are often the project managers themselves and are having sections of a development or series of condo structures being erected at one time. Typically they are concerned with managing contracts, controlling costs, and making sales at the same time.

Any given tradesman may be 90% finished his work at quitting time Friday, and then be sent to another building site or condo come Monday morning. These gaps in work completion are expected to be noted at later inspections and be completed with final punch lists (deficiency lists). Work proceeds, walls get closed and gaps and errors are not seen till problem symptoms show up in occupied dwellings. If an apprentice has made mistakes or a tradesman is less than competent with a new technology, then errors and defects will be present. Too often when such errors are found, they are corrected at that point, but rarely does anyone go back over the previous construction work for correction.

For example, there are many (16 to 18) new ‘engineered flooring’ systems that have replaced the old wood joist - cross-braced traditional floor framing. They are great. They don't squeak. They are stronger. They are lighter. They can span greater distances. Etcetera. But detailing at rim zones, stair openings and passthroughs for electrical, plumbing and HVAC equipment is different and specialized for each system. Additionally there are code-mandated reinforcements required at perimeters, openings and above (and below) bearing partitions. The specifications are different for all of them. They are not standardized and they cannot be mixed with traditional floor framing.

Even for a floor framing contractor it would be nearly impossible to know all of it and the other tradesmen who come later to install or pass their systems through the flooring, they know even less of such detailing and reinforcement requirements. This is where knowledgeable supervision and coordination through the course of the site work is valuable. Ask any inspector how many times he's found framing badly compromised or weakened to pass plumbing, wiring or air ducts.

That's only one example. I could easily talk about similar problems with insulation and vapour barrier systems, building framing ventilation, attic ventilation, fire blocking, access panels & hatches, framing protection at windows and doors, window wells and foundation drainage, plus building envelope and roofing flashing-counterflashing systems.

There are lots of new materials / products available that offer improvements or lower cost / labour installation. They have benefits but equally their use and installation has new detail requirements.

You might be lucky. Some systems may be overbuilt and minor deficiencies never cause a problem (roof trusses in the 70s for example). The symptoms of some errors may never show up for years and be hard to diagnose.

Certainly the builders never see them and can't relate to something they may have missed. Once the walls are up and the finishes installed that’s all you can see, the finishes. That's usually what sells the house, but the value is in how well it is built.

“New builds” are not automatically inferior. As a matter of fact all eras had similar standards problems (or lack of), poor workmanship and rushed construction concerns. Those buildings either got replaced or corrected over time, so now all the ‘old’ ones are ‘good’ ones.

Just like antique furniture, the well crafted and well maintained remain. The substandard got renovated or replaced. There are relatively few ‘dogs’ around and even they are usually modernized, at least in part.

There are lots of houses build before the Civil War (and WW1, WW2, etc.) that are no longer seen. Some are gone because of fires and random acts of nature but many because they weren’t as well built as the ones that do remain.

That doesn’t meant that new houses are categorically ‘ not as good’. They just don’t have enough history yet.

So unless you've commissioned the construction of a new home and paid a professional to supervise that construction you can't know what you are getting.

If you are buying a new home, condo or town house, under construction or soon to be built by a developer, then hire an inspector to do a new construction series inspection for you. This will be multiple visits and photo documentation through all stages of construction with periodic or phase reports and comments from the inspector.

The previous two scenarios are your best options but at the very least have a newly built home inspected at the time of purchase. A Pre-Purchase Inspection.

The final walk through inspection at the time of property turnover with the builders’ inspector may be presented to you as your inspection. But that is not the case.

That inspector is usually on contract with the builder and is working for the builder, and the purpose for them is to establish a list of items or details that remain to be completed as their final obligation to the buyer. That list is usually minor finish defects, paint, hardware or some exterior items that cannot be done now due to the season or supply delays.

But that is not a pre-purchase home inspection and that means you have not done your ‘due diligence’ with regard to the purchase of the property. What that means is that you may not be able to get resolution from the courts if a problem manifests later.

Once you sign that list and the other paperwork, you are on your own but for the good will of the builder. To be fair, most of the time you’ll be OK.

The best you can do to protect yourself is be represented by your own real estate agent (no additional cost here) and to have your own inspection done on the property, regardless of type or age. If you can have your construction series inspector checking for you through all the phases of a new build, so much the better.

RB

What do you think this is ?

I saw this turned wooden 'bracket' next to the entrance of the house I was about to inspect.

It looked like one of those adjustable brackets that are sometimes used to raise and lower clothes lines, and they are usually mounted near a door, like this is. But there is no pulley and it's made of wood and was once well finished but now appears weathered and worn, especially at the bottom.

As a matter of fact the bottom looks like a handle. So..I pulled it.

And a real estate agent answered the door !

It's a wall mounted door announcer pull ! Not a handle to pull the door closed. (It's not on the door anyway.)

IT'S A REAL DOOR BELL. It's a handle that pulls a cord or cable that passes to the interior and rings a bell when you pull.

They were more commonly smaller and made integral with the door (with a small bell hung on the inside of the door. This one is wall mounted (and is larger than the door mounted version).

Sadly (for the buyers) this device was excluded from the sale. It would be taken by the departing owner. ( I think I would too.)

The other half - The Door Bell :

You can hear this anywhere in the house, and for me it is a lot more classy than buzzers, or even the ubiquitous melodious electronic 'chimes'.

We still often say " ring the bell' or describe the announcing equipment as ' the door bell', but the real thing is rare now. We commonly don't get to see or hear them anymore.

RB

Snap Crackle Pop

"I was working in the lab late one night when.." snap crackle pop the lights went out.

Actually I was in my basement wood working shop trying to put together an impromptu kids toy. The toy was a contraption made of small pieces of wood, bobby pins and elastic bands. Something slipped, the elastic snapped and small parts went flying.Snap - crackle - click - no lights. (The pop came later.)

Oh! oh? Burnt ozone smell. Quick - flashlight - electrical panel. Tripped circuit breaker - that won't reset.

Eventually I found it. A bobby pin fused across the positive and neutral prongs (also called blades) of the chest freezer plug that was partially out from the wall plug receptacle.

So what happened?

Well.. the snap was the elastic band that propelled the bobby pin across the room, which hit the wall, fell down across the plug blades.

The crackle was the electric arcing which fused the bobby pin to the plug blades. The arcing produced the burnt ozone smell, scorched the wall receptacle plate and slightly melted one side of the plug.

The click was the circuit breaker, working as it is designed to do, tripping to the off position and breaking the circuit. This prevents fires, electrical shocks and limits damage to equipment.
The metal pin caused an electrical short across the plug blades, so the circuit breaker reacted and turned off the power to that plug and coincidentally the basement lights.

This all occured inless than a second.!
The pop came later (after replacing the freezer plug) when I put the circuit back on and an incandescent light bulb said goodbye.

The Question:
This all happened years ago. I later got an electrician in, to replace the receptacle and separate the lighting from the plug circuits.
I asked him if the receptacle orientation was wrong and wouldn't it be better if it was positioned so the third blade (grounding prong) was upper most.
He said no, there was no rule or trade practice preference and there is no mention of it in any electrical building codes. There is also no unanimous agreement amongst electricians on the subject so it is left to user or installers’ preference.

In all my experience I have asked the same question of many electricians, electrical engineers and architects. I have gotten essentially the same answer with minor variations. Until now!

The Answer:
Yes! I found it in the March 2008 issue of Taunton Press' 'Fine Homebuilding' magazine. It is on pages 100 to 102 in the Question + Answer section. This is a very succinct practical answer from a master electrician in Rocky Mount, Virginia; Rex Cauldwell.

His answer says that although there is no official right or wrong way, logic and electrical common sense dictate that:

1. Wall outlets that will be used by appliances with immediate turn plugs (clothes washers, refrigerators, freezers and window air conditioners) should be oriented so that the plug inserts without having its' own cord loop over itself, as the downward pull of the cord will tend to ease the plug out of the receptacle.

2. Otherwise the grounding slot should be on top. Then for a partially pulled (or partially inserted ) plug, something metal falling on it ( knife , pin, nail ,screw, coin, coat hanger etc. ) won't cause a direct short as the grounding pin will deflect the item from the terminals.

3. And for receptacles installed horizontally the grounding slot should be on the left, which places the wider neutral slot on top. That way anything metallic hitting exposed blades will hit the grounded neutral blade instead of the hot (powered) blade.

Nice to have a good answer.

The practical SAFETY lessons are:
1. Check that plugs are either all the way in or all the way out.
2. When remodeling, renovating or your cousin the electrician is visiting, verify that the receptacles are installed according to the above rules.

Fuses and circuit breakers are major players in a SAFETY SYSTEM that is wired into your home circuitry.

They are installed by professionals who insure that the quantity and size (amperage) used will provide the load capacity to do what is desired while providing the highest degree of safety.

This is why the use of oversize fuses, reliance on extension cords and the bad habits of penny coin or tin foil 'bridges' in fuse boxes is so dangerous. These practices circumvent or short-circuit the safety systems. Quite shocking! Literally!

Circuit breaker panels are more modern and are more idiot proof than fuse panels. Tripped breakers can be reset, so the absence of the required fuse or fuse size doesn't result in "long term temporary solutions".

Circuit breakers should be tested periodically by manually tripping the breakers to ensure that none have seized or weakened. You want to know they'll work on demand, in an instant.

The snap crackle pop incident recounted above occurred in a fraction of a second.
The safety system worked. It was all in place.
It did take hours though to find, understand, make repairs and restore the lighting.
Don't know if I ever did figure out that kids toy.