Ray Wilson - NYS Licensed Inspector

Many circuit breakers that are in service for many years have never had to perform their safety function. They stay on and never trip because the circuit has never been overloaded. This is generally a good thing, but circuit breakers should be shut off and turned back on at least once a year.

Some electrical service panels and their circuit breakers are left exposed with no covers which can cause problems. Every brand of circuit breaker has what is called an 'arc chute'. This is a small passageway that gives the arc (the spark of electrical energy when a circuit breaker trips) a place to go to atmosphere where it gives off its energy. When you leave a cover off a service panel, this arc chute can fill with dust, or worse, saw dust (if you do any woodworking like I do). This saw dust can ignite and be the root cause of an electrical fire.

Any doubts as to the condition of your service panel should facilitate a call to your local electrician. Have him/her check out the panel, exercise the breakers, and perform any maintenance that may be needed.

I have blogged many times regarding electrical problems I have seen in peoples' homes. Frayed paper insulation, frayed cloth insulation, spider webs, opne knock-out holes, loose wiring, lack of romex connectors, over-stripped conductors, rust from water infiltration and damp basements are common things for me to see.

The cost of calling in an electrician is far less than the cost of a fire, or the cost of loosing a life or many lives. -Ray

Efficiency testing of oil heating equipment is essential for clean and proper operation of your oil fired boilers and water heaters. You can usually tell if an efficiency test has been done because you will see a small 1/4 inch diameter hole drilled in the vertical part of your exhaust piping. This is the most common method.

The technician has a special 'gun' that he uses in conjunction with a piece of filter paper that looks like a small white bandaid. The nozzle of the gun is inserted into the hole and as the boiler or water heater is operating, he 'pulls' some of the exhaust in through the gun, which passes through the paper. He will then show you the paper, which will usually have a dark stain. This indicates all of the oil that is being introduced into the firebox is not being burned.

You are wasting your precious fuel, and if not operating efficiently for a long time, you can get a 'puffback'. This can be a real nightmare as soot will travel throughout the entire house, and you may need a restoration company to clean the entire house and its contents.

After replacing the nozzle and adjusting the air intake, he will do the test again with a new piece of filter paper, and if adjusted properly, the paper will come out almost perfectly clean.

I sometimes see installations that have no holes drilled, and many times the hole is not covered up with tape - this hole should be covered after the procedure is done. Annual maintenance of oil fired equipment is peformed by the oil company that delivers your oil, and usually the annual cleaning is free as it is part of your contract. If you do not clean your heating equipment for a few years, you are literally playing with fire, and soot, and smoke, and your wallet. -Ray

Many people feel the need to finish the basement so it can be used as living space. I don't particularly agree with this notion, but it is done everyday. And everyday it is done wrong - or at least most of the time.

If you have a subterranean basement, you will always have moisture leaching upwards from the soil through the concrete. Concrete is porous, and moisture is always traveling upwards from the soil under your foundation. This path of moisture travels upwards through the entire house. Opening up basement windows to let out moisture does not work. In fact, it makes the basement more moist. Crawl spaces with dirt floors leach even more moisture.

If you want to prove this to yourself, take a piece of plastic, like from a hefty bag, and tape a 12 inch by 12 inch piece to the floor. Go back in 2 days and remove the plastic - you will see moisture trapped under the plastic. Now, do you really want to lay wood flooring, or worse - carpeting - on top of this concrete? Then you must like mold, and musty smelling living space.

I often seen mold in basements, or smell that musty odor - which is mold. If you want a really moisture free basement for living space, you should call one of those dry basement companies. The one I know of uses no organic material in the basement. All wall panels, flooring, etc, has no organic material. They have a complete system which includes completely sealing off the floor surface, installing drain piping at the inside if the foundation which includes breaking up the perimeter of the concrete floor to install drainage piping and drywell outside the foundation, or a drainage pipe to a remote location.

It is quite a bit of work, but if you want to live in the basement, then you should consider making it real living space. When I see wood or laminate flooring in a basement, it almost always has buckled or receded, or has uneven and spongy areas.

There is a whole science to proper basement finishing these days, and it pays to investigate the options. Personally, I would never finish off a basement, but if you do, and you want dry, mold free living space, find a local company that does it right. Mold LOVES sheetrock because it has organic material (paper), and what you can't see behind the sheetrock can hurt you, or make it uncomfortable, especially if you are buying a house with a finished basement. Most homeowners finish off their basement themselves, and often I don't even see 6 mil plastic on the walls and fiberglass insulation in front of it. - Ray

There are many inspectors offering lead-based paint inspction as an ancillary service, but from what I am hearing through the agents I deal with, most inspectors do not have the certification. I took the class and have this EPA certification which requires refresher courses.

I did not get the cert to make a ton of money from it, I did it more for personal enrichment, but I have done lead-based paint inspection. There are two ways to perform this inspection.

The first way is through the use of an XRF gun (X-ray fluorescence gun) which contains radioactive material, so this expensive (over $15,000) piece of equipment is not something most home inspectors have. And the guidelines of owning one are quite stringent - you cannot cross state borders without making arrangments with authorities, you cannot travel in tunnels with one without notifying authorities, etc. I do not own this gun either. This type of testing is considered non-destructive testing.

The other way is to remove samples of paint from the subject property. The samples must by a specific size, and must be bagged, labeled, categorized, and a diagram of the subject property must be made. The paint must be removed all the way down to the original painted surface, and sometimes you remove some of the substrate material (plaster, wood, metal) so you can be assurred you have removed the earliest layers of paint. In general, I do not repair the area I just damaged either, so you will have to have a contractor come in and do repair work after samples are removed.

So it is obviously easier to have a lead abatement contractor come in - they will more likely have the gun I mentioned above. If the inspector brings in those little white sticks that you buy in the paint store for testing for lead-based paint, this is NOT considered an accurate test for lead-based paint. As a New York State licensed inspector, I CANNOT use these for a test for my clientele, and I do not.

When you purchase a house built before 1979 in New York, the agent is supposed to give you a booklet called 'Protect your family from lead in your home' which is from the EPA, and describes the hazards of lead-based paint. All real estate offices have these blue boooklets, and you should ask for one if you did not receive it from your agent. - Ray

I got into a 'discussion' with the seller of a home in Glen Cove, N.Y. today. The seller had a large second story dormer added to his house 8 years ago, and the CO was issued by the municipality. The house was built in the 1950's and had the original 100 amp Murray service panel in place. It was never updated for the additional electrical needs of the house with nearly twice the living space as the original house.

Who did the work I do not know, but every single circuit breaker in the service panel had been replaced with a twin circuit breaker. And several of these twins had been double tapped - two wires into a breaker where only one should exist. There are now about 43 circuits connected inside the panel where 20 were originally. The workmanship was poor, there was paper insulation and frayed insulation in the panel (this should have been removed by the electrician/homeowner), as well as saw dust, spider webs, and 2 beer bottle caps. The panel had also been nearly enclosed by wall surfaces, and it was difficult to remove the cover due to the paneling. This is another issue - access must be present for future service.

This is bonafide problem, but the seller insisted that having the CO meant all work was performed properly, and that no safety issues were present. I stood by my remarks, but did not wish to argue. The seller wished to argue, but I walked away with the buyer as I do not want to be confrontational. This is the unwritten law of home inspection - diffuse all arguments.

Having a CO does NOT always mean everything is done properly. This is a sad state of affairs, but it is reality. The buyer practically kissed me, and I got a $40 tip too! -Ray