Why Kickout Flashing is Essential for Your Home: Protecting Against Water Damage When it comes to home construction and maintenance, one of the most crucial but often overlooked components is kickout flashing. This small but significant piece of flashing plays a critical role in directing water away from vulnerable areas of your home, particularly where the roof meets a vertical wall. Without proper kickout flashing, water […]
I am a part of a few new construction groups on Facebook. These groups are great for helping people get answers to questions regarding their new home. One post I have been seeing a lot of recently with these cold exterior temperatures is with people’s basement foundation walls being wet. This is an extremely common issue on new homes and it’s easy to address! Let’s […]
In this article I will be talking about new construction foundation cracks. I will discuss what you should know about them, whether they are a concern or not, and how to deal with them. Your first thought may be “My house is brand new, how is there a crack in the foundation already?”. While I agree with this thought, it is extremely common for a […]
I do a lot of new construction home inspections, more so than typical. This year alone I’ve done at least 40 so far. I decided to compile this list of common problems I run into on new construction builds. This list is in no particular order. 1. Sump Pump Installation Issues The sump pump is discharging inches from the foundation. Builders simply don’t run the […]
As an inspector I have inspected and seen countless new construction homes. Everywhere from totally custom builds to the bare builder with no options. I have also built a home myself using a well known local builder in 2020. This is a list of upgrades/options I recommend getting when building a new home. 1. Vaulted Ceilings in Living Areas Don’t skip this. It not only […]
I recently inspected a home that had an interesting issue with a window. Failed seals are not a rare find, almost every home over 10 years old has a window with a failed seal and staining or moisture trapped between the two panes of glass. The issue here I found, however, was not so common. Rare in fact! The window seal had failed and the […]
It’s been awhile since I’ve created a blog post so I apologize to my fans (sarcasm). Recently I had some thoughts come to mind about roofs. After any kind of weather event that could possibly damage your roof there are going to be a influx of roofing companies that want to come out and look at your roof FREE of charge. Sounds great right?! These […]
Garage door photoelectric sensors, also called “photo eyes” are the small black boxes you see mounted on the door track that usually have a round glass lens like a camera lens on them. They are mounted towards the base of the garage door track near the garage floor (or, at least they should be mounted there). These sensors are designed as a safety feature to […]
I had the pleasure of inspecting a new construction build recently. The deck was one of the worst new deck builds I’ve ever inspected and it somehow managed to pass city inspection (I found that out later). I wanted to go over exactly what was wrong with this deck by listing out the issues and going into explanation of why these things are issues. The […]
A common defect I see in homes, especially newer homes, is the wrong fastener being used to secure kitchen cabinets to walls. I commonly see drywall screws used rather than proper cabinet screws. What’s the difference between the two and why is it an issue? Let’s dive in! Drywall screws are made to serve one purpose and that is to secure full sheets or partial […]
If you’re a new resident or soon to be new resident of O’Fallon Missouri there are many things you’ll need to know or do to get set up. O’Fallon’s population is a little over 87,000 people and growing with lots to see and do! Moving to a new town can be a stressful process and it can take a lot of time searching the web […]
An open ground receptacle is an electrical receptacle that is not showing a ground wire connected. This could be because the ground wire disconnected on the receptacle or somewhere in the circuit or series or because there simply isn’t a ground wire (because it is an old 2 wire electrical system). The reason this is unsafe is that although the receptacle appears to be grounded, […]
A home inspection can take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours. The length of time a home inspection takes depends on many different factors. The main factors are age, size, and condition. The main factor I use to give a rough estimate of how long the inspection will take is the size of the house. Before I dive deeper I want to put a little […]
When buying a home there come some inherent risks, especially when purchasing a used home. However, purchasing a home in the winter time brings some additional inherent risks that you may not know about. Now before I start I want to say that you will probably hear from real estate agents that winter is the best time to buy a house. I’m not necessarily arguing […]
As a home inspector the tool I use most is undoubtedly a flashlight. In this very first installment of Rigid Reviews I review my favorite flashlight, the GearLight. The past 4+ years I have been inspecting homes I have gone through or tried at least 30 different flashlights. I landed on this one as my favorite and most reliable flashlight: GearLight (Buy on Amazon). The […]