Ever wonder how long different household materials and components will last? Well, InterNACHI has assembled a comprehensive, 200+ item report detailing the predicted life-expectancy of everything you may encounter in or outside a house. Browse the list, which includes items that are in a home (air conditioners, washers and dryers, etc), part of a home (ceramic tile, plumbing, etc), or outside of a home (fences, patios, etc). To see for yourself, take a look at InterNACHI’s brand new, robust life expectancy chart for household materials and components.

In times like these, one has to wonder why more houses and businesses don’t have “cool” reflective roofs, which are roof surfaces that reflect the sun’s radiant energy back into space. Conventional asphalt shingles absorb most of this energy and convert it into heat, leading to higher costs for air conditioning, especially in warm climates. But it doesn’t have to be this way - specially designed white roofs can reflect almost all of the sun’s energy and reduce cooling expenses dramatically. Some companies even offer dark-colored asphalt shingles that look virtually the same as conventional shingles, but they still reflect large amounts of solar radiation. They do this by absorbing visible light but reflecting the radiation we cannot see, namely infrared and ultraviolet. Cool roofs last longer than “un-cool” roofs because they don’t experience as much expansion and contraction. True, they cost a bit more, but not nearly as much as other energy-saving endeavors, such as solar panels and geothermal systems. To find out more, check out our new article on cool roofs.

Toilets can fail in many ways and inspectors should not overlook them in their inspections. Defects range from cosmetic and irritating (cracks in lid or weak flush) to serious (continuously running toilets can cause a well’s pump to burn out). Inspectors may also want to be aware of the toilet designs that differ from standard gravity toilets, especially the “green” designs that conserve water and are becoming more popular. To find out more, check out our new article on inspecting toilets.

Geothermal heating and cooling systems get their heat from the ground. While this concept has been exploited since ancient times, it is only a niche market today. But it’s growing in popularity, especially as fuel prices rise and fears of global warming have begun influencing lifestyles. Granted, geothermal systems are very expensive to install, but they last longer than most conventional heating and cooling systems and they cost much less to operate. Here’s how they work - they tap in to the year-round constant temperature of soil that’s below the frost line and use that soil to heat the home in the winter and absorb heat from the home in the summer. It’s really quite ingenious, and it works basically everywhere, even in Maine (you would just have to drill down a little deeper to get below the frost line). For more information about geothermal and some basic ways to inspect the systems, check out our new article on geothermal heating and cooling systems.

Ladders are - very - dangerous devices, probably more dangerous than you realize. According to some sources, nearly one person dies per day from a ladder fall. Most of these fatal falls are from less than 10 feet and many of the victims were trained professionals who simply got careless. Interestingly, it is over-reaching that causes the most ladder falls. We researched the topic and created an article combining common sense with novel safety tips. To see what we came up with, check out our new article on ladder safety.

A lot of houses have a pull-down ladder that you can use to access the attic, which is a lot more convenient than access hatches that require you to bring a portable step ladder. Unfortunately, pull-down ladders are installed more often by homeowners than by professionals, which leads to shoddy, unsafe work. Homeowners may get lazy and neglect some of the fasteners, use the wrong kind of nail, or sometimes even cut into structural trusses in the attic. To find out more ways that they can be defective, take a look at our new article on attic pull-down stairs.

The Jodie Foster movie Panic Room popularized safe rooms, but they were around long before then. The construction of a fortified room designed to protect building occupants from various threats - be it extreme weather, a home invasion, or nuclear attack - is a fairly old idea. Safe rooms have become more common these days among the wealthy due to fears of terrorism, burglary and kidnapping, and inspectors should be prepared to encounter them. Even if safety defects are not found, inspectors may want to be able to inform their clients about what they should have stored in the safe room, and also be able to spot potential weak points in the room that may compromise their effectiveness. To find out more, check out our new article on safe rooms.

Have you heard of Kitec? If you haven’t, you probably will soon. The makers of the water pipe fitting - IPEX - were recently sued for $90 million in just one of many class-action suits against the manufacturer and many  builders and plumbers who installed Kitec. The problem, apparently, is that it was made cheaply with too much zinc, which quickly corrodes and clogs the fitting or the pipe. Water pressure gradually decreases and eventually the pipe may leak or even burst. While the majority of homeowners who have Kitec have not yet experienced serious problems, experts still recommend that the fittings be replaced - which costs an average of $7,000. It’s an extremely messy situation that has left tens of thousands of homeowners with the choice of either dishing out their savings or doing nothing at all and running the risk of a complete pipe failure. To find out more about where these fittings were installed, how they fail, how to identify them, and the legal repercussions of their installation check out our new article on kitec fittings.

One of the most common problems I encounter in the majority of my home inspections is the lack of attic ventilation. Attic / roof ventilation is probably the least understood requirement necessary for achieving a healthy home in Massachusetts. Most homeowners do not understand the full meaning and benefits of proper attic ventilation. There’s also a lack of understanding in how to properly size and position roof vents for an adequate air flow under the roof cavity.

Proper ventilation is absolutely necessary and vital, not only to the health and well being of every home, but also to every home’s occupant. Anyone who has been in an attic knows that attics get very hot! If the heat in the attic is allowed to sit there and not ventilate, it will conduct heat into the house, or, at the very least, prevent the heat in the house and attic cavity from escaping. Without adequate ventilation, your home will encounter problems such as rapid shingle deterioration (from melting), mold build-up throughout the attic, wood rot and delaminating sheathing, mildew, peeling exterior paint, rusty nails, energy losses, and many other problems that are often the direct result of inadequate attic ventilation. Wood boring insects such as Termites and Carpenter Ants are attracted to moisture buildup that is often caused by any inadequate ventilation.

Ironically, improving ventilation conditions can often be accomplished with low to moderate cost expenditures. Once my clients understand the problems associated with poor ventilation, there is usually a willingness to make these improvements as soon as they move into their new home. When there is significant damage from poor ventilation such as curling of the roofing shingles and delaminated roof sheathing with substantial mold or mildew buildup, improving the ventilation becomes secondary to repairing the damage first.

The most economical answer to this problem is to ventilate the attic. Moving air through the attic will absolutely reduce the temperature in this cavity. Most homes have passive attic ventilation in the form of a ridge vent at the peak of the roof, soffit vents in the eaves and gable vents at the top outside gable ends of the home, or some combination of these vents. Turbine and or roof vents (passive vents that penetrate the roof) are often used as a simple fix for older roofs with inadequate ventilation. The problem with passive vents is that they require some driving force - wind or temperature differential (hot air rising) - to move the hot air within the attic. Usually the hottest days of the year are the stillest, with little or no wind. Temperature differential doesn’t have much energy, so it is slow. Just when you need venting the most, the vents work least effectively. There is also the installation problem. If your roof cavity was designed without sufficient attic ventilation, adding additional passive vents may be impractical.

There are two types of air vents that I will always highly recommend: 1.) inlet air vents, also known as Soffit vents and 2.) outlet air vents, also known as Ridge vents. Having only one or the other type of vent is the equivalent of having neither vent at all. Therefore, to obtain proper attic/roof ventilation, both types of vents must be present, and in equal amounts of net free air flow.

Another very important detail to these particular vents is to make sure there are fire-proof Styrofoam baffles properly installed between the insulation and the roof sheathing. These baffles will help maintain the air flow by preventing the insulation from blocking this vent area. See “STYROFOAM BAFFLE“.

1.) SOFFIT VENT (Allows outside air to enter the attic/roof cavity)

2.) RIDGE VENT (allows air to properly exit attic/roof cavity)

PROPER INSTALLATION OF THESE VENTS AND BAFFLES WILL RESULT IN PERFECT AIR FLOW THROUGHOUT THE ATTIC/ROOF CAVITY.

If your house does not have the soffits or overhangs and your roof stops at the outside wall, you can vent the lower edge of your roof with a “starter” vent also known as a “drip-edge vent”. This will perform just as well as a soffit vent, but remember to install the baffles as shown above

DRIP-EDGE VENT

This is what happens to your roof shingles, if the ventilation is compromised.

Which is better, OSB or plywood? It depends on who you ask, where they build, what they want to pay, and numerous other variables. Some builders respond to exaggerated fears by refusing to use OSB, while others love the stuff and use it every chance they get. One thing is certain, however - OSB is now produced more than plywood, at least in North America. Most opinions as to which material is superior are based on heresay and experience, often from biased sources attempting to sell one material. Thankfully, however, a formal study was conducted by Georgia-Pacific, a manufacturer of both materials, which clearly preferred one material to the other. The results of that study, as well as other interesting pieces of information, are incorporated in our new article on the pros and cons of OSB and plywood.

Trees can be big and beautiful, but all will eventually break apart and topple. Hazardous trees have all sorts of symptoms, such as cankers, cracks, decay, lopsidedness and off-color leaves, and homeowners as well as inspectors should learn to spot these warning signs. Falling branches can damage roofs and falling trees can crush whole houses. Even healthy trees can cause problems, particularly when their roots sap water away from foundations or enter the house through cracks. To find out more about the common ways that trees can damage buildings, check out our new article on tree dangers.

• the heat-conveying medium;
• the fuel used;
• the nature of the heat; and
• the efficiency and capacity of the system.

To learn more about identifying and describing heating systems, read my new article.

Click here to read about the Defrost Cycle of a Heat Pump.