Good Reference Material?

[Frank P. Newman]

As someone new to the inspection business and NACHI in particular, I have enjoyed working through the various training courses and have learned quite a bit in the process. However, I am finding myself wishing that I had a lot of that material - particularly the 'rules of thumb' charts, etc. in a notebook for reference use later. I'm guessing that someone has probably published such a book of reference material for HIs and would appreciate a recommendation.TIA

[Michael R. Boyett]

Are you looking for something different than CodeCheck books.... www.codecheck.com ,that are available online or at Lowes' & HD?

[Frank P. Newman]

After looking at the samples, I guess those could be of use, but what I think I am looking for is something along the lines of material that summarizes the online course material for each discipline. Thanks for the suggestion - I will look closer at them in our HD.

[dchew]

Remember that a home inspection is not a code inspection. Code Checks are a good reference source, but you should be familiar with how homes were constructed in the past to the code in force at the time of construction.

[Frank P. Newman]

Exactly - that's why I think I am looking for something a little different. I guess I'll know it when I see it !

[jmichalski]

Frank,

Go back to the very first posts on this version of the message board (not the archives) in the tech threads - several people copied good and useful posts (not exactly thumbnail lists, but good stuff) over onto this board so it would not be lost.

Of course, they were buried under tons of other stuff and lost for all practical purposes. Dig deep - it's there.

[Michael R. Boyett]

This one Joe? http://www.nachi.org/forum/showthread.php?t=128

[jmichalski]

That's the one! Thanks, Michael.

[Frank P. Newman]

Yes, I had seen that list and have already looked through several of the threads. Will probably look at them all eventually.

[ekartal6]

Frank,

Try a Google search for what your looking for. Always works for me.

[Michael R. Boyett]

I think what Frank is looking for is called "experience" and I'm not sure there's a cheat sheet available for it.

[Frank P. Newman]

Originally Posted by mboyett

I think what Frank is looking for is called "experience" and I'm not sure there's a cheat sheet available for it.

Well, yes and no. First of all, please understand that I agree that there is no substitute for experience. We have all heard the expression "practice makes perfect" - right? A more realistic version of that axiom is to realize that "practice make PERMANENT"! Thus, although I may have inspected several hundred homes, that doesn't mean I have done so correctly unless I have used, as a reference, appropriate standards and other information.

I could just plan to refer to any of the various codes for any and all situations. For example. I could plan to review the NECs (applicable years) when doing electrical portions of any inspection, making the appropriate intrepretations along the way (which I am capable of doing). However, given that 90+% of the inspection items involve facts (overhead service conductor clearances, for example), known recalls or problem items, and 'rules of thumb' that could likely be condensed into a much smaller number of pages, (as in the the NACHI training material) it would seem that someone would have generated such reference material somewhere along the way. JMHO