Straw Poll re Attics

[bsilowash]

Situation: No floor in attic, loose insulation covers joists, headroom limited to 42" to the bottom of the ridge beam of a hip roof. Access is through a hatch.

Question: Do you enter the attic or inspect from the hatch?

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by bsilowash

Situation: No floor in attic, loose insulation covers joists, headroom limited to 42" to the bottom of the ridge beam of a hip roof. Access is through a hatch.

Question: Do you enter the attic or inspect from the hatch?

Depends how I felt that day.....

But..!

I would probably weasel my way through like a squirrel monkey...!

[tneumann]

Weasel.....

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Originally Posted by bsilowash

Situation: No floor in attic, loose insulation covers joists, headroom limited to 42" to the bottom of the ridge beam of a hip roof. Access is through a hatch.

Question: Do you enter the attic or inspect from the hatch?

Very seldome unless I can get in easy I just mark down attic viewed from attic entrance .
Most are to small in a closet with a loaded shelf.
Never had a complaint .

Roy Cooke

[dbelmont]

Given what you describe it's the hatch at best. Being 6'4" and 300 lbs means that I'm careful about wherre I crawl. But if I can get close then out come my trusty binoculars and ,my camera has a great zoom as well.

[dhelm]

From the hatch unless something made me suspicious. Weaseling through would compact all that nice blown in insulation and compromised its usefulness.

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by bsilowash

Situation: No floor in attic, loose insulation covers joists, headroom limited to 42" to the bottom of the ridge beam of a hip roof. Access is through a hatch.

Question: Do you enter the attic or inspect from the hatch?

Hatch

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

squirrel monkey

[mthomas2]

Hatch first.

Then, depends on what I see. Probably I go at least *some distance* in around a quarter of the time in difficult attics - far enough to see around major obstructions and take a look at the chimney/roof junction if possible. At a minimum in that situation I take hi-res photos, then pull them into Photoshop, use highlight/shadows adjustment, and then enlarge (on screen) and take a *careful* look... that's on reason I don't do on-site reports.

BTW, recently had a client stick their head up into the hatch and ask "What about that broken rafter?".... because of the angle it was only readily visible only from hatch level... *very* hard to see standing in the attic.

Boy, would *that* have been embarrassing...

Lesson (re)learned: always take a good look from hatch level first.

[bsilowash]

Thanks for all the responses. Here is what I think: it's folly to climb through an attic with no floor. Who will pay for the damage if you miss a joist and step through the ceiling (think about the dance you do when you bump your head!)

I had an inspection today where the client was disappointed because I told him I wasn't going to crawl through the attic since it had no floor. To me, thats' just unsafe. And unnecessary.

I told him to call some of the other inspectors he had shopped, to see what they would do. He said three of them said "Sure, no problem... I'll crawl along the joists". Maybe he called some of you!

If that's your pleasure, go for it... I won't do it.

[tneumann]

I have yet to see an attic with a floor...so If I only crawled attics with floors...I would never crawl any attics......

I like em.....I like nasty crawlspaces also.....makes me feel like I'm earning my money...

[Blaine Wiley]

If I can duck walk it, I get through it. Your description sounds about like the normal attic here.

I won't go over the vaulted ceilings though. At 6'1", 250 I would make a horrible sound when I slipped through the ceiling to the floor 15 feet below!!

[bzimbelman]

Originally Posted by tneumann

I have yet to see an attic with a floor...so If I only crawled attics with floors...I would never crawl any attics......

I like em.....I like nasty crawlspaces also.....makes me feel like I'm earning my money...

100% agree. I crawl into and around anything I can. From what you described, one word comes to mind....


SPACIOUS

I'd do the crawl for the same reason I walk the roof. Most of the time I find something serious it's found in one of three places: under the house, in the attic or on top of the roof. I would not find most of them from the access point or top of a ladder.

IHMO, don't do those three whenever possible, and you are shorting your client and setting yourself up for a trip to the courthouse.

[Dave Morris]

I enter every space I possibly can. That is what my client pays me to do. Occasionally there are attics or crawlspaces that I cannot navigate and note it as so, but it is pretty rare in my area.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Originally Posted by Dave Morris

I enter every space I possibly can. That is what my client pays me to do. Occasionally there are attics or crawlspaces that I cannot navigate and note it as so, but it is pretty rare in my area.

And how long has Dave been doing inspections .

I have only been doing them for eight years and always interested in improving my inspections .
I take about Three hours and how long do you take .
I also Charge $399;00 ,am I charging to much what do you charge
Thanks for your Info .

Roy Cooke