This is the last part of a series covering some major questions to ask your home inspector. We’ve already covered home exteriors and electrical. This post will focus on heating and cooling systems.

Heating and Cooling

Find out what type of heating system is installed. Basically, most heating systems fall into two categories: furnaces and boilers. Furnaces will heat the air and distribute it with fans and ductwork. Boilers heat water and distribute heat with pipes and pumps through radiators.

Does your heater have a SEER rating or AFUE rating? The SEER rating indicates the efficiency of the system. Higher SEER ratings equal a more efficient unit meaning lower energy costs for you. The AFUE rating is between 0 and 100. Higher AFUE ratings mean more energy is utilized for heating and less escapes as exhaust.

Make sure you are comfortable turning the unit on and off. Learn what kind of maintenance is required (i.e. cleaning, changing filters). Spend a little time with the thermostat. Programmable thermostats are worthwhile but can be confusing at first. Be sure your comfortable operating it. Find out if it’s hard-wired or battery powered. If your heating unit won’t come on, check the thermostat first. It may simply need new batteries.

Find out the age of the air conditioner. Average life expectancy is around 12 years. A new compressor is like a new motor for a car. But be careful as generic brand compressors are cheap replacements that won’t last. Only use manufacturer approved replacements.

Ducts should be cleaned and inspected periodically. For the majority of homes, once every three years is adequate. Find out the last time the previous owner had it done. Cleaning your ducts (especially laundry vents) eliminates fire hazards and allergens.

What do you think? What did you discover about your HVAC system? What kind of problems did your inspector find?
Image courtesy of Justin Baeder

This is the second part of a series focused on questions to cover with your home inspector. Check out the first post on home exteriors here. Often the problems we can’t see with our eyes are the toughest to locate and solve. These are some important electrical points to cover on inspection day.

Electrical Inspection

The electrical setup of a home is very important. Loose or faulty wiring is a dangerous fire hazard and a poor installation will be a constant source of frustration. Be careful whenever working with electricity. Mishandling can lead to electrical burns or even be fatal.

1. See what kind of wiring has been installed. Older homes may have aluminum or knob and tube wiring. Aluminum does not conduct electricity as well as copper and both can easily overheat. These are potential fire hazards and your best bet is to avoid them. (edited 4/9/2008)

2. Know how to identify ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCI). These interrupters will break the circuit when it detects an unsafe current. You should find them installed for all outlets in bathrooms, garages, unfinished basements, wet-bar sinks, boathouses and outdoors. Your inspector should check each one to see that it functions properly.

3. Make sure you’re familiar with the electrical panel. The main breaker should have service for 100-200 amps (200 amps is better suited for todays needs). See if there is space for more breakers. Generally, any space that is not knocked out is free to put in another breaker. Double check that major appliances have their own circuit.

4. Check for frayed or damaged wires. Usually you can find exposed wires in the attic or unfinished basement. Fraying can occur when wires overheat and and the insulation cracks. Light bulbs that draw more watts than specified on the base are a common culprit.

5. Electrical wire comes in different gauges. Thicker wire (lower gauge) can handle more electrical current. One big danger is using improperly sized wire. If the wire you use is too small, it can overheat and short.

6. Check all outlets and switches to make sure they function. Don’t be shy. Try each one. An electrical must have is this handy receptacle tester. Just plug it in to analyze the circuit.

What do you think? Anyone find poor wiring after the purchase? How did you find the problem? Have you even had to rewire your home?

Image courtesy of James Emery

Purchasing a home is exciting. It feels great to have a place to make your own and do as you please. One of the first steps in buying a home is getting it inspected. Many first time buyers are awe-struck and unprepared for inspection day. I’m putting together a series of posts to examine the major areas of a home inspection. Hopefully, it will help folks make the most out of inspection day.  Feel free to comment on my list and suggest additions.  I’d like to make this a complete archive if possible. 

Exterior Home Inspection

The exterior of a house is a broad subject. I’ll hit on many of the major aspects that need to be reviewed during inspection. Let’s dive right in.

1.  Look at the land your house is on. Check the grade to make sure water will flow away from the house. Many leaky, damp basements occur because water sits against the foundation, slowly finding it’s way in. The moisture level in your basement is an easy gauge. Find out if the house is situated on a flood plane. Insurance companies require special flood insurance above and beyond home owner’s insurance to cover flood damage. Even with coverage, insurance companies will drop you if your house floods repeatedly.

2.  Know the condition of the roof. The average roof lasts around 20 years. Brittle shingles that break rather than bend indicate an aging roof. And it’s always better to replace a roof before it starts leaking, when you have maximum opportunity to negotiate with roofers.

3.  Check the chimney. Wood burning fireplaces need to have the chimney cleaned periodically, else they become a fire hazard. Starter logs can really gum up the chimney. Keep your eye open for them around the fireplace. In the future, avoid using them.

4.  Decks are a great addition when properly constructed. Have your inspector check how it was secured to the house (nails, lag screws, bolts). With enough weight, a poorly secured deck will separate and fall away from the house and noone wants that. More recent building codes require decks to be bolted through unless the deck has two rows of support posts.

5.  Check the siding. There are lots of options here. Vinyl siding is common but will crack and fade over time. Aluminum won’t crack but will dent. It is also a solid barrier to animals. Brick is attractive and long lasting. It may need patching after 25 years or so. Brick veneers look great but don’t last as long. One major concern here is stained/damaged siding. Many homeowners will claim that stains can be removed with simple powerwashing. This is often not true. Ask them to remove the stains before signing the final deal.

6.  Examine the windows. Original windows are often poor insulators allowing conditioned air to escape. Double pane glass (especially filled with an inert gas like Argon) acts as a great barrier to the outside world. Find out what the frames are made of. Vinyl is a great insulator with low maintenance costs. Ask if there is a warranty that can be passed along to new owners.

What do you think? What questions did you ask during your home inspection? What did you forget to ask? Did your inspector surprise you with any information?

About two weeks ago, I wrote a review of Valspar’s High Hiding Primer (a “one coat primer”) after Jocie used it to prime a dresser and an end table. Soon after, we received an email from Jeff, a technical support supervisor for Valspar.  Jeff contacted us to discuss my experience with their product. I didn’t even know they had technical support! He was very knowledgeable and friendly, and not confrontational at all. I enjoyed the conversation.

Jeff stood by Valspar’s product. He’s used his competitors’ products and believes Valspar’s primer is superior. He apologized for the lack of performance and offerred a few suggestions for getting better results in the future. In the end, he let me know that I could return the unused primer for a full refund at the store I purchased it from.  If the store wouldn’t honor the return, Valspar would refund my money directly.

Customer Service Matters

What did I take away from the exchange? Valspar cares about its customers.  If you have questions on one of their products, definitely give them a call.  In addition to answering my concerns on the primer, Jeff offerred several other painting tips, like using Goof Off to remove latex paint. 

We all know that you can’t overlook product performance. But customer service is important too.  In this case, Valspar’s technical support was great, and that will tip the scales in their favor on future purchases.

What do you think? Are you impressed with Valspar?  What customer service has impressed or disappointed you?

Picture courtesy of Chris Metcalf

I had a very interesting conversation with a coworker friend (we’ll call him John) related to mistake a granite installer made. I thought I’d write about it here and get your take.

John is building a large bar area in the home theatre room in his basement. He contacted a local granite countertop installer to build a two-level granite countertop for the bar. This bar is large – approximately 100 square feet of countertop space to be covered. Because the bar has two levels, there are three finished edges on the countertop: the front and back of the top shelf, and the front of bottom shelf. The picture here isn’t John’s bar; it’s one I found on Flickr Creative Commons, but it has the same general layout.

John negotiated a price for the countertop as a whole with the installer, approximately $7000.00. The installer subcontracted the granite order to a local supplier to fabricate the countertop. John worked directly with the fabricator to pick out the piece of granite that was to be used for the job.

The installer then asked if John wanted to have a special Ogee edge put on the sides of the countertop. (The picture also shows this edge). If you’ve ever priced granite, you know that these special edges can cost upwards of $20.00 / linear foot. Because the bar has two levels, there’s a whole lot of edging! The price for the Ogee edging was significant (approximately $2000.00 on top of the base price). John asked to think on it a few days before deciding whether he would spring for the extra $2 large.

The next day, John heads over to the fabricator to discuss the countertop and to see if they’ve made any progress cutting it out. They had. In fact, they had cut the entire countertop and put on the special edging before John and the installer had reached a deal on the price!

Apparently, the installer had banked on John deciding to go with the Ogee edging. Of course, since the countertop was already cut, it would be virtually useless to anyone else. John decided that he would be open and honest with the guy and tell him that he already saw the cut piece. (At this point he could have just said he didn’t want it, and I would guess the installer would have offerred it for free). And, he further decided that he would offer to split the price of the edging. The contractor pushed back, saying he “couldn’t go that low on the price.” I was shocked! Shouldn’t the contractor have been gracious and accepted John’s offer right away?

After some negotiation, and likely the contractor realizing the predicament he was in, he agreed to split the price of the edging with John. I thought this was more than fair.

What do you think? Was John too nice, too mean? Have you dealt with a similar mistake? How did you handle it?

Image by Allen Chu.

Back in February I wrote about my attempt to find a distributor who would sell me Custom Building Product’s LevelQuik ES underlayment. Most suppliers wanted a business license or Maryland Home Improvement Contractor (MHIC) number to make a deal. As a DIYer, I have neither.

Of course, I tried the big box. Big orange wanted $34/bag + delivery charge to get the product for me. Others I contacted told me I should be paying $25-29/bag, (even though most weren’t willing to sell to me - no business license). Since I require 60 bags for the job, a $7 per bag difference means an extra $420 on the bottom line. I kept looking.

Sita Tile Delivers Results

After many failed attempts with other distributors, I contacted Custom directly and asked for the names of companies local to Baltimore/Washington who would be willing to help. They gave me four companies to try. The only company that would meet my needs was Sita Tile in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Incidentally, they were Custom’s first recommendation to me.

I called the main number for Sita and was transferred to the voicemail of Jim Sita, Jr. This encouraged me. I like working with owners and owners’ families. I left a message explaining what I needed. Jim called me back within a day and already had a quote worked up based on my voicemail. I won’t reveal the exact price, but will say it met my expectations.

Jim ordered the product from Custom based on my verbal commitment to mail Sita a check. It came on their delivery truck the following Friday, and Sita was ready to ship it to me the following morning. Unfortunately, there were predictions of rain over the next 5 days in our area. I asked Jim if he would be willing to hold the product in his warehouse until it could be dropped off when the weather improved. He agreed, and held the product in inventory for another 7 days.

On delivery day, Sita’s driver called me on my mobile to verify he was at the right location for delivery. (Easy to identify by the white metal reindeer still standing in the front garden from Christmas). He then unloaded the product in the exact spot I requested (in my driveway, near the garage). The product was delivered on two pallets, both neatly and thoroughly wrapped.

I was very impressed with Sita Tile, and would highly recommend them anyone in the Baltimore-Washington corridor who needs tiling materials in the future.

A Note For the Skeptics

One more thing: Sita Tile neither asked nor paid for this endorsement. They didn’t know I write about home improvement. They simply performed excellently at their business. Every business deserves kudos for that.

What do you think? Did you have an extraordinarily good experience with a contractor? Have you shared your good experience?

photo by Jose Miguel Serrano.

Several weeks ago, I wrote about sanding down our stipple ceiling in the dining room. Jennifer commented on that post that she would eventually do the same at her house, but would need to get her ceiling texture checked for asbestos. And then I thought…. ASBESTOS!?!…. in my stipple textured ceiling?

Turns out, many popcorn and stipple ceilings built between 1950 and 1980 contain asbestos. Undisturbed, these ceiling textures are harmless. It’s only when the asbestos fibers become airborn that they represent a health hazard. We didn’t even think of this when we started sanding! (Incidentally, sanding is about the worst thing you can do to any hardened asbestos-containing product).

When Was Asbestos Eliminated From Building Materials?

Our house was built in 1984. Since asbestos awareness hit its height in the 1970s, I thought for sure our house wouldn’t have any asbestos in it, and particularly not in a ceiling texture right above our heads! I scoured the web to confirm my opinion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any definitive information on when asbestos-based interior texturing products were outlawed. Several sites noted a ban on manufacturing in 1978. But, subsequent to the ban, builders and contractors were allowed to use whatever inventory they had in stock. Some sites suggested that interior finishing products could have been asbestos-based as late as the early 80s. I asked myself: What constitutes the early 80s? Is 1985 the early 80s?

The bottom line here is that if your house was built between 1978-198x (e.g. 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989), there is always some chance there will be asbestos in the ceiling texture. You can look elsewhere on the net, but trust me, no one will tell you that a ceiling put up in this timeframe won’t have asbestos in it.

Finding a Testing Lab And Sending a Sample

I couldn’t take a chance. I searched the net for an asbestos testing lab that could do a quick test to put me at ease. My search led me to Western Analytical. I followed their instructions for obtaining samples (essentially a careful removal of a small amount of the texture from the ceiling), and sent the samples to them.

Western provided detailed instructions on how to take a sample of the ceiling without potentially releasing asbestos into the air, and recommended taking 3 samples from different areas of the ceiling since I was testing more than 1000 sq. ft. They charged $20.00 to analyze each sample, for a total cost of $60.00, a relatively cheap price for peace of mind.

The Result

Three days after I mailed away the samples, I received a confirmation e-mail from Mike @ Western that all samples were negative. Whew. I was impressed with the timeliness of their response, and relieved that we didn’t just expose our kids to a huge amount of asbestos in the air.

So I ask myself after the fact: did I really need to send three samples? Or was that just something Western asks for to make more money? I get their reasoning here: a builder could have used more than one batch of materials on any given ceiling. I question the liklihood of this occurring, but I personally wasn’t willing to take the risk.

What do you think? Did you have a good experience with an asbestos testing lab? Do you have a popcorn or stipple ceiling that is suspect?

Photo courtesy of Dan Taylor