10 Easy Ways to Save Money & Energy in Your Home

Tobacco smoke creates an odor that is notorious for its ability to saturate living spaces and persist long after its source is gone. Inspectors may be asked by clients who recently purchased a smoke-infused home, or by sellers before their house goes on the market, about how to remedy the situation. Facts About Tobacco Smoke and its Residue Smoke particles can be as small as .001% of the width of a human hair, which allows them to penetrate almost any part of a house. Tobacco smoke can easily circulate through a building’s ventilation system or come up through apartment floors. Tenant/tenant and tenant/landlord disputes commonly arise when smoke odors penetrate adjacent housing units.  It is not clear whether tobacco smoke odor is dangerous or if it is merely a nuisance. While tobacco smoke is a known carcinogen, little is known about the health effects of the particles that are left in the air after you can no longer see the smoke. The American Cancer Society states of cigarette

Wood-destroying insects and other organisms can cause serious problems in the wooden structural components of a house, and may go undetected for a long period of time.    New Construction   All chemical soil treatments, bait systems, and chemical wood treatment must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and applied in accordance with the EPA label's instructions. In some cases, it is not feasible for a builder to arrange for soil treatment. In this regard, the International Residential Code (IRC) by the International Code Council allows a builder to utilize pressure-treated wood as a measure of termite protection. If pressure-treated wood is used, however, it must be used in all framing members up to and including the top plate of the first floor's level wall. This includes the sub-floor and floor joists of the first floor. The use of pressure-treated wood in only the sill plate is not acceptable. In such cases, the builder must provide the lender wi

  According to  InterNACHI's Home Inspection Standards of Practice , home inspectors are required to inspect the gutters and downspouts as part of the roof portion of the home inspection.   www.HomeBossInspection.com www.FLBoss.com Some important factors a home inspector should consider include: that the guttering system is adequately sized to prevent runoff; that the gutters are free of rust, cracks and holes in order to prevent leaking; and that the downspouts divert water 4 to 6 feet away from the home's foundation.             A few inches of rain falling on the roof of a house can produce several thousand gallons of water runoff. This runoff must be channeled away from the home's foundation. Otherwise, the excess water can quickly saturate the soil surrounding the building and wick through the foundation to the interior. (See Figure 1 below.) Once inside, this moisture can lead to a variety of problems, including mold and wood rot. Excess moisture c

Grinder pumps are waste-management devices used to grind up household waste into a finely ground slurry and then force it into the sewer system.  Grinder pumps are required where a building’s drain system is at a level below a municipal sewer line or septic tank. Even if a building is at the same level as its sewer line or septic tank, the geography of the site may prevent sewage from flowing fast enough by gravity alone, making a grinder pump necessary. A   typical application of a grinder pump is in a home where a basement bathroom is located lower than the height of the sewer line that leaves the home.  www.HomeBossInspection.com www.FLBOSS.com How do they work? Household wastewater flows into the grinder pump’s tank. When the wastewater reaches a pre-set level, the grinder automatically turns on, grinds the waste, and pumps it into the public sewer system or septic tank. Grinder pumps will normally run for a few minutes and turn off when the tank is emptied. The pump is

Whether you're facing rising floodwaters or a wildfire that’s too close for comfort, many homeowners confront seasonal threats to their safety that force them to flee their properties, at least temporarily.  In the last three years alone, damage created by severe weather and natural disasters in the U.S. has reached the tens of billions of dollars, as well as caused hundreds of deaths. www.HomeBossInspection.com www.FLBOSS.com      In the fall of 2010, Boulder County, Colorado, experienced its worst wildfire in history with the Fourmile Canyon fire, which incinerated 135 homes in just three days after forcing 3,500 people to evacuate.  In the spring of 2011, a record 165 tornadoes were recorded in a 24-hour period in the South, killing more than 300 people across six states.  In April and May, the Mississippi River breached its banks in areas across six states that are home to many battles and graves of the Civil War, reaching levels not seen in 84 years, and causing both