"Remodeled" doesn't mean "fixed", either (see also 9/14/13 post)

The defect of the week, sadly, is that "newly remodeled" doesn't necessarily mean that it was remodeled well. Two different houses in the past week were just remodeled to be sold. My clients were correct to have the properties inspected regardless. Among the problems found in my inspections -

• Hot and cold water pipes reversed at a bathroom sink
• No cold water supply to a bathroom sink
• A live electrical wire lying underneath the garbage disposal, waiting for the outlet to be installed
• A house being converted to all-electrical, but without sufficient electrical service to the house
• Two different electric panels in the house being updated, neither correctly installed
• No backup heater in a house that just added a heat pump
• A kitchen exhaust fan vented through the house roof, with duct work disconnected in two places
• The old, disconnected furnace flue was now simply an open pipe to the outside through the roof
• The old, disconnected plumbing vent was now simply an open hole through the plumbing flashing to the outside through the roof
• A new fireplace stove insert installed in such a way that the exhaust couldn't vent through the old chimney
• The only heating register in a room was now enclosed in the closet, not the room.

The list continues. The point is that while it may be easy to think that a "newly remodeled" house won't need to be inspected, you can't let yourself be misled. Find out the condition of the property at the time of the inspection. Eliminate the surprises problems like this can give you. Know what you're buying before you buy it. My clients for these two properties are both very glad they insisted on inspections.

Whole house inspections, condo inspections, radon testing, mold testing, and more, we do it all for you. Call or E-mail today to schedule your Complete Home Inspection, 913-268-0222, www.completehomeinspectionkc.com.

Million-dollar home

A couple of things from this past week's inspection of a house costing more than $1 million -

1) It is a brand-new house replacing the house that had stood on the lot for years. A brand-new house with a million-dollar price tag. Why have it inspected, right? Well, among other things, I found that the hot and the cold water pipes were reversed on one of the bathroom sinks. I also found that one of the ground-fault interrupter (GFI) outlets didn't work. You'd think for $1 million, you might get better quality than that. Not in this case. And it goes to show, once again, that no matter the age of the house you're looking to buy, no matter the sales price of the house you're looking to buy, it should be inspected so that you know the condition of the property at the time of the inspection. In a follow-up phone call, my clients asked me to pencil them in for another inspection of the house eleven months from now, just before their twelve-month builder's warranty expires. Good thinking.

2) My client's realtor for the million-dollar house had never seen a Complete Home Inspection before. He said that my name was on the top of his office's list of home inspectors, but we hadn't yet met. Following the inspection, he said that he could see why I was at the top of their list because even he learned some things during the inspection. He liked how quickly the inspection went, while still being thorough (see #1 above), compared to other inspections he had seen. And he said that he would be using Complete Home Inspection in the future because he liked the way I dealt with his client. I'm now at the top of his list, too.

Whole house inspections, condo inspections, radon testing, mold testing, and more, we do it all for you. Call or E-mail today to schedule your Complete Home Inspection, 913-268-0222, www.completehomeinspectionkc.com.

Debunking radon myths

Two different houses, miles apart, had the same problem this week - a radon mitigation system had been installed and the house still had high levels of radon. In one house, the radon mitigation system wasn't functioning. In the other, the mitigation system, installed the week before my inspection, hadn't been installed properly. So, radon myth #1 that is, as TV's "Mythbusters" would say, "busted" is that if a house has a radon mitigation system installed, there's no need to do a radon test. As this week showed, that's wrong.

In the first house, my client didn't schedule a radon test because of the mitigation system. During my inspection, a quick check of the system showed that it wasn't working. A radon mitigation system features a fluid-filled u-shaped tube that can be checked easily and visually to see if the unit is working. The fluid should be higher on one side of the tube than it is on the other side. In this case, the fluid levels were even. That means that no suction was present to remove the radioactive radon gas from under the house and disperse it harmlessly into the air. So, the high levels of radon that originally led to the installation of the mitigation system were again present in the home.

In the second house, my client said that he wanted a radon test done even though the mitigation system had just been installed. Without being overly dramatic, that move may have saved the lives of his family. The house had a basement under part of it and a small crawl space under the rest of it. The new mitigation system was installed to remove radon from only the basement side of the house. The radon present in the soil of the crawl space side of the house was enough to affect the entire structure. My clients would have lived in their new home confident that they were safe from radon because they had a brand new mitigation system. Tragically, they would have been wrong.

So, together with my blog post from 2/1/14, let's debunk some radon myths:

• Myth #1 - You don't need to do a radon test in a house that has a mitigation system. Wrong. It's better to know for certain that the system is functioning properly than it is to risk your health and the health of your family.
• Myths #2, #3, and #4 - Houses with walk-out basements, houses built on concrete slabs, and houses with crawl spaces don't need to be tested for radon. Wrong. What matters is whether the ground underneath the house has high levels of radon. The type of foundation doesn't make any difference at all.

Since it's the second leading cause of lung cancer, and the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, radon is a very serious problem. Don't rely on things you might have heard from someone else. Don't take chances with your family's health. Schedule a radon test along with your Kansas City home inspection.

Whole house inspections, condo inspections, radon testing, mold testing, and more, we do it all for you. Call or E-mail today to schedule your Complete Home Inspection, 913-268-0222, www.completehomeinspectionkc.com.