"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.

New houses need to be inspected, too

Recently, a market analyst on cable network CNBC mentioned that, nationwide, there haven't been a lot of new homes constructed in the last five years or so due to the economy. That's why the inventory of available houses has been so drastically reduced and it's what's led us to the current "seller's market" in home sales. And that is particularly true in Kansas City, especially based on the January numbers just released. Now, as the economy recovers, more and more new houses will be built.

So, it's important for you to remember that a new house needs to be inspected just as much as an older house does. Previous posts on this blog have detailed some of the problems I've found in newly constructed homes.

The brand new house pictured here didn't have any insulation in the attic.In another new construction, I couldn't get the kitchen sink spray hose to extend from its resting place. The dishwasher's drain hose and the spray hose were tangled up under the sink. Further, the dishwasher was susceptible to backflow from the sink's garbage disposal because of the way its drainage hose had been placed. One new house featured a whirlpool bathtub in the master bath, but the tub's drain pipe hadn't been connected to anything. Recently, I inspected a new house that had no heating or cooling in the laundry room on the second floor. Turns out the floor tile had covered it up. And yet another new house had the control wire for the furnace connected to the doorbell instead of the house's thermostat and no power cord connected to the kitchen garbage disposal.

Yes, your builder's warranty covers things in your just-built home. Yes, you have a year to make a list of what needs to be repaired. Getting a Kansas City home inspection from Complete Home Inspection BEFORE you move in, though, gets you a jump start on that list and allows you to get many of those things fixed before you take occupancy. While warranties may protect you, the time lost, the inconvenience and the frustration you'll experience can only be handled by getting a Complete Home Inspection for your new property. So let me handle you final walk-through for you. Put my experienced eye to work for you and your family.

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

Additional information about the dangers of radon gas

Continuing the focus on radon gas begun last month with National Radon Action Month and Kansas Radon Action Month, here are a couple of other things for you to know -

It's easy to think that houses without full basements will also be without radon gas. That's not true at all. In fact, one of the highest radon levels I've seen in more than twenty years of testing was in a house with a walk-out basement. It matters whether the ground under the house has a high concentration of radon, not what kind of foundation the house has. Houses with full basements, houses with walk-out basements, houses built on a concrete slab, and houses with a crawl space underneath are each susceptible to high levels of radon. So don't let anyone tell you that a certain type of house doesn't need to be tested for radon. For your peace of mind, and for the health of you and your family, test the house you're living in now and/or the house you're looking to buy.

How serious are the health issues caused by radon gas? The Secretary of the Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment asked all Kansas physicians to:

• educate their patients about radon and the risk of lung cancer.
• advise patients who smoke to stop smoking. The risk of lung cancer from radon exposure is 10 to 20 times greater for persons who smoke.
• encourage patients to test their homes and to fix any home with elevated radon levels.
• provide patients with information about radon, radon testing and mitigation by visiting www.kansasradonprogram.org.

As the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers and the second leading cause of lung cancer in smokers, radon gas is not to be taken lightly. That's why I've installed a radon mitigation system in my own house.

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.

January is Kansas Radon Action Month

The Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment (KDHE) and Governor Brownback have proclaimed January "Kansas Radon Action Month" to help educate residents about the dangers of radon exposure and encourage actions to identify and address radon problems in the home. Radon is a tasteless, odorless, colorless, naturally occurring radioactive gas found in nearly all soils which comes from the breakdown of uranium. Outdoors, radon is diluted to low concentrations, but once inside an enclosed space, radon can accumulate to significant levels.

In January, KDHE offers free home radon test kits in various Kansas counties in the Kansas City area. Check www.kdheks.gov and follow the Radon Action Month link for locations and specifics. 

About one out of every three radon measurements performed in Kansas are elevated, being above 4 pCi/l (picoCuries per liter). Some areas have higher levels than others, though elevated levels of radon have been detected in every county in the state. As many as one in 15 homes across the U.S. has elevated radon levels that often go undetected. “Radon is the first leading cause of lung cancer in people who have never smoked and is estimated to cause over 200 lung cancer deaths in Kansas every year,” said Robert Moser, M.D., KDHE Secretary and State Health Officer. “All Kansans should test their homes, fix any homes with elevated radon levels and build new homes using radon-resistant methods.” Bruce Snead, Director of Engineering Extension at Kansas State University said, “Unfortunately, the reality is that radon is everywhere, and the only way to know the radon concentration anywhere, is to test. Kansas Radon Action Month is an ideal time to take action to identify your risk by testing your home.”

These home test kits are a great way for you to begin checking the level of radon in your home. But, the best way to be certain of your test results is to have a certified radon professional, such as Miki Mertz of Complete Home Inspection, handle the test for you. Complete Home Inspection uses a continuous radon monitor that takes samples over a period of two full days, with the test unit placed in the lowest livable level of the house. Windows are kept closed throughout the time of the test. The test results are then averaged into an overall number for your final report. As mentioned earlier, if the radon level is higher than 4.0piC/l, then it should be fixed, or "mitigated".All radon tests done as part of real estate transactions in Kansas must be handled by a state-certified radon tester, such as Miki Mertz of Complete Home Inspection.

Additional information about radon can be found on the Complete Home Inspection web site at http://www.completehomeinspectionkc.com/kansas_city_home_inspection_036.htm, at www.kansasradonprogram.org, and at www.epa.gov/radon.

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. 

Energy-saving tip

Now might be the time to act if you've been thinking about replacing your home's old windows with energy-efficient windows. First of all, acting now means that you might be able to get the project completed before the cold weather moves in to stay. And secondly, the federal tax credit on replacement windows expires at the end of the year. The tax credit might save you up to $200 when you select Energy Star-rated windows.

Whether you're selling the house, buying it, or planning to stay put for a number of years, new energy-efficient windows increase your comfort and save on your energy expenses year-round. And they often require less maintenance than older windows.

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.