Imagine you’re out camping on a cold night in your sleeping bag and your zipper breaks letting in all the cold. I’m sure you would do everything you could to fix it to stay warm. Now consider your home or the house your looking to purchase do not the same principles apply? In fig ...
Experience Matters
Every buyer of a new home should understand the limits of a home inspector. The home inspection is limited to a visual inspection only. This means if the inspector cannot see it, it will not be reported. Why is this important? Experience has shown me that there are sellers out ...
The importance of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
In the past three months I’ve seen repeated news reports of home fires with fatalities that could have been prevented with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors installed. If you’re unaware, Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air. It ...
Energy Saving Tip, Honeycomb Blinds
What’s the first thing that jumps out at you when you look at the house below? Since I was called to inspect it, first thought was damn, that’s a lot of glass. Second, with a size of 7,000 sq. / ft., that’s a lot to heat up. Windows and doors are the greatest source of wasted ...
Thermal imaging finds a costly problem
As a home inspector my job is to educate the client and find any costly problems associated with the home I am expecting. This inspection did both, I was called to inspected a small 1600 sq. ft. ranch, built in 1974, on a slab foundation. At some point the house had electric heat, two ...
Thermal Imaging Inspections Explained
The enclosed video below should help explain what to expect when I perform a home inspection using thermal imaging camera. Thermal imaging detects heat, hot surfaces appear yellow, cold appears blue. Therefore, during winter months, missing insulation will appear as blue shadows. See ...
How to Properly Winterize Central A/C
Here is a short video on how to winterize your A/C unit. This is a quick process should take you less that 30 minutes. Questions? steve@gaudethomeinspections.com (603) 714-8628 ...
Extending the life of your hot water tank
Recently while taking a plumbers course I learned a way to possibly extend the life of your hot water tank. The hot water heater in my house is coming up on seven years. The warranty has expired and I want to extend the life if at all possible. Hot water tanks do require minimal ...
Protecting the Client
Update on the following article, this house became a tear down. During a recent home inspection came across a situation in the foundation walls that was a cause for concern. I noticed three of the four corners the block wall foundation had separation. By itself this is not a major ...
Short Sales
by Nick Gromicko and Rob London A "short sale" is a real estate sales transaction in which the seller's mortgage lender agrees to accept a payoff of less than the balance owed on a property's loan. This typically happens when a borrower can’t pay the remainder of the mortgage loan on ...
