Double Tapping reported by Louisville Inspector

Double tapping is a term used to describe a condition created when two or more electrical connections are made at one terminal or breaker. Although commonly found, it is recommended that each branch or service wire be individually connected to their own terminal or breaker. Most breakers or terminals are designed to connect one single wire. Multiple connections at terminals or breakers runs a greater risk of the wires becoming loose and causing possible arcing and increasing the risk of fire. At Certainty, our inspections identify this type of electrical concern that should be corrected by a qualified electrician.
To the left is an example of double tapping, please visit other inspection discoveries at www.certaintyinspections.com

Jeffersonville home inspector tells about sump pumps

A sump pump is a pump used to remove water that has accumulated in a water collecting sump pit, commonly found in the basement of homes. The water may enter by way of the perimeter drains of a basement waterproofing system, funneling into the pit or because of rain or natural ground water, if the basement is below the water table level.

Now is a great time with the rainy season upon us, to check out your sump pump to make sure it is operating properly. Sump pumps are used where basement flooding happens regularly and to remedy dampness where the water table is above the foundation of a home. Sump pumps send water away from a house to any place where it is no longer a problem.

Usually hardwired into a home’s electrical system, sump pumps may have a battery backup. The home’s pressurized water supply powers some pumps, eliminating the need for electricity. Since a sump pit may overflow if not constantly pumped, a backup system is important for cases when the main power is out for prolonged periods of time. Having a battery back up can remedy the problem of not having a sump pump during a storm when you need it the worse. Make sure you take the extra step to install a battery backup to assure that your home is protected during a power outage.

Certainty Home Inspection will check your sump pump while we are doing the home inspection to assure that it is adequately working. Certainty Home Inspections servesthe Southern Indiana and Louisville area.

Clothes Dryer Maintenance

Odds are that the view behind your dryer closely resembles one of these pictures. Just like every other home across the United States with a laundry room that is not in the basement, the standard practice of running the exhaust pipe is to penetrate the drywall with a 90-degree elbow. It’s been this way for many years and likewise the accepted practice.

This obviously becomes a serious fire safety issue. Lint accumulation and reduced exhaust airflow feed on each other to provide conditions favorable for a fire. Lint is highly combustible and decreased airflow causes overheating of the exhaust environment, demanding excessive cycling of the high temperature limit switch and eventual failure.

If your clothes are taking longer to dry or if the velocity of air exhausting from the dryer vent hood is minimal, maintenance is needed. Clothes dryers are prone to lint build up that could lead to house fires.

Therefore, the exhaust hood, hoses and metal ducts should be inspected and cleaned on a regular basis.

It is strongly recommended that the wire bound vinyl ducting not be used. In most states it is specifically disallowed in the building codes. Vinyl ducts often collapse causing blockage and lint build up within the dryer. This type of plastic or vinyl ducting can ignite or melt and will not contain a fire within the dryer.

The most preferred material for connecting the dryer to the wall outlet is the aluminum flexible duct or a straight wall metal pipe.

Venting Guidelines
According to the U.S. Fire Administration (Division of U.S. Department of Homeland Security), clothes dryers were involved in an estimated 15,600 U.S. structure fires, fifteen deaths, 400 injuries and $99 million in direct property damage, annually, between 2002-2004. The leading cause of clothes dryer fires was lack of maintenance (lint build-up in the exhaust system).

Optimizing the airflow is the key to effective dryer performance. When clothes are given the appropriate amount of air, they dry quicker and are subject to less tumbling. This results in less wear on the clothes and less use of electricity or gas.

This dryer vent is something that would be called out in your Indiana or Louisville home inspection. If you have any questions, please call us toll free at 1-866-417-9591 for further information. Certainty Home Inspections performs home inspections in the Southern Indiana and Louisville area.

Who’s nesting in your attic?

At this time of the year, before it becomes too hot outside, take the time to go into your attic to see what’s in it. Although you may have storage items in your attic, that may not be all there is. Recently, we were on a home inspection in New Albany when we found a huge nest in the attic. Nesting found in an attic is usually caused by either a squirrel or birds that have found access to your attic. If you find a situation like the one in this picture, most likely you have something other than your family living in your home. While wearing rubber gloves, clean up the debris and be sure to look for any signs of entry and be sure to seal the point of entry with some wire to assure that this won’t happen again.

Weather Stripping A Window Or Door

Weather Stripping A Window Or Door

In Indiana and Kentucky, all home inspectors will tell you to use weather stripping in your home to seal air gaps around movable joints, such as windows or doors.
To determine how much weather stripping you will need, add the perimeters of all windows and doors to be weather stripped and then buy just a little extra to allow for waste.

Selection
Choose a type of weather stripping that will withstand the friction, weather, temperature changes, and wear and tear of opening or closing of the door or window. For example, when applied to a door bottom or threshold, weather stripping can drag on carpet. Weather stripping in a window sash must accommodate the sliding of panes—up and down, sideways, or out. You want the weather stripping you choose to seal well when the door or window is closed while allowing it to open freely but also allow it to open freely.
Choose a product for each specific location. Felt and open-cell foams tend to be inexpensive, susceptible to weather, visible, and inefficient at blocking airflow. However, the ease of applying these materials may make them valuable in low-traffic areas. Vinyl, which is slightly more expensive, holds up well and resists moisture. Metals are also available, last for years and are affordable
Applying Weather stripping
Weather stripping supplies and techniques range from simple to some difficulty. Consult the instructions on the weather stripping package. Here are a few basic guidelines:
• Weather stripping should be applied to clean and dry surfaces in 20° temperatures or above.
• Measure the weather stripping and the area twice before you cut anything.
• Apply weather stripping against both surfaces. The material should compress when the window or door is shut.
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When weather stripping doors:
• Choose the correct door sweeps and thresholds for the bottom of the doors.
• Weather strip the entire door jamb.
• Apply one strip along each side.
• Make sure the weather stripping meets tightly at the corners.
• Use a thickness that causes the weather stripping to tightly press between the door and the door jamb when the door closes, without making it difficult to shut.

For sealing a window, apply weather stripping between the sash and the frame. The weather stripping should not interfere with the window operation.

For more information on weather stripping, ask your Indiana & Louisville home inspector when you have your home inspection performed.

Window Efficiency

Indiana home Inspector would like to share some information about window efficiency in the Southern Indiana and Louisville area. Windows provide our homes with light, warmth, and ventilation but in the winter time they can lack on performance. Placing your hand against a window pane on a cold day proves the point. If the pane feels cold, there’s a good chance you can reduce your energy costs by either insulating your windows or installing new ones. Insulating with drapes is a low cost fix to drafty windows and reduce heat loss up to 10 percent and in the summer months they can block out the heat, providing a 33%reduction in heat gain. Interior storm windows are another fix and consist of flexible or rigid plastic installed over existing window panes. If you decide to purchase new windows, be sure to choose energy efficient models that will save heating and cooling costs all year long. Energy Star has established a set of energy performance ratings tailored to four climate zones across the US to guide you in selecting new windows. These ratings are broken down into several catorgories although U-Factor and Solar Heat Gain Coeffiecient (SHGC) are the most basic. U-Factor simply meastures how easily heat can flow through a window, not counting direct sunligh. The lower the number the more energy efficient it is. SHGC measures how much heat from sunlight can be absorbed by the window. A high number means the window remains effective at collecting heat during the winter. A low number provides greater shading ability and may be best for Southern climates. For Indiana U-Factor of .40 or lower and a SHGC of .55 or greater works best. For more info visit www.energystar.gov

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

A growing number of states and cities are requiring homes to install a device that detects the presence of carbon monoxide, a dangerous gas that kills 2,000 people a year and sickens many times that number.

Surprising to most homeowners, carbon monoxide is the leading cause of accidental poisoning in the U.S. Detectors have been available for almost a decade, to alert people to the gases — odorless and colorless — spewed out by faulty furnaces, stoves and even barbecue grills. However, fewer than one-third of American homes have these inexpensive devices, according to industry surveys.

Just as laws requiring smoke alarms spurred nearly every household to install them during the past 20 years or so, legislators and doctors are hopeful that the new carbon-monoxide detector requirements will have the same effect.

Starting next month, most homes sold in New York state — new or resale — must have a carbon-monoxide monitor. Similar laws have already passed in Rhode Island, New Jersey and West Virginia. A number of other states are contemplating legislation. Action is being taken at the local level too: Cities such as Chicago and St. Louis have ordinances requiring detectors.

“A detector can save families from something they can not control,” says Stephen Gladstone, vice president of the American Society of Home Inspectors. “If somebody doesn’t have a carbon-monoxide alarm and their heating system malfunctions, they might just not wake up.” Nearly a decade ago, tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis died of carbon-monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater.

Legislation seems to have life-saving effects: Cities with ordinances that require carbon-monoxide detectors have much lower death rates from exposure to the gas than those that don’t, according to a study published last year in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

While fires and automobiles are the top producers of carbon monoxide, a typical family home has many possible culprits. Furnaces, kitchen stoves, water heaters, fireplaces, generators, camping stoves and charcoal barbecues — anything that burns fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel, wood and kerosene — can produce dangerous levels of the gas.

Carbon monoxide is produced when these fossil fuels don’t burn completely. Incomplete or “dirty” burning can occur if rust or grime falls into a furnace burner, if equipment cracks or rusts, if gas pressure is out of adjustment or if there isn’t proper ventilation for these devices. Health officials have seen carbon-monoxide poisoning occur after people warm up their cars in their garages, even for a few minutes.

“It can be produced so easily and it can spill into a home so easily,” says Tom Greiner, an Iowa human-housing engineer who is pressing for a law in his state to require detectors.

Today’s carbon-monoxide detectors don’t go off anytime they sense the gas. Earlier versions of the device (those made before 1998) did that and were tripped off so easily — a car pulling into the garage could cause it to go off — that many consumers saw them as an annoyance and were inclined to ignore them. New models go off when they sense a certain level of gas over a period of time. The detectors measure how many molecules of carbon monoxide are present in one million molecules of air (parts per million). Government regulations state that 50 parts per million is the maximum concentration a healthy adult should sustain over an eight-hour period. (A concentration of 400 parts per million can be life-threatening within three hours.)

Consumers can choose from inexpensive no-frills monitors that simply beep and cost around $15 to fancier $50 devices that have digital displays and flash the concentration detected. There are also combination smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms. Safety experts recommend that an alarm be placed outside bedrooms and on each floor of the house. Some also suggest putting a detector near carbon-monoxide-producing devices such as furnaces. Manufacturers suggest that people replace their alarms every seven years since sensors can degrade and electronics can fail. Companies that sell detectors include U.K.-based Kidde PLC and BRK Electronics’ First Alert.

Symptoms of carbon-monoxide poisoning vary depending on the concentration of gas in the air. Mild carbon-monoxide exposure often mimics the flu or food poisoning — with headaches, nausea, vomiting and fatigue — and is thus commonly misdiagnosed. Higher concentrations of carbon monoxide can cause almost immediate dizziness and nausea and can lead to convulsions, coma and death within a few hours, or even minutes at extremely high concentrations. Small children and those with heart and respiratory conditions are most at risk. And some patients complain of neurological symptoms months and even years after exposure.

Carbon monoxide suffocates the cells of the body: It enters the bloodstream and prevents the release of oxygen to the tissue. The only treatment for carbon-monoxide poisoning is to immediately leave the source of the gas and to administer oxygen.

If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning in your Kentuckiana home, get everyone out of the building immediately, and call 911.  If it is safe to do so open windows to allow entry of fresh air, and turn off any appliances your suspect my be releasing the carbon monoxide.

When needing to test for carbon monoxie in your home locate a home inspector in Southern Indiana or Louisville Kentucky. Be sure to call one that is certified, licensed and insured. Certainty Home Inspections has three licensed home inspectors to make sure we can get your inspection done in the time you have left on your real estate contract. Don’t waste your money on a cheap Charlie inspector, have “Certainty” with your new home purchase.

Important Propane Gas Information

When heating your home on a cold winters night in Indiana or Kentucky, if you smell gas follow these instructions:

1. No flames or sparks, immediately put out all smoking materials and other open flames.   Do not operate lights, appliances, telephones, or cell phones.

2.  Leave the area immediately.  Get everyone out of the building or area where you suspect gas is leaking

3.  Shut off the gas.  Turn off the main gas supply valve on your propane tank.  If it is safe to do so.  To close the valve, turn it to the right, clockwise.

4.  Report the leak.  from a neighbor’s home , call your propane retailer right away.  If your can’t reach your propane retailer, call 911 or local fire department.

5.  Do not return to the building or area until your propane retailer, emergency responder, or qualified service technician determines that it is safe to do so.

6.  Get your system checked.  Before you attempt to use any of your propane appliances have your propane retailer check the system for leaks.

Propane smells like rotten eggs, a skunk’s spray, or a dead animal.

If you have questions regarding your gas furnace or hot water and need an inspection done, please give us a call toll free at 1-866-417-9591. We serve New Albany, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, Louisville, Bedford, Seymour, Corydon, and Floyd Knobs.

Trees As Windbreaks

The biggest and most energy efficient air conditioner and heat assistant is a tree.  A tree provides windbreaks and can keep it cooler in the summer and make it easier to heat in the winter.  A little care taken in the choice of trees and their placement can result in savings when you pay the bills.  Evergreen trees such as pines and cedars are the most efficient blocking the wind.  Trees slow the wind by up to 15 times the height of the windbreak.  Homeowners can save as much as 25 percent on their heating bills with a windbreak on the north side of the house.  Windbreaks on the north and west sides can result in a 33 percent savings.  A row of trees running from southwest to northeast will be the best windbreak since winds usually blow from the northwest.  Hardwood trees are most effective on the east, west, and south sides of your home.  Trees should be planted far away enough that their roots will not damage the foundation. Certainty provides thorough home inspections in the Southern Indiana and Louisville area. We offer 1/2 price on any second home inspection.

To book your inspection today call Certainty Home Inspections at 1-866-417-9591.

Have Your Furnace Inspected

  Have your home heating system inspected to avoid freezing this winter.    The last thing you want in the cold winter is to not have any heat!  A maintenance check by a qualified heating contractor could be all that is needed to ensure that you have adequate heat for your family. 

A furnace usually involves the following:

1.  The thermostat calibration -A faulty or improperly installed thermostat could  keep the home from reaching ita adequate room temperatures. 

2.  The blower.  A dirty blower or its components can reduce or restrict air flow that’s needed to ensure proper efficiency.

3.  The heat exchangers.  This inspection is for cracks and corrosion that could make the furnace unsafe to operate.

4.  The filter.  A dirty air filter causes decreased heat efficiency,causing the unit to run harder, comprising the realiability of the unit.

5.  The burners.  Should be cleaned so that they can function properly

6.  The fan.  The fan must be able to operate properly to ensure adequate room air temperatures.

There are many dealers who offer preventative maintenance contracts that will cover periodic inspection an repairs.  Contact a heating and air technician to ensure safety for your family this winter.

Have your furnace checked by Certainty Home Inspections by one of licensed home inspectors during your home inspection. We are licensed in Indiana and Kentucky.

To book your complete home inspection in Indiana and Kentucky, call Certainty Home Inspections today at 1-866-417-9591.

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