- 39 minutes ago
Home inspector and certified builder Tobias Condill joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about house safety maintenance. What are the biggest red flags spotted during a home inspection? What are the dumbest home maintenance DIY fixes? What’s the most common cause of house fires people don’t know about? Answers to these questions and many more await on House Support.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00i'm master inspector and certified builder toby condal let's answer your questions from the
00:04internet this is house support tidbits of experience asks are termites really that bad of a home pest
00:15left unchecked they will literally eat you out of house and home the worst case i've seen was
00:19on a really nice house this house had so much termite damage i could put my finger through
00:25a structural two by six to the other side common signs that you might have termites are frass these
00:30are little tiny pellets that they leave behind they'll kick them out of the little holes if you
00:33see pellets collecting on the floor or a windowsill that's a really good sign sometimes they're in your
00:39attic and you might not see them for a while sometimes it takes a few years to see any signs
00:44so by the time you do find them there could be a significant damage when i see a house that's
00:48covered with what looks to be a circus tent that is actually a fumigation going on they have sealed
00:53off that house and have gas going inside of it with fans for a few days and that gas will
01:00not
01:00only kill termites in there but any other insect or rodent that's not paying rent queen latte asks
01:06what home issues would warrant not purchasing a home if found during inspection well queen latte
01:11most everything can be corrected as a builder i typically gut the houses i buy so nothing really
01:16scares me the only thing that would really prevent me from buying a property would be a sinkhole
01:21a sinkhole is a void under your house that is typically created from aquifers that have dried
01:27out and then the earth that was covering that aquifer starts caving in and it can swallow the whole
01:33house getting swallowed alive is where i draw the line pretty lips s asks what's the biggest red flag
01:39you've spotted in a home inspection the two that come to mind are both structural one of them was a
01:45townhome in the master bedroom on the second floor the floor had dropped about three quarters of an inch
01:50there was tile on the baseboard and tile on the floor you could see where they used to meet up
01:54just
01:54from the grout line but it had separated and that's a big drop and that's a red flag to me
01:58another huge
01:59red flag was the doors some of the doors would not close and the ones that did there was a
02:05gap difference
02:05between the left and right corner skinny over here and wider over here doors not closing properly
02:10indicate structural issues and further investigation is definitely warranted other red flags i keep an eye out for
02:16are furniture or rugs put in a weird position usually that indicates they're trying to hide something
02:22also if your ac vents have a lot of dust coming out that is a big indicator that you might
02:27have a mold
02:28problem in your ductwork other red flags include dehumidifiers in the garage that would suggest there
02:33was recent water damage of the thousands of inspections i've done it's super rare to see dehumidifiers
02:38sitting in a garage or in in the house especially when there's multiple clebert 88 wants to know help
02:44new house a mysterious smell in one upstairs bedroom that we can't figure out the room smells
02:49so strongly of body odor doesn't seem to be coming from the attic is there a bathroom nearby my first
02:55guess would be a sewer gas sewer gas can enter your home through any type of damaged piping or if
03:00the
03:00p-trap doesn't have water in it the way p-traps work is they have trapped water to stop sewer
03:04gasses and
03:05any rodents or insects from coming into your home a home that's been vacant for an extended period of
03:09time where water is not constantly going through the p-trap that water will dry out and then let
03:14sewer gases and god knows what else through mintuanta asks new homes aren't built as good as the old
03:19ones new homes are definitely built safer they're safer building products better guidelines regarding
03:25fire protection they're also built more energy efficient than older homes but older homes tend
03:30to be built more robust case in point a 2x4 was called a 2x4 because it measured 2x4 today that's
03:37a
03:38nominal term 2x4 is actually measure about three and a half by one and a half inches engineers have
03:43determined that that is still sufficient enough to build with but it is not as robust as they used
03:48to build it older homes are built on crawl spaces which gives you access to the plumbing and electrical
03:53and they're very easy to work on newer homes are built slab on grade which means they pour a concrete
03:58pad and footers directly onto the ground itself the benefit of that is there's more stability some
04:04drawbacks is you don't have access to the plumbing and electrical for easy repairs here's a question from
04:09the home improvement subreddit there's bees in my wall what steps do i take to remove them the first
04:14step is to identify what kind of bees they are the last thing you want to start messing with is
04:19africanized killer bees typically that involves hiring a professional they can actually determine what
04:25type of bee is capture the queen and potentially relocate the bees instead of destroying them because
04:31we need our bees right so bees actually give off a heat signature and i've actually found them using my
04:35infrared
04:35camera in the wall every object gives off energy and what the infrared camera does is it looks for
04:41any variance between surfaces so the heat from my hand is being transferred to the surface and that
04:47residual heat can be picked up by infrared technology that's how sensitive these cameras are typically
04:52studs are spaced 16 inches on center and you will see with the heat signature of the camera there will
04:58actually be a defined line on each side where the hive is growing so that's actually a good indicator
05:04not only of where the hive is but how big the hive is pate712 asks what's a common cause of
05:11house fires
05:12that most people don't think about but should i think the best way to answer this question is to show
05:16you
05:19the dryer vent itself has been clogging for some time and the lint has backed up into the attic and
05:26this
05:26is pretty close to a flashpoint i would say as dangerous as it can get before it goes up the
05:31heat
05:31can escape from the dryer and the dryer doesn't turn off you can actually ignite the lint and that's
05:36exactly why you need to clean your dryer vents by and large people don't even consider cleaning that
05:41it will not only prevent fires but it'll also help extend the life of your dryer and make your dryer
05:47work more efficiently they should have a flap to prevent any rodents or birds or insects from coming
05:52in but they should never be screened i hate lemon lime asks inspection tomorrow what to expect and in need
05:58of moral support well here's what you can expect your inspection should take about an hour to an
06:03hour and a half per thousand square feet i like to say let the age set the stage the age
06:07of the
06:07property is going to tell me what common deficiencies i have to rule out if you're looking at an old
06:12house
06:12such as a house built in the 70s or before you can look out for aluminum wiring cast iron drains
06:18and cloth wiring aluminum is known to cause fires because of a phenomenon known as cold creep the
06:25aluminum wire itself is not bad it's actually the connections going into the breakers that tend to
06:30wiggle themselves loose through expansion and contraction and then heat forms and that's where
06:35some fires have started cast iron drains were used from 1975 and before the average life expectancy for
06:41a cast iron drain is 50 years so you're looking at 50 year drains at the youngest right the problem
06:47with
06:47cast iron is that they corrode on the inside they can have cracks cloth wiring is an issue because the
06:53jacketing itself can fray exposing the wires on the inside at cauliflower anise wants to know so i just
07:00saw this beautiful house for sale drano was under the sink is that a bad sign when you see drano
07:05you
07:05don't know what the cause is it could be as something simple as the p-trap being clogged from hair
07:10because it traps water it can also trap debris drano usually is used in order to help clog that you
07:16can
07:16also mechanically just unscrew it and clear it out that's what i personally would do the challenge with
07:20drains is that it flows by gravity typically to give you an overview of how the drain systems work
07:26in in homes here's a diagram you see that clean out that's where we typically access for drain
07:31inspections we will put the camera in it's reviewed all the way up to the toilet as you see under
07:36the
07:36house and then back down all the way to the sewer tap all the way up to the sewer tap
07:40is your
07:40responsibility and that drain should be free of debris it should be free of any sagging any roots
07:46and any offsetting for older drain pipes such as clay or cast iron the condition of the pipe itself
07:53deteriorates over time it can be pretty expensive to fix it can cost anywhere to twenty to thirty
07:58thousand dollars to re-pipe a home here's one from ulteriorkid324 question for home inspectors when
08:04you open an electrical panel what makes you go uh oh you know what let me show you a problem
08:09panel
08:11so the first thing i look for is the panel brand challenger has known issues such as overheating
08:17loose breakers the other clue would be if there's breakers in here from different brands here we have
08:22a ge breaker a golden an ite and there's no listings to have these breakers in this panel that's a
08:28big
08:28sign that somebody that doesn't know electrical is messing with electrical so let's see what we see on
08:33the inside if you notice right here there's been some overheating it looks like a breaker might have
08:38caught fire or overheated and melted part of the bus bar this panel itself has a known history where
08:44these breakers don't sit properly on the bus bar as well as the breakers not tripping properly so
08:49whenever i see these type of panels i automatically recommend replacing some other deficiencies i look
08:55for is double tapping that's when two wires are going into one breaker all this looks good there's no
08:59overfusing but given the history of this panel alone combined with evidence of overheating this panel is
09:05need of replacement what i also look for in these situations is over spray paint when the painters
09:10come by typically they don't protect the panel and these bus bars if they have any debris on them you
09:15won't have a proper connection and you have a heat point which can create fire smoldering or or melting
09:23and that's definitely a panel that makes me go uh oh you what mate md asks how am i is
09:30this asbestos hard
09:32to tell from the photo my first question would be how old is the property if this flooring is from
09:38the
09:3870s or even into the early 90s or before that because there is no room for error with asbestos i
09:45would seal up the floor and call in professional to test it and then move on from there one of
09:49the
09:49applications for asbestos was heat resistance that's why you see an application such as chimney flue or
09:55furnace flue insulation i do know that it does have flame retardant properties so insulation around
10:00furnaces is definitely beneficial however once you pulverize it and it becomes airborne it can stay
10:06in the air for a while and continuously get kicked up it is a known carcinogen but if the asbestos
10:11has
10:11not been touched it should be safe the prophet himself asks how do i know if my roof is shot
10:17the
10:17only literal way you can call a roof shot is to find bulge which i found on two roofs one
10:22was coming
10:22straight down which appeared to be fired in a celebratory fashion and one was coming from an extreme
10:27angle which appeared to be from an altercation but all kidding aside depends on the roofing material
10:31tile roofs are hard to tell because tile is not the waterproofer it's actually an architectural feature
10:37water runs under tile so the waterproofing material the membranes are hidden and therefore we can't
10:43really tell what we go off of here is average life expectancy tile roofs last about 25 years if you're
10:49hitting that 20 21 22 year age mark you're getting into needing a new roof pretty soon asphalt shingles are
10:56easier to tell if you need a new roof because the granules which are the protectant from the uv light
11:01starts wearing away and once that happens the roof starts accelerating it dries out it's not pliable
11:07anymore when i see asphalt single roofs with repairs and washed away granules it's time to re-roof a stain
11:14on the ceiling doesn't really tell you that the roof is shot it just tells you that there's a leak
11:18which
11:18i found leaks on brand new homes ask roofers in your area what the average lifespan is for that roofing
11:23material take the age of the roof and then you'll know with about 90 certainty how much more time you
11:29should have on that roof your 40 and slip asks mysterious ceiling stains is this a leak condensation
11:35mold or an animal in the attic yeah it can be any of those things the most common cause i
11:40find with
11:41stains on the ceilings is going to be a roof leak my first order of business if i see a
11:44stain on the wall
11:45or ceiling is i'll use my infrared camera to see if it's possibly active the infrared camera here shows that
11:51there's a difference in temperature but it's not verifying moisture you need the moisture meter to
11:56determine if the moisture is elevated place this on this spot in question and then also test a nearby
12:03spot to give a comparison because all building materials carry some type of moisture we have a
12:09higher reading 99.9 is the highest this moisture meter reads i would recommend only opening up this
12:15area under containment because of potential mold exposure cabotv asks what's the point of having
12:21gutters on the house why not just let the rain fall off the house gutters help with water management you
12:26want to keep the water away from the house the gutters not only collect the water falling off the
12:31eve but should divert it seven feet away from the structure over here you can see that the gutter
12:35diversion is proper it's actually diverting the water sufficiently away from the structure in this clip
12:40you can see a gutter that is not properly diverting water away from the home that's gonna pull all that
12:46water coming off the house back to the structure which can lead to structural issues and water
12:52intrusion the soil around the structure is actually supporting the footer of the home once soil erosion
12:57starts you can possibly see some cracking berto 813 asks spray foam versus regular pink insulation
13:03personally i'm a fan of spray foam there's two different types there's open cell and closed cell
13:08closed cell is solid you can't push into it open cell is more of a sponge reason for that is
13:14if you
13:15have a roof leak you want to see it before you have structural failure so open cell allows for that
13:21water to come through and will warn you that you're having a roof leak what i like about spray foam
13:25is that
13:25it actually provides more of a homogeneous temperature within the house when you put that pink insulation
13:30on the attic ceiling there's still heat coming into the ceiling area therefore you'll need fans to help
13:37keep the air more homogeneous with spray foam insulation you're actually spraying the interior
13:41ceiling of the attic the attic is thereby hermetically sealed so on the interior it's very comfortable
13:48crash override exe asks what's the worst house you've ever inspected the worst house i've ever inspected
13:56every square inch i'm talking ceiling floors and walls was covered with black mold now obviously no one
14:04was living there it was a vacant property it was actually a bank owned property and it had been
14:08vacant for several years bamboo boogie boots asks how would you know if there's mold in the house if
14:14you can't see or smell it the only way to determine it is to order a mold inspection what this
14:19pump does
14:19it draws air into the sample right here and the sample has a little sticky plate in there as the
14:25air
14:25bounces off that plate little spores or anything in the air will stick to that plate and that is sent
14:30to
14:30lab the lab will read that plate determine what type of species the mold is comparing that sample to an
14:36exterior sample is going to tell us if there's elevated molds of concern inside your home mold
14:41needs three things it needs a food source which is dust it needs water and time remember mold is not
14:48the cause mold is symptom you have to also identify the probable cause and the probable causes can be
14:55leaks in the ductwork elevated moisture from a water event it could be improper filtration at your
15:00ac handler the ductwork is the number one spot i find mold because the conditions are always
15:05perfect there pat vol asks how bad is mold really well it comes down to the occupant elderly children
15:11or anyone with an immune deficiency are most susceptible to mold in addition to allergies and
15:17irritation you can experience brain fog inflammatory lung condition short-term memory loss increased
15:22anxiety and depression are also linked to mold so the most well-known mold would be black mold that is
15:28stachybotrys and that's usually never discovered in ac ductwork i always find cladosporium and penicillium
15:34aspergillus in the ductwork those are the most common black mold or stachybotrys is usually found on
15:39backs of drywall that have been soaking for a good time and it's identified very easily by the black
15:46mold they all have been known to cause issues even penicillium aspergillus some people have lost some of
15:52their lungs from that mold and that's a common one that i find in ductwork noblood1055 asks how do you
15:58tell the difference between house settling and structural failure house settling is where the
16:03weight of the house is pressing on the whole entire footprint and some areas might be weaker than others
16:09and that's where you get a differential and that's usually when a crack will occur the rule of thumb is
16:13if you can fit a dime into the crack that could suggest there's a structural issue when we're talking about
16:18structural failure the location of the crack is key especially on load paths the load path should
16:23carry straight down to the foundation and then into the ground if the cracks originate in those areas
16:28that's when red flags go up if the crack is offset that's also a red flag other areas that are
16:33more
16:34benign would be underneath a window the load is carried by the lintel and then the columns on each side
16:39so underneath the window there is no load occurring if you have a crack there it's probably just a
16:44shrinkage crack it can be patched and there should be no issue i am big time asks found this during
16:49a home inspection what is it well looks to me to be a hornet's nest i would definitely proceed with
16:54caution you want to not only remove it but block its entry point goodnoodle72 asks is radon testing
17:01necessary when buying a home according to the apa radon gas is the second leading cause of lung character
17:07one in 15 homes have elevated levels of radon gas in them the only way to know is to order
17:14the test and
17:15they're not that expensive they should have run a couple hundred dollars radon is a radioactive gas
17:19that comes from the earth it is coming out all around us what we don't want to do is trap
17:24it in our
17:25living environment that's where it becomes dangerous oftentimes people think that radon because it's coming
17:30from the ground that it's usually affecting buildings or homes that are built on the ground however it can
17:36also leach from building materials so radon can be remediated it usually costs about 2500 so it's
17:42pretty reasonable for the average size home they create negative pressure under the house so they
17:48take the gases before it can get into your home and accumulate okay purchase 1592 what's the dumbest
17:54home maintenance diy you've ever made or have seen there are many that comes to mind but one in particular
17:59a homeowner actually took a florida license plate and repaired their recessed light with it that's right
18:06in the attic side i actually saw the state of florida seal from an open can light while that might
18:13qualify technically as licensed electrical work it's unsafe another one i've seen is a 2x4 jacking up
18:21breakers inside of an electrical panel naivead7343 asks how do carbon monoxide leaks occur in homes well
18:27they can occur in several different ways from leaking gas pipes damaged appliances or incomplete
18:34combustion another often overlooked source of carbon monoxide poisoning is actually a garage mounted ac
18:41handler these handlers typically draw in garage air and as you drive in and out of your garage over
18:48time you can build up carbon monoxide in your house and that's why it's important for all homes that have
18:53carbon monoxide detectors so if you have a garage mounted ac handler it's very important that you
18:58get a smoke test done by an ac company and have them seal off all ports to help prevent any
19:05ingestion
19:05into your home of carbon monoxide ironies for suckers asks how do you figure out where rodents are
19:10coming into the house look for smudge marks rodents typically leave traces behind them you can walk
19:17around the perimeter of your home they can squeeze into really tight areas they'll get in under behind siding
19:22they'll get into rooftop vents you'll see cages on vents that's one sign that you had a rodent problem
19:28another raceway for rodents to get into your home is your ac handler line set chase the pipes the
19:35gases that are coming from your condenser unit on the outside going into your home they typically go
19:39through a chase you need to block that up because that's an access point for rodents rodents carry
19:44diseases such as hentavirus and they can also chew up your wiring ductwork and plumbing nobody's business
19:5011. is water testing for public water supply during a home inspection recommended while water testing
19:56is probably the least ordered inspection i would recommend doing it because it's the only way you're
20:00going to find out if you have heavy metals or bacteria in your water a common cause for bacteria
20:05getting into your water supply is a water main break typically your municipality will inform you that
20:11there might be a water boil in effect having filtration on your home will also help protect you
20:15against such cases in the event that you're unaware of any water main break personally we have a whole
20:20home water filtration system and a reverse osmosis at the sink that ensures that no matter what the
20:25quality of water is coming to our home that we are drinking clean water so those are all the questions
20:30for today thanks for watching
Comments