Found some foundation problems on this home inspection.  When I returned for a reinspect I found that the corrections were not made.  The listing agent started yelling at me because he thought I should have documented exactly where each pier had an issue.  A competent contractor should be able to crawl his butt in there, find them himself and fix them.  Agent was throwing a fit.  I gave him a towel from the kitchen and said "use this to dry your tears".  I then walked away.  I have a 5 year old, I don't need 40 year old cry babies in my life as well.

Water main break in Uptown.  Sucked in half a car under the road.  When I looked in here there was an area of water about the same size as a full size swimming pool.  Can't tell with a camera photo.  It was 92F, man I wanted to jump in and swim.

You can tell me what's wrong with this one.  You got it, wood to soil contact.  Sunshine home inspection in Uptown.

Got to be careful. This sill did not look too bad on the outside but most of it was eaten away on the inside.  I was very surprised it was not getting smashed.  This home inspection also found several joists and other sills that were gone.  The contractor said it would be $23,000 to fix.

This pier is starting to fail.  I recommended in my home inspection report to have it supported with new footing and pier.  CMU's or concrete masonry blocks filled with concrete is a cheap and easy way to fix it.

Not reporting active knob and tube wiring.  I am loosing count of how many times I go into a crawl or attic and add to my report "active knob & tube wiring" after someone else did not report it at all or called it out as being inactive.  Come on, this is easy to find.  How ridiculous, lets have some ethics here. I think this is absolutely repulsive.

One of my worst crawl spaces to do.  Not fun at all.  Very saturated soil with electric wires falling into it all over the place.  Electrocution nightmare.  Also, an extensive amount of spiders, any of which could be black widows.  Crawl was not breathing at all.  This was very dangerous so I could not spend much time in here inspecting the underside of this home.  That means nobody else would either.  That means there could be a lot of problems undiscovered.  Could you imagine crawling over those bricks all over the place?  Who knows what kind of termite issues could be hiding under here.  I could only view about 30% of this crawl.

Older cast iron drain pipe was broken off and leaking about 70% of the discharge into the crawl space. This same pipe run had two other leaks.  Of course I recommended replacing the entire 50 foot run of pipe.  I got a little muddy on this home inspection.

This is what has to be done to fix a plumbing problem under a home with a slab foundation. Found on a home inspection a few weeks ago.  The other side of the home had piles of sand about the same size.  I don't even want to think about the cost.  With a raised home, you could just crawl under there and do it yourself or pay a plumber $250 to fix a pipe.  I love raised homes!  That's why I live in one.

This is funny.  To keep out roaches, this home owner stuffed the metal from a brilloo pad between the cabinet opening.  So it's like a roach barbwire.  The white and yellow powder is boric acid, which does a good job on roaches.  THEY WILL NOT PENETRATE THIS FORTRESS!

Active knob and tube wiring found on this home inspection in New Orleans.  I have seen many not report this in their inspection reports.  Can you believe that?  Sunshine Home Inspection will always report active knob and tube when we see it!  These wires were sitting on the paper side of the insulation.  I say several burn marks going all the way down the run.  Yes, it is a fire hazard in this arrangement.

Very dangerous and very common.  Corrugated pipe as a dryer vent tends to hold lint and when heated up it can catch fire and burn down your house.  This is a no no. Should always be made out of a solid metal pipe.

This is a good one. Make a pier out of wood. Sunshine Home Inspection found this one in the Garden District.  Talk about a path for termites.  Just lead them right into your floor boards.

This is a very old drum trap that we found on an inspection in Uptown, New Orleans.  It should be replaced with a P-trap.  It's silly to still see these around.  Notice this one has duct tape wrapped around it and connects to an old cast iron drainage pipe.  Funny.  Sunshine Home Inspection sees it all.

Not the right way to make a pier.  We found this in a crawl while inspecting a home in Uptown.  This CMU or concrete masonry unit is turned the wrong way.  It does not have a proper footing underneath and that is why it is sinking in the dirt.  It should should be turned with the holes up and down and filled with concrete.  So there is actually three things wrong with this pier.  Sunshine Home Inspection had to write it up in the report.

We inspected this commercial property.  Of course the most of the structure was made out of concrete and metal but the termites got in anyway.  We found a little wood that helped frame the parapet wall on the roof line and it was loaded with termites in two spots where there was exposed wood.  They get into just about any building.  Termites may eventually take over the world. 

On a home inspection we found this completely clogged dryer vent exhausting into the crawl space.  Later, on the inside of the home, I turned on the dryer and smelled a burning odor.  This is an extremely dangerous situation.  I left a note for the renter and told them not to use the dryer again or until this exhaust is cleaned out by a professional.  What a fire hazard.  We feel like Sunshine Home Inspection saved a life.

Sunshine Home Inspection on WDSU

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Did you ever see our home inspection company on TV?  Watch this link and see what our owner has to say about Hurricane Issac prior to landfall.  Keep in mind, Thomas has a Master's Degree in Meteorology and was a former adjunct professor.  He has also been established as and expert witness in several court cases involving the weather.

Sunshine Home Inspection found this very large termite tunnel.  You don't see them this big very often.  Our home inspection revealed this 5 inch wide tunnel going up the pier to this raised home.  It's the muddy vertical area going up the brick pier in the middle of the picture.  These little critters caused extensive damage to the structure under the home and in the attic.  We also saw several studs that were eaten away.  We estimated around 30,000 to 40,000 dollars worth of work to repair this home.  Maybe more after you start digging into things.  Home inspections are certainly worth the $400 that we charge.

While conducting a home inspection, we hate to see these.  This is a dryer vent that has a 14 foot rise on it.  Can you imagine a normal dryer having enough pressure to adequately blow lint through the roof?  I have seen much worse but this one is not very safe and should be checked and blown out by an expert at least once if not twice a year.  This one even had a way to take it through a wall cavity and to the exterior, which would have been much more logical.  Home inspectors should get paid more.  We save lives.

Termites

For those of you who may not know what a subterranean termite looks like, here it is.  I found these on a home inspection a couple weeks ago.  I count 9 termites here within a tube that is about half and inch wide.  Notice the cream color with some of them having a light shade of brown on the head.  You can even see the small straight antennae in front.  The tubes are made out of dirt, saliva, and excrement.  Termites build the tubes to keep themselves in a very humid environment.  Without the tubes they would dry out and die.  We are termite certified here at our home inspection company.

Found a crack pipe while inspecting a home in the 7th ward.  This area is just North of the French Quarter.  As you can imagine it was a run down property in a pretty sketchy neighborhood.  Yes, I felt like I needed a gun. I didn't even know it was a crack pipe until the buyer pointed it out.  I took his word for it.  This picture was taken from the attic, through a very large hole in the ceiling.  It was sitting on the top of the bathroom door framing boards.  Even though the property was only selling for $1500 it had three units, so it was a big pay day for me.  Crack pipe and all, I'll take that inspection any day.

I just love it and can't get over all the chickens I see in New Orleans when I'm on home inspections. I swear there is no other large city in the U.S. with as many chickens.  They're funny. I'll never get tired of chicken talk.  There were about 15 chickens in this pen along with about 5 ducks.  Somebody is eating well.

Prelisting Inspections are smart!  Folks living in this home in Metairie had me inspect it 1 year before they plan on putting it on the market.  They are being proactive and planning for the future.  I alerted them to several deficiencies that they said they would work on in the coming months.  That way when it's on the market and it gets inspected, there won't be many issues or road bumps during the negotiating process and things will go smoothly.  Buyers won't be threatening to "walk away from the deal".  They said all this, not me.  But they are right, its just simple logic.

We offer free relative elevation surveys of your foundation ($50 value).
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See our commercial.

Looking up a plumbing stack in the attic in a nice property on Calhoun St. in Uptown.  I swear, I bet over 80% of the homes in New Orleans leak during heavy tropical rains.  You can bet this does.

I walked up to this house in the Treme neighborhood in New Orleans.  Made famous by the HBO hit show "Treme" and found out where the chickens were getting their water.  Yes, there are lots of free roaming chickens just north of the French Quarter.  Here in New Orleans, of course they are a food source when the time is right.  In the picture of this house I inspected you can see water seeping over the front porch where a PEX water pipe was leaking from in the attic.  Nice clean Mississippi River water for the chickens.  Look closely and you can see a chicken under the middle window.