Archive for the ‘Energy Audits’ Category

Why get a radon test?  Because you could reduce the chances of a family member, pet or friend from getting lung cancer.  Radon is estimated to cause about 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year, according to EPA’s 2003 Assessment of Risks from Radon in Homes. And to reduce your chances, you mitigate,  it’s easier than quitting cigarettes.

Radon can be anywhere, it’s a gas that you can not smell, taste or see.  Because of those characteristics a lot of myths have developed or straight out non believing in radon’s existence.   Well it does exist and we can measure it.  Have you ever been in a place where you have sunlight coming through a window and if your standing off to the side you can see tiny tiny particles of stuff in the air.  Well those particles or other types can get smaller, so much so that you can’t see them except with special equipment.

Radon professionals have the equipment and knowledge to measures radon and its product decay.  For more information go to the links on the front page and click on EPA Radon.

Please get your home checked for Radon by a professional.

Everyone is looking for a good deal, but sometimes that good deal might not be what you really want or need.  Take for instance a $250.00 home inspection for a 2000 square foot house.  That sounds like a GREAT deal.  Now consider this, a Home Inspector provides a lot of knowledge to their client and is running a business.  So the Inspector pays for (or should be) continuing education, state license, at least two types of insurance, reports, advertising, tools and much more.  To pay for all that the Inspector charging $250.oo for a 2000 square foot house is going to have to work  fast and try to book as many inspections a day as they can.  The probability of that Inspector missing things that could cost you money down the road is much greater.

You have to decide, do you want a quality inspection or be one in the quantity.

Second to fixing homes, I find exploring them either by inspection or audit a fun and exciting job.  I go into spaces many homeowners have never dared to go and I have found spaces they never knew they had.  I once found a hundred dollar bill in the attic!  That homeowner was quite surprised since they had never been in their own attic.

Every house is different, even the most seasoned Home Inspector frequently will find odd and unusual things.  Recently I found pink insulation stuffed in the observation port of a boiler.  Although most of the time home-made fixes are  amusing, sometimes they can be dangerous.  We see a lot of decks that cousin Joe built, it looks nice but does not have a lot of safety elements, such as a positive connection to the house for a deck!

I also enjoy showing my clients different aspects of a home and making sure they understand the location of and importance of each of the system.  I enjoy discussing the hows and whats to saving home energy and making their home more comfortable.   It is also fun to meet new people and welcome them to the area.

So these are my top reasons why I am a home inspector and home energy auditor.