What Is Asbestos

In Indiana & Kentucky, Asbestos is still a concern for this Indiana Home Inspector! If you have questions on asbestos, don’t hesitate to call us with your questions at 1-866-417-9591 or schedule your home inspection
online today! Certainty Home Inspections performs inspections in Southern Indiana and Louisville

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What Is Asbestos? Asbestos is made from fibrous minerals and was widely used in many products because of its strength and tolerance to high temperatures and chemicals. Commonly found in older home construction materials.

On the exterior, asbestos shingles and siding were often applied and although the asbestos cement shingles are less commonly found these days, the asbestos siding has proven very durable and quite resilient. The asbestos cement siding has no health concerns unless pulverized to create dust or burned to release fumes.

Homes of 1930 through the 1950s construction are commonly found to have asbestos or (vermiculite) insulation. Other interior asbestos uses included floor coverings; these are typically square tiles or vinyl sheets applied with an adhesive backing. Plumbing supply and drain pipe insulation, this usually has a white canvas type covering over a fibrous insulation material. Flue pipe and heating distribution insulation, somewhat resembles white surgical tape and most commonly seen on metal distribution pipes for the heating system, as it was used to seal junctions and connections of the piping,. Ceiling tiles and wall coverings, normally found in suspended ceiling tiles and wall paint and patching or repair material. Use of these materials was banned in 1977. Gas fire place embers and ashes and old stove- pads may contain asbestos. Asbestos paper, or cement compounds were used to protect the floor and wall around wood stoves.

Not so fast though, identifying asbestos material is not so easy and visual examination alone is not always reliable. This means sampling and lab analysis will be required to confirm the presence of asbestos.  Taking samples your self is never recommended. Most reputable home inspection firms provide certified sampling professionals who know what to look for and how to reduce risks while extracting a sample and can provide you with lab results within 72 hours.

In fact, the EPA states that when you’re in doubt about the material you should treat it as if it contains asbestos or have it sampled and analyzed by a qualified professional. This is because sampling done incorrectly can be more hazardous than leaving the material alone. Material that is not deteriorated, damaged or hat is not going to be physically disturbed, should be left alone.

Although we always recommend that sampling should be done, we have had home buyers decide not to have a sample analyzed, choosing to encapsulate this material on the heating distribution pipes by tapping over it with common duct tape, only to be denied service from a local heating and air duct cleaning company. Upon discovering the possible asbestos tape, the cleaning company refused service.

If you choose to live with suspect asbestos materials you’ll want to be cautious not to cause damage or disturb it in any way. If it is or becomes damaged avoid being in the immediate area don’t clean up any debris from the damaged area and be careful not to track it inside. Consulting a professional for repair or removal of the material is recommended. Keeping in mind that removal posses risks of exposure and can be expensive and sometimes required by state regulations when remodeling.

For more information on asbestos, please visit the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)

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.

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.

Do You Want Top Dollar Out Of Your Home!

When selling a home in Southern Indiana or Louisville Kentucky, the biggest selling point is neatness and cleanliness, even when it comes to newly finished homes.  It’s a matter of pride.  Basement walls are painted a light color.  All windows are washed and all trash is hauled away.  Lawns and yards should be cleared of clutter, especially kids toys.  Grass should be cut, walks edged,  and hedges cut.  Give the yard a well kept look .  Clean your house and buildings up, make everything neat.  Exteriors should be washed, painted and repaired if needed.  The garage should be straightened up and its walls painted.  All doors and windows should be in good operating order and clean.  Sellers should consider storing unnecessary clutter elsewhere but don’t store unwanted items in closets.  All plumbing problems should be repaired so that there are no leaks.  Replace all light bulbs with higher wattage bulbs.  When the house is shown, all lights should be on for a well lit presentation of the home.  Bathrooms should be neat, clean and fresh smelling.  Beds should be made.  The appliances should all be clean and all dishes washed and out of the sink.  When a realtor needs to show your home, be polite and leave the home so that the buyers are more comfortable about looking through and talking about the house.  An hour or so before the buyers are to arrive bake cookies or light a candle to give the house an at Home smell. For more tips on selling your home visit us online at www.certaintyinspections.com We service all of Southern Indiana and Louisville Kentucky for complete home inspections, termite, radon, septic, water, appliance recall chek, Indiana Housing and Rural Development.

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.

SSSSSOOO! What’s Living In Your Attic?

SSSSOOOO! What’s living in your attic?

Do you have an automatic mouse exterminator calling himself “At Home”  or maybe its a bird or squirrel building nests and saying this is it, my new home!   Its not uncommon  in Indiana and Kentucky to find nesting, snake skins or other unwanted pests in attics.  Whatever it is, when Certainty Home Inspections inspects your attic, your sure to know that the problem exists.  If the attic is accessible, we’ll inspect it and tell you exactly what we see lurking in your attic.  We don’t just stick our head in the attic, we walk it, if possible, so that we can see all possible concerns, even the unwanted ones.

Above Left: The only evidence this Snake left behind      Above right: Nest found in an attic

Right: A Snake was trapped trying to enter the soffitt to get into the attic.  Snakes will enter attics due to weather conditions, to find food such as mice and birds and for the heat of the attic.

To book your home inspection and have your attic checked for unwanted pests call Certainty Home Inspections today at 1-866-417-9591

Impressed To Say The Least!

How Temperature Affects Your Inspection!

Heating & air conditioning operation

The heating system may not be tested at the time of inspection if temperature conditions do not allow the system to be operated normally (during warm weather months we will not operate the heating system)  Sytems are not dimantled.  The system type(forced air, hydronic, convection) and fuel type (gas, oil, electric) will be reported.  The operating status of the heating system can change over a period of time.  To assure operating status has not changed since date of inspection, we recommend operating the heating system prior to closing, weather permitting.  Central air conditioning systems will not be  operated unless the outside temperature has been above 65 degrees F for at least 72 hours prior to the inspection.

Heat pumps

Heat pumps are operated in their current operating mode only.  Due to possible damage of equipment we are not able to test heat pumps in both modes.  Above 65 degrees for a period of 72 hours, we test in the cooling mode.  Below 65 degrees F, we test in the heating mode.

Heating and cooling inspections are visual and operational.  Weather permitting, we will operate either the heating or AC units in their respective modes.  We will use normal controls and evaluate how well the system is performing its intended function.  Taking into consideration the age of the system, it may need maintenance and repairs in the future and upgrading of the system.  There are some very efficient and economical systems on the market at the time, which may save a great deal on future fuel bills.

The  view of the heat exchanger is very limited due to the design of concealed areas.  A complete evaluation can only be achieved by dismantling the unit, which is beyond the scope of an inspection.

Whats inside your electric panel?

Your electric panel is checked for double tapping and  burnt wiring but who would think to look  for rodents.   Mice are  small enough to get inside  your electric panel  causing a fire hazard that is unknown to you unless you have it inspected by a qualified, licensed, and experienced home inspector. 

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