We post a new home inspection photo on the Structure Tech Facebook Page five days a week. After pouring over all of our photos from the last year, we've come up with our favorite home inspection pics from 2012. Click on any of the photos for a larger view, and feel free to share.
Bent Outlet Cover - Problem: I want an outlet right where the wall is angled, but I can't get the cover plate to fit. Solution: Cut the cover plate and then caulk it in place.
Worst Common Vent Ever - How can you get four water heaters to backdraft at the same time? Just do something like this.
Outlet in duct - Moving the outlet would have been too much work, so someone just cut a hole in the exhaust duct for the kitchen hood fan. Nice touch with the masking tape on the sharp sheet metal edges too.
Furnace covers reversed - furnace manufacturers intentionally make it impossible extremely difficult to get the upper and lower covers reversed. With enough tenacity, one can make it happen though. This allows most of the air to get sucked from the furnace room, completely bypassing the furnace filter. No wonder the furnace filter was so clean.
Deteriorated Chimney - Flue gases from combustion appliances like furnaces and water heaters are corrosive; that's why you see a metal liner sticking out of most chimneys in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. When the appliance vents in to the chimney without a liner, the flue gases often condense near the top and then drip down and destroy the inside of the chimney. This is also just one more reason why it's important for the home inspector to get on the roof whenever possible.
Optional Combustion Air - Have you ever had one of those days where you felt... y'know... a little too fresh? Thanks to this person's nifty invention, the combustion air being pumped in to the furnace return plenum can be manually turned off.
Leaking Drain - Awww, isn't that cute? We noticed a bunch of water on the floor in the basement after testing all of the first floor plumbing fixtures. To confirm the source of the leak, we filled up the kitchen sink with water, pulled the drain stopper, then ran downstairs to catch the leak in action.
