Take a minute to check your fan Are you sure your bathroom fan is doing it's job? Here's a simple way to check; Take a short length of toilet paper and…

The ideal crawlspace DOES exist! AT a home inspection in Minneapolis, I came across a perfect example of should NOT be in a crawlspace, and it occurred to me that…

The joys of home ownership! As a home inspector in the Stillwater MN area, I always make a point of looking into the gutters on a house. The gutters perform…

Aluminum branch wiring; the house hasn't burned down yet, so we're good, right?  Um, I think the operative word there is "yet". There are a bunch of reasons why aluminum branch…

Actually, all the news is bad Lead has been around for a long time. The word plumbing comes from the Latin word for lead, plumbum. Lead was used as an inexpensive and…

Why is a sump pump check valve important? A check valve is the same diameter as the discharge pipe into which it fits and is usually a different color. A…

A lot more than you'd EVER wand to know about sumps First, what IS a sump pump? Sump pumps are self-activating electrical pumps that protect homes from moisture intrusion. They…

You can repair your leaky roof vent boot yourself. It's easy!  As a home inspector in the Stillwater, MN area, one of the reasons that I make a point of…

In 1962, house builders started installing outlets with ground wires attached. Grounded 120-volt receptacles in the United States have a small, round ground slot centered below two vertical hot and…

Why don't chimney sweeps wear top hats anymore? They keep falling off. Boring but true. Nothing about a chimney sweeps's job can be described in breathless narrative. Well, until there's…