Learning to Crawl

Over the past thirty years I have seen a lot of non-standard building practices. The question as a home inspector is "How do I report what I have found?". The thing to remember is that we report on the condition of the house at the time of the inspection We are looking for major defect, safety issues, and maintenance concerns. The non-standard building practices can easily be reported as a description of exactly what we see at the inspection and a paragraph something like this; "The floor structure had a represented number of non-standard beam and joist supports. Since these methods are neither standard nor proven construction practices, their long-term ability to maintain support is unpredictable. A structural contractor or structural engineer can provide specific information on the long-term performance of these supports".

.

This example can be modified for most any non-standard building practice we find on an inspection. As a home inspector we need to remember our role in the inspection is to report what we see and non-standard building practices needs to be addressed by the professional in that field.

A home inspector is like your family doctor (a general practitioner) giving you a physical. If they find a non-standard heart function, they will refer you to a heart specialist.