Finally Happened!

[Ken Larson]

Did a 1 yr warranty inspection on a home yesterday and was nearly finished, I save the attic for last. Walking the attic my foot went through the upstairs ceiling sheetrock. All these years I've been laughing at those clumsy inspectors.....now I've become one. Oh the humiliation of it all. :(

After having one of my contacts make the sheetrock repairs ($195.00) I only walked away with $200. For slow times we just can't afford that sort of carelessness. Be careful out there! :)

[Ron Bibler]

Its not if it will happen but when it will happen...

I think we had a post on a bad day or somethibg like that.

I think Rick put his foot in the sheet rock pie.


Me 30 years no sheet rock pie yet. L.O.L.

Best

Ron

[Rick Hurst]

Ken,

You have now made it to the Honary Club of America Most Elite Home Inspectors. AMEHI Yeah, its not a cool name but we're working on it.

Welcome aboard son, you make us proud.:D

Rick

[Gunnar Alquist]

[quote=Ron Bibler;59477]
Me 30 years no sheet rock pie yet. L.O.L.quote]

Ron, do you even walk around in the attic?

[Victor DaGraca]

I have yet to go through the sheetrock while in an attic. I have, however, gone through a roof.
Apparently (back in the '70s) this particular builder, did not provide for any attic ventilation.
The plywood delaminated.
Imagine my surprise to find my leg going through the roof.
No harm , no foul though, we wound up doing a complete tear off on that one.

[Brian Thomas]

I have yet to go through the sheetrock while in an attic. I have, however, gone through a roof.
Apparently (back in the '70s) this particular builder, did not provide for any attic ventilation.
The plywood delaminated.
Imagine my surprise to find my leg going through the roof.
No harm , no foul though, we wound up doing a complete tear off on that one.

Im shocked that a home from the 70's was poorly ventilated;)

[Hank Spinnler]

Thanks for sharing Ken. I did my first one this year although the cost to repair far less. I came down quietly from the attic and the homeowner of this pre-selling inspection, said something like - "Uh... you know there's a hole in my ceiling?!"

Foolishly, I think I had left my shoecovers on and I tried to step on an angled web truss member. Those can be slippery regardless. You don't realize how much easier it is walking around when there's no loose fill insulation in the attic. Happens from time to time.

Lastly, I had a builder try to blame me for stepping through a ceiling when it was one of his subs. He yanked my radon equipment out of his house. I was pissed!

[Ken Larson]

I guess I could've fixed it myself. But, the home was on the other side of town and I just got a contractor I've worked with before to handle it for me. $195 seemed fair enough.

[Ted Menelly]

Oh , go ahead and admit it. You are just getting old......................er

[Hank Spinnler]

Ken, I did the same thing. Paid someone else to do it so I could focus on performing inspections.

[Barry Lewis]

Ken,
Welcome to the club! Mine was operator error. I was expecting an important call back from my doctor and had my phone with me in the attic...great attic too. Pull down stairs in the garage, 24 " plywood walk way about half way across. The phone rang and I was headed toward the hatch (hot as blue blazes up there), when I pulled the phone out of my front pocket I looked down to see who it was from....didn't see the vent stack crossing from the front side to the back side (to hide it from the street view) bonked my head..right foot crossed the left...no recovery from that. Thought I broke my leg at first...took months to heal the injury on my shin. Lesson learned. The phone ALWAYS stays in the bag!:o

[Hank Spinnler]

Barry, that's kind of like driving with a cell phone except you were walking and not looking at the road so to speak.

This morning's news showed a guy that was saved when the Motorola phone in his front pocket, took a bullet that was fired from the woods, instead of his chest.

[Michael Thomas]

E-mail this morning from a client, the electrician had been in to replace the rusted out service panel, had discovered that "the entire front of the house was wired with knob and tube" and provided an estimate of around $7000 for rewiring.

My first thought was: "Well, it finally happened, I really screwed this one up".

I went back and checked the report, I had noted the presence of a short run of electrified K&T in the basement, noted that hat this was an indication that K&T might be present in other locations I could not observe, and had recommended that the electrician attempt to track down the origin and destination of the run when they corrected the other defects.

Went back over the pictures (I take a *lot* of pictures) very carefully, and damned if I could find another trace anywhere, however the attic had about 18" inches of blown in insulation covering everything, so I supposed that it was possible there was K&T under there the electrician had located by tracking down its entry into the attic .

Called the client, planning to come by and take a look at, and asked him how the electrician and located the K&T:

"Well, I had ripped out the ceiling in the basement, and there was some up in there, and then I pulled out some of the abandoned return ducting (noted in the report) and we found some run through there too..."

Client agreed that there was no way the K&T could have been discovered prior to the demolition, but I still have the feeling that he was unhappy that it not been found.

Sigh....

[Brian Thomas]

That stinks michael, unfortunately there is nothing you could have done about it. As long as you presented it that way in the report, you should be ok. But I know that you wanted to find everything for your client, sometimes it cant be done(without tearing walls and ceilings apart)