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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Spring City/Surrounding Philadelphia area
    Posts
    3,509

    Default Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    So while setting up this inspection, the buyer tells me he wants to measure the length of the fireplace chimney flue interior as he wants to order a wood stove insert with new flue liner. It's a one story roof with low pitch and he asked if I was OK with them coming up on the roof with me. I said OK. I pull the spark arrestor cap off the flue top like I normally do, they take their measurement, and I assume they are done.

    Well after we get inside and I'm looking at things, I come back into the basement level family room that has the fireplace to see they have done this.

    Alrightythen.



    Inspection Referral
    "It takes a big man to cry. It takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man". - Jack Handey

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Knoxville, TN
    Posts
    2,560

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    Wow!!! That tops just about anything any of my clients have done.


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Southern Vancouver Island
    Posts
    4,607

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    Funny one, Nick, thanks for sharing.
    Sometimes you gotta tell them "First you buy it, THEN you can start fixing it".

    John Kogel, RHI, BC HI Lic #47455
    www.allsafehome.ca

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Near Philly, Pa.
    Posts
    1,682

    Default a lot of problems here.

    After they pay for cleaning up the house and buy it, they can get a level II inspection. Chances are that steelform fireplace is rusted out and they cannot be fixed in situ. It must be torched out. The hearth extension is too short. There is not the 16" non-combustible floor protection in front of the stove. That's a "slammer" insert which means there is probably some 3rd degree glazed creosote in the chimney. That chimney should be closely inspected for signs of a chimney fire. The internal passageways of the convection air ducts should be scoped for signs of combustibles or gaps in the mortar as is commonly found in them.

    By the time he does it right, he'd be better off blowing that pieced of junk out of there and installing a listed EPA phase II rated hybrid fireplace/ stove and chimney.

    Keep the fire in the fireplace.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Lake Barrington, IL
    Posts
    1,367

    Default Re: a lot of problems here.

    I've learned to never trust insert installations. In my book they should always have further evaluation.

    Eric Barker, ACI
    Lake Barrington, IL

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    St. Louis, Mo. area.
    Posts
    280

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    So Nick, did you say anything to the client about this, and what did he say? Curious as to how you handled this.


  7. #7

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    FORGETABOUTIT

    Jeff Zehnder - Home Inspector, Raleigh, NC
    http://www.jjeffzehnder.com/
    http://carolinahomeinspections.com/

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Spring City/Surrounding Philadelphia area
    Posts
    3,509

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Chambers View Post
    So Nick, did you say anything to the client about this, and what did he say? Curious as to how you handled this.
    There was nothing for me to say at that point. They had already pulled the unit completely out. Then they put it back and I documented it in the report with this same pic included in the report.

    "It takes a big man to cry. It takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man". - Jack Handey

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Western Montana
    Posts
    261

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    People never cease to amaze me. I arrived to one home inspection and found the buyers son tearing up some decking. It needed to be repaired, but I had to patiently explain that he was jumping the gun a bit. And we hadn't even started the inspection.

    A couple of years before that, I arrived to find the buyer painting one of the bedrooms. In the last case, obviously the buyers' agent had given them the lockbox code. The unfortunate coincidence was that both homes had the same listing realtor.

    Can't remember for sure, but both homes were probably bank foreclosures. Still . . . .


  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    so so, California
    Posts
    1,867

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    WOW!! haven't seen a Mag light like that in years...

    Quote Originally Posted by Nick Ostrowski View Post
    So while setting up this inspection, the buyer tells me he wants to measure the length of the fireplace chimney flue interior as he wants to order a wood stove insert with new flue liner. It's a one story roof with low pitch and he asked if I was OK with them coming up on the roof with me. I said OK. I pull the spark arrestor cap off the flue top like I normally do, they take their measurement, and I assume they are done.

    Well after we get inside and I'm looking at things, I come back into the basement level family room that has the fireplace to see they have done this.

    Alrightythen.




  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Posts
    1,592

    Default Re: Think I'll Be Disclaiming This

    Quote Originally Posted by Marc M View Post
    WOW!! haven't seen a Mag light like that in years...
    I think I have one in my van somewhere... I use it to hold dead batteries.


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