Covenant Inspection Services, Inc.

Video 1 Buyers Right to Inspect

Video 1 Buyers Right to Inspect

Video 3 The Home Inspection

Video 3 The Home Inspection

Video 4 Inspection Report

Video 4 Inspection Report

What do these construction details indicate? (Separating joints, leveling blocks added to posts and posts out of plumb)

Many homes when originally built, have soils dug away from the side of the mountain. That soil is then pushed over the edge to expand the building pad ( the flat area), in order to build a bigger home. The problem with that is that the pushed over soil is not compacted or not "virgin" soil, which is incapable of supported the weight of structures built upon them. Over a short time (1-5 years) this bearing soil gives way or slowly compacts. This causes anything built on this soil, to settle, sometimes causing structural failure. Could you discern this problem on your own?
This home had a covered deck falling down the mountain and major cracks in the foundation supporting the home.
Get a home inspection before you buy a home!

How many snake skins do you see?
Would you inspect this crawlspace?
What might this give you the indication of?
Would you want to know this before buying this house?

Get a home inspection before you buy!!!

Is this chimney flashing installed correctly?
No, this is a leak ready to happen.

No, this is not a proper (or safe) electric panel. Located behind a picture hung with a metal wire. Not making this stuff up. Get a Home Inspection before you buy a home.

Ok . Help me list how many things are wrong with this picture. Get a Home Inspection before you buy a home.

www.nachi.org

Covenant is a proud member of NACHI.

www.nachi.org Most people don’t know how easy it is to make their homes run on less energy, and here at InterNACHI, we want to change that.

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.
Home Maintenance rarely occurs, but can cause huge, costly repairs. Why not have annual maintenance inspections on your house. You change your oil in your car! You take health supplements and exercise to take care of your body! What about taking care of the roof over your head?
Contact Covenant to schedule a maintenance review of your house? Over 40 years experience in the building industry.

Suit Slams State On Prison Radon | New Haven Independent

Suit Slams State On Prison Radon | New Haven Independent Lawyers for inmates and former guards at a state prison urged a federal judge in New Haven Monday not to dismiss a class-action lawsuit alleging that Connecticut was “deliberately indifferent”...

We recently inspected a home that was under 10 years old. During the inspection, we found certain "signs" that lead us be report that major reconstructive work would be likely, in excess of $25K. As you can imagine, this information was disturbing, and even aggravating to the Realtors, Seller and Buyer. The inspection report was used to renegotiate the deal. The transaction continued and the repairs were made to the home, around $18K.
Inspections like this often create tensions between the Inspector and the other parties, resulting in that inspector never being recommended by the Realtor again. (yes this has happened to us)

Investigate your Inspector's experience. If the inspector has contracting experience, then he/she likely will have more insight than others.

Covenant Inspections Services inspectors do have that experience, over 40 years in the building industry.

Covenant Inspection Services, Inc. updated their business hours.

Covenant Inspection Services, Inc. updated their business hours.

Know what Radon equipment your Home Inspector is using!
Picture on the left Safety Siren Pro3 Series(the wrong one!!!). Picture on the right, Sun Nuclear continuous radon detector (the right one!)
Notice the difference between readings. Used on the same house, same conditions. One on the left showed up in a home inspection, and since the reading was over 4.0, became an issue in the transaction. At a cost of $1500-2000 for a mitigation system, this could become a deal breaker in selling your house.
The NC radon program and EPA, recommend Radon testing devices have the capabilities of hour by hour measurements, AND be able to print out those results. The Safety Siren Pro3 detector can't do that, but only cost the inspector about $100 to buy. Test kits from Lowes, can't do that. They cannot be re-calibrated or provide written data like the Sun Nuclear. They also have the potential for being highly inaccurate, like this house did.
Ask your Inspector what type of radon equipment he uses.

ITS TIME FOR:............
What's Wrong with this picture?

Chimneys that are not maintained or built well, will have no choice but to be replaced. This one, would probably cost between $12-15K to replace. Too bad, regular maintenance inspections and maintenance could have avoided the repairs that are sure to come.

This would explain why the basement was wet and smelled.
This is a real inspection pic.....not made up!
The blue line is a water line that, when installed, was drilled right thru a sewer pipe. I have no words to describe what I'm feeling right now!!!!!
Get a Home Inspection before you buy.

After over 10 years of Home Inspections, I'm glad that I've come across only a handful of these bad boys. Before coiling up ready to strike, I could see 7 rattles. Finding one of these could mean another one might be close. Not much stops me from continuing an inspection, but this does.

How to pick a Home Inspector.

All quotes are about the same. The difference is found in experience and training. Ask your inspector these questions.

1. Member of national organization? Yes, most States require Continuing Education, but a national organization such as NACHI requires twice as much training. This affords you an inspector who goes the extra mile to give you the best inspection.

2. How many years experience in the building industry do you have? Experience only sharpens the inspector's skills.

3. How many inspections have you performed? Again, experience and training matters.

4. What equipment do you use. Moisture meters? Infrared cameras? Radon detectors?
Moisture meters can detect active water and roof leaks. They can also help detect high humidity levels that can lead to mold growth and rot.
Infrared cameras can detect insulation insufficiencies and moisture damage. Often times Sellers will quickly paint over past water damage. It looks good, but under the paint the material is damaged or covering an active moisture intrusion problem. These hidden damages can cost thousands of your hard earned dollars.
Radon detectors can quickly determine whether you have a Class A carcinogen active in the home.

5. Have you had Radon testing training. Improperly collected Radon data is worthless data and will render false reports.

6. Will the report have pictures to support the findings.

7. Does the Inspection Report follow NC Standards of Practice guidelines. Ask if the report follows the DDID format. If the inspector doesn't know what DDID is,.....move on to another inspector who does.

8. Will your inspector walk you thru the findings.? Yes, that's extra time for the inspector, but if you don't understand the report, what good is it.

9. Is the inspector licensed? Ask for their license number and contact the NC home inspector licensing board.
Un-licensed inspectors are illegal in NC.

10. Is the inspector insured? They should have General Liability at a minimum.

Covenant Inspections can say yes to items 1-10.
Can your inspector?
Call us today.

How much would you charge to go into this crawlspace? These are my tools to enter. Have to be ready for water, snakes, brown recluse black widows and wolf spiders, rats and the occasional racoon or possum.....none of which are happy to see me down there. Oh yeah can't forget the mold.

Its all part of a Home Inspection.

This Tyvex suit was brand new when I entered.

GOT RADON???

Get your home tested and mitigated by Covenant Inspection Services, Inc.

Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas. It forms naturally from the decay (breaking down) of radioactive elements, such as uranium, which are found in different amounts in soil and rock throughout the world. Radon gas in the soil and rock can move into the air and into underground water and surface water.

What's wrong with this picture?

Ok , another beauty found on a home inspection. The time it took to try and repair this leak this way was more than fixing it right the first time. By the way...it still leaked!

Uhmmm.....!
So this is a good example of poor follow thru in building.
That is a plumbing vent, design to help your sewer piping vent to the exterior. The cap on top was glued on so that the waste piping could be tested by pumping air into a closed system. Problem is, after the pressure test, no one cut the cap off. So, someone noticed the toilets weren't flushing correctly or the p-traps under the sink were siphoning out, allowing sewer gases to enter the home. Solution? Drill a series of holes in the cap instead of cutting off the cap. Good intentions, but inadequate.

Question: If you bought a house. Would you know the potential future problems?
Answer: Follow the green stain. What's causing the stain? Ongoing moisture run-off. Where's the water going? In the gutter? Nope!
9 times out of 10, the water will go behind the siding into the chimney and overhang framing. As you can see, because of poor flashing details, the trim is already deteriorating. What's worse is that its 35 feet in the air and on a hillside. Fixing this problem will require a crew to build a safe, scaffolding system a whole day just to work on it. This repair could cost Thousands!!!!

Get a Home Inspection before you buy!

The Buyers wondered why the house smelled like mold. Poor heating ductwork installation and rodents chewing and nesting in ductwork, causes unhealthy air from crawlspace to enter into the ductwork and distributed throughout the house.
Get a Home Inspection before you buy a house. This ductwork will have to be replaced. Probably at least $1500 to fix all the problems.

Here's a new one. Not obvious that the sink is leaking is it?

Covenant Inspections will soon be utilizing aerial photography via a drone. Will post video of roof inspection soon.......with Luke Ritter

Can you identify one thing that's wrong in this picture?
Here's a Clue: When you open your eyes around you, then you can't help become a "grounded person"

How an infrared camera helps you find problems. Toilet wax ring is leaking. Could cause a rotten floor in time.

What inspectors have to deal with in crawlspaces. Note what was a 3ft snake skin.

(Q) Why are the roofing nails popping thru the shingles? (A) Length of nails too short. A lot of roofers use staples or short nails. Nails should pe*****te roof plywood. Would you know this? Hire Covenant for your home inspection.

Untitled album

The Things I've Seen

Think a Home Inspection isn't worth it? How would you like to buy a house and find out later that it had a previous fire?