Ask the Virginia Beach Home Inspector

Home Inspector for Hampton Roads

Will Your Virginia Beach Home Inspector Go There?

· Crawlspace

When you hire your Virginia Beach home inspector one thing to keep in mind is will he be able to access hard to get to areas or will they be disclaimed in the report. Of course not every attic or crawlspace is completely accessible but every effort should be made to provide a complete report. This is an example of a crawlspace entry that may cause some home inspectors to disclaim the crawlspace as inaccessible.

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So what here is are a few important details that would not have been on the home inspection report. These are some of the highlights or lowlights from this crawlspace.

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 Just some of the things your Virginia Beach home inspector will be looking for during your home inspection.

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Question For The Virginia Beach Home Inspector

· Uncategorized

paint question for the virginia beach home inspector

Question:

How do you calculate how much paint you will need for a room?



Answer:

Painting your home’s interior is not only a lot of work, it’s expensive. And because the color must be custom-mixed in some cases, you want to be sure you buy enough.

A second problem with paint: You’ll have to store leftovers in a place where they won’t freeze. That ruins paint.

To calculate the right quantity so you’ll have enough but not too much, follow this advice from Martha Stewart:

* Determine the wall area by multiplying the height of a room by the width. Don’t subtract any square feet for doors and windows unless they take up half of the room.

* Divide the total number of square feet in all the walls by 450. That’s the number of square feet one gallon of paint will cover.

* Add about 10 percent to your order for future touch-ups.

* If you know you will be using two coats, double the amount of paint you will buy.

If you calculate correctly, you won’t run out of paint, but you will still have to find a place to store the future touch-up material.

Because you won’t have very much, you could put it in the back of a closet inside the house.

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Live Tech Support For Your Home

· Home Inspection Information

Get one year of FREE technical support for you home when you choose Safe House Property Inspections for your Virginia Beach home inspection.

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Multipurpose Use Is Not Always A Good Idea

· HVAC, Uncategorized

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Extending drain lines from your the downspouts on your house is always recommended. Keeping water away from you foundation is key to prevent damage. Now draining all the rain water from your roof into your neighbor’s yard might not be the best solution for neighborhood relationships.

On this Virginia Beach home inspection there was a discovery in the attic that I had not seen before. The use of irrigation drain lines as ductwork for your HVAC system is not only an unapproved installation it is definitely highly inefficient. The attic was quite warm when I got up in there do to all the air leaking out of these drain lines

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Now there is a lot more wrong with this setup than just using the wrong material for the ducts, but it just goes to show how important it is to get that home inspection in Virginia Beach before you buy a home.

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Ask the Virginia Beach Home Inspector Question of the Month

· Home Maintenance

virginia beach home improvement ideas

Question:

 Dear Virginia Beach home inspector we want to make some improvements on our home so it will sell quickly. What do you suggest?

 

Answer:

   Basic improvements are important,and  they don’t have to cost much if you do them yourself.

* You can start by adding a fresh coat of paint to bring new life to a room. If you have rooms or walls that are odd colors, paint these entire rooms in beige and install new electrical outlet covers.  Touching up woodwork will also bring a fresh look to the room.

* Adding new faucets in the kitchen and master bath are  can add a more modern look when the present fixtures are starting to show their age.

   This applies to light fixtures as well. Sparkling new fixtures on a newly painted ceiling actually gives you a “new room.”

* One of the most important areas is the kitchen. If you have a few thousand dollars to spend on a project, decorators say new countertops are a good choice. Some choices are quartz as in Caesarstone or Cambria, DuPont’s Zodiaq or solid surface Corian, or Eco’s Cosentino or IceStone.

* Add new life to the exterior by painting the window frames, and the front door. The door is especially important and can be made a contrasting color, like red.

   Make sure the trim around the roof isn’t chipped or deteriorating, and that your gutters and downspouts are properly attached.

* If the roof has a dark streak or two, a roof-cleaning company can make it look new again. The black streaks are caused by bacteria known as gloeocapsa magma (algae growth). A professional roof cleaning    will take them away. Just remember that you do not want to take a power washer to your roof, it will do more damage than good.

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Adding Some Spring “Wow” Factor

· Home Maintenance

Now that spring is here in Virginia Beach, you may be thinking about sprucing up your house. You’ve seen exterior front doors painted red, yellow or green, but have you considered adding color to a room by painting the interior door? A couple of coats of paint in a cool shade might be just what the space needs.

Natalie Myers a designer at Veneer Designs in Los Angeles says to get the main features in the room addressed first. Then, if something seems to be missing, painting the door is a great idea.

It’s easy, inexpensive and a low-commitment project. If you don’t like how it turns out, you can simply paint it a different color. At Lowe’s Home Improvement stores, they say customers are becoming more confident about using color.

Choose a gloss finish and you’ll need fewer coats. Additionally, it will hold up when you clean it. Since you just need a small amount, invest in a high quality paint.

Before you paint the entire door, test a small area to make sure you like the color. 

This is your “Around the House” tip from the Virginia Beach home inspector.

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Virginia Beach Home Inspector Adds Even More Value

· Uncategorized

Virginia Beach home inspection company Safe House Property Inspections continues to add additional value with every home inspection performed in Hampton Roads. To find out more information regarding this new program visit the following link to Safe House Property Inspections.

Virginia Beach Home Inspection Value

SAFE HOUSE Half fold - How HON Support HELPS home owners

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Home Inspector Richmond Virginia

· Uncategorized

As a home inspector in Virginia Beach I have the pleasure of meeting and speaking with home inspectors from all over the country from time to time. This is great because it reassuring to know that if someone I know is moving to another area I can refer them to a great home inspector in that area.

If you need a home inspection in Richmond, Virginia then Juan Jimenez is the home inspector you need to hire. You can learn a bit more about this Richmond home inspector in this short video.


 

Get your Richmond home inspection information here

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That’s Grandfathered?

· Home Safety

During home inspections in Virginia Beach and probably everywhere else there is a word that comes up every now and then. The word is “grandfathered.”

grandfathered in adj. refers to continued use of property as it was when restrictions or zoning ordinances were adopted.

I don’t know about you, but my grandfather was a safety conscious kind of guy. He probably wouldn’t have approved of using his title to justify a safety concern just because the condition had been around as long as he had.

“Continued use of property as it was” when it was built when you know there is a hazard is a personal decision. My only option is to inform you that an issue is present and let you decide how you wish to proceed.

One area that continually comes up during home inspections, are stairways and railings. There are current accepted building practices that dictate how these should be constructed.


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Why You Don’t Skip The Virginia Beach Home Inspection

· Home Inspection Information

Of course it is important to get a home inspection when buying a home. There are a lot of reasons. Here is one that you may not have thought of just for fun.

This short Direct TV parody is about the importance of getting a Virginia Beach home inspection. The video may be funny, but the message is real. Don’t skip getting a home inspection in Virginia Beach when you purchase a home.


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