Personally, I don’t think buyers are paying us hundreds of dollars to find mice turds. The number of places you could potentially find rodent droppings is almost unlimited. Example:
Do you remove the covers for spa tubs if they are screwed in place?
Do you pull out refrigerators? (Be careful not to damage the floor if you are stupid enough to do that.)
Do you remove the pan drawer at the bottom of a range?
Do you pull out and look behind the bathroom drawers?
Do you look under the bed or sofa?
Do you report a dead mouse in the crawl space? (What about a snake skin?)
Each person has to make his own determination about how extensively he wants to inspect. For me, there’s a delicate balance between doing a thorough job and yet getting home in time to spend a few minutes with my family, or being technically exhaustive and adding unnecessary time to the inspection.
I had a house the other day where the sub-floor in the crawl space was concealed by thermal insulating panels fastened to the bottom of the joists. The buyer asked me to remove them to inspect the floor framing. I declined. Explained that it was technically exhaustive and that I didn’t own the home and couldn’t dismantle it.
Speaking of pest, always inspect gable vents for Bats, they love them and static roof vents for Bird and Squirrel nest. Last but not least, check all dryer, Bath and vent Hood vents, a favorite for critters if house has been vacant for a spell. Mice do not have Skulls, so they can squeeze thru 1/4" cracks to infiltrate dwellings.
What are their jaws and teeth connected to? :shock: They do indeed have skulls. I believe every mammal does. They do have a collapsible ribcage. That’s what allows them to get small.
Do you remove the covers for spa tubs if they are screwed in place?
Yes, how else are you going to see if the receptacle is G.F.I. protected if no G.F.I. breaker is present?
Do you pull out refrigerators? (Be careful not to damage the floor if you are stupid enough to do that.)
Stupid? Until you find the plastic line looped up wrapped on top of the cord for the refrigerator, or, as I have seen, the entire wall removed to accommodate the fridge. Or, a leak at the shut off valve that is dangling out of the wall.
Do you remove the pan drawer at the bottom of a range?
Of course, it is an easy way to check for the anti-tip bracket…right?
Do you pull out and look behind the bathroom drawers?
Yep, especially if the shut off valves are missing…because someone was too lazy to relocate them.
Do you look under the bed or sofa?
Yep…Ya need to know where the cats are! LOL
Do you report a dead mouse in the crawl space? (What about a snake skin?)
What about this:I can’t post attachments, but it would have been a picture of a rather large dead animal under a mobile home I inspected.
I think that each inspector should make his own decision as to what he is going to do.
I would be real careful about stating what you don’t do.
After reading this thread, I though maybe i’ll just remove the cover next time to see what I might see…The pump was leaking. Ok I’m convinced, will remove covers from now on. :shock:
To answer this one, I have never seen a gfci inside the panel. It is either in the breaker panel or wired into the wall outlet by the sink. Pretty difficult to reset in a tub panel.
Looks like I started a dishwasher trend. Keep posting pics of all the dishwasher defects you find!
The first one is a receptacle that not only wasn’t G.F.I. protected, but was wired backwards.
The second one was G.F.I. protected, however, the conduit, box and everything else wasn’t secured to anything. Not to mention the tub was leaking right on to the conduit.
