Just an article I found.
Also, good lesson for home inspectors to mentally account for the building foot print and locate hidden crawls, plenums, attic spaces etc.
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Guess I’ll add another disclaimer to my agreement. 
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Here is an embarrassing story from several years ago. This was a new construction inspection and I wanted to open the window from the 2nd floor loft to the front porch roof to slide my small ladder out and use it to get onto the upper roof.
I tried to lift the bottom sash on this loft window but it only opened a couple inches before getting stuck on a plastic stopper on the upper sash. Turns out that the windows in this house had a built-in child proof safety feature installed. This was the first house I inspected that had this feature. There is a warning label next to the stopper that called it a WOCD(window opening control device). I looked it up on my phone and thought that hey you learn something new every day. The next section of the warning label also revealed that the WOCD blocks escape in fire and emergency situations unless released. Well…this means that children cannot easily open the windows and fall out, but they also cannot escape through the window during a fire. Well isn’t that ironic, a device that is designed to fix one safety problem creates another safety problem.
Anyway, I got out onto the porch roof and set up my ladder for the upper roof. I looked at the open window and thought about that warning label. I mean I didn’t even know children falling out of windows was a common enough problem that a device had to be designed to fix that problem and such device is also mentioned in a section of the IRC. This was my first time working with this particular agent(also the buyer) who was going to attend the inspection per our previous conversation, but she wasn’t here yet and I didn’t know if an entourage is going to accompany her. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I closed the window from the outside with difficulty.
Then I heard the dreaded “click” from the WOCD and realized I had been locked out on the front porch roof. Help wasn’t coming until the agent arrives and that would be embarrassing. With no choices left, I texted the agent to see when she is coming. She said there’s been a change of plans and she isn’t going to come unless there is a major issue at the house. I happily told her there were no major problems with the house so far, I’m doing fine, and she should go take care of her business.
Well, that is one problem solved, but I’m still stuck out here on the porch roof. I guess I’ll have to call my wife to drive over and open the window for me. Apparently, my luck wasn’t completely down in the dumps that day, and one of the painters for the neighboring house just walked out to get some supplies from his van.
I shouted out, "HEY AMIGO, STUCK WINDOW, HELP’’ as I enacted trying to open the window but couldn’t. He came over and opened the window for me and I said “Gracias” and continued with the rest of the inspection. Happy ending.
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Good story, Yu!
I posted this a while ago:
It is the high stress time of the Holidays or some other rigamarole. Let it slide off your back knowing that you are running YOUR inspection and doing the best job that you know how for your clients.
I had a seller’s agent show up at my inspection about 45 minutes after I started. Apparently the owners moaned to him that I showed up 15 minutes early and they didn’t like it.
I had knocked on the door to let the sellers know that I was there and said that I would do the outside first seeing that they were still in their robes.
Well the sellers left and while I waited in my truck and I commenced to do the inside with my clients and a couple of their friends…5 people with me.
Then, the seller’s agent showed up and asked for my card and I gave him one and continued to do the inside part of the inspection. Well, the seller’s agent followed me around in my personal space to the point that my clients felt for my safety and started videotaping him and me.
It was hilarious, I would go into the powder room and he was on my tail, to the point that I could hardly turn around. I ignored him as best as I could but my clients voiced their concern to the agent that he was being an ass and to back off.
He didn’t. But when I got to the foyer, I had to open a door to enter and the exterior door had a double keyed dead bolt with the inside key in it and the door we just entered has a twist knob lock on the house side. So, I saw my chance.
Without him seeing, I locked the exterior deadbolt and removed the key and on the way back into the house I twisted the lockset and closed the door. Now there he was locked in the foyer without a way to exit.
Ikept on walking and talking to my clients and ignored his rapping on the glass door and finished the down stairs and did the upstairs and when I walked by the foyer he was beet red faced, so I let him out and asked if he knew where the crawlspace access was.
Hestuttered and could hardly get his breath but showed me the crawlspace access and he followed me down into the 3’ high crawlspace. It was “L” shaped and I did the whole area where he could see me from the access floor/ground and when I turned and entered the"L" potion where he couldn’t see me, I layed down and stretched out and waited for him to crawl over to my area and go up just before he could see me. But, he sure got his suit filthy.
I finished the crawlspace shining my light in his eyes every chance I could and exited and removed my coveralls and shook them out on top of him waiting to exit.
My clients to me to lunch and said the would come to court with me if I needed and would email me the video. We laughed and laughed. They couldn’t believe that I locked him in the foyer for over an hour.
It was great fun!
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