My investigation began when I observed the issue, it ended when I reported on it.
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so You are comfortable with having someone else finish Your job…interesting…
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So You are comfortable with having someone else finish your job…interesting…
wow Im not sure what happened there…I love this ne kinder message board…
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You only need to learn it once.
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exactly 
,
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What do you even mean by that?
You do realize an inspectors job is only to observe and report. We are not licensed or insured to go much further than that.
If you are pulling things apart to investigate a defect, just remember that your client does not own the house. You were not hired by the owner and you don’t have permission to go beyond using normal operating controls.
You have to leave the diagnostics to a professional contractor.
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I think he was being humorous. At least I hope so.
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to the contrary that would usually be the first one I checked in a room. I live in an area with many century homes. It was not uncommon to find scorch marks here and there. I physically tested each of those and found for the most part the fault had already been corrected and there was no issue with the outlet other than cosmetic. I suppose everyone has their own comfort zone but if I referred every scorch mark to a qualified electrician for repair I would have been wasting lots of peoples money
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So, what you’re sayin’ is a lot of people are addicted to using the “Plug-In” Air Fresheners??
and other stupid crap…
There is a reason to the madness.
InterNACHI SoP electrical section states
III. The inspector shall report as in need of correction:
- any tested receptacle in which power was not present, polarity was incorrect, the cover was not in place, the GFCI devices were not properly installed or did not operate properly, evidence of arcing or excessive heat, and where the receptacle was not grounded or was not secured to the wall; and
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I’d agree with most here that that’s out of scope of a typical home inspection.
But we’d all be horrified if we did such a test on new construction with builder grade receptacles with backstab connections in long chains. The encrapificiation of electrical equipment means we have all sort of cheap stuff on the market both from the multinational corporations, down to the random-letter-companies Amazon allows and enables.
The issue of course is lots of resistance. You apply a test load from the tester, or a 100W old school bulb, and the voltage dips. A sure sign of low bidder work.
Seth,
I don’t do load testing as i try to not exceed the SOP as tempted as I am to do so sometimes. I do use a Klein receptacle tester which gives me the line voltage on each receptacle. If it is above 130V I’ll mention it in the report as in need of evaluation by an electrician. if the outlet is scorched to begin with its a NO GO for inserting any tool and recommend further evaluation by a qualified Electrical contractor.
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