Terrible video.
New construction inspections are only a small part of the Home Inspection industry. Any observations you might make are superseded by the AHJ who has the final word!
A typical home inspection for a Real Estate transaction will not expose any of those things.
Nope. It’s a great video. You just missed the point. You think it’s a video about new construction inspections. It’s not.
Nope. If you’re following InterNACHI Standards of Practice, then you’re often looking for code violations. For example, home inspectors should report as in need of correction improper spacing between intermediate balusters (according to SoP). Identifying “improper spacing” requires knowledge of the most recent code.
Knowing code makes you a better home inspector. And here’s why.
Probably because that’s all you show.
Amazing that isn’t in there.
A good video would be able to convey the main idea. That video didn’t.
You’re just promoting yourself. Nothing new here.
Yep. That’s all I do, Robert. LOL. Again, missed the point. The point of the video is that the best inspectors that I know know code.
A large majority of what we inspect as home inspectors is related to building code, including those conditions in my short “terrible” video. LOL. Think about it, (everyone else). We inspect the grading slope, right? We can report it as defect because the functional slope is described in code.
Bob, do you call out “S” traps?
That still doesn’t explain why you’re teaching your students to call out soffit vents. Discharging into soffits is disallowed. Discharging into a soffit vent is not best practice, but it’s not disallowed.
M1501.1 Outdoor discharge. The air removed by every mechanical exhaust system shall be discharged to the outdoors in accordance with Section M1504.3. Air shall not be exhausted into an attic, soffit, ridge vent or crawl space.
Only a fool laughs at themselves. You keep saying I missed the point. You didn’t make the point.
Your video was supposed to support the idea of a Home Inspector doing a better job by knowing code. Yet the most visible aspect of the video is a pre-drywall location/background. Right away the pre-drywall inspection is the first thing that comes to mind. You are promoting new construction code (IRC). Yet you say it’s about Home inspection in general.
Now you are explaining and defending a video by presenting information that is not in the video. I know you are not that dumb.
What does S traps have to do with your video. They are called out because of their inefficiency. I grew up in a house that had S traps, never smelled a thing. That demonstrates how often they are siphoned. Do you report the fact that plumbing systems with S traps often have galvanized pipes that are prone to rusting shut? That finally happened on my childhood home (built in 1911) some 60 years after my father purchased it with the galvanized piping. The point here is simple, these are called out for a reason unrelated to a code cycle. You can’t quote code in a Home Inspection. You need to know a reason behind the code.
@rbleich was right on the money above when he presented the IPMC information about heating a bathroom.
Hi, @rbleich. So the InterNACHI illustration should be into, not through? Good point. But air exhaust openings should terminate at least 3 feet (914 mm) from gravity air intake openings. So, may be the illustration could show that better?
Home inspectors call out “S” traps as defects because code does too. That’s the point. The more code knowledge a home inspector has, the better the inspection is.
Why?
Because a large majority of what we inspect as home inspectors is related to building code, including those conditions in my “terrible” video. LOL.
Of course, not required. No door into my master bath, though I’ve tried to talk my wife into letting me add a door to no avail.
C’mon Bob, lighten up. 
I thought it was pretty good. Kinda like pulling a newbie over for a quick little instruction on the importance of knowing minimum standards.
Absolutely agree.
On one hand, I think most of us agree that we are not and don’t want our clients to think we are code inspectors doing a code compliance inspection. Three reasons: 1) Lots of code that is changing all the time that requires us to know the codes for every house in the year it was constructed. 2) And for most of us, our local AHJs can and do selectively enforce code, which makes us know what every city inspector requires not just today, but also yesterday. 3) You have to have the all the code books committed to memory perfectly throughout history…whew, that’s a tough one. Many of us that have done this for a while have stumped a city inspector, and their only job is to know code. How much tougher for us?
On the other hand, so much of what we do involves code. There are so many things that might be a subjective call if there was no code for it, but with code, it is black & white.
S-traps are one of those. I’ve seen plumbers (licensed ones) put them in, but for us they are a call out because, code says nope. Luckily, we don’t have to have all codes memorized. For us, familiarity with study aids like Code Check, at least gives us the “big” codes to watch for.
And yet here you are, calling it a bathroom instead of an outhouse.
You shouldn’t let the children influence you like that!!
I know you think this is a witty reply. You do realize that a bathroom and an outhouse do not provide that same accomodation. No one bathes in an outhouse. It might also occur to you that the term bathroom long precedes my existence and the originators are far and away my elders. You are a little petulant apparently.
@rbleich, sending to my illustrator, Zak. He’ll make those adjustments. Thanks!
We look forward to critiquing it when he’s done. lol!
Something to consider, I think it is more accurately referred to as a “soffit exhaust vent”, or “soffit vent hood”.
You’re the petulant one.
I’m just pointing out that you shouldn’t called yourself a licensed home inspector if you don’t like being told what to do by changing times. Because being a home inspector wasn’t a formal profession when we were born. And a license wasn’t required until someone said it was not that many years ago.
But you do, so you’ve proven you so indeed change with the times. Making fun of me for also changing with the time is just being hypocritical.
Are you off your meds? That makes no sense at all. How does that explain saying it because the “kids” do? it doesn’t, just your nonsensical rationale!
According to the Home Inspection Standards of Practice (www.nachi.org/sop), a home inspector is required to inspect toilets, sinks, tubs, showers, the plumbing, electrical, windows, doors, ventilation, floors, walls, and ceilings. While the standards do not have a section titled “Bathrooms,” virtually every component found in a bathroom is covered elsewhere in the standards.
