**Steve, you must be an ATTIC guru:roll:. Acording to your numbers you have visited 29,200 attics in your 20 years of inspecting homes. That is if you do 4 attics a day. You probably live inside an attic:roll:. That’s a heck of a life style. **
**We need somebody like you to teach us a class on walking inside in attic without getting hurt or falling through the rafters inside a living room. **
“SAFE ATTIC PRACTICES”
do not see it as so much that people in older homes are being penalized as I see it that people who have homes with certain construction features may qualify for a discount. For the most part if you don’t have the wind inspection you won’t get any of the discounts (yes I’m aware if the was was built 2003 or later it may be getting a building code discount). Understand discounts aren’t limited to the wind policy there are other features such as security systems and fire ratings that also qualify the home for discounts on the portions of the policy as well. Personally, I have felt that Realtors could provide their clients a valuable service by first learning and then explaining to their clients how insurance requirements and costs should figure into the home purchase decision and not find out about it after they have submitted a offer to purchase contract. I try to push this with Realtors with very limited success.
I understand the state tried to get insurers to do this for quite a while without success. They finally commissioned the 2002 ARA study which most of the wind discount are based on and as they say the rest is history. Read some of the history sometime such as the Insurance White Paper, The 202 ARA study and others it quite enlightening.
Sometimes I wonder if everyone here reads. Following the history it is quite enlightening.
Haven’t always done that many inspections. Took a lot of years to get the business where it is today. We average 80 – 85 full home inspections a month in the last 4 years and yes I do have some help. Knock on wood, haven’t blown out a ceiling yet. My point to Mr. Meeker was when we do a home inspection we are climbing all the way through the attic anyway so a few more photos is not that big a deal for us.
You must be part tunnel rat or just a lot luckier than me. 
If you have 2 feet between trusses and blown in insulation or cannot turn around then you should not be doing it.
It is not safe for person or property.
I climb all the way through the attic, but, I am not belly crawling to the end of every rafter, unless I see something, which in most cases, I can see from the center of the attic.
I have had several agents say that the pictures weren’t clear enough for them to make a determination as to what type of strapping it was. I send them the larger original pictures and tell them that is as good as it is going to get. I was there and I know what I saw.
The person Bill was referring to was me. For the first time in 20 years, I fell through a ceiling. I was actually taking a picture of the nailing pattern when it happened. I was sweaty and my foot slipped on a bunch of blown insulation. Because I was holding the ruler with one hand and taking the picture with the other, I barely had time to grab something. Fortunately, I was able to stop my fall. Had I not, I probably would be in the icu with a broken back or neck, if I was lucky. It was the second story attic I fell through and the hallway did not extend over the kitchen.
No matter how safe you try to be, accidents will still happen.
Remember all that this happened after I had started this campaign to stop the useless picture requirements.
Eric, was luck Lets make sure no one dies trying to do this crap.
I should be removed as easily as it was added to the form. That is all I am asking is for them to admit and fix the mistake.
Take an older home with (3/4"-2") plaster walls, if they get wet from the home losing the roof then it just dries and onward. Whereas drywall must be demo and replaced. Who’s cost more to the insurance company? The older house has ent electrical piping, not romex, so whose house cost more to repair when there is a short etc… Older homes have copper water piping, not plastic, whose is more durable. Should overhead cooper get a better rate? Does the the famous study have a special interst?
Yes older homes in the HVHZ were built under the South Florida Building Code, which was the strongest, best building code the state had. Until the Fl Bldg commission, design professionals with no special interest (University Engineering depts) get together with the insurance industry to determine constuction methods that will cost the insurer less to repair, it is a numbers game to make money.
Yes some features have come a long way to help home owners survive these storms, but my opinion is that other characteristics save the insurer monies and these homes should get discounts also.
OK…
Now how do we get rid of the mistake the OIR made by putting the requirement on the form for photos?
Or how do we get to the insurance companies to see the light and only want truly visible and accessibility issues photographed?
I already told you.
You should start with background info. http://www.floir.com/siteDocuments/ARALossMitigationStudy.pdf
I do not believe the changing materials in home building really has a lot to do with insurance replacement cost. The changing material uses likely has more to do with availability of cheaper materials and the cost of construction meeting the price point for the orginal buyer not replacement cost for the insurance company.
Copper piping will find few fans in my neighborhoodand and most would have loved to have had CPVC supply piping. When this devlopment was approved the county had not kept with the growth rate and required the devloper to provide temporary water and sewage treatment facilities. This caused severe premature failures of the copper supply lines due to the higher pressure and type of treatment causing electrolysis inside the copper. Homes with copper water lines began failing in less than 3 years. Out of the 22 homes on my street all but 4 have had the supply line replaced. That is typical for the devlopment for home built prior to the area going on the regular county system. The 4 homes that have not had replacements had water conditioning systems.
The building materials have nothing to do with the homes ability to survive a major hurricane. That is why the wind mits are a total scam.
You can add all the strapping, bracing, and anything else you want, but if another storm like Andrew comes through, I suggest you seek higher ground.
I was at Country Walk after Andrew, we didn’t have any power here, and I couldn’t work, so I went down there and was allowed to walk around.
The destruction I saw was caused by extremely high wind conditions. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures, by I do remember everything I saw.
Everything was just blown apart. The powers that be and the media for that matter, focused on poor building practices as the root cause.
The root cause was projectiles being hurled through buildings at 200 mph!
The insurance companies are simply using everyone else to pay for the day when a big hurricane comes through and damages a neighborhood or two, so they can still make money.
I have a friend who has two homes both valued well over a million dollars. He doesn’t have insurance simply because he can afford to play the odds.
If he had to pay premiums, over the last 10 years alone, it would have cost 300K in insurance. I am sure we can find someone to repair a house for that!
Eric, Country walk is the classic example of why the building codes were changed. Communities surrounding it suffered far less damage, and Dade County used it as a prime example of why they needed to change. That is why they banned osb as a roofing and siding material. Several Inspectors that had worked in there also were either prosecuted, or at least threatened with it. Country Walk was full of slipshod construction, crappy materials, and crappy installation.
Most of the changes that came about as a result of that investigation are for the better. Although some of the changes were driven by special interests. The one that annoyed me the most was requiring 6 nails per shingle instead of four. If the adhesive on the end of the shingle gives way the shingle is gone, no matter how many nails you put half way up it!
Contribute to law makers campaigns
Meet with them in person
Take em fishing, golfing etc…
Get in the loop
Quit belly aching and get involved, make changes or sit on the side line and say we need this , that , why not, it’s not right etc…
Did you ever suit up and play football, or were you a cheerleader?
I played and always disliked watching.
Only problem this is not no where near as fun as football ever was.
If it was I’d be rich
