Inspections

    I was checking a house today to make sure everything was ready for it to be inspected for the Rental Inspection Program. You have to check to make sure the GFI outlets are all working. For those of you who do not know, you should have GFI electrical outlets within 6 feet of a water source and all outside outlets. The new ones are "improved".

     They self check, but that causes them to fail at a high rate. I am not sure that was an improvement. I have had a few now that did not last more than 60 days. My question is, was it better when you had to push the button occasionally to make sure they work or now when they are self checking and they fail but there is still current there. That gives a fine sense of false security. Where it annoys me is I can never guarantee that a house will pass inspection because the GFI breakers might have failed. At about $16.00 each it really is disgusting when they fail in less than 6 months. I replaced one on Thursday that I had installed last September. $2.00 a month for an electrical outlet. Seems a little steep to me and I do not know if it failed 4 months back.

I want the old ones back. They would work for years and they are so colorful with the red and black buttons.

     You see that plastic vent tube. That is a vent fan duct it is not meant for a clothes dryer. Problem is we do not provide dryers in our rental houses. That means each tenant hooks up their own often using this type of vent. That is not acceptable and is a code violation.


         So we often have to replace the plastic with a metal vent. Of course who remembers that the vent belongs to the landlord when they are moving. Let me give you a hint, No one. So that means I have to check before an inspection how the dryer is vented.                                                                          

     One evening Matthew was not able to get the aluminum vent into what appeared to be a metal piece going through the floor. I finally asked if I could give it a try. I was very proud of myself for waiting as long as I did before I kindly said; get out of my way. I couldn't get it to fit in either. That is when I discovered that it was an old Quaker Oats box wrapped in duct tape instead of a vent pipe. After a while you think you would never be surprised anymore and then something totally strange will show up. I guess the box was a tube about the right size and available. I am sure it wouldn't be flammable would it?

  

     So I have been going around checking dryer vents, GFI Outlets and thinking I really need to wear ear plugs when checking houses. I have to push those test buttons on smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors. They make a horrendous squeal and there are a lot of them in most houses.  Inside and outside every bedroom and on each floor including basements.
     I really love it when I check a house and all the detectors have been removed. Especially when it is the new expensive dual sensor detectors less than a month old. That is when you hear some interesting excuses. My favorite was when I am standing with an inspector looking at all those empty detector holders that I had checked the week before. "Oh I was boiling water last night and all the detectors went off so I took them down." Oh yea, that old boiling water causes smoke scenario, happens all the time. And that boiling water was setting them off in the basement too? Wow that is amazing. Could you get them for me so we can put them back?? Oh, you can't find them, and you just took them out last night?


     That is why I have  detectors, batteries and a driver in my pickup. Just a minute Mr. inspector and we will have the detectors back up. My favorite was when an inspector told me she made the tenant get the smoke detector put the battery back in it and put it back in the holder and check it. As soon as it beeped the tenant asked can I take it back down now? No, No, No. You would think she would have at least waited till the inspector was out of the house wouldn't you?

     When Micah finds a house with the batteries out of the detectors he moves them all higher. He says "At least they will have to use a higher step stool next time."
    I may not be fond of inspectors coming around. It's a lot easier if I don't have to check all the GFI outlets, and the dryer vents, and make sure no one has taken off any outlet covers. It's a lot easier if I don't have to make sure all the electrical breakers are labeled and the windows open easily and all the windows have locks. It is less of a pain if I don't have to check all the fire extinguishers and that the railings on the stairs are sturdy. But the other side of that is, now I have to check and I know that the tenants are living safer.
    It may be a lot easier in our lives also if we don't hold a standard up to how we live. It may seem easier if we just do what we think is right instead of having a set of commandments to live by, but is it? In the Bible in the book of Judges there is a constant refrain. "There was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes." That means God was not the king in the peoples eyes and everyone did what they wanted. If you want to read something awful, read the last couple of chapters of Judges. We need an inspection list to check our lives against. I would suggest Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5 and following chapters. I know I can't live the way we are told to live there, just like I know there are times the inspector of our houses will see something I have missed. That doesn't mean we throw out the standard, it just means we try harder and help each other live better lives by pointing out in love to each other when we see each other falling short of the standard.