J. Quain Home & Building Inspection Services

Do not be fooled by cute, little squirrels and other animals hanging around your roof and house in the autumn months. As the temperature gets colder, these crafty and agile creatures often seek warmth and shelter inside different parts of your home. By doing so, they can quickly damage important components of your house, and leave behind feces and urine that can be harmfull to your health. Because these animals prefer to be undistriburbed, they will most likel...y seek out areas of your home that you do not commonly access; such as chimneys, sub-roofs, crawl spaces, empty spaces under stairs and even inside the walls and ceilings of the structure. Some squirrels have even been known to chew right through the siding materials of a house (vinyl and wood siding, etc...) The soft, wolly insulation of your house makes a comfortable sleeping spot for these uninvited friends of nature. They are capable of rapidly displacing and destroying insulation, and other building materials in crucial areas of your home that help to protect and keep the building warm, and dry in the winter. They will even chew on electrical wires, exposing the bare wire which then becomes a fire hazard! If you do find evidence of rodent/pest entry, or are concerned about destroyed building materials caused by other animals, make sure to immediatly contact a pest control specialist who can safely and humanely remove the intruders. Don't forget to have all damaged building materials repaired and/or replaced by a certified contractor.

Traces of efflorescence in and around a building is a sign of a much larger problem at hand. The situation should always be addressed and rectified immediatly. Water that is trapped behind building materials and not given the proper chance to dry can lead to serious damages and health problems. For a better description and understanding of what efflorescence is and why it is caused, please read full note on my page.

The month of April can be very wet with lots of rain fall, and is also the time of year when ground waters rise due to melting lakes and rivers. Any month of the year is a good time to look around your property, checking for new anomalies or signs of water infiltrations, but spring is often when they occur. One sign of water infiltration is efflorescence, and given its location, we can often determine where water may be entering the building from. Unfortunatly, many home o...wners do not know what efflorescence is, and/or what it looks like. Efflorescence is a white, chalky, powder substance, found on bricks, stones, and concrete when exposed to water for prolonged periods of time. Water brings the mineral salts from within the brick, stone, or concrete, out to the surface and stains the material. It often appears on the exterior side of a building; around windows, below roofs or along foundation walls. It is an indication of water beeing trapped in between walls or not properly draining away from your foundation. There are several causes to these problems and different ways in which the water can enter your home (missing/faulty roof coverings, leaky windows/doors, holes in siding materials, blocked/missing foundation drains, etc...). If water is trapped in an area for long periods of time without given the chance to properly ventlilate and dry, it could cause further damages to other components and lead to heath problems like mold.

Major components of a house that are included in a residential home inspection.

March is a good month to check your home's hot water tank, and start considering if it needs replacement and/or repair work on some of its components. Because we tend to use more hot water during the colder months, and because the municipal water entering your home is a few degrees colder in winter, your hot water tank has to work that much harder to keep up. Here are some important things to remember and some signs to look for when inspecting your hot water tank: -In genera...l, the average life expectancy of a hot water tank is 10-15 years. -A hot water tank should be equiped with it's own (seperate) shut hot valve and temperature/pressure regulator. -Most manufactures also recommend draining your hot water tank atleast once a year in order to eliminate deposits that could accumulate at the base of the tank. -It is recommended that a hot water tank be installed in proximity to a floor drain, or if not possible, that it sit inside a basin, incase an unexpected malfunction or leak occurs. (Even a slow leak of 40+ gallons of water can cause alot of damages to your home). -For the well being of the occupants, it is recommended to maintain a minimum water temperature of 140F in order to prevent the built up of harmfull bacteria. -If your hot water tank is located in the basement, it is recommended that it NOT sit directly on the concrete floor slab. A concrete floor slab is usually cold and damp, which can cause condensation on the hot water tank, inturn giving risk to rust formation and faster deterioration. Again, this also helps to conserve energy. A solution to this, is to have the tank istalled on wodden blocks, which will create a gap between the cold concrete floor slab and the base of the tank. Always have your hot hater tank replaced by a certified plumber/technician who provides receipts for the work performed.

February: Icicles hanging from the edge of your roof is a sign of a larger problem; If you are experiencing icicles hanging from the edge of your house's roof, it is usualy a bad sign and could imply a larger problem at hand. This symptom is most likely a sign of heat loss in certain areas of your roof. This could be caused by incorrectly placed insulation and/or inadequate ventillation in the sub-roof(attic) area. Ideally you want your sub-roof area to be cold and (natura...lly) well ventilated by exterior air. If heat escapes from the upper sections of your roof, it melts the snow and ice found there, inturn dripping down to the lower areas of your roof (which should be cold) and forms an ice dam and/or icicles. If your whole sub-roof area is cold then this will not happen. Insulation is ment to keep the inside of the living area warm and if incorrectly placed it will alllow heat to escape. Insulation that is (for example) pushed right up against the inside of your roofs' soffits(area where roof meets wall), will not allow cool/fresh air to enter the sub-roof area and properly ventilate(also helping to keep it cold). Ice dams can quickly damage your roof and force water up under the shingles. For more information on how to help solve some of these problems related to sub-roof insulation and ventilation, visit the link at the bottom by: www.inspectapedia.com http://www.google.ca/imgres

January: Kitchen Vents/Air Extractors; With all the holiday cooking about to take place over the next few weeks now could be a good time to emphasize the importance of proper ventilation in the kitchen. The air in your kitchen is considerably more humid (and often of lower breathing quality) because of the cooking process - grease, odours, etc... It is for these reasons that having an air extractor(hood) in the kitchen that is functioning properly can help reduce the damages... to your home caused by moisture and condensation and also to help raise the indoor air quality for you and your family. A kitchen range hood should move approximately 100 to 300 cubic feet of air per minute (cfm). This equates to about 1/5 to 1/3 of the total air volume in your kitchen being extracted every minute. In other words when you place your hand up against the vent you should actualy feel it pulling the air up and away! It is equally important to ensure that the dirty/humid air be extracted to the EXTERIOR of the building and not left to exhaust inside a wall cavity or into your sub-roof area! Also make sure that all aluminum vents that pass through walls and sub-roof areas are properly insulated to discourage condensation from forming around them which could inturn damage other building components in these areas. And of course make sure to periodically clean and/or replace the kitchen hood filter. Happy Holidays and happy cooking!! :)

December can be a damp month with more rainfall and melting snow finding it's way close to your foundation walls and basement windows. It is recommended that a basement window whose lower ledge sits at less than 6" above ground level be euipped/protected by a window well. Window wells help reduce water and moisture levels close to you basement windows; which will aid in prolonging the well being of your windows and decrease the risk of deterioration.... They can also help improve the level of comfort to the occupants by diminishing the amount of humidity entering the house. For more information on how certain basement renovations can help with the overall wellbeing and livability of your home please follow this CMHC link: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca//co/renoho/refash/refash_024.cfm

This month's topic is rain gutters and roof drainage; With the fall season upon us maintaining clean and properly placed gutters that allow for rain waters to sufficiently drain off your roof and away from the building is crucial in the overall well being of your home. Remember that the placement of down spouts should be concieved in such a way that waters drain AWAY from the building and be placed at the recommended minimum distance of 4ft from the foundations walls. Also very important is to ensure that the rain gutters are not draining into your foundation drainage system (french drains), as this can block them and/or put an unnecessary extra strain on them.