In a survey, the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors (CAHPI) compiled the following list of the most frequently found problems in the homes that its members inspected:

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Checking a home inspector’s affiliation with a professional association is an important prerequisite in selecting a qualified home inspector.

The Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors (CAHPI), a non-profit, self-regulated professional home inspection organization, made up of individual, independent home inspectors, tests and screens prospective home inspectors based on technical and professional requirements, and grants full membership only to those who meet its high standards.

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The following are photos taken duing past inspections, mostly of serious problems that weren’t readily apparent.

These two photos show a crack that went through the side of the building. The inside had come apart. The crack started in the foundation, indicating that something was moving/shifting. At this point the door could not open:

This photo shows some nice supports under the main beam. Like the balancing block?

When you need a little extra support, why not stick a post on the ground?! Also, you just have to love a good rope support for your plumbing…

If your main support posts are not quite plumb, why not stick a wedge under it? Or how about seven wedges!

Who knew you could support your leaky plumbing with rope?!

This is a photo of an apartment crawlspace ceiling. They wanted to rent this for $700 a month!

In this photo the foundation had fallen apart, thereby dropping the top of this wall 5 inches off the main building. This may be a little drafty in the winter!

Everyone knows you don’t use duct tape to repair shower walls! After all, it’s used to repair cars! (according to Red/Green)

And now the duct tape is used to cover the holes left exposed in the panel!

This connector is a chimney of a water heater. The connection misses by an inch!

It took me hours to support my deck… you want me to change these posts now?

If you’re intalling a bathtub, and the joist is in the way of the plumbing, why not just cut it out?!  And of course, cut it out about 8 feet away where the bathtub drain comes through! Don’t worry about the weight of the bathtub on the floor with no joist support. It might hold – for a while…

Apparently you can just cut a hole in the ABS plumbing, and stick the copper pipe in from the drain on the furnace! It works just fine; just don’t worry about that smell that leaks out…

These people felt that they didn’t need to fill holes in the wall when they took the vents out; tar paper should keep most of the weather out after all…

These exposed wires carry 600 volts, with no protection whatsoever (they didn’t cover this wire when advised). Be careful where you walk! A week later someone dropped a skid on one wire and it exploded apart. Thankfully no one was injured.

The shingles are only two days old. This roof should be good for another fifteen

years, the buyer is very happy…

“I put new shingles on! You expected flashing too??”

Are you sure my chimney needs to be repaired?

We have all heard a fair amount about the new smoke alarm laws having come into effect March 1, 2006. In Ontario it is now the law that all residential buildings have working fire alarms on every level and violators are facing some pretty stiff penalties. There are a few items to keep in mind with the new law:

• It is still recommended by Paragon Inspections that smoke detectors are installed within 5 feet of bedroom doors – all bedroom doors, homeowners should add additional detectors if one or two doors are further than this.
• As we all know, smoke rises– so these detectors should be on or near the ceiling (CO detectors at around knee or plug in level)
• There are 2 types of detectors – ionization and photoelectric – both are very effective in providing early warning of the smoke
• Detectors are now required to be installed on each storey of the home – According to the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall split level homes do not require an alarm on each level, only each storey (plus all areas with bedrooms). As illustrated below, a storey can
  consist of more than one level. Only one smoke alarm is required to be installed in each storey (see note 1). However, when a dwelling unit contains multiple sleeping areas, a
  smoke alarm must be installed to protect each separate sleeping area. This may necessitate additional smoke alarms on some levels of a split-level home (see note 2). The following
  illustrated example of a split-level dwelling unit is provided for clarification.” It is recommended that when a storey includes 2 levels, the alarm be placed on the higher ceiling
  of the two
• Smoke detectors have a life span – the units themselves should be replaced every 10 years
• Homeowners are not allowed to replace hard wired detectors with battery powered units – as these units may have been required by the Building code at the time of installation. All units to be replaced must be replaced with equal or better units. It is possible, however, to supplement (or add) detectors with battery powered units.
• Crawl spaces do not require detectors (if there is no finished floor).
• It is the landlord’s responsibility to install and maintain any smoke detectors – to this end, it is illegal for tenants to remove the batteries or otherwise dismantle the units.

Although the law was a long time coming, some homeowners are scrambling to catch up. It is expected that first time offences will be treated with leniency and issued a $235 ticket. However, this is not guaranteed, and individuals can be fined up to $50,000 and up to a year in jail. In this instance there is no downside to being overly cautious.