Silicon Valley home buyers, sellers, and their real estate agents rely heavily on the professional advice, insights and opinions of home inspectors, whether it’s for the property generally (house, townhouse or condominium inspection) or for some other component, such as the roof, foundation, chimney, pool, heater, etc. One of the most frustrating – and sometimes maddening – experiences for everyone involved happens when these inspection reports disagree with each other.

Either extreme is bad, either “calling” something when it’s fine or missing something if it’s not.  Often resolution is accomplished by having yet another inspector come out OR by having the two who disagree meet at the property to sort it out.

Here are some real examples I’ve experienced first hand over the years while selling residential real estate in Santa Clara County:

1. Over-called: General property inspector called for “further inspection” of heater, roof, or chimney because he said something’s wrong.  Further inspection ordered by buyer or seller, and paid for by consumer – but the professional for that aspect of the home says it was just fine.  Is it fine or not? The home buyer or seller is out some money and one of the two reports says there’s a problem with it but the other says it’s OK.  (This happened a few times where the general inspector “called” things that experts said were in good working order.  For that reason, I had to stop recommending him to my clients and began working with another inspector who wasn’t so over-eager that he called things which were not bad.)
2. Crawl space nightmare:  many homes have crawl spaces and if yours does, it’s important to either go down there yourself or have someone else do it for you periodically to check conditions there.  My buyers were purchasing a home near Carlton Elementary in Cambrian (Los Gatos border) and the pre-sale pest or termite inspection (the only one available) was from a company with the absolute worst reputation in the valley, and that report said that there was not one thing wrong in a 50 year old house (highly unlikely!).  We ordered new inspections, both home & pest.  Both my inspectors found a lot of damage in the crawl space, amounting to about $10,000 in damage not reported by first inspector.  The seller’s inspector had claimed to go into the crawl but it was evident that either he didn’t go or he didn’t do it thoroughly.  The seller wanted his inspector’s company to do the repairs but we negotiated for a more reputable provider and got it. (more…)

Chimneys aren’t something that most homeowners or home buyers think much about until something goes wrong, like a stray ember causing a fire or a bird nesting in the flue. 

There’s one easy-to-spot area that’s a simple way to increase safety and comfort (and spare unnecessary expense): the chimney cap.

In the collage above, the first chimney has no spark arrestor and no cap.  In the second image, there is a wire mesh spark arrestor on all four sides plus the top.  The wire prevents embers from getting out and small birds and other creatures from getting in.  It does not, however, keep out the wind or the rain.  In the last photo, we see a chimney that has both a spark arrestor and a rain cap.  The cap helps to prevent water from going down the flue (and rusting the damper).

Many spark arrestors with rain caps look like this:

Some have less wire mesh and appear more solid, like this one from the Saratoga Oaks community in Saratoga. The rain cap makes a solid “roof” over the spark arrestor such that water cannot fall into the chimney (and rust out the damper). With more solid sides, it helps to keep the wind out too.

And here’s another which looks like a true cap or hood, found in the Belwood of Los Gatos neighborhood:

But what about your chimney stack, or your prospective chimney, if you’re a buyer?  Does it look like one of these?

If so, now’s the time to call your friendly chimney sweep or fireplace mason. The weather’s good and the birds will be looking for a place to build a nest – better if it’s not in your flue! Make sure that you get a spark arrestor with a rain cap, too (not just the wire mesh) to keep the elements out of your chimney and allowing your damper to continue to operate well.