Not Even Close

Not even close

Whoops! The vent doesn’t line up.

Jim Estrada
Property Inspector, LLC

Woodinville Wash.

This outlet is playing peek-a-boo

A slight miscalculation with that pesky lower outlet of a duplex receptacle. At least we only have to sample them for function if they are accessible!

Roger S. Herdt

Herdt Home Inspections

Florence, S.C.

Flue flop

Let me go get a tape measure to make sure we have 18 inches of clearance to wood combustibles on this heating flue.

David Grudzinski

Advantage Home Inspections

Cranston, R.I.

Hangin’ on by a screwdriver

I searched through the NEC and I can’t seem to find the section that specifies which screwdriver (Phillips or flat) is acceptable to use as the only support (or anchor) for an electrical subpanel.

Tim Hemm
Tim Hemm Inspections

Yucaipa, Calif.

It’s reaching out for you

Here’s how to have a ‘shocking’ experience when you walk into the family room in the dark and reach for the light switch.

Matthew Steger
WIN Home Inspection – Elizabethtown,
Elizabethtown, Pa.

Bottled up

This is a plastic pop bottle with the top cut off, slits cut out, and then stuck in a bathroom fan’s exterior vent in lieu of a proper vent cover/damper. It’s probably really good at catching bugs!

Matthew Steger
WIN Home Inspection – Elizabethtown

Elizabethtown, Pa.

A shocking flock

We arrived to find wires and plugs hanging out of the wall.
I think the electrician got scared away when the birds flew out of the wall.

David Grudzinski
Advantage Home Inspections

Cranston, R.I.

Corn flakes sound good

If you want eggs for breakfast, just flip the switch.

Mike Prestidge

Fox Valley Home Inspections, Inc.
St. Charles, Ill.

Zappity do dah

This is an extension cord running to a splitter and connected TV aerial wire to power a 100-watt bulb in the attic. I was afraid to touch it, but I think the extension cord is pigtailed into the female end of the splitter. I call it “How’s the reception?”

Rick Hiddemen

Lanco Inspects, LLC

Wilmington, Del.

Poop de loop

This is a sewage ejector pump system I came across in the attic of a home. Its purpose was to facilitate a new bathroom at a right-side second-floor location that had been a closet. The notion was to move water and waste materials to the left side of the home through the attic where the only 4″ sewage drain line was located. As you can see, this meant suspending the self-contained system through the bedroom ceiling directly below. As one of my colleagues said, “If it wasn’t so idiotic, it would be ingenious!”

Eric Mills
E&E Inspect

Oreland, Pa.

What’s the R-rating on that mattress?

This is a new type of insulation. And yes, those are mattresses.

Dave Edens
IQ Home Inspections

Phoenix, Ariz.