The Return to InspectionWorld
The major educational event is back and set to take place in January in Orlando.

InspectionWorld (IW) has been the best long-standing home inspection event every year for so many years; it seems the only thing that could have stopped us was a pandemic.
The year 2021 was the first time in ASHI history where IW was canceled for the safety of all our members, participants, and staff. The team here at ASHI is looking forward to 2022, having already started preparations for the upcoming InspectionWorld quite some time ago. We are still cautious, as the situation seems to change daily, but that is not stopping us from planning a quality educational event.
What to Expect
InspectionWorld 2022 will have three great tracks of educational sessions and discussion panels—the Essentials track, Advanced track, and Multi-Inspector/Specialty track. Here’s what I learned from some of our great presenters.
The Essentials
The Essentials track will focus on essential technical knowledge to provide a stronger foundation for several in-demand topics, including the below.
Mike Casey, ACI, MCI, instructor, and home inspector for more than 30 years, will lead a session on electrical basics as well as one on fireplaces and woodstoves.
Basic Electrical.
Casey said that while many courses ask you to memorize content, the best courses teach you how to understand why you are doing what you’re doing. “It’s easier to inspect when you understand why you are doing that,” he said.
Casey’s basic electrical session will cover the theory of electricity, how electricity works, how current travels in a circuit, and more, as well as go into defects. You can expect to get detailed information on the need for neutral or grounded conducting, the purpose of grounding conductors, and how electricity moves in a circuit.
Fireplaces and Woodstoves.
Casey reminds us all that “It’s a fire in your house!” so it’s essential that fireplaces and woodstoves be appropriately inspected and maintained. Casey has seen many improperly installed woodstoves that present a fire hazard, and he said these must be brought to clients’ attention.
This session will cover the fundamentals of inspecting fireplaces and woodstoves, going into specific components and their functions, what can be done to reduce woodstove clearances, and reviewing evidence of failures and improper installations. Casey estimated that more than half of the woodstoves he encounters are installed improperly.
Roofing: The Devil is in the Details.
David Rushton, ACI, licensed master electrician, and past president of NOVA ASHI, said roofing is one inspection area that tends to have a lot of issues, ranging from any number of minor repairs to an entire roof replacement. These roofing defects could mean a significant expense for your client, and home inspectors need to provide this information correctly.
Rushton’s roofing educational session will cover steep and low slope roofs as well as new and old materials, skylights, and flashing. “A roof that looks brand-new with no flashing may be leaking where the old roof was leaking, and that is something the home inspector needs to identify,” he said. Rushton will also discuss the importance of phrasing, such as “monitor for future repairs or replacement,” or “evaluation by a roofing professional because of limited access a home inspector has to the roof.”
You’ll also find great sessions led by Mike Conley, Tom Feiza, and Bruce Barker, among others. Additional sessions in the Essentials track include:
- Inspecting Pools and Spas/Hot Tubs
- Inspecting Mobile/Manufactured Homes
- Understanding and Inspecting Old and New Forced Air Heating
- Plumbing and Sewage System Inspection and Development
- ASHI Standard Deck Inspections Part Two
For the Advanced
For experienced home inspectors, you’ll find the Advanced track of educational sessions.
These sessions will add to your bank of knowledge on selected topics. I caught up with three speakers—Rushton, Michael Bryan, and Shannon Cory—to get more insight.
Inspecting Masonry: Masonry Installation Methods, Techniques, and Practices
This year’s InspectionWorld will include two masonry sessions (above) led by Bryan, a journeyman mason for 14 years and a home inspector for 26 years. Bryan’s sessions will help to build an understanding of the installation process and what happens when masonry is not installed correctly. “Usually when you are looking at a problem in masonry, it’s not the material; it’s the installation,” Bryan said.
He said moisture level during installation is critical, too. “Moisture level is one thing that leads to proper installation of masonry. If you are bone dry or too wet when installing brick or masonry, it will lead to failure,” Bryan said. “There is a sweet spot for moisture level.”
He said when masonry is properly installed, it won’t leak. “It’s an installation problem, not a system problem.” He said a good understanding of the installation process will help home inspectors know what they are looking at when inspecting masonry. In these sessions, you can expect to learn to identify and describe masonry systems, recognize properly and improperly installed masonry units, and properly report masonry defects, deficiencies, and concerns.
Electrical Inspections: Beyond the Three Light Tester
In this electrical session, Rushton digs deep. He said electrical is “one of the hardest subjects to learn and to really understand its details and semantics.”
But Rushton is excited to develop home inspectors’ knowledge further and expand and emphasize why semantics are important, particularly in reports, reminding us that there is a “difference between bonding and grounding… almost the same thing but not quite.”
This session will share how experienced home inspectors can go beyond the minimum inspection requirements. Rushton will also share how to best report electrical defects to your primary client, the home buyer, ensuring it is clear, specific, and correct.
Correcting Crawl Space Environmental Issues for Better Indoor Air Quality
Shannon Cory, retired ACI, research engineer, and instructor, will present this session on crawl spaces and indoor air quality.
Cory said the environment in crawl spaces needs to be controlled, as there could be many residuals from pesticides, mold, and other chemicals that affect air quality. “If your mechanical system is in the crawl space, 60% of the makeup of the air into the house is coming from the crawl space if you have it in the attic; about 40% of the makeup of the air into the house if it’s coming from the crawl space. In both scenarios you have to control the makeup of the air.”
He said the key is to keep the moisture from gaining access to crawl spaces. To prevent moisture, you may need to remove surrounding vegetation, change the outside grading, or change the direction of downspouts to keep moisture from accessing the crawl space.
Other sessions in the Advanced track will be led by Michael Conrad, Mark Parlee, Dan McLaughlin, and Conley. Sessions you can expect in this track include:
- Inspecting the Exterior… The Hidden Problems
- Residential Heating, Cooling, and Ventilation Systems
- The Science of Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps.
For Multi-Inspectors
Our third track comes directly from InspectionWorld 2020 feedback, where participants experienced a great discussion panel with a mixture of leaders in the multi-inspector field. For 2022, we made the conscious decision to include a Multi-Inspector track and offer additional discussion panels to help answer questions and get insight from another great group.
Our Multi-Inspector track will have discussion panels focusing on different topics, including:
- Business Development and Marketing
- Operations and Legal
- Diversification—Empowering the Inspector Knowledge.
But we don’t stop there! We also have leaders presenting on:
- Growing into A Multi-Inspector Firm
- The Structure of Empire Organizations
- Preparing to Sell Your Company.
Specialty
This year we were also able to include some great specialty sessions.
How to inspect Radon Mitigation System Using ASHI Standards.
Cory will also lead a detailed session on radon mitigation at IW. Why is that important? Cory said that with a level of 4 pCi/L of radon exposure, “You’re looking at 200 chest X-rays of radiation exposure per year,” and you can’t see, smell, or taste radon. “You are breathing radioactive elements,” Cory said.
Fortunately, you can mitigate radon in the home. Home inspectors must know how to inspect those systems to ensure proper radon mitigation effectively. Cory said it’s important to be aware of mitigation systems in crawl spaces that may be listed to control moisture and not radon. He said home inspectors need to read the label. These systems have radon control but cannot be written in the report as a radon mitigation system, Cory said. He also shared that moisture mitigation systems do not identify their pipes, but the radon system will have the pipes labeled. Join Cory to learn more about these critical mitigation systems and how to inspect each specific system properly. He also plans to share images of proper installations and improper installations of these systems.
With so many great sessions to choose from, this InspectionWorld is set to be another great one, especially after such trying times. I am thrilled to be a part of this exciting educational event, and I and the rest of the team look forward to seeing you all there.
Join us as we count down the days to InspectionWorld 2022!
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