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Earlier this week I was contacted by Adam Iobst, a realtor with A-Team Home Sales, to do an interview for his online Home Buyer Radio Show. He asked me to explain why home inspections are so important when buying a home.
Part Two of the interview will be posted in the near future!
Recently I inspected an older home, and when the time came to go up into the attic I immediately spotted something suspicious along the edge of the gable wall.
Something suspicious
It looked a lot like some sort of animal waste, so my next step was to go back to my car for my full respirator mask. Animal feces can carry a multitude of pathogens, and then there’s the smell!
Back in the attic, I started to search for the source of the waste. Then I heard the squeaks… and looked up.
The source of the waste.
Yep, it was a colony of bats. Judging from the piles of guano, they had been living in the attic for many years. The owner had never ventured up into the space.
Not something to mess with!
Bats are very beneficial to the environment (a single bat can eat between 600 and 1000 mosquitos in an HOUR!), but they also can pose a risk of rabies. It can be difficult to eradicate bats from an attic, as they can fit through holes as small as an inch wide.
For more information about bats, including ways to exclude them from your home, please visit the Organization for Bat Conservation.
When Polybutylene was first introduced in the late 1970s, it was supposed to revolutionize plumbing. It did change the industry for a while, until the troubles began.
It turned out that the “crimp” type fittings would corrode, and start to leak, then they would corrode faster, and eventually the pipe would blow off the fitting and flood the house.
Damage caused by polybutylene pipe failure (source: www.polybutylene.com)
There was a well-advertised class action lawsuit and subsequent recall where the manufacturer would pay to have polybutylene replaced, but that ended a few years ago.
Obviously when there is a recall and the manufacturer is forced to pay for the replacement, there is a latent defect and there should not be an argument about replacing it. Yet, I still get push back from sellers saying “It hasn’t leaked yet!”
There are cases where homeowners insurance companies have denied claims resulting from water damage due to polybutylene pipes bursting. Some insurance companies will not issue coverage at all to houses with polybutylene.
Typical polybutylene pipes at a recent inspection
After all these years, Home Inspectors have learned a lot about polybutylene piping, the different types, and the different connectors. There are some connections which were NOT recalled and have never, and may never, leak. The problem is MOST houses have a combination of connection types with at least ONE of the worrisome copper crimp type connectors somewhere just waiting to fail when you are away on a long weekend.
If you have the crimp type Polybutylene you should probably have it inspected, and if you are planning to sell, have it REPLACED as that will be the opinion of most Home Inspectors. It is not a matter of if it will fail, but when.
Crimp-type fittings are the ones most prone to failure.
Make absolutely sure there are none of the recalled connections under a toilet, connection to a shower control, or to a hose faucet. There are places I have found them on houses that were SUPPOSED to be crimp free.
For more information on polybutylene pipes, as well as pictures of the various connection types, visit http://www.polybutylene.com.
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