The next Washington state approved home inspection training course, offered at Bellingham Technical College, will begin on February 1, 2016. This was the first course to receive approval from the Washington State Department of Licensing, back in 2009. The four-week session includes 120-hours
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12/14/2015
This was an interesting discovery, run into a couple years back when I was performing a home inspection. I was out by Lake Whatcom at Sudden Valley. The home was relatively new and it was situated in a heavily wooded area with tree needles and heavy limbs all around and over the roof. As I got up
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12/14/2015
Electric in-wall or baseboard heaters can present significant fire risks. Occupants of houses simply do not understand how hot the elements get. And, as often as not, I find these heaters in college rentals where the tenants have cardboard boxes and every other combustible item imaginable tight a
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11/04/2015
For the second time, in two years, my wife and I visited New Orleans in October. We had not planned to go this year, at least originally we had not, but then some friends asked us to meet them there. It was a good plan, except due to medical issues they were unable to make it. But we had a great
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11/01/2015
Sometimes, the fact a component or system in the house runs at the time of a home inspection is not enough. For example, the inside of this Carrier furnace is afflicted with rust. The manufacturer's label, just barely shows up in the photo at the right, was illegible but, based on resources avail
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10/08/2015
In the world of tools and items made for the homeowner, one unique gizmo that has been around for many years is the proverbial key rock -- a composite or plastic stone that is hollow with a cover on the bottom. A key rock will hold a few backup keys for those times when a person gets locked out o
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08/17/2015
At Bellingham Technical College, the home inspector training course has been running for about 20 years. This course long pre-dates the mandatory training standards implemented by Washington state in 2009.The BTC course was the first state approved training course. We have students arriving from
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07/21/2015
Awhile back, I performed a home inspection at a house that had been subject to an armed home invasion. There were damaged doors and holes in walls. The invaders had kicked down a main door to get in. But the most interesting, and creepy sight, was an interior bedroom door that the tenant successf
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06/23/2015
It must be at least half of the time, when on a home inspection, I find that the bath exhaust fans are directed into the attic space. Sometimes it is pretty obvious from the get go that this is going to be the situation: there are a couple bathrooms and no vent hoods at the roof or the exterior w
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06/06/2015
The next Washington state approved home inspection training course, held on campus at Bellingham Technical College, will begin on February 1, 2016. The four-week session includes 120-hours of fundamentals training and 40 hours of onsite field training. BTC had the first course to receive appr
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04/30/2015
