John Martino's (looksmart) Blog

An interesting method of producing hot water in a residential home is to install a thankless water heater. Tankless water heaters are becoming more and more commonplace. I have been seeing more and more of these tankless heaters while inspecting homes. They have some advantages over traditional w...

 I was at a radon re-certification class yesterday attended by roughly sixty NJ home inspectors. There was a speaker from a radon lab in New Jersey called Radiation Data. It is the NJ lab where I also send my radon kits to be analyzed. The topic of radon in granite counter tops in homes was discu...

Almost every discussion that I have with fellow home inspectors in my area is never complete with out talking about the problems that we find with non professional electrical wiring. New Jersey home owners for some reason love to do there own wiring. They will use all kinds of conductors includin...

It never fails that probably the single most prevalent issue on home inspections is the lack of grading away from the home. I can pull up to ten houses and I guarantee eight out of the ten will have grading issues. Homeowners spend a fortune each year on basement water proofing remedies when the ...

One thing that I have found while inspecting buildings and homes with almost flat roofing systems is the lack of adequate roof drainage. Particularly in homes that were constructed before nineteen twenty. Most of the homes that I inspect with these older flat roofs are in the urban areas of Berge...

The vast majority of roof coverings that are installed on northern New Jersey homes are asphalt  shingle. This type of roof covering is both durable, easy to install and has a reasonably long life expectancy.  An important  area for a home inspector to view is the roof covering on the subject hom...

One of the common problems that I find while performing home inspections in New Jersey is Federal Pacific electrical panels. There has been much confussion about whether these electrical panels should be replaced. The problem with the panels is that the breakers may not trip as required when an o...

One of the common problems that I find while performing home inspections in New Jersey is Federal Pacific electrical panels. There has been much confussion about whether these electrical panels should be replaced. The problem with the panels is that the breakers may not trip as required when an o...