To watch a video version of this podcast, click here: https://youtu.be/NJ0uDa2aL7w
In this episode of the Structure Talk podcast, hosts Reuben Saltzman and Tessa Murry explore the essential fixes homeowners should tackle before a home inspection. They share practical tips and personal stories about common issues like gutter maintenance and electrical checks. The discussion highlights the importance of addressing these simple tasks to ensure a smooth inspection process and improve the overall report outcome.
Here’s the link to check out Technology Connections:
https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections
Takeaways
Simple fixes can significantly impact your home inspection report.
Regular maintenance of gutters and downspouts is crucial.
Replacing burnt-out light bulbs can prevent unnecessary inspection notes.
Testing GFCI outlets ensures electrical safety.
Smoke and CO alarms should be up-to-date and functional.
Clean air conditioner units to avoid negative inspection comments.
Addressing minor repairs can prevent larger issues during the inspection.
Properly maintained homes reflect diligent ownership.
Preparing for an inspection can be straightforward with the right guidance.
Communication with inspectors can clarify potential issues.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Home Inspections
05:01 Climate Adaptation and Home Maintenance
15:01 Top 10 Fixes Overview
20:01 Exterior Maintenance Tips
30:01 Interior Quick Fixes
40:01 Safety Checks and Alarms
50:01 Final Thoughts and Listener Q&A
TRANSCRIPTION
The following is an AI-generated transcription from an audio recording. Although the transcription is mostly accurate, it will contain some errors due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
Reuben Saltzman: Welcome to my house. Welcome to the Structure Talk podcast, a production of Structure Tech Home Inspections. My name is Reuben Saltzman. I’m your host alongside building science geek, Tessa Murry. We help home inspectors up their game through education, and we help homeowners to be better stewards of their houses. We’ve been keeping it real on this podcast since 2019, and we are also the number one home inspection podcast in the world, according to my mom.
Reuben Saltzman (00:01.356)
Welcome back to the podcast Tessa. Great to see you broadcasting live from sunny, Florida Good afternoon to you. How’s it going?
Tessa Murry (00:11.784)
Well, and technically good morning to you still, sir. Yeah, we’re an hour ahead here. And yes, it is currently sunny right now, but I expect a thunderstorm to be rolling by in the next few hours. So we’ll see the daily storm.
Reuben Saltzman (00:14.594)
Thank you. Thank you.
Reuben Saltzman (00:23.852)
Okay Okay, all right and you join enjoying just life indoors with air conditioning all the time
Tessa Murry (00:32.062)
Yeah, I tell you what, it is so hard being a girl raised in the Midwest, lived in the Midwest her whole life, you know, and in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, we take advantage of our beautiful summers, right? As soon as it’s like the snowmels, you know, the flowers pop out, there’s leaves on the trees, people want to be outside. We’ve got cabin fever being stuck inside all winter, all seven months of winter. So it has been a
Reuben Saltzman (00:54.028)
Yes.
Tessa Murry (01:00.776)
It’s been a hardship for me because here, you know, I’ve been here June, July, August, you know, and it’s like, people just stay inside because as soon as you walk outside, boom, you get hit with, you know, 90s and, you know, dew points are in the upper 70s. It’s super humid. The air is heavy. As soon as you walk out, it’s like, like you can’t even breathe because it’s so thick. And it’s like, people just stay inside.
Reuben Saltzman (01:22.317)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (01:28.73)
It’s a reverse of what we are used to. So they plan all of their outdoor activities and fun adventures for like December, January, February. So that has been a little bit of a shift. Yes. Staying inside where it’s cool has been how I’ve survived this, but I miss being outside. I miss enjoying, and I can go outside. You just will be super hot and uncomfortable and sweaty. That’s it.
Reuben Saltzman (01:32.653)
Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (01:57.932)
And nobody else is going to join you because they’re like, I’ll, I’ll come out in a few months. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and we’re just saying on the show beforehand, I think that’s gotta be why here in Minnesota, I think in all the Midwest kids go back to school after Labor Day, but in other parts of the country, like they got school year round or they start the school way earlier. It’s cause you’re not going to be hanging out outside anyway.
Tessa Murry (01:59.947)
Yeah, exactly.
Tessa Murry (02:18.026)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (02:27.05)
I I guess not. just always assume that school started after Labor Day and then come down here and it’s like school’s gonna be starting the beginning of August for kids. So I was like, that’s wild. But I guess if you’re stuck inside, why not be in a classroom?
Reuben Saltzman (02:27.212)
So why not go to school?
Reuben Saltzman (02:43.342)
Yeah, yeah, you might as well just take longer breaks when the temperature is more, I don’t know, temperate. Yeah, moderate.
Tessa Murry (02:48.612)
Yeah. I guess, but yeah, another thing I’m just wondering too, if like, they’re factoring in hurricane season, potential school days are going to miss and they start earlier. So kids aren’t being held in school until like, mid-June, you know? So I don’t know. I guess it is different though, different places in the country. Makes sense.
Reuben Saltzman (03:08.462)
Okay. Yeah. all right. Well that, that, you, you talk about all the humidity in Florida and what to do about it. And you reminded me of this video I was watching yesterday and I got to share this with you, Tess. I was going to just send you a link and share this off there, but we’ll share it with the listeners too. I think it’s more than I don’t think this is definitely my favorite YouTube channel.
Tessa Murry (03:17.908)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (03:28.37)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (03:37.634)
I don’t know how I discovered this guy, but it is, let me just pull it up. It might start autoplaying. Yeah, it started. I knew it’d do that on the air. It’s called technology connections. That’s it. Technology connections. And the guy who hosts this channel, I think he does it full time. I mean, I think this is all he does is he owns a YouTube channel and he’s out of Chicago, I believe.
Tessa Murry (03:37.82)
what is it?
Tessa Murry (03:43.754)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (03:50.696)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (03:59.935)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (04:06.522)
and he is just a total geek about all these different things. And I mean, he’s just, he’s geeky on the screen. He makes these horrible jokes and I laugh at them anyway. And he does, he does a great job of explaining things. I think so. I think so. Yeah. I’d like to meet this guy someday. But, but he’s, I mean, he’s like,
Tessa Murry (04:23.338)
Ruben, you guys are kindred spirits. Yes, very much so, very much so. You guys have a lot in common, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (04:35.906)
He is out there. I mean, he does a really good job. And I just watched, I got sucked into watching like a 57 minute video on the differences between dehumidifiers and air conditioners. And I already know what the difference is, but I actually learned some pretty crazy stuff watching this video. And I think you would really appreciate it Tess.
Tessa Murry (04:37.949)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (04:44.65)
you
Tessa Murry (05:03.402)
Awesome. Yeah, well, it’s funny because I just, you know, I Googled him real quick when you said that and he’s got a video about dehumidifiers are confusing. Here’s why. And I was like, oh, I kind of want to watch that. Is that the one you’re talking about? Okay. Okay, I will. I’ll click. I’ll save it.
Reuben Saltzman (05:14.05)
That’s the one. That’s the one. You got to watch it. Yeah. And I think you’ll get hooked if you just watch that one video. And I
Tessa Murry (05:21.802)
Nice. Well, thanks Ruben. I love hearing your little tidbits and recommendations on books or YouTubers or whatever it is that you’re into. So that’s fun. Thanks.
Reuben Saltzman (05:29.709)
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (05:33.528)
Thanks. And as long as I’m throwing out mine, you got any to share with me today, Tess? Okay. All right.
Tessa Murry (05:38.555)
we’ll save that for another podcast. Yeah, it’s not, you know, I have a lot of interest outside of houses and home inspections, which probably wouldn’t interest any of our listeners. So I go down rabbit holes on that stuff sometimes too.
Reuben Saltzman (05:51.542)
Okay, all right. I know where this is going. All right. That sounds good.
Tessa Murry (05:57.183)
completely unrelated field and topic.
Reuben Saltzman (05:59.692)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had some good discussions over a long car ride once I remember. Yes. All right. Okay, that was just a side note. Was there anything else? yes, I had a quick story to share. You know, we, we make fun of my wife for using the leaf blower inside the house. And it’s
Tessa Murry (06:03.786)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (06:14.89)
Please do.
Thank
For anybody that’s listening, Ruben has a dog that sheds a ton of hair, German Shepherd, and Anna uses the leaf blower to get the hair out of the house, correct? Which you love. We bonded over that a while ago when I saw Andrew do the same thing at his parents’ house. I was horrified. The hair was everywhere. Flying everywhere, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (06:33.742)
Tess, yes, and I’m just like, you cannot bring that in the house. That’s not, all right, Tess.
Reuben Saltzman (06:47.692)
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we had a little project and we had a lot of stuff staged in our living room. And I mean, there’s just boxes and all this stuff. And I got done bringing it all out to the garage. It took me like an hour. It was such a mess. And there’s hair like, like dust bunnies or tumbleweeds of hair.
I mean, all over where the boxes were stacked because normally we vacuum. One of my kids is encouraging vacuuming the entire house every day. Every day the house has to be vacuumed because there’s that much air. And so we pull out. I get all these boxes out of here. I’m like, there’s tumbleweeds everywhere and I’m going in and out of the garage and I see one of the tumbleweeds kind of go on its own out the garage door. And I’m like, you know what? I’m doing it. I’m doing it.
Tessa Murry (07:25.118)
Gosh. crazy.
Tessa Murry (07:32.682)
Ha
Reuben Saltzman (07:44.174)
I got the I didn’t you know, I didn’t get the gas powered leaf blower, but I got the little battery operated one and I gently went all the way around on the low setting and I just blew all the hair towards the garage door and blew it all out into the garage and it actually worked really well.
Tessa Murry (07:45.46)
the dark side you go.
Tessa Murry (08:05.314)
Is this a confession to me? Does Anna know this Ruben?
Reuben Saltzman (08:08.556)
No, don’t tell her this. No, no, she can never know. She can never know. She doesn’t listen to the podcast. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (08:13.67)
I saw the guilty look on your face and I okay this will stay between us and all of our ten listeners
Reuben Saltzman (08:18.518)
Yeah. No, I will still give her crap about using the leaf blower inside the house, but it worked surprisingly well. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (08:23.88)
That is so funny. my goodness.
Ugh. Hilarious.
Reuben Saltzman (08:29.75)
All right. All right. Had just created that with you since that was our little secret.
Okay, today’s topic we do have a topic. This is not just general chit chat all day this is following along with the blog and with the YouTube channel and What inspired this see this is the long format I can talk about why we’re talking about this Got a friend who’s selling his house and he’s like Ruben. What can I do before the before the inspection? I got the inspection coming up. What do I do to make sure that?
Tessa Murry (08:41.96)
Okay.
Yes.
Tessa Murry (08:57.809)
Yes, please do.
Reuben Saltzman (09:07.596)
You know the easy stuff. I want to just make sure I hit the low hanging fruit and I was like, yeah, great question Nate. You gotta you know, take care of this. Take care of that. I started giving them a list and I’m like, why don’t I have a blog post that covers this? Why am I inventing this? I should never have to riff. Yeah. So that’s, that’s the topic. Top 10 things you can do before your home inspection to take care of the easy stuff.
Tessa Murry (09:12.01)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (09:19.411)
wait
Tessa Murry (09:26.378)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Wait, bald moment.
Reuben Saltzman (09:37.004)
And I’ve already I’ve already made lists about what to do before the inspection to kind of prevent hiccups to make sure that the home inspector can get the inspection done. The first time they’re there, like make sure they got access to the attic. If you got a detached garage, make sure you leave keys. All the real basic stuff we’ve talked about on the podcast before. But the low hanging fruit, what can you do before the home inspection just to knock off that really easy stuff?
Tessa Murry (09:46.878)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:50.602)
the end.
Tessa Murry (09:54.789)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:59.605)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (10:06.572)
where the home inspector is going to see it and they’re going to be like, this is not a diligent homeowner. You know.
Tessa Murry (10:12.714)
Or it’s just, it’s, you know, something that commonly goes in a lot of home inspection reports. And so as a seller, if you can reduce the amount of things that the home inspector is calling out that the buyer sees, great, do it.
Reuben Saltzman (10:26.252)
Yeah, yeah, so we made a I made a top 10 list but Tess I would love it No cheating. Don’t be looking I want you to see how many of the things on this top 10 list you can come up with and we’ll mentally strike them out because I It helps me It helps me justify that these really are top 10 and not just my top 10
Tessa Murry (10:35.633)
Ha ha!
Tessa Murry (10:55.562)
Okay, well, my brain is going to move your things away from electrical panels and away from your furnace and your water heater, but that’s part of the other show we talked about, things to prep your house for the home expulsion. Yeah. Okay. Here’s a common one that we see all the time I think would be pretty long-hanging fruit and easy for a homeowner to do. Connect your downspout extensions.
Reuben Saltzman (11:07.266)
Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s just making it accessible for the home inspector. We’re talking about fixing. This is these are the top 10 fixes.
Tessa Murry (11:25.094)
So many times you walk around the outside and they’re just they’re disconnected. They’re laying in the grass. They’re whatever discombobulated. And that is a common thing we’re looking at as home inspectors. Where does the water go? How are the gutters functioning? Speaking of gutters, making sure the gutters are clean, although that’s not exactly low hanging fruit, depending on the house. If you got a ranch. OK, one story house. Yeah, yeah. Just easy stuff on the outside that can be poop.
Reuben Saltzman (11:45.294)
I mark it that as number two Tess. That is on my list too.
Tessa Murry (11:53.087)
you know, pop those downspout extensions on, get the water away. And that usually, yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (11:56.822)
And on that, just do yourself a favor. Get one little screw. They call them tech screws, a little screw that’s self-tapping, sheet metal screw, and put that in there to attach the downspout to the downspout extension. Super simple.
Tessa Murry (12:05.215)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (12:16.572)
Now you’re thinking, okay, good idea, good idea. That is one step further than just reattaching it, but yes. Okay. What’s another common one? Okay, burned out light bulbs. Burned out light bulbs.
Reuben Saltzman (12:27.362)
No, wait, hold on. Hold on. I don’t want to power through the list. I want to discuss these. Let’s, let’s talk about them.
Tessa Murry (12:32.874)
rewind. Let’s you want to dive into downspout extensions even more?
Reuben Saltzman (12:39.254)
Just a little bit. Well, downspout extensions. One other tip. mean, I know I talk about the screw and there’s going to be some listener going, but what about if they get in the way of mowing the lawn? What if you got to move it every time you got to mow the lawn? I got a great solution for you. I can’t. Maybe it’s going to be tough to describe. But if you use some tin snips or a little saw, you can cut your downspout extension.
Tessa Murry (12:43.196)
Butters.
Tessa Murry (12:52.2)
No. Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (13:08.844)
so that it’s basically just a little scoop that goes underneath the downspout elbow and you attach it with screws on the sides and it’s almost like a hinge. So anytime you want to get it out of the way, you just flip it up and it hinges up on the screws. And then you have a little strap or a little piece of tape or a little hook. You hook it up in place with your downspout basically vertical or your downspout extension vertical. And then when you’re done mowing the lawn, you drop it back down.
Super simple. Are you picturing what I’m talking about Tess? I think I lost you didn’t I?
Tessa Murry (13:43.083)
I am trying to picture that. know what you’re talking about when you said hinge that was helpful. But Ruben, I think you need to make a step-by-step guide on how to DIY this for people that want to know. That could be your next little YouTube video that you record.
Reuben Saltzman (13:58.636)
That will be my next little YouTube video thingy. That’s a great idea. Okay.
Tessa Murry (14:01.97)
Yeah, because you say it’s easy, when it involves cutting metal and creating hinges, it’s like, okay.
Reuben Saltzman (14:08.334)
All right, all right, I’m gonna make one and I’m gonna make a video showing how to do it. All right, I got way ahead of myself there. Thank you, Tess. All right, appreciate it.
Tessa Murry (14:10.898)
Okay. Add it to the list.
You could do it in your sleep, Ruben, but you know, for the rest of us, normal people, average people.
Reuben Saltzman (14:22.591)
All you gotta do is see it done once and you’ll be like, yeah, I could do that. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (14:27.572)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us a guide. Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (14:30.368)
Okay. All right. That’s the downspouts. All right. Gutters. We talked about gutters recently. I talked about, got this clog gutter at the back of my house. this is a follow up to that.
Tessa Murry (14:40.036)
Yes. yeah. Did you get it cleaned out? Was it dirty in the first place? I think we’re talking about getting a drone to see if it was clogged. Yeah, that’s right.
Reuben Saltzman (14:46.23)
I couldn’t even see it. Yeah, I didn’t I didn’t get a drone. had I figured out the solution. I talked through it on the air. I was like, what if I just had a painter’s pull with a GoPro? And I’m like, wait, I have a painter’s pull on a GoPro. So that’s what I did. And I was able to see it. And there’s like, because I told you, there’s no trees at the back of my house, but it’s three stories up. It’s it was enough of these little things that float in the air that seem to get everywhere.
Tessa Murry (14:52.682)
Yeah, that’s right.
There you go. Okay.
Tessa Murry (15:08.895)
you
Tessa Murry (15:14.206)
Those little seed pods? Like the helicopters? Yeah. Okay. Cool.
Reuben Saltzman (15:15.522)
those tiny little seed pods. No, not those are even smaller. They’re like, I mean, they’re about a third the size of a dime. It’s in the ground. And they’ve got this little seed in the middle. But and there’s a million of them and they get in the air every time the wind blows and they make it to the other side of the roof where they don’t belong. And then they get in the gutter. And there was a
Tessa Murry (15:27.163)
Tessa Murry (15:31.562)
Sure.
Reuben Saltzman (15:41.774)
of them kind of right before the drain they’re just mounted up and sure enough it is blocking the drain and I Need to figure out how to fix it. I don’t know. What am I gonna do tests?
Tessa Murry (15:46.398)
No. Wow.
Hmm.
Tessa Murry (15:57.328)
You don’t
Reuben Saltzman (15:58.862)
I haven’t figured it out yet. I know it’s there. I know the problem exists now. I do have a clogged downspout or gutter.
Tessa Murry (16:02.644)
What? What are like little… Are they like little robot cleaners? Like you know like a Roomba but for your gutter.
Reuben Saltzman (16:10.53)
Yeah, I think it’s called a luge.
Yeah, let me Google it here.
Tessa Murry (16:15.486)
Really? I wish you could just deploy that thing and it could scoot around and just sweep up your gutters for you. Because you’re not climbing down that steep pitch three stories up.
Reuben Saltzman (16:24.322)
Yeah, and that’s
Reuben Saltzman (16:29.538)
Yeah, it’s called the luge L O J. It’s a gutter cleaning robot by iRobot. The same fine folks who make the room buzz or whatever. Maybe room was a brand name. I don’t know. I’m making stuff up here. but the problem is you got to place it in the gutter. And then you’re right back where you were. How do you get there to place it?
Tessa Murry (16:35.242)
Well, course. Okay.
Tessa Murry (16:43.235)
Yeah, I robot. Buttercleaning robot.
Tessa Murry (16:52.366)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That is. That’s tricky, Ruben. It’s just thinking.
Reuben Saltzman (16:58.35)
I need a drone to deploy it.
Reuben Saltzman (17:04.833)
What if, what if I waited till it hadn’t rained for a long time and just hover a drone right by there and maybe the turbulence from the wind would blow it out? Maybe it would. I might try that. I don’t have a drone. I’ll have to get someone with a drone.
Tessa Murry (17:10.876)
and blow it. there you go.
Tessa Murry (17:19.158)
No, Ruben, this could be an interesting series. You remember how you wrote that blog a long time ago about how to address ice dam issues? And you tried all these different, different attempts. You know, you use the pantyhose and the salt, you use the hockey puck, salt things, you know, know, raked your roof, all these things. I feel like you could do this with your gutter situation.
Reuben Saltzman (17:29.171)
yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (17:36.91)
Like, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (17:44.038)
I know what I’m doing for the rest of the summer. Okay. I’m not, I’m, this is not going to involve anything dangerous. That’s for sure. That’s the whole point of it. No ladders, no ladders. Yeah. Cross my heart and hope to die. okay. So the point is you got to clean your gutters. If you don’t clean your gutters, the home inspector is going to take pictures of it.
Tessa Murry (17:46.154)
Please don’t hurt yourself.
Tessa Murry (17:53.675)
No ladders. No ladders, okay. All right. I can’t wait.
Reuben Saltzman (18:12.235)
And especially if you got trees and bushes and weeds and whatever growing out of your gutters. I mean, it makes it clear that you just you’re letting this go. You’re letting your house go. Nobody likes to see that.
Tessa Murry (18:22.185)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s something that might take a little pre-planning though. If you’re a seller or homeowner and you’re trying to get this done before the inspection, it’s like you can’t just pop on a downspout. If you’ve got a bigger house or a house that is two or three stories, then you need to plan ahead for this one and maybe hire that out.
Reuben Saltzman (18:41.078)
Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn’t be a bad idea. Yeah, for sure. All right. So we got we got gutters. We got downs, downs bounce. What else, Tess?
Tessa Murry (18:42.536)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Tessa Murry (18:51.442)
Okay, moving to the inside, was thinking another common one that’s super easy a homeowner can do is just put in new light bulbs if you have burnt out light bulbs. Because as a home inspector, you go through the house, you’re turning on all, you know, we would turn on the lights in every room as we’re walking through the house, just kind of taking the lay of the land. And when there’s a light that doesn’t come on, you’re like, is it a bulb issue? Is it an electrical issue? What’s going on? And it could just be easily resolved if the homeowner just made sure that all the light bulbs are working.
Reuben Saltzman (19:19.586)
Yes, yes, exactly. And you know, if it’s a light fixture where everything’s easily accessible and it’s all right there and you can just see that there’s a missing bulb, a lot of home inspectors, everyone on our team, I’m sure we have no problem just taking out your little voltage sniffer, sticking it in there and going, well, there is power. It doesn’t mean that the socket works properly. I mean, if you got a bent pin,
Tessa Murry (19:31.498)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (19:42.718)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (19:48.044)
You might even screw a bulb in and bulb still doesn’t light up. All you’re doing is verifying that there’s power there. Just have light bulbs in every fixture. Exactly what you said, Tess, and make sure they’re working. It’s so easy.
Tessa Murry (19:52.072)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (19:58.811)
Yeah. Very easy. Okay. This is a homeowner maintenance thing that usually doesn’t get done. And as a home inspector, it’s usually going in our reports. I’m thinking like dirty filters for furnaces and like air exchangers and dirty intakes for like air exchangers and combustion air intakes. So just like cleaning those, you know, as part of the
Reuben Saltzman (20:25.134)
Ooh, I didn’t get dirty intakes. got dirty filters, but the dirty combustion air intake is a great one. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (20:30.461)
Okay.
always. It always Yeah, and that’s an easy one. You can just go around, you know, use a little brush or whatever, you know, that something and just get the get the screens clear the intakes cleared at the exterior. Anybody can do that. Yeah. Yes. So much for peace. Speaking from experience. Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (20:44.674)
Yep. Anybody can do that. Watch for business.
They love to make nests
Tessa Murry (20:58.29)
Okay, let’s see what else, what other homeowner maintenance things can people do?
Reuben Saltzman (21:02.702)
Well, and another bonus one that you made me think of when you said clean the combustion air intake is clean the dryer exhaust terminal. I mean, basically you can do it with your fingers. You just go in there and you wipe out all that excessive lint. It’ll take you 30 seconds. It’s one less thing to go on the inspection.
Tessa Murry (21:10.226)
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Put the lint out. Yeah. Yep, definitely. Yeah, that’s a good one. That’s a real good one. Give me a hint. What category did you pull other things from?
Reuben Saltzman (21:29.198)
Let’s see here we I had Electrical I had a few I had a couple in electrical. I had a couple in life safety Which overlaps a little with electric?
Tessa Murry (21:40.541)
Life safety, expired alarms, a lot of times expired smoke and or CO and a lot of times that were missing. Okay, yeah, and missing CO. Yeah, so check your smoke detectors, make sure they’re not expired if they are, install new ones.
Reuben Saltzman (21:49.942)
I listed those as two different ones, smoke alarm, CO alarms.
Reuben Saltzman (22:02.188)
Yeah, and I in in the video I said and in the post I said basically if you look at if it’s yellow, it’s expired. If if you want something a little bit more technical, you give it a little twist and you look at the backside and you will have the date code in there. If you don’t have a date code, it expired a very, very long time.
Tessa Murry (22:09.084)
Hmm.
Tessa Murry (22:26.696)
get a new one. Yeah, and you know, I will say though, sometimes the easier said than done, you know, those houses that have like vaulted ceilings, and there’s one right at the peak and you’d need like a really tall ladder to get at it. Okay, those suck. But someone’s got to do it, right?
Reuben Saltzman (22:43.202)
Yeah, but you know, even so, even if it’s one of those peaks, that’s gonna be the upper level. Go to a lower level. And if it’s the same brand and it’s the same model, check the lower one. And I can almost guarantee you they got installed at the same time. So, you know, it’ll be a good tip for you.
Tessa Murry (22:59.498)
Probably, Yep, that’s good. Okay. Well, what other electrical worms did you put that are low-hanging fruit?
Reuben Saltzman (23:08.68)
All right, well for smoke just to finish on there make sure they’re properly located follow the manufacturer’s instructions, you know, the general rule there is Needs to be at least four inches away from any wall if it’s on the ceiling At least four inches away from any ceiling if it’s on a wall but not too low You can’t bring it more than like
Tessa Murry (23:12.818)
Yeah. Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (23:34.03)
10 or 12 inches down from the ceiling. There’s kind of a narrow strip you can use if you got it on a wall. Just don’t tuck it in corners. That’s kind of what we’re after. And then we talked about carbon monoxide alarms. Electrical. What is like the easiest electrical thing you see put in just about every report? You got something missing. You say, add this so nobody gets electrocuted.
Tessa Murry (23:39.752)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Good. Good to know.
Tessa Murry (24:02.149)
GFCI devices?
Reuben Saltzman (24:04.846)
Okay, all right. That’s a great one. Yeah, we put those in there a lot, but the easier one I was thinking of just cover plates.
Tessa Murry (24:07.146)
Thank
Tessa Murry (24:11.359)
missing or broken cover plates. Sure. Like on a light switch or an outlet or something. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (24:13.388)
Yes. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, they’re 19 cents. You can have your five year old do this basically. I mean, it’s it’s tight in a slotted screw. You can use a butter knife if you don’t have a screwdriver. This couldn’t be any easier. So
Tessa Murry (24:28.434)
True, And that’s a pretty easy one. Okay, yeah, yeah. Usually, you know, it’s those houses where either, you know, there’s 10 missing cover plates or there are none. So if your house is the one that has missing cover plates everywhere, get those, get those replaced.
Reuben Saltzman (24:34.252)
Yep.
Reuben Saltzman (24:41.506)
Yeah, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (24:46.53)
get them installed, most notorious place. Tessa, where do you find the most frequently missed cover plate?
Tessa Murry (24:55.626)
I was gonna say in the basement. Is there a specific location you’re thinking of?
Reuben Saltzman (24:57.614)
Okay. All right. I, the one I had in mind is under the kitchen sink. See it missing there a lot, but, um, there is one missing cover plate at my house. I know where it is and it’s in the basement.
Tessa Murry (25:05.514)
Well.
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (25:12.17)
Usually you can find one in the basement somewhere. Yeah
Reuben Saltzman (25:14.542)
Yeah, no, you’re probably right that’s probably even worse and then and then you mentioned GFC I devices and I I wrote this whole thing up about adding GFC I protection if you don’t have it and finally I deleted it I’m like there’s way too much to know too many people are uncomfortable with this That’s that’s not a super quick and easy fix for most people But but the
Tessa Murry (25:23.111)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (25:37.869)
No.
Agreed.
Reuben Saltzman (25:42.85)
The quick and easy thing to do is just at least test your GF eyes. And I think all of our listeners know GFI GFC. I use the terms interchangeably. It’s those outlets that have the little test button on them. You’re supposed to hit the test button every 30 days and make sure that it works. I know nobody ever does that. I’m a very diligent homeowner. I don’t do that. I don’t, I don’t
Tessa Murry (25:56.35)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (26:01.276)
What?
Tessa Murry (26:09.726)
Just like you’re supposed to trip your breakers every month or something, right? Who does that?
Reuben Saltzman (26:12.878)
It’s ridiculous. Nobody nobody does that But you are supposed to do it and it’s it’s super easy to do you plug something in you plug in a little light or a radio whatever you got Press the test button on the outlet and you’ll hear a little pop Your light should turn off hit the reset button your light should turn back on That’s it. You verify it’s working do this before the home inspector comes along
and says you got broken GFIs. And if any of them don’t work, replace it. Or, and if you got to hire someone to replace it, just be proactive. It’s gonna come up in the home inspector report. Every home inspector is gonna test every GFCI, as far as I know, right?
Tessa Murry (27:00.038)
I hope so. hope so. Yeah. I going to say, and you know, as a homeowner too, just be aware that you might have other outlets that don’t have the test button on them that are downstream of your GFCI outlet that does have the test button on it that will also lose power when that outlet trips. So you just have to make sure that you can reset it. And if you’ve got anything like a refrigerator out in the garage that has thousands of dollars worth of frozen
Reuben Saltzman (27:01.238)
I hope so. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (27:18.711)
Mmm.
Tessa Murry (27:29.286)
meat and you trip your GFCI out and it doesn’t reset. Just be aware. You’re going to have to deal with that.
Reuben Saltzman (27:30.605)
Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (27:35.144)
Tess, Tess. All right. We’re talking about this. should. All right. This is horrible podcast. I got to leave. I’ll be right back. I’ll give you a topic to discuss. Just kidding. But you got to see it. It’s worth waiting. Hold on.
Tessa Murry (27:53.969)
Ruben just disappeared. The camera is just empty. His chair is there and he’s gone. Hilarious.
This will probably not be edited out either, if I know Ruben, you’re gonna leave- you’re leaving that in!
Reuben Saltzman (28:04.918)
Okay. Well, I’m not going to edit this out. I don’t care. It’s too tough to edit these podcasts. It is so much work. It’s either use the whole show or you’re going to edit. Once you get into editing, it’s like, you got to download the file and all that. It was pretty quick. All right. So every year we have the structure tech company picnic. And as part of the picnic, we have what’s called
Tessa Murry (28:19.622)
It’s saying that was pretty quick Ruben. Okay. Let’s see what you got here
Reuben Saltzman (28:33.388)
the ladder Olympics. It started off with just a very simple competition back in 2012. It was me, my dad, Malind and Dwayne. And the thing was you’re supposed to take your little giant ladder, you do a full A frame extension, you drop it back down. And then you do a full extension, like you make it as tall as you possibly can, you drop it back down, collapse it. That’s the whole thing. But it’s evolved over the years. And every every year, it’s kind of like
Tessa Murry (28:36.04)
for you.
Reuben Saltzman (29:03.266)
home inspection skill type of stuff. It’s like the punt pass and kick competition for home inspectors.
Tessa Murry (29:07.23)
I failed at that the last time I did it, because I hadn’t done it in so long. No, I couldn’t remember. I think my, I hadn’t greased my ladder in while either, and I think the stops were stuck, and I couldn’t get it out, and it was just clumsy, and it was embarrassing. It was not my best moment.
Reuben Saltzman (29:12.011)
You couldn’t remember how.
Reuben Saltzman (29:21.272)
Reuben Saltzman (29:26.328)
Yeah.
You know what? Good for you for competing.
Tessa Murry (29:33.899)
You know, yeah, at least I competed I was just gonna say though it ladder skills, you know You if you don’t use them you lose them And I also don’t you get nervous as a as an inspector having to set up your ladder in front of people I always hate it when people watch whether it’s going into the attic or going on the roof. It’s always like, okay Don’t watch me. I guess I don’t like being the spotlight anyways, but it’s like when people when their eyes on you It always makes it that much more nerve-racking I think
Reuben Saltzman (29:42.168)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Reuben Saltzman (29:56.397)
Really?
Reuben Saltzman (30:02.434)
Yeah, I was kind of a showman with my ladder. I’m not gonna lie.
Tessa Murry (30:05.965)
gosh. That not surprise me. my gosh. like. You take out your drop cloth, you’re like.
Reuben Saltzman (30:08.714)
I would have a little flourish to it. I was like, someone’s watching.
Reuben Saltzman (30:16.078)
Yes, Yep. Yep. I would do it with the flourish. There’s no question about it but but we so we we had the competition this year and I always pull out like one or two new things that nobody’s done before nobody knows how this is gonna go and The new one I did this year was I built a GFC I rig and for the listeners You know we do
Tessa Murry (30:20.202)
my gosh
Reuben Saltzman (30:44.6)
put this on YouTube so you can see the video. What I’m holding in my hand here is a four gang electrical box with four GFCI receptacles wired into it. And then to power it, of course, I’ve just got a plug. And then the plug plugs into a GFCI receptacle at the park. That’s where we had our thing. So there’s actually five GFCIs that you’re dealing with here.
Tessa Murry (31:00.297)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (31:08.879)
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (31:14.734)
I wired it in series You’re never supposed to wire GFC eyes in series if you have multiple GFC eyes the idea is You trip one. It’s not gonna trip the rest of them. The only thing you have downstream from a GFI outlet is Regular outlets and you protect those because if you do it in series You’ve got the potential to trip one outlet, but you actually end up tripping all of them
Tessa Murry (31:36.33)
Thank
Reuben Saltzman (31:43.254)
if you’re using the test button on your tester. And that was the challenge. And so the challenge was you had to stick your tester in, you had to test the outlet, make sure there’s power, you had to trip it, and then you had to reset it and make sure there’s power after you reset it. But, people were like, well, how do you trip it? I said, you gotta trip it. Like I’m not telling you how to trip it. So.
Tessa Murry (31:46.836)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (32:09.079)
Oh-ho!
Reuben Saltzman (32:10.506)
Some people use the test button on the outlet and they got done with the whole series in like 15 to 20 seconds. And some other people use the test button on their tester. And I don’t have them wired in order that they appear. They go one, two, three, four. They go in a random order. So you don’t know how to reset it. And it really trips you up. See what I did. Wow.
Tessa Murry (32:13.993)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (32:18.312)
Yep.
Tessa Murry (32:31.349)
huh.
Me.
Reuben Saltzman (32:39.53)
And it was, it was fun and frustrating at the same time. So.
Tessa Murry (32:44.404)
So the people that use their outlet tester learned never to do that again. Right on a GSCI alley always use the test button on the receptacle. Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (32:48.95)
I think so. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Always use the test button. And this is this is just advice to home inspectors. I know we’ve talked about it on this show before, but don’t ever use the button on your GFCI testing device unless you have to. If you are at the outlet, use the test button on the outlet.
Tessa Murry (33:08.618)
Okay, and.
Tessa Murry (33:12.178)
And since, you in this show we’re going down these rabbit holes, why is that, Reuben? Can you explain why?
Reuben Saltzman (33:17.826)
Well, because you could you could trip a whole bunch of GFC eyes that are wired redundantly and you have no idea where they are and now you’re gonna have to find them and you’re gonna have to reset them in the proper order and You don’t even know where to look and you know My worst experience was spending 30 to 45 minutes at one house Trying to track down all the GFC eyes that I tripped with one simple click. So it’s to save yourself time. That’s why
Tessa Murry (33:32.436)
free.
Tessa Murry (33:43.549)
I’ve done that too. Yeah, yeah, save yourself time and headache. So if you use your tester, your outlet tester that you plug into the outlet, that is sending that that current basically into that outlet. it’s how does that actually affect everything downstream?
Reuben Saltzman (34:05.678)
Well, it creates a ground fault it connects I’m 99 % sure it touches the neutral and the ground to each other creating a fault and then You got a fault for everything on that on that on that line But if you but if you’re using the test button on the outlet
Tessa Murry (34:09.044)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (34:23.086)
that circuit. Yeah, okay. Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (34:29.696)
It’s actually using the internal trip mechanism or whatever and it’s actually the only thing that the manufacturers recognize. So do it the easy way. Do it the right way. That’s all.
Tessa Murry (34:37.169)
Interesting. Okay.
Tessa Murry (34:42.42)
Just test the specific outlet by using the test button on the outlet. Yep. Okay. Good tip. Good tip. Yeah. So homeowners, make sure that your GFCIs are working and not broken and test at your own risk.
Reuben Saltzman (34:45.484)
Yes. Yep.
Reuben Saltzman (34:57.25)
Yes, yes. There’s nothing that’s gonna go. The worst thing that happens is you go to test it and it won’t reset. You have identified a bad outlet that the home inspector would have identified. Now you can deal with it.
Tessa Murry (35:09.058)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay You know, I just thought of another one too. This isn’t too common, but I was just thinking For drains that don’t get used that often if it’s a floor drain or a drain in a basement shower And it’s stinky just pour some water down it
Reuben Saltzman (35:27.63)
Solid advice. Yeah agreed or run the faucet for a quick second. yeah. Yeah, absolutely Another one and this one is just I don’t know how to elaborate on this if you are missing If you have missing handrails install handrails super simple right
Tessa Murry (35:30.346)
Because that’s going in the inspection report. Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (35:48.395)
You say simple, but they’re probably missing for a reason because there’s maybe not an easy way to mount it or you have a homeowner who doesn’t know how to use tools or something like that. Or exterior stairs or you’d have to add some sort of posts and supports and who knows.
Reuben Saltzman (35:59.168)
Maybe, maybe, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (36:07.598)
Could be, could be. Just be aware if you got missing handrails, it’s gonna come up on your home inspection. No home inspector’s gonna miss that. And the code requirement there is when you got four risers or more, that’s where you’re supposed to have a handrail. And then last one is the air conditioner. Take your garden hose and spray down the outside part of your air conditioner. Every…
Tessa Murry (36:14.26)
True. True.
Reuben Saltzman (36:36.238)
I don’t know two out of three is dirty and gets written up in our report. You need to clean it and that’s so simple spray it off, right? Is there anything worth elaborating on?
Tessa Murry (36:45.638)
Is that? Well, I was going to say, mean, you make it sound so simple. And I think a lot of times maybe spraying your garden hose at the condenser will work. But sometimes it’s so clogged with cottonwood and other things that maybe you need to be a little more aggressive in your cleaning routine. And it could involve more than that, potentially.
Reuben Saltzman (37:03.854)
Could be, could be sometimes, I mean, on mine, I made a little video with me using the garden hose kind of spraying it, but it wasn’t totally getting in there. It would have taken me a long time and I would not put up with that. I would get my drill out and I would take the whole shroud off and then easily get it all off. I’m sure what you could do is you type in, you know, I don’t know what kind of air conditioner I got. I don’t remember, but you type in Rheem air conditioner.
Tessa Murry (37:10.925)
huh.
Tessa Murry (37:14.633)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (37:18.708)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (37:23.263)
here.
Reuben Saltzman (37:33.326)
2023 shroud removal. You type in exactly what you want on YouTube and someone’s gonna have a video showing exactly how to do it. And it’ll be simple. So, clean your AC.
Tessa Murry (37:43.107)
huh. Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. Well, I think that’s a pretty comprehensive list, Ruben, I would say, for homeowners to do easy things, you know? Yeah. Quote easy. Although, you know, I’m just thinking if you’ve got, if you’re the homeowner that has the gutters that are three stories up and the smoke alarm that’s in the cathedral ceiling and the stairs outside that are missing the handrail because there’s no
Reuben Saltzman (37:58.446)
This is the easy stuff.
Tessa Murry (38:12.49)
posts or guards or anything like that, this list will take you a while.
Reuben Saltzman (38:16.778)
Yeah. And I’ll tell you, if you’ve got all that stuff going on, well, nevermind.
Tessa Murry (38:23.21)
You know?
Reuben Saltzman (38:24.408)
You’re have a big home inspection report I
Tessa Murry (38:27.358)
Probably, probably. Or you, you you hire someone, a handyman, handywoman, Kira, some company will come out and help you, help you maintain it.
Reuben Saltzman (38:36.046)
Sure. Yep. Yep. Exactly. I bet they do probably everything on that list.
Tessa Murry (38:43.304)
Probably. Yeah, and actually I’m just thinking right now where my parents are they’ve got a kind of a vaulted it’s like a two-story living room and there are recessed can lights at the very peak and I mean, I don’t I’m not getting out there and one of them is out and it drives me nuts, but I’m like, all right, there’s no way I can change that so It’s
Reuben Saltzman (38:57.422)
Mmm.
Reuben Saltzman (39:01.397)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (39:07.512)
Have you seen those poles where it’s got like a suction cup on the end?
Tessa Murry (39:12.39)
I have, but I mean, I haven’t either and I didn’t want to go buy something for a rental that I’m not at. So anyways, you know, it is what it is. Exactly. Yeah. Well, that’s a good list, Ruben. Thanks for, you know, it’s fun when after you’ve written blogs for over a decade, you get a new topic you haven’t thought about before. You get to be creative.
Reuben Saltzman (39:13.346)
I’ve never tried it. I’m a little skeptical.
Reuben Saltzman (39:20.098)
Sure. Yeah. Okay. Somebody else’s problem.
Yeah. All right.
Reuben Saltzman (39:37.848)
Well, and you just gave me my next one, how to create, you know, the foldable downspout extensions. Look for that next week. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (39:44.234)
Yes, yeah, that sounds great and your little your gutter experiment of how to clean a gutter without getting on a ladder
Reuben Saltzman (39:52.162)
I gotta, yeah, I gotta get to bottom of it. We’ll see. All right. Cool. Well, thank you, Tess. Great to see you as always. And we’re.
Tessa Murry (39:55.914)
Good times, good times.
Good to see you too. Thanks for listening everybody if you made it through this show. We were a little bit all over the place, but thanks for sticking with us. It’s true. The host left for a minute, but he came back. It’s all good.
Reuben Saltzman (40:11.512)
That’s our show. It’s our show. We can do whatever we want. Tess. All right. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m not editing it out. Too bad. Tessa, did you tap dance while I was gone?
Okay. All right. All right.
Tessa Murry (40:26.878)
- No. Sorry, viewers. You don’t want to see me attempt to dance, so I’ll save you from that.
Reuben Saltzman (40:32.086)
Okay. All right. If you got any thoughts for future shows, questions, comments, concerns, all that stuff, please email us. We read all the emails. It’s podcast at StructureTech.com. We love hearing from you.
Tessa Murry (40:51.517)
We do.
Reuben Saltzman (40:52.6)
Catch you next time. Take care.
Tessa Murry (40:54.621)
Adios. Bye.