Barry Stone
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Furnishings can hide defects from home inspectorSep 13, 2013 12:15 am - Q. I’m in escrow to buy a home, and the sellers still live there. With all of the furnishings and personal effects covering walls and floors and filling the closets and ...
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Homeowner worried about asbestos ceilingsSep 06, 2013 12:02 am - Q. Our home was built in 1979 and has “popcorn” ceilings in most rooms. We started to scrape it off but stopped when someone suggested it might have asbestos. Our neighb...
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Make sure blame for inspection is placed on right shouldersAug 30, 2013 11:32 am - Q. We had a lousy home inspection experience. When we bought our house, our inspector said there appeared to be roof problems and issues with mold. He admitted that he w...
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Home inspector side-stepped my roofAug 23, 2013 12:25 am - Q. When I bought my house, the home inspection report contained no roofing problems. When the first storm came, some of the shingles blew off. I contacted the inspector....
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Inconsistency found in home inspector’s reportAug 16, 2013 12:18 am - Q. Our home inspector listed a damaged electrical conduit as a safety problem in his report but did not include it in the “summary” portion of the report. Unfortunately,...
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Code violations can slip past city, private inspectorsAug 09, 2013 12:10 am - @Biz Ledger Coffee answers:Q. We bought a new home about a year ago and hired a home inspector before closing. The inspector found no problems and said the house was per...
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Concerns with aluminum wire safetyAug 02, 2013 12:00 am - Q. Our home is about 15 years old. When we bought it, our home inspector said nothing about the aluminum wire that runs from the main breaker panel to the electric force...
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Water heater thermal blankets should not cover labelsJul 26, 2013 12:37 am - Q. In an old column, you advised a homeowner to install a thermal insulating blanket on his water heater to conserve energy. I strongly disagree for the following reason...
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First-time buyer didn’t read the inspection reportJul 19, 2013 9:48 am - Q. In the excitement of buying my first home, I glanced over the stacks of paperwork and never even read the home inspection report. Instead, I trusted my agent’s opinio...
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Home inspector: Home purchase dampened by cat urineJul 12, 2013 6:19 am - Q. During our home inspection, there was a terrible smell in the house, and the sellers disclosed that their cats didn’t always use the litter box. Our home inspector re...