A lotta times I'll find thousands and thousands
of dollars worth of damage on the inside of the house
for something that could've been fixed
and avoided with a $10 fix like this.
(air whooshes) Licensed home inspector
who's helped thousands of homeowners decide
if houses are safe, sound, worth buying.
And he's had a career that has spanned 27 years
in construction and inspection,
(audience applauds) which I find hard to believe
'cause he looks 27. Yep, yep, little older.
So take it away.
What I'm gonna explain is downspouts
and gutters and whatnot. Gotcha.
A little, right here,
this is an extension to a downspout.
So over here we have a gutter system that comes across.
It goes to a downspout here.
And a lotta times I'll find thousands and thousands
of dollars worth of damage on the inside of the house
for something that could've been fixed
and avoided with a $10 fix like this.
So I'll bring this over here. $10?
10 bucks.
This is an extension that just slides
on just like this underneath here.
Right, goes on like that.
The point is you want the water to come down
and divert away house at least six feet.
It see. 'Cause if you don't
what's gonna happen is the water's gonna come down here
and it's gonna work its way right back into the foundation.
Into the foundation of the house, right,
so you're just trying to divert it.
Divert it away.
So the ground can absorb.
Exactly, and this is something that anybody can do.
It's 10 bucks. Anybody, $10, $10.
My husband could do that. (audience applauds)
And John does no DIY of any kind.
Decking systems.
I find this all the time, rotted wood on decking systems
like this one that you see right here.
Now this is something that any homeowner can check for,
can fix themself.
You get a screwdriver, you walk around your house,
you look at your decking system,
you can poke at the wood.
Now, if the wood looks like this,
obviously it's shot.
So some people see this and they're like,
"Oh, we have to replace the entire decking system,"
but that's not the case.
You could just replace the planks itself.
So if you take a plank like this
that's completely rotted and shot,
and you don't wanna fall through this, God forbid,
you can go to your local hardware store, again,
and get yourself a piece of pressure-treated wood.
Just like this one you see here.
Fantastic, right.
This one sits in place.
Drop it in. Drop it in place,
and you have your stain. Your stain of choice.
There you go. And you put it on there
and you can do whatever color you like.
You have this color here. Bang, bang, boom.
Boom, boom, boom.
And this will let it last for a long time.
It's called home maintenance.
All right, what are we looking at now?
Railings and balusters.
The right way to do it.
The wrong way to do it.
Now, the reason why I say that you have the right height.
We're at 36 inches over here.
This is fine with the height.
The baluster spacing is about four inches here.
You always want the baluster spacing
to be four inches or less.
And the reason behind that is if you're a little kid,
little kids love to do this. Oh, yes, of course,
it's dangerous.
And if they get their head stuck, which happens,
they get their head stuck in there or--
Animals too. Little animals.
I've seen animals get trapped.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like my little Rosie,
my little Cavapoo, she'll get stuck inside there.
You can't have that, you know?
Well, and we have a pretty large dog.
She's 80 pounds.
She could easily get stuck in here.
Yeah.
You know, halfway through or something.
Yeah, and a lotta times people buy older homes
and this wasn't like a code issue back then,
but now it is a code issue.
So you want it to be this way.
That's a good thing that they added it to code.
Yeah, let's say you have a decking system
and there's a 10-foot drop or you have a railing,
a baluster, you have a 10 foot drop to your first floor.
Little kids will just slide right through.
How does that work if you're a contractor?
How often do you get updates?
How often do you educate yourself on code changes and stuff?
Contractors should be going to school, you know, yearly.
As a home inspector, we have to go to 24 hours
of continuing ed every two years.
Gotcha. You know, and we go there
and it's a refresher course, basically, what it is,
but the best part--
To get the updates.
Yeah, you have to 'cause if you don't,
you're gonna be in this error
when you should be in this error here
And that way. Yeah, yeah.
Is there just one general tip
before you're going to buy a home
or your biggest tip for a soon to be prospective home owner?
This is a big one,
so if you're gonna buy a home, first of all,
you never waive a home inspection,
never waive a home inspection.
Always have a home inspector come in
and tell you what's wrong with the house.
Now, if you're gonna buy a home,
you have to obviously figure out your budget,
whatever your budget's gonna be,
and ask your real estate agent:
How old is the boiler?
Before you even go into a contract,
before you have a home inspector go, how old is the boiler,
the hot water heater, the cooling system,
the roofing system.
Is there a buried oil tank in the yard?
That's huge.
I mean, if there's a buried oil tank, it could cost 5,000
to a 100,000 to have it removed
God forbid it leaked all down. Wow.
Yeah, so these are big ticket items.
And how do we find the right home inspector?
Do you interview them?
Is there a listing somewhere, a directory?
There are directories.
Yeah, there are.
You go online.
I mean, you can do a Google search.
You can look for people online as well.
Real estate agents have a good database,
Gotcha. Friends, family.
So they can help guide you.
They can guide you, but always ask
the home inspector say,
"Hey, are you gonna go on the roof?
"Are you gonna test the heating system, the cooling system?
"Are you gonna look for termites, mold, asbestos?
You know, "What are you gonna do?
"How long is it gonna take for you to finish this job?
"What kinda report you gonna give me?"
You know, those are all basic questions
you can ask beforehand.
Cool, he's the best, huh? (audience applauds)
Thank you so much to Joe.
(wind chime music)