Home Inspector's Journal

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Home Inspector - Mid America Inspection Services, LLC - North Dakota 19 & 93
Home inspection, home inspector, house inspector, house inspection, property inspection, property inspector, Roof leak, foundation leaks, foundation wet, foundation cracks, decayed wood, rotten wood, bad roof, old roof, shingles worn, shingles missing, shingles leaking, piece of mind, home maintenance, home repairs, home safety, home remodeling, Alexandria, Wadena, Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes, Fargo, West Fargo, Moorhead, Dilworth, Hawley, Lake Park, Pelican Rapids, Battle Lake, Ottertail, Otter Tail, Perham, Henning, weekend, evenings, credit cards, Visa, Mastercard, Master Card, Discover, wells, septic, mold, mildew, Radon, lead paint, lake, lakes, lake homes, cabin, log cabin, log home. manufactured home, trailers, mobile home, safe, functional, engineer
RECENT BLOG POSTS
During home inspections, one of the most common defects we find in homes with automatic garage door openers is a maladjusted pressure sensor. The whole purpose of these is to reverse the doors motion to the open position if it strikes an obstruction. In our area, where snows are a common winter o...
04/06/2013
    The worst return on investment with home remodeling projects   Recently I was writing on the return on investment with various remodeling projects, little did I know that someone would turn that on its head and look at the worst return of investments. Bob Villa, once upon a time the host of H...
03/03/2013
  The return on investment with home remodeling projects is frequently a concern when planning upgrades and can top 80% or be only for your own enjoyment. Sometimes we overlook the enjoyment factor when looking only at return on investment. Remember, it's your home and should be, well, homey.  Ac...
02/21/2013
Sometimes Business Stinks! ____________________________________ The first aromatic offering your home inspector may encounter might be as he first walks into your prospective purchase. Overpowering evidence that the present owner smoked, and smoked and smoked and... Well you get the picture. In t...
02/16/2013
  Ready to spend some big bucks on a new furnace? Well let's try to minimize the pain and maximize the gain. A heating plant is almost never a DIY exercise for several reasons, but first let's look at some of the things you do need to consider.   To start, keep in mind that the cost of the new he...
02/05/2013
A home inspection of any home with a wood burning fixture, be it furnace, stove or fireplace should include a recommendation to have the chimney and flue inspected, and serviced or repaired if warranted, by a certified chimney sweep. Yeah but... since it is a violation of our ethical standards to...
01/27/2013
  Maybe it’s just the flu, but… This is the time of year when we almost expect to get a cold or flu and so the sniffles, headaches, nausea, and aches and pains are often disregarded. This is also the time of year when we keep our windows and doors tightly closed and do our best to reduce heat los...
01/21/2013
 Time lost and never regained   This past weekend I had an opportunity to go to the Fargo Dome where the arena was filled with bouncy slides and dozens of other inflatable fun toys for young kids.  Watching our five, “Going on six!”, year old granddaughter expend a seemingly endless amounts of en...
02/20/2012
  Replacing or upgrading the many components in our home is a costly enterprise and one recurring question is always, “How long before I have to do this again?”  Frankly, the answer will always be a little fuzzy, even to home inspectors, since it is an average of those that fail right out of the ...
11/14/2011
  Carbon Monoxide – Invisible Killer   Fall is well on us and the leaves are nearly gone. This is the time of year we try our best to seal out the colder weather by making our homes as air tight as we can. Storm windows go up, caulk installed and heating systems fired up for the first time in mon...
11/02/2011
Rainer
166,435

Marshall Brown

BSEE, CHI
smartphone(218) 443-3555
smartphone(218) 841-0444
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