If you have mice in your house, you have probably called exterminators or tried your own critter traps to get rid of the pests. But this is just a temporary solution until more critters come in.  The only effective way to get rid of them for good is to stop them from getting into your home in the first place. The one major path of entry that mice have into your home is the dryer vent.   Go outside and check the dryer vent cover to be sure it is securely attached.  There should be a mesh material or screen to keep small animals from getting into the dryer duct.  Mice love to chew through things to see what is on the other side.  Chipmunks and other small critters have also been known for their curiosity or they're drawn to the warmth of your dryer vent.  Once they chew through to make a ... 09/10/2008

                        Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home!   If you are coming to visit or relocating to Claremont, New Hampshire. You'll really want to make time to visit North Conway, New Hampshire. To take a ride on the Conway Senic Railroad.  All Aboard for the time of your life. The Notch Train Ride. Your going to enjoy some really fine natural scenery in New Hampshire as you travel through the spectacular Crawford Notch, the ride will take you past sheer bluffs, very steep ravines, cascading brooks, and streams, you'll get to see some really panoramic mountain views, vistas, and you'll be going across the famed Frankenstein Trestle and Willey Brook Bridge, you'll be enroute to the Crawford Depot or the Fabyan Station. The Crawford Notch excursion allows... 08/30/2008

                        Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! Q. Can't I do it myself? Even the most experienced home owner lacks the knowledge and expertise of a professional home inspector who has inspected hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homes in his or her career. An inspector is familiar with the many elements of home construction, their proper installation, and maintenance. He or she understands how the home's systems and components are intended to function together, as well as how and why they fail. Above all, most buyers find it very difficult to remain completely objective and unemotional about the house they really want, and this may affect their judgment. For the most accurate information, it is best to obtain an impartial third-party opinion by an Pr... 08/23/2008

                        Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home!   Questions that are frequently asked about Mold   1. Why do we have mold growing in our home ? Molds is a part of the natural environment. Outdoors, mold plays a very important part in nature by breaking down dead organic matter such as fallen leaves in your yard      and dead trees, cut firewood  but indoors, mold growth should always be avoided. Molds reproduce by means of tiny spores, these spores are invisible to your naked eye and float through outdoor and indoor air in your home. Mold may begin to grow indoors when the spores land on a surface area that is wet.  There are lots of types of mold, and not one of them can start growing without some kind of water or moisture in your home. 2. Can mol... 08/22/2008

          Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! Having your blog bring in clients With all the challenges that we face in todays market. Is mindshare, this is all about just how many folk's are really aware of you, and just how you are going to help them and take care of their needs. What if we think of mindshare, as if it was like market shares, except instead of us having a share of the market in the terms of dollar value, you value mindshare as a percentage of folk's that know what the heck you are really going to do for them. The main problem is that everyone is out there vying for mindshare, and folk's just only have so much mindspace. How are you going to stand out in front of them ? This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual ... 07/26/2008

        Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home!   Anyone that wants client's to find their Web presence. Having a Web site and Bloging site is very good to have now a days. Thats for sure!, but on the other hand, it's very meaningless if nobody knows about it and you. Just like having a very brilliantly designed brochure does little good for ya if it only sits in you'res or your Brokers desk drawer, your Web presence is doing you very little good if your target market aint visiting you, Be sure that you, your Web site, and your Bloging site or site's are in the spotlight, and in the hands of your target market. Not in a dark ol desk drawer or your saddle bags. Setting up your primary objectives is very vital, to your Web presence. It's also very important to ident... 07/11/2008

    Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home!       You and your family should enjoy the outdoors A very important part of living in a green home is to appreciating why you went to all the effort to create a home that would sit lightly on the land, and compliment Mother Earth. Whether it be weeding your flower garden, enjoying a meal outdoors with your family, reading a fine book on your front porch, or even working on your laptop under a tree in the backyard. Being outdoors will put you in closer touch with Mother Earth and nature. It could even help remind you and your family why it's so important to keep the air clean and the nearby woodlands, wetlands or prairies healthy for all the wildlife family's.     This posting and the contents that are written here are t... 05/31/2008

      Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! One common problem is when the top of a well casing has been cut below the ground lvel and buried. When this has been done it's just about impossible to get a good seal in a steel well casing underground. Most well drillers cut the last section of casing with a torch that burns it off, this will not give a clean cut. Now this puts a lot of slag on the linner side of the casing, when it's done this way the well seal will not make a watertight fit, because of the irregular surface. Surface water will be able to seep into your well and cause contamination to it.     This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual property of Baker Home Inspection and Consulting. All views and opinions expressed he... 05/19/2008

      Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! The laundry room faucet is another hose hook up connection that typically gets overlooked by Town, city and county inspector's. Such a faucet with a large tub underneath it can easily become a cross connection. All a owner would have to do is place a short piece of hose on the hook up and leave the end of the hose lying in the bottom of the laundry tub. Whatever is in the tub, like ink dye to any toxic chemicals that may have been used, can easily be sucked into the water supply system. A owner of a home might even attach a long hose to the faucet hose hook up to start spraying their garden with fertilizer or maybe their lawn with pesticides.   This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual pr... 05/18/2008

      Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! The most commonly ignored cross-connection, is the yard faucet point. It has the lower end of it buried in the ground, there could be one out next to the barn to supply water to the live stock or may be one installed next to the garden so you don't have to use a long hose from the house. These faucet's have a hose hookup, the same as a through the wall faucet dose, and can contaminate your water supply just as easily, they are an area of concern. You can install a screw on vacuum breakers on a yard faucet but there is still going to be the potential problem with freezing in colder areas of the country. You can manually drain the faucet the same way that you can a through the wall faucet. But it's rather awkward to do o... 05/17/2008

Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! One way folk's can get typhoid is by it being spread by sewage contaminating their water used for drinking or to wash their food and dishes. Typhoid is one os several water transmitted diseases that can spread from sloppy plumbing practices that is created by a cross- connection. Knowing what to look for will bring cross-connection problems to light before a family tragedie can occur. This very often overlooked inspection of the home, is one of the most important your Home Inspector should do.   This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual property of Baker Home Inspection and Consulting. All views and opinions expressed here by Baker Home Inspection and Consulting and those that comment are just ... 05/17/2008

Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! You may be asking just what is a cross-connection. It's a physical connection from something that contains potable water to something that holds nonpotable water. This gives you the potential for water contamination. The most common cross-connection problems now a days homes bring in sewage, herbicides, insecticides, and garden fertilizer to your drinking water system. However a cross-connection dose not have to involve potable water. Two problems have to occur at the same time before your water supply can become contaminated. A physical croee-connection has to exist. Then a backflow situation has to occur to pull the contaminated water through the cross-connection and into the noncontaminated water. The backflow situation c... 05/16/2008

Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! The following is just a sampling Stair stringers not tied in properly. No hand or guard railings. The deck is not lagged bolted to the home. The framing is undersized. The steps are uneven. The balusters spaceing is too far apart. The balusters are missing from the deck. The rails where installed too low. There are loose balusters and rails. There are missing or very questionable footings. There are missing flashing's. If I do find these or any other defects with the deck, it would be a good idea to check if a permit was ever issued to build the deck. Someone could have an accident and be seriously injured on a poorly builded deck.   This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual property of Baker H... 05/16/2008

    Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! On some old fashion bath tubs, the fill spout is located inaide the bath tub. The problem with this, is that you don't have the required 1 inch gap between the spout and the overflow area. If the spout can be under the water in the tub, then it can siphon anything surrounding it back into the water lines. Because the overflow drain of the tub is below the spout, most folk's think there's not going to be a problem with this setup, but you can't assume the drain is going to work right. Drains have a bad habit of geting clogged up and the bath tub drain, being the lowest, it's the first to start having any sewage back up into it when the sewer line clogs or the septic sytem stops draining. Now to put this in it's proper lig... 05/14/2008

      Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! The idea of having pure spring water fed into your home can be an appealing one for sure, but it is not without it's potential drawbacks. Spprings can be relatively easy to contaminate, as some very nice folk's found out, that called me to do an Inspection of at their home. Family member's of the home had been geting sick. Their Doctor said their problem had to do with the water. When I got to the home, the first thing I did was go right to the spring head, believing that would be the most likely place for the contamination to be coming from. But the spring appeared to be in good shape, what I found out though was the water this family was getting into their home was not coming from the spring. What I did to verifie th... 05/13/2008

  Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! There are a number of reasons way foundation walls get cracke in them. The following are just a few of the reasons for them. Exterior water pressure on the foundation. Drying out of the fresh concrete foundation wall. Movement and shifting of the foundation and or of the footings ubder the foundation. Movement of any adjunct structures tied into the foundation of the home, like additions and so on. Expansion and contraction of the soil. Improper or inadequate footings. Impact by vehicles. Earthquake tremors. Tremors caused by a adjacenting railroad. Tremors caused by any blasting in the area.     This photo shows a case of extreme structural failure, with this masonry wall due to foundation settlement of the building. In t... 05/11/2008

      Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home! In most case's he or she can not tell if a water stain is active or not, just by puting their hand on it. That is why your Professional Home Inspector, should use some from of moisture meter. I have seen stains that looked old and dry, and have tested them with a moisture meter and found them to be very active. Thats why your Home Inspector needs to use a variety of tools and equipment to perform the Home Inspection for their Client's. Anything less would not be a Professional Home Inspection. This is also why First Time Home Buyer's and Home Buyer's should have a Home Inspection on the home they are thinking of buying. This posting and the contonts that are written here are the intellectual property of Baker Home Insp... 05/10/2008

      Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home!   First Time Home Buyer's and Home Buyer's, Here are some things to do and not to do, for a private sewer system.   Do  Have the cesspool pumped out on an annual basis. Have the septic system pumped out every two to three years. Have the system inspected on an annual basis. Know the location of the inspection covers of your tank. Always conserve water. Have the system maintained.   Don'ts Be sure not to overload the system with extra water from your washer. If you have a garbage disposal never discharge it into the system tank. Never flush any bulky objects or ant kind of grease into the system. Never flush any kind of toxic materials into the system. Never add any commercial additives to the system. Don't ever park or... 05/08/2008

Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedom to a Worry Free Home!     These are just a few of the deficiencies and defects, that I have found in warm air systems. The fan belt is loose or damaged. The filter is dirty, it's missing, loose or sometimes it's damaged. Asbestos in or on the system. Dose not have a vibration damper. The ducts have no damper controls. Damaged or the duct tape at the joints is missing. The ductwork has a poor pitch. The ductwork is to small for the system. Visible dirt on the A/C coils. Very old gravity system in the home. Thers no return system for the return air. The return air cames from the basement. Poor location for the registers. I could go on about this. But I think you can see my point, why you need and should have a Home Inspection.   This posting and th... 05/07/2008

Knowledge is the Power for Your Freedomto a Worry Free Home!         One of the things your Home Inspector should let you know about is the water source for the home you are looking at to buy.   In a city, the water source is taken for granted. But not so for folk's living in the country, With no utility to supply you with unlimited water at a continuous high pressure, rural dwelling folk's depend on a well or a spring, and they often have to live with limited water volume and pressure. This is another good reason to have a Home Inspection!   This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual property of Baker Home Inspection and Consulting. All views and opinions expressed here by Baker Home Inspection and those that comment are just that. Copyright 1998-2008 All... 05/06/2008