Helpful Articles

Over 70% of structural claims occur four or more years after the sale date of the home. Claims that occur earlier than this are characterized as E.D., and are often a sign of a more severe problem. E.D. claims cost an average of 33% more to repair than the average of all claims. The timing and severity of claims is particularly important to home builders that maintain financial reserves to pay claims. 

For a few years now, you've heard me preach about the injustices taking place, daily, in the Huntsville-metro Real Estate marketplace, regarding insecure home inspectors and their foundation repair contractor friends. Well, I want you to come see the house that Buck bought to live in.  According to two foundation repair contractors in Huntsville, recommended by the Home Inspector who inspected the home, my house had in excess of $15,000 worth of structural repairs that needed to be made.

Once and For All Folks: Cracks in brick veneer should be no cause for panic. Here are the reasons why you should quit freaking out over brick veneer cracks!

After three decades of inspections throughout Madison County, I feel that I have a lot to offer you on this topic. It all starts with the geology of Madison County. There are several reasons why houses experience Foundation Settlement. I will spell them out for you. (Remember, foundation settlement is almost inevitable... every home will experience it over time, so it's not imperative that foundation repair be done just because of minor amounts of settlement.)

Building codes and requirements have really gotten tougher over the past years for deck construction. That being the case, newer decks being built are stronger and more enduring than ever before, preventing deck collapse. BUT, there are literally millions of outdoor decks in America that were built before the codes got tougher. 

So the bottom line is, there are still a lot of UNSAFE decks out there. As the temperatures warm and people seek enjoyment from outdoor life, some of those decks are bound to fail... and sometimes the failure can be catastrophic.

Got squeaky floors in your home?

It's not just a problem found in older homes. Even new homes can develop squeaky floors for a variety of reasons.

"Sarah... Come here and look at these brick veneer cracks! That darn Arsenal is tearing our house apart!"

For the past three decades, I've gotten one or two calls each year whereby people are contending that their brick veneer or drywall cracks were caused by the bomb detonations and rocket testing activities on the Arsenal.   The City of Huntsville has long been monitoring the Arsenal blasting activities with seismograph instruments placed around the Arsenal boundaries.   As far as I know, the levels of ground vibration recorded during this same time period have all been deemed safe.

But you won't convince the homeowners in South-Huntsville.  They know better!

Actually, they're wrong.  They are not feeling ground vibrations.  They are feeling their house shake from what engineers call "air-blast" a fancy word for concussion or low-frequency sound waves.

Realtors... Has this ever happened to you? You're trying to finalize that Real Estate deal when the home inspector expresses concern about the roof, so you bring in a "reputable" roofing contractor. The roofing contractor says that a new roof is needed because of hail damage. The Real Estate deal is put on hold, or worse yet, canceled because of this new "revelation."  The seller's insurance company disagrees and denies the claim, but the buyer demands a new roof!

In one of our previous articles, we talked about Drought-Induced Foundation Settlement.  We concluded that most drought-induced settlement is relatively minor and has no long-lasting effects on a house's foundation ultimately. But, today we share with you a major concern and something we often take note of during our home inspections.

There's still a lot of confusion in the Real Estate industry about brick veneer cracks. I've been preaching for years that well over half of all cracking in brick veneer homes is NOT due to major foundation problems. But there are still dozens of home inspectors out there who are afraid of these cracks and the liability they think the cracks present, so they recommend that home buyers enlist the "Free" services of a foundation repair company to determine if the cracks pose a true threat. So, I'm going to help you in this little article to determine, with 90% accuracy, whether or not that brick veneer crack is of any major concern. I call it "Buck's Vinyl Siding Test."