Dylan McIntosh from Indoor Sciences stopped by the podcast to talk about Mold in homes with Tim. Some topics discussed were:
For show notes visit: https://pod.co/the-home-geeks-podcast/14-mythbusting-with-a-mold-expert-dylan-mcintosh
By Tim Wojnar
Before I get started, I must confess, I am biased. As an inspector, why would I not want people to have more inspections done? But even with that in mind, I felt compelled to write this post because inspectors can help sellers as much as buyers when it comes to real estate transactions. So if you are thinking about listing your property now or in the near future, here are some reasons to have your current home inspected before listing.
When it comes to real estate transactions, money is often not the most significant factor when it comes to whether or not someone buys a home. More decisions are based on emotions and feelings than the end dollar amount (if it is within their price range). So when you list, why not offer potential buyers what they want and other houses aren't offering…..A Sense of Comfort.
If you were interested in a property and saw it had a pre-listing inspection and also had repairs done to rectify the larger issues, how would you feel? Would you feel a lot better about making an offer? Would you feel like offering more for the home than if it didn't have a pre-inspection? The studies say "yes," most people would. Having a pre-listing inspection can add thousands to what you sell your property for.
Inevitably if you have a pre-listing inspection, you will have items that may need repair. I believe this is one of the main reasons home sellers don't have an inspection done. But what also is inevitable is that when the buyer has the inspection done, they will have to ask for repairs or a seller's credit.
The real estate transaction timeline provides very little time for repairs to be done, so most sellers settle for paying credits to a buyer. Additionally, if you do agree to do a repair, you most likely have about a week to hire a contractor and get it fixed, not allowing you to shop for the best deal. Taking care of repairs on a pre-listing inspection can save you $ 100's if not more at the negotiation table. Equally, having paperwork from licensed contractors ready for potential buyers will only increase a buyer's confidence, as we discussed in Reason 1.
The most significant leverage any buyer has over a seller during a real estate transaction is after the inspection when the attorney review negotiations occur. This is where they ask for their list of repairs or credits based on inspection items. If you hire a good home inspection company for the pre-listing inspection, there should be no surprises during negotiations. The buyer should have no grounds for asking for repairs or credits from you as everything was disclosed. The buyer may even decide to waive the inspection.
Every so often, you will get a request back based on another inspector's report. However, this is another advantage. I had a client who had a pre-inspection call me after their buyer's inspector called out a potential fire hazard on their report. Upon reviewing my report, I found that the inspector did not explain the issue right to the buyers and overblew an easy repair. That gave my client the ability to go back and say no to the repair request saving them several hundreds of dollars.
If you are thinking of having any repairs done before listing your home, having an inspector give his opinion on what is truly important can end up saving you a lot of money. I had a client who was thinking about replacing their roof for $15,000 because it was older, but when I inspected the roof, it was still in good shape. Inspectors spend a lot of time with buyers and know what makes them nervous and what they will most likely want fixed. Use that knowledge to your advantage and save money on not doing frivolous repairs.
As the saying goes, time is money. By having a pre-listing inspection, you are streamlining the closing process by disclosing everything about your property. As stated in Reason 3, you are taking the leverage away from the buyer which should speed up the rest of the closing steps. Sometimes closing a week or two earlier can save a lot of money and headaches, especially if you are also buying at the same time as you are selling your property.
By Ross Morgan
Back pain affects about 80% of people in their lives (1), and the unlucky 8% will live with chronic back pain (2). A friend of mine recently moved an outside 2-wheeled Grill from the backyard to his garage. He said that it felt light, but he has suffered from Thoracic vertebrae (middle back) pain for several weeks following the incident and had to seek treatment.
This doesn’t have to be your fate. There are a few steps you can take to reduce your chances of back pain and improve your quality of life. In this article, I will outline these steps and use a couple of real-world examples to bring them to life.
1) Exercise routinely with a focus on core resistance exercises to keep your muscles strong and flexible. Some examples of core exercises I recommend are Planks, Side Planks, Bird Dogs, and Dead bugs.
2) Evaluate each situation carefully before starting work.
· Is there a clear path?
· Determine the weight, size, shape, and position of the object.
· Can you do it alone or need mechanical aid?
· Choose your route. Do you need to clear a path?
· Warm up before your body before lifting.
3) “Brace“ your body properly. This includes lowering your shoulder blades and tightening your lower back. This is achieved through redistribution and redirection. Here is a great link to visualize this technique. https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/how-to-brace-and-breathe-properly-for-weightlifting”(3)
4) Lift like an Olympic Weightlifter. Olympic Weightlifters cannot afford to get hurt and neither can you. They are not only strong, but also flexible, fast, and they use nearly perfect lifting technique to maximize their lifts without getting hurt. https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=hw206944 (4)
Let’s complete an example project: Fixing a leak under a sink
Evaluate the situation, following the 4-step method above.
Warm-up by pulling in your belly button to stabilize your spine, lowering your shoulder blades, and breathe through your chest. Holding this position while working protects the spine. Roll your shoulders to relax your neck and then ensure your core feels tight. Slowly stretch your hamstrings before bending down.
Keep your core engaged whenever you are working, only relaxing it when you’re not physically working.
“Brace“ your body properly.
Lift like an Olympic Lifter (This includes moving small items like under the sink in the above photo.
Following these 4 steps can lead to years of household chores with minimal pain and maximum results. See my Blog on (“Brace” To Prevent Home Injuries) at https://insideoutchicago.com/new-blog.
(1) Rubin Dl. Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Spine Pain. Neurol Clin. 2007; May;25(2):353-71.
(2) B. Druss, Marcus, S., Olfson, M., and Pincus, H.A. (2002). “The Most Expensive Medical Conditions in America.” Health Affairs, 21(4): 105-111. https://hpi.georgetown.edu/backpain/
(3) Wil Fleming Coach, Bloomington, Indiana, United States, Olympic Weightlifting
(4) Medical Review: William H. Blahd, Jr., MD, FACEP – Emergency Medicine & Brian O’Brien, MD, FRCPC – Internal Medicine & Adam Husney, MD – Family Medicine & Kathleen Romito, MD – Family Medicine & Joan Rigg, PT, OCS – Physical Therapy
It's the humidity that gets you, or that's how the saying goes, but what does that really mean? While most people have a basic understanding that humidity can make it feel warmer or cooler outside than the temperature suggest.
Why is that the case and what does that matter when it comes to your home?
I’m going to be writing this article as a 3-part series to break down the subject as I feel like it is essential information for every homeowner to know. In this first part, I am going to dive into what humidity is and not really touch too much on the effects it has on the home just yet. In future posts, I will discuss the impact it can have on mold growth in your home and then on the air conditioning within your home. With that said, let's get started on the basics:
The simplified answer is the amount of water vapor that is within the surrounding air. Water vapor is just the gas form of water. The more water vapor there is in the air, the more humid it is considered. There are two ways to measure humidity, relative or absolute, and this will be discussed below.
Most of the time, you will see the humidity listed as a percentage, as the air's humidity is 50%. This is the relative humidity of the air. Air has a maximum capacity of water vapor it can hold, so when it reaches that threshold, it is considered to be 100% relative humidity. A good example of what relative humidity is, say a specific volume of air can hold 1 cup of water, but is currently holding half a cup of water, the relative humidity is then 50%.
Pretty straightforward, right? Well, wait, there is more. The capacity for air to hold water vapor increases as the air temperature rises (as well as decreases if the temperature drops). As an example, if you increase the air temperature from 60° F to 80° F, the air's capacity to hold water vapor now doubles. If a whole room can hold 1 cup of water vapor at 60° F, it will be able to approximately hold 2 cups of water vapor at 80° F.
In the examples above, the cups of water vapor would be the absolute humidity. Absolute humidity is just the counted mass of the water vapor in a given system, and technically that is all you need to know. For engineers and scientists, they count the absolute humidity in units of grains of moisture per pound of dry air (WTH?). To simplify things, we will use simple units like cups and gallons throughout this series.
As mentioned in the introduction, more humid environments feel warmer even though the temperature is listed to be the same. The main reason behind this phenomenon is when the temperature is measured by most thermometers, it's measuring the dry-bulb temperature, which does not factor in humidity. The wet-bulb temperature is harder to measure, but it factors in moisture into the equation.
A 70° F wet-bulb temperature is the same as a 70° F dry-bulb temperature at 100% humidity or equivalent. As an example, an 80°F day at 60% relative humidity is approximately the same wet bulb temperature (70° F wet bulb) at 95° F, 30% humidity day. This is a fundamental concept going forward as we talk about air conditioning, we don't just want cooler air we sometimes want dryer air too.
Everyone has experienced dew before, generally in the morning on your car, or on some leaves. Dew occurs because the vapors in the air condense when the temperature drops saturation temperature. What ?!?!? Let's continue our conversation and simplify things by revisiting a relative versus absolute humidity example.
During a hot, humid, summer day, let's say the air conditions are 90° F at 60% relative humidity (absolute is around 1.2 cups for that area of air). If the temperature cools to 70° F at night, the air only can hold 1.1 cups of water vapor, which is 0.1 cups different than the absolute humidity of the warm day's air. So what happens to that 0.1 cups of water vapor? It condenses into the water droplets that you see on your car in the morning. This is called condensation and will be important going into the other articles in this series.
Last but not least is the dew point. The simple definition for dew point is the temperature condensation will start to occur for a given condition. Revisiting the 90° F, 60% relative, and 1.2 cups absolute day. The dew point for this exact condition is 73° F because at 1.2 cups absolute humidity, the relative humidity will be 100%, and at 73° F and at any temperature under that point, condensation will start to occur.
For the sake of keeping things easy for the average homeowner, I simplified a lot of concepts and terms in this article. If you are interested in learning more about humidity concepts and calculations, you may find this psychrometric chart useful to study. Or feel free to reach out to me at info@homeinspectiongeeks.com to ask any questions about resources.
In the next article, we will talk about why it is essential to control humidity in your unconditioned spaces and how not doing so can lead to mold growth.
One of the many preventative measures taken during the COVID-19 outbreak was when numerous companies had their employees work remotely from home.
