Carbon Monoxide Alarms: What is Carbon Monoxide & why should I care about it? Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless, tasteless gas that is deadly. We can only detect carbon monoxide when we start to feel the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. The most common symptoms of CO poisoning are dizziness, headaches, upset [...]
Smoke Alarms: The statistics of smoke alarms: Smoke alarms are a key part of a fire escape plan and are vital for the protection of home occupants in case of a fire. Smoke alarms serve as an early warning system that gives occupants a chance to escape the home. In 2016 there were 1,800 [...]
Polybutylene Pipes The History of Polybutylene: Polybutylene (PB) was manufactured from 1978 to 1995 to be used for water pipes in plumbing systems. Polybutylene is a plastic that resembles the PEX, PVC, and Polyethylene pipes that are still in use today. PB pipes were less expensive than the copper pipes in use at that [...]
High Water Pressure in the Home: The majority of homes in the Greater Portland and Vancouver area that are connected to the municipal water supply receive water at a pressure of 40 to 80 pounds per square inch which is considered safe and acceptable for the plumbing system of the home. However, there are [...]
The house is winterized: Many homes we inspect have the crawlspace winterized by plugging up crawlspace vents with the ubiquitous Styrofoam plugs that can be found at any hardware store. Sometimes the vents are simply closed with the plastic flaps that are part of the typical crawlspace vent. Most commonly this is done in [...]
