Oaks Trees and Metal Roofs May Drive You Nuts!

Something to think about.

I was inspecting a house today and noticed something humorous....I'm sure the neighbors of the home didn't think so. This was a nice, quite neighborhood with lots of large trees.When I was inspecting the outside of the house, I kept hearing noise from the house across the street, sounded like construction and hammering going on at the house and didn't pay much attention. When I got on the roof of the house I was inspecting, I looked over at the house across the street and realized that no one was over there working on it, but the large oak tree overhanging the house was dropping acorns onto the roof. Acorns can be noisy hitting an asphalt roof, but this house had a decorative metal roof and it was LOUD with each acorn that fell....like someone throwing rocks at it. In this type of neighborhood, all noises echo through the entire block. I could only image how this sounded on a windy night at 3:00am! I don't know how long it takes for all the acorns to fall from the tree, but probably not long enough for everyone around there. I wouldn't imagine this would be the deciding factor to buy or not to buy a metal roof, but something to consider if you don't want sleepless nights and mad neighbors!

Kent Keith

Fort Worth Home Inspector

Cool Paint Can Tip

I was doing a little painting today and thought I would pass along a little trick that I do to all paint cans that I open. It only takes a minute and saves a lot of aggravation. Who hasn't tried to open a paint can that was previously opened after sitting a long time and the can's lid is glued shut with old paint? All you do is take a large nail and punch holes around the bottom lip of the can about one inch apart. This way, the paint that gets in the can's lip will simply drip back into the can...viola! No more stuck lids!

Kent Keith

Fort Worth Home Inspector

Home Inspection.....It's a Dangerous Job!

I was inspecting a crawlspace of a home in an older neighborhood and while I was crawling around under the bathroom area, I kept feeling something strange under my body......not exactly dirt or a liquid but slippery. To my surprise as I shined my flashlight around me, I realized that I was lying on a thick bed of literally hundreds of double edge razor blades! I carefully rolled off them and took this picture. The ones you can see are the ones that slid down the small hill, there were many more above on the flat area. I have always heard about the slot in the rear of old medicine cabinets that people used to deposit used razor blades, but never ran into this before. There is no telling how many of these blades were in the wall cavity that didn't make their way to the crawlspace floor. I am always careful to suit up with the proper protective clothing with gloves included, but this will prompt me to make sure I get my tetanus shot updated. They say every 10 years, I'm sure it's been longer. When customers ask why I charge extra for pier & beam homes, I mention spiders, snakes, possums and pesticides. Now I can add another danger....razor blades!

Home Inspection....it's a dangerous job, but somebody's gotta do it!

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