Structure Talk

Bill, Tessa, and Reuben do their first-ever remote podcast, where everyone on the team broadcasts from home. The gang discusses changes that COVID-19 has brought to the home inspection world, which includes things such as restricting buyer and seller attendance at the inspection, wiping down surfaces, and even wearing a mask during the inspection. They also discuss the importance of having a support network to get industry news during this time, and what the team at Structure Tech is doing to help the real estate community during this time.

This podcast was recorded on Friday, 4/10/20. For the next remote podcast, Reuben will get himself a new microphone.

Do ceiling fans actually cool down rooms? No! They only cool people. Reuben and Tessa explain how this works, while Bill grumbles about how he still likes running fans all over his house while he's not home. In the sustainable urban core.

The gang also discusses the misconceptions that more insulation is always better, high-efficiency furnaces are always better, and new windows are a smart investment.

We have Dan on for a second podcast because there was just too much content to cover in one episode. We continue on with the discussion of pocket listings, and Dan discusses the pulse of real estate in the Twin Cities market. This episode was recorded earlier in March before our entire world turned into the twilight zone, but there is still a lot of excellent information in this podcast about listing a home during the spring market in Minnesota. Bill also talks about the importance of home inspectors remaining unbiased and neutral with their findings, and Reuben discusses market penetration and tracking sales.

For this episode, we sit down with Minnesota Realtor® Dan Sibinski to talk about the ins and outs of pocket listings. Tessa also shares a frustrating personal story related to pocket listings.

We interview Reuben's dad, Neil Saltzman, on this episode. Neil talks about doing home inspections in a suit and tie, and Reuben and Neil talk about the early history of home inspections. Reuben also shares the best advice that Neil ever gave him related to doing a good home inspection.

We interview Minneapolis Truth-In-Sale of Housing  (TISH) program supervisor Breanna Patsch during this podcast. We discuss the purpose of the Minneapolis TISH program, and how the program has 'teeth'. We also sidetrack into the licensing requirements for TISH evaluators and discuss how difficult the licensing exam is, making the National Home Inspector Exam seem like a cakewalk. We also discuss the purpose of the new Energy Disclosure requirements and talk about some specifics of that program.

At the end of the podcast, we discuss the most common repair items related to Minneapolis TISH evaluations, and Reuben mentions a one-page pdf that gets sent to all Structure Tech clients at the time they book a Minneapolis TISH evaluation. Here's that pdf: https://structuretech1.com/common-tish-repairs-minneapolis.pdf

Related links:

• Minneapolis Time of Sale Energy Disclosure takes effect on January 15th, 2020
• Podcast: Our thoughts on the new Minneapolis Energy Disclosure

For this episode, we answer your questions about houses and home inspections. These include the following:

• Should home inspectors open Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok panels?
• How to deal with ice dams if you don't want to pay a professional to remove them
• How to best find a drain leak with an infrared camera
• Should people be allowed to do work without a license?
• Sagging beam, repair desired; how big of a deal is this?

We also did a video recording for this episode, which can be found here: https://business.facebook.com/MinnesotaHomeInspections/videos/566990100563454/

For part 2, the gang starts out discussing the operation of gravity furnaces, and then discuss forced air heat vs gravity heat. They also discuss ductwork design and the design of heating and cooling systems.  Next, the gang discuss changing out the air in a home, and how older heating systems used to unintentionally change out the air, and what an 80% efficient furnace means, vs a 97% efficient furnace. That brings up the topic of combustion safety, combustion air, and makeup air. That discussion naturally transitions into combustion testing of gas appliances, as well as draft testing at natural-draft water heaters.

Today the gang digs into the pros and cons of old houses vs new houses. We all know that we don't build them like we used to, but is that a bad thing? New houses are more energy-efficient, but they're also less durable. This the result of less drying potential, different building materials, and different building methods. The gang also discusses moisture management, building science, and vapor drive. Tessa also discusses a new "perfect wall" system.

This excellent video on basement insulation methods is also mentioned in the podcast: https://youtu.be/kwn0Vjw_ji0

Here's some information on the Perfect Wall system that Tessa mentions:

• https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/04/f34/12_11150f_Huelman_031517-1400.pdf
• https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/06/f52/11150f_Huelman_050118-1330.pdf

Today, we interview Charles Thayer from All Around. If you listen to the radio here in the Twin Cities, you've surely heard his company's rock-anthem slogan: "We get it done and we do it right! Chya!" Charles explains that while his company is an exterior contractor, he himself is probably the last person you'd want working on your home. He's in the relationship business, and he hires people to do the work on homes.

Charles also discusses the background of his weekly radio show, the All Around Home Improvement Hour. For the final segment of the show, Charles gets into the nitty-gritty details of storm chasing, insurance claims, and we end the show with Charles explaining why two different insurance adjusters might come up with completely different results when looking at the exact same roof that has potential hail damage.

To those in the insurance and storm damage restoration business, this might be old news, but to us home inspectors, we were quite surprised to hear how the process actually works. Charles shared some fantastic insight with us in this episode.