DEAR BARRY: I don’t understand how a home inspector who is not an electrician can evaluate an electrical system; who is not a plumber can evaluate a plumbing system; who is not an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) contractor can evaluate a furnace. Can you explain? — John

DEAR JOHN: This is a great question, and there is an analogous question that answers it clearly. How can a family doctor who is not a cardiologist diagnose your heart; who is not an orthopedist determine the condition of your joints; who is not a gastroenterologist evaluate your digestive system?

The answer in any of these cases is that family doctors and home inspectors know the basics of the systems they are inspecting, without being specialists. Here are some examples that relate to home inspection.

A home inspector may not have the electrical knowledge of a qualified electrician. However, if the inspector is competent, he can inspect a service panel for overfusing; double tapping; bundled ground wires; inadequate bonding of ground wires; combined ground and neutral wires in subpanels; bonding of neutral buses in subpanels; evidence of overheated wires; aluminum wire issues; corrosion; physical damage; and more.

Visible wiring can be checked for unprotected wires, damaged or detached conduits, exposed splices, terminated wire ends, damaged insulation, open junction boxes, inadequate weatherproofing, and more.

Outlets are routinely tested for open grounds, reverse polarity, lack of ground-fault protection, defective ground-fault devices, lack of arc-fault protection, hazardous locations, physical damage, and more.

When defects are found, home inspectors recommend further evaluation or repairs, just as a family doctor recommends a cardiologist when heart-related symptoms are observed.

A home inspector may not have the plumbing knowledge of a qualified plumber. However, a competent inspector checks waste and water supply piping for corrosion, physical damage, leaking, approved materials, correct sizing, standard connections, supply-waste cross connections, lack of dielectric fittings, and compliance with numerous other plumbing standards.

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Your clothes dryer is one of the hardest-working appliances in your home. It’s also a fairly basic appliance in how it operates, and if it’s properly vented and maintained, it should give you years, even decades, of reliable service.

But “properly vented and maintained” is the catch. Because a dryer is such a simple appliance to install and operate, many people don’t give it much thought. They set it in place, plug it in, vent it through that pipe coming up out of the floor — typically with the wrong type of vent hose — then forget about it. And there it sits, slowly degrading in performance, using up increasingly greater and greater amounts of energy, and becoming a bigger fire hazard with each passing day!

Dryer operation 101

When you put in wet clothes and activate a drying cycle, here’s what happens: A fan is activated to draw air into the dryer through the front. The air is heated by a heating element, then passed through the drum, which is rotating to circulate both the clothes and the air. The hot air draws moisture from the clothes, and is then directed through the dryer’s door and through a lint screen. A fan pushes the now moisture-laden air into a duct that exits through the back of the dryer.

The two important things for you to know in all that is that the air in your dryer is both extremely moist and also — despite the lint trap — still full of fine lint. If you don’t handle that air and that lint properly, it’s inevitably going to lead to problems.

Lint that builds up in the dryer and in the vent pipes will retain moisture. Now every time your dryer operates, it has to work harder and harder to dry the clothes, and to push the wet air past the wet lint in the lines. That lengthens the time your clothes takes to dry, which, plain and simple, is throwing away your hard-earned money. It also shortens the life of your dryer. Besides that, the moisture in the lines is a breeding ground for mold, and it prevents your clothes from being and smelling completely clean. Finally, lint further along the lines that dries out is extremely flammable, and is one of the leading causes of house fires.

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Tom Ritter Orchids

Easy to find, just east of Kissimmee in the 2400 block of Neptune Road, Tom Ritter Orchids produces some of the highest quality and unique orchids in all of Florida.  Drop in and see for yourself.  Operating hours are 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM daily. 

Certainly one of the finest gifts to give for a real surprise…

The sun is peeking out and the plants are starting to blossom, so it must be about time for spring chores again. Here’s my annual spring checklist of important issues to tend to around the house.

1. Roofing repairs: If you suspect winter storms may have damaged your roof, it needs to be inspected. (If you’re not comfortable with the height or steepness of your roof, hire a licensed roofing contractor for the inspection.) Look for missing or loose shingles, including ridge-cap shingles.

Examine the condition of the flashings around chimneys, flue pipes, vent caps, and anyplace where the roof and walls intersect. Look for overhanging trees that could damage the roof in a wind storm, as well as buildups of leaves and other debris.

If you have roof damage in a number of areas, or if older shingles makes patching impractical, consider having the entire roof redone. Also, remember that if the shingles have been damaged by wind or by impact from falling tree limbs, the damage may be covered by your homeowners insurance.

2. Check gutters and downspouts: Look for areas where the fasteners may have pulled loose, and for any sags in the gutter run. Also, check for water stains that may indicate joints that have worked loose and are leaking. Clean leaves and debris to be ready for spring and summer rains.

3. Fences and gates: Fence posts are especially susceptible to groundwater saturation, and will loosen up and tilt if the soil around them gets soaked too deeply. Check fence posts in various areas by wiggling them to see how solidly embedded they are.

If any are loose, wait until the surrounding soil has dried out, then excavate around the bottom of the posts and pour additional concrete to stabilize them. Replace any posts that have rotted.

4. Clear yard debris: Inspect landscaping for damage, especially trees. If you see any cracked, leaning or otherwise dangerous conditions with any of your trees, have a licensed, insured tree company inspect and trim or remove them as needed.

Clean up leaves, needles, small limbs and other material that has accumulated. Do any spring pruning that’s necessary. Remove and dispose of all dead plant material so it won’t become a fire hazard as it dries.

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Every year, somebody publishes a list of which conventional home improvements will give you the best (or the worst) return on your remodeling investment.

Remodel a bathroom. Replace your siding. Don’t build a swimming pool. Paint everything neutral colors.

Sit up straight. Get a haircut. Call your mother.

If return on investment (ROI) is why you bought a home, or why you’re remodeling one, you can stop reading now. Because the rest of this article isn’t for you.

Three, two, one … still here?

You invest in your home to improve livability first, not value. If you get more value in the process, consider it a bonus, but don’t make ROI your prime directive.

Otherwise, you’ll end up like the potential client who came into my office a few years ago with a three-page, single-spaced typewritten (as in made with a “typewriter”) list of things he wanted in his house.

His list included this line: “A large dining room, near the kitchen. Although we don’t need or want a dining room.” Why would he want to build a room he didn’t need?

Because he’s thinking of things to make the house valuable, instead of things to make it livable.

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A Morning View

Virtually every subdivision has one, and in many cases a number of these: a retention pond.  Properly taken care of, or left alone, they can be full of bio-diversity.  This one is full of fish, frogs, turtles and even a small black inquisitive otter.

Habitat restoration is the key for most of these ponds to take on a similar appearance of this nature.  With commitment, care, and persistence it is possible though.

Six years after the market peaked in 2006 and prices started to decline, many sellers are still in denial about the current market value of their homes. It’s difficult for most sellers to accept the reality of today’s home-sale market, whether they bought at or near the peak and will lose money selling today, or bought decades ago but are still stuck at 2006 prices.

An Oakland, Calif., homeowner recently remarked that she was aware that home prices had dropped quite a bit over the last five years. But she felt that her home hadn’t lost any value.

It’s hard for homeowners to divorce themselves emotionally from a home they’ve enjoyed. But this is what sellers need to do so that they can make rational decisions about a list price that will actually result in a sale.

This decision should be based on listings that have sold in your area that could be considered somewhat comparable to your home. Some sellers go to open houses to evaluate the competition. If you’re still emotionally wrapped up in your home, the exercise can be futile. You return home feeling that the other homes aren’t as good as yours.

Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. This is easier for sellers who are also buying in this market. They know what it’s like to want to make sure they’re getting a good deal. Your house needs to be listed at a price that is enticing to buyers because it represents a good value. In most areas, buyers are buying in a market knowing that prices may continue to decline before the market fully recovers.

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One of the biggest myths in the real estate industry is that it is cheaper to rent than to buy. In 71 percent of the cities in the U.S., owning is now currently cheaper than renting.

In 2011, 1.4 million new households entered the rental market due to foreclosures and demographics — i.e., the 80 million members of Gen Y are at their prime time for starting new careers, getting married and having kids. At the same time, the number of new homes being built has dropped substantially. As a result, the demand for rental properties has skyrocketed.

Many experts are predicting that rent increases will run as high as 5 to 10 percent per year over the next five years.

What can you do to help persuade today’s renters to become buyers?

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CORTLAND WOODS

Lennar new home sales continue to do well as can be seen by a line of new homes coming to completion in this phase of Providence.