Safe Harbor Inspections Inc

Long Island home inspections and termites

jimruppert — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:32:05 +0000

Make no mistake about it, there are a lot of termites on Long Island. As we are doing home inspections on Long Island, termites are discovered in approximately 35% of the homes. The species of termites that are found on Long Island are called subterranean termites. Fortunately, subterranean termites cause damage fairly slowly. However, over a long period of time, subterranean termites can cause very substantial damage. Sometimes during our Long Island home inspections, signs of termites are discovered but damage is very minimal. When damage is very minimal, repairs aren’t even necessary in many cases. But, in some cases substantial repairs are needed in order to ensure the stability of the home. On Long Island, Termites usually start where the wood first comes into contact with the foundation. This is typically what is called the sill plate. Termites also often attack the floor joists and main girder’s. Sometimes the damage is so substantial that a screwdriver can easily be pushed through the floor joist or a main girder. Obviously, in these cases repairs are needed. In addition, as we do our home inspections on Long Island termite treatment is often recommended. If there are any signs of termites we recommend termite treatment unless there is a current termite guarantee on the property. As we perform our home inspections on Long Island, we find that most real estate attorneys insist on a termite guarantee provided by the seller. Usually a termite guarantee requires termite treatment on the entire home in order to be sure that termite activity is stopped.

Whats wrong with this picture

jimruppert — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:09:24 +0000

Long Island Home Inspection results

Don’t try this at home – the value of GFCI outlets

jimruppert — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:35:19 +0000

Don’t try this at home – Click Here for a demonstration of a GFCI electrical outlet

Important electrical safety device

GFCI’S (Ground fault circuit interrupters)

Ground fault circuit interrupters are awesome electrical safety devices. They stop the flow of electricity when the “see” a flow of electricity to ground. What does this mean to someone getting a Long Island Home Inspection?

Let’s say you are washing the dishes and a coffee pot (plugged in) falls into the water. Your hands are also in the water! You get an electrical shock – not good! However, if the coffee pot was plugged into a GFCI it will shut itself off immediately so you don’t get electrocuted! They should be in all exterior, kitchen, bathroom, basement and kitchen outlets. Recommended for older homes andrequired in new construction.

If we were doing a Huntington Home Inspection we would make the appropriate recommendations for your home safety.

What’s hot, what’s not

jimruppert — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:53:00 +0000

3 minute Video about sellers inspections – click here

jimruppert — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:39:49 +0000

Sellers inspections are extremely beneficial for the seller. However, it is a complex subject and not easy to explain. We created some text and hired a professional to quickly and effectively explain the benefits of sellers inspections. We hope this … Continue reading →

Video – click here: Never throw water on an oil fire

jimruppert — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:59:10 +0000

This is a dramatic video (30-second, very short) about how to deal with a common kitchen fire …. oil in a frying pan.

Read the following Introduction, then watch the show ….

At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with a deep fat fryer set on the fire field. An instructor would don a fire suit and using an 8 oz cup at the end of a 10-foot pole to toss water onto the grease fire.

The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. On the open field, it became a thirty foot high fireball that resembled a nuclear blast. Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire ball hits the ceiling and fills the entire room.

Also, do not throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One cup of either creates the explosive force of two sticks of dynamite.

Tell your whole family about this video.Or better yet, send this to them.

Going Green – while saving money and energy

jimruppert — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:55:47 +0000

The most effective means for people to reduce energy costs in their home is very simple – seal the attic access door. Just a ¼ inch gap around the perimeter of your attic drop-down steps can leak an amazing 100 cubic feet per minute. That’s a lot of air that you paid dearly to heat or cool. You can’t see it, but it is happening. That’s a lot of money going out into the atmosphere!!! What makes it worse is the fact that every cubic foot of air that leaks into your attic must get replaced. All of this replacement air has to get heated or cooled, adding to your energy costs! If you want to see some simple approaches to solving this problem click on this link (or copy and paste into your browser) to the US Department of Energy suggestion sheet:

http://www.earthcrafthouse.com/documents/factsheets/AA-Atticaccess%2000-768.pdf

Programmable Thermostats – reduce your carbon footprint

jimruppert — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:15:34 +0000

Wanna go Green? Home energy costs getting you down? Take the time to adjust your programmable thermostat. It can save you 10% on your heating/cooling bills. Programmable thermostats enable you to set the temperature down while you are away for the day, turn it back up for when you get home, then back down when you go to bed. All this is automatic, and it saves you significant dollars while reducing your carbon footprint!

Client testimonials

jimruppert — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:05:05 +0000

We thought you should know what your referred clients are saying about Safe Harbor Inspections…

Everytime we send out one of our inspection reports there is an opportunity for our clients to provide a score on overall satisfaction and a short tesitmonial. Our overall score is 9.5 for the last 3 years (on a scale of 1-10), and here are some of the comments we recieved since the beginning of this month:

Gauge #: 29507 (Buyer/Seller) mikehuseby@aol.com Feb 18, 2011 10:16 AM
Rating: 10
Jim and his team responded in an extremely prompt and professional manner in a situation where it was critical from a time-sensitivity perspective that they were able to do so. His work was thorough and the report prioritized the areas we really needed to focus on to feel comfortable with the prospective purchase. We would recommend him highly based on our recent personal experience.

Gauge #: 29179 (Buyer/Seller) dr.kzafar@gmail.com Feb 13, 2011 7:30 PM
Rating: 10
Thank you James for all your help.

Gauge #: 29085 (Buyer/Seller) paulnj97@aol.com Feb 11, 2011 3:40 PM
Rating: 10

Gauge #: 28923 (Buyer/Seller) cagny@mac.com Feb 9, 2011 1:41 PM
Rating: 10
Super professional and thorough. We were extremely pleased with his service and attention to detail!

Gauge #: 28819 (Buyer/Seller) nick.deelia@hotmail.com Feb 8, 2011 9:04 AM
Rating: 10
Thanks so much you rock!!!

Gauge #: 28650 (Buyer/Seller) lsalerno30@yahoo.com Feb 5, 2011 9:57 AM
Rating: 10
James was patient and giving of his time to explain in great detail the contents of his inspection. I was able to follow his pace of explanation without feeling like he was rushing me or annoyed by the questions I was asking. James made my decision to purchase the home even that more convicing to me based on his care to thought and detail of the 1910 home inpection.

Using car jacks in the crawl space

jimruppert — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:43:06 +0000

It’s amazing what you can see in crawl spaces. It seems like people feel that no one will ever go into the crawl space after they’re done with working their “magic”. It’s usually, the homeowner trying to solidify the floor above by installing pieces of wood, bricks, blocks and even car jacks as can be seen in this photo. As you can probably guess, a car jack uses hydraulic fluid to raise its piston. That is hardly a permanent solution, and can even be dangerous if an internal valve in the car jacks fails.

Columns that support houses should in turn he supported by a “footing”. A footing is a solid piece of concrete going down 3 feet into the ground in order to avoid the potential for movement as a result of the freeze thaw cycle. Then, a steel or wood column is permanently attached to the footing and then attached to the beam that it is intended to support. This is a very strong and permanent support for the house. As you can imagine, it is a lot stronger than a car jack!