Other Posts By: Gordon Glidden

What is Grading?
We home inspectors tend to talk a lot about grading around the house, and its implications. What is grading? Simply, the grade or grading around your house is the level of the ground. The ground level and how it’s graded is the deciding factor of where storm water will flow.

Positive and Negative Grading

Last week I received a comment on one of my HOME STAR legislation updates, asking what the timeline was for the bill. So I wanted to let everyone  know that today, Thursday, May 6, 2010 the House is scheduled to vote on H.R. 5019, which will authorize $6B for HOME STAR, aka "Cash for Caulkers" (a name, by the way, that I dislike). It has bi-partisan support and should pass, but only time will tell.

On Thursday, April 15, a day after Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act (H.R. 5019) (VIDEO BELOW), the House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved the bipartisan bill by a vote of 30-17. Welch's energy efficiency retrofit initiative would create 170,000 jobs and save homeowners $10 billion dollars on their energy bills in the next decade by providing direct incentives to consumers to install energy-saving measures.

On this past Tuesday, March 24, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment completed markup on the HOME STAR Energy Retrofit Act of 2010. The bill was favorably forwarded by a voice vote to the full committee on Energy and Commerce. From here it goes to the full committee for their consideration. Another small step in a long process. Stay tuned.