Topic: Technical Jargon

Tuesday was Groundhog Day, and guess what?! Six more weeks of winter. Oh well! I guess that means it's not too late to finish up our talk about winterization!

In an earlier post My House is Winterized! What is Winterization? I described what winterization is. Today, as promised, I thought I'd talk about what winterization means to an inspector--what an inspector mentally goes through when he/she arrives at a house and sees the "Winterized" sticker all over the place. 

Sometimes what we don't know about an aspect of our home or how something works in our home can really complicate a situation. Knowledge really is power, and having it--especially when it comes to our home--can ultimately save money, time, and aggravation. I think everyone can relate to that. Has anyone ever gone ahead and began repairing something in your home or making a decision about something, only in hindsight to realize that you should have read up on it first? Or worse, that you did the complete opposite of what you now know was right--yikes! We've all been there.

Here is the first installment of the five-part series, The Top five Failed Building Practices:

The good old days weren't always so great for home construction. Some products have become standards, like copper electrical wire, asphalt roof shingles and poured concrete foundations. But others that were once widely used have proven to be much less successful, and sometimes hazardous.

Here are what many in the industry consider the top five failed building practices:

First of all, I hear people say that "vinyl siding is a great maintenance-free siding". There really is no such thing. If you have to so much as just hose it down once in a while, it's not maintenance free. That being said, one of the more intriguing issues I have come up against when looking at a home with vinyl siding is heat damage. Sometimes it's as simple as seeing the gas or charcoal grill sitting up against the house and just knowing what the damaged is caused by. But lately, I have been seeing more and more strange situations.