Fun home inspection photos from 2016

It's almost time for my annual "Top 20 Home Inspection Photos" blog post, but I always have so many great photos to choose from that it's a shame to not share some of these other photos from the past year. For this post, I've shared some of our most popular photos that we've shared on our Facebook page that didn't make the final cut. These photos don't all fall into the category of home inspection defect; some are simply interesting photos or photos that made us smile. Some of these photos also came from other home inspectors.

Rubber washing machine hose about to burst

Beam Stiffeners - those metal rods help to stiffen this wood beam. Interesting detail, not a problem.

New basement carpet... mostly.

Minnesota crawl space - that's how we roll. Insulated walls, concrete floor, plenty of headroom, and a mechanic's creeper for effortless navigation.

"Here's Johnny!" - I know this looks fake, but it's not. This is our best "accidentally creepy" photo of the year.

Creepy Photo of the Year - If we have an accidentally creepy photo, we must also have an intentionally creepy photo. This is that.

"It's Alive!" - this is a combination boiler, gravity furnace, and forced air furnace in one.

Tight Quarters - some people complain about not being able to open the fridge and the dishwasher at the same time. To those people, we say "could be worse."

Moo. A home inspector in Connecticut shared this photo of how to hide two fuel oil tanks. Nobody will ever know...

Must be a safe neighborhood, because that's the button for the garage door opener mounted outside the door.

How it's supposed to be done - The siding around this stairway was installed almost perfectly. We had several comments on our Facebook page from people who felt that this wasn't the most attractive installation, but there's really no other way to do it right. I personally thought it looked good.

Melted Vinyl Siding - The photo below is courtesy of Boston home inspector Donald Lovering, and is the best example of melted vinyl siding from reflected sunlight that I've ever seen.

Everyone loves neat work.

More neat work, same house.

Fire Grenade - we found several of these old fire grenades in the attic of a large, old house in Edina. It's a glass bulb filled with carbon tetrachloride, and was supposed to be thrown at the base of a fire to help put it out. They were withdrawn in the 1950s because the chemical is toxic, and heat from fires can apparently turn the chemical into phosgene gas.

This retaining wall was shot. Someone got the shaft.

Sprinkler on the Roof - the most common guess on our Facebook page was that this was someone's home-made evaporative cooler for the garage.

Salt blocks in water softener - courtesy of another home inspector here in Minnesota, Lanny Freng of InspectionWorx. These salt blocks are apparently made for water softeners, and they apparently work, but it still struck us as odd.

Six handrails or one guard? Not a bad idea. A handrail for every height.

Good to know.

Can you have too many solar tubes? No, you can't. Solar tubes rock.

What. Is. That? Scroll down to see the explanation.

Upon first glance, the T&P discharge tubing for this water heater looks to be completely crazy, unsafe, and nonsensical... but not so fast.

A home inspector in San Jose, CA shared this photo with us. This installation was actually based on water heater installation requirements published by the city of Palo Alto.

When water heaters are installed in basements or crawlspaces, this city allows the T&P discharge tube to be plumbed UP and out of the house, provided there is 3/8" refrigeration tubing spiraled to the floor or to a drain. Here's the diagram from those installation instructions showing how it's supposed to work:

It still seems crazy to us, and the home inspector who took this photo says there was actually no discharge tubing going up and out, so this is still wrong. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see how people do things in other parts of the country. It's also a helpful reminder that just because something looks crazy and unusual doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong.

Look for our "Top 20" blog post in the near future; we're having our website modified / redone to make it load faster, and I don't want to publish that blog post until the coding is complete.

Related Post: Top feel-good home inspection pics from 2014

Author: Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections

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