As inspectors, our job is to help clients see beyond the paint and plaster, separating serious concerns from harmless imperfections. Some issues signal costly repairs ahead, while others are purely cosmetic and easy to fix.
Painting is one of the simplest and most rewarding home projects you can tackle yourself. With just a few supplies and the right shade, you can completely transform a space, whether you’re brightening it with soft neutrals like white, gray, or tan, or making a bold statement with rich, vibrant hues.
If you’ve found the prospect of designing a gallery wall a bit intimidating in the past, now’s the time to reconsider! We’ve taken the liberty of gathering all of the best tried-and-true strategies to design the gallery wall of your dreams.
In today’s Inspector Insights article, we’re going to key in on one of these old school home features that was once ubiquitous between 1880 and the 1940s: knob and tube wiring.
The human being is known to have five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. While many might consider sight to be the most important sense for people in their everyday lives, scientists actually recognize smell as the “strongest sense.” This is because, as writers like Colleen Walsh at the Harvard Gazette acknowledge, smell is the sense that is most linked with emotion and memory. Have you ever smelled a favorite dish and were instantly transported to a memory of your childhood home or a trip to grandma’s house? The phenomena you’re experiencing is your olfactory senses doing what it does best by reaching through your limbic system (with a quick pit-stop by your amygdala and/or hippocampus) and tossing out one of those cozy core memories. Just as we enjoy these trips down memory lane, smells can also remind us of moments we might rather forget, whether from visiting the home of a frequent smoker, or a friend with a few too many cats. Houses can develop odor for many different reasons, so if you’ve found yours smelling a bit off lately, let’s discuss a few of the more common (and often misdiagnosed) causes. #1: Take Out the TrashThe first
Between wearing green, spotting four leaf clovers, and being surrounded by little men with red beards, St. Patrick’s Day is full of lighthearted and strange traditions for families and friends to enjoy. Everybody can always use a little extra luck in their lives, and throughout the years, families have come up with plenty of unique traditions to usher in some good fortune as they move into their new homes. In the spirit of the season, let’s take a look at some of these superstitions to make your next move jinx-free! Lay a Positive Foundation Depending on how early in the process people begin to interact with their new home, many believe in writing positive messages on the frames of their houses and behind the drywall, and even scattering coins in the foundation in hopes that good, fortunate days are ahead. These traditions may be traced all the way back to “foundation deposits,” where groups in ancient Egypt and Sudan buried sacrificed animals, valuable tools, and pottery underneath cornerstones of important buildings in blessing rituals (according to historians at the Egyptian Museum in Manchester). Today, items that new homeowners place within their foundation and in their framing are a bit more
Everyone has run into mold from time to time in their bathrooms, in their kitchens, or around leaking appliances. While mold can actually come in many different colors and varieties, the dark fuzzy spots that crop up inside homes are usually easy to take care of without much issue, especially when addressed quickly. However, when left unaddressed, mold can damage and permanently discolor materials that they’ve attached to, as well as negatively impact the health of anyone in the home. In fact, according to healthcare professionals over on Healthline, overexposure to mold can lead to infection, lung inflammation, and other symptoms. Mold thrives in dark, moist, and warm environments, which means that issues in certain lesser trafficked areas of the home can easily get out of hand. If you experience any of the following, schedule a mold inspection to find the root of the problem: Homeowners can keep mold at bay by reducing humidity in their homes, maintaining good ventilation, and cleaning spills quickly. In addition, check and clean out these areas to cover some of mold’s best hiding spots inside the home: Contact your local NPI home inspector to schedule a mold inspection!
When discovering that any of your home’s key systems aren’t functioning as they are supposed to, some signs of damage or failure are more obvious than others. With that said, homes constantly signal to their homeowners that issues are cropping up just beneath the surface. Most people, unfortunately, are unaware of these common signs and what they mean. Homes are designed to satisfy a large number of needs in order to function as they should, but one force that architects constantly battle while designing homes is water. Water intrusion can spread rapidly to other home systems, damaging high-ticket appliances and electronics while also potentially leading to health problems for families. Plumbing leaks are certainly a major issue for homeowners, but you may not want to wait for a pipe to burst in order to take action. Instead, keep an eye out for these unconventional signs that your home is having plumbing problems! 1. Your Lawn is Too Green, Too Thick, and Too WetIt may be surprising for some, but one way to discover plumbing issues within a home is actually through looking at its exterior landscaping. Healthy lawns should grow evenly, but homes can spring leaks in their drainage systems,
A more recent technology that’s been making its rounds by disrupting and inspiring innovations across industries is 3D printing. Glasses, shoes, car parts, prosthetics, and movie props are all being 3D-printed today, and the speculation of how this technology might change people’s everyday lives seems to be at an all-time high. With the speed and ease that common items can be printed, some have started to think even bigger. Enter businesses like Texas-based ICON, Denmark’s COBOD, and Shanghai’s Winsun, who all believe that 3D printing is the future of home manufacturing. Citing shockingly quick construction times, cheaper costs, and little required human oversight, many believe that 3D-printed homes becoming the norm is less of an “if,” and more of a “when.” So, if you’re curious to find out what your future home will look like, let’s discuss the process of 3D-printed homes! What Are 3D-Printed Homes?3D printing homes is actually quite similar to the process used when 3D printing other mundane items. Also known as “additive manufacturing,” 3D printing involves a machine printer containing a robotic arm dispenser, a chosen material to use in the item creation (usually plastic for most things unrelated to building construction), and a blueprint design
October has officially arrived and, as we march closer and closer to the spookiest day of the year, it’s natural for our minds to focus in on the strange and obscure. If this was your first year in your new home, you may have noticed some of its more interesting quirks or “features.” Some houses seem to groan when the wind hits them just right, others might creak whenever the mood is right. These are just “house noises” that you’re slowly growing accustomed to…right? Many odd occurrences in the home can be explained away with a little bit of investigation, but when attempts at rationality come up short, it can be difficult to brush off the unexplained. As we all know, the Halloween season is best known as one time each year that the barrier between the material world and the spiritual world is its thinnest. In other words, if you have your suspicions that your house just might be haunted, you better figure it out now. To aid you in your investigation, we’ve placed our best paranormal researchers on the job to identify the surefire evidence that proves your house is haunted. Reader beware: only proceed if you want
As inspectors, our job is to help clients see beyond the paint and plaster, separating serious concerns from harmless imperfections. Some issues signal costly repairs ahead, while others are purely cosmetic and easy to fix.
Painting is one of the simplest and most rewarding home projects you can tackle yourself. With just a few supplies and the right shade, you can completely transform a space, whether you’re brightening it with soft neutrals like white, gray, or tan, or making a bold statement with rich, vibrant hues.
If you’ve found the prospect of designing a gallery wall a bit intimidating in the past, now’s the time to reconsider! We’ve taken the liberty of gathering all of the best tried-and-true strategies to design the gallery wall of your dreams.
In today’s Inspector Insights article, we’re going to key in on one of these old school home features that was once ubiquitous between 1880 and the 1940s: knob and tube wiring.
The human being is known to have five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. While many might consider sight to be the most important sense for people in their everyday lives, scientists actually recognize smell as the “strongest sense.” This is because, as writers like Colleen Walsh at the Harvard Gazette acknowledge, smell is the sense that is most linked with emotion and memory. Have you ever smelled a favorite dish and were instantly transported to a memory of your childhood home or a trip to grandma’s house? The phenomena you’re experiencing is your olfactory senses doing what it does best by reaching through your limbic system (with a quick pit-stop by your amygdala and/or hippocampus) and tossing out one of those cozy core memories. Just as we enjoy these trips down memory lane, smells can also remind us of moments we might rather forget, whether from visiting the home of a frequent smoker, or a friend with a few too many cats. Houses can develop odor for many different reasons, so if you’ve found yours smelling a bit off lately, let’s discuss a few of the more common (and often misdiagnosed) causes. #1: Take Out the TrashThe first
Between wearing green, spotting four leaf clovers, and being surrounded by little men with red beards, St. Patrick’s Day is full of lighthearted and strange traditions for families and friends to enjoy. Everybody can always use a little extra luck in their lives, and throughout the years, families have come up with plenty of unique traditions to usher in some good fortune as they move into their new homes. In the spirit of the season, let’s take a look at some of these superstitions to make your next move jinx-free! Lay a Positive Foundation Depending on how early in the process people begin to interact with their new home, many believe in writing positive messages on the frames of their houses and behind the drywall, and even scattering coins in the foundation in hopes that good, fortunate days are ahead. These traditions may be traced all the way back to “foundation deposits,” where groups in ancient Egypt and Sudan buried sacrificed animals, valuable tools, and pottery underneath cornerstones of important buildings in blessing rituals (according to historians at the Egyptian Museum in Manchester). Today, items that new homeowners place within their foundation and in their framing are a bit more
Everyone has run into mold from time to time in their bathrooms, in their kitchens, or around leaking appliances. While mold can actually come in many different colors and varieties, the dark fuzzy spots that crop up inside homes are usually easy to take care of without much issue, especially when addressed quickly. However, when left unaddressed, mold can damage and permanently discolor materials that they’ve attached to, as well as negatively impact the health of anyone in the home. In fact, according to healthcare professionals over on Healthline, overexposure to mold can lead to infection, lung inflammation, and other symptoms. Mold thrives in dark, moist, and warm environments, which means that issues in certain lesser trafficked areas of the home can easily get out of hand. If you experience any of the following, schedule a mold inspection to find the root of the problem: Homeowners can keep mold at bay by reducing humidity in their homes, maintaining good ventilation, and cleaning spills quickly. In addition, check and clean out these areas to cover some of mold’s best hiding spots inside the home: Contact your local NPI home inspector to schedule a mold inspection!
When discovering that any of your home’s key systems aren’t functioning as they are supposed to, some signs of damage or failure are more obvious than others. With that said, homes constantly signal to their homeowners that issues are cropping up just beneath the surface. Most people, unfortunately, are unaware of these common signs and what they mean. Homes are designed to satisfy a large number of needs in order to function as they should, but one force that architects constantly battle while designing homes is water. Water intrusion can spread rapidly to other home systems, damaging high-ticket appliances and electronics while also potentially leading to health problems for families. Plumbing leaks are certainly a major issue for homeowners, but you may not want to wait for a pipe to burst in order to take action. Instead, keep an eye out for these unconventional signs that your home is having plumbing problems! 1. Your Lawn is Too Green, Too Thick, and Too WetIt may be surprising for some, but one way to discover plumbing issues within a home is actually through looking at its exterior landscaping. Healthy lawns should grow evenly, but homes can spring leaks in their drainage systems,
A more recent technology that’s been making its rounds by disrupting and inspiring innovations across industries is 3D printing. Glasses, shoes, car parts, prosthetics, and movie props are all being 3D-printed today, and the speculation of how this technology might change people’s everyday lives seems to be at an all-time high. With the speed and ease that common items can be printed, some have started to think even bigger. Enter businesses like Texas-based ICON, Denmark’s COBOD, and Shanghai’s Winsun, who all believe that 3D printing is the future of home manufacturing. Citing shockingly quick construction times, cheaper costs, and little required human oversight, many believe that 3D-printed homes becoming the norm is less of an “if,” and more of a “when.” So, if you’re curious to find out what your future home will look like, let’s discuss the process of 3D-printed homes! What Are 3D-Printed Homes?3D printing homes is actually quite similar to the process used when 3D printing other mundane items. Also known as “additive manufacturing,” 3D printing involves a machine printer containing a robotic arm dispenser, a chosen material to use in the item creation (usually plastic for most things unrelated to building construction), and a blueprint design
October has officially arrived and, as we march closer and closer to the spookiest day of the year, it’s natural for our minds to focus in on the strange and obscure. If this was your first year in your new home, you may have noticed some of its more interesting quirks or “features.” Some houses seem to groan when the wind hits them just right, others might creak whenever the mood is right. These are just “house noises” that you’re slowly growing accustomed to…right? Many odd occurrences in the home can be explained away with a little bit of investigation, but when attempts at rationality come up short, it can be difficult to brush off the unexplained. As we all know, the Halloween season is best known as one time each year that the barrier between the material world and the spiritual world is its thinnest. In other words, if you have your suspicions that your house just might be haunted, you better figure it out now. To aid you in your investigation, we’ve placed our best paranormal researchers on the job to identify the surefire evidence that proves your house is haunted. Reader beware: only proceed if you want
