NEWS & HOT TIPS:

Hankey & Brown now doing InfraRed Thermal scans:

Hankey & Brown Inspection Service now has InfraRed Thermography capabilities.  This means we can conduct non-invasive investigations of buildings, walls, roofs, and mechanical systems to identify air leaks, missing or inadequate insulation, moisture intrusion and other adverse conditions.  For more information see our Moisture Investigation page.

ASHI Announces the Home Inspection Client Bill of Rights:

The American Society of Home Inspectors® (ASHI) has just announced the adoption of its Clients Bill of Rights.  The 10 point documents is an outgrowth of ASHI's Code of Ethics and ASHI's committment to customer service and leadership in the Home Inspection profession.  Click here to read the Client's Bill of Rights.

Roger Hankey article features in June

2008 ASHI Reporter:

Watch Your Step, a discussion of inspections on stairs and steps is a featured article in the June 2008 ASHI Reporter, the magazine of the American Society of Home Inspectors®.  To read the article click here.

Wet Basements are back!  If your house is suffering from a wet basement, you need to ACT FAST.  Remove wet carpets and wet vac up water quickly.  Experts suggest that wet carpets need to be dry in 24-48 hours in order to reduce the potential for mold growth.   Once you have removed wet materials, contact us to determine the cause of the seepage and have us recommend the most cost effective measures to reduce the chances of a re-occurance.  Click our Wet Basement page for more information.

Remodeled 1948 Minnetonka rambler wins LEED platinum award.

Live Green Live SmartTM  was recently  awarded the US Green Building Council's Platinum Certification Award in the LEED for HomesTM category. Peter Lytle, Exec. Dir. of the project, recently thanked Roger Hankey of Hankey and Brown Inspections for providing the home inspection on the original house prior to the remodel. The house is the first remodeled house to achieve this recognition. Jan. 13, 2008

Roger Hankey (red coat) inspecting the LiveGreenLiveSmart house, with Keith Poets, lead contractor.

Hankey & Brown earns 6th consecutive Angie's List Super Service Award®

Click Super Service award in left column for details. 

Credit card payments now accepted.  Hankey & Brown has adopted the PayPal email payment method.  Invoices (sent to client by email before the inspection) can be paid by credit card through PayPal.  Clients may also pay by check at the time of the inspection.

Tips on recovering from a wet basement:

Quick action is needed to prevent permanent damage to carpet.  If your basement is carpeted and soaked by seepage from recent heavy rains, you need to pull up the carpet within a day or two of being soaked, remove the wet pad, and let the carpet dry.  For more information see a University of Minnesota publication on flood recovery.    We do moisture investigations to determine the cause of wet basement and suggest cost effective preventive measures.  August 28, 2007.

Roger Hankey featured on WCCO-TV I-Team news story. (July 9, 2007)

Roger was shown doing a complete home inspection and discussing how to obtain a qualified home inspector with WCCO-TV consumer reporter Terri Gruca. Click here to see the video.

Corrections & Comment on the video:

Roger is a PAST President of the Heartland Chapter of ASHI. 

According the the State of Wisconsin, Dept. of Regulation & Licensing, there are CURRENTLY 994 licensed home inspectors. (June 12, 2007)

Roger does NOT currently support licensing of home inspectors.  Click here to see a study conducted for the State of Ohio found no significant difference in the performance of home inspectors in regulated vs. unregulated states.    

Click here to see follow up video that ran the next day.    

Inspection reports:

We use many drawings to illustrate concerns and remedies that we report. A typical example of these Carson & Dunlop Illustrated Home drawings is shown below

Properly Maintain your furnace and air conditioner.  

Take time soon to check and/or change your furnace filter.  Also take a minute to check your outdoor unit for central air conditioners (compressor-condensor).  Wash off the outdoor unit if the coils are clogged with dust or cottonwood fuzz.   

Drawing from "The Illustrated Home" by Carson-Dunlop.  

Helpful Drawings included in Hankey Low Cost Safety Device Provided with most new kitchen stoves:

Nearly all new free standing kitchen stoves include an anti-tip bracket that helps prevent injuries if a child were to stand on the oven door.  The photo shows this simple bracket.  The bracket is attached to the floor or wall and holds down the stove by trapping the rear foot of the stove.                

Important Flashing Detail for new construction and re-roofing:

This drawing shows the design and placement of a kickout flashing, used where a sloped roof meets at wall.  This flashing is particularly important on stucco homes.  Lack of a kickout flashing has lead to costly water damage in numerous homes built in the 1990's.

1. Make sure ALL drivers understand that vehicles must NOT run in attached garages, EVEN with overhead doors open. Vehicle exhaust fumes will collect in a garage even with the door open. After the vehicle leaves and the door is closed, these fumes will slowly migrate into the house. The fumes from a cold vehicle engine contain high levels of carbon monoxide.

2. If your kitchen stove has a gas oven, be sure that you either use a range hood VENTED to the OUTSIDE, or open a kitchen window during the first five minutes that the oven is warming up.  This is necessary since all gas ovens make significant amounts of carbon monoxide when the oven burner flame strikes the cool oven surfaces.  After the oven is warm, the carbon monoxide levels nearly always drop to low levels. 

3. Install a CO Experts Low Level carbon monoxide alarm in the house to detect and warn you of low levels of Carbon Monoxide. UL listed alarms available from retail outlets will NOT warn you of low levels of CO. Low levels of CO are particularly harmful for infants, elderly persons, pregnant women, and others with respiratory problems. See www.coexperts.com

4.  See the paragraphs below on moisture, particularly the discussion on excessive condensation.

MAR advises inspections for moisture

The Minnesota Association of REALTORS® sellers property disclosure statement includes the following notice to home buyers:

"If you have a concern about water intrusion or the resulting mold/mildew/fungi growth, you may want to consider having the property inspected for moisture problems before entering into a purchase agreement or as a condition of your purchase agreement.  Such analysis is particularly advisable if you observe staining or musty odors on the property." MN:SPDS-4 8/05) lines 213-217

We specialize in checking for moisture intrustion and utilize and use  Infrared Thermography and/or a Protimeter SurveyMaster moisture meter to aid in locating areas of elevated moisture.  We also conduct moisture intrusion examinations for home owners not involved in real estate transations.  Click here for more information.