Promote Your ASHI Professionalism

Because ASHI is the most established and recognized name in the home inspection industry, your membership in ASHI and ASHI Georgia provides you with the important benefit of recognition from real estate professionals and knowledgeable homebuyers.
Your membership in ASHI is an indication that you are a professional and that you hold yourself to a higher standard of practice and that you adhere to a strong code of ethics.  To get the most from your ASHI membership, here are some simple things that you can do to promote your ASHI professionalism.

Do something good for your family, your pocketbook, and the environment. Make your home a little greener. A few simple changes in your house can go a long way to combat both high energy bills and global warming. To be green, you've got to be efficient.

1. Use Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

Replace your incandescent light bulbs (the cheap ones you probably got at the grocery store) with ENERGY STAR® qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). By replacing even your five most frequently used light bulbs, you'll save $100 per year.  If every family in the U.S.A. did this, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by one trillion pounds--there are 12 zeros in a trillion!

Garage Inspections and the ASHI Standards

Have you thought about your routine and time you spend inspecting garages lately?  I recently recognized that I spend a disproportionate amount of time inspecting garages.  All of us check operation of garage doors, safety stops, wall separations, GFCI compliance, electrical receptacles, and the floor slab.  If you haven’t reviewed the ASHI Standards of Practice lately, they read “inspectors shall inspect:  garage doors and garage door operators.”  I encourage you to review your own standards and learn more by reading IRC Section 309, UL 325, and visiting dasma.com (Door and Access Systems Manufacturers Association).

 In a typical garage inspection we need to be testing the operation of the garage door.  A garage door is probably the largest moving part in a home and is typically used every day. Over time, parts can wear out and break, creating potential safety problems.  It’s important to examine the cables, spring assemblies, and other hardware.  Weak or broken springs could result in an open door falling rapidly and/or unexpectedly.  Look at emergency release handles (“quick-release”) and make sure they are installed at six feet above the garage floor.  More importantly, carefully examine and test automatic openers when they are present.  Obviously, verifying proper operation of safety stops and automatic reverse features is critical.  Why?  Between March 1982 and November 1996, there were 62 deaths and 49 injuries to children under 15 years of age associated with automatic garage doors and garage door openers.[i]

One would think that homes are built to be watertight. In theory, they are supposed to be, but in the real world, most homes are rarely water tight.   Water intrusion in a home is a result of two reasons.  The first being improper control of roof water.  Local building codes in Georgia require roof drainage in areas where expansive or collapsible soils are known to exist.  The code says: “All dwellings shall have a controlled method of water disposal from the roof that will collect and discharge all roof drainage to the ground surface at least 5 feet from the foundation walls or to an approved drainage system.”  In other words, rain water should be removed from the surface of the roof and delivered to a location on the ground five feet away from the foundation.   Sounds easy, so why is it such a big problem?