ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Home Safety Inspection

Lamp, I didn't think you were a H-I. If I did I would have said so.

You have to admit, the line:
"make sure it meets the code standards."
...could be taken more than one way.

Like I said, it's home inspectors I have a problem with, not real electricians or tradesman doing inspections of the systems they know in depth.

Speedy,
Sorry for the misunderstanding. When I first read your post, it seemed like you were lumping me in with a bunch of incompetant H-I's and knowing how you feel about them, I felt a little insulted.
My mistake.
I know of a few home inspectors that make a very tidy living without being fluent in any construction related field and I have to admit, it bothers me too.
That being said, I didn't mean to jump down your throat if that's how I came off.
Can we still be friends?

IMO you should get a home inspection done by a reputable company as well as using an electrician of your choosing. I once went on a a-c installation and found the service wire coming into the service disconnect undersized and a potential hazard. Since you have to fix or replace whatever the home inspector might miss, (after closing on the house) you would be served by an inspection by people that could catch something and as someone else said, use as a way to lower, or have them make the repairs.

I think electricians and other trades confuse home inspectors and code inspectors. The home inspector is only pointing out things that will piss you off later. Safety as related to codes, is really not in their job description or training.
In Florida anyone with a county occupational license can be a home inspector. Contractors and code inspectors are state licensed (tests, experience requirements, CEUs and state oversight).
Different thing

gfretwell, good point In some states Home Inspectors require little of no training, In my state inspectors are state licensed, and test for Lic., there are also experience requirements, they have CEU's to re-license and consumer affairs does the state oversight, so all home inspectors are not the same, The problem with having an EC come in to do an inspection, is he has an intrest in finding work, not a good thing for the consumer.

Where I live (BC, Canada), we as electrical contractors are not allowed to perform electrical inspections. The only one who can do an official electrical inspection is the electrical inspector himself. I will however, do an "evaluation" of the wiring. But as LK states, as a contractor my interest is finding work, so that could be considered a conflict of interest.

On a heritage home we recently re-wired, the home inspector missed many things that could have resulted in the new owner to back out of the sale, had he caught them and put them on paper. For instance, only 1 out of 3 elements on the electric furnace worked (other 2 had burnt off wires), and only 10% of the breakers for lighting and receptacles were sized properly....the rest were 30 amps.

A home inspector here makes approx. $300 to $400 for an inspection that takes about 4 to 5 hours to complete. That is a pretty good hourly rate, and for that kind of money I would expect more thorough training of the inspector as well as a more thorough inspection. In my opinion, catching a few ungrounded or reversed-polarity receptacles just doesn't cut it.