Building Defects List & Home Inspection Education
Curriculum Recommendations
POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about what a home inspector needs to know. Home inspection training and education curriculum recommendations
Home inspection education, curriculums & defects lists: this article series, beginning here, provides lists of common building defects and basic defect knowledge that also outline recommended curriculum content for home inspector education.
The building defects and inspection points listed in these articles also guide homeowners and home buyers to building areas that merit careful attention and often point areas of safety concern or important maintenance and repair tasks.
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- Daniel Friedman, Publisher/Editor/Author - See WHO ARE WE?
Home Inspection Education Curriculum
GOAL - To develop core competencies required to complete a typical home inspection in compliance with Nationally recognized Standards of Practice. Refs 1, 2
Watch out: these inspection lists do not list all possible defects for the systems discussed, and not all home or building inspectors will examine all of the items listed here.
Article Contents
BASIC CURRICULUMS for Home Inspection Education - BUILDING DEFECTS LISTS
ADVANCED TOPICS for Home & Building Inspection Methods Courses & Papers
SAFETY articles for building inpectors: procedures, methods
Also see HOME & BUILDING INSPECTORS & INSPECTION METHODS. Use the Search Box at the top or bottom of these pages to find in-depth information about building, energy savings, and indoor environment inspection, diagnosis and repair at this website.
Basic Curriculae & Building Defects Lists
These home inspection training curriculums and building defect lists are based on smilar curriculum documents first prepared by Joe Scaduto, an ASHI member who prepared course material for Northeastern University's Building Inspection Certificate program in 1988, subsequently by Daniel Friedman, InspectApedia's editor, for New York University ca 1988 and later, with others, recommended to ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.
Other early contributors to home inspection education in the U.S. and Canada include Dr. Jess Aronstein, Alan Carson, Mike Casey, Mark Cramer, John Cox, Dwight Barnett, Douglas Hansen, Rick Heyl, Larry Hoytt, Bill Merrill, Kevin O'Malley, Dennis Robitalille, Keith Peddie, Pat Porzio, Roger Robinson.
These curriculum and lists of defects are informed by the home inspection DACUM (Developing A Curriculum) procedure, an additional analysis of the process of home inspection that was developed for building inspection education beginning Calgary, AB for Canadian and U.S. home inspector education and certification examinations in 1997.
ASHI did not adopt this material though currently that association as well as other home & building inspection associations, universities, and private education firms offer extensive home inspection education courses in the classroom, online, and by distant education and home study courses.
For examples see the offerings by Carson Dunlop Associates at the end of this article.
For each building inspection topic, home inspector performance criteria will be described in two areas:
1. Knowledge Base
2. Inspection Skills
General outline for inspection methodology, observations, and reporting,
useful also for suggestions for presentations at Home Inspection Conferences & Seminars
1. Define the problem
What are we looking at, for, about?
What are the expert sources, principal concerns, etc. Who's the authority?
What are the implications, effects, concerns, risks, problems,
in maintenance, safety, marketing, comfort, economy?
2. Define the procedure
Inspection methodology, where and how to look, procedures to assure
completeness and technical accuracy.
Telltale clues, warning signs, confirming signs, interrelationships with
other systems.
ASHI or other Home Inspection or Building Standards Standards for observation, operation, and description - the
minimum set of requirements.
CHINESE DRYWALL HAZARDS discusses Chinese drywall odors, sulphur smells, and corrosive outgassing hazards in buildings. Major costs to remove this product, repair or replace electrical wiring, plumbing, and HVAC components may be involved, and there may be immediate safety hazards due to damaged smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors in buildings where Chinese drywall outgassing has caused damage.
Electrical Education Classes - the following are work in process Power Point Presentations, very large files, for Milestone Electric, Dallas, TX - due - 3/25/2010
Aluminum Wiring Class for Electricians - Summary for licensed electricians, of the history, issues, current status of aluminum wiring hazards in residential homes
FEAR-O-METER: Dan's 3 D's SET REPAIR PRIORITIES a promotion theory to convert risk of hidden defects & hazards into action thresholds, for a discussion of how an accumulation of inspection evidence leads to a rational decision to perform invasive or desctructive inspection measures.
Log Home Inspection & Repair Guide - how to inspect, diagnose, and repair problems on log houses; how to identify and determine the age of different types of log homes: traditional log homes, manufactured log homes, slab-sided log homes, and alternative log homes using concrete logs and fiberglass logs.
Safety Articles for Building Owners and Inspectors
ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION IN BUILDINGS provides a detailed guide to recognizing asbestos-containing materials in buildings and links to in depth articles about individual asbestos-containing building materials
Electromagnetic Fields, Cancer, and Enviro-Scare: the relation of cycles of public fear and property values for Asbestos, UFFI, Radon, EMF, Lead hazards - "Enviro-Scare" - The Normal Curve Cycle of Public Fear of Environmental Issues
FPE Stab-Lok HAZARDS & REPAIRS WEBSITE - some circuit breakers may not only fail to protect the building from fire or its occupants from shock, they may also cause arcing, arcover, fire, or even explosion accidents and injuries to building inspectors, electrical workers, building owners, and home inspectors.
Safety Procedures for Electrical System Inspectors - how to inspect and test electrical panels and wiring in buildings safely, how to use digital multimeters or VOMs safely, how to avoid a potentially fatal shock
ZINSCO / SYLVANIA HAZARDS - some circuit breakers may not only fail to protect the building from fire or its occupants from shock, they may also cause arcing, arcover, fire, or even explosion accidents and injuries to building inspectors, electrical workers, building owners, and home inspectors.
Find the Age of a House How to Determine the Age of a Building from Visual Clues, Architectural Style, Building Materials, Construction Details, or Documentary Clues
Home Inspection Standards, Ethics, American Society of Home Inspectors-ASHI and Other Home Inspection Standards, Ethics, and Home Inspector Certification Procedures
Canadian Home Inspection Association - Quebec - aibq.qc.ca - certification and professional education for Canadian Home Inspectors
Canadian Association of Home Inspectors CAHPI, includes the National Certification Program for Home Inspectors, and CAHPI, the professional association and provider of education for Canadian Home Inspectors - in English ou en Francais
BUILDING DEFECTS LISTS at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.
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In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.
Roger Hankey is principal of Hankey and Brown Inspections, Winter Park, CO. Mr. Hankey is a past chairman of the ASHI Standards Committee and served in other ASHI chapter and national leadership roles. Mr. Hankey is a National Radon Proficiency Program certified measurement professional and a Level II infrared thermographer. Contact Roger Hankey at: 970-393-6604 - rogerhankey47@gmail.com . Website: www.HankeyandBrown.com
Mr. Hankey is a frequent contributor to InspectAPedia.com.
Arlene Puentes [Website: www.octoberhome.com ] , an ASHI member and a licensed home inspector in Kingston, NY, and has served on ASHI national committees as well as HVASHI Chapter President. Ms. Puentes can be contacted at ap@octoberhome.com
Our recommended books about building & mechanical systems design, inspection, problem diagnosis, and repair, and about indoor environment and IAQ testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the InspectAPedia Bookstore. Also see our Book Reviews - InspectAPedia.
Building Pathology, Deterioration, Diagnostics, and Intervention, Samuel Y. Harris, P.E., AIA, Esq., ISBN 0-471-33172-4, John Wiley & Sons, 2001 [General building science-DF] ISBN-10: 0471331724
ISBN-13: 978-0471331728
Building Pathology: Principles and Practice, David Watt, Wiley-Blackwell; 2 edition (March 7, 2008) ISBN-10: 1405161035 ISBN-13: 978-1405161039
Historic Preservation Technology: A Primer, Robert A. Young, Wiley (March 21, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0471788368 ISBN-13: 978-0471788362
In addition to citations & references found in this article, see the research citations given at the end of the related articles found at our suggested
Carson, Dunlop & Associates Ltd., 120 Carlton Street Suite 407, Toronto ON M5A 4K2. Tel: (416) 964-9415 1-800-268-7070 Email: info@carsondunlop.com. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.
Carson Dunlop Associates provides extensive home inspection education and report writing material. In gratitude we provide links to tsome Carson Dunlop Associates products and services.