I'm sure many of you have heard of the latest blight to our housing industry known as "chinese drywall".  First of all do some research on your own.  There is no special place on the web or elsewhere that I get my information from.  I do my own research and you can do the same.  That being said, of course some people aren't capable of properly inspecting their house for the possible problem.  In this case an inspector can be of value.  

So what is "Chinese Drywall".  Well in this case it refers to wall board that was mined and manufactured from a couple of mines in Chiina.  All chinese drywall isn't problematic for a couple of reasons.  First of all most of the wall board in the US wasn't/isn't made in China.  Furthermore in some cases China sourced their raw materials from many different areas (including the US) and just assembled the wallboard in China.  So not all drywall/wallboard made in China isn't what we are calling here "Chinese Drywall".  

On to the problems/risks.  Well there are health risks/problems reported that have been attributed to "Chinese Drywall" as well as mechanical issues.  The health problems are much more difficult to quantify and there are conflicting reports.  There is also a mechanical problems that are much easier to quantify.  Much of the problems are contributed to a very high sulfur content when mixed with moisture basically creates sulfuric acid that enhances corrosion on copper/aluminum water pipes and wiring.  This is the easiest way to find out if you have a problem.  If the bad wallboard is in the house it will show itself by above normal levels of corrosion on the AC evaporator coil and on the copper wires both in the outlets/switches and in some cases in the electrical panel.  

Actually I'm just going to save myself a lot more typing.  I'm not affiliated with this site but who cares, just go here http://www.chinesedrywall.com/ it's a good source and should answer all of your questions.   

- Nick  

I suppose I should quickly write about the actual inspection industry instead of rambling on about my website woes.  The industry has had some significant changes in the last few months.  These changes were a surprise to me but no less exciting.  As I have stated in several locations on this site I am a state certified Building Contractor as well as an inspector.  In the past one had relatively little to do with the other but it was a nice feather in the cap so to speak.  

Times have changed.  A "home inspector" is not regulated by the state of florida and the only license you have is a occupational license.  I've hoped in vain for years that the state would regulate the industry but they have not done so and aren't likely to do it anytime in the near future it would seem.  In years passed a "home inspector" could perform a four point inspection for insurance companies with no problem.  Now you have to be a contractor to perform them.  

Another change that has recently taken place is the wind inspection industry.  In the last few years the wind mitigation inspections were performed by WCE (wind certification entity) contractors through the My Safe Florida Home program.  They were state contractors and the companies would sub out the inspections to individuals based on area.  It was a good program for the most part especially for the home owner because the inspection was "free" to them.  "Free" is in quotes because we ALL paid heavily for it out of our taxes.  The state was charged $150 by the WCE's who did almost nothing but refer the work to one of their contractors.  The contractor was paid about $75 and the WCE kept $75.  So as you can imagine the cost of the program got pretty high with 100,000's inspections done along with the matching funds for some improvements made available through the program.

This program was shut down early in this passed summer and basically all the wind mitigation inspectors lost their "jobs". Now the only people that can perform these inspections are contractors, architects, and engineers.  You can't be just a home inspector or a My Safe Florida Home program contractor.  This coupled with the insurance industry only accepting four point inspections from certified contractors has made life very hard for an individual home inspector that is not a contractor.  This person can still do home inspections but they can't do the four point inspections or the wind mitigation inspections.  This makes it very hard for them and I've talked to several that are just going to fold the company as they aren't qualified to do the other two very popular inspections.  

In any case, I've been picking up some of these and I've even re-inspected properties whose inspections were rejected because of a non qualifying license.  

I think it's good for the industry as a whole and it will weed out some of the inspectors that really shouldn't be in the business anyway.  It gives the inspection industry some sort of regulation even though it's indirect. It also gives the industry some higher standing in that those of us left will have a state license that is very hard to get and very expensive.   It makes the "club" a bit more exclusive I suppose.  Before if you wanted to be a home inspector there was no one checking to see if you had a clue about what you were doing.  It was a bit scary in the least and I've seen many inspections performed that were baffling to say the least.  

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I know I haven't posted to this blog in an eternity and by my web traffic it appears that very few have read it anyway.  So now I'm trying to figure out this web-design stuff and try to market my website more efficiently on the search engines.  Well it turns out I didn't have any meta tags set up for keywords in title or description.  I'm on one heckuva steep learning curve with this web design so I need to be a bit more active in learning it so I can apply it.  Maybe people will actually find the site on purpose if I can get it listed correctly.  

My name is Nick and I'm the owner/operator of Florida Home Inspectors Inc.  In this blog I will be providing the reader with as much info as I can...when I can.  I will be primarily addressing pitfalls in the inspection industry and things to look out for....maybe even before signing the contract!  I will try to help the average home buyer whittle down the prospective houses to make everyone's job a bit easier. I will give lists of good questions to ask and what year/s of houses require more precise/deliberate questions.  I will be addressing such things as Mold, Aluminum wiring, wood frame vs. block structures, roof age, and even my take on what insurance companies look for when binding a new policy on an old house. In fact when I get this website developing down I'll most likely change this from a blog to a FAQ page...will have to see about that.