We have a lot of resources that we have come in contact with and wanted to pass that along to our consumers, so please find the below as well as our Service Providers we have worked with and various other links and resources, at your disposal.
Build a Better Home – Foundations
Details are critical when constructing a sound building foundation that will withstand water intrusion and control dampness. Foundation repairs are often difficult and expensive, so it’s important to build the foundation correctly the first time. The Build A Better Home program from APA- The Engineered Wood Association is designed to provide builders and homeowners with the construction guidelines they need to protect their homes against damaging moisture infiltration. This publication discusses common sources of moisture and addresses design details for foundations.
Build a Better Home – Mold
The discovery of mold in a building raises concerns not only about health of the inhabitants, but also about overall building performance. Mold growth is an indication of excessive moisture. Fortunately, most moisture problems in buildings can be prevented or corrected with proper design, construction, and maintenance. The Build A Better Home program from APA – The Engineered Wood Association is designed to provide builders and homeowners with the construction guidelines they need to protect homes against excessive moisture. The Build a Better Home Program includes design and installation publications that address the key elements in the building envelope and provide detailed examples of proper moisture control for the roof, walls, and foundations. This publication provides general information on the characteristics of mold and mildew, conditions in which they grow, methods of prohibiting their growth, and resources for learning more about mold and its remediation.
Build a Better Home – Roofs
Today’s value-engineered home features the extensive use of engineered wood products in resource-efficient, high-performance building systems for floors, walls and roofs. Engineered wood products improve on the structure advantages that have made wood such a successful and strong building material for decades. Improper construction, however, can allow moisture to enter the building envelope and lead to problems with mold, mildew and decay. While outside sources such as steam from showers and laundry rooms also need to be considered in the building design. The best treatment for moisture build-up is to prevent it from happening by employing good construction practices and maintain proper ventilation. . The Build A Better Home program from APA – The Engineered Wood Association is designed to provide builders and homeowners with the construction guidelines they need to protect homes against moisture damage infiltration. Key elements in the building envelope are the roof, walls and foundation. This Better Building Guide addresses design details for roofs.
Build a Better Home – Walls
Walls are an integral part of the structure’s weather-resistive system. Detailed designs and construction are important in preventing damaging moisture build-up, whether the moisture originates from the outside or inside the building. . The Build A Better Home program from APA – The Engineered Wood Association is designed to provide builders and homeowners with the construction guidelines they need to protect homes against moisture damage infiltration. Key elements in the building envelope are the roof, walls and foundation.
Clean Energy Choices – US Department of Energy
This 8-page brochure describes the programs and initiatives of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Discover the breadth and depth of our programs and the wide range of customers we serve. This brochure will help you gain a greater understanding of the ways in which we’re working to ensure a secure and prosperous energy future for America.
CPSC Guide to Repairing Aluminum Wiring
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission staff and other government officials have investigated numerous complaints from homeowners throughout the nation who have had trouble with small gauge aluminum branch circuit wiring. The Commission has also had research conducted that shows that homes wired with aluminum manufactured before 1972 (“old technology” aluminum wire) are 55 times more likely to have one or more connections reach “Fire Hazard Conditions” than a home wired with copper.
CPSC Guide to Home Wiring Hazards
This guide describes warnings of potential hazards. Each part of the homes electrical system is listed along with warning signs that may indicate current or future problems. Each section describes problems and tells you what to do.
CPSC Your Home Fire Safety Checklist
Use this checklist as a safety guide to spot possible fire safety problems which may be present in your home. It is a first step in reducing the risk of fire. Check YES or NO to answer each question. If you check NO to any question, the potential hazard should be corrected to avoid the risk of injury or death. How safe is your home from fire?
CPSC Carbon Monoxide in the Home
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is the “invisible” killer. Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas. Every year more than 100 people in the United States die from unintentional exposure to carbon monoxide associated with consumer products.
CPSC Electrical Safety In and Around Pools, Hot Tubs & Spas
There have been 60 electrocutions and nearly 50 serious electrical shocks, involving electrical hazards in and around swimming pools, since 1990. Some of these deaths and shocks happened during attempted rescues of shock victims because the rescuer did not know about the electrical hazards. Hot tubs and spas may present the same electrical hazards as swimming pools.
CPSC Preventing Child Drowning
In some of the nation’s sunbelt, drowning has been the leading cause of accidental death in the home of children under 5 years old. The information within this guide can help parents and caregivers provide young children with the protection they deserve.
CPSC Making Pools & Spas Safer
This guide provides safety information that will help identify and address potential entrapment hazards in swimming pools, wading pools, spas, and hot tubs. They address the hazards of evisceration/disembowelment, body entrapment, and hair entrapment/entanglement. This guide is for use in building, maintaining and upgrading public and private pools and spas. They are appropriate for use by parks and recreation personnel, public health organizations, equipment purchasers and installers, owners, inspection officials, and others who are responsible for pool and spa safety.
CPSC Pool Barrier Guidelines
Swimming pools should always be happy places. Unfortunately, each year thousands of American families confront swimming pool tragedies-drownings and near-drownings of young children. These tragedies are preventable. This U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) handbook offers guidelines for pool barriers that can help prevent most submersion incidents involving young children. This handbook is designed for use by owners, purchasers, and builders of residential pools, spas, and hot tubs.
CPSC Pool Alarms
During 1999 and early 2000, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff conducted a review of commercially available swimming pool alarm systems designed to detect water disturbance or displacement. There are no voluntary standards that define applicable performance requirements for disturbance or displacement type products.
CPSC Non Reversing Garage Door Openers a Hazard
Homeowners with automatic garage door openers that do not automatically reverse should repair or replace them with new openers which do reverse to prevent young children from being trapped and killed under closing garage doors.
Energy Savers – US Department of Energy Guide
This booklet shows you how easy it is to reduce your home energy use. It is a guide to easy, practical solutions for saving energy throughout your home, from the insulating system that surrounds it to the appliances and lights inside. Please, take a few moments to read the valuable tips in this booklet that will save you energy and money and, in many cases, help the environment by reducing pollution and conserving our natural resources.
CPSC Smoke Alarms – Why, Where and Which
A Smoke Alarm is critical for early detection of a fire in your home and could mean the difference between life and death. Fires can occur in a variety of ways and in any room of your home. But no matter where or how, having a smoke alarm is the first key step towards your family’s safety.
Top 10 WAYS to Get a Cleaner Home Inspection Report
Take these actions and your home inspection will go faster and will result in a “cleaner” inspection report. Good news for Seller, Buyer and Realtor alike!
Federal Pacific Panel Box Information
This article focuses on the controversy over inspecting and the known defects of Federal Pacific panels.
Home Maintenance Guide
This Home Maintenance & Care Guide was produced by A-Action Realty Inspection Services, LLC for you, the homeowner. This 41-page guide will take you through the steps on how to properly maintain your home and the area around the home. There is lots of useful information within this guide from properly watering your slab-on-grade foundation to cleaning your garbage disposer. We strongly recommend you read this guide for those important maintenance tips you need.
Texas Inspectors Minimum Standards and Practice §§535.227-535.233
Texas Inspectors are regulated by the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC). Texas Licensed Inspectors are required to follow a Minimum Standards of Practice §§535.227-535.233 as set forth by the Texas Real Estate Commission.
The Inside Story – A Guide to Indoor Air Quality
United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Consumer Product Safety CommissionIndoor Air Quality Concerns
All of us face a variety of risks to our health as we go about our day-to-day lives. Driving in cars, flying in planes, engaging in recreational activities, and being exposed to environmental pollutants all pose varying degrees of risk. Some risks are simply unavoidable. Some we choose to accept because to do otherwise would restrict our ability to lead our lives the way we want. And some are risks we might decide to avoid if we had the opportunity to make informed choices. Indoor air pollution is one risk that you can do something about.
A Citizen’s Guide to Radon – EPA Guide
Radon comes from the natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air you breathe. Radon can be found all over the U.S. It can get into any type of building—homes, offices, and schools—and result in a high indoor radon level. But you and your family are most likely to get your greatest exposure at home, where you spend most of your time.
A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home – EPA Guide
This Guide provides information and guidance for homeowners and renters on how to clean up residential mold problems and how to prevent mold growth.
Eliminating Childhood Lead Poisoning – A Federal Strategy Targeting Lead Paint Hazards
This report, for the first time, presents a coordinated federal program to eliminate childhood lead poisoning in the United States. It describes how lead poisoning harms children, how pervasive lead poisoning is, and how lead paint hazards in housing can be eliminated in 10 years.
James Hardi – Hardiplank Lap Siding Installation Guides
This guide was added to your CD as support information. If your inspector calls deficiencies out in the installation of your Hardiplank fiber cement lap siding. This manufactures installation guide will support your inspector’s findings and give you additional ammunition to have your general contractor and/or home builder corrected reported defects.
Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter info from CPSC & UL Labs
In February of 1999, UL published the First Edition of the Standard for Arc-Fault Circuit-Interrupters (AFCI’s), UL1699. According to the National Electrical Code (NEC), an AFCI is defined as a device intended to provide protection from the effects of arc faults by recognizing characteristics unique to arcing and by functioning to de-energize the circuit when an arc fault is detected. The 2002 NEC will require all branch circuits that supply 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere outlets installed in dwelling unit bedrooms to be protected by an AFCI listed to provide protection to the entire branch circuit.
PAL Foundation Maintenance Program
Guidelines regarding residential foundations and soil moisture changes:
Highly plastic clay soils, as are typically found in the DFW area, exhibit a great amount of expansion and contraction caused by seasonal moisture changes and varying weather conditions. Clay soils that become too dry will shrink and not be able to maintain the physical elevation of a structure’s foundation. High ambient temperatures and long periods of inadequate rainfall can cause moisture loss several feet below the surface and take a devastating toll on foundations in the DFW metroplex. Conversely, clay soils that become overly saturated can lose their load-bearing capacity.
Subterranean Termite Information by Texas A&M
Subterranean termites are the most destructive insect pests of wood in the United States. They cause more than $2 billion in damage each year, more property damage than that caused by fire and windstorm combined. In nature, subterranean termites are beneficial. They break down many dead trees and other wood materials that would otherwise accumulate. The biomass of this breakdown process is recycled to the soil as humus.
Formosan Subterranean Termite Information by Texas A&M
Formosan subterranean termites are wood destroying insects native to the Far East that have been introduced into the United States. They are considered to be the most aggressive and economically important termites in the country. Like other subterranean termites, Formosan termites feed on cellulose-containing materials, but they attack a greater variety of materials at a faster rate. They have an enormous reproductive capacity and large colony size. These characteristics and the unique survival adaptation of building nests above the ground underscore the need for homeowners and professional pest control operators to become familiar with the pest’s identification, biology and habits. A thorough knowledge about the insect is important in the management of Formosan termites as they spread inland from coastal areas.
Carpenter Ant Information by Texas A&M
Carpenter ants are social insects that live in colonies, primarily in wood. They hollow out wood to build their nests, making their galleries and chambers velvety-smooth as if a carpenter had sanded the surfaces. Their tunneling in wood and foraging for food and water lead to their “pest” status in or around homes. Carpenter ants are an excellent indicator of moisture problems in a building, or other conditions conducive to their infestation, such as rotting wood, that need attention. Those of economic importance as wood destroyers belong to the genus Camponotus, with 14 species occurring in Texas. Homeowners can minimize damage to their houses from carpenter ants by learning how to identify the ants, knowing their nest site preferences, and taking proper preventive and control measures.
Flexible Duct Performance & Installation Standards
The flexible duct performance and installation standard may be used as a comprehensive document in evaluating, selecting, specifying and installing flexible duct in heating, air conditioning and ventilating systems.
TEXAS REAL ESTATE CONSUMER NOTICE CONCERNING HAZARDS OR DEFICIENCIES
Each year, Texans sustain property damage and are injured by accidents in the home. While some accidents may not be avoidable, many other accidents, injuries, and deaths may be avoided through the identification and repair of certain hazardous conditions.
