Posted: 10 Oct 2011 09:24 AM PDT

So how can you make sure your home is protected while you are off enjoying your summertime plans? Here are a few household burglary prevention tips that can help:

• Because social media are so widely used these days, I HAVE to mention this first! NEVER share your vacation plans online. Of course, we would never post, "Rob me please," online, but we have no problem sharing our "countdown to vacation" with everyone. You might not even realize it while you are excitedly telling people about your up-coming plans, but you are advertising to friends, friends of friends and possibly strangers that your home will be unattended. Instead, enjoy sharing all about your vacation when you get home. 
• Back in the day (before we had the ability to check messages remotely), I remember actually doing this, but don't leave vacation messages on phones or emails. Simply state that you are "away from your desk" for your work email and phone, and leave a typical away message for personal phones or emails. Don't leave messages on your door (like for a delivery person) that you are away from home either.
• Use motion sensor lights on the exterior of your home.
• Double check that all outside doors and windows are locked when leaving your home.
• Keep your garage door closed and locked at all times.
• Trim all bushes and trees around your home to prevent hiding places for intruders.
• Install solid, sturdy doors with deadbolts on the exterior of your home, and install quality locks on windows. Thieves are not looking for a challenge. Anything that slows them down,will increase the chances of them giving up.
• Do not keep large amounts of cash, valuables or jewelry lying around the house. Especially within view from the windows.
• Change locks if your keys have been lost or stolen.
• Lock garden shed doors and store lawn mowers, barbecues, bicycles, etc. out of sight.
• Use curtains on garage door windows and basement windows.
• Never hide keys under doormats, flower pots, etc. Burglars know where to look for hidden keys.
• Get to know your neighbors. Watch out for suspicious people or vehicles at each others homes.
• Engrave all valuables with your driver's license number or other personal id number.
• Video record or photograph the contents of your home with serial and identification numbers. This also helps in the event of fire. Your insurance company may recommend you record the value, purchase date, serial number, etc. to identify property.
• Use timers for your interior lights to come on in the evening and shut off during the day. (Simply leaving lots of lights on is not a great idea. It will definitely look strange come midnight, and wastes energy too).
• Arrange for the Post Office to hold your mail, or for someone to pick up mail and newspapers while you are gone.
• Have someone mow your lawn while you are away.
• Leave a car in the driveway.
• Make breaking into your home noisy. Consider installing an alarm system.

Houses with the newer insulated windows are going to be susceptible to seal failure.  This will become more noticeable when you start having greater temperature differences between the inside and outside of the house.  The visual evidence will mostly be milky white staining or water drips, drips, or fogginess on the glass panes in windows or doors that cannot be cleaned off. The reason for this is that the staining or moisture is actually trapped between the inner and outer panes of glass.

To better understand why this is, let me explain.  In these newer windows and doors, the glass panels are actually a laminate of two pieces of glass (inner and outer panes) that are held together and separated by a gasketed band around the perimeter of the glass panel.  The resultant air space in between the glass is filled with a dry, inert gas such as argon.  The total effect here is a virtually fog-free window with a small amount of insulation value (understand that the insulation is in the trapped air-space, not in the two pieces of glass, which has no insulation value), that is required by residential and commercial building codes in many areas as a mandatory energy conservation measure.

The fogging and/or staining appears when the gasket around the perimeter fails, thereby allowing moisture laden air to replace the dry argon.  Once you have a sizeable temperature difference, such as hot inside and cold outside (typical winter) or hot outside and cold inside (typical summer).  The tricky thing with these systems is that you may have two windows with failed seals, each on opposite sides of the house, and only one may show signs of failure in the morning.  But, in the afternoon, they switch.  Also, just because you have one failed seal, does not mean they are all bad, and they don't all just fail at the same time.  

To fix a window after it has becomes fogged depends on the window.  In most windows the only option is to completely replace the entire window and its frame.  Some windows may just need a professional to repair it.  If you have a foggy window you can call a window professional to find out whether it can be repaired or if you need a complete replacement.

She has a good question…

In California, Home Inspectors don’t need any state license or hold any certificates.  They don’t have to be insured, bonded, or have any certain amount of experience.  They don’t all have the same inspection reports either.  It’s really a buyer beware marketplace, and you should certainly do research before you hire one.  You’ll hear of nightmare inspectors from the realtors quite often.

You can find information about home inspectors all over the web; try starting at google.com or yahoo.com.  You’ll find that there are a couple of Home Inspector organizations that have a scope of work, their educational requirements, and a listing of their certified inspectors.  The two that All-Star Home Inspections currently belongs to are: California Real Estate Inspectors Association (CREIA), and National Association of Certified Home Inspectors (NACHI).  We used to belong to a few others but it was just throwing out our membership fees for nothing. 

Once you narrow your search down to the certified inspectors, you can look at their individual web sites or call and talk to the inspectors personally.  Inspectors give two types of reports.  The first type of report is the verbal one at the time of the inspection, and the other is their written report.  With some home inspectors, the written report is just a simple checklist template, carbon copies, and hand written remarks.  Our reports have full explanations of the condition of every component in the home printed from our computers.  We include color pictures so that you can understand what we are reporting on. One of the things you can look at on our web site is what our reports look like. 

Take a look at: www.allstarinspector.com 

Good luck in your process and we are ready when you are to inspect your new home. 

Kirk

The cold days of winter make it tough to keep your home warm and comfortable, especially if your heating ducts are leaking.  Leaky duct systems are one of the biggest drains on your utility bill. The average California home’s duct systems leak by as much as 40%.  What can you do to stop the leaking and improve the energy efficiency of your heating system? 

Well, if you live in the Central Valley of California, you can have your ducts tested and in some cases sealed for little or no out of pocket cost.  Modesto Irrigation District (MID) is now offering up to $300.00 in rebates to have your ducts tested and sealed to less than 15% leakage.  This program is open to anyone who wants a more comfortable home in MID’s service area. 

The program is easy to participate in.  You simply call an approved MID contractor or HERS Rater (All-Star Home Inspection Services) to pressure test your duct system.   The testing takes only about 45 minutes. Once the initial test is complete you’ll know how much leakage you have in the duct system and can decide what you want to do with it.

If your system leaks by more than 15% and with some sealing can be reduced to less than 15%, MID will rebate up to $300.00 per system.  If your system already is with-in the MID target leakage, then you’ll know you have tight ducts.  If your system leakage can’t be sealed and reduced to less than 15%, you will be referred to a contractor that can repair it correctly. 

There are many rebates that MID offer rate payers.  Many require you to purchase expensive equipment to qualify for the rebate.  The duct leakage testing requires nothing to be purchased.  It is a great program with a limited time, so take advantage of this program TODAY, and start living in a warmer, more comfortable home.

For more information about duct leakage and testing in your home or business contact All-Star Home Inspection Services at 209-824-5356 or visit us at www.allstarinspector.com

GFI's can be a breaker in the electrical panel with a red reset button located on the breaker, or an electrical outlet with a red/black/white reset button at the most upstream location (1st outlet on the circuit).

Here's an example of a faulty GFI circuit that I found recently which emphasizes the need proper installation.  The electrical panel was located within the interior of the garage and contained a GFI breaker with the reset button.  The automatic garage door opener and the two baths in the house were wired into that same GFI breaker.  When testing/tripping the bath circuit, we quickly learned the GFI reset was in the garage electrical panel.  The home did not have a personnel entrance to the garage other than the garage door itself.  With the GFI breaker tripped, the automatic garage door opener would cease to function.  As such, we were unable to access the electrical panel to reset the breaker!  The bath outlet reset buttons were useless because they were not the most upstream outlets on the circuit and were totally unnecessary.  GFI protection was still being provided at the bath outlets, but installation was incorrect because a 'trip' would disable the garage door.  If the garage door was in the closed position, there was no way to get to the electrical panel.  All this could've been avoided had the automatic garage door opener not been wired into a GFI circuit.

In short, GFI's are a great safety invention if installed properly.  Remember, GFI's are required at any outlet within 6 feet of water.  Currently, this means Kitchens, Baths, Laundry, Basements, and Garages.  Also, it's okay to have a non-GFI outlet at these locations as long as it's designated as such.