Issue 18Nothing here is sponsored
Useful detail on decisions that are hard to reverse.
18 dispatches in this drawer
Inside one narrow case, a 1960s ranch with a crawl space and a later rear addition, the difference between a thorough inspection and a barely adequate one becomes measurable.
Desmond Falk875 wd
Four ways to buy the same recurring upkeep job, and why the worker's employment status, not the quoted price, sets what you are exposed to.
Desmond Falk1,010 wd
Home inspection reports are drafted with an errors and omissions insurer reading over the inspector's shoulder, which explains the hedging and tells you where to look.
Desmond Falk997 wd
Two roofs with the same shingle can be twelve years apart in service life. The difference sits in the deck, the flashing, the ventilation and the fasteners.
Desmond Falk915 wd
Water damage decisions made in the first two days are governed by industry standards, state licensing rules and policy conditions. Here is what each one actually requires of you.
Rosalind Ntuli1,076 wd
Roof surveys turned into photo-heavy PDFs for reasons that have little to do with roofs. Here is how to separate observation from recommendation, and which dates actually bind.
Sylvia Achterberg1,333 wd
What wind and hail actually do to an exterior, and the specific documents that turn a roofing claim from an argument into a paperwork exercise.
Desmond Falk1,146 wd
Buyers admire a remodel, but in a financed sale the appraiser and the lender's underwriter decide what it counts for, and permits and deadlines settle most of it.
Sylvia Achterberg934 wd
A boundary survey is priced on research hours and corner recovery, not on the size of the yard, and the drawing keeps earning its fee long after closing.
Desmond Falk1,058 wd
Four ways to move water off a lot, what each one costs to keep running, and how local stormwater and tree rules change which one you are allowed to build.
Desmond Falk1,244 wd
A condensate line the width of a pencil is the least maintained component in the house, and in an attic installation it runs above the finished ceiling.
Sylvia Achterberg752 wd
Where the moisture sits on a window in cold weather narrows the cause to one of three things, and each carries a different bill and a different deadline.
Desmond Falk973 wd
A deferred repair is a debt taken out against the building on terms nobody disclosed, and the ordering of what compounds fastest is more stable than any figure.
Desmond Falk1,019 wd
Annual checklists fail because following one requires remembering to consult it, and the schedules that survive are tied to something that shows up by itself.
Desmond Falk966 wd
The decision to hire a job out is usually framed as a money question and is more reliably settled by tool cost, consequence of error, and what the local code allows.
Sylvia Achterberg952 wd
Structural drying is measured rather than judged, and the difference between a dry building and a building that feels dry is a number somebody has to record.
Rosalind Ntuli1,082 wd
A braided washing machine hose failed at eleven at night, and almost the entire eventual cost was set by choices the household made before Sunday morning.
Rosalind Ntuli847 wd
The mechanism behind nearly every compounding home repair is water, and what water does to a building depends almost entirely on what the local climate does to water.
Sylvia Achterberg943 wd