Was this the old painter with the guy who got weird on you, or the new one you hired?
We lived in our house for 17 years, and only recently I discovered that the top of the bathroom door is not painted. 
Not something that I regularly look at, I guess!
The original painter was responsible for painting the living room, windows and doors. We are just now seeing that the tops of the doors did not get painted (and we checked the bottom of the doors too!!)
You are the type of person I’d want checking out or building anything for my home! I’m sure the buyers are grateful for your thoroughness and you don’t end up with complaints and call backs.
You deserve some extra good fortune for taking the trouble to paint the tops & bottoms of those doors. We bought a new house years ago and had to pay out of pocket to replace multiple sets of french doors. The builder had filed for bankruptcy under that corporate incarnation, walked away and started building under a new name. The doors were only about a year old. Rain had soaked into them due to the tops and bottoms not being stained and sealed, and they were ruined. Ever since I’ve been very picky about doors and windows being properly painted or stained.
CB, when you get tired of flipping, you should consider becoming a home inspector. The inspector we work with is a tiny woman who looks like she can get into every little crevasse and is very meticulous about finding stuff most inspectors would just brush off.
Home inspectors are my nemesis!!! I say that tongue in cheek. I like most of them and they are reasonable. My favorite is the one who prefaces everything with “No house is perfect”. But I’ve had several who spend time scaring buyers to death. Their favorite is the missing air gap at kitchen sink.
The worst was the Hoarder House inspection because he was downright rude and totally erroneous with his ‘opinions’. My agent will not let that guy near us again.
I purposely have something for the inspector to catch. We’ll see if he catches it.
Oooooooo, that should be interesting.
CB, I’d be interested in your thinking as to why you purposely leave something for the inspector to catch.
Because I’m not experienced at this, my thinking is that if the inspector finds something, he’ll think there is more and will look harder for them.
Again, I don’t understand the construction business, so I’m really just looking for an education here.
Home inspectors are paid by the buyers. They have to find something or they haven’t done their job. We realized last week that there is something that we probably should have done, but it does not have anything to do with the new construction or the building permit. It is located on the old portion of the house. It is not dangerous but home inspectors like to see this item installed and will call it out.
Also, I can guarantee that he is going to call out that the air gap is missing on the kitchen countertop. I go through this one every time. I hate the appearance of air gaps, they get dirty and yucky. All plumbers, and the building inspector, agree that, if the drain line is installed properly in a reverse p trap configuration, there is no health issue. But home inspectors will give a big lecture to the buyers about how food waste in the garbage disposal ‘could’ make its way back into the dishwasher and contaminate everything. This would really only happen if your drain / garbage disposal was so clogged up and the sink is backed up to the rim. It’s good practice to always run your garbage disposal before you start up a dishwasher to clear debris. But either way, the high loop (tacked up to bottom of countertop) acts to keep debris from going backwards in the drain line. You would have to have a really big mess going on before anything goes back into the dishwasher. At that point, food waste in dishwasher is the least of your worries. You can always run a cycle after the kitchen sink clog is cleared.
If you have the issue with the air gap every single time, why wouldn’t you just decide as a business decision to install one? I agree that the counter has a slightly sleeker look without it, but no one is going to pass up the house because one has been installed.
But issues during the inspection could tank the deal, especially if you have a buyer with cold feet. Since the buyers’ agents (i.e. the inspectors acting on behalf of the buyers in inspecting the house) seem to want an air gap, why not provide it?
I just personally cannot stand them. I have never had a buyer cancel escrow because of an air gap. In fact, I’ve never had a buyer cancel escrow or cancel because of inspection contingency, period. I did have a buyer once get cold feet right at the beginning of escrow and never submit their deposit.
I lay out the dishwasher installation manual and circle the part of the manual which shows the proper installation if homeowner does not want to install an air gap. As long as the dishwasher manufacturer has a suggested alternative installation, it should be OK.
I’ve had several buyers who had issues getting their loan processed in a timely manner. Remember the Hoarder House escrow where Quicken Loans suddenly realized the loan was a jumbo loan and they needed to start processing everything in another department. We dropped them like a hot potato and moved the buyer’s loan to a local broker who got it done.
I do not think that I have ever in my life seen a kitchen with an “air gap.” I had never even heard of them until I started reading these flip threads.
As people often ask, is this a regional thing? Does it only apply if there is a disposal in the sink?
There are a lot of code items coralbrook has mentioned, such as the moisture detectors in the bathroom, that I have never heard of. One would think that dampness would be more of an issue here than in San DIego!
The shear walls and strapping I can understand: it is an active earthquake zone, after all.
Airgaps have been around for ages… Hate those things as much as I hate built-in soap dispensers. Moisture sensors are a new thing. Another new thing here that might be coming your way is fire suppression systems… If the street is steeper than a certain %, some localities now require them.
Only applies if there is a garbage disposal because dishwasher drain hose ties into the garbage disposal and drains down that line through sink p trap under disposal.
We have a dishwasher, and garbage disposal. I have no idea what an air gap looks like…or where it would be. I also never heard of it until I read these threads.
@BunsenBurner : What’s wrong with built-in soap dispensers? I love mine.
If you look at the counter next to or near the faucet, you’ll often see a litlle metal cylinder, about an inch or two in diameter and about two inches high with vent holes in it. That’s the air gap. They are pretty standard around here.
ETA: it is this thingie:
(It would never occur to me that there would be a kitchen without a garbage disposal in the sink! That’s been standard equipment around here for my entire lifetime.)
If you live in an area where septic systems are the norm (as we did for 25 years), you probably won’t have a garbage disposal. And since you have to pay if your septic system ever fails (as we did!), you’ll want to baby your septic system by not putting food down your drains.
Thanks @nottelling
I have never had one of these airgap things…and I have never seen one either. And most everyone I know has a disposal and a dishwasher.