Real Estate and Home Maintenance : Taking an Easier Step When Dealing With a Home Inspection
This past week has seen me in the middle of a real estate transaction in a different capacity. As a home inspector, I am not really too involved with any one transaction, I spend about seven hours on average for each job. Three to four hours is spent in the examined home, and I take around one hour when discussing the report with the client. However, my parents are selling their home, and they are not quite in this city anymore, so I am the point man in town.
I Idid not inspect my parents house, since I knew that a home inspection would list items, even if I tried to repair everything. We decided to deal with it as the situation developed. My mother did determine to begin several repairs though, so off I went with tools in hand to make the repairs that I could handle. I may be a fool, but I am not going to replace the service panel.
One job was a crack in the mortar joint from movement in the house. The concern with such a crack is that rain could seep into the framework behind the brick. I carefully chiseled out the old mortar from the joints with hammer and chisel. I had the mortar cement ready to mix, and the trowel to make the joint right. Between my own home inspections and other projects, I decided to make life simpler. While at the hardware store, I bought the mortar joint caulk, instead of going the old fashioned route.
I had not used this product before, but it went on well. Like any tube, I placed it in my caulking gun, and gently squeezed away. The chiseling took about an hour for the various joints. By having the tube, I completed the joint fills within fifteen minutes. I was glad that I did not have to spend more time for this job.
What was the down side? I was expecting a little cleanup. With mortar, any that spilled out of the joint I could clean up quickly during the application. With this tube product, I was concerned that I would smear it along the brick. I waited a day for it to dry, but after a day it was not fully dry. Considering that this was not my home, and that I was going to have to drive back to take care of this one issue was not my ideal; however, the product was a time saver, and I am sure that when it fully dries, it will look alright.
Such products are good time savers, but they are really meant for the homeowner. Maybe I could have found a way to clean it off then, but I did find that when I pulled along the edges, it pulled more material away than what I wanted. I would use it again in the final analysis.
« « The Roof and its Framing: Avoiding Problems When Reframing an Attic| An Open Letter to the Houston Association of Realtors » »
