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New Jersey Home Inspection
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About the House is a home inspection company serving the Northern New Jersey areas.
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New Jersey Home Inspections, conducted by Darren Miller from About The House, is your assurance of quality, integrity & professionalism. Darren is licensed & certified to conduct New Jersey home inspections, radon testing & wood destroying insect inspections. Serving all of Northern New Jersey, Bergen, Essex, Morris, Somerset, Union, Sussex, Warren & Hunterdon Counties, our goal is to provide you with the best possible home inspection available. Darren, considered to be among the elite of New Jersey licensed home inspectors, will promise you his best effort at conducting your home inspection. Darren gets about 70% of his inspections from past clients; he knows a satisfied client is the best sales force for future business.
Saving money on a home inspection
Darren understands that purchasing a home is one of the most important decisions & investments you will make. Our typical client is someone who doesn't mind paying more for a high quality service, as long as they get what they pay for. They want to know their home inside and out, and we have built our reputation on living up to this expectation for nearly 12 years. Hiring Darren, an experienced, qualified and certified New Jersey Home Inspector to carefully review the house and it’s components is essential to convey the conditions of the house. He strongly recommends the buyer attend the home inspection, he will then be able to ‘show & tell’ about the homes components.
Darren Miller, New Jersey Home Inspectors License #24GI00019700, is also a certified member of ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) #204319, is a certified NJ UCC Building Inspector ICS (NJ DCA) # 009387; a NJDCA licensed Construction official as well as a building sub-code official, is also a certified ICC Residential & Commercial Building Inspector (ICC) # 5261943-B1;B2;M-1;M-2 and is a certified Credentialed Wood Destroying Insect inspector #214. A home inspection conducted by About The House, using the New Jersey State Home Inspection & ASHI standards of practice will give you a clear cut, un-biased view of the house. This information will allow you to make a decision based on information rather than guess work.
Darren’s report tells it like it is, if it’s broke, the report says so; if it’s a safety issue, the report says so. While other home inspection companies claim they are “fair” to the house or are “non-alarmist”, what they’re really saying is their report may not really reflect the conditions they see.
This is an actual quote from someones web-site; "I am not an alarmist; I view situations as solution-oriented, not as problems. It's how you present the information that helps the buyer feel at ease and increases their opportunity to enjoy the home."
HUH? Not alarming someone to a problem will allow them to 'enjoy' their home? I DON"T THINK SO! Beside being unethical, it will cause the homeowner problems later on!
These type of inspectors are just ensuring their next referral from your agent (Herner v. Housemaster) . My feelings are simple, I didn’t build it, I didn’t fix it, I’m just reporting what I see.
When choosing a New Jersey licensed & certified home inspector….”About the House” is the only information you need.
A New Jersey licensed (24GI00019700) home inspector, Darren Miller from About The House Inspections
will conduct the best home inspection service available. If telling someone the truth about the home they're about to purchase is being known as a 'Dealkiller', then people, I'm guilty as charged! I am proud to say I've been 'blackballed'
from several real estate offices because I'm too thorough. Let's just say I'm the best home inspector
your realtor won't tell you about!
Here is the latest (newsletter) from the NJDEP radon division.
Are you like me and want the REAL story on 'MOLD', then check this out!
Forensic Applications Consulting Technologies, Inc.
Federal Pacific Electric "Stab-Loc" Panels
Federal Pacific Electric was a Newark New Jersey based manufacture of electrical panels. Their panels (commonly known as FPE ‘Stab-Loc’) were installed in many area homes between early 1970 & mid 1980. Some entire developments, including apartments & townhouses were built with these panels.
There are numerous problems associated with the ‘Stab-Loc’ panel, the most prevalent being the breakers are not reliable (they do not trip) when overloaded. A breaker is designed to turn the power off in case an overload occurs; this is the main safety feature of the ‘breaker’. If a breaker fails to trip in an overloaded situation, the most likely result is a fire.
Other problems include the fact that breakers have on occasion fallen out when the front cover was removed (due to it’s design, it is difficult to remove the cover without tripping several breakers).
Several models have a spring mounted bus bar; this design has since been prohibited.
The breakers can be in the “down” position and still be on; this has been prohibited since 1984.
A class action lawsuit in New Jersey produced the following… “The Court has already determined that Federal Pacific violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The violation occurred because FPE cheated during its testing of circuit breakers in order to obtain Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approval.”
The bottom line is simple; if your home currently has A FPE "Stab-Loc", replace it for the safety of you & your family!
CPSC Summary
Douglas Hansen Article
Dr. Aronstein's article on FPE breakers and panels
Dan Friedman’s web side
NJ Class Action
I specialize in new construction; from phase inspections to just a final inspection, I am there to help you along!
So, your newly constructed house doesn't need a home inspection? Read this New Home Inspection Nightmare or this New home inspection; Waste, Fraud, Abuse first.
For a qualified, certified home inspector in central New Jersey Absolute Home Inspections
For a qualified, certified home inspector in Mercer & surrounding Counties Rich Roshak
For a Professional Engineer in Morris County James Guider & Associates
The following are items that you wouldn't think to check when owning a house but I see incorrect every day:
Deck safety…
Deck failure is a fairly common occurrence in the United States. From Jan 2000 through Dec 2006, there have been 179 reports of deck & railing failures. In these events, 1,938 were exposed to injury (33 people died). Many more deck failures probably occurred; it is also believed if no injuries were involved, the failure was not reported.
• Fiction: Deck failures are a direct result of overloading.
• Fact: Deck failure is caused by improper connections, wood rot or even corrosion of the connectors.
Most experts agree the normal life expectancy of a deck is about 15 years. They also agree most deck connections and/or deck components are subject to failure long before the end of the service life of the deck. Unfortunately, it’s not only the deck or the deck connection, it could also be the rim board that’s already installed on the house. Several deck failures were a result of the rim board pulling off the house (this will result in a code change [2009 for NJ]).
Building a deck is the same as building a house. All the structural elements of the deck need to have what’s called a continuous load path. Every element of the continuous load path needs to be secured to the element that is supporting it. The columns need to be secure to the footing; the beam needs to be secured to the column, the joists need to be secured to the beam and so on and so on. There are 3 types of forces that put pressure on a deck; Gravity, Lateral and Uplift. Positive connections will withstand all 3 forces.
Positive connections ARE NOT achieved by nails; nails are subject to withdrawal. This does not only mean the ledger to the rim joist, it also means the joists to the beam and the beam to the columns. Hey, don’t forget about the stair stringers to the deck!
(Deck-Lock) has developed a new bracket system that will hold the house rim board to the interior joists and hold the deck rim board to the house rim board. This new bracket will help prevent ANY type of pull-out of the deck from the house connection.
This new bracket is also a positive connection of the rail posts to the deck; how many deck rails have you seen that were not tight; no matter how it was nailed or how many fillers were added, the rail post is extremely difficult to properly secure.
Now, let’s look at other problems we find while inspecting decks:
1) Footing too small. - The IRC REQUIRES a footing be no less that 12 inches wide.
2) Posts not connected to the footings. – The post must be ANCHORED to the footing.
3) Wood posts are notched. - Notches in the post will allow spliting, resulting in a shearing of the post.
4) Beams not secured to the posts.- Nails do not serve this purpose.
5) Joists not secure to the beam. - Again, nails do not serve this purpose.
6) Handrail loose, spacing exceeds 4 inches or worse yet, handrail not graspable. Remember, any type of 2X used as a handrail is not acceptable.
So, for the safety of all occupants, have your deck properly inspected; safety first!
Here are other links to deck connectors:
(Strongtie safedeck)
(Strongtie Bulletins)
(Building decks to code)
Let's be honest, you probably don't know about these things. That's where I come in; Hiring me to conduct a home inspection, even if you have lived in your current house for years, is a good idea just so you at least know what needs repairs, replacement or just plain maintenance.
Here are several 'tricks' other home inspectors conduct:
Some have the homeowner mail in the radon canister (against the rules) (I use monitors, if someone touches it, it shows a 'tilt').
When inspecting a roof, some state in their report, and I quote "The accepted standard is visual observation with binoculars." My question is, who accepted this standard, Not ME!
Some belong to a 'sham' inspectors organization (one that sells certification for $289.00).
As a matter of fact, it's entirly possible YOU may know more than your inspector if he belongs to NACHI. Many NACHI 'members' have less than 2 years experience; do you want to gamble with your biggest investment with someone who has very little experience?
I challange you to go to their web-site and take the on-line admittance test. See for yourself how easy it is to call yourself a "Certified" home inspector; one of their 'test' questions is "how do you spell receptacle?" GIVE ME A BREAK!. I belong to ASHI (where you have to EARN membership).
Believe me, there are plenty of really good inspectors in NJ, your job is to find us.
The leaders of the Great State of New Jersey have just made it more difficult for you to chose a qualified inspector. Instead of raising the bar, making it tougher, they actually lowered the standards to become a NJ licensed home inspector (again, thanks to the efforts of that SHAM organization called NACHI). They don't care about protecting the interest of the consumer, all they want is more MONEY! Make sure your home inspector is qualified, ask them how long they have been in business, how much training and education they have. PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT!
Calling 973-252-1160
insures you of quality results. Remember..."It's all....About The House"
 You can find great local New Jersey real estate information on Localism.com Darren Miller is a proud member of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a free online community to help real estate professionals grow their business.
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