It's a trend. My client at noon is renting his basement. So was the client at 10 am. It's that kind of world now. Here's how I helped him move forward on that goal.

Thank goodness for home Inspectors. They are generalists and have to know everything about everything. And thank goodness for the guys who acknowledge that they don't. That's excellent service .

Stairstep Cracks in masonry are always unsettling. Here is what I told the client

I visited on office warehouse today. 3100 Sq ft and built in the 50s. Crazy Walls and mazey configurations. What's Structural? We got that answered

Note to contractors everywhere: stay away from the top and bottom 2 inches of the joist

Sometimes it's about the structural stuff. And sometimes it's about providing greater value

Sometimes getting the drainage right can save a lot of grief.

She called me to talk to her about the saggy roof line and falling garage. She didn't like it when I told her there was Asbestos.

So I showed up to one of those inexpensive cabins near park City. You know - the 5 million dollar kind. Honestly I have no idea what it sold for. The parties were squabbling about the basement slab. It should have been 4 inches thick and was 2 in at least 1 area. Here's what I told them.

My client today wanted to open the space in his master suite and put a golf simulator in the basement. I told him go for it. Nice day for him!

How to sometimes save a house that's leaning? I discuss that in this episode

Sometimes you just need confirmation that you're not crazy when you're buying a house.

Gotta love 80s homes. This one is very dated but it still cost nearly 1 mill. Structural questions with the stairstep cracks and drainage issues. Then he told me he wanted to open up the space between the kitchen. Here we go

So I did an inspection on a 1958 mess of a home. Super dated, bad condition, but in a great location. This one was complicated, but if you want to make 7 figures on one project, it can't be easy, right?

Um, why is there a pod about attic ventilation? How does that apply to a podcast about structural things?

Well, it's because I was hired to come out and explain to a client why the crack in their ceiling was or was not a structural problem. Turns out it wasn't, and the crack was simply a ventilation problem. At least this time.

Even your best neighbor's cousin's uncle will tell you that horizontal cracks in the foundation are the bad ones. Everybody says it so it must be true, right?

Well, that depends on what the cause of the crack is. I run into that today. It didn't turn out too bad.

Sometimes the client is doing the uze. (How do you spell that anyway? You know, short for usually. Uzh? Uzzz? Youzh? I guess if you're not cool enough to know, you shouldn't uze it).

Anyway, this time the uze is that they're finishing the basement. Fill in this wall with framing, take out that framed structural wall and do a header. That's what we're doing this time. 16 foot span, and it supports a 20 foot long set of joists. Here's that compelling documentary

Today I got called back to a newer home that was screwed up by the contractor. The framers actually put the walls eight inches away from where they should have been. This means that the footing doesn't support the walls above it in areas. Big oops. Here's my assessment.

I was called out to a 7000 square foot "cabin" in the mountains near Fairview UT. This hummer had settlement on the front left corner, where the bedrooms are. The area was of course mountainous, and the question is what to do about settlement on that side. Here's my assessment

You would think that it should be easy to convert a crawl space into basement. Not so. Here's one example of why