Month: July 2017
Doors provide an exit in case of emergency, but also protect escape routes, keeping them free from fire or smoke. Periodic inspections ensure that they are in perfect working order if necessary. Conduct door inspections monthly and keep a record of inspections and repairs for fire safety inspectors. The regulations vary from state to state, but there are some constants that will help you prepare. Diligent inspections protect you like everyone working in the area, and a door inspection checklist helps you plan.
To access
Fire doors must be accessible to be effective, such as corridors or stairs leading to them. Doors that are blocked by large heavy objects can lead to immediate failure during an official fire safety inspection. Even the presence of small, movable objects is a violation. Fire doors must be kept free and accessible at all times, and this applies to both the exterior and the interior. Doors must be easily opened from the inside and must not require a key or mechanism.
Signs & lighting
An exit signal must be located above the fire safety door and must be illuminated. Fire doors must also be marked with signs indicating that the door should be kept closed. In addition, corridors and exits need to be illuminated so that anyone who needs to leave can see well enough to do so. Labels indicating the qualification and use of fire doors should not be removed and should be legible.
Keep closed
Doors should be kept closed because they serve to contain the smoke and prevent propagation on fire escape routes. Doors that are not closed must be equipped with mechanisms that automatically close the door if the self-closing fire alarm sounds. Inspect the area around the fire safety door to make sure that nothing locks or prevents easy opening and closing.
Hardware and door space
Check your doors for hinges, locks and seals to make sure they are intact. Broken seals can allow fumes to escape through the door. When opening or closing, the door should not rub against the frame or against other doors, carpets or floors. In the case of double doors, they must close the doors in the order that allows them to be held firmly.
What is an inspection?
The standard practice of inspectors requires inspectors to assess the status of a series of components of a home and submit a written report to the buyer. The IPV Inspector performs a detailed examination of the dwelling, which it reviews in its entirety, even in the intermediate areas. Check levels of acoustics, brightness, ambient humidity and carbon monoxide; Water, electricity and gas facilities; Check the condition of floors, walls, ceilings, tiling and baseboards, open and close doors, windows, blinds, drawers, furniture.
It also checks the proper functioning of appliances, heating, ventilation, toilets, faucets, siphons, drains, sanitation and general hygiene of the house. That is, it defines the general state of habitability of the dwelling and reflects it in a written and photographic report, easily understandable, that is called IPV certificate.
The Inspector IPV studies about 400 points in the report of rent of a house and about 550 points in the report of sale. The basic aspects that are reviewed are as follows:
The person who hires this service should insist that all these points be detailed in the report provided by the inspector. In addition, it is highly recommended that you meet in person with the housing inspector after he or she has completed the study. In this way, you will have the opportunity to ask all the questions about any defect in the house and to obtain an estimate of the cost of the necessary repairs. It will also give you an opportunity to ask questions about maintenance. All these data are, for the buyer, a great utility to negotiate the final price with the seller.
Inspection reports usually begin with an information section that gives general information about the home, such as the name of the client, the area covered and the year of construction
There is often other information outside the main body of the report, or at the beginning or end, which are the responsibilities, and sometimes includes a copy of the inspection contract, and possibly a copy of the Practice Guidelines. It may also include the professional credentials, designations, affiliations, and memberships of the inspector. It’s a good idea to include a copy of the book Inter NACHI, Now that you’ve had an inspection.
Inspection reports often include a summary report of major issues in order to prevent the reader from missing important issues. It is important that whoever reads it takes into account the security issues or conditions that may be burdensome when correcting them. With this in mind, they use color codes in the stories, although some think that this exposes them to a greater responsibility and for this reason they do not use them.
The Software often gives inspectors the ability to include photographs in the main body of the report, close to the narrative describing them, or photographs can also be grouped at the end or the beginning of the report.
A table of contents is usually included.
The main body of the report can be divided into sections for each component system of the house, such as “ELECTRICITY,” “PLUMBING,” “HEATING,” etc., or divided according to the areas of the house: “EXTERIOR,” “, “” KITCHEN, “” BEDROOMS, “etc.
It often depends on how the inspector prefers to work.
In the early years of the home inspection industry, inspection reports were just a simple checklist and a couple of descriptive report sheets.
The checklists are just this, very little is actually written. The report consists of a series of lockers with short descriptions on the side. Descriptions are often abbreviated, two or three words, such as “jumped painting.” The complete checklist can be four to five pages in length. Today, some legal agreements are almost of the same extension!
Due to lack of detailed information, checklist reports may be open to interpretation, and buyers, sellers, agents, contractors, lawyers and judges may interpret them differently, depending on their interests.
In the inspection business, phrases describing the conditions encountered during an inspection are called “reports.” Descriptive reports use descriptive language that more fully describes each condition. The descriptions here are not abbreviated.
Both checklists and descriptive reports are still used; however, many jurisdictions exclude checklist reports because of the limited information they provide, they result in legal issues.
From the point of view of accountability, descriptive reports are considered to be broadly safer because they provide more information and make it clearer.
Many of the issues and problems of accountability with the inspection process are due to misunderstandings about what should be included in the report or what the report says.
For example, in 2005, an investor bought a hotel with 14 rooms in California. The six-page descriptive report mentioned that the Tapaha where the cement walkway of the first floor was with the building was incorrectly installed, and the condition could result in rotting of the wood. Four years later, the investor paid almost $ 100,000 to demolish and replace the upper gangway. In some places, it was possible to insert a pencil between the support beams.
Although the inspector’s report mentioned the problem, the seriousness of the problem, or possible consequences of ignoring it, had not been clear. Today, a six-page report would be considered short for a small house.