“There, I Fixed It!”

Every week, the detail-oriented folks at Green Scene Home Inspections will give CandysDirt.com readers an education in inspection. Want to see what they see? Tune in for “Upon Closer Inspection.”

When something breaks at home, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. You put a bucket under the leaky pipe, patch a broken window with cardboard, or hold just about anything together with duct tape. You grab whatever is handy to temporarily solve the issue. Trouble is, sometimes homeowners forget to go back and actually repair the problem.

Here are a few “bandaids” we’ve found in the field.

This homeowner had used blue painters tape to seal up multiple breaks in the duct work. Must have run out of DUCT tape.

Sometimes when it comes time to sell, a homeowner will cover up signs of foundation damage rather than do the repair.

This handy homeowner did what they had to during a freeze, and taped a towel inside a plastic bag to the hose bib to prevent frozen pipes. No problem – but it was 80 degrees outside when this photo was taken.

What happens when the bucket overflows? Even a small leak can become a flood if left unchecked.