Site conditions practice questions

Safety issues rarely arise from retaining walls. Where a walking surface runs along one side and the far side drops more than 30 inches, though, the wall may be a fall hazard that is reportable, whether or not a guard is required. Tying the verdict to a guard requirement misreads the rule, and a flat demand for a guard overstates a may.

A culvert carries water underground, usually through a big metal or concrete pipe, and at a house it may pass a swale under the end of the driveway. A shallow ditch that steers water describes the swale itself, not the passage beneath the drive.

A retaining wall may be drained by a footing drain like the ones around basement foundation walls, and the drain's terminations should be visible where the wall ends. Openings low in the wall face are weep holes, a separate way to drain. Footing drains on residential retaining walls are uncommon.

A retaining wall usually comes within the inspection only where its failing could hurt the house. Height, material, and permits do not set the scope, even though many inspectors look at most walls anyway because clients often expect it and repairs can be costly.

Buried drains sometimes serve where swales for drainage will not work or where natural flow erodes the soil, as on steep hills. Natural slope away from the house is the ideal means of moving water off, so a lot that already has it does not call for a buried system.

Grading should not send water onto a neighbor's land unless the natural grade carries it there, and even then the higher lot should keep its effect on the lower one as small as practical. Nothing in the manual requires the higher lot to hold all of its water.

Limbs close to overhead utility wires are a typical vegetation defect, because limbs can damage those wires. That utility companies may prune such trees does not drop the condition from the report, and cutting limbs is no part of an inspection.

Dusting is a powder left on the surface of concrete, and poor finishing technique can cause it. Crazing is a web of many small surface cracks, which fast drying in hot weather or a mix with too much water can cause.

A walkway higher than the planting bed holds water against the foundation, so it is a typical defect to report. The walkway should let water flow over it; an alternative is a catch basin with a pipe running beneath the walkway. Uplift from tree roots is a separate item on the defect list.

The common guideline for standing water is 3/8 inch still present after 24 hours. Standing water poses a slip and fall hazard, and especially so once it freezes. The 1/4 inch figure belongs to the crack guideline.