Making a Grown Man Cry

One aspect of being an inspector is that someone is unhappy. I answer the phone and am talking to an unhappy caller, or I show up at an inspection site to one, or often more, unhappy people. I think it is part of the nature of being an inspector. Something is wrong, which means someone is unhappy.

My inspections sometimes make someone other than the original party unhappy. Sometimes I make my client unhappier, but seldom do I make a grown man cry.

Recently I wrote about a floor that moved because of a tongue and groove issue. The builder attempted to fix the floor by screwing into the floor from the underside. By his count, and the empty boxes I saw, he used about 12,000 screws. Lying on his back in a crawlspace screwing over his head. Took him several days using collated screws. And the floor still moved.

The issue with the floor was that the tongue edge was tight, but the groove edge was loose. The builder was trying to screw into the groove edge to hold it down. But he underestimated the distance he had to back off from the staples protruding through the subfloor, and ended up screwing into the tongue edge instead.  When I informed him of the situation, it was like someone sucker punched him. All the wind went out of his lungs, and he had to walk away.

He did come back, and we talked about solutions. But his completion of the house will be delayed even further, which made his client unhappier.

So today I'll post a question: How do other inspectors handle the constant flow of unhappy clients and customers? Does it wear on you? Do you take happy pills, and if so, what kind? Do you ever hear good comments and outcomes from your inspections? Or do you just vent to the spouse when you get home, and prepare for another day of inspections?