Pioneer in home-inspections business has active retirement plan (including reviving psychology practice)

John Woodmansee

John Woodmansee

Woodmansee works on a balky tub faucet for a Shepherd’s Center client. Woodmansee is also a former associate professor of psychology.

John Woodmansee

John Woodmansee

Home inspector John Woodmansee worked out of the back of his SUV for over 30 years as “The Home Inspector” in Winston-Salem before retiring and selling the business .

John Woodmansee

John Woodmansee

John Woodmansee, formerly “The Home Inspector,” now does home repairs as a Shepherd’s Center volunteer.

John Woodmansee

John Woodmansee

Retired home inspector John Woodmansee takes his tool bag from the back of his SUV as he makes a house call to fix a balky shower.



House Tips

These are a few of John Woodmansee’s tips on what homebuyers and homeowners should watch for in their homes:

  • Water is the enemy. Almost every home with wood trim at windows and doors has rot somewhere. Protect wood from water standing on it.
  • Rainwater must drain away from the foundation.
  • Have a termite inspection every year, especially as the home ages.
  • Breakers are more friendly than electrical fuses. Look for ground fault protection for plugs and lights near plumbing fixtures and where you might stand on the soil or a wet floor.
  • Gas, oil, and wood furnaces and heaters produce poisonous gases. Be wary of exhaust spillage and faulty operation. Make sure, for example, that a gas log fireplace is safe.

About Jim Woodmansee

*Age: 84

*Hometown: Glen Ellyn, Ill.

*Education: Bachelor’s degree from Westminster College in 1958, master’s from University of Denver in 1962 and doctorate from University of Colorado in 1965.

* Experience: He worked a variety of jobs from his early years through college, including as an electrical contractor and hardware store clerk as a teenager; nursing attendant for Missouri State Hospital interim minister for a Presbyterian church; and assistant chaplain at Denver University from 1959 to 1962. He was an associate professor in the psychology department at Wake Forest University from 1965 to 1978. He trained in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1955 as an electronics specialist with nuclear weapons. He has worked in private practice as a clinical psychologist and builder. He owned The Home Inspector, a home inspections business from 1985 to 2015.

* Family: Formerly married and has three grown children. He is a co-founder of the Piedmont Program, a project that offered encounter group experience and training for group leaders.

Posted: Monday, January 25, 2016 12:00 am

Pioneer in home-inspections business has active retirement plan (including reviving psychology practice)

By Fran Daniel Winston-Salem Journal

greensboro.com

WINSTON-SALEM — John Woodmansee has been called by some in his profession the grandfather or godfather of home inspections in the Triad because of his experience in the industry.

“I don’t know about the godfather,” said Woodmansee, who is 84. “It sounds like a gangster, and I don’t feel like a grandfather, either.”

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Monday, January 25, 2016 12:00 am.

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