TOPIC: Sam Pell report

Its time for my review. Let me know what you think and be harsh.

A few quick comments, most of which are probably preference-based.

There is no "Summary Page". This is a preference choice probably, but there are undoubtedly those who simply want the 'Cliff Notes' of the report or just want a quick overall assessment of deficiencies.

To me personally, using brown to highlight deficiency comments doesn't draw enough attention to those comments. I know red is almost universally used, but it just seems too easy to gloss over the salient defects by coloring them in brown.

I would have extended the glossary highlights to cover things like TPR (for instance), and several other universal abbreviations. Not every home buyer or real estate agent knows what these terms stand for.

On page 39 there is a photo of a receptacle tester showing an open ground. I would assume from the lack of a deficiency comment, that the house is of an age when a ground wasn't required for receptacles (even though the service panel appears to be a recent addition, that doesn't always mean the entire house gets upgraded wiring). The photo angle doesn't make it obvious if it's a two or three-prong outlet. Three-prong outlets with non-grounded wiring are a definite no-no in my area. Perhaps stating the age of the home in the Intro would be of help in understanding such photos. And btw, if a house has older wiring without the ground, I always make a point that installing a separate ground wire, or a jumper from the neutral to a grounding terminal (which is code acceptable in my area) along with 3-prong receptacles, might be something to consider.

Nice flow to the report, and easy to understand and follow.  

Thanks for the input. I do include a summary for my clients, I just felt that I wouldn't need it here.
I use red and brown for the deficiencies which all go in the summary. I use red for the items that are more serious ( life,safety issues, larger expense etc. ) and felt brown for the lesser (IMHO) deficiencies is easier on the eyes.
I'll look at the photo, this house had just been rewired and I was finding open grounds everywhere.
I don't like to make suggestions on how to make repairs and always defer to the trades for that. I wouldn't want someone taking on something they are not capable of doing correctly. Most of the people I deal with here are white shirts with soft hands.

this house had just been rewired and I was finding open grounds everywhere

That can only mean one of a few things. Perhaps the circuits with open grounds were not replaced when the rework was done (most likely candidate); you can remove the cover from the main panel to see if any original wiring is still in place, although that still doesn't completely preclude the presence of older wiring further downstream. You can check that by removing outlet cover plates where you find open grounds and looking behind the receptacle for old wiring.

If the outlets are 2-prong, and 12/2 or 14/2 w/ground was brought to the outlet (not likely because your tester is one designed for 3-prong outlets). The wiring is new but because the receptacle wasn't upgraded as well, you'll still get an open ground reading.

A problem with the main panel ground. The photo on pg14 shows the ground connection to the plumbing. The piping and ground clamp appear to be corroded. Wire size is most often #6 CU, but some areas require that to be #4. If the copper plumbing connects to a non-metallic service feed from the street, then the system is ungrounded.

I would've recommended an evaluation by a qualified electrician to check for the proper system grounding if the visual inspection of the main panel showed that all the older branch wiring had been replaced, and visual inspection of the open ground outlets showed that NM-B wire had been installed.