Cold weather is more than just miserable sometimes. It also makes home inspections a little more difficult to perform. Fingers go numb, ladders get slippery and electronic equipment can struggle.
That’s why you need cold weather gear. Winter for certified home inspectors means more than adding a few layers of clothing. High-performance gear helps keep you safer and your expensive equipment in good working order.
Here are a few must-haves for winter 2018:
High-Tech Winter Layers Keep You Warmer and Drier With Less Bulk
Forget everything you know about dressing for cold weather. If you’re not wearing layers, you’re wearing too much and still not staying warm enough.
High-tech winter weather clothing consists of several thin layers, each one with a specific purpose. Together, they let you customize the way you face winter’s worst. They’re much more comfortable than wearing thick, bulky clothing and they keep you warmer, too.
- Base layer: where you keep skin dry. Choose thin, lightweight, moisture-wicking knit fabric in natural or high-performance synthetic fibers.
- Mid-layer: climate control to hold in warmth. Light- or medium-weight fleece stretches and keeps you warm without creating an oven underneath.
- Shell layer: protection against biting winds, driving rain and bitter snow. Waterproof breathable fabrics really do exist and they’re perfect for letting sweat sick away while blocking out moisture from the outside.
- Puffy layer: some days, you might be better off staying in bed. But if you have to work outdoors on the coldest and most miserable day of the year, you need a puffy jacket. Natural down is a great insulator.
Gloves shouldn’t come between you and your mobile home inspection reporting app.
Touch Screen Gloves Help Your Mobile Device Work Properly
More and more home inspectors use a mobile device with a home inspection reporting software app. It’s convenient, you’ll never worry about losing a pen and you can send the finalized report from your vehicle before heading to the next inspection. It’s also useless if your fingers can’t connect with the touchscreen. Enter touchscreen compatible gloves.
Touch screens need the tiny zap of electricity that comes from your fingertips. That’s how tapping the screen makes things like phone calls, typing and texting work. Unfortunately, gloves interfere with that transfer of electricity from your hands to the screen. Touchscreen gloves create a workaround.
Metal woven into the glove fingertips lets the charge pass through the gloves and to the mobile device. You can find touchscreen compatibility in everything from thin driving gloves to heavy winter gloves packed with down.
If you use a drone, you need extra protection against wintertime battery drain.
A USB Battery Pack Picks up When Drone Batteries Tank
How great is it to start up a drone and let it do the awful work of scaling a steep roof? In winter when ice and snow are an issue, you’ll probably learn to appreciate drone technology even more. That is until the batteries fail and you’re left with an expensive, propelled paperweight.
One of the most important things you can pack along with your drone kit is at least one USB battery pack. It can keep your home inspections on track when winter has other plans.
According to Drone Enthusiast, cold weather can make batteries “act differently.” If you don’t have a backup plan, you might have to pack up and inspect the roof later. Worse, you might have to pull out the ladder and scale the roof the old-fashioned way.
In many parts of the country, home inspections slow down a bit along with the slower pace of the real estate industry. But when you do have to go outside, the last thing you need are frozen fingers and toes, a mobile device that doesn’t know you’re there and a drone that conks out too soon.
If you live where winter weather is bitter, now is the time to plan for it. Tools aren’t just screwdrivers, electrical testers, and a flashlight. Sometimes, the most important tools are the ones that keep you safe from the elements and your equipment operational.
If you’re looking for a clean, professional home inspection reporting app, Report Form Pro was designed for you. It’s made for work with no unnecessary frills and every feature that you need. Download the home inspection app for Android or get it for your iPhone today.