Seese Pro ad: A Home Inspector's Confession About Your Front Steps

I inspected houses for 29 years before they were sold. Roofs, furnaces, foundations, wiring. Somewhere north of 6,000 homes. And there's one line I wrote in more reports than any other. "Handrail at front steps: loose. Recommend securing." I want to tell you what I finally figured out about that handrail. Because I'd been looking at it wrong for 29 years, and I didn't see it until I was 65 and standing on my own steps with a broom. The handrail tells you everything Here's something they don't teach you in inspector school. You can tell how people live in a house by looking at the handrail. Look at the picture at the top of this page. That's the rail on my own front steps. See where the paint is gone? That's 31 years of hands. Mine, my wife's, the kids', the mailman's. People grab a rail in the same spot every single time, and the paint wears right off. Every house I inspected had that worn spot. Every one. And every October, on almost every house, the steps had leaves on them and nobody's hand was on that rail. I never asked why. I just wrote "recommend securing" and moved on to the gutters. Thursday, October 23rd, last year. 4:35 in the afternoon. My name is Frank. I'm 66. I live in a brick house outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with my wife, Carol, five concrete front steps, eight wooden steps off the back deck, and two big pin oaks that cover all of them from the first week of October until Thanksgiving. That Thursday, Carol had texted me from the grocery store: "Home in 20. A lot of bags." So at 4:35 I went out front with the push broom to get the leaves off the steps before she got home. I started at the top step. Both hands on the broom. Pushed the leaves down to the next step. Took a step down. Both hands on the broom. Pushed them down again. On the third step, I stopped. I was standing on a step covered in dry oak leaves, bent over a broom, with both hands on the handle. And six inches from my hip was a handrail I had told 6,000 families to keep tight. Nobody's hand was on it. Mine certainly wasn't. I didn't have one to spare. The thing nobody says out loud Here's what I'd been missing. Every tool we own for leaves takes two hands. - The push broom. Two hands, bent over, walking down the steps backwards or sideways. - The rake. Two hands. And on a step, a rake just pulls the leaves into a pile you have to pick up. - The big gas blower. Too heavy for one hand. The backpack ones you carry on your back down the steps, and you still have to start them with a pull cord first. - The handheld gas blower. Lighter, but not light. Pull start, gas mix, and after a few minutes your forearm is shaking. - The shop vac. Cord, hose, the canister bumping down the steps behind you, both hands busy. - Leaving them. Which is what most people end up doing. I saw it on a thousand front steps. None of these tools are bad. They were just all designed for flat ground. Nobody designed a leaf tool for steps, where you want one hand free. I call it the Two-Hand Tool problem. Once you see it, you can't stop seeing it. How I found out it doesn't have to be that way: Dot's steps Dot was one of my clients years ago. She's 77 now, widowed, and she still lives alone in a little house with a tall front stoop, seven steps up from the sidewalk. I stop by a couple times a year to look at things for her. That Saturday I went over to check a gutter. Dot was out on her steps when I pulled up. Coming down slowly. Left hand on the rail. And in her right hand, held at her waist and pointed down at the step in front of her, was a little lime-green thing about the size of a hair dryer. The leaves were rolling off the side of each step onto the lawn. One step. Next step. Next step. Her left hand never left the rail. I sat in the car and watched her do all seven. When I got out, she said, "My granddaughter sent it. I couldn't push a broom on these steps anymore, Frank. I tried." Why it works: you carry the groceries in one hand Think about how you go up the stairs with groceries. You don't carry two bags up a staircase if you can help it. You take one bag. And your other hand goes on the rail. Nobody taught you that. You just do it. Now think about every leaf tool you own. All of them are two bags. What Dot had was one bag. It's 2.1 pounds. She held it in one hand at her waist, pointed down, standing up straight. No tube, nothing to attach, no cord to trip over on the steps, no gas, no pull start. You press the trigger. So the other hand goes where it naturally goes. On the rail. That's the Rail Hand. Not a trick, not a technique. It's just what your body already does when it has a hand to spare. What surprised me about the thing itself I expected a toy. Inspectors are skeptical people. Dot let me try it on her bottom step. It has a brushless motor spinning over 30,000 RPM, and when you press the trigger, you feel it. The maker says up to 1,200 CFM and over 200 mph of air. I don't have a lab and I won't swear to the numbers. I'll tell you it moved every dry oak leaf on that step in a couple of seconds. I need to be straight with you about one thing It's for dry leaves. If your steps have been under a wet mat of leaves for two weeks, that's broom work, and I'll tell you so. But if you get to them while they're dry, it does the job, and it does it with one hand. What happened when I got my own I ordered one that night. It came from a US warehouse and was on my porch in four business days. Day 1. The front steps. Left hand on the rail, top to bottom, leaves off the side of each step onto the lawn. Took about as long as it takes to read this paragraph. Day 2. The eight back deck steps. Those are the ones I'd always dreaded. Wooden, a little steep, leaves in every corner. Same thing. Hand on the rail the whole way down. Day 5. Carol did the front steps herself before her book club came over. In 38 years she has never once touched my gas blower. She didn't ask me how this one worked. Day 9. The garage steps and the walk. Two minutes. Day 14. Light snow overnight. I cleared the front steps with it before I went for the paper, hand on the rail. The part I didn't plan to tell you The next Thursday, Carol texted again from the store. "Home in 20." I went out at 4:50 this time, no hurry. Did the front steps with my left hand on the rail. Went back inside. Put the kettle on. When Carol pulled in, the steps were clear. She came up them with a bag in each arm and didn't look down once. She didn't have to. She came through the door and said, "Did you already do the steps?" I said, "Ten minutes ago." She put the bags on the counter, came over, and put her hand on my shoulder for a second. Didn't say anything else. Didn't need to. Thirty-eight years. I know what that means. What I'd tell you now, as a guy who wrote "secure the handrail" 6,000 times Your handrail is only worth something if you have a hand free to hold it. Every October, give yourself that hand. The details, so you can decide for yourself - 2.1 lb, held in one hand, at your waist. The company says it's 3x lighter than standard blowers. - Brushless motor, over 30,000 RPM. Up to 1,200 CFM and 200+ mph of air, according to the maker. - No cord, no gas, no pull start. Press the trigger, done. - Ships from warehouses in the USA, delivered in 3 to 5 business days. - 30-day returns from the day it arrives. If it doesn't earn its hook by your front door, send it back. - Lifetime warranty when you order on seesepro.com. Not on third-party sites, so order from the real store. - More than 20,000 sold, rated 4.9 stars by buyers. - Save 55% on the official site right now. One more thing, because I've watched a lot of autumns go by from a lot of front porches. Everybody needs a leaf tool at the same time of year. The US warehouse ships what it has, and when the page says it's out, it's out until the next shipment comes in. I'm not going to make up a deadline. I'll just tell you that when I told my sister about it in November, she had to wait for the next batch. The leaves are on your steps right now. 👉 Tap below to see the Seese Pro do a set of steps with one hand, and get 55% off on the official site.