The Importance Of A Home Inspection

You are interested in purchasing a home but really don't have a lot of experience with the building profession. What are some of the important points you might want to know that you would get from a home inspection?

The concentration of a home inspection is on the 5 major systems in a home, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, roof and foundation. The reason for this is that they are the big ticket items if there were to be major issues with them that needed correction or in some cases replacement.

For instance, if you have an old plumbing system with galvanized supply lines which rust and corrode on the inside, even if you don't see a lot of rust on the outside (if they are 50 years old) they are approaching the time when they will need to be replaced. The same goes for cast iron or galvanized plumbing waste lines.

If you are looking for a house and you have less than 100 amps of electrical power, that is below the minimum standard today for any small size house. There may be older cloth wiring in the system or an old breaker panel or even glass fuses which can pose a safety hazard. You want to know about this and other significant electrical issues.

Your heating and cooling system may be beyond its expected serviceable life of about 20 years for a furnace and 15 years for an air conditioning unit. Perhaps it is a furnace which was known to be a fire hazard and was on a recall list and never removed. They are still out there.

Your foundation may have major crack, drainage issues and settlement which can be very costly depending on the extent and what repairs are needed. Something again you are going to want to know about.

The roof could be poorly installed or it just may be so old that it is time to replace it. This is another costly proposition. If the roof happens to have wood shingles under the top roofing layers in a municipality which requires you to removing it next time it is re-roofed that is an additional cost.

Often the house looks very nice on the inside but if you go into areas that only a home inspector goes you can find significant issues which when added up could be very expensive.

There are potential moisture issues which if not known about may also be a major concern if mold remediation were to be needed.

So these are some of the concerns and reasons why a home inspection is important if you are in the process of purchasing a home. These points can significantly affect the actual value of the house and if your seller does not do anything about them and you purchase the house, you will be ladled with these problems. Then when you go to sell the house if not handled they will only get worse with time.

Once you have the information from a home inspection you can then go over them with your real estate agent and work out a plan as to what issues you want to request the seller handle or often better is to get credit for these issues off the price of the house. This way you are in control and you are not subject to the seller pushing off a band aid handling on you when it needs something more substantial.

You want affordable home improvements when you purchase a house and your home inspection inspector can help put you on the right track. Following that you may want to locate a qualified home improvement contractor.

Hope this helps.

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