- Brandon Reece
Most Commonly Found Inspection Items
Updated: Mar 5, 2021
In the next several posts we are going to take a closer look at some of the more commonly found issues in a home inspection, and what that should mean to you the buyer or seller of a home.
Often as home inspectors we find items that commonly overlooked by home owners. This series of articles is going to take a look at each of these items so that you can better understand why each of these might show up in a residential inspection report. Some of these are easy repairs that the average home owner can make with a little YouTube help, while others are best left a a professional to remedy.
The top five areas we are going to focus on are:
Roofing and Drainage
Electrical
Plumbing
HVAC
General Maintenance
Roofing and Drainage
Roofing leaks are often the number one concern most home buyers have, and with good reason. They can lead mold, mildew, and even structural damage if not addressed properly.
The most commonly found roof and drainage items found during a home inspection are:
Worn and damaged shingles
Improper flashing
Exposed nail heads
Improper drainage
Improper ground slope
Electrical
Electrical systems can be scary for an average home owner, and their repairs are often best left to a professional. In this series we will discuss what you might encounter in a your home inspection and what that should mean to you as a home owner. Some items are simple, inexpensive repairs, while others can be costly and time consuming.
The most commonly found electrical items in a home inspection are:
Missing GFCI protection
Open/ungrounded outlets
Double tapped breakers
Missing box covers
Knob and tube wiring
Plumbing
Plumbing issues found during a home inspection are often a result from lack of maintenance or improper repairs made by the home owner. These items can often be repaired by the average home owner who spends a little time researching the subject.
The most commonly found plumbing items in a home inspection are:
Leaking faucets or drains
Loose toilets
Improper drainage setup
Slow drainage
HVAC
The home's heating and cooling system is not only an expensive piece of the property, it is an important one! The last thing a new home owner wants is to find out that their system is not working properly on a holiday weekend in the middle of the night. Often, these repairs can be prevented with general home owner maintenance and regularly scheduled preventative maintenance performed by a licensed HVAC technician.
The most commonly found HVAC items in a home inspection are:
Dirty or missing air filters
General lack of maintenance
Unlevel exterior AC unit
General Maintenance
This item, while it concerns the entire property, is often overlooked by home owners. Prevention can go a long way in keeping your home in proper working order, and it can often allow home owners to find issues early on before a system fails.
The most commonly found general maintenance items in a home inspection are:
Peeling/missing paint/stain and caulking
Broken windows and screens
Window panes with broken seals
Not sealing asphalt driveways
Not having system replacement plans in place
While this may seem like a lot of items, most homes only have a few of these to worry about at the time of the inspection. What I hope to reinforce is that these items are often preventable with a regularly scheduled maintenance plan. If it has been a while since you have performed these tasks on your house, and you don't know where to start, give us a call and we can perform a home inspection so that you can have a list of items to start working on!
Come back next week when we dive deeper into our first section, roofing and drainage, and take a closer look at what each of these items means.