Interior
The interior of the home includes all the various rooms and
related items, which are not covered in other aspects of your home
inspection on the interior of the dwelling. Some items may overlap
such as bathrooms and plumbing, rooms and electrical, and so on. The
professional inspector will go through each and every room including
all visible and accessible areas of your new home. This is a very
important part of your home inspection because symptoms of larger
problems are often visible in the various rooms of your home.
Settling can be noticed in the floors and walls. Roof or plumbing
leaks may be noticed on the ceilings. Poor quality workmanship on
mechanical distributions such as outlets and heat convection may be
visible. Your inspector will go through each room making notes of
relevant defects. Although most cosmetic items, such as worn paint
and old carpeting, are not important, they often indicate a general
lack of maintenance in the home. Very few homeowners have badly worn
carpet and peeling paint, but they have maintained the much more
expensive mechanical and structural components. When a home is in
need of a lot of cosmetic work your inspector has already seen a red
flag. Recently performed cosmetic work is also carefully inspected
to try to determine if it has been done to conceal deeper, more
extensive problems. An older home with brand new carpet and paint
throughout is often a home that was neglected until resale. Very
often the sellers are advised or take it upon themselves to
cosmetically repair and upgrade as much as possible to increase the
value and curb appeal of the property. Usually these upgrades are
done with cost effectiveness in mind and may also be an attempt to
mask major problems.
Bathrooms
The bathrooms of the home can be one of the most expensive areas
to replace or refurbish. With simple maintenance, such as caulking
and grouting of tub and shower areas, expensive repairs can be
avoided. Many future homeowners badly underestimate the cost of
bathroom replacement because of the underlying defects, which
require repairs. A well maintained, but outdated bathroom can
often be updated at a reasonable cost by replacing wallpaper,
shower doors, sink vanity and other minor items. An item as small
as a dripping valve inside a wall left un-repaired can be the
difference between a $500 upgrade and a $5,000 one! When bathroom
replacement is undertaken, it is advisable to change the wallboard
and carefully inspect the sub-floor, electric and the plumbing.
The inspector will carefully check all areas including the tub and
shower areas and around the toilet in particular. These areas are
more prone to hidden water damage. The inspector will advise you
of visible defects and alert you to potential hidden defects such
as leaking shower pans, which can only be checked in a limited
capacity by him/her. Bathrooms are a favorite place for homeowners
to make cosmetic repairs, which mask underlying problems. The
inspector is always very suspicious of recent cosmetic work
performed in the bathroom area.
The
kitchen of a home is often considered the heart and soul. This is
where the majority of the American public spends most of their
time when indoors and not sleeping. Kitchens, which were installed
using sub-standard materials and products, will be a source of
expensive future upgrades. Poor quality or worn cabinets and
counters may require expensive upgrading or repair. Complete
kitchen replacement is very expensive. It is normal to spend more
than $10,000 on a new kitchen! Recent cosmetic repairs will be
looked at carefully to determine the quality of work and whether
or not they were done to mask a more serious problem. The
inspector will look for water damage around the sink, dishwasher
and refrigerator as well as for safety hazards.
The walls, ceilings, and floors of the home can be covered by a
wide variety of materials and divide the home into individual
rooms and areas. Many of the walls in a home can often support
floors or other portions of the home above. Future homebuyers
often ask if they can remove a wall or if it must stay. The
inspector normally can tell what walls are load bearing and which
are partition and removable. Your professional home inspector will
be on alert to carefully check for areas where it appears
load-bearing walls have been altered or removed. This must be done
using good structural design and professional workmanship.
Ceilings are inspected for leaks from plumbing or roofs as well as
for safe installations. Heavy old plaster ceilings can be a hazard
when cracked and worn. Floors are, of course, looked at carefully
for sagging and unevenness. Uneven floors may indicate major
problems in the home. The majority of the home's most important
parts are between the floors, ceilings and walls, and they are not
visible for inspection. This is why it is so important to inspect
the condition of these areas for indications of larger potential
problems in the dwelling.
For in-depth information on other areas
of your home, click on a section below.