Home Inspection Checklist – Things a Home Inspector Looks for

When you are thinking about selling or buying a property or especially when you want a professional to come in for a home inspection, checklists can prove to be a very useful tool. It is true that no home is perfect. No matter how deeply you care about your property or how well you maintain it all the time, there can always be defects that come up when inspected by a pair of trained eyes. However, you need not worry about these defects. Instead, you should focus on minimizing the problems that might get highlighted when the officials pays a visit. Besides, having a smart professional home inspection checklist at hand can help you sort out minor issues well in advance. This in turn, won’t make it to the official report prepared during a certified home inspection.

So, what is on A Home Inspection Checklist?

When you are in Gainesville FL, a home inspector evaluation is all about getting a reality check about any property irrespective of whether you are the buyer or the seller of the said property. During a professional home inspection, the housing structure is evaluated, both visually and physically. Every aspect from the foundation all the way up to the roof is covered during this process. Home inspection officials also tend to discuss the quality of construction as well as the quality of maintenance and repair works that the building has undergone. In addition, their home inspection checklist can be very extensive, covering all sorts of details that you may not have considered, especially if this is the first time you call for a certified home inspection.

Let’s delve into a few points that clarify what is on a home inspection checklist.

1. Safety Considerations

To begin with a professional home inspection checklist covers the safety aspects of the property. This is to ensure that the place poses no threat to the inhabitants or neighbors in any way. So, the home inspection checklist can comprise of evaluating the following:

• Ground Fault Interrupters: These are designed to offer protection in spaces like bathrooms and kitchens. They are basically the plugs offering protection from electric shocks.
• Smoke Detectors: In order to reduce fire hazards, your smoke detectors should be working in prime condition at all times. So, this is one of the most important aspects that appear on a home inspection checklist. The inspectors also take note of how well these smoke detectors are installed, their placement as well as their numbers with respect to the overall area of the property.
• Safety Glass: The inspectors take note of how well the glass partitions or doors are installed, whether or not they are made of tempered glass, their quality, their position etc.
• Stairwells: Things like the presence and sturdiness of railings and guard-rails, the position and height-uniformity of the steps etc are some of the safety considerations that need to be evaluated during a professional home inspection.

2. Basements and Crawl-Spaces

These spaces are evaluated to rule out health hazards that might be detrimental to the inhabitants or the construction itself. The reason this makes it to a professional home inspection checklist is because these spaces can become hosts for mildew and black mold. Alternatively, they could also be sources of leakage that may damage the walls, the plumbing or even the foundation of the house.  Inspectors in Gainesville observe if the gutters are clean, the drainage downspouts, water flow etc.

3. Plumbing, Power Supply and HVAC

No professional home inspection checklist is complete without a home’s major systems. Right from heating and air-conditioning to plumbing and electricals, the professionals take note of every detail. A few points that are always of particular interest to the inspectors are:

• Is there good airflow in every room?
• Does the plumbing supply enough water to the house?
• Are the electrical sockets properly installed?
• Is there enough power supply to the house?
• How good are the water and power outlets?
• How is the water pressure? Etc.

4. The Roof

The next important area on home inspection checklists is the roof. The home inspector FL look for moss growth or leakage. They also check if the openings or vents are functioning and installed well. They may also evaluate the quality and longevity of the roof. Based on these observations, they may suggest whether or not your roof needs some serious repair work any time soon.

5. Fireplaces and Sewers

These areas need to be inspected with the help of special equipment so as to rule out possible fire hazards or damage-causing concerns. In many cases, a professional may even recommend to call a specialized fireplace inspector who can work as per the regulations of the National Fire Protection Association. They make use of special cameras to scope out the interior of the chimney and flute as well.

In case of the sewers, the whole system might have to be video scoped, going all the way through holes, pipes, and other attachments running under the yard, all the way to the main street! This of course also depends on how old the house is and how well the initial stages of the inspection turn out.

6. Ventilation

This is more or less one of the final categories that are covered in a home inspection checklist. Every house needs proper vents, water heaters, clothes dryers and the like. An absence or a weakening of these can lead to the build-up of toxic gases which in turn can turn out to be a ticking time bomb! So, it is essential that a home inspection services evaluates the natural gas appliances, water heaters and other such amenities to ensure the safety of the house as well as the neighborhood.

It is true that a home inspection report can list a dozen problems that you may not agree with. That is why being aware of what goes into a general home inspection checklist can help you be prepared in advance. You can take care of the minor problems in advance so that when the professionals arrive, they don’t have much to complain about.