What does a Home Inspector Check?

While going on a house hunt, it is very easy to fall in love with the various properties that you check. There will be many colours, layouts and ambiences that would catch your attention to serve as a potential house. However, before you come to a firm decision about choosing the house you want, you might want to consider taking the help of a well- established house Inspection Corporation. A good home inspector can easily discuss with you the maintenance of your house, the quality and strength of the construction, and every other thing that your eyes might have missed. It is also recommended that potential buyers attend house inspections. Some of the basic things that the Long Island home inspectors check in a house are –

What Home Inspectors Look For

1. The ‘Envelope’ of the House 

No matter how old the house is, it is essential that the house has a proper envelope to guard the construction and keep it protected from the changing weather and certain rains and showers. The inspector will take a walk through the property to observe the drainage. He will look for fissures in the building and inspect the rain gutters, roof, as well as the windows.

2. Major Systems

The examiner will inspect the home’s systems, from plumbing and electrical to air conditioning and heating. Mentioned below are a few of the points that an inspector will cover:

• Plumbing: The assessor will check to make sure that the plumbing provides sufficient water to the house and sanitations the way it’s supposed to. This is where you discover if you have satisfactory water flow and compression.
• Heating and air:  The inspector will also check how well the heating and cooling system works, if they provide heating and cooling consistently to the whole area, if the airflow is good in every room, et cetera.
• Electrical: An inspector will validate that your electrical structure delivers enough power for the home and that it’s grounded and installed correctly. They’ll also make sure that there are enough outlets.

3. Basic Safety Checklist

For a home inspector, the first thing that deserves the utmost importance is the safety of the people living in the house. To make sure that the house is prepared for any kind of emergency, the home inspectors check that the smoke detectors are present, in a working condition and also available in the required places. They also check that there are ground fault interrupters that are plugs which protect from getting electric shocks, safety glasses installed near stairs or showers, et cetera.

4. Signs a Specialist Needs

There are some areas in the house that needs to be checked a bit more carefully than the others, often by a professional with expert equipment. Here are two standout areas:

• Fireplaces: It is important that you scope out the fireplace too along with the entire chimney. A professional home inspector would want to see that the fireplaces and the chimney doesn’t have any condition that would be referred to as hazardous in case of causing fires.  
• Sewers: Septic glitches are one of the most costly repairs in an old house, and it’s concealed beneath your lawn. If you’re purchasing a house that has sewer facility, you should call in a professional to have the entire system video scoped. A video inspection goes through the holes, pipes and other areas.

5. Venting, Water Heater Temps

• For safety purposes, a house requires proper air circulation for natural gas applications such as water heaters, heaters, and clothes dryers.
• While many of the mentioned appliances have safety features, a specialised inspector will make sure that the safety equipment is correctly enabled.
•  The inspector will check that clothes dryers are appropriately expelled to expel hot air and catch lint, which aids in preventing house fires.