Continuing Education for Home Inspectors in the Field

As a science teacher, I have noticed that many of the official home inspection lessons tend to focus on small details and have repetitive exam questions.

But a successful home inspection depends on an understanding of home systems and how they interact. I would expect any lesson to show actual defects on real houses—not schematics or drawings. Providing several excellent inspection reports would go a long way.

Those who have asked to shadow me usually had no construction or component experience. Have you installed a water heater, disposer, new toilet mechanism, flooring, drywall, window, or done any roofing or framing?

The problem-solving skills needed to successfully complete any home repair project are transferable to a successful home inspection. In completing any project, there is often a step where you wonder why you even tried because things are such a mess—like not completely turning off a valve, which ends up flooding the kitchen floor below. (Yes, that was me recently!)

Continuing to Learn on the Job

I view each house as a new experiment and try to stay open to see things I might not have come across before. For example, there was the time someone knocked out a full pane of glass from a sliding door: It looked clear (because nothing was there), but a closer look showed jagged glass around the edges. You have to stay humble; some things will really throw you. In other words, our education is always continuing—unless we get too smug.

Start Outside

Let’s dive more into the house systems. It’s good to start outside because we can decide what needs to be seen inside.

Is the roof intact? How old does it look? The new architectural shingles can last up to 50 years. The new self-sealing underlayment is awesome. Are the gutters clear? Any signs of overflow? Are the downspouts extended? Any wet trim? How is the grading? (Note: Most wet basements simply need surface solutions to fix any problems.) If you see any moisture issues outside, you know where to look in the basement for trouble.

Crawl Spaces

Crawl spaces need special attention: Is there water intrusion, musty air, fallen insulation, mold, open electrical boxes, old pipes, efflorescence on ducts, or raccoon poop?

The best answer to crawl spaces is encapsulation, which switches it to an indoor space instead of an outdoor one; walls get insulated with foam board, vents get covered, antimicrobial vapor barrier covers walls and floor, and an HVAC register gets opened. If such a house is for sale in the summer, the HVAC system needs to stay on all the time. I inspected a new house with an encapsulated crawl space in the summer where they would turn it on only during showings. This resulted in water raining off the ductwork and mold already forming on the wood joists.

Cooling Systems

From the outside you can tell what kind of cooling system the house has and its age. Does the insulation on the low-pressure line look good? If so, that suggests it’s being maintained. Is the AC unit level? If not, the fan will wear out sooner. I had one that sounded like a screaming dinosaur.

Electric, Gas, Water, & More

The electric panel is usually on the inside adjacent to the electric meter. Is there a gas supply for the house? Any leaks? Rusty fittings? What about furnace and water heater PVC ducts?

A high-efficiency gas furnace has two ducts—one for exhaust, the other higher up for air intake. A power vent water heater will only have one PVC exhaust. It’s good if all these ducts have wire mesh over them. I had a mouse crawl into my water heater’s vent and kill the water heater after just two years—an $800 mouse!

Often the furnace ducts have poor drafting, and you will find water and/or efflorescence in the cabinet after a number of years. This is usually fixed by adding a drain along the offending pipe—a clear plastic tube run to the condensate line. By the way, condensate is the word we need to use, not condensation. Condensation is a process: It can’t be seen. It is the opposite of evaporation.

Exterior Touches

Are the bushes and trees well cared for? What about fences? It’s not always easy to tell who owns what fencing.

Driveway and walkways: What condition are they in? Any tripping hazards? How about railings? Are they loose or rusty at the base?

Garage door have any damage? Has the trim deteriorated? How do the windows look? Any efflorescence or condensate? Is paint needed anywhere? Stairs and deck look OK?

Decking

I’m not a fan of large, tall decks. Often, the railings go first, then the ledger; however, the ledger can be made redundant by a new cantilever.

Call out any wood decks more than 25 years old. Painting is the best way to preserve them. Modern paint has come a long way. I just painted my whole fence, and it even adhered to a metal spoon I used to open the cans and has been through the dishwasher many times!

Wood stain peels off in six months and never looks good, in my opinion. I often recommend the deck be replaced with a much lower footprint—say just enough for a café table—and then you can hardscape the ground and not have that wasted space under a big deck anymore.

Another thing to look for is pressed wood siding, which can swell and fall apart. Amazingly, I find houses where it is still in good condition, but it must be called out.

Other Outside Details

Does the chimney have any spalled bricks? If so, they need to be replaced. Does it have spark arrestors? These keep sparks from drifting but also keep the flues dry and critter-free.

I always walk around the exterior at least twice—once alone and once again with the client. I usually see other defects due to the change in light and my focus on less serious issues the second time.

Examining Inside

Inside, I like to start with the basement. I check for any spots where I found potential moisture issues outside. A downspout draining to the corner of a masonry block foundation often shows a triangular mold growth; downspout needs extension and the walls need to be treated with a bleach or hydrogen peroxide mold cleaner, the mycelium and efflorescence needs to be scrubbed free and then waterproofed with Drylok or newer compounds.

Most of the rest of the moisture problems in the basement can be improved through better ventilation. Adding a humidstatic switch to the basement bathroom fan works well, as does adding a return in the basement HVAC system. Dehumidifiers cost $500 a year to run and only remove water from the air, not stink and mold spores.

In some older houses you will find a boiler for heating and a forced air system for cooling. In this case, heating elements can be added to the air handler and the boiler can be phased out, allowing moving and filtered air for heating and cooling throughout the house. Boilers are usually rated for 15 years, and gas furnaces can start leaking CO after 20 years or so.

In the basement, you will often find the water main and hose bib shutoffs, the sump pump, water heater and HVAC system, and sometimes the gas meter. I walk the whole basement first, checking the rafters and flooring for water or insect damage using a powerful flashlight.

Water Woes

Problems with the water main include lead service lines, leaky valves, and leaky pressure regulators. Homes built in the ’80s may have polybutylene pipes, which are usually gray and will need to be replaced due to their tendency to dissolve, usually around hot water fittings.

The water heater should be less than 15 years old and have a TPR discharge tube and a well-supported expansion tank. Expansion tanks have bladders in them that can fail in two years and if installed on vertical pipes can shear off and flood the whole basement. They are designed to accept the extra pressure during the heating cycle. Water expands up to 5% more when heated. You can often gently push the expansion tank to see if it’s full or not. Near the water heater you will often find pinhole leaks on copper pipe due to calcium salts in the water causing galvanic corrosion. The extra pressure will also lead to weeping joints and valves nearby.

Old asbestos tile on basement floors can be covered over with a floating floor. Check the outdoor stair drain and see if there is any evidence of water coming in through the door. Usually, a high-pressure nozzle on a hose is enough to clear those drains.

Highly Used Areas

The living spaces are often pretty easy to inspect because people use them all the time. Windows are the most expensive part of the house, so check them carefully. Original single-paned windows can still be functional if they have been protected by storm windows. Double-pane windows need to be checked for efflorescence (shiny salts) and condensate. If they have either of these, the seal has failed and they need to be replaced. If I see a half-dozen like this, I suggest to the buyer that all of them may need to be replaced soon. Watch out for failed springs, too: The window falls down like a guillotine. I lost a pinky nail that way!

If you see water damage on the ceiling near a register close to the outside wall, it is likely a condensate drip due to cool air from the AC running up to a warm outside wall. In that case, insulating the duct will fix the problem.

The most common leakers in the kitchen are the dishwasher and the refrigerator. All it takes is a few potato peels to make the dishwasher leak, or it could be due to lack of a high loop in the disposer discharge. If from the fridge, check the water line. Disposers are sometimes frozen up. Have a hex wrench handy to crank them free. If that doesn’t work, then a replacement is needed. If there is debris in them, you can clear it with a hemostat—big tweezers.

Fireplaces & More

Fireplaces need to be checked for working dampers and safe operation. Old gas fireplaces are basically open flames. I always recommend replacement with new electric start models or removing the log set and burning wood if in a standard masonry fireplace. If the gas fireplace is unvented then call for it not to be used.

I am not a fan of having any gas in a home. It’s dangerous. I rarely test a gas stove that doesn’t have at least one burner not lighting, so a kid could turn it on and who would smell it before it’s too late? Also, gas stoves have been blamed for more than 600,000 cases of asthma in kids. If any gas appliances are present in the home, then CO detectors must be on every level.

If you have a living space over the garage, you need a CO detector in the garage and the space above. One family was killed when the car was left running in the garage below. The newest smoke detectors are photoelectric models and are less sensitive to cooking odors. Every home should have a permanent radon monitor, whether or not they have a mitigation system.

Bathrooms & More

The most common source of leaks on upper levels is from the tub/shower and floor boundary. The steel tub and tile or linoleum floor boundary consists of dissimilar materials, usually grout versus the flooring. This leaves a nice crack where water can come through. And sometimes wooden quarter round molding is there. If so, the molding needs to be removed and a good bead of silicone caulk laid down. Then the kids can splash away.

Look for loose carpet and broken tiles and damaged wood flooring. Check all the cabinet doors and drawers. Check all plumbing fixtures. Any plumbing fixture more than 25 years old probably has to be replaced. Test all tub spout diverters. Call out poorly working toilet mechanisms. A leaking toilet can waste a swimming pool of water every week. I recommend the new mechanisms that eliminate flappers, which are frequently a defect.

Should you see a colorful stain from above, it may be from a leaky toilet seal; these are often due to renovations that raise the floor level and hence a wax seal won’t seat anymore.

Attics

The attic tells you a lot about the roof and the health of the attic space. If it is poorly ventilated and poorly insulated, or if bathroom fans are vented to the attic, there may be mold. The black streaks around the nails are Penicillium/Aspergillus, the same stuff you find in showers and wet basement corners. White stuff is probably Chaetomium. I’ve seen Chaetomium on wooden joists in basements and crawl spaces and halfway up attic sheathing.

Roofing

The new roofs tell you the fixes: They are high-pitched, have ridge and soffit vents, and have 15 inches of insulation. The thing with insulation is changing the dew point; by the time the inside air goes through 15 inches of insulation, its temperature is not very different from the outside air, so condensate does not form. I always recommend foam boxes over the hatch or stairs. In conclusion, home inspection is a very personal and valuable service. It is an ongoing learning experience, which keeps it exciting. I hope I may have added a bit to your knowledge.