Having your home inspected will give you peace of mind in knowing that your home, or the home you are purchasing is safe, sturdy and sound.  In fact, having a professional home inspector access your home is well worth the cost and is even required by most lenders before approving financing for a home purchase.

Home inspectors will access your home’s overall condition and report and identify any problems found.  He will list his findings in a report along with photographic evidence of each, and may even walk through with the home owner to bring each problem to their attention.

Ancillary Services

Many home inspections companies also offer ancillary services in addition to the standard inspection.  These services may include tests for asbestos, radon, mold, and lead, along with water and air quality.  A test can even be performed to evaluate the amount of heat loss from the house using thermal imaging.  This helps home owners reduce heating and cooling bills.

Who Needs A Home Inspection

Sellers-If you are trying to sell your home, you should consider having it inspected.  This will let you know beforehand what repairs you need to make to your home, and help you sell your home faster.

Buyers- If you are trying to purchase a home an inspection will alert you of any unnoticed and possibly unsafe conditions.  You don’t want to purchase a home just to learn that you will need to spend thousands of dollars in costly repairs to be able to live in it!  You may decide you don’t want to purchase the home any longer, or use the inspection as a negotiating point to get a better deal.

Homeowners- So maybe you aren’t interested in selling or buying a home.  Well homeowners can also benefit from a home inspection.  There is no better way to ensure that your home is a safe and healthy environment for you and your family.  You will know exactly where you should focus your attention when doing repairs, maintenance, and renovations.  It is also a very wise thing to do before refinancing your home.

Everyone can benefit from a quality home inspection.  And of course, the best home inspections provide you with a comprehensible, truthful, and easy-to-understand report on the current condition of the home you’re interested in.

When you need a home inspected you want to be sure you are placing your trust in the best company around.  How to you know if your home inspector is competent and trustworthy?  Well a quality home inspection must be performed accordingly to industry specific standards.  Your inspection should check the following, which should be included in all quality home inspections.

Roof- Your inspector should check the roof’s general structure and overall condition, including checking the flashings, gutters, and downspouts.  He may also check for vegetation that may prevent proper drainage away from the home.

Exterior of the home- Your inspector will also check for any damage to the home’s siding, flashings, brick, or other wall coverings.  He will check to ensure that all doors and windows open, shut, and lock.  Also, porches, handrails, steps and decks will be checked for rotting and overall condition.

Foundation-A competent inspector knows how to spot signs of shifting or cracking in your home’s foundation.  He will check to see if the door frames still seem square, and he will look for any signs of water damage.

Heating and Cooling Systems- Your inspector will access the home’s heating and cooling systems and will check the age, model, type, and energy rating as well as the system’s overall working condition.

Plumbing- Home inspectors also check your plumbing for problems or damage.  By accessing the water pressure and drainage efficiency in the home’s sinks, tubs and toilets and water heater, he will determine if everything is in proper working order.

Electrical and Wiring- Your service drop, meter enclosure, emergency disconnects and service panel will all be evaluated.  Breakers and fuse boxes, smoke detectors, switches, fixtures, and outlets will all be tested and GFCI’s will be verified.

Ventilation and Insulation- Your inspector will also analyze the condition and presence of insulations in accessible areas.  He will also inspect the ventilation for blockages and other problems.

Finally, your inspector will evaluate the condition of plaster, drywall, moldings, staircases, railings, as well as interior doors and windows.  He will test the garage door, look for cracks in the flooring, and even inspect the condition of the driveway.

Schedule a home inspection today and you will feel much better about the home you live in.

Home inspections are very common when people are deciding on whether or not to purchase a home. If you are selling yours, the odds are high that the potential buyer will have a home inspector check out the house before they close on it. The potential buyer may hire someone to do a very detailed home inspection. It is not that uncommon for radon inspections in Cincinnati to occur, or termite inspections when someone is deciding to buy a home, but normally it will be a more general inspection. Luckily there are several things you can do yourself to make sure your home will pass this general home inspection with flying colors. Here are three important ones.

Things To Work On Before A Home Inspection

1. Start At The Very Top

A home inspector will closely examine a home from top to bottom. So let’s start at the top. The roof must be in good condition. You probably already think your roof is if you have had no problems with leaks over the years, but you should still check. Any shingles that are damaged or appear to be falling apart should be immediately replaced. If you spot wet or rotting spots underneath any shingles you might as well start repairing them, because the buyer is going to ask you too anyways when he receives the home inspection report.

2. Get Your Plumbing In Order

Another area home inspectors pay special attention to is a home’s plumbing. Again, you may think that everything is already in good working order, but bad water pressure in one sink, or a leak in some faucet you may never use, are both the types of problems a homeowner can forget about over the years. Make sure that your water pressure is up to standards by turning on all your faucets and flushing your toilet at the same time. Go over every single faucet to make sure there are no leaks. If you do find a small leak determine if it’s a do it yourself type job, or if you need to call a plumber.

3. Make Sure Electrical Systems Are Good

A thorough inspection of a home’s electrical systems is going to be one of the major things a home inspector does when grading a house. You know your home, and are probably already aware of any outlets that don’t work, or damaged wiring in any parts of the house. If you know of problems like this get them fixed immediately. A bad electrical report during home inspections is a major deal breaker for buyers. Make sure that the electric panel and circuit breakers are adequate for the home, with no circuits overloaded, and that bathrooms and kitchen have the proper ground fault circuit interrupters.

You’ll know about any big problems with your own home. Make sure you take care of them before the home inspection. But also make sure to check the roof, plumbing, and electrical system thoroughly even if you haven’t noticed any recent problems. A home inspection that goes well can be the difference between selling your home at the price you like, or not selling it at all.

A home inspector does his or her best to try to find problems that could prove harmful to a homeowner. While some potential problems and hazards may be visible to the naked eye, other problems may not be easy to detect with the naked eye. These include thing like radon and termites. Radon inspections in Cincinnati often turn up nothing dangerous, and termite inspections can vary from area to area, but a thorough inspection for both must be done by the home inspector to protect the current or soon to be homeowner. Both of these problems can prove quite harmful. Let’s take a look at each now.

Radon

Radon is a radioactive chemical gas which can be found naturally in rock, soil, and water throughout the world. Every square mile of surface soil, to a depth of 6 inches, contains about 1 gram of radium. This radium radon in small amounts into the earth’s atmosphere. Radon is a carcinogen, which can lead to lung cancer. Although there is technically no safe level of radon exposure, because any exposure at all could cause some risk of cancer, the more of it there is, the more dangerous it becomes. Oftentimes radon may collect in homes through pores and cracks in concrete or through the floors over ventilated crawl spaces. Wet ground often lets radon release faster through the soil. Radon exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking, and thousands of people die from lung cancer brought on by radon exposure each year. Radon is especially dangerous because it is tasteless, colorless, and odorless.

A home inspector will test a home for radon during home inspections. If radon is found to be above acceptable levels in the house, action will be taken to bring the levels down to an acceptable level. This is usually a simple process and may include sealing cracks in floors, sealing cracks and pores in walls, and or installing unobtrusive systems that can remove radon from crawl spaces, concrete floors, and basement slabs.

Termites

Home inspectors will also check for termites. Although termites can prove beneficial in nature, their presence in a home can be disastrous over time. They love to eat wood, which is great for forest ecosystems, as termites will eat dead trees, making space for new trees to grow. When they find their food source in the lumber of homes these tiny insects can cause a lot of damage. Billions of dollars are spent each year to treat and protect homes from termites. Not only can termites cause structural damage to homes, they can also get into food, destroy furniture, and eat up books. Although a home inspector may be able to determine if a home has a termite problem, only a successful pest control specialist will be able to treat the problem.

A home inspector checks for things that can be dangerous to a home, and sometimes the homeowner himself can spot trouble areas as well. But when it comes to invisible hazards like radon, and termite detection, a skilled home inspector will often detect things the homeowner cannot.

The outside Air Conditioning Unit to your home should have good air flow around it.  One job as a Cincinnati home inspector is to evaluate whether the unit has this, as this is very important to allow the unit to operate at peak efficiency.  In this photo you can see that weeds and vegetation have overgrown the unit and it has little to no airflow.  Maintain at least a 6 inch clearance around all sides of the AC unit, and several feet above it to allow heat to blow off the coils.

While you probably aren?t looking to become an expert on foundation and concrete issues, a few basic pointers regarding this may help you to better educate your buyers and sellers to what they are looking at, and maybe help to allay any unnecessary fears that can arise during the buying/selling process. Knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more valuable you are to your clients.

For starters, everyone should know that all concrete is going to crack eventually. If you look at your driveway, garage slab or front walks, you will see settlement cracks. While cracking is not unusual, serious displacement of foundation walls, whether block or poured concrete, can indicate major foundation issues and some serious expense involved in correcting the problem. For this article we will stick with identifying cracks in the foundation walls of a home; what is typical, what is considered significant movement, and what to do if you suspect that the home has foundation problems.

Most homes will do its settling within the first five to ten years of being built. The ground beneath the footings of the home and the poured slab will settle into place, and the concrete foundation will go with it. Signs of this are vertical, diagonal or horizontal cracks. In poured concrete foundations, vertical and diagonal cracks are most common. Visually examining the foundation walls to locate cracks is the first step. When you see a crack, looking at the width gives you an indication of the amount of movement and seriousness of the situation. Typically if a vertical or diagonal crack were wider than a 1/4th of an inch, the movement would be considered significant. If it is less than 1/4th of an inch, it might not be considered significant, but worth having the crack sealed, and monitor in the future for further movement.

Horizontal cracks are more likely to be found in block foundation walls. Typically these cracks are three or four courses of block below the ground, because this is where the frost line is. Typically the ground expands and contracts with the elements, i.e. Excessive rainwater causes clay soils to expand, which puts pressure on the foundation walls, enough of which can cause movement. In the winter, frozen soil expands and does the same thing (hence the reason you see the cracking at the frost line). This causes the wall to bow inward towards the basement or crawlspace.

When a block foundation wall is laid, the wall is perpendicular to the floor. If it is being displaced due to excessive force, the wall will bow or sweep, causing a hump in the wall. Sometimes this movement is clearly visible, and other times it is not. Taking a four-foot level, and putting the top of the level at the horizontal crack, you can determine how much the wall has been displaced. There are times you will see a horizontal crack from one end of the wall to the other, but the wall is still perpendicular to the floor, and there is a negligible amount of movement. However, if the wall has been displaced 1 inch or more, this would be considered significant and further evaluation by a professional engineer would be required.

It is interesting to note that a foundation wall is not considered in a state of failure until it moves past its center of gravity. Typical foundation walls are 8 inches thick, so for it to move past its center of gravity, it would have to have moved approximately 2.66 inches (1/3rd of 8 inches) to be in a state of failure. If there is getting close to an inch of movement, while the wall has not moved into a state of failure, further evaluation is needed.

The next step is to call on a professional engineer to evaluate, and determine the proper repairs needed to keep the walls from further movement or having them brought back into their original position. Some folks make the mistake of calling a foundation contractor next, skipping the engineer?s evaluation, and this can be costly. While I do know that there are many qualified and honest foundation contractors out there, it is the engineer who has been trained to properly diagnose the problem, understand what is causing the movement to take place, and to create detailed specifications on the proper repairs. It is with the engineer?s drawings that you can then find several contractors to bid on the project and repairs. Now your bids should be comparing apples to apples, not four different methods of repair, and four wildly varying prices for them all.

For some reason, homeowners or potential buyers want to save the few hundred dollars for an engineer?s evaluation and drawings, and put the money towards the repair. I promise you, more often than not, the engineer?s plans will be money well spent. It will save you more money, time and headaches in the long run, and ensure that the problem has been addressed properly.

While this is just a brief exposure to foundation cracks, hopefully it can shed a little light on a subject that appears to be a scary and intimidating. Most of the time the movement is within tolerable limits and there is no adverse affects on the livability or the structural integrity of the home. If a foundation has been repaired with the help of a professional engineer and a licensed, qualified foundation contractor and appropriate warranties provided, then re-sell value should not be diminished down the road.

Since it is snowing here in Cincinnati, I thought I?d write a quick article on Ice dams and the possibility of leaking roofs. Ice dams form when snow melts either from the top of the roof (from sunshine), or warm air from the house enters the attic and melts the snow from the underside of the roof decking. When the water runs down the roof like it should, it can re-freeze along the way, and build up as a dam that traps the water and prevents from going down the shingles (or slate or wood shakes) to the gutters and down and away from the home. This ice buildup creates a pool and causes the water to go back up the roof shingles, where it easily gets under the roof material and hits the sheathing, and potentially leaks into the living area of the home. There isn?t anything you can do about the temperature, or even from keeping the ice from forming.

There are a few things you can do to at least minimize the possibility of ice dams.
First is to ensure good ventilation in the attic, so there is not a dramatic difference in temperature between the outside air and inside the attic. Roof or gable vents near the peak of the roof are good starts. Soffit and ridge vents are better. (Soffit vents are at the lowest section of roof near the gutters, and ridge vents run along the peak of the roof.) This allows the cool air to enter the lower portion of attic, and flow upper wards toward the ridge vents and exit as hot air. This prevents heat from building up in the attic, even in the winter time, and causing snow to melt at the top of the roof, and re-freezing near the bottom.

Good insulation in the attic keeps the warm air inside home, not quickly rising upward and exiting the attic. Caulk around attic openings or install a nice Styrofoam or Batt insulation piece directly above opening (in attic) to prevent heat loss in this vulnerable area.

There are also some products available that can be applied to the most vulnerable areas of the roof; valleys, slope changes, eaves, along the rake boards. These products are installed not to prevent the ice from damming, but to prevent the water from penetrating the roof decking once the dams have formed. Calling a qualified roof contractor to discuss your options is a good idea.

Nobody wants their roof to leak at anytime, but hopefully understanding the phenomenon of ice dams can take the anxiety out of a simple leak. Keep you from thinking you have to replace the entire roof, and give you a couple of tricks to defend your home from unwanted water entry.

Mid efficiency furnaces started cropping up in the 1970?s. Generally a mid efficiency furnace is 80% or more efficient. So for every dollar spent, 8o cents or more is actually being used to heat the home, while the rest escapes up the chimney. Mid efficiency furnaces are still used and installed in homes today. Often times they are used in milder climates and places where the winter months are shorter.

Shingles slipping out of place.