Home Inspection Questions - Exterior of the House (Part 1)
Purchasing a home is exciting. It feels great to have a place to make your own and do as you please. One of the first steps in buying a home is getting it inspected. Many first time buyers are awe-struck and unprepared for inspection day. I’m putting together a series of posts to examine the major areas of a home inspection. Hopefully, it will help folks make the most out of inspection day. Feel free to comment on my list and suggest additions. I’d like to make this a complete archive if possible.
Exterior Home Inspection
The exterior of a house is a broad subject. I’ll hit on many of the major aspects that need to be reviewed during inspection. Let’s dive right in.
1. Look at the land your house is on. Check the grade to make sure water will flow away from the house. Many leaky, damp basements occur because water sits against the foundation, slowly finding it’s way in. The moisture level in your basement is an easy gauge. Find out if the house is situated on a flood plane. Insurance companies require special flood insurance above and beyond home owner’s insurance to cover flood damage. Even with coverage, insurance companies will drop you if your house floods repeatedly.
2. Know the condition of the roof. The average roof lasts around 20 years. Brittle shingles that break rather than bend indicate an aging roof. And it’s always better to replace a roof before it starts leaking, when you have maximum opportunity to negotiate with roofers.
3. Check the chimney. Wood burning fireplaces need to have the chimney cleaned periodically, else they become a fire hazard. Starter logs can really gum up the chimney. Keep your eye open for them around the fireplace. In the future, avoid using them.
4. Decks are a great addition when properly constructed. Have your inspector check how it was secured to the house (nails, lag screws, bolts). With enough weight, a poorly secured deck will separate and fall away from the house and noone wants that. More recent building codes require decks to be bolted through unless the deck has two rows of support posts.
5. Check the siding. There are lots of options here. Vinyl siding is common but will crack and fade over time. Aluminum won’t crack but will dent. It is also a solid barrier to animals. Brick is attractive and long lasting. It may need patching after 25 years or so. Brick veneers look great but don’t last as long. One major concern here is stained/damaged siding. Many homeowners will claim that stains can be removed with simple powerwashing. This is often not true. Ask them to remove the stains before signing the final deal.
6. Examine the windows. Original windows are often poor insulators allowing conditioned air to escape. Double pane glass (especially filled with an inert gas like Argon) acts as a great barrier to the outside world. Find out what the frames are made of. Vinyl is a great insulator with low maintenance costs. Ask if there is a warranty that can be passed along to new owners.
What do you think? What questions did you ask during your home inspection? What did you forget to ask? Did your inspector surprise you with any information?
April 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am
One thing I never would’ve thought to ask or look for until we bought our current home 2 years ago… Carpenter Ants! Ugh!!! They don’t make their damage as obvious as termites, so it takes more work for an inspector to find evidence of them (the best way to know for sure is to shop for a house in spring when they’re hatching). When carpenter ants make their way inside, they burrow into the wood beams of the house to make nests, and their burrows obviously weaken the wood.
We purchased our house in January, and in May the yard was overrun with ants. I probably could’ve handled this, but I started finding ants in our basement. At first just a few here and there, but when the big hatch occurred, our basement carpet was suddenly alive and crawling with itty bitty insects. Natuarally, I freaked out and wouldn’t allow my children to go in the basement until they were all dead, lol!
We had to have the exterior and interior of our home sprayed with insectiside (and moved in with my parents for a few days), as well the exterminator spent HOURS searching for nests and powdering them - he also powedered inside every single light plate and outlet cover. Now, we prevent the little devils from getting in by having the exterior perimiter sprayed down every May. Since the entire neighbourhood is overrun with carpenter ants, this will be a never-ending expense.
The most frustrating thing about this… There were not enough burrows for us to replace any beams in our home (thank goodness), but there were enough for the extermiator to be certain that the ant had been inside for at least a couple years. The previous owners did not disclose this, but perhaps if we’d known to ask…
April 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Tyler - amazing story. Glad you were able to get the ants taken care of without too much trouble. We will definitely add this to the list for this post (look for the update in the actual post). I remember my termite inspector doing a special check for carpenter ants and finding them outside. The POs paid the extra $$ to get them eradicated, so we were saved the hassle.
April 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Our inspector pointed out that our house had at least 10 - 12 layers of roofing - and that that was not normal and definitely not ok. Because of that info, which was not visually obvious, we were able to get a new roof as part of the sale and all the old material was properly removed in the process. But I kept finding nails and pieces of asphalt in the yard for years.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Why S,
10-12 layers is a crazy number. Great that your inspector was able to pick up on that. The more you find before purchasing the better.