Home Inspection: Should You Hire A Professional?

A home is one of the most important things anyone can own, and it behooves us homeowners to take care of our castles. Whether you live in the tiniest of bungalows you built with your own hands from cottage plans downloaded from the Internet, or you used luxury home plans to create a 36,000-square-foot behemoth castle built in the Hamptons, there are times when you'll need to have something professionally inspected. It may be that you have to satisfy your building permit requirements after adding on that extra room, or need to ensure that the gas furnace isn't so old that it has copper tubing (a real no-no these days). Or maybe you just want to check the foundation or to see how your roof is faring. The purpose of this article is to help you decide which of these tasks require a professional inspection, and which don't.

Can I do it myself?

It goes without saying that some circumstances simply demand professional inspection. Your new storage shed plans may not require it (unless you're really fastidious), but your new house plans will once everything's up and ready. However, there are some inspection jobs that, although you can hire a pro to do them, you can also handle yourself. While you may not be a professional inspector, you've probably got a smidgen of common sense and can tell when something's wrong with a major structural element of your home. Let's say you want to check out how your roof's doing. All you need is a good ladder and good eyes. Your eyes are up to you, but this writer recommends you purchase a Little Giant Ladder system, if you don't already have one. You can also get a Little Giant Work Platform, a ladder attachment that you can stand directly on rather than risk life and limb by craning around while perched on a slender rung. As long as you weigh less than 300 pounds, you're perfectly safe. At the risk of sounding like an ad for their products, Little Giants ladders are the best built, most versatile, and sturdiest ladders available.

Anyway: when you climb up to the roof, look for missing or deformed shingles, buckling, algal growth, blisters, or corroded flashing; all these can be signs of a failing roof. While you're up there, take a look at your home's soffit and fascia, the structure enclosing the eaves. In the best-case scenario your soffit-and-fascia structure should be stuffed with insulation, but often it's hollow -- the perfect space for squirrels and opossums to prowl around in. Because this structure is often made of flimsy "hardboard," it can be easy for unwanted pests to chew or scratch their way into.

Similarly, you don't need a professional to tell you when your brickwork is sub par; you should be able to see the cracks, if there are any, even from a distance. Small cracks in the mortar between bricks are most common, and may indicate ordinary expansion and contraction of the construction materials. Larger cracks and cracks through bricks are more significant warning signs, often indicating foundation problems.

The Tao of Inspection

Pro inspectors are an absolute requirement when you're purchasing a home that's already built; the lender almost always requires an inspection. Not only will you need a structural inspection, but if you live in a house with a slab foundation, you'll need a foundation check too. These aren't cases where you can grab

your ladders and go to work; you'll need to hire a professional inspector, and possibly an engineer. These guys are a dime-a-dozen in terms of abundance, so choosing the right one may be difficult. The inspection itself may cost anywhere from $125-300. Once you've hired an inspector, be sure to listen to what he says; he's a trained professional who will examine every functional system in your house, and he knows what he's doing. Many's the homeowner who went ahead and purchased a house they'd invested time and money in, despite the inspector's report of foundation problems or a substandard furnace; and many's the homeowner who regretted it later.

Published with permission (FCDMInc)

Houses Under Fifty Thousand | Home Inspection: Should You Hire A Professional?