Sunday, 1 March 2015

Tips On Performing A Home Inspection

By Olivia Cross


Given that it takes years to save enough money to purchase a house, it is always best to make sure that the money spent in this house will not go to waste. You can achieve this by having a home inspection done. A house assessment is always the best way to make sure that your investment is totally protected.

To begin with, there are a number of things that will be required. You need to have a flashlight, checklist, and a clipboard. The list will include information on what to check for; including moisture, fire damage and even the integrity of the structure.

A good assessment should start with the exteriors. For this, you need to begin by assessing the property roof and its gutters. A roof needs to have all parts present and it should not sag in any way. For gutter, they have to be firmly attached to the house at all times.

When done with the roof, check the chimney. You have to check through its entire length. Confirm that all bricks are in place, and that no mortar is missing. The chimney should also be straight from top to bottom.

The siding should also be inspected. This particular area should not take more than a few minutes to assess. You must check whether it is straight. A siding that is not straight will usually be either bulging or bowing at one place or another.

Before heading inside, ensure you spend a good amount of time checking out the foundation. If a foundation is not in a good repair state, many things could easily go wrong. You must therefore check it for flaking, cracks and even presence of too much water.

When done with the outdoors, start inspecting the interiors by first checking out the condition of the doors and the windows. All windows should be intact and should open with ease. If you have to apply pressure on a window in order for it to happen, then something is wrong somewhere.

Inspect the floors ensuring to pay special attention to any signs of cracks or wear and tear in the carpet. In some cases, you will find that sloping is caused by normal settling with a house. However, it can also be caused by the presence of serious problems within the foundation.

Do not forget to also inspect the ceiling area. A ceiling is quite easy to inspect as there is not a lot to check for. You should however pay attention to the presence of water marks on the white surface. In addition, make sure that there are no bulging areas in the ceiling.

A kitchen inspection should complete the exercise. Inspecting the kitchen should not take more than a few minutes. The main thing to focus on will be the condition of the cabinets, the counter tops and to also check whether the appliances are functional. It will also be important to determine the age of each appliance.




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