Tag Archives: Leaks

Buying

What is a Home Inspection?

What is a Home Inspection?

A professional home inspection is an objective, detailed visual assessment of a property’s structure and operating systems. Once a home inspection is performed, you’ll receive a detailed report describing the condition of your home and recommending any repairs or improvements that should be made. Buyers will use the home inspection report to inform their negotiating and purchasing decisions about your home.

Every prospective homeowner is advised to have thorough home inspections done by professionals before purchasing a home. A home inspection can protect you from incurring unexpected costs after completing the purchase. Also, by identifying any problems up front you can often convince the seller to either fix the
problems or reimburse the buyer for the cost of repairs before the purchase is completed.

The most common inspections are an overall home inspection, which evaluates the home’s structural and
mechanical condition, and a pest inspection, which looks for pest and moisture damage. However, these reports may highlight issues that should be investigated by a specialized professional (e.g., a roofer or plumber).

At the conclusion of the home inspection, the home buyer should be well informed and should know the condition of the home; the inspection should be followed up with the inspectors written home
inspection report. If anything is wrong, the home buyer should know what needs to be done to correct problems (or safety hazards), what repair alternatives are available, what priorities to assign to the problems, which repair costs are significant or minor, which costs are non-essential improvements, home inspections are visual and there is always a risk of concealed damage, further destructive investigation is sometimes needed.

Although some home inspection companies will provide you with a pre-printed hand written checklist at the conclusion of the home inspection these boiler plate formats often do not provide the level of detail and advice and that a formal detailed written home inspection report can provide. It is easy for the home inspector to check off good, fair, poor, acceptable, or not acceptable, but it is another thing to describe what’s wrong, why its wrong, and what needs to be done about it. Anybody can check off a form that indicates that a stairway is tilting, but a written home inspection report by a Licensed Professional Engineer can tell you why the stairway is tilting and what needs to be done about it. Remember, only a Professional Engineer is licensed to make professional engineering judgments and provide you with a professional engineer’s design for remedial repair.

Carefully read your home inspection report and make a list of items that need correction; this will help you to determine your future expenditures for repairs and maintenance. The report contains useful information that serves as a reference for you in the future. A home can not fail an inspection, the home inspection report records the condition of the home, both positives and negatives.

If you have questions regarding your inspection report, feel free to me.

Credit to Online Sources:
www.eloan.com
www.inspectamerica.com
www.lowesmoving.com

Leaks

Got a Leak?

Tell Tale Signs of a Leak for Homeowners

  1. Consistent wet spot in the yard
  2. Sink hole or depression in lawn or driveway
  3. Grass is greener and/or grows faster in a certain area of the lawn
  4. Constant sound of running water on the pipes in the house
  5. Sudden increase in water usage

Think you might have a leak? First things first. Most of the water supplies to our homes are regulated by a water meter located in the front yard. Usually they are near the sidewalk or curb side. There are two dials on that meter. The smaller of the two is what I call the activity indicator. With all fixtures off in the house, including the toilets, this dial should not be moving at all. If it is, it is quite possible that you have a leak.

Got a Pool?

Your pool will naturally lose some water to evaporation, some to splash out and some to backwash wastewater. You may also gain water from rainfall. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re routinely adding more than two inch of water to your pool per week, you may have a leak. (that is worth spending some time and money to repair) Pools are meant to be watertight, of course, but sealants will deteriorate, while other parts of your pool shift and settle, or just plain wear out. Pools can leak through any of the fittings or accessories, plumbing or even right through the shell. It is important to repair leaks, not only to save water, heat and chemicals, but also to prevent undermining pool structural components, and washing away fill dirt.

All pools are susceptible to leaks, whether old or new, plaster or vinyl. Leaks can be caused by ground movement and settling, aging, even your pets. Call an expert that uses Electronic Leak detection. This is an electronic instrument that has been specifically designed to find leaks in your pool. No more sending down a diver and spending hours to try and find the leak. No more draining the pool either. The use of the electronic leak detection device saves you money and time. This device takes all the guess work out of finding the leak. No more “I can’t find the leak”

Sonic Leak Detection is also used in conjunction with Pressure Testing for finding leaks in your pool plumbing. It is used to listen for escaping air or water from the pipes that run under your decking. It will not find leaks in your liner as some will have you believe.