Expert Home
Inspections Say Novices Should Learn a Few Tricks
By Kathkeen Howley
Julia Rapley says she goes to at least 10 open houses
every weekend. In the past few months, she has looked at about 50 properties in a
quest to buy her first home. "I've seen a lot of stuff", Rapley said.
But like most people, Rapley, 36 is not quite sure what she should be looking for
when she evaluates a property. She is a wiz at organizing conferences -- she is the
director of catering and conference services for the new Ritz-Carlton Hotel under
construction downtown. But she knows that she's not an expert at critiquing the
condition of a house.
"I'm looking at a layout, room sizes, the aesthetics. I know to look for at
least the obvious things that are wrong -- cracks, water damage and things like that.
But I couldn't tell if there was something wring beyond that", Rapley said.
Ofcourse, that's why most home buyers hire a home inspector before they
make what is likely to be the biggest financial investment of their lives. But the
expets say there are many tricks of the trade that a novice can use to spot potential
problems the first time they stroll through a house.
Such a once-over won't take the place of a home inspection, they say. But knowing
what to look for can help buyers make better choices, and it can help them spot
undervalued properties. |
Leslie Ruffin, a home inspector
and owner of Home Survey Company, Inc. in the District, said people who are thinking of
buying a town house built in the 1980's have many roof issues to consider.
"You want to find out if it has fire retardand sheathing under the roof shingles,
" he said. "That's a wood product treated with a chemical to reduce the
spread of fire, but it was found later to cause wood decay."
Use of the product was limited to the 1980's, he said. In the Washington suburbs it
was popular.
"Go up to the attic and see if you can  see the sheathing, " Ruffin said, referring to the
plywood boards that underlay the roof.
"If there is a white film on the interior of the sheathing, then you may have
FRT," he said, referring to the fire-retardant-treated material.
Another big issue is plumbing, Ruffin said. The old "turn on the bathroom tap
and the tub tap, and then flush the toilet" trick is the best way to do a quick check
for both water pressure and leaky pipes, he said.
"Flush the toilet at least three to five times, with all the tap water running, and
then go down to the basement and look at the main stack'" he said. That's the
large pipe that takes the water out of the house.
See how it handles a good amount of water being sent through it. Look for leaks there and, on the way
down to the basement, look for wet spots on the walls," Ruffin said. "You
want to put some stress on the system so if there is a leak, you're more likely to catch
it.
After locating the main stack, look to find the main shutoff. That's a water pipe
coming through the foundation of the floor of the basement, carring water into the house.
If the pipe is metal, take a key or screwdriver and scrape it.
"A lot of people paint plumbing, so you might have to make a few scrapes to get to
the metal part," Ruffin said.
If it is grayish and the metal is soft, that's not a good sign, he said. It may be
lead. A harder metal with a reddish hus is likely to be copper.
"Lead is a sign that the plumbing from the street to the house has not been
upgraded," Ruffin said. "that means if you want to add a bath, you
are going to have to upgrade, which could be as much as $6,000." |
