What you wish you'd asked during inspection?

[Rory (WavyGlass)]

Well hello! I've been spending the last couple days' worth of free time skimming through the wealth of information on these boards and I am just so excited! The reason I stumbled here is that on Friday, my fiance and I put in an offer on a house built in 1820-- the offer was accepted yesterday (yay!!!!) and our inspection is tomorrow! So I have been doing some serious googling, as you can imagine.

I've found a couple of helpful checklists for home inspections (make sure the inspector checks the major systems, structure, xyz etc.) but I was wondering if anyone on this forum can provide some tips for the old house inspection! Questions you wish you'd asked, or questions you're really glad you DID ask?

I'm already grateful for the information here and looking forward (fingers crossed) to learning more and applying it to a new old house!

[Sow's Ear Mal]

It is my hope that anyone buying a significantly old structure has eyes wide open and has done enough research to know what the hell they're looking at. Otherwise it's the wrong buyer. This whole era of "home inspectors", half of which are unqualified failed contractors, is a bloody crock. If you want to buy a historic-age house, make your own decision, don't pawn the research off on some half-baked , half educated "inspector", so that you can run and litigate as soon as the typical problems of age arise. I hate the industry that has grown like fungus over home inspections. Most may know a little about modern construction, but the majority are clueless when it comes to old house construction, and they are the reason perfectly viable homes are demolished and insurance for historic style homes is now untenable. My rant for the day, please forgive me, Mal

[Tujo (WavyGlass)]

Structural problems. I've had two houses with them and they were both missed on the inspections. Floors in old houses do move around a bit, but you should always be able to point out the reason why and determine if it is acceptable or requires repairs.

In my first house the floors in the back half sloped a lot - it was because when they installed the basement stairs it was done wrong and the floor joists were not supported - half my house was literally being held up by a single 2x4 and a couple of nails. It didn't end up being that hard to fix - but it was frustrating that it was missed.

My current home, which I am selling, had a structural masonry wall undercut to make room for ducts, plumbing and wiring, which caused the floors to dip a couple of inches. Easy to repair the cause and rebuild the structural wall, but almost impossible to undo the damage (ie. the floors can never really be made level again without a feat of engineering).

Don't let the inspector shrug things off, if the floors are sloped, try to find why, and if it will require future repairs.

[Gothichome]

Welcome to Wavyglass. I think the most critical item is to look for signs of water in the basement if it has one or ground water penetration into the foundation. Nothing ruins a new old home experience than finding standing water in the basement on the first heavy rain. Then the shape of the roof, is it keeping water out of the home, water is the enemy. Every thing else is either time or money to upgrade or repair and restore. you now own a bit of history, if you treat the home well it will not let you down. If you do have water issues get those dealt with early.

[Rory (WavyGlass)]

Thanks, Gothichome! I'm happy it's supposed to pour tonight and tomorrow, so we can see what the basement looks like after some weather. We've checked it out twice before, but it was very dry both times.

We don't own this bit of history quite yet (though I would very much like to). We're going to use the inspections to help inform the decision, and don't plan to get in over our heads.

[Rory (WavyGlass)]

Tujo, thanks for the input! I will make sure that we find a cause for any sloping -- and find out what extent of repairs are going to be required. A coworker recommended taking a marble along to check for slopes that we didn't see: I figure it won't cost extra.

No shrugging by the inspector will be tolerated. He doesn't seem prone to it-- he's experienced with old homes and is coming with rave reviews. And my partner in this adventure has pretty extensive construction experience, so that can't hurt.

[lovesickest]

I don't think this is a question for the inspection so much as for the realtor. I would ask if there had been any previous litigation or legal actions pertaining to the sale of the property.

The house next door had a chronic issue with water in the basement. Several buyers ago the new owner discovered water in the basement and threatened to sue the seller for non-disclosure, and was returned a portion of the purchase price. Successive owners had water in the basement and no one made any attempts to correct or remedy this, even with basic things like grading. Then the new buyer was mad that there was water in the basement and threatened to begin the legal process, etc.etc. - even though there were obvious signs and smells of a chronically wet basement when the house was listed ...

[shazapple]

I think a common misconception about inspectors is how much they can tell you. You have to keep in mind that they are only doing a visual inspection. If everything looks fine they assume it is fine, which is not always the case but there's little else they can say as they can only report on what they can see. Also, they are not code inspectors, so they are really just commenting on the "livability" of the house.

It is good that you have an inspector that is familiar with older houses. Hopefully he has some good advice, have fun with your old house purchase!

[Bungalove]

I wish we had gotten an inspector more qualified to identify mold. There was a little bit in the attic (non-habitable) space, which the seller ended up having mitigated, but our inspector was all "I'm not qualified to say anything; you'll have to get a different guy," about it. If we had picked a more qualified inspector in the first place we would have gotten better info, I think. Like I say, the seller paid for the clean up and I don't think it was a big deal, but it stinks when you ask an INSPECTOR about things he INSPECTED and he blows you off.

Yes, I understand they can't call every little thing, but still.

Good luck with your purchase!

[Al F. Furnituremaker]

Agree totally with Mal. Home inspections are a scam perpetuated by real estate agents and banks. Most of them don't have a clue as to where the real problems will be and in an old house even more clueless. I just sold a 30 year old house that I had maintained very well over its lifetime, but there were issues beginning to arise due to its age. I think 30-40 years is when some of the major items begin to need attention. He didn't look at any of these except for the shingles, which he looked at from the road 200 feet away, house was uphill from the road, and used binoculars. What a joke. If I was the buyer I wouldn't have paid for it, but they were more clueless than he was.