While it's no replacement for a licensed home inspection (typically by an engineer), conducting your own home inspection can give you a good sense of the state of your property. This can be useful in targeting maintenance where it is most needed or just for getting a sense of where your home might be placed in the market. Follow this simple checklist and you'll have a much better sense of your home's condition. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Survey the property surrounding the house. Evaluate the driveway for cracks and wear. Most important is the way the property drains. Standing puddles could indicate a problem, not just for the yard but also for the house's foundations.
2. Check the exterior railings, porches and staircases. Indications of disrepair will be most evident at joints, such as where a pillar meets the concrete of a stoop. Chipping or rotting wood at these junctures is a clear indication of structural instability. Use a level to make sure pillars and stairs remain vertically and horizontally even. If the front porch is covered, check for cracks or sagging along the seam, or flashing, between the home and the porch roof.
3. Look to the roof for signs of rain damage. Missing shingles are easily repaired, but a low-angle roof that pools water is a definite warning sign. If you can easily see the path of water drainage off the roof, it could indicate a rut that will lead to further decay.
4. Look for wood-inhabiting critters. White fungal growth on exterior wood indicates a high moisture content. High moisture in wood can be damaging on its own, but is also a potent indicator of possible termite habitation.
5. Begin the inside portion of your inspection by looking for bulging or cracking on ceilings and walls. Use your level on floors and surfaces, particularly on the molding around doorways, which are often the first places where internal stresses become evident.
6. Check water systems. Test all drains, taps and toilets. Make special note of the type and condition of pipe in use under sinks. Carefully note all rust and keep an eye open for mold deposits where pipes disappear into walls.
7. Electrical and heating systems are difficult to check for the amateur home inspector, but remain deserving of a cursory overview. Important considerations are ventilation fans, particularly emerging from the house's furnace. Check also for loose or dangling wires, rusted circuit breakers and loose light fixtures.
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