A Spring Home Tour With the Home Inspectors
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It’s Spring Home Tour season, and we thought we’d get in on the action by taking you on our own kind of tour.
Today, we’ll be looking at some of the different parts of a home you should look at for both spring home maintenance and home safety purposes.
Some might claim our tour is not as exciting as others, but do the other tours have creatures crawling in the walls and lives on the line? I think not. So put on a fancy hat and come along with us as we explore some of the home inspection issues of the season.
It’s “Tankless,” Not “Panless”
This tankless water heater had a pretty shoddy installation from start to finish. Not only is it missing the drip pan but the connections are loose and improperly sealed.
By the way, did you know they need a drip pan? I did not.
In any case, you really shouldn’t be seeing this kind of situation with brand new (and expensive) equipment. Hopefully you gleaned some new information about tankless water heaters and what you should look out for when maintaining them.
What Do You Get When You Have a Ton of Termite Droppings?
A lot of termite damage! The second stop on our tour is a little icky, but informative nonetheless.
Droppings are not only a sign that termites are present, they are a sign that they are eating. And what are they eating? They’re chewing on wood in your house.
Spring is one of the most active termite seasons, so it’s a good time to be looking for signs of these pesky insects in and around your house. If you see tiny holes appearing in wood, piles of wings, tunneling patterns in wood, or mud tunnels on the ground by your home, it could be you’ve got termites.
Missed It By That Much
Our next stop is a newly constructed home where the inspector found poorly sloped exterior window sills on two windows.
Window sills should be sloped away from the windows to draw rain down and to the ground instead of toward the window. The recommended slope should be at least 15 degrees. These were nearly level, and there was a gap in the mortar where water could easily get in. These buyers will want to address this with the builders.
It is standard practice to build window sills with a slope. If yours are not sloped for any reason, you can find all kinds of DIY fixes on the internet to keep water from collecting on your windows and damaging the materials there.
DIY Electrical Never Fails To Unimpress Us
At our final stop on the tour, we have a first for our inspector.
This DIY electrical project should not have been attempted, and we don’t know what would’ve possessed to amateur to give it a shot. Someone hot wired an outlet into the patio lamp, ostensibly so they could run an extension cord.
I’d be sympathetic if the cord was used to power something outside (still a bad idea, but it would make sense). However, the cord goes inside. So … I don’t know.
I’ll tell you a story instead. Last night, my dishwasher stopped working, and after both my husband and his friend tooled around with it for awhile, my husband finally made an appointment with our home warranty company for a repair person to come out.
Today, the dishwasher repair person looked at me and said, “I see someone has tried to repair this. You have a home warranty for a reason. Just my advice, next time call first. Messing around with it like that will negate the warranty.”
Electricians and other service professionals exist for a reason, and unless you are one, you really shouldn’t try to do this stuff yourself because you could get hurt or, more likely, damage your stuff further. Just my advice.
I hope you’ve enjoyed our spring home tour (home inspection style). If any of these situations remind you of something going on at your house, you can have a seasonal maintenance inspection scheduled to find out about any repairs or needs your home may need this spring.
