Whether you’re doing it for the first time in your life or the fifth, buying a new home is a huge financial and logistical undertaking. Of course, finding the right home is rarely a simple matter of ideal location and price. Plenty of other factors are involved in buying a home, including size, layout, and overall condition.
When it comes to the functional and operation condition of a potential home, it can often be difficult for the average buyer to truly get a sense of where things stand. While it’s easy to pinpoint stains on a carpet or scratches on a kitchen cabinet’s surface, it is not as simple to examine the aspects of a home that truly make it run. For this reason, a home inspection is an extremely important step in the purchase process. The purpose of a home inspection is to ensure that all of the “behind the scenes” facets of the house are working as they should be. A home inspector will therefore be responsible for evaluating the condition of a home’s structure, exterior fixtures, electrical setup, HVAC systems, and plumbing.
A house’s plumbing setup and operation can impact person’s day to day quality of life. Poor plumbing can turn an otherwise appealing home into a costly and logistical nightmare down the line. So it’s important to get the facts from your home inspector about the condition of your new potential home’s plumbing and pipes. Daniel Fish is the owner of Daniel Fish Plumbing, a business that has been serving Los Angeles and Ventura counties since 1981, and according to him, certain aspects of a home’s plumbing setup a home inspector is pretty much obligated to report on.
Generally speaking, it is a home inspector’s responsibility to uncover any current or potential issues relating to a home’s plumbing. A home inspector should examine all of a plumbing system’s piping to ensure that it appears to be in proper condition. Any issues with the piping should be documented accordingly, as poor or rusted piping could cause you some serious problems down the line. Therefore, if an inspector happens to notice an old galvanized pipe leading from the street to the house in question, then he should mention it as something that needs to be replaced.
It is also a home inspector’s job to examine your potential home for leaks or problems with any of the house’s plumbing fixtures. While leaks – especially major ones – are usually pretty evident to the average person, other issues such as poor water pressure could be a valid but less obvious problem. A home inspector should also be able to tell you how old a home’s water heater is, how well it seems to be working, and how efficient it seems to be overall. Finally, if you live in an area like Southern California where earthquakes are a common concern, then your home inspector should make certain that the necessary fixtures (such as a shutoff valve on the gas line) are properly in place.
While any good home inspector will be able to give you a pretty decent rundown of your potential home’s plumbing condition, Fish warns that home inspectors can only report on what they can see. Therefore, if you’re looking to buy a new home, then it’s a good idea to hire a plumber for a sewer inspection on top of your standard home inspection. A sewer problem can easily end up being one of a home’s greatest hidden costs, so before you agree to your seller’s asking price, you ought to make sure that no underground issues are lurking about. Daniel Fish Plumbing offers video pipe sewer inspection as one of its many plumbing services – a process that involves using a high-tech camera to inspect a home’s sewer lines and uncover any issues that might be present.
Remember, as excited as you might be to have found the seemingly-perfect home, it’s important that you take the time to get the facts about its true condition before actually going through with the purchase. The last thing that you’d want to do is put yourself in a position where you close on your new house, move all of your belongings, and find yourself faced with a host of serious and costly plumbing issues shortly after you’ve settled in. By listening to what your home inspector has to say about your potential home’s plumbing and taking the steps to order any follow-up inspections as necessary, you’ll be doing your part to make your homebuying experience a pleasant and successful one overall.
