Thanks to his years in the engineering and home construction industry, Hagan Home Inspections owner John Hagan is an expert in the field of home inspection, building techniques, materials, and codes. To help us understand what a home inspection really is, Hagan explains the basics.
To fully explain what a home inspection is, it is best to start by explaining what a home inspection is not. A home inspection is when we are inspecting every part of the home, but it is not exhaustive.
What that means is that an inspector who is going to an average home inspection before a buyer closes on the purchase of a home will not open the heating and air conditioning system. He won’t take it completely apart, inspecting every mechanical part of it. In fact, an average home inspection does not involve taking apart anything.
Although we are looking inside each area of the house as much as we can, we are only looking at things that are accessible through panels — that type of thing. A home inspection does not involve taking anything apart, which is why it is not technically exhaustive.
With that said, however, getting a full inspection does mean that the inspector will look at everything around a home and the property itself. If you are a buyer or a seller calling for a full home inspection on a property, you can except that the inspector will look at all the exteriors, the roof, the siding, and the windows. And then, on top of that, he will look at the foundation, which is an important part of the inspection, especially if the house has a crawl space underneath it. Checking out the crawl space underneath a home means getting down in there and looking around, even in the dark. As an inspector, it is my job to look at all the foundation, all the home’s floor systems, and all the home’s structural components to ensure they are sound and safe. In addition, inspecting a home during a full inspection means looking in the attic at all those structural components that are so important in a home.
Basically, when you call a home inspector to come look at your prospective house, he will be crawling through and inspecting every part of that property inside and out. That, right there, is what you want. Because to fully be able to tell what is wrong with a home and whether there are any defects an inspector needs a close-up look.
