Poorly built kitchens and bathrooms can present major problems for homeowners, which is why home inspectors spend so much time digging into these rooms during the critical pre-sale home inspection process, according to Westchester home inspection expert Aniello Napolitano.
The owner of Strong Home LLC, Napolitano regularly does research on homes to discern whether or not they are worth buying in today’s housing market. Hiring a home inspector to look over the property you are about to purchase is one the smartest things that a new home buyer can do, because it is better to find out about major issues before closing on a sale than after the purchase has gone through.
In particular, Napolitano says that kitchens and bathrooms oftentimes cause the most problems for potential homeowners because the electrical wiring in these rooms has often been put in incorrectly or there aren’t grounded outlets in place. Grounded outlets are imperative in any space where running water is present, because without them, the homeowner could be at an increased risk for electrical shock.
Napolitano says that there is a special device called the GFCI, which is a safety device that should be attached to any outlet that is closer than six feet from a water source. Water sources inside homes include kitchen sinks and bathroom sinks, along with bathtubs and toilets, for the most part.
A GFCI device is used as a safety precaution in households across the country to prevent electrocution. Visually, homeowners can tell if their bathrooms and kitchens are equipped with GFCI devices by looking to see if their power outlets have reset buttons. Any power outlet with a reset button is most likely a GFCI device, according to Napolitano.
Beyond the wiring, the next most common thing that Napolitano recommends that potential home buyers watch out for are plumbing leaks. Having leaky pipes in the kitchen or bathrooms—or anywhere else in the house, really—is a cause for concern, because these types of repairs can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to repair. This is especially the case if someone has to replace all of the pipes in a home, as that is a major undertaking that few new homeowners would normally choose to put on themselves.
Despite the issues surrounding pipes and electrical wiring, Napolitano says that there is still one issue that brings up more red flags for the homebuyers he works with than anything else: termites. If he finds termite damage in a home, there is a high likelihood that the potential homebuyer he is working with will decide to walk away from the purchase rather than subject himself to purchasing a home with structural damage.
Although many of the electrical and plumbing issues that Napolitano deals with stem from the bathroom and kitchen areas, he says he rarely does an inspection of just one room in a Westchester home. Instead, homeowners, home sellers, and potential home buyers usually hire him to inspect the entire house inside and out.
The length of time that it can take Napolitano to complete a home inspection in Westchester depends on the square footage of the home and the amount of exterior property. However, he says that the average home inspection for Strong Home LLC generally lasts around three hours.
For anyone who is selling a home or buying one, Napolitano recommends hiring a home inspector to check out the property for things like electrical issues or plumbing problems before making any major decisions. Calling someone like Napolitano for an inspection can save people hours of stress and thousands of dollars in the long run by catching problems early on.
