Most of the time, we show up to a house after the story has already started. There’s a deal moving. The buyer has fallen for the place, at least a little, or they wouldn’t have gotten this far. They’ve committed…
Masonry chimneys are near and dear to my heart, and also something of a scourge to my existence as a home inspector. I’ll explain both sides of that in a minute, but first, a little context on why New England…
Every house comes with a list. Things that could be repaired, replaced, painted, sealed, serviced, or upgraded. Nobody has unlimited time or money to work through it, so the real question isn’t whether something eventually needs attention. It’s whether it…
Old houses have old electrical systems. This should not come as a tremendous surprise. A house built in 1890 wasn’t wired for electricity at all. A house built in 1925 wasn’t designed around microwaves, heat pumps, hair dryers, hot tubs,…
Most of what I’ve written on this site is about what I can do — how my building background shows up in an inspection, the things I catch that get missed, why the years I’ve spent running job sites give…
Nothing gets a buyer’s heart rate up like opening a basement door and finding an electrical panel with faded labels, a hand-scrawled circuit list, and antique looking wiring. Sometimes that is a real reason to worry. Sometimes it is a…
This is a question I’ve heard plenty of times. Without knowing how a home inspector “grades” a house, it’s pretty easy to imagine the inspection as some kind of test — the house either passes or fails, and everybody waits…
Somewhere along the way, the real estate and home inspection industry decided every home purchase needed the same warning label: “This is the biggest financial decision of your life.” I understand the impulse. It sounds serious. It sounds like someone…
In the course of a home inspection, one of the things I’m looking at is the envelope of the building and its many facets — interior wall coverings and finishes, the framing, sheathing, roof, siding, flashing, windows, and both interior…
If you don’t find sloped floors charming, stay away from old houses. That’s not a knock on old houses. I love old houses. I’ve spent the better part of twenty years working on them, I live in one, and I…
