Thank you.
Hi, I'm Les Szycik, welcome to today's special edition of the Do It Yourself Show.
In today's program, we're going to talk about how to inspect a house that you've decided to buy.
We're not going to talk about the aesthetics or the finances.
We're going to assume that you've already decided that this is a good investment and you like the house.
What we are going to talk about is the overall mechanical and physical condition of the house.
Whether or not somewhere lurking in the woodwork, there isn't a deal killer waiting to catch you.
Here's what we're going to look at.
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Now the logical place to start our inspection is right out here in the front.
The first thing I notice is the driveway.
It looks nice, it's very rustic, but you'll see when we go in the front door, the trade-off is you track a lot of dirt on the light colored rug in the front.
Now check the landscaping here.
If you like it, that's fine, but for my taste, it would cost a lot of money to put this in the kind of shape I'd like it.
The landscaping is dominated by a beautiful tree in the front yard.
Let's take a closer look at that.
A beautiful old tree like this can be an asset or a liability just depending on the health of the tree.
For example, if that big limb behind me, which has already been cabled off, fell down through the house, you'd end up with two small houses instead of one big one.
Also, if the entire tree had to be removed, you'd end up with a big stump instead of a big tree.
Now you want to check the roots and see where they've gone.
They might be in the foundation, the drain system, or your driveway.
Whatever, you're going to end up with lots of leaves on the ground.
Oh, it's good to be back on solid ground.
Take a close look at the front door.
Very often, the door has a message for you.
If you see a lot of pry marks alongside of the lock, that means somebody tried to break into this house one time.
If you see a lot of heavy duty deadlocks, you're pretty sure you're in a high crime area.
Now another thing about doors is does it work well?
Try every door in the house.
In fact, a door that's all smashed in and only needs replacing is about a $200 problem.
However, a door that sticks real bad or doesn't open and close at all could mean that the whole house is settled
and you've got a big structural problem.
The same thing about windows. You've got to look at them very, very carefully.
For example, the wooden windows can very often show rot on the sill or we can have rot along the frame itself.
Replacing windows is extremely expensive and you don't want to buy a house
where you're going to have to spend thousands of dollars just to replace your windows.
Okay gang, what's wrong with this picture?
Hey, this garage is a real liability.
It's unrepairable and it would cost a lot of money to have it torn down and hauled away.
I'm not parking my Porsche in there.
I think it's a good idea to do an overall inspection of the neighborhood to see if there's anything here
that will affect your enjoyment of the house.
For example, is there a major industrial polluter in the neighborhood?
Or how about traffic noise? Are you going to listen to trucks rumbling by all night?
Or airplanes, trains, that could affect your living in this house.
How about is this a high crime neighborhood?
Is there any development plan that would affect the way you'd enjoy the house?
We're in a public easement right here.
Now there's utilities running overhead, but right behind me is a footpath.
I'd like to know who's going to use this footpath because it goes 10 feet from the bedroom windows.
For example, is it little old ladies on the way to choir practice
or a bunch of winos looking for a liquor store?
Another thing, I want to know who my next door neighbors are.
You know, some are noisier than others.
Before I actually get up on the roof, I want to check the ease here.
The first thing I notice, there's no fascia board here.
For some reason it wasn't replaced in this part of the house,
and I would suspect that there's some real rot damage somewhere,
and that's the reason it wasn't done.
Another thing I want to find out is how many layers of shingles are on this roof.
If there's three layers of shingles, that means I can't re-roof
without having to tear the whole thing off, and that's going to be very expensive.
In this case, there's only one layer,
so I know I can re-roof right over this without any problem.
The best way to inspect a roof is to get up on it and look it over,
but if you feel at least a bit uncomfortable about getting up on a roof,
by all means, don't do it.
You can inspect it with binoculars from someplace else,
or get a roofer to do this for you.
This roof has a fairly easy pit, so we'll just get right up on it.
Now, the first thing you want to do is check out
and make sure the material that's been used on the roof.
The one kind of roof you want to avoid is roll roofing.
This roof is asphalt shingle, and this is a pretty good type.
Asphalt and fiberglass shingles are the kind of roof you'll find on most houses.
Now, in order to check out the condition of these shingles, here's what you do.
What you want to do is check for some flexibility here.
Make sure it's still got some left in it, and this does.
One that's too old will snap off like a soda cracker.
Also, stick your fingernail in the bottom.
If it sinks in, you know it's still got some life in it.
I also check for how many of these little granules
have slipped off onto the downspout or in the gutters.
If it's all gone, that's another sign that the roof is beginning to wear out.
Now, the next thing I want to look for is repairs
that have been made up here on this roof, any patches or something like that.
And I see right up this valley that someone has done a real crude job
in trying to repair the valley itself.
What that tells me is that the valley was not prepared right when it was done.
What should have been put in here before any shingles were down
was a real good metal flashing in this valley.
That would have made it waterproof.
Obviously, that was not done, and I would suspect
that more leaks will show up as time goes by.
The next thing I want to look for in the roof
is where the roof has been pierced,
either with these vent stacks, with turbine ventilators,
or the chimney, whatever's coming through here.
And I want to check and see visually what kind of a job's been done there.
And these look pretty good.
Also, this turbine ventilator, that looks all right too.
Looks like it was flashed right and isn't going to cause any problems.
But the chimney's another story.
Also, when you're up this high, it's a good time to check out the neighborhood,
see what's going on.
Oops, excuse me, madam. We'll be through here in just a minute.
Now, the chimney, that does look like a problem, and I'll tell you why.
You see how this comes down here?
We've got a pitch off the roof, and there's no way to deflect the water here.
There should have been some kind of water deflection built in right here,
and it wasn't.
And what happens is the rainwater's going to run down here,
bounce back off this flat surface, and run back up under these shingles,
and cause some leaks, and that is bad.
Another thing about this chimney, look what kind of shape the mortar's in.
This thing is practically falling apart.
This is not a good chimney at all, and when looking down here,
I can tell that there's no flue liner inside this chimney,
so I've got a fire hazard.
So I'm really concerned about the condition of this chimney.
The main concerns for the roof include too many layers of roofing,
old worn-out roofing, patches and repairs, and leaks around protrusions.
While you're touring around the house, you want to check all four corners
to make sure they're plumb.
For that, I'll need a level.
Shazam!
Yeah, this one looks pretty good.
Now another thing you want to check is look at all the siding very carefully.
Make sure that the windows connect well and there's no gaps there.
When the siding itself, dig in there with a screwdriver if you have to
to see if there's any dry rot that's occurred.
Now another thing is check very carefully the paint job.
There's three things to look for.
One is any little bit of dust that comes off,
that's just absolutely natural in an oil-based paint.
Another thing is this fine crazing, little bits of cracks you see.
That's probably not a serious problem.
Could have been caused by a second coat being put on over a first coat
that wasn't quite dry.
But we've got a real serious problem here,
and that's the bubbling and peeling that's gone on on this paint.
That indicates to me that some moisture has come through this wall,
and that's from no insulation or no moisture barrier inside this wall,
and that's a bad sign.
In order to properly paint this house, it's a very expensive job
because it has to be taken down to bare wood and then painted again.
Now let's check out this electrical system here.
The first thing I notice is that we have three wires coming in off the pole.
That means 220 volt service is being provided to this house.
If there were only two wires coming in there,
that would mean there's only 110 volt service,
and you probably wouldn't be able to use heavy-duty air conditioner or a clothes dryer.
Now another thing we can see here is that the service panel has been updated.
This is the old panel here, and it's been abandoned,
and you can see it used fuses.
The new panel, which uses circuit breakers, is what's in service now.
Now you can tell what the size of the service is by checking the main breaker.
In this case, it's 100 amps.
Now I would say a 100-amp service is the bare minimum
that a modern household would want to use to run all the appliances
and things that are going to be in the house.
Most people would want at least 150 or 200-amp service.
Now I've seen some rather strange wiring inside this house.
If you have any doubts about the electrical system in the house you're looking at,
get a licensed electrician to check it out for you.
It's difficult to check out an electric system, and it can be dangerous poking around.
So get an electrician to help you out with that.
Now, if you find something like this in the house you're looking at,
this is a real red flag.
This is an ancient old fuse box with very little power in it.
Something like this would run very little in the way of electrical appliances in your house.
Also, you can see signs of lots of tampering.
Over the years, people have added on, taken away, and this is a real funny scene here.
Now, one thing you'll find sometimes in old fuse boxes is these 30-amp fuses.
That's a pretty sure sign that somebody is over-fusing the box
just to keep fuses from burning out.
That means you could be causing a chance of a fire in your house.
Something you can do, buy a little tester like this,
it costs about five bucks in a hardware store,
and you can stick it in all the three-pronged receptacles in your house.
And this little scale of lights here will tell you exactly
what the condition is of the wiring in those receptacles.
This can tell you a lot about the electrical system in the house.
But when you see something like this, that's a sure sign that you've got some problems.
If you may be considering some kind of an addition to your building,
if you are, check with the local zoning department for the setback requirements.
It may be that you can't build any closer to your neighbor's property.
Another kind of addition you might be considering is to go straight up with another story.
In that case, you're going to have to make sure that the foundation will support that added weight.
Now, speaking of foundations, and looking over the one in this house,
I see a problem right here.
All this green moss that's been accumulating on the side of the foundation
could be from some kind of a water accumulation.
So while you're checking the foundation, make sure there is no water runoff
that could be undercutting the foundation or an accumulation of water,
which seems to be causing this problem here.
And while you're at it, check the foundation for where the sill plate
connects with the foundation itself.
In some cases, you can see it from the outside,
but in most cases, you'll have to go inside the crawl space of the basement
and take a good look at that.
Another thing I'd be concerned with as I walk around the building
is the condition of major cracks in the foundation.
Now, if the foundation is made of concrete,
you might see V-shaped cracks like this at the corners.
That means there's been some major settling.
In a block or brick foundation like this one,
that major settling will show up as these stair-step cracks like this.
Now, as I've walked around this house,
I've seen a stair-step crack like this on almost every corner,
and that means there has really been some major settling.
The main concerns on the outside include driveway and walkway problems,
landscaping and tree problems, conditions of the doors and windows,
problems in the siding, and foundation problems.
We're going to go down in the basement
and look very closely at what the results of that settling have been.
Nothing like wandering around the basement of an old house
to find out what really has been going on over the years.
Down here, we see some good things and some not so good things.
One of the good things, I think, is the insulated heat and air conditioning duct.
Also, we see some insulation that's been placed in between the floor joists.
That keeps cold air from infiltrating up into the main part of the house.
But look at this. This is a floor jack.
Apparently, the floor upstairs was sagging badly,
and these floor jacks were put in.
There's about four of them down here, so they must have had a problem at one time,
and I would spend a lot of time finding out exactly what the cause of that is.
I see also in the plumbing system, which is revealed down here in the basement,
that we've got some galvanized water lines.
That could mean and really will mean some corrosion,
at least if not now, in the future,
and that's going to reduce your water pressure.
I also see that some plastic waste line has been added here,
but it runs into cast iron waste line.
Cast iron waste line is going to mean slower and slower moving sewage,
and you're going to have to do something about that someday.
Another thing I'm looking at here is the old knob and tube wiring system.
That could mean that you'll have to replace that sometime in the future.
One of the real significant joys about inspecting a house
is crawling around in a crawl space like this. It's a lot of fun.
What I'm looking for is water and moisture intrusion.
Now, if you've got just a little bit and the basement is well ventilated, as this one is,
or you can add some vents along the outside walls of the foundation,
then it's probably not a serious problem.
A simple fix could be repointing the brick and block on the outside
and putting some waterproofing compound here on the inside of the walls.
If that's all there is to it, you don't have anything to worry about.
But we need to look for more serious water problems.
If it's the dry season, there won't be any water around,
but you want to look for things like moisture on the bottom of cardboard boxes
that are stored in the basement, heavy white fuzz on the walls, ugh.
Or you might see a sump pump in the basement that the owners put in
to pump water out that comes roaring in.
Serious water problems could mean that the only fix is an expensive French drain system
that you'd put on the outside of the house just adjacent to the basement walls
would cost a lot of money, and you may not want to go to that trouble.
We're checking for termites and dry rot.
Now, there's no substitute for a professional termite inspection,
but do look around for sawdust and little suspected areas
where you can see the animals been crawling around.
Now, for dry rot, take a screwdriver or an ice pick and dig around,
and if you see a suspected area, you can drill a hole in
and really see if that's solid up there.
Get the owner's permission first so he wouldn't appreciate it otherwise.
I want you to check out the heating and air conditioning system very carefully.
A major repair here could cost thousands of dollars.
Turn on both the air conditioning, make sure cold air comes out,
then turn on the heat and make sure heat comes out.
Make sure the thermostat does what it's supposed to do.
One way to make sure that you've got an efficient system is to check
the owner's bills for the past 12 months and see what it costs to heat and air condition.
That'll give you a good idea.
Also, this one shows that it is an energy efficient system.
Take a look at the water heater and make sure it's not some antique
you're going to have to haul out of there pretty soon.
Also, the size is important.
If you've got a family, 40 to 60 gallons is what you're going to need.
If it's a gas water heater, make sure it's properly vented.
Other than that, a water heater is not a big deal
and can be replaced for a couple hundred bucks.
Before we leave the basement, there's some health considerations
I'd like you to think about.
If there's a lot of mildew being formed in the basement,
that could be forced upstairs and bother people who have allergies to that.
Another thing is asbestos-lined heating ducts.
That can be a health problem.
And something else that's being considered these days
is radon gas building up inside your basement
and going up into the house, causing cancer.
You can check for radon with a kit like this
or ask your health department to check on it for you.
We're in the living room now, but the things we're looking for
we're going to be looking for in all the other rooms of the house too.
The first thing I'm going to do is try all the switches
and figure out what they go to and make sure that they turn on something.
Then I'm going to look for cracks in all the walls.
Notice I'm using a checklist.
I'm going to take this checklist all the way through the house
because I don't want to miss any of the points I'm looking for.
Now, in an older house like this where plaster has been used
to cover the interior walls, we're going to naturally see some cracks.
That's due to natural settling and not really a bad sign.
But in modern houses where drywall has been used,
serious cracks, particularly diagonal ones,
could indicate some serious racking in the house,
and you're going to have to find out what the reasons for those are.
That you do in inspecting the foundation and to some extent up in the attic.
Now, another thing I want to look for is water damage.
That's a really important thing.
In a plaster or sometimes a drywall wall,
you'll feel some bulging here in the walls.
You'll see some bubbles.
That's a sure sign that water damage occurred at some time in the past.
Up here where the exterior wall meets the ceiling,
I can see some discoloration that's actually been covered up with paint.
There is probably some pretty good water damage up there at one time or another,
and we're going to find out more about that when we go up and inspect the attic.
Let me try the window here.
This window is not opening, and that's a big problem.
Actually, I checked it when I was on the outside and I saw that it was caulked shut,
and I also noticed that the sash cord has been cut,
so even if the window did go up and down, it wouldn't work properly.
Now, replacing windows is a huge expense.
If you have to do that in a house, you want to think twice.
Another thing that I'd check for is lead-based paint.
If there's lead-based paint anywhere where kids can get to it,
that probably has to be covered up or removed.
Now, another thing I've noticed, here's a 20-foot long wall
and only one electrical outlet on it.
That's something that may not work for you.
Fireplaces are a great asset in any house.
This one is particularly good because it's energy efficient
and really puts out some heat.
Now, a lot of fireplaces and inserts that you see
and also some of the wood stoves are not so efficient,
so you might want to check that out.
The chimney itself will probably need professional inspection,
and I would get a chimney sweep to do that.
Now, look, when you're playing house detective like this,
you're going to turn up a lot of things wrong with a house.
I don't mean to imply that that makes the house unacceptable to you.
What we're trying to do here is just make you aware
of things that can go wrong in a house,
things that might be wrong already,
so that you'll know what to expect after you buy the house.
It's a simple matter to check for insulation up in the attic,
and it's easy to look down in the basement
to see if the floor is insulated.
What's not so simple is checking the walls for insulation.
Now, when I put my hand on the outside walls of this house,
and I've got an idea there is no insulation here,
to check, remove some of the switch plates on the outside wall,
and with a flashlight, actually look behind that electric box,
and I don't see anything back there.
So I've got an idea that there is no insulation
in the outside walls of this house.
If you do look back there and see some foam insulation,
it might be urea formaldehyde.
Check that out, because it could be a health problem.
Now, remember when I told you about the driveway
tracking dirt in the house?
This is the main front door of the house,
and it's just a few steps away from that driveway.
You can see this big dirt spot here,
and the owner has got this soil extractor
ready to clean this spot, probably the whole carpet in this room.
Well, I can guarantee you, in another month,
it's going to look just like this from tracking dirt in.
The fix for that is either pave the driveway
or do something other than carpet in this room.
Some major concerns in the interior are
major cracking, water damage,
insufficient outlets, and no wall insulation.
Let's go take a look at the kitchen.
Here in the kitchen, let's check the overall cleanliness of the house.
Now, this just may be a housekeeping problem,
or it might be a house condition problem.
For example, this old caulking along in here
could be very difficult to keep clean,
or you might find that dust is coming in through the windows
that's hard to clean up, or the furnace is pumping out soot.
Those are things you have to judge for yourself.
Now, another thing you need to judge for yourself
is the electrical outlets in the kitchen.
Are there enough for your appliances or any future appliances
you might want to bring into this kitchen to use?
Now, let's talk water for a minute.
I see that this sink has this filter on it.
That could mean that there's a big water problem,
or it could mean simply that the current owner of the house
likes to filter the city water.
Now, I know this house is on city water,
so that's not really a big problem.
But what if you're on a well?
If the house is on a well, you could have a problem
that really needs to be checked out.
So check out the pump, check out the tank,
and check out the condition of the well
to see if there's any perhaps some seasonal variations
in the water that would really be a problem for you.
If the water is unacceptable to you,
you may want to consider not buying the house.
But the bottom line on water is what does it look like
and what does it taste like?
And from what I see here, I'm going to pass.
Now, the other thing you want to think of
when you're in the kitchen, how about bugs and rodents?
Let's check under here for that.
Whoa, we got a problem here.
Now, if you plan to keep the appliances that are in the house,
make sure that they're not too old and that they actually work.
For example, this cook stove, I would turn on all the burners
and make sure they actually get hot.
If you're going to bring your own appliances into the house,
make sure that the utilities that are here
will allow you to actually hook them up.
If not, you may have to buy all new appliances.
Now, if you have any remodeling ideas for the kitchen,
make sure you know what the cost is before you buy the house.
For example, moving the sink from one location to another
could be an extremely expensive item.
Now, I like having a kitchen island in here.
I think it makes the kitchen work very nicely.
However, over this one, there is no range hood.
That could mean that there's no way to get the smells out of this kitchen,
and you could be going to sleep after a big dinner party
with that wonderful odor of garlic wafting over your pillow.
Before you jump into the deal, make sure you jump on the floor
and find out how springy it really is.
A very springy floor, one that shakes the phonograph needle
and all its china on the shelves,
could mean that the floor has been deteriorated.
You want to check that out.
We also want to see if the floors are level or not,
and one good way to do that is to swing all the doors
and see if the space between the door, the corner of the door here,
and the floor increases or decreases as it swings.
Another way to check the level of the floor
is to get a steel ball and drop it on the floor,
see if it rolls in one direction or the other.
Or we could use a long level and check the level here.
Now, if the floor pitches out this way toward the foundation,
it could mean that the foundation is settled
and you've got a problem there.
If it pitches inward toward the center of the house,
it could mean that you've got some sagging or deterioration
in the floor supports.
That's another kind of a problem.
The main thing to find out is what kind of a problem you've got.
It could be serious or it may not be serious,
but you want to learn before you buy the house.
Major concerns in the kitchen are dust and dirt problems,
undrinkable water, insect or rodents, appliance problems,
future remodeling considerations, and floor problems.
Let's take a look at this bathroom.
Check out the plumbing.
First thing we want to see is how does the water come in?
Is it doing a good job with that?
The way to check that out is turn a couple of faucets on, flush the toilet.
If there's a big drop in water pressure, we've got a problem.
It needs to be looked at.
Then we want to find out how does the water run out of here.
Run water in the sink and see if the drain works right.
Flush the toilet and see if you get a nice prompt flush there.
Now, something that's not so obvious as that is what sort of a problem
has built up over the years from water leakage?
If there's a shower stall, as there is here, or a tub enclosure,
check the tiles, check around the joints,
and see if there's some big cracks that could be letting water
run down behind the wall and cause damage.
The way to check for that damage is go to the floor below.
Look for water stains there.
In this house, it's easy because we can go down in the basement
and check right under this and see if water has seeped down.
In this case, none has, so we're okay.
Now, another thing you might want to check out,
if the bathroom has a vanity, look inside and check for signs
of warping and water stains.
That's a sure tip-off that there's been some leakage at some time in the past,
if not right now.
Now, another thing you might want to check out is,
if you don't like the way the bathroom is laid out,
you might want to change the design of it.
Changing a bathroom around could be very expensive,
so check into that very carefully before you make your final decision.
Now, let's check the water pressure in this bathroom.
Okay, I've turned the water on in the sink.
Now, I'm going to turn the shower on,
and then flush the toilet and see what happens.
Oh, yeah, we got a quick drop in pressure in the shower head,
so I know that we've got a water feed problem in this house
that could be quite serious, and we're going to have to check that out.
The main concerns with the plumbing system include insufficient water pressure,
drain problems, old corroded pipes, water damage,
and further remodeling considerations.
Now, the next thing we're going to do is look in the attic of this house.
Now, check up here.
This scuttle that's right above the shower stall
is the only access we have to the attic.
It's very, very inconvenient, and it could be a big minus.
Oh, it was a lot easier for me to get up here
than it was for the crew and all the equipment.
Now, when you're inspecting an attic, be sure you walk only on the joists,
because in between is only the ceiling
you can go through and do some damage to yourself and the house.
Now, the insulation in here is pretty good.
I would prefer bat insulation myself,
but this is better than no insulation at all.
The ventilation is pretty good here, too.
We have turbine ventilators in the roof,
and we've got nice gable louvers in each end,
so there's probably pretty good ventilation in this attic.
The next thing you want to look for is structural.
Look at here.
We've got the main rafters in this roof have been spliced,
and we've got some very jury-rigged bracing here,
which indicates to me that after the house was built,
it became weak, and the owner noticed it.
Another thing we want to look for in the attic is water damage,
and I can see, remember on the roof when I said this chimney was probably leaking?
Well, here's evidence of years of water running down this chimney
into the house below.
Another thing we can see, there's some puddles here in the insulation
where water's been running down these rafters and dripping in,
showing some real water damage.
The main concerns in the attic include the amount of insulation,
water leaks, weak floor joists, proper ventilation.
The primary decisions in choosing a house are instinctive and emotional,
and that's the way it should be.
The reason for the critical inspection we've done today
is to make sure your emotions don't get you into something you'll regret later.
Now, after you've made your inspection,
take your notes home, add up the score,
and if it still feels right in your heart,
then this is probably the place for you.
Now, another way to find out exactly what's wrong with a house
is check with someone who's lived there a long, long time.
Now, look, I've been here all day looking for stuff.
I've got a list, but you can tell me something that I didn't find out.
I know if you really try, you can tell me something about it.
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