Top 10 Home Inspection Myths

I hear a lot of the same home inspection myths repeated over and over. Home inspections offer valuable information about your homes general condition outlining areas that require minor and major repairs. Deficiencies are also pinpointed in the building structure. Assessing a home is one of the hard tasks completed by a Home Inspector due to the prevalence of myths attached to the process of home inspection. Here are some of the myths surrounding home inspections and answers to help you understand the concept in a better way:

Hear are the one I hear most often.

10. The seller needs to fix this.

The seller doesn’t need to fix anything. Home buyers can ask sellers to fix things or pay for things to be fixed, but I can’t think of a single defect that a seller would be required to fix.

In Wisconsin, the seller must complete the  Wisconsin Real Estate Condition Report (RECR) that might identify required repairs, but those are separate from the home inspection. Even if the home inspector identifies a defect that was missed by the RECR, the seller has no obligation to fix anything.

9. Windows less than 18″ from the ground need tempered glass.

There is no such code requirement. This misunderstanding comes from section R308.4 of the International Residential Code (IRC). The IRC requires special glass in hazardous locations, and goes on to give a list of hazardous locations. One such example is glass in a location that meets ALL of the following conditions:

· Exposed area of an individual pane larger than 9 square feet.

· Bottom edge less than 18 inches above the floor.

· Top edge more than 36 inches above the floor.

· One of more walking surfaces within 36 inches horizontally of the glazing.

When only one, two, or three of these conditions are met, it’s not considered a hazardous location and tempered glass is not required.

For more detailed information about safety glazing, check out Douglas Hansen’s article: Safety Glazing.

8. Buyers should only attend the end of the inspection.

Buyers will probably get the most out of the inspection if they do what the home inspector prefers. If the home inspector prefers to have the buyer show up at the end, the buyer would do best to show up at the end. If the home inspector prefers to have clients attend the whole thing (like we do), the buyer should try to be there the whole time.

7. New construction homes don’t need inspections.

I inspect new construction homes, and find a fair number defects. Don't assume your builder -- or the contractors -- did everything right just because the home passed code.

6. The law requires you to have CO alarms to sell a home

Wisconsin’s requirement for CO alarms has nothing to do with real estate.

5. A small air conditioner might not cool the house properly.

The physical size of that thing at the outside of the house won’t tell you anything about the cooling capacity. It has a lot more to do with the efficiency of the unit; larger units = more surface area = higher efficiency. The cooling capacity is measured in tons. To figure out how many tons your unit is, look at the model number and find a number usually between 18 and 60 that’s a multiple of 6. Divide that number by 12, and you have the number of tons your unit is.

For more info on sizing air conditioners and a nice explanation of why air conditioners are rarely undersized, check out this article on Air Conditioner Capacity that was published in the ASHI Reporter.

There are several blog posts about AC sizing at the Vanguard Energy Blog. Here are a few:

· I Use an Air Conditioner Sizing Rule of Thumb!

· Why an Oversized Air Conditioner Is a Bad Idea

· How to Tell If You Have an Oversized Air Conditioner

· 5 Questions to Ask When Replacing Your Air Conditioner

· 3 Reasons Your 3 Ton Air Conditioners Isn’t Really 3 Tons

4. A backdrafting water heater should be replaced.

If water back drafts the problem isn't with the water heater. Replacing a water heater won’t correct backdrafting unless a new powervent water heater is installed. If a water heater backdrafts, there’s a problem outside the water heater, so replacing water heaters  won't solve back drafting . Sometimes it’s a problem with the vent, sometimes the vent connector, and sometimes it’s a more complicated problem that requires evaluation of the entire house.

For more detailed information on this topic, click this link: backdrafting water heaters.

3. Old stucco is a concern.

Old stucco is fine. It’s just the newer stuff  that started being installed in the early 90′s - EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finishing System) that should be a concern. What went wrong with this stucco? Joseph Lstiburek calls it the “perfect stucco storm.”

2. Bedrooms need closets.

There is nothing in the building code that requires a closet.  Requirements for a bedroom to have a closet is nowhere in the International Residential Code or any other building code. The Wisconsin, ordinances clearly defines a bedroom as a "habitable room within a home that is used for sleeping and should not contain any kitchen or dining space". Just that!  A bedroom does not need a closet but a room must not be used for sleeping if it does not meet the codes.

An appraiser might want to see a closet… so what’s a closet?

1. Double tapped circuit breakers are a big deal.

This is one of the most common electrical defects that home inspectors report on, but the repair for a double tapped circuit breaker is usually quick and easy. When compared to most of the other electrical defects that home inspectors find, the safety risk posed by a double tapped circuit breaker is quite low. So what’s the big deal? Probably fear of the unknown.