phaeton wrote:
Well, fwiw my fiancee pulled this inspector out of the book and I'm the
one who pays for it, so if she (the inspector) has any agendas, they'll
be mine

I wasn't there for the inspection, but my fiancee was, and she followed
her all around. She says that she did a very thorough job- spent
nearly 3 hours on it and crawled into everything she could fit into.
She says she was 'impressed' with some things, such as how cool the
attic was, and that it had that perfect balance of ventilation and
insulation. She said all the wiring is 100A and it was all replaced
recently, and the electrician did a good job of it. The floors were
sloped a little (which is to be expected) but they were all very solid
and the entire house was very structurally sound. The basement appears
sound and solid, though it was very humid (about 65%) and she pointed
out all the places water was getting in and getting trapped. Most of
it is stuff like fixing gutter downspouts that drop right in front of
windows, minor flashing, etc. She did note that the ground slopes
*toward* the house all the way around, and that backfilling/planing so
that it slopes away from the house would make a lot of difference.

The other big thing was the cracks in the exterior walls i had
mentioned. The house has all new windows in it, but apparently when
they were replaced, the timber around the windows wasn't replaced, even
though it was probably already starting to rot and it wasn't ever
caulked. So now the wood around the windows is all rotten and that's
allowing water to get into the concrete and make it crack. She says
that once the window situation is fixed the concrete cracks are 100%
repairable through various means. She gave the name and number of a
local guy that specialises in old house restoration, particularly stone
ones. She also recommended a book titled "Renovating Old Houses" by
Nash. Most everyone i've talked to about pulling the windows out and
re-doing the framing around them says it's not nearly as bad as it
sounds, and that the epoxies and things that fill concrete are actually
stronger than the concrete.

Most of the plumbing is either copper or PVC, there is one lead pipe
leading from the well to the pump area and might be original. The
plumbing all appears to be fine, and completely redone recently. Only
thing is they re-did it to old standards- it has an S trap instead of a
P trap and no gas vents, but since there is a lot of the plumbing
readily accessible in the basement (all wrapped with insulation, mind
you) this is something that can probably be updated easily. There are
a few things that aren't quite up to code, but they could be made that
way easily and inexpensively. Case in point: local fire codes require
that the water heater sit at least 6" from any wall. This one is right
up against the basement wall, but it's a stone wall so the chances of a
house fire are probably minimal. It's one of those things that i can
probably get to leisurely before anyone would call me on it.

Then there's a lot of stuff that I already knew about. There's a newer
concrete block chimney on the outside of the house that isn't anchored
and hangs about 1.5" from the wall all the way up. According to owner
legend, it has been that way since they bought it in 1984. There's
some rusted out ductwork in the basement coming from the oil furnace
(it appeared to me that water was seeping in through a slipshod plaster
job and contributed to it rusting). My handyman guy (the fiancee's
grandpa) says that there's about $50 worth of ductwork to replace in
the basement. The oil furnace was getting serviced by a really old guy
that probably originally installed it, but he couldn't remember when
exactly- he guesses late 1980s.

Then there's lots and lots of little stuff- you know all the "death by
a thousand paper cuts". The dryer vents to the basement instead of the
outside, the kitchen faucet leaks, the front door has no working locks
on it, the doors that do have working locks have no keys, the garage
door 'safety backup' switch thingy doesn't work, the kitchen and
bathrooms have well maintained but well used floors, there is some
hideous wallpaper and panelling choices throughout. I read through
this list and i'm not scared yet.

The inspector left with us a very organized and detailed report. She
says that most houses half this old run into 40-50 pages of stuff to
address, this house has about 12. She listed the loose railing on one
side of the front deck as the biggest safety hazard. (!)

All in all she says that the house is very structurally sound and safe,
and will remain that way for a long time if i keep the water out. I'm
quite pleased, and I'm glad I had it done. I understand that when I
move in there will be plenty o' things that i'll find, but it sounds
like all the big and/or dangerous stuff is covered.

thoughts? Thanks!

-Phaeton


My only concern is that what look like small repairs on old homes turn
into large repairs as layer after layer removed reveals other repairs
needed underneath.

If you are in a place in your life where you feel like spending a lot of
time on a house go for it. Seems odd though as you seem pretty young,
and I doubt you consider this your final house.

Maybe youll get good practice.

--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert