Home Inspectors?

[jetskier]

We bought a house a few years back and hired an inspector to provide us with a report. As it turned out, there were a large number of issues that he did not find/report.

The HVAC system was completely mis-installed and there was actually a vent that was set up to dump exhaust into the house...this would have been extremely bad. I ended up spending over $35k to clean up that mess and the inspector had no liability in the matter; I could not go after him. In addition, there were a number of construction flaws (unreported) that we had to address. All in all, I spent over $50k to bring everything up to snuff.

IMHO, the inspectors are either not capable of providing a comprehensive analysis or they are so tied in with the brokers that they guard that relationship. I am sure there are a few good ones out there and someone will take umbrage to this...but.

If I had it to do over again I would hire the following:

• An HVAC person/plumber
• A quality builder
• An electrician

I think that this would cover the bases. I would never ever ever ever make such a critical purchase and rely on a home inspector ever again.

Jetskier

[TOAD]

Originally Posted by jetskier

We bought a house a few years back and hired an inspector to provide us with a report. As it turned out, there were a large number of issues that he did not find/report.

The HVAC system was completely mis-installed and there was actually a vent that was set up to dump exhaust into the house...this would have been extremely bad. I ended up spending over $35k to clean up that mess and the inspector had no liability in the matter; I could not go after him. In addition, there were a number of construction flaws (unreported) that we had to address. All in all, I spent over $50k to bring everything up to snuff.

IMHO, the inspectors are either not capable of providing a comprehensive analysis or they are so tied in with the brokers that they guard that relationship. I am sure there are a few good ones out there and someone will take umbrage to this...but.

If I had it to do over again I would hire the following:

• An HVAC person/plumber
• A quality builder
• An electrician

I think that this would cover the bases. I would never ever ever ever make such a critical purchase and rely on a home inspector ever again.

Jetskier

Sounds good to me....might go that route with a few phone calls.

[DickR]

Ask a home inspector you are considering if he'll do a blower door test. If he doesn't know what that is, find someone else. This has come up before. A blower door test measures the amount of air exhausted from a house needed to depressurize the house to a standard 50 pascals difference. It's a measure of how tight the house is. A leaky house could be very uncomfortable in winter and cost a small fortune to heat. Major air leaks can be identified this way, many of which are fairly easy to seal up.

[Irish mist]

To be safe I would hire an inspector from "out of the area". Perhaps Concord or Manchester.....the reason being they won't be so connected to the local real estate crowd. Jetskier had the best idea IMO. Good luck

[Winnisquamguy]

Originally Posted by Irish mist

To be safe I would hire an inspector from "out of the area". Perhaps Concord or Manchester.....the reason being they won't be so connected to the local real estate crowd. Jetskier had the best idea IMO. Good luck

Not sure if you want to go this route but this is who I used. His name is Ron and he is out of Manchester... nice guy, gives you a nice 3 ring binder filled with all your furnace filters sizes, water filters, etc, along with the inspection.

http://www.rcchomeinspections.com/

Good Luck!!

[steadyon]

Toad, you have a private message