Initial Foundation Inspection Order Made Easy

Sign foundation inspection order

according to the internet G home inspection standards to practice the home inspector shall inspect the foundation the basement crawlspace and structural components the inspector also shall describe the type of foundation and the location of the access to the underfloor space the home inspector shall report and is in need of correction observed indications of wood in contact with or near soil observed indications of active water penetration observed indications of possible foundation movement observed cutting notching and boring of framing members that may in the inspectors opinion present a structural or safety concern you know home inspection hello we just finished up the outside of the inspection we're gonna come in the house we like to make some noise just in case there's anybody who's came in when we're in the backyard or something like that because you don't ever want to surprise somebody in the restroom in their bedroom changing things like that but so as we're coming in the house now we're gonna go to the basement on this house because we're gonna look at the structure the foundation the basement floor all the things relating to what's holding the house up so we're gonna head downstairs now okay now just came in from the outside we're gonna inspect the basement as we're coming down the stairs you know you want to make sure the handrails tight I want to make sure that we have a switch at the top in the bottom I want to make sure we have an even run and that our rise is also even improper now part of our SOP is we're required to inspect the basement any underfloor areas any visible notching framing things like that when it's a finished basement your inspection is pretty limited you know as you're looking around we can't see foundation walls ceiling we can't see any structure you know we can't see any support posts in here you know you need to report on what you also can't see so the under floor framing was not visible for inspection that's part of our standards we wanted to know what we can't see you're not required to move things so as we're walking through part of our interior inspection this will be checking our outlets things like that part of our HVAC which we kind of mix this up a little bit but we'll be looking for returns HVAC registers things like that so as we're coming in again part of our basement inspection is egress we have a bedroom do we have an egress window so that is part of what we're supposed to look at is the opening low enough on a window well if it is it high enough that we need a ladder do we have a ladder as we come in we're gonna look and see do we have gravel at the base or the window well we always like to recommend water resistant load-bearing covers just because of kids we don't ever want anybody to get hurt but again as we look through you know it's completely finished so we can't see the structure we can't see the walls on the outside of the house we could tell her we had poured concrete foundation so your reports going to say poured concrete it's gonna say basement and then your report should say the basement foundation walls we're not visible accessible for inspection as we come through we're gonna check our closet doors and I'll look inside here see if there's anything any openings things like that do we actually can see a foundation sometimes it'll be a crawlspace in a closet so we want to make sure we look at those items now let's just bring this up because it's here sometimes you will be looking at a house and you will open a closet or go in a bedroom and you will see guns we always take pictures of them do not touch them but remember you're controlling the inspection if there's kids at the inspection you definitely want to let every adult know and you might want to make sure that door gets locked or that nobody can get into that room because you would hate to have a problem because people are coming in the house and the sellers are not always thinking about little kids so bathrooms as we're doing the foundation of course this is a part of our interior inspection but again we can't see anything in here for a structural but as we're walking we can tell how does our basement floor is it flat is it level as we hit it this is concrete slab on grade so we're not gonna have an underfloor area sometimes when we do that we hear an echo so we know there's a crawlspace underneath the basement floor so in Colorado we call it a void space if there is then there should be access we should be able to get into it sometimes we will have a crawlspace off the side we'd also look for an access on the outside of the house typically we would see vents so we'd know there was a crawlspace a lot of times you will have in a basement the laundry so we come in here's our HVAC systems so we will be doing a full HVAC inspection here's your laundry when we're in there we look if there's nothing in the washing machine we will run it if there's clothes etc we're not going to run it because you don't want to damage anybody's items we're gonna look in here we have an accessible sewer cleanup that gives me an indication that the basement was finished with permits if we don't have any accessible clean outs a lot of times that means somebody did things without permits as we look right here our electrical we're gonna come back and look at this but we have a legend that is one of the first things a building inspector looks at at and an art fault so that would tell me probably permits again in here as we come through here just in our visual here we can see some framing so we do see a missing junction box cover for electrical that's a safety issue now if we look at our boring here you are allowed to bore no closer than two inches to the top or bottom of the joist so typically boring in the center like they did for the electric is the best thing to do we can see it over here also I don't see any kind of notching so that's okay when we come back to HVAC we will look at clearances to combustible materials things like that do we have our one inch for a double wall flow okay over here this is the only part of the foundation that we can see so we have concrete from here to here so in our report major most portions of the are the basement foundation walls were not visible / accessible for inspection now I might put a little parenthesis that says a small portion was visible in the laundry just so people know where it was that I could see again we're gonna look at the windows that's not an egress window but we did have an egress window in the bedroom so we do have one for the house up above us and the laundry we have ceiling tiles SOP we are not required to remove ceiling tiles not required to move clients or sellers belongings things like that I would never get in the habit of moving those ceiling tiles to look at things people will ask you the problem is if you damage one you may not be able to match it and they could be asbestos so then now you can have a problem with damaging asbestos and you need to have it removed and mitigated so our SOPs protect us from that we're not required to look at it if they're missing great you can look at more of the framing if not don't move them we just briefly walk through this basement looking at what we could see and what we can't see typically when you're doing a home inspection as you come downstairs you will start checking the outlets you will start checking all the windows so you're not gonna want through the house and say yes the foundation looks good or bad you're gonna check that whole area in fact I recommend you do that as you walk through the house that way you don't forget things when you get to the bathroom you want to inspect the bathroom so yes we have basically ten areas of an inspection but you are gonna overlap and you are gonna perform two or three sections at the same time such as I'm inspecting the walls for cracks things like that I'm also in checking the outlets are they reverse polarity are the correct polarity things like that so your inspection just make sure you do the same procedure every time that way you don't forget don't miss things we've just finished section three point 3 which is the visible foundation structure etc of the house we are now going to start three point four which is the heating systems [Music] you