Author: doublehinspection

Was your home built between 1940 and 1975? If it was there is a very high likelihood that you have an Orangeburg sewer line. Why is this important you might ask? Orangeburg was a wood fibrous and tar material that was brought to prominence after World War 2 when metal was in short supply. This paper-like material had a life expectancy of 30-50 years which puts basically all of it well past its life expectancy.

When Orangeburg pipes begin to fail they can exhibit a crushing or squishing as the pipe becomes soft. This will lead to constriction of the pipe and eventual collapse. It can also exhibit what we call “eggs” where large bumps typically from rocks push into the side of the pipe as it weakens.  These will all eventually lead to a complete failure of the line in the form of a collapse of blockage of the line.  Repairs to these pipes can range from a few thousand to ten thousand dollars or more depending on the exact conditions. This is not something you want to be surprised by when buying a home.  I strongly encourage anyone who is buying a home in this age range to add a sewer scope to your home inspection to make sure you aren’t surprised with a sewer line failure in the near future.

If you live in a home in this age range I can come out and provide you with a stand-alone sewer scope. This will let you know if you have this type of sewer line and what condition your line is in. This can prepare you for a repair before a complete failure and sewer backup that can add thousands of dollars to the repair and cleanup costs.

I want to provide my customers and agents with the assurance that I have their well being at the forefront of every one of my inspections. One way I do that is by participating in InterNACHI’s Buy-Back Guarantee program.

As a Certified Professional Inspector trained by InterNACHI—the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors—I’m able to offer my clients not just a thorough inspection and reliable report, but something that no one else in the industry does:  InterNACHI’s Buy-Back Guarantee.

InterNACHI is the leader in home inspection organizations in the world for a reason and this is just one more reason.  This is an unprecedented level of protection that is not offered anywhere else in the industry!  Give Double H Inspections a call today to find out more about this program and why it’s important to have this on your next inspection.

Home Maintenance Inspections – What are they?

A Home Maintenance Inspection is just like a home inspection a buyer would get on a home in a real estate transaction only for homeowners who aren’t selling.  We do these for customers all the time to help find small maintenance items that can easily be corrected before they turn into huge costly repairs.

Here is an example of why these are so important from my own home I recently purchased. We found that support posts that hold up the porch roof are rotting on the bottom. In fact a couple of them are completely rotted and I can just push them over.  This could have been avoided with a home maintenance inspection that told the homeowner to make sure to caulk the bottom edge where the post met the bricks they sat on to keep moisture out.  Because this tiny maintenance item that would cost the $10 for caulking and 15 minutes every couple of years was missed I now have to spend hundreds of dollars replacing the posts, luckily I can do them myself or it might be thousands of dollars.  Worse, had I not purchased the home and caught this the post could have gotten so bad that a heavy snow load could have brought the whole porch roof crashing down causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage! This is exactly the type of thing that annual or bi-annual home maintenance inspections can help prevent.

So who needs a home maintenance inspection? Really everyone but we love helping out our retired customers who are no longer able to safely get up on their roof to inspect it or crawl through their crawl space any more.  There is nothing worse than seeing a couple on a fixed retirement income get a huge repair sprung on them they can’t afford that could have been prevented with small maintenance that our inspection would have caught.  There are also people that just really value a outside perspective. It is easy to get complacent in your home and not notice little things or keep putting them off year after year thinking you will get to it.  Double H Inspections will look where homeowners never look and use tools more homeowners just don’t have, to find potential issues or defects. In short, we can help almost anyone you know with a home maintenance inspection.

Here is a link to an article on home mainitiance inspections from Realtor.com for some more information.  CLICK HERE

If you would like to know more about our home maintenance inspections please give us a call!   307-763-1152

It is no secret that in 2021 the real estate market in many areas of the country is super hot and houses are flying off the MLS the same day they are listed.  When this happens there are people and even real estate agents out there that will advised against a home inspection to “make your offer stronger”.  While we assume that advice is typically coming from a good place (they just want you to get the house you want), it can lead to disastrous results. Here is a brief summary of a few top reasons that you still should be getting your home inspected.

First is the same as any market conditions, to find hidden issues you wouldn’t have otherwise known about. This one is pretty obvious but in a sellers market it is still valuable. I know you just love the house you put an offer in on and you have already put offers in on 4 other houses and got outbid on all of them and just really want this one. However, do you really want it at the top price you are paying if you find out there are serous foundation issues that could cost $10,000+ to correct, faulty wiring that is another $10,000 to fix, and the roof on the 2nd story home that you can’t see is shot and leaking and will be $15,000+ to get replaced?  In a hot market when we see homes going over asking price and prices skyrocketing in the first place there is often times not a ton of wiggle room in people budgets once there are finally able to contract a home to buy. This means that finding out after you purchase the home that you have to sink another $20-$50K in repairs just to keep the house safe or inhabitable can put you in a really bad place that no one wants to end up in.

The second reason home inspections are especially important in a hot markets is because of the amount of “Flippers” out there to make a quick buck.  When prices are climbing rapidly there is tons of money to be made in the real estate flipping market.  While this can be great as we typically will see areas that have maybe been neglected start to see more and more rehabs bringing nice houses into older neighborhoods it can have some consequences too.  It is well known in construction and home inspection circles that as soon as a market heats up and the “flippers” start pumping out houses as fast as they can that quality of work goes down hill quick.  This is a HUGE concern especially for non-local buyers who might not know who the reputable rehabers and construction companies are.  That can lead to major headaches and unforeseen costs for unsuspecting home buyers.  There are so many ways that flippers try to hide major issues to make a quick buck. It is super common around the country for flippers to use a “bootleg ground” on receptacles by having their ground wires tied to their neutral wires to try and trick electrical testers. This is done because old wiring is sometimes only wired for a 2 prong system without a ground. Instead of getting the wiring upto current safety standards they install new receptacles and tie the neutral and ground together which tricks some testers. This saves them thousands in the repair costs and make it look like quality work was done to bring the home up to current standards when in fact it has not.  Often times they can install bath fans just for looks. It is super easy to just cut a hole in the ceiling and mount the fan without getting the attic and hooking up the electrical and exhaust pipe. Fresh paint on a deck is done by sellers all the time to make it look nicer, but it is also done by flippers to hide rot and deterioration.  This has the potential to lead to major safety concerns or expensive repairs.

Finally all the reasons we can come up with come down to this, $$$$$.  We inspect homes so that you know what you are buying. You want to make sure that you get a home that fits all your needs, or as close to that as you can get.  If you go all in on your budget for a new home just to find out there are major issues you didn’t see coming it can throw a wrench into your financial wellbeing that can take years and years to recover from.  It is so important to still get your inspection even in a hot market.  You can get an inspection and not request any changes to the contract if that works for your situation so that you don’t feel like you are hurting your offer. That way you would have a list of the major issues you need to budget for to get fixed or get fixed as soon as the home is yours.  Often times we find things like negative drainage that is causing foundation issues but they are just minor at the time of inspection.  You can make sure to get that corrected as soon as possible so that the foundation doesn’t become a huge issue costing thousands of dollars.  Finally if your inspection reveals too many issues and you can’t afford to buy the home and make the corrections needed, you can walk away from the deal in most cases (check with your realtor).  This is the ultimate fail safe of an inspection and can save your bacon before you buy something you shouldn’t.

As always our motivation is to serve our customers and give them as much information as possible to help them make their buying decision. You should always consult with your realtor and weigh all your options.  If you really love an area or a house and your budget puts you in a place that you will need to buy a house with defects and fix it up as you can that is fine, we just want you to be aware of what those defects are so you can make a well informed decision for you and your family.