Home probes

Inspectors put houses under the microscope to detect problems

By NANCY KIMBALL Flathead Business Journal

As the housing market slowdown continues to soften some Flathead Valley real estate prices, prospective home buyers are out there looking.

And good buys are out there to be found.

Nearly all of them can be a good house for the right person, but deciding whether the price is right for your budget and handyman skills takes a little deeper digging. That's where a home inspector can step up to the plate.

"A home inspection isn't a warranty against problems," Gordon Gibbs said from his perspective as owner of Gordon Gibbs Inspection Services just outside Kalispell.

"What it is, is a picture in time," Gibbs said. "Things still happen. If your water heater's 10 years old, it could go out tomorrow."

But a well-done home inspection offers an accurate inventory to the home buyer and reassurance to the lender that a house will hold up as collateral for the amount loaned.

The inspector visually examines the physical structure and systems of a house - heating, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, insulation, walls, ceilings, floors, windows, doors, foundation, basement and other structural components - and provides a written report detailing what was found.

It's different from a building inspector's job.

A building inspector, or code inspector, typically works for the state, county or city. He checks to be sure the builder is pouring foundations as required for the area, for example, or using the proper dimension lumber in framing or providing the required venting. Flathead County no longer has a building inspector.

Electrical inspectors and plumbing inspectors are different professions altogether.

Bill Knoll, a Bigfork-area construction contractor who started advertising building inspection services a year ago, said a building inspector starts with Day One of a construction project. He's there before workers pour the footings, before they pour the basement slab, before they close in the framing and after the house is completed. He checks more often if hired to do so.

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PERHAPS THE first thing to check is your home inspector's credentials.

Montana does not require licensing or registration for home inspectors, so it's up to the customer to do his research.

"Pretty much, it's all self-regulated," Gibbs said.

He, for example, is certified through the Home Inspection Foundation and has been doing the work part time for about four years. Gibbs needed to learn more about inspections for his business of buying and remodeling homes, so he took home-inspection and appraisal classes offered by the American Society of Home Inspectors. Although ASHI's higher standards and longer time requirement for certification were beyond what he wanted to put in back then, after doing 10 or 20 home inspections a year for other clients, he feels he could gain ASHI certification now.

Richard Graf, who owns Eagle Home Inspection in Whitefish, has been an ASHI associate for 15 years and certified by them for 10 years.

"Ballpark, I'd say there's about 15 home inspectors in the Flathead Valley now," Graf said. "That's a guess because they come and go."

Graf worked his way through the University of Montana as a carpenter and stayed in construction until 1992, when he made the career change to home inspection. Although the home inspection concept had gotten started on the East Coast two decades earlier, he said, it was a fairly new industry in Montana at the time. Today he does 200 to 250 home inspections a year.

"But there are no credentials the state of Montana imposes," Graf said. "If you've got a flashlight and a screwdriver, you can call yourself a home inspector."

Bruce Kirby, an inspector affiliated with National Association of Certified Home Inspectors, runs BJCC Inspections from his home in Rexford. He agreed that "all you have to do is say you're a home inspector."

Kirby recommended asking a home inspector about certifications he may have, whether for mold inspection, roof integrity or the like.

Beware, however, that certifications can be had simply for a cursory

reading of a book and paying a fee to take an online test until the aspiring inspector gets it right. If associated with a state or national organization, check out the trustworthiness of the organization itself.

HOMES themselves have a story to tell.

000200000E93000011AAE8D,As he checks a home's major systems, Graf wants to know if they're functioning adequately.

A cracked foundation, for example, may mean it's moving or settling, or isn't bolstered against seismic activity. He looks for water stains on walls and in attics to see if a roof is installed properly. Soot along a stove pipe or ceiling can be the telltale sign of a leaky wood stove. Insulation and ventilation can be a problem - an attic should have an insulation factor of R-38, Graf said, and walls should have R-21.

He opens electrical panels to check wire configuration and breakers, and watches for sparks or flickering lights when he flips wall switches. He runs the plumbing fixtures, checks for stains or leaks, and makes sure the cold water is operated on the right side and the hot water on the left side so unsuspecting users don't get scalded.

In all his sleuthing, Graf has found some common problems.

"Severed floor joists," he identified the one he finds most frequently. "The framer does a fine job of framing, then the plumber comes in and cuts a joist to get a pipe in E Most houses have floor framing that has been cut."

He runs into electrical issues, he said, when a homeowner with some basic knowledge tries to save money by doing his own wiring without getting a permit.

"I call those guys the do-it-to-yourselfers," he said.

He said older homes often have outdated or obsolete furnaces, ones that provide heat but emit carbon monoxide or which may be grossly inefficient. And he's seen leaky plumbing so bad that the exterior wall of a shower stall is rotted away.

GIBBS USED his farm background and experience in building a hog facility, barns and his dad's house as a foundation for his studies in home inspection. He approaches his work from a common-sense angle.

"I'm looking for the functional part of the house, the different systems like electrical or exterior siding," he said. "I break down the individual aspects of the house and make a judgment on whether this is right or needs to be upgraded."

He finds many of the same issues Graf finds - inefficient furnaces, incorrectly wired electrical systems, water damage from, say, leaky windows or plumbing. In fact, he said, most houses in their lifetimes will have some kind of plumbing issues.

An inspector's report to the home buyer is a listing of the findings, he cautioned, not a recommendation on purchase.

"As an inspector," he reiterated, "you're looking at a moment in time. The buyer has to decide whether they have to replace the roof in five years, or if they're looking at a furnace at the end of its life."

But if quizzed on whether a house is worth taking a look at, he tosses that ball back into the buyer's court.

"That would involve the price. It's worth some kind of value," he said. "If you're up to dealing with the problems and the price is right, go for it."

Even buying a house and gutting it or tearing it down can be a valid option, he said - or backing away from a purchase entirely.

"Some of the reasons I've seen that people didn't buy a house were the roof needed replacing or the windows weren't good," he said. "Those are the things people will use to get out of a sale if that's not what they want."

In the final analysis, it makes sense to hire a home inspector only if your research convinces you he has some expertise and if the data collected is going to be put to practical use.

"You have to choose someone you're comfortable with. Some like to act more important than they are," he said. "But make sure they do have some training, because there is some responsibility, some liability involved. Use good judgment."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com