Who Determines When To Replace/upgrade HVAC,plumbing,electrical,etc?
At what point in a rehab project am I to know when or if the HVAC,plumbing, and electrical needs replacing? Will this be pointed out during the inspection by the inspector? I have the same uncertainties regarding when and if to replace sewer lines, sump pumps, gas furnaces,etc. Someone please fill me in on delegating these tasks and also who determines whether or not these items need upgrading, replacing, or left as is. I am assuming the inspector
[addsig]
When you say inpection are you talking about an inspection service prior to purchase or the building dept inspections during rehab?
Don't rehab and then wait to be surprised. Most building depts are filled with old retired contractors who are now inspectors. If you aren't a complete ass, they will usually love to talk shop with you and answer lots of questions if you catch them at the right time.
Other issues should be uncovered by using an good inspection service prior to the purchase. This is the time to find out the condition of the furnace and such so you can use that information to determine what the property is worth to make your offer.
Other things will be revealed by the building dept. There are issues such as doing any type of rehab on a part of the house now means you have to bring it up to current codes. An example could be rehabing a bathroom and now being required to have an independent circuit for the GFCI outlets instead of the way it was originally done. You situation could or couldn't be like this depending on your building dept. Bottom line contact them now about an issue and find out what you can and can't do before you have to face bringing something up to code.
Thanks Rehabinator for the reply.
Without a doubt, I will get an inspection as soon as I find out if the title is clear, which is the inspection phase that I am referring to. I am curious as too exactly what the inspector's responsibilities are as far as pointing out what's wrong and what may need replacing.
So was I correct in assuming that the inspector is responsible for determining whether or not these items(HVAC,plumbing,electrical,etc.) need to be replaced and/or repaired?
If so, what is the correct terminology for this type of inspection b/c I don't want to leave nothing out. Is this what is considered a "full blown" inspection?
Thanks again.
[addsig]
Up to a point a good inspection service depending on the scope of the inspection should be able to pin point some systems that are shot or okay.
Be aware that alot of what the report will say will be opinion.
You can have a 25 year old furnace that could last another 25 years. But would anybody expect it to? No. As long as the furnace looks and seems to work well, (he should hit it with an infared probe that reads for leaks and such, the inspector is going to say the furnace looks okay, but at 25 years old who knows, it could blow tomorrow. That's when you want the seller to have a furnace certification issued. However in investment properties asking for something like that is usually overkill, you are getting a discount because the place is a wreck.
As far as plumbing goes, they check for leaky faucets, temperature recover on the hot water tank (maybe), ect... they aren't going to scope the sewer system (unless you pay for it) ect...
Electrical stuff they usually check with a $3 probe from home depot to see if the outlets show they are grounded, stuff like that. They aren't going to dig into the walls and look at condition or see if you have knob and tube or do a load calculation on the service to see if adding a new circuit would mean spending $1500 to upgrade the electrical service.
A lot of what you will gain is by talking to the inspector as he does his inspection and ask him a lot of questions. If you run into structural issues the general inspector will advise you to get a more expensive structural engineering report done.
Hey Shamaund,
The "licensed" home inspector will typically inspect
HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Insulation, Structural, Appliances, Exterior and interior items etc....you or the owner (owner takes precedence) over what you want inspected. They do not get into cosmetic issues.....paint, flooring, etc.
They legally can not tell you how the life of any component or system. There are some that do such but they putting their license in jeopardy.
They are basically a "generalist" that advises you the condition (safety) of systems and components at "the time of the inspection."
If the inspector also holds a GC license he can address certain types of structural issues in regards to repairs..etc. Once you get into the scope of loads and failures etc......you are talking engineer.
Same goes with any other license they may hold.
While legally they are allowed to give you an estimate on some items................they would be foolish to give such information because they can be held liable to those estimates. The licenseing board frowns upon those that give such estimates.
Rehab pointed out some excellent points.......one of the best things to do is to follow him / her around.
However, I would suggest you have a list of questions at the end of the inspection if possible.
Most inspectors do not want to be "distracted" while conducting the inspection. If you have a camera then take your own pictures as well.
In Charlotte and the surrounding area there are plenty of companies out there that will do inspections......just be careful not to chose one that is not thorough. You did not mention the size of the house.....but a basic inspecton can take anywhere from 3 - 8 hours depending on the size of the house as well as problems they find. Earlier this year I sold one of my rehabs to a couple that chose a large company that did the inspection in less then an hour......it should have taken at least 4 - 6 hours for this particular house.
Prices will vary from $200 - $400.--
You can go to the following site to find a licensed inspector. Click on the Seal to take you to the locator section.
http://www.nclhia.com/
Hope this helps....
NC
Quote:
On 2004-11-29 14:51, shamund wrote:
Thanks Rehabinator for the reply.
Without a doubt, I will get an inspection as soon as I find out if the title is clear, which is the inspection phase that I am referring to. I am curious as too exactly what the inspector's responsibilities are as far as pointing out what's wrong and what may need replacing.
So was I correct in assuming that the inspector is responsible for determining whether or not these items(HVAC,plumbing,electrical,etc.) need to be replaced and/or repaired?
If so, what is the correct terminology for this type of inspection b/c I don't want to leave nothing out. Is this what is considered a "full blown" inspection?
Thanks again.
Thanks for the replies guys...NC Yank how is business up your way?
The size of the house is 1500 sq.ft. I am questioning whether or not to replace a few things...i.e, air unit is kind of small for this size www.house.Not sure the amount of tons. Electrical can use an upgrade in panel box.
I haven't had it inspected yet b/c I just recently placed my offer but I am sure other issues will arise.
[addsig]
Quote:
On 2004-11-30 08:12, shamund wrote:
Thanks for the replies guys...NC Yank how is business up your way?
The size of the house is 1500 sq.ft. I am questioning whether or not to replace a few things...i.e, air unit is kind of small for this size http://www.house.Not sure the amount of tons. Electrical can use an upgrade in panel box.
I haven't had it inspected yet b/c I just recently placed my offer but I am sure other issues will arise.
A 1500 sf home would probably take a 2 ton system depending on ceiling and amount of walls in the house. Rule of thumb is 600 sf per ton however a house your size usually will eat up about 200 - 300 sf in wall space......you do not want to oversize a unit.
What size is the amperage on the house....100 amps?
If this is a fix and flip then do not put more into then you need. Remember this is not your house to live in.......make it safe, attractive but not extravagant.
It's definitley a buyers market here.........one of the subdivisions where I am building we had a couple of new contractors (knuckleheads) that sold their homes at actual construction cost. It has really messed up the appraisals as well as the selling price of the other homes. That coupled with the fact that developer is new and has made some stupid mistakes....ie., house sizes range from 1200 - 2000 + square feet, prices are going from 135k - 250k.
That is way to much of difference in size and price for a subdivision that is not divided up into phases to account for such.
Several of the lenders, including my personal lender ,are no long lending money for small builders to build in there. Of course I have no plans to put up any future homes there anyway.
But my blood pressure rises a few notches when I think about what these guys did.......if I want to play cut throat I can put them out of business but it would be hurting other contractor friends of mine which I am not willing to do.
I spoke with the developer but he is such a moron that he is just looking at selling lots and is not looking at the bigger picture.
Im in the process of getting more into light commercial work, have a few jobs I just started............less headaches, more money.
As you can see, there is more to being a GC then just slapping up a house.........there are many other things that a GC has to deal with other then supply and labor costs that are out of his control.
NC_Yank