Interior Home Inspection with InterNACHI's Ben Gromicko

[Music] during a home inspection i'm required to as a home inspector inspect the interior of a home so how do i do that well it's pretty simple actually and it doesn't take much time because i'm not inspecting everything a home inspector is not responsible to find all the problems in a home only the ones that he or she observes and deems to be material that is what's supposed to show up in an inspection report so for the interior what do i inspect the key phrase is a representative number a representative number of windows representative number of doors receptacles lights take a look the the surfaces the interior floors the ceilings the walls open and close the doors and that's the interior really so how do i do that well i actually like to use a couple tools and a flashlight a gfci tester a receptacle wall three prong tester and also my infrared camera which i have right here and this is my flir c2 infrared camera and what i do is i walk around the house and i take a quick scan with my infrared of the walls ceilings and windows and doors and i try to see anomalies that's what i'm really looking for something unusual i don't take any measurements i'm not looking for the temperature differential the delta t on a surface wall or something i'm just looking for something that doesn't look quite right and so i'll show you what i see with my infrared camera and with an infrared camera i see things that other home inspectors can't see so it gives me an advantage so to interpret what you see with your infrared camera you need trained and certified and internachi can help you with that so i'm walking towards the kitchen right and i see things that are well hot frankly is the surface temperature of that dishwasher and the kitchen sink and the stove those things are hot but what i'm really doing during a interior inspection is looking at the ceilings and the windows and the doors i'm looking for things that don't look quite right so the the lights are on i see that and everything looks okay i don't see a major problem that's coming up with the infrared scan so let me take a look at the other rooms and this is kind of cool i don't have to turn the light on to see with my infrared camera i'm going to take a look at the ceiling of this bedroom and that's a hot light fixture there another hot flight fixture and it's warm outside it's cool inside okay nothing at the walls there nothing at the ceilings or the floors so let me go down here there's another bedroom this is what i would do just a quick scan of the ceiling the exterior wall nope here's the bathroom bathroom i'll do a quick skin of oh what's that a water leak no someone just got out of the shower so it's a cool yeah yep so there's cold water in the tub now the toilet you can see the water there what i really don't want to see is i'm going to look for it anything around the base of the toilet so i don't see anything and the fan itself must have been turned on it's a little warm and nothing underneath oh that's a oh that's a wet rag right there let's see underneath the kitchen i mean sorry bathroom sink nothing okay how about another bedroom okay nothing on the ceiling exterior wall uh that's a wet towel there okay yeah i don't see anything in the interior okay so using my infrared camera nothing came up no anomalies that's what i say nothing very strange or odd using my infrared camera and i did a quick scan of the entire first floor of this rancher house three bedroom one bath in about less than a minute now i'll do representative number of windows doors and i'll take a look at the receptacles and light fixtures and things like that on the interior for this house 2 500 square foot house rancher three bedrooms one bath kitchen it'll be about five minutes for the entire interior because there's really not a lot to do and it's not very technical either and again it's a representative number of windows and doors not every window not every door it's really up to you though to exceed as a home inspector you can exceed the standards of practice you can inspect every wall receptacle if you want to it's going to be almost impossible because of the furniture so let's um let's continue with the interior and wrap this up and what tools do you think i'll use for the interior well not many so here's my tool bag got my infrared camera gfci tester and my flashlight if i see an anomaly with my infrared camera i'll confirm it with my moisture meter and also got my cpi hat okay in this interior room just pick a wall receptacle at random and use my tester there this is also my gfci tester the code light code says everything's wired properly let's see how about another one here's one with a little first alert device that's good and maybe there's one in every bedroom maybe maybe that's your policy your process you test one receptacle in every bedroom and then while i'm here check out the doors okay representative number and even though it has a stopper there's a cosmetic damage here caused by the door so if there's one door that's damaged i bet let's see if it's a pattern no that one's good how about the other one here's the other bedroom door and yeah look at that so some wall damage now that's cosmetic now you can add cosmetic items to your inspection report or not it's up to you let's check out these windows here very good a little stiff but that's okay [Music] and the closet door and light turns on ah so let's see oh i see so this switch turns on the bedroom lights and also the closet light it's an interesting interesting thing i could tell my client and another bedroom oh oh this bedroom door um i can stick my hand through so it's hmm now i'm not sure what this is so the door seems square but the door opening is a little off and that could mean there's something wrong with the door which i don't think because it looks square something going wrong with the door frame looks original actually so maybe there's some settlement and i'll take a look at that in the basement or crawl space so even though this is a almost a cursory inspection of the interior maybe there are indications of things elsewhere well that looks okay unlike that door that door's showing some kind of settlement it's i would say so let's take a look i wouldn't say anything quite now right now to my client until i see some additional information so let's see here close this door yeah this seems to be settled but i think they shaved the top a little bit for it to be tight up here so there's some possible settlement here and there's a crack in the drywall as well so i'm not a structural engineer but i'm just looking at the doors there's the bathroom door that seems to have a bit of a problem too there's an opening actually right here and it's closed here okay so i have an observation of possible settlements and i can see something is a little off there in the house which frankly i'm not surprised so no big shocker um it's a 50 year old rancher and there's some settlement the question is is it major is it a material defect and i'm a home inspector i'm not qualified to do such evaluations and a diagnosis of the structural integrity of the home i'm just a visual inspector home inspector in a house for a limited amount of time and looking at problems and that appear that i observe and if i feel that it's a material defect i'll put it in the report but i may want to take a look at possible causes of the settlement if i can determine that that's great if not maybe someone else needs to come in and do some further evaluation but i want my client to know what i see so i'm going to take a video some pictures put in the report with some comments about possible settlement indicated by these doors here of the interior now as a home inspector checking out the interior surfaces like the flooring or the ceiling and walls it's really up to you on how nitpicky you want to be for me and my inspection company we set expectations of our clients we're not here as home inspectors to be nitpicky to pick on every cosmetic item again we're here to find material defects as defined by the home inspection standards of practice and during an inspection of the interior in my experience it's unlikely that you'll find indications of a material defect unless you actually come across something that could indicate one right like those interior doors and right now just doing the top floor without going down into the basement we don't know what the condition of that is so that's why we recommend structural engineers or professionals to look further if you see something don't call it out as sound or unsound because as a home inspector you can't make that determination so for the interior it's basically pretty easy to do representative number of windows and doors if you happen to come across something that may indicate something else good tell your client put in the report and make a recommendation for further evaluation of what you see so that's the interior inspection in this house and um went fairly well but we may have something to look at down in the basement because of those doors indicating settlement i'm bengamiko from internachi this was an inspection of the interior i'll see you on the next inspection [Music]

Channel: International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI)

Views: 600

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: International association of certified home inspectors, InterNACHI, NACHI, become a home inspector, home inspection training, home inspection education, gromicko, home inspection tip, interior home inspection, infrared inspection

Id: 0sn80rum4oU

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021