My house has a few suspected abnormalities that may make it non-compliant with the current building codes. I’m looking for someone to do an inspection of some particular areas and help identify any problems.
Greg Dalton of Dalton Inspection Services. He’s awesome and number is on google.
If you want something that holds water get an engineer. Home inspectors in Texas are remarkably free from consequences - even for things they inspect with their own eyes, ears, and hands. That is to say, if your inspector looks at something, says it’s fine, and your house burns down because of it - they’re not gonna be liable.
Also, you REALLY don’t want an inspection. From either. Usually any house sale will “require” you to turn over any previous home inspection / engineering reports in your possession. i.e. “tell us what you know…”
What it sounds like you want is a consultation. “Come take a look, and tell me what you find.” No paper.
I’ll skip the ethics lesson on withholding a report from a buyer.
JR
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In my case, a report is fine. I want to identify things so that they can be fixed. I would have no problem showing a potential buyer a report that shows problems followed directly by the inspection that shows that they have been fixed properly. However, I don’t want to pay for a report. That’s why I’m asking on talk and not googling for a home inspection company.
I appreciate the input, but that goes well beyond the scope and cost of my needs. While I may need an PE report in the future, I’m just looking to identify abnormalities and code non-conormances.
Damn. I thought this was a cool word for me to learn to use. Google tells me it’s most likely a typographical error for “nonconformances”.
I rebuke Google’s rebuttal, and will commence using the word “non-conormances” anyway. I like being non-conormal. But when it comes to codes, conormal is probably the better bet…
The risk is getting a report that shows something major that needs work, when in fact, it is actually still grandfathered. This can be a very grey area, especially with electrical work, in that the triggers requiring something be brought to current can be ambiguous at times.
Many inspectors are trained to the state inspection requirements, and little more, so the exact status of old work and partial renovations may be outside the domain of knowledge of many inspectors. I believe one of the options for an inspector is actually to write a note that they can’t positively answer one way or another, and recommend a specialist be consulted.
My recollection is that it used to be that FHA loans required clean reports, and many listings used to specify no FHA buyers. But now my understanding is that most common financing allows for negotiation of the findings that show up in the inspection. With options usually including seller fixing before close, or buyer asking for sale price adjustment that they can either use to fix, or live with the defect if they so choose.
So in my estimation, generally repair work to address suspected deficiencies only makes sense in advance of listing if you can do the work cheaply when you don’t have a closing date looming, or you can do it as part of improvements that will net more value or increase in odds of sale than the improvements cost. And you always have the risk of hitting triggers that remove grandfathered status from other items in the process.
This is precisely why I need an inspection. I don’t have current plans on selling the house but would like to make modifications. I think it would behoove me to know what is out of code, what I can address, should address and what I can ignore. I would much rather document and and form those justifications before the buyers inspector turns them up and force me into a corner. It would also allow me to make informed decisions about what I should and should not modify in regards to ‘triggers.’
In that case, The building codes are constantly changing. Many items are grandfathered in. Your best bet is to call the city permit dept and ask which code books they go by. They probably are even online to tell you which ones.
Even some large projects still have items grandfathered in. For instance, The code for putting in Chillers (large tonnage air conditioning) is that you should, when putting a machine in, have the machine in a separate room from boilers. This was instituted because of the potential of a leak that Phosgene gas being created in the combustion of the fuel gas in boilers. I had a few customers who did not do this. I asked how they got away with it & was told that as long as they did not change the architecture structure they didn’t have to change it. Ironically these places are Hospitals. This is an example of a loophole.
I understand the rationale, but as others here have said, you’re probably loading the gun to shoot yourself in the foot with. Not all non-compliant situations need to be addressed, and many of them will be ridiculously expensive to fix. And once you get that report, it must be disclosed to future buyers - seeding a list of things they’ll want you to fix before they buy, whether they really need to be fixed or not.
Pre-sale home inspections do not evaluate code compliance - they focus on needed repairs, and you should too.
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I appreciate your concern, I really do. However, I have stated that a report is not a requirement. I expect to be able to control the scope of the inspection, as only certain portions of the house need to be inspected.
If you or if you know someone who can provide the service that I’m looking for at a reasonable price, I am interested in hiring someone for that purpose. I’m not really interested in further debating whether or not I should seek such a service. It would really nice to have this service done for $1000 or less.
Just search for Realtors in your zip code in your favorite search engine. Pretty much all of them have a home inspection service they can recommend. Or you can ask around your neighborhood (Facebook or NextDoor are good for this) for respected contractor referrals (roofing, hvac, electrical, plumbing) to come check things out and give you honest answers.
I need a code inspector. My experience with home purchasing inspectors is that while they know some code, they are typically not terribly fimilar.
Have you actually done any work on anything at all yet? I don’t know about your city but in farmers branch that’s the worst thing you can do and then invite an inspector in, depending on the work already done they could be required to red tag your home or part of it until gathering permits, makong payoffs, juggling while riding a unicycle backwards and speaking in Navajo are done. But it seems that you haven’t. My uncle has been a commercial contractor for 40 years and may have some suggestions depending on your location and I guess the specific things you want checked, let me know if you don’t find anyone and I can reach out.
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This is why I’m asking on talk. I am looking for a contractor or retired inspector or something of that nature. If your uncle is interested, please send me a message. I can pay cash.
I have not done any work, but am trying to plan work to be done. There are things I want to do and things I need to do, I just don’t know all what I need to do.