Whether buying or selling, you may want your home to undergo an inspection to ensure everything is in working order and there will be no surprises. One of the areas that needs special attention during an inspection is your plumbing.

Plumbing encompasses a number of areas in your home, including:

Inspecting Your New Bathrooms

Bathrooms are susceptible to a variety of issues that other rooms will never face. Moisture and humidity cause mold and mildew to form which can warp wood and cause underlying health issues. To avoid unnecessary damage and illness, it is recommended that you have a plumbing inspection performed.

Bathrooms are unique because they have very few appliances to monitor, such as:

  • Sinks
  • Bathtubs
  • Showers
  • Toilets
  • Ventilation

If your fan is not properly ventilating air out of your home, and rather is sending moist air to the floors above, it could cause deterioration and mold growth.

Well Water Inspection

Does your new house use a well, rather than city water? If so, an inspection of the well and surrounding plumbing is crucial.

Well water needs to be tested for a variety of bacteria, chemicals, and natural particles, which could make you sick.

Some of the things to check during your water quality indicator test include levels of:

  • Arsenic
  • Mercury
  • Lead
  • Radium
  • E. coli
  • Pesticides
  • Coliforms
  • Radium

E. coli, especially is a problematic bacteria that could come in through soil due to animal excrement. E. coli is a fecal coliform that can make you very sick, causing symptoms like diarrhea and dysentery.

Checking levels of these problematic particles ensure your well water is safe to drink and that there are no surprises lurking in the soil around your well.

Inspecting Your Kitchen

Kitchen plumbing impacts areas like your kitchen sink, dishwasher, and soaker sinks (if applicable). Ensuring your sinks and other kitchen plumbing is clean is incredibly important.

Food particles get caught in kitchen drainage and insects like fruit flies can get into the plumbing. Rodents are also attracted to water sources, so maintaining leaks is a key to preventing infestation.

When performing a kitchen inspection, focus on:

  • Drainage in sink and dishwasher
  • Whether there are any smells emanating from pipes
  • Food debris in drains
  • Insects circling drains

If kitchen drainage doesn’t work properly, it could cause leaks and flooding which will draw moisture into rooms below, or worse, inside the walls of your kitchen.

Basement Pipes and Drain

If your soon-to-be new house has a basement, it’s important to check that exposed pipes are all intact and show no signs of significant wear. Cracks in basement pipes can impact many areas of your home, because most plumbing pipes funnel in through the basement, including those leading from your bathroom, kitchen, and from your hot water heater to the rest of your house.

There should also be a drain in the floor of your basement which allows floodwater to depart. This drain is crucial to maintaining a steady flow in your plumbing system. If the drain gets blocked, everything from your kitchen sink to your basement laundry basin could come back up through your floor.

If you are concerned there is a blockage in the basement, your inspector may need to consult with a plumbing service to send a camera down the pipe and check for clogs.

Attending the Inspection

When buying a home, you don’t normally need to attend the actual inspection. Rather, the seller will be present, and you, as a buyer, will receive a report. Want to be there? There’s no reason why you can’t attend the inspection if it’s ok with the seller and inspector.

If you are in attendance, it’s a good idea to bring a list and take notes as you go through the house. Bring up any points of concern with the inspector, or the homeowners prior to the completion of the sale.

Anything that needs updating or repairing should either be done before you take ownership, or a deal should be worked out in the final sale price to make the purchase of a home with plumbing issues fair.

Call PlumbPRO Services and Learn More About Plumbing Inspections

PlumbPRO Services works with customers in and around Ambler, PA. Want to know more about our services? We invite you to give us a call today.