Florida Home Inspections: The Six Most Common Problems
Misc.
There’s another reason that a home inspection—or at least, knowing about common home inspection problems—is important for home-owners. If you know what the common issues in homes are, you’ll know where you need to concentrate your home maintenance efforts to keep your house in great shape.
Interestingly enough, while many of the most common home inspection issues are common all over the country, one or two are unique to places like Florida, where the warm, moist climate presents its own special set of problems.
1. Water Damage
The warm and moist Florida climate can do a lot of damage to wood and wood-based products that haven’t been properly sealed and treated. Wood doors, wood siding that’s allowed to stay in contact with ground and unprotected siding or trim are all vulnerable to water damage. The wooden framing on a stucco house can be at risk too, if the stucco cracks and allows water access to the frame. This can actually turn into a significant problem, because the stucco hides the damage that’s being done to the wood, so it never gets noticed.
Application and regular maintenance of caulk and paint where it’s needed will prevent 90% of these types of problems. The alternative it to eliminate the problem entirely and buy a home that’s entirely wood-free, with a stucco exterior, and frame, siding, and trim in aluminum and other wood-free materials.
2. Electrical System
While many electrical issues are caused by age and the damage it does to wiring, that isn’t the biggest electrical problem a home inspection can detect. Even more trouble than an aging wiring system is the damage that a handyman homeowner can do if they attempt to do electrical work without the necessary skills and knowledge.
Exposed wiring, wiring without conduit protection, double-tapped circuits, unsafe exterior wiring, open junction boxes, badly-constructed GFI outlets, or outlets with reversed polarity—these are just some of the problems that a home inspector might detect in a home’s wiring system if it’s been badly repaired. A home with faulty or badly-installed wiring is very often a building code nightmare, and it’s unsafe, too.
3. Plumbing Issues
Some common plumbing issues—such as leaky faucets, water heaters, toilets, or shower stalls—can usually be fixed quite easily. Some issues, however, are more serious, such as the long term damage that can occur when water intrudes behind tub or shower surrounds, or tiles in the kitchen or bathroom. These can end up being expensive problems.
Luckily, they’re all easily avoided for the savvy homeowner. Application of caulk or grout in the right places, and repeat applications as necessary, is all you need to save what might end up being thousands of dollars worth of repairs, as well as the growth of unhealthy mold in your home.
4. The Roof
Roofing materials often take a beating from Florida’s weather conditions. While metal panels and concrete tiles can usually tolerate the weather well (as long as they’re properly installed, that is), shingles don’t stand up well at all. In fact, harsh winds and the hot Florida sun can reduce the life of roofing shingles significantly. Even a 20, 30, or 40 year rated shingled roof has only around 15 years’ worth of life in Florida.
Roof problems will usually show up along the edges and in locations where the roof is penetrated — plumbing vents, attic vents, and chimneys.
5. The Air Conditioning System
Air conditioning problems aren’t an issue in all states—people in Florida, however, use their A/C systems more than people in any other state. The A/C is keeping us cool ten months of the year, but unfortunately, most of us repay them by neglecting regular maintenance. Poor maintenance is the number one reason why the A/C system is a common home inspection problem.
A home inspection will usually find dirty filters or air handling coils, leaky ductwork, and low refrigerant levels. Any of these problems will reduce the efficiency of the A/C and reduce its lifespan. Prevent this from becoming a problem by changing filters regularly, and getting annual servicing.
6. The Overlooked Areas
The top five aren’t the only issues a home inspector might find. When an inspector walks through a home they don’t just look at the high-traffic areas. They’ll also inspect crawlspaces, attics, and other low-use hard-to-reach locations. These are all prime areas for water damage, structural damage, termite and pest damage, HVAC problems, and insulation, electrical, and plumbing problems. The problems tend to be more severe in these places too, simply because they’re unused and often overlooked.
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