The 20-minute walk-through you can do yourself
This is the short version of what we look at first. Use it twice a year on the house you own, or on a house you're thinking about buying before you spend money on anything else.
Video by This Old House. Ours is coming.
- Outside: look up, then down. Roof edges for lifted shingles and moss. Gutters for sag and overflow stains on the fascia. Downspouts for where they dump. Ground sloping toward the house. Cracks in the foundation wider than a pencil, or with one side offset.
- Outside: the walls and the wood. Peeling paint, soft trim at the bottom of door frames and corners (press with a screwdriver handle), gaps in caulk around windows, siding touching soil or mulch. Trees touching the roof.
- Attic hatch and crawlspace door. Open both. Attic: insulation depth (see joists? too thin), daylight where it shouldn't be, stains on the underside of the roof deck. Crawlspace: smell, standing water, white growth or dark staining on wood.
- Kitchen and baths. Run every faucet and flush every toilet at once, then look under each sink with the flashlight for drips. Rock the toilets. Press TEST on the GFCIs. Turn on the bath fan and confirm you feel air moving.
- The mechanicals. Water heater: age on the label, rust at the fittings, water on the floor. Furnace and AC: age on the label, filter condition, condensate line dripping outside when the AC runs. Panel: any scorching, rust, or double-tapped breakers (two wires under one screw). Look, don't touch.
- Windows, doors, and floors. Open and lock a window in every room. Doors that stick or won't latch in several rooms together can point to movement. Sloped or soft spots in the floor, especially near bathrooms.
- Write down what you found. Photos and a short list. If you're shopping, that list is your inspector's starting point. If you own the house, it's the punch list for the season.
When it's past the do-it-yourself line
This walk-through catches the obvious. It does not replace an inspection with the tools and the training, and it won't tell you what's inside a wall or on top of a roof. When something on the list worries you, send us the photo.
We email a pro we'd send our own family to, copy you, and stay in the loop. Member pricing applies.
Questions about anything here? Text us a photo. We'll tell you whether it matters.
