The Home Inspection Checklist

Outside: the walk-around

Start at one corner and go all the way round. Most of what matters outside is visible from the ground.

• Foundation: look for cracks wider than a coin (15 min)
  Hairline cracks are normal. Cracks you can fit a nickel into, horizontal cracks, or stair-step cracks in block walls are the ones worth a professional opinion. Photograph any crack so next year you can tell whether it grew.
• Grading: check the ground slopes away from the house (10 min)
  Soil should fall roughly six inches over the first ten feet. Ground that slopes toward the wall is quietly directing every rainfall at your foundation.
• Siding and trim: probe anything soft (20 min)
  Press a screwdriver gently into wood near corners, sills and where siding meets the ground. Sound wood resists; rot gives. Peeling paint is the early warning.
• Gutters and downspouts: look for sag, rust and detachment (10 min)
  Water stains on siding below a gutter mean overflow. Downspouts should discharge several feet from the wall, not at it.
• Windows from outside: check sills and glazing (15 min)
  Cracked glazing putty, gaps at the sill, and fogged double panes (a failed seal) are all cheap to note now and annoying to discover later.
• Driveway and walkways: note heaving and wide cracks (10 min)
  A trip edge is a liability as well as a repair. Small cracks become large ones after one winter of freeze-thaw.
• Deck: push hard on railings, look at the ledger (15 min)
  The ledger board — where the deck bolts to the house — is where decks fail. Rusted fasteners, no visible bolts, or wood that gives underfoot mean it needs a closer look.
• Pest evidence: mud tubes, droppings, gnawed wood (10 min)
  Termite mud tubes climb foundations; carpenter ants leave sawdust piles; rodents leave droppings along walls. Finding the evidence early is the whole game.

Roof, from the ground

Binoculars or a phone camera on zoom. Nobody should be walking a roof for a routine check.

• Scan the shingle field for lifted, cracked or missing shingles (15 min)
  Look along the light — raised edges cast shadows. Granules collecting in gutters mean shingles are near the end of their life.
• Check the roof line for sag (5 min)
  Stand back and sight along the ridge. It should be straight. A dip means structure or persistent moisture, and either way it means a professional.
• Look at flashing around chimneys and vents (10 min)
  Most roof leaks are flashing, not shingles. Rust stains, lifted metal, or tar smeared over old flashing are the usual signs.
• Check the chimney for leaning, spalling brick and a cap (5 min)
  Flaking brick faces mean water is getting in and freezing. A missing cap lets rain and animals straight down the flue.

Attic

Take a flashlight. The attic is where the roof tells the truth.

• Look for daylight through the roof deck (5 min)
  With the light off, any daylight that is not a vent is a hole. Check around penetrations first.
• Check sheathing for stains, damp and mould (10 min)
  Dark streaks or white bloom on the underside of the roof deck mean either a leak or condensation from poor ventilation. Both need fixing; the difference decides who you call.
• Confirm insulation is even and vents are clear (10 min)
  Insulation should be consistent depth with no bare patches, and soffit vents should not be buried under it. Blocked ventilation in winter is where ice dams come from.
• Check bathroom fans vent outside, not into the attic (10 min)
  A duct that ends in the attic dumps a shower's worth of moisture into the insulation every day. Follow each duct to a roof or gable termination.

Basement and crawlspace

Smell first, then look. Musty air is data.

• Check foundation walls from the inside (15 min)
  Efflorescence (white mineral bloom) means water is moving through the wall. Horizontal cracks or bowing are structural and not a wait-and-see item.
• Look for water staining along floor edges (10 min)
  A tide line on the wall or rust on the bottom of steel posts and appliance legs records past flooding, whatever anyone tells you.
• Probe sill plates and joist ends near the foundation (10 min)
  The wood sitting on the foundation is the first to rot and the last to be noticed. A screwdriver finds it in seconds.
• Test the sump pump and check its discharge (10 min)
  Pour in a bucket of water, confirm it runs and shuts off, and check the discharge line actually leaves the house.
• Crawlspace: check the vapor barrier and look for standing water (10 min)
  Plastic sheeting should cover bare soil. Standing water, damp soil, or hanging insulation mean moisture is winning down there.

Plumbing

• Find the main shutoff and confirm it turns (5 min)
  A seized main valve turns a burst pipe from a mess into a disaster. If it will not move, do not force it — put replacing it on the list.
• Check the water heater: age, rust and the relief valve (10 min)
  The serial number encodes the year; past ten years, budget for replacement. Rust at the base or on fittings means it is already telling you. Lift the pressure relief lever and let it snap back.
• Water heater venting and strapping (5 min)
  A gas heater's flue should rise continuously with no gaps, soot or corrosion. In seismic areas the tank should be strapped to the wall.
• Run every faucet and flush every toilet (15 min)
  You are checking pressure, drainage speed and colour. A toilet that runs on after the flush is silently the biggest water waster in most houses.
• Look under every sink with a hand, not just eyes (10 min)
  Run fingers along the trap and supply lines. Damp finds fingers before it shows itself.
• Outdoor taps: check for drips and freeze damage (5 min)
  Run each one and watch the wall behind it. A split from a past freeze often only shows when the tap is on.

Electrical

Look and test — do not open anything. Panels are a professional's job.

• Open the panel door and read it (10 min)
  Rust, scorch marks, a burning smell, or double-tapped breakers (two wires under one screw) all mean an electrician. Note the main breaker size while you are there.
• Check the service entrance and meter (5 min)
  From the ground: the mast should be upright, the cable insulation intact, and nothing pulling away from the wall. Trees rubbing the service drop are a call to the utility, not a DIY job.
• Test every GFCI outlet (15 min)
  Press test, confirm it kills the outlet, press reset. Kitchens, bathrooms, garage, outside. Any that do not trip need replacing.
• Check a sample of outlets with a plug-in tester (20 min)
  A ten-dollar tester finds open grounds and reversed polarity in seconds. Old houses fail this more often than anyone expects.
• Exterior outlets: covers and GFCI protection (5 min)
  Outside outlets need weatherproof covers that close over a plug, and GFCI protection. A cracked flip-cover full of spider webs is the usual finding.
• Look for extension cords doing a circuit's job (5 min)
  A permanent appliance on a permanent extension cord means the house has fewer outlets than the life being lived in it. That is a fixable problem, not a habit to keep.

Heating, cooling and safety

• Run the heat and the cooling, whatever the season (20 min)
  Turn the thermostat far enough to force each on and give it ten minutes. Strange noises, short cycling, or weak airflow are worth catching before the season that needs them.
• Check the furnace filter and the ducts you can see (10 min)
  A filthy filter on inspection day tells you about the maintenance culture of the house. Crushed or disconnected ducts in the basement waste the heat you pay for.
• Note the age of furnace and AC (10 min)
  Serial numbers encode manufacture dates. Furnaces run 15-20 years, AC compressors 10-15. Knowing where you are in that window is the difference between a planned replacement and an emergency one.
• Smell test at gas appliances and connections (5 min)
  A faint rotten-egg smell near a fitting is a leak. If you smell it strongly anywhere: leave first, call the utility from outside.
• Test every smoke and CO alarm, and check ages (15 min)
  The test button proves the horn, not the sensor. Smoke alarms expire at ten years, CO alarms at five to seven — the date is printed on the back.

Kitchen

Water and heat in one room — the two things that damage houses.

• Under the sink: supply lines, trap and disposal (10 min)
  Feel every fitting, look for mineral tracks, and check the disposal body for rust and weeping seams. The cabinet floor tells the history.
• Dishwasher: supply, drain loop and door seal (10 min)
  Pull the kick plate if you can and look for staining underneath. The drain hose should loop high before the trap, and the door gasket should be pliable, not cracked.
• Range: anti-tip bracket and hood exhaust (10 min)
  Grip the back of the range and tip it gently — it should stop hard against the bracket. Run the hood and confirm it moves air outside, not just through a greasy filter.
• Fridge water line and pan (10 min)
  Slide the fridge enough to see the line and the floor. Plastic supply lines age badly; a slow drip here ruins flooring invisibly for months.
• Counters and caulk at the sink rim (5 min)
  Water that gets past a failed sink-rim seal rots the counter substrate from below. Press at the rim — movement means the seal is gone.

Bathrooms

Repeat in every bathroom — they fail independently.

• Rock the toilet, check the base seal (5 min)
  A toilet that rocks is grinding its wax ring; staining at the base means it already failed. Also lift the tank lid — a flapper chain in knots explains a running toilet.
• Shower and tub: grout, caulk and pan (10 min)
  Gaps at the tub edge let water behind the tile, and the damage stays invisible until the wall is open. Ten dollars of caulk versus a tiled wall.
• Run the exhaust fan, watch the mirror (5 min)
  Steam that lingers is mold's food supply. The fan should clear a fogged mirror in a few minutes and should not sound like a coin in a dryer.
• Under-sink and shutoffs (5 min)
  Same hand-check as the kitchen, plus: turn each shutoff a quarter and back. Seized shutoffs mean any future repair starts with the main.
• Look at ceilings below every bathroom (5 min)
  Brown rings are old leaks; soft or bubbled paint is a current one. Press gently — dry stains are history, damp ones are homework.

Laundry

The quiet room that causes loud damage.

• Washing machine hoses and valves (5 min)
  Rubber hoses bulge before they burst, and a burst one empties at mains pressure until someone comes home. Braided stainless replacements cost a few dollars.
• Dryer duct: material and lint (10 min)
  The duct should be smooth metal, not white vinyl or crushed foil, and the outside flap should open when the dryer runs. Lint in a duct is the classic house-fire fuel.
• Drain standpipe and a look behind (5 min)
  Staining behind the machines records past overflows. If there is a floor drain or leak pan, confirm it is not full of lint and actually connected.

Garage

• Garage door auto-reverse test (5 min)
  Put a roll of paper towels in the path and close the door — it must reverse on contact. Then wave a broom through the sensor beam: same result. A door that fails either can hurt someone.
• Springs, cables and rollers by eye (5 min)
  Look, do not touch — springs are stored violence. Gaps in a spring's coil, frayed cables, or rollers half out of the track all mean a door tech.
• The fire door into the house (5 min)
  The door between garage and house should be solid or fire-rated and should swing itself shut from open. That door is what stands between a car fire and your kitchen.
• Slab and walls: cracks and moisture (5 min)
  Wide slab cracks with displacement, or efflorescence on the shared wall, are the same foundation signals as everywhere else — just usually noticed last.

Fireplace and chimney, inside

• Work the damper (5 min)
  It should open and close fully and stay where you put it. A damper rusted open is heat loss all winter; rusted shut, it is smoke in the room the first fire of the season.
• Look up the flue and around the firebox (10 min)
  Shiny black creosote glaze is chimney-fire fuel and means a sweep before the next fire. Cracked firebricks or gaps in the mortar joints let heat reach framing.
• Hearth clearance and a CO alarm nearby (5 min)
  Combustibles creep toward fireplaces over the years — baskets, stacked wood, the TV cabinet. And a room with real fire needs a CO alarm on the same level.

Doors, windows and interior

• Open and close every window and exterior door (20 min)
  Sticking, gaps, and latches that do not reach are how a house says it has moved. A door that will not stay open or closed means the frame is out of square.
• Bedroom egress: one window that opens fully (10 min)
  Every sleeping room needs a window someone could actually climb out of — and that opens without a fight. Painted-shut or blocked by an AC unit does not count in an emergency.
• Look at ceilings around chimneys and below roof valleys (10 min)
  The bathroom ceilings got their own check; this is the rest. Corners, chimney chases and below roof valleys are where roof leaks surface first.
• Check floors for slope and bounce (10 min)
  A marble is the classic tool and still works. Bounce underfoot near the middle of a room points at the framing below.
• Stairs and railings: shake them (5 min)
  Grip every railing and shake hard; step on the edge of a few treads. Loose rails and stairs are the most common injury the house itself causes.

Septic, outside

• Walk the tank and drain field area (10 min)
  You are looking for what should not be there: soggy ground in dry weather, sewage smell, or grass conspicuously greener over the field. Any of the three means a septic call now, not at the next pump-out.
• Find the lids and the last pump-out date (10 min)
  If nobody can say when it was last pumped, the answer is 'too long ago'. Three to five years is the interval; note it as a dated task either way.