Home Inspectors Blog

    Many people have different ideas of what a home inspection is. Talk to five people and you will probably get five different answers. Hopefully this will help answer some of the questions concerning what is and is not part of a home inspection.
    Probably the most common quote that we home inspectors hear is this. “Does that meet code?” Here is the problem with that. Home inspectors do not inspect a home for code. Building codes change every few years, so a home built twenty years ago, would not meet code today. So, the short answer to that question is “No,” but it doesn’t have to meet a code. Home inspectors do not cite code in their reports because we are not code inspectors.
    In this scenario, most home inspectors recommend an upgrade regarding the safety of whatever feature they happen to be inspecting at the time. A very common issue like this is a GFCI outlet. This is an outlet that is in use near wet areas of a home, such as kitchen and bath areas. If the home was built today, these would be installed to meet your areas building code most likely. 25 years ago this wasn’t the case. So, when your home inspector sees these missing, he will recommend these be upgraded as a safety precaution.
    Now, if there was something that didn’t meet todays’ code with the truss system for the roof, that is another story. More than likely, no recommendation will be made regarding repair, because this does not have to conform to todays building code, the code inspector approved it 25 years ago.
    I hope this has been useful for some of you regarding home inspectors and CODE. This can be a tricky issue sometimes, and it is helpful if we are all on the same page. The key point is to remember that a home inspector is NOT a code inspector. That is done while the home is being built and done in stages while everything is visible. Your home inspector will help you find things out about a home, but is not concerned with code. If anyone has questions about this, feel free to call or send me a message and I will be glad to help you out.