Maybe I'm bitter because the nice man who inspected our house failed to notice that the second floor toilet was slowly sinking through the kitchen ceiling. Truly, it would have been good to know before the bidding war began. He picked up on the porch step that snapped when I stepped on it during the walk through, though. He even put a big orange cone there so it wouldn't happen again.
Essentially, our inspection was a little worse than useless. It provided a sense of comfort and knowledge when neither was justified. And I know we're not alone. After paying a sofa and arm chair for our inspection, we were granted a to do list that included replacing the roof, (I kid you not), "at some point in the next five years," and rebuilding the porch. As to the mold devouring the bathroom floor? He thought it was cat urine. Must have been the litter box that tipped him off. I'm not going to talk about the building inspection any more.
I am going to propose instead that in jurisdictions where inspections are not mandated and home buyers get to choose, energy audits rather than building inspections should be the norm. To be fair, this may be driven in part by my attendance at the ACI conference, where I met buckets of competent, thoughtful home performance professionals, any one of whom I'm certain would have sniffed out the falling toilet in a snap. (I've never attended the building inspectors' ball). But the other reason is this: Home energy auditors view a house as an interconnected system that encompasses structural and mechanical elements, all of which must function together or at least coexist so as not to do harm. Whereas the inspection revealed those few things that needed to be done before the rain came in or a kid plunged to her death off the back porch, the energy audit would have revealed gaping holes in the walls, the cause of that peculiar smell from the basement, and the relative efficiency of our super efficient boiler.
An energy audit would have helped us to understand not only how much it was going to cost to make the house safe and livable, but also how much it was going to cost to live here. We picked the wrong guy, for sure. But I think we picked the wrong field, too. And I'm betting an energy auditor wouldn't have been thrown off by the cats. But maybe that's just me.
This fall, once temperatures drop enough to warrant use of infrared technology, we're going to have a home energy audit conducted on this house. By then, everything the building inspector said was urgent, or even near urgent, will have been remedied. Some how, I think the home energy audit will reveal that we aren't done yet. And of course, we aren't. At some point in the next five (or ten) years, energy prices are going to soar again, and we will be wishing that all of the work that we undertook to get this house where it is today had been a retrofit for energy efficiency purposes. If only we had known, before we took the plunge, how big that project was going to have to be. I'm guessing we could have saved a bundle if we'd had the audit first.
So it goes. I'll let you know what we find out.
Comments
Sorry to hear you got a bad inspection Unfortunatly many training schools Give short courses take the money and give a certificate.
Posted by Roy Cooke on Jun 23, 2009 2:12pmThis does not make a person an inspector 90% of new Home Inspectors do not last three years do too their improper training.
Many agents love the newer untrained inspector because they miss lots.
The better agent wants you to have a good inspection .
Unfortunatly YOU did not do your home work to make sure you got a well trained experienced inspector.
Ask you lawyer your Insurance agent and your friends .
Ask the Home Inspectors many questions make sure you are happy with the HIs answers before you make up your mind.
If you hire the cheapest Inspector this could be your biggest mistake
It sounds like you hired a poor home inspector, and there are plenty of them out there. This doesn't mean that an energy audit would be a substitute for a home inspection. I agree with what Roy said about finding a better inspector, not using someone from a completely different, new industry. Any good home inspector will look at the house as a whole.
Posted by Reuben Saltzman on Jun 24, 2009 3:15amI agree with Reuben. As a homeowner, I wouldn't feel comfortable making that kind of a switch; and for a first-time buyer, I'd be afraid that an energy audit might not find structural damage to a house.
Posted by Barbara A on Jun 24, 2009 7:39amDuring the inspection for the home we bought, my home inspector alerted us the fact that the part of our roof that was not visible from the street was actually much older than the front area, which we could see. He had to go to the outside rear of our house, then distance himself to make the original assessment. Then he got up on a ladder to confirm his suspicions. Would an energy auditor have done this?
There were wasteful energy practices going on in the house; we became our own "detectives" in correcting them. Our utility bills bear witness to this. An energy audit ten years ago when we purchased the house would have alerted us to these conditions up front. But they weren't anything that we couldn't (and did) figure out ourselves. For instance, the attached garage had a wooden garage door the let air in the bottom. Above the garage was a room that they said was "always cold" They had gone so far as to have someone blow insulation between the garage ceiling and the floor above. The room remained cold. But they never went the next step to replace the door. That was one of the first things we did.
They also didn't have storm windows on all of the windows; altho we knew we would never replace our beautiful chestnut windows, we put new storm windows on all of them. We also replaced the old windows in the basement, with newer, thermal ones.
And when it came time to replace the aforementioned roof, we had a ridge vent installed, as well as vents in the soffits. This greatly improved circulation in the attic, and eliminated a heat retention problem we had there. We felt the difference in temperature immediately.
Don't get me wrong, I think energy audits are something every homeowner and potential buyer can really benefit from. But I don't feel they are a replacement for a qualified, conscientious home inspection. And the process of improving the house ourselves has really been educational. We'll definitely be more educated in our next home purchase. Maybe by that time, energy auditors and inspectors will be working in concert.
Without a doubt both Ray and Reuben are correct. There are many competent, thorough inspectors to be found. We didn't find one. We fell prey (and should not have) to the reflexive inspection that is a rote part of a real estate transaction, and it didn't prove helpful. That said, I still think it's strange (and I predict over time will feel ever stranger) that we would make such an enormous investment without first determining how much it was going to cost us over the long haul to live here. I wouldn't consider buying a car without knowing its fuel economy, but I bought this house without knowing how much it was going to cost to heat or cool, or how much it was going to cost to make it more efficient. That said, I also wouldn't buy a car without first having the brakes tested. Maybe Barbara is right that a combined or two-part inspection is called for.
Posted by Peggy on Jun 24, 2009 9:09amSeparating the specifics from the general, (there are under-qualified practitioners in every field), the home inspections I have had in the past have picked up on the acute glaring deficiencies of the homes. They have been more about assessing the standing value of the property. Any issues they have uncovered have not generally been about things that would add value to the house once corrected, a roof needing to be fixed may become a bargaining point to knock down the price, but fixing it is not going to fundamentally alter the underlying value of the property.
The Energy Audit work I have seen has been much more about the cost of ownership (cash flow) and when the work has been done, it saves real money, and consequently creates real value.
I don't think the two inspections are either/or propositions, but if I could only afford to do one, I would side with Peggy and get the Energy Audit on the assumption that the glaring issues would come to light in this process, and the value-add of having an energy plan would actually save me money down the road.
By the by, I didn't think building inspectors had balls.
Posted by dpuelle on Jun 24, 2009 10:07amAs I am a consultant on residential construction projects for energy efficiency as well as durability issues, I see both sides of the coin. The majority of home inspectors I have come across in my 12 years of experience have been clueless. Many states would allow my grandmother to hang out an inspectors shingle. This is not to say that there are not good inspectors out there because there are. (I forget their names, but I think there are certifications available.) One must put in the due diligence to find a good one rather than the Yellow Pages approach.
Depending on one's viewpoint, an audit is more important than an inspection or vice versa. Me? Sorry to disagree with Peggy but if I could only do one I would have to have a reliable home inspection done vs. an energy audit.
The reason being is that a good home inspection can catch some really "end-of-world" (for lack of a better term) issues such as faulty foundations, faulty wiring, etc that can cause a new owner's world to fall apart. Energy is my life so to speak so I value it highly, but at the end of the day, I'll take a house that is drafty over one that has a failing deck and an unbalanced foundation anytime.
Did I ever tell you about the time I lived in a 1920's log cabin that was so leaky you'd get chapped lips in the winter?
Posted by Justin Jones on Jun 24, 2009 2:21pmA home inspection is not a energy audit (Home Performance with Energy Star) and a audit is not a home energy rating or a (HERS) rating.
These are three different ways to test or evaluate your home or building.
A home inspection is a non-invasive, visual examination of a residential dwelling and will not reveal every concern that exists or ever could exist, only those material defects observed on the.
A audit is an assessment performed by an energy specialist in order to identify how a structure's energy efficiency can be improved. Many incentives or rebates require an audit be conducted before and after the improvements in order to verify safety and savings.
A Energy rating is in-field testing and on-sit inspection that verifies performance. The (HERS) score is a estimate of the annual energy use of a home to qualify your home for an Energy Star home certification.
I have done all three and a energy audit or the (Home performance with Energy Star) program has helped me look at my house as a whole system, interacting with my family in a symbiotic relationship. If I quantify the air leakage and test for CO in my home and fix the problems, I can fix my deck and foundation with the savings and live a much longer and health life. This is what the HPwES has the potential do for you.
Posted by John H. on Jun 28, 2009 7:39amGood discussion. I lean in the direction of John H. We see too many homes (almost a quarter) with combustion safety, carbon monoxide, and gas leak issues. Without diagnostic testing, you won't find this. Infrared cameras can help spot energy weakness--but also moisture problems. Regarding the home energy audit. It’s important to get the right audit–accurate and actionable and looking at the right things like duct leakage, air infiltration, and equipment efficiency and safety. That is, the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR assessment John refers to. For a bit more background on the audits and additional links to more information, follow my posts at http://greenhomesamerica.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/home-energy-audit-make... and http://greenhomesamerica.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/home-energy-audits-2/
Thanks,
Posted by Mike Rogers on Jun 28, 2009 7:16pmMike
:-) cool!
Posted by Peter Zwillingskinderwagen on Jun 30, 2010 2:08am