PRO-TECH HOME INSPECTION

Home Maintenance Inspection
Ironically, as large of an investment as a house is, it is maintained far less frequently than the family car though your house often costs twenty times as much as your family car. But unlike what is provided for the family car, a home rarely ever receives a "check-up". Instead, problems that occur in a homes are typically only addressed after something breaks or after damage to its structure and systems has become so severe that you are forced to make repairs.
But how do you know something is wrong with your home to begin with? Just as a 60,000-mile inspection and tune-up can help you to identify and prevent problems with your automobile, the only way you will be able to identify and prevent existing or potential problems with your home is to give it an inspection and tune-up aswell.
Based on various facts such as weathering and local weather patterns & normal wear and tear, we recommend that you schedule a home inspection every two years during the lifetime of residency in your home. And just as with a buyer-seller home inspection, we will also provide you with a detailed report about the damage we find to the systems and structure in your home.
Did you know?
All of the following problems and more can occur, and are likely to occur on some level, after you sign a closing contract on your home. Wear-and-tear, weathering, and pest invasion/infestation do not recognize what a closing contract is, but a Home Maintenance Inspection can help you to prevent problems before they become an expensive reminder that proper preventative maintenace is a priority worth taking seriously.
• Most home inspections occur at the time a home is bought or sold. Buyer-seller inspections may assure that a home is suitable for sale or purchase, but buyer-seller inspections don't prevent natural wear-and-tear on a home. Even after the closing contract is signed, the structural and mechanical systems of a home continue to deteriorate.
• The average family occupies a home for eleven years. This means there are eleven years of damage that accrue on the home from normal usage, obsolecense of building materials, obsolecense of mechanical systems, inclement weather, and more.
• Heat causes building materials to expand. As building materials expand due to extreme or continuous exposure to heat (such as from the Sun), those materials can, and often will, twist, warp, bend, pull apart, and cause breaches. These breaches can, in turn, expose your home to pests and moisture. Long-time exposure can then lead to extensive damage caused by nesting, water-rot, rust, loss of insulation value, electrical shorts, mechanical system failures, and more.
• Gas or wood-burning systems produce CO gas (carbon monoxide) that, if not properly ventilated, can lead to potential health problems or poisoning.
• One-in-fifteen homes contain a high-level of Radon gas. Radon, a naturally-occuring radioactive gas that emulates from the ground, causes approximately 20,000 deaths per year in the United States according to the EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency).
• Toxic mold, such as Stachybotrys or Chaetomium, can lead to chronic bronchitis, learning disabilities, mental deficiencies, heart problems, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple chemical sensitivity, bleeding lungs and much more.
• Indoor air quality can be worsened by smoke, pet dander, pet hair, human dander, dust, invading pest feces, invading pest carcasus, and more. The heating and air systems in your home can distribute polluted air to all parts of your home if not properly filtered and vented.
• Improper insulation can lead to an increase of up to thirty-percent in annual energy costs.
• Improperly-grounded electrical systems can lead to fires. You typically will not know that your home's electrical system is damaged until systems begin to malfunction (short-circuits) or after a fire has already occured.
• Water and heat can cause structural compenents in your home to contract and expand. This can cause adjoining components to pull each other apart thus reducing the structural integrity of your home.
• A single plant growing out of a crack in your driveway is strong enough to completely lift and push-apart large slabs of concrete. Mother nature will do her best to plant a tree in the middle of your driveway, and she will succeed if ignored.
• A cracked chimney or other improperly-flashed vent on your roof can cause a small waterfall down the inside walls of your home. This can to severe moisture damage, structural rotting, mold growth, infestation of insects, damage to electrical systems, and more.

EVERY TWO YEARS

It is recommended that you receive a Home Maintenance Inspection every two years after you have closed on your property. For about the cost of a basic automotive tune-up, a Home Maintenance Inspection can help to identify problems and damage in your home before they become an expensive or
irreversable threat to your home or physical well-being.
WHAT WE INSPECT, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT

Much like a buyer-seller home inspection, a Home Maintenance Inspection is a visual examination of your home's
systems, mechanicals and structure. We examine everything from roof to basement to assure that the items
inspected are in proper working order. If we should discover any defects or damage [within the scope of our
inspection policy], it will be noted in our thorough Home Inspection Damage Report.
Our report will review the condition of the home's heating system, central air conditioning system (temperature
permitting), interior plumbing and electrical systems; the roof, attic, and visible insulation; walls, ceilings, floors,
windows and doors; the foundation, basement, and visible structure. Many inspectors will also offer additional
services not included in a typical home inspection, such as mold, radon and water testing.
Keep in mind that a Home Maintenance Inspection does not prevent further damage to your property, but it can
help you to identify and correct existing damage that you may not know about. Our Home Maintenance
Inspections are also not appraisal inspection and cannot help you to determine the value of your property (though
it can help you to maintain its value). Finally, a Home Maintenance Inspection is not a code inspection and does not
provide you with a pass or fail score. You simply cannot fail a Home Maintenance Inspection.
MYTHS ABOUT HOME MAINTENANCE INSPECTIONS
First, home-buyers and sellers have been lead to believe that only time they should be concerned about the health
of a property is when an initial financial transaction is occuring, such as when a property is being sold or
purchased. This is actually a bit deceiving because every month you own your home, you are engaged in making a
financial transaction. You pay a mortgage, right? You pay utility bills, right? So if you are going to make these
payments every month, then wouldn't you want to assure that you aren't paying these sums of money into an
"investment" that is falling apart right under your fee or above your head? Of course not, yet tens-of-millions of
people do just that because of a simple misbelief.
Second, many current-occupancy homeowners do not get a home inspection because they believe that the home
inspector will find thousands-of-dollars of damage that would cause a financial strain if fixed. But regardless of
what the home inspector finds, you need to know the condition of your home. The home inspector cannot force
you to fix anything, nor can they condemn your property. In other words, there is no "pass" or "fail" score. There
is simply knowledge, and knowledge is power. Still, most homeowners are pleasantly surprised that they a home
inspection discovers the kind of damage that can often be repaired for only a few dollars before such damage
grows worse, and thus, costs the homeowner thousands of dollars.

In a recent survey, we discovered that the number one reason that more current-occupancy homeowners don't
get their homes periodically inspected is simply because they aren't aware that the service is available outside of
the real estate transaction period. The fact is that Home Maintenance Inspections have always been available, but
they simply aren't marketed by real estate agents or most professional home inspectors.