Inspect before Renovate: How & Why

  • Essential things that need to be checked prior to Renovation work
    1. Leaky Pipes & Faulty Plumbing
    2. Signs of Moisture
    3. Presence of Cracks
    4. Broken or Damaged Tiles
    5. Waterproofing of the Terrace
    6. Pest / Termite Infestation
    7. Sealing all Gaps in Home
    8. Electrical & Safety Checkup
  • Why You Should Get a Home Inspection Before Renovation?

Many homeowners choose to renovate their home or office to give it a whole new look or simply to give more value to their property by enhancing its interior. To improve the home’s value, fix a safety issue, adding a room for fulfilling requirements are other few reasons to renovate home. Depending on an individual homeowner, the reasons may vary.

While a renovation1 may be the best solution for your household, this does not mean it is a task you should take on lightly. Renovating your home can provide your family with the space you need and the beautiful home you want, but it requires careful planning and organization. Before renovating your home or beginning any work which will alter the structure/element, there are some important things which you must consider.

Before deciding the time and budget to renovate your house, a thorough inspection of all the areas of your home is a must. It would be better to evaluate or understand the existing conditions before renovation. Without knowing it, making changes can create problem and will add an extra cost if any mistakes happen.

Here the essential elements you will need to inspect before you start the exciting part of renovating your home.

Essential things that need to be Checked or Inspected prior to Renovation work

1. Leaky Pipes & Faulty Plumbing

Leaky pipes not only cause damage to your home, but can prove expensive as well in the long run. Faulty plumbing includes loose fittings or improper installation which also will cause leakage problems. You will need to inspect leaky pipes and check plumbing issues before going through the process of renovating your home, otherwise you may have to stop renovation or redo them in order to access the pipes. This can lead to wastage of time & money.

2. Signs of Moisture

For a homeowner, moisture is one of the most common and annoying problems you can face. Moisture / Dampness in buildings is a major factor that contributes to mould growth, unhealthy buildings, and poor indoor air quality. It is one of the most important agents of building deterioration. It is crucial to check out signs of moisture early and also repair them before renovation. Dark patches, peeling off or other paint deterioration, damp and musty odour, visible water stains or discolouration are few signs of moisture for home.

3. Presence of Cracks

Presence of Crack on external or internal wall surfaces may be a sign that there is some problem. An occurrence of the building cracks is often a subject of concern as it can cause further problems like moisture intrusion and weakening the structural integrity of your home if left unnoticed.

4. Broken or Damaged Tiles

Over time, the tiles can become chipped, cracked, broken, or loose. This not only affects the aesthetics of the room but allows moisture to accumulate behind them that will affect the associated areas and add a repair cost.

5. Waterproofing of the Terrace

No matter where you live – in an apartment, a single or multi-storey home, water can cause extensive damage to your home, especially areas that are below the roof in case of damaged waterproofing.

6. Pest / Termite Infestation

If your area already has pests, such as rats, ants or termites etc, then conducting an inspection to find the source before your renovation would be a wise decision. This is because it will uncover any areas of your home that are damaged, prevent further infestation, and stop the spread of it. This is beneficial to check before renovation because you can replace or repair any areas of your home that is causing an infestation.

7. Sealing all Gaps in Home

It is important to check out and seal all unwanted gaps (window frame-wall joints, tile joints, kitchen / bathroom gratings, etc) in homes with proper sealant or grout depending on the requirement and condition. It is important to seal the gaps to avoid moisture intrusion which will result in further damage to the home/property.

8. Electrical & Safety Checkup

Another important point to consider when renovating the house is checking the electrical wirings: load balancing, wire gauge, uninsulated wires & other related parameter; switch boards; safety concerns due to improper location of electrical outlets etc. Ensuring electrical safety at home is significant before beginning renovation.

To inspect above-mentioned points, it is always better to opt for Home/Property inspection which will provide a report of the current condition of basic elements with related issues along with long term solutions. This will be quite helpful while planning renovation or remodeling work.

Many of us are not aware of the main reasons why Home inspection should be opted for, before renovation. Let’s learn about it:

Why You Should Get a Home Inspection Before Renovation?

A home inspection before the renovation is done to identify any issues before the restoration begins. Renovations are an exciting way to re-decorate your home, but it can also become very challenging which requires proper planning and expert’s advice. Here are some important reasons below:

  • Prevents you from Potential problems: Getting a professional home inspection done to look for potential issues and probably prevent it from happening during your renovation is vital. A Home inspection will reveal hidden hazards and issues like safety hazard, concealed leakage, etc. With help of an inspection report, you can prevent future problems and hassles. Without home inspection, you can end up losing time & money and property damage during the home renovation.
  • Better Plan for Renovation: When you know about the issues in your existing home, you can then fix and address those issues at the right time. And when you know to fix in the beginning, things get done better, faster, economically and easier. Thereby you can plan better and easily for renovation work.
  • Guide the Right way: Home inspection will tell you what needs to be corrected first in your home/property. This will ensure that your money is spent in the right place. After getting repair done, you can get your house renovated in the right way.
  • Improves the property value: If you are renovating to sell the house at a good amount, then a home inspection may give you a lot more information than just renovation-related. This will help maximize the value, as you will re-condition your house in a way that will please the potential buyers. A home inspection will improve value by giving buyers peace of mind that comes from knowing the fact that the home they are buying is a safe and healthy home.

Conclusion

A Home inspection Report allows you to get a thorough understanding of the current state of your property, how to proceed if there are faults discovered. Also, Home inspection professionals can guide you about what a renovation will need. It is important to assess the condition of your home with a professional home inspector to determine if there are significant underlying problems that must be addressed before or during your renovation work.

Reference links used:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renovation

Learn why to have Home Inspection before Interior Designing?

“So, you bought a new house? Congratulations! Now you will go for a chic interior designing.” – Sounds familiar? But, “Hey, you got a new house for yourself? Go hire a home inspection. Interior designing can wait” – admit it, you have never come across such a suggestion, and this is exactly where we need to change our mindset. A newly-built home, an old home lived or left vacant for years – nothing guarantees a property’s sound health. And if it is not in its pink of health you cannot make it look good externally. This is true for the house you have been living in for years, as well. If you want to give your beloved nest a makeover, you must get it checked by a home doctor first. Once the doctor (home inspector) says your home is perfect, health-wise, go ahead and deck it up! Only a healthy body can flaunt the best of styles, right?

Here are 6 reasons to opt for home inspection before interior designing making it more worthwhile:

1. No damp, no damage, no blame

Implementing home inspection at your home will easily identify areas where you have high dampness. It could be your roof or wall or places you least expected. With the appropriate measures suggested by professional home inspectors, damp removal will follow. Now when your chosen interior designers set forth for making your house more aesthetically appealing, they will find everything in its place.

Very commonly the blame of a broken tile, a chunk of plaster missing from the wall, and discoloration, etc are conferred upon the interior designers and the team working on it. This is not only unfair but also illogical. In fact, it is the interior designing team that faces the music after taking up the job. No solution to fix damp problems1 seem to work. No wallpaper or installation gets fixed on the wall in a secured manner. There is always a risk of shelves and cabinets falling off the wall due to its damaged texture. Simple Plaster of Paris and multiple coats of paint are wasted just to make a damp wall look proper. What is your situation then? You are like a fish out of water clueless about the end result and cost!

Inspecting your house will settle a specific quality baseline. So, once the designing work starts, no scope of blaming due to damage can arise.

2. No delay in deadline

Of course there is a strict deadline for any work and neither home inspection nor interior designing is any exception. Once interior designers are at work and one or another problem with your building arises, their work will be delayed. If the home inspection team identifies the problem areas beforehand, you can repair them on a priority basis also.

Always keep in mind that if your home has not been inspected earlier and the designers find a damp spot here, an electrical defect there, those things need to be repaired first and that will actually postpone the expected date of completion of the project. As a customer, you also have to cough up extra money. Moreover, it will be quite inconvenient for you as well living in a temporarily messed-up house. A home inspection before interior designing is thus helpful in sticking to the deadlines.

3. No baffling budget

Well, let’s face it. The interior designers are supposed to perform only what they have been assigned. Now, if you present them with a faulty home in desperate need of inspection and they have to repair more than designing, things will not remain the same. The budget will increase, quite obviously.

Had you asked for a home inspection prior to stepping into interior designing, you would have known what your home has in store for you. Don’t get surprised if the interior designers ask for more on finishing their work than what they had asked for at the start of the agreement. In short, you need to allow the designing team to stick to their core competency. Or else, bear the extra costs.

Going for interior designing post a successful home inspection is a wiser choice if you do not want a hole in your pocket or get your mind baffled by the final bill amount the designers present you with.

4. Waive off wastage and rework

When you put home inspection to work, you can identify seepage or dampness issues quite early. In this context, let us just remind you of a small thing. It doesn’t matter whether your home is brand new or quite old. Dampness and other issues like leakage in the open or concealed piping system, overhead tank, moisture intrusion from window frames can occur at any time. If you skip an inspection, the nuisances will come up later when you have already finished designing the interiors of your home. It will spoil the furniture, expensive fixtures in your bathroom, heavy wooden work on doors and partitions, appliances set up you have so long craved for – everything. Result? Rework. The interior designers have to start from scratch again and redo what they had already done earlier. Wastage will also follow.

You can avoid all these things with home inspection prior to interior designing. Even if the designers recreate the same style for your home after putting down their previous work, there will be some issues with quality. Do not take risks with the design deliverables. Instead, call for a home inspection service today.

5. No damages during interior designing

An interior designing team is unlikely to know from where the concealed plumbing line or electricity line of your home is passing. So, they can install a design material or cladding at a place unknowingly damaging a part of it. Later on, you will have to face the consequences. A home inspection prior to interior designing can advise you on where not to install a decorative item or fixture. For example, on a wall adjacent to a wet area like the bathroom, it is meaningless to mount wallpaper. Sooner than later, it will start coming off due to seepage and dampness in the wall. An interior decorator would not be able to foresee this problem. It is only after a home inspection team points it out that you can tell your interior designer, “See, this is what my home inspection report card says. Let’s not plan any elaborate makeover for this part of the house.” This way, you can avoid further damage to that space and save money on something that will not last long.

6. Advantages for the interior designers

It is always easy to put the blame on others, isn’t it? If you are a part of the interior designing team you will more frequently come across accusations that your team has not given their best. Some months or days after you completed a project, you will receive complaints saying that the designs on the wall are coming off, the appliance set up has not been perfect, and so on and so forth. An unsatisfied customer actually leads to a loss of reference. They are not likely to recommend your service to others. It’s your business which will face problems though there might not be any fault of yours.

Insist your customer for a thorough home inspection before you start your work of designing in the house. This way you can avoid brand dilution as the faults will be identified well beforehand.

To know how a home inspection can help you in your interior designing project, click here.

Both home inspection and interior designing go hand in hand as they share the common objective of ensuring the following:

  • The functionality of your home and its components
  • Health and inherent beauty of the home
  • Safety and security of the inmates
  • Longevity of the property

So, go ahead and do up your dream home by professional interior designers BUT only after a thorough home inspection has been done. Do not let your home face even the slightest of nuisances. Also, update yourself and be aware of how to take care of your home and bid farewell to damp and other damages permanently. Here is a fact sheet that gives you all the trivia on home inspection – read more to make the best decision before investing in interior designing.

Reference links used:
1. https://www.houzz.in/magazine/how-to-prevent-and-treat-dampness-in-your-home-stsetivw-vs~114996043

Interior Designers and Home Inspectors – A match made in Heaven

Home Inspection is an aid in Interior Design for ensuring proper functionality, beauty, good health, safety & longevity of a home / property.

Both Interior Designer and Home Inspector were doing their jobs well

Let us suppose ‘Interior Designer’ to be a beautiful girl and a ‘Home Inspector’ to be a handsome guy. Both were happily doing their respective works and earning a lot of kudos for it too. But they haven’t met. They were unaware of each other but destiny had some other plans for them. The beautiful ‘Interior Designer’ became a crucial part in every home or property. Likewise ‘Home Inspector’ was steadily making his presence felt and climbing the popularity quotient.

Both Interior Designer & Home Inspector work on all kinds of properties (home, office, retail, shopping malls, commercial, schools, warehouse, etc). They design / inspect both new or existing properties and whether a property owner / buyer is planning new interior design or home improvement / renovation / makeover or home remodeling.

Complimenting Roles

Description Interior Designer Home Inspector
Role
  • Play a key role to create a functional & quality interior environment of homes.
  • Make interior spaces functional, safe, and beautiful by determining space requirements and selecting decorative items, such as colours, lighting, and materials.
  • They read blueprints, building codes and inspection regulations, as well as universal accessibility standards.
  • Complete Healthy Check-up of Homes.
  • All areas inspected (bedroom / bathroom / living / dining / kitchen / balcony / servant quarters, etc)
  • All systems & elements covered (Ceilings / Walls / Floors / Doors / Windows / Electrical / Plumbing / Cabinets / countertops / Ventilation & Exhaust systems / Water Supply, etc.)
  • Inspection Coverage: Material Types, Installation & Finishing, Operations & Functionality, General Safety, etc
  • The 3 D Inspection of Issues – Detect the Issues, Describe the outcome, Direct Solutions
Benefits
  • Professional & Expert Assessment
  • Turnkey Solution
  • Combining Style in Right Manner
  • Focused Design
  • Make Spaces Functional And Appealing
  • Economical Budgeting & Time Management
  • Deliver Latest Trends
  • Provides extra level of security and peace of mind.
  • Warning signals: In-depth analysis that spotlights not just current needed repairs but also issues that may become a problem in future.
  • Investment of approx. 0.1% to 0.5% of property value on inspection – property life increased & maintenance cost can be reduced remarkably.
  • Decreases depreciation rate.
  • Earns a better selling platform and bargaining position to the seller / realtors.
Objective Ensuring proper functionality, beauty, good health, safety & longevity of a home / property.

The unforeseen problems

After investing lakhs / crores of rupees in buying a home, in interiors like paints, wallpapers, furniture etc , when defects arise, the interiors / exteriors get damaged – Issues start creeping-in including:

  • Dampness, Water Seepage / Leakage / Moisture / Termites
  • Cracks / Patches / Peeling / Undulation / Improper Finishing
  • Improper joint fillings / Gaps / Extra Cuts / Improper Slope
  • Issues in Doors & Windows
  • Plumbing Issues
  • Electrical issues – short circuit / damaging wires, conduits, making life of occupants risky.
  • Safety / Functionality Issues

There is no way to protect, other than, replacing it or incurring huge costs in repair & maintenance.

And then one fine day they met

There were fireworks and miracles! When the home inspector and an interior designer joined hands, the final product and service that they gave birth to was of superior standard. And most importantly they made other’s dream homes’ come true.

Home Inspection is an aid in Interior Design for ensuring proper functionality, beauty, good health, safety & longevity of a home / property.

In interior design and décor, it is very important to know the place & its condition, in and out, for optimum end result. And so, the first and the most populated step of an interior decorator is to engage a home inspector to inspect the place. An interior decorator sets the overall vibe of a place by deciding what colour palette, paint finishes, lightings, furniture, accessories will go into that particular space. For this, he / she needs the inspector to perform the inspection in order to get an exact picture of the overall dimension, condition, nature, look and feel of the space. Only then, an interior decorator would be able to deliver the desired end-result in the most efficient manner.

Top interior designers follow this route; they go for the property / home inspection first to get the overall vibe of the place and then decide on what will and will not go with it.

Home inspection goes a long way in making the interior designers evaluate and understand the conditions of the structure / components / elements of homes e.g., presence of invisible dampness / moisture can be located with thermal imaging technology during the inspection which will help interior designers design the furnishing of home better and ensure longevity of the furniture installed in the home.

Home Inspection will also aid them in designing beautiful homes to make home owners happy and realise their dream homes come true. The interior designers will not have complaints from the customers because now they are aware of each wall, door, window, plumbing / electrical issues, etc. e.g., they can put up a wall paper or fix a cabinet without any worries.

(Also read – https://macj-abuyerschoice.com/real-estate/are-you-renovating-or-remodelling-your-home-or-giving-it-a-makeover-home-inspection-before-renovation-heres-some-food-for-thought/)