Aleph Null
01-06-2005, 12:05 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/realestate/02cov.html
Hiring an Inspector and Avoiding the Lemons
By CLAIRE WILSON
The New York Times
January 2, 2005
WITH thousands of home inspections under his belt, Evan Grugett doesn't need to waste time on preparation. He's out of his immaculate white sport utility vehicle as soon as it hits the curb in front of a 1915 colonial in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and his latest inspection is under way with detailed running commentary.
"Built as one-family, converted," he announces when he sees the "subject," as he calls the houses he inspects. It's a two-family, three stories high, on a nice block not far from the train station. There's a stroller parked on the grass out front.
Mr. Grugett scrutinizes a narrow strip of lawn for evidence of a buried home heating oil tank but finds none. Without missing a beat, he scoops up his binoculars and trains his bespectacled gaze on the roof line, looking for all the world like a fanatical birder.
"Shingle roof, aluminum gutters and leaders," continues Mr. Grugett, an engineer whose company, Evan Grugett Inspections, is based in Eastchester. Then his voice turns more serious. "Eighty-five percent of wet basements come from the roof."
He casts an approving glance over the yard and how it tilts ever so slightly. "You want all grades to slope away from the subject."
Up the front steps then, giving the skinny on the porch as he goes. "Composite product, new deck. Doesn't warp or rot. No termites."
Making the rounds with Mr. Grugett is nothing if not an education - which is exactly the idea. A 30-year veteran of home inspections - that elective "due diligence" every home buyer is encouraged to undertake before signing on the dotted line - he views his job in full "caveat emptor" mode. It is also a way to help his clients to get to know the property, with its various knobs, knockers and valves, and how to best maintain their investment in the future.
"There is no such thing as passing or failing an inspection," he says. "It is about consumer information, educating the buyer on what they are getting into."
Anyone might wonder what he's getting into on an inspection with a seasoned, compulsively thorough professional like Mr. Grugett. His knowledge of all things engineering is encyclopedic, and he dispenses it freely to anyone within earshot. It is dizzying in its detail, difficult to absorb in one go, perhaps especially so for nervous neophyte home buyers about to hand over their life savings. Thankfully, all the important points get into the detailed, numerically coded written report he will provide at the end for the going rate of about $450.
"And I put a high priority on whatever will hurt or kill people," he says, deadpan. Having introduced himself to the seller, Tim McCarville, a lanky Bronx firefighter with a beaming little boy in his arms, Mr. Grugett is back outside, tap-tapping his way around the exterior of the house with a rubber-handled screwdriver.
"You're allowed to probe when you see a problem, but you can't do obtrusive or destructive testing," he explains. "It's strictly visual."
That means he can't poke serious holes in anything, even if a hollow thud suggests that extended families of termites are making a meal out of the house's wooden frame. Such a discovery would require tests beyond the accepted norms for a basic home inspection, in Mr. Grugett's case the guidelines of the American Society of Home Inspectors, a professional organization, as would tests for other environmental hazards like radon gas, mold or asbestos.
"Control joint," Mr. Grugett says, folding his compact frame for a closer look at the seam between two parts of the foundation. "The poured concrete is a plus."
The guided tour continues around a neat little yard tufted with neglected shrubs. The house is covered in three kinds of siding that could easily be dated by an appraiser on the "Antiques Roadshow": 70's harvest gold Shaker-style, yellow clapboard from an earlier makeover, and fashionable white faux bead board, a product of the most recent facelift.
Toward the front of the house, the inspector spies one electric meter where two would normally be in a two-family. "Meter pan!" he exclaims. "Is the capacity enough?"
Notes are taken, but that rhetorical question is more of a statement as Mr. Grugett heads inside. He likes to have home buyers along on the inspection, the better to educate them about the purchase. In this instance, the home buyer, Hilary Farnsworth, will join him later. But she is an engineer by training and she has bought a house before, so coming along for the whole three-hour inspection was not critical.
Once inside, Mr. Grugett generally starts with the attic and eaves and works his way down, but at the seller's request, he begins with the interior of the first-floor unit.
"I usually go from the top down to develop a load pattern, see how many electrical outlets there are and when I get to the basement I can see the sources," he says, making notes on a clipboard then disappearing into the kitchen. He knocks on the wall.
"Sheetrock," Mr. Grugett says. "Grounded plugs." Another plus.
He continues around the rear of the unit, an enormous flashlight bobbing in his back pocket. He flushes the toilet, peers into the tank and tests the water pressure in both kitchen and bathroom. There's a homey, dinner-hour coziness to the kitchen/family room, where the freshly bathed baby, Daniel, sits grinning in the middle of the floor. His mother, Elise McCarville, expecting a second son within the next couple of months, chats knowledgeably about reading scores in the local school district, Rye Neck, but Mr. Grugett is oblivious, focusing instead on the task at hand, looking for problems and gathering information for his report. Quickly and methodically, he tests the gas on the stove and the exhaust fan, checks the thermostat, then heads for the basement.
"Structure is always the top priority," he states, standing under a slightly dubious looking network of steel I-beams supported by jacks. Even less reassuring are the locust posts whose knotty surface makes them look like something out of the Flintstones and about as old. A routine check tells Mr. Grugett they are as strong as the day they were placed there, almost 90 years ago.
The inspection of the basement is well under way when Ms. Farnsworth arrives. Mr. Grugett starts to bring her up to speed on what he's already found outside and on the first floor and how far he's gotten in the basement. He has found rusty residue on one of the electrical panels, but dismisses that and deems the capacity and amount of circuits to be sufficient for a two-family home. Wires need some attention, he points out, but Ms. Farnsworth will undertake that correction herself for about $10. Lengths of relatively new copper pipe run here and there overhead, and that's a good sign, according to Mr. Grugett.
"The more copper you see, the better off the buyer is because the work has already been done," he explains.
The basement has low, unfinished ceilings, a concrete floor and damp, rough concrete walls. Next to a small dark workbench is an even darker crawl space that Mr. Grugett tells Ms. Farnsworth he has inspected and given a passing grade.
"That's good to know because I didn't have the guts to put my head in there," she says.
Buyer and engineer turn their attention to the gas-fired hot water heater, a critical feature in any house and an important item on the inspection checklist. Replacement of such a high-ticket item, if necessary, would be a negotiating point on the sale price. Mr. Grugett gives this unit a thorough going-over, establishes the age and capacity, and gives it a passing grade. Then, as is typical in a home inspection, he advises his client when to think about replacing it in the future.
"This is a decent tank," he concludes. "You have two-plus years left on it; there are newer components in there."
The water main is another story. Checking the house trap in the basement floor for the main sewer he notes what good condition it's in ("never had a pipe wrench on that cover," he says, approvingly), but the presence of an original lead main prompts him to suggest a test for lead in the water supply. It is one of the environmental tests that is not part of a standard inspection.
"It costs $75 to take a test sample of water from the kitchen sink," Mr. Grugett explains. He keeps a supply of containers for such samples in his S.U.V., in addition to the standard equipment for doing an inspection: screwdrivers, flashlights, ladder, moisture meter, electrical testers and combustible gas detectors.
Then it's upstairs for the final phase of the inspection of the two-family house that Ms. Farnsworth is buying for $560,000. It's evening now, and the tenant in the duplex apartment, also a firefighter, is home, so Mr. Grugett and Ms. Farnsworth are able to check out the state of the rental.
Up in the attic, Mr. Grugett switches to his from-the-top-down approach. First stop is the bathroom, at the top of the stairs leading from the second floor. He checks water pressure in the shower and sink, gives the toilet a flush and scours ceiling and walls for tell-tale leaks. There were none to be found either in the bathroom or in the two bedrooms. He heads down the short hallway between the two bedrooms and opens the door to a storage area under the eaves.
Having already completed 80 percent of the inspection and found the house to be very sound, the engineer expects no serious problems. But he makes no assumptions, checking for interior signs of leaks in the roof and other symptoms of expensive problems.
"Water damage under the roof, sags and things like cracks indicate major structural problems," he explains from under the eaves, with its neat rows of dark wooden slats and mortar.
The kitchen is on the main floor of the apartment, opposite the living room. It's slightly larger than the McCarvilles' downstairs. Mr. Grugett repeats the inspection routine of the kitchen below, with Ms. Farnsworth paying close attention to his observations while still trying to decide whether she would live in the ground floor unit or upstairs if everything went according to plan.
It's been an intense three hours since Mr. Grugett arrived on the scene. Ready to wrap things up, he improvises a desk from the McCarvilles' coffee table, asks Ms. Farnsworth to sign the authorization for inspection and agreement for services, then goes over the notes he has so copiously taken, to see if there was anything that needed a second look. He gives the prospective homeowner some informational brochures on home maintenance, including one on wet basements, and promises her the written report with its numerically coded priority system in a matter of days.
The sellers have remained cheerfully hospitable throughout the inspection, which gets friendlier as it winds down and their own move gets closer. Ms. Farnsworth is delighted that her future abode got such good grades from someone as rigorous as Mr. Grugett, who came highly recommended by friends.
"He's one of the most thorough inspectors I've ever seen," says Ms. Farnsworth, who has worked with other engineers. "My expectations weren't that high, but now that I've seen how Evan works, I would be hard-pressed to see any better."
Hiring an Inspector and Avoiding the Lemons
By CLAIRE WILSON
The New York Times
January 2, 2005
WITH thousands of home inspections under his belt, Evan Grugett doesn't need to waste time on preparation. He's out of his immaculate white sport utility vehicle as soon as it hits the curb in front of a 1915 colonial in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and his latest inspection is under way with detailed running commentary.
"Built as one-family, converted," he announces when he sees the "subject," as he calls the houses he inspects. It's a two-family, three stories high, on a nice block not far from the train station. There's a stroller parked on the grass out front.
Mr. Grugett scrutinizes a narrow strip of lawn for evidence of a buried home heating oil tank but finds none. Without missing a beat, he scoops up his binoculars and trains his bespectacled gaze on the roof line, looking for all the world like a fanatical birder.
"Shingle roof, aluminum gutters and leaders," continues Mr. Grugett, an engineer whose company, Evan Grugett Inspections, is based in Eastchester. Then his voice turns more serious. "Eighty-five percent of wet basements come from the roof."
He casts an approving glance over the yard and how it tilts ever so slightly. "You want all grades to slope away from the subject."
Up the front steps then, giving the skinny on the porch as he goes. "Composite product, new deck. Doesn't warp or rot. No termites."
Making the rounds with Mr. Grugett is nothing if not an education - which is exactly the idea. A 30-year veteran of home inspections - that elective "due diligence" every home buyer is encouraged to undertake before signing on the dotted line - he views his job in full "caveat emptor" mode. It is also a way to help his clients to get to know the property, with its various knobs, knockers and valves, and how to best maintain their investment in the future.
"There is no such thing as passing or failing an inspection," he says. "It is about consumer information, educating the buyer on what they are getting into."
Anyone might wonder what he's getting into on an inspection with a seasoned, compulsively thorough professional like Mr. Grugett. His knowledge of all things engineering is encyclopedic, and he dispenses it freely to anyone within earshot. It is dizzying in its detail, difficult to absorb in one go, perhaps especially so for nervous neophyte home buyers about to hand over their life savings. Thankfully, all the important points get into the detailed, numerically coded written report he will provide at the end for the going rate of about $450.
"And I put a high priority on whatever will hurt or kill people," he says, deadpan. Having introduced himself to the seller, Tim McCarville, a lanky Bronx firefighter with a beaming little boy in his arms, Mr. Grugett is back outside, tap-tapping his way around the exterior of the house with a rubber-handled screwdriver.
"You're allowed to probe when you see a problem, but you can't do obtrusive or destructive testing," he explains. "It's strictly visual."
That means he can't poke serious holes in anything, even if a hollow thud suggests that extended families of termites are making a meal out of the house's wooden frame. Such a discovery would require tests beyond the accepted norms for a basic home inspection, in Mr. Grugett's case the guidelines of the American Society of Home Inspectors, a professional organization, as would tests for other environmental hazards like radon gas, mold or asbestos.
"Control joint," Mr. Grugett says, folding his compact frame for a closer look at the seam between two parts of the foundation. "The poured concrete is a plus."
The guided tour continues around a neat little yard tufted with neglected shrubs. The house is covered in three kinds of siding that could easily be dated by an appraiser on the "Antiques Roadshow": 70's harvest gold Shaker-style, yellow clapboard from an earlier makeover, and fashionable white faux bead board, a product of the most recent facelift.
Toward the front of the house, the inspector spies one electric meter where two would normally be in a two-family. "Meter pan!" he exclaims. "Is the capacity enough?"
Notes are taken, but that rhetorical question is more of a statement as Mr. Grugett heads inside. He likes to have home buyers along on the inspection, the better to educate them about the purchase. In this instance, the home buyer, Hilary Farnsworth, will join him later. But she is an engineer by training and she has bought a house before, so coming along for the whole three-hour inspection was not critical.
Once inside, Mr. Grugett generally starts with the attic and eaves and works his way down, but at the seller's request, he begins with the interior of the first-floor unit.
"I usually go from the top down to develop a load pattern, see how many electrical outlets there are and when I get to the basement I can see the sources," he says, making notes on a clipboard then disappearing into the kitchen. He knocks on the wall.
"Sheetrock," Mr. Grugett says. "Grounded plugs." Another plus.
He continues around the rear of the unit, an enormous flashlight bobbing in his back pocket. He flushes the toilet, peers into the tank and tests the water pressure in both kitchen and bathroom. There's a homey, dinner-hour coziness to the kitchen/family room, where the freshly bathed baby, Daniel, sits grinning in the middle of the floor. His mother, Elise McCarville, expecting a second son within the next couple of months, chats knowledgeably about reading scores in the local school district, Rye Neck, but Mr. Grugett is oblivious, focusing instead on the task at hand, looking for problems and gathering information for his report. Quickly and methodically, he tests the gas on the stove and the exhaust fan, checks the thermostat, then heads for the basement.
"Structure is always the top priority," he states, standing under a slightly dubious looking network of steel I-beams supported by jacks. Even less reassuring are the locust posts whose knotty surface makes them look like something out of the Flintstones and about as old. A routine check tells Mr. Grugett they are as strong as the day they were placed there, almost 90 years ago.
The inspection of the basement is well under way when Ms. Farnsworth arrives. Mr. Grugett starts to bring her up to speed on what he's already found outside and on the first floor and how far he's gotten in the basement. He has found rusty residue on one of the electrical panels, but dismisses that and deems the capacity and amount of circuits to be sufficient for a two-family home. Wires need some attention, he points out, but Ms. Farnsworth will undertake that correction herself for about $10. Lengths of relatively new copper pipe run here and there overhead, and that's a good sign, according to Mr. Grugett.
"The more copper you see, the better off the buyer is because the work has already been done," he explains.
The basement has low, unfinished ceilings, a concrete floor and damp, rough concrete walls. Next to a small dark workbench is an even darker crawl space that Mr. Grugett tells Ms. Farnsworth he has inspected and given a passing grade.
"That's good to know because I didn't have the guts to put my head in there," she says.
Buyer and engineer turn their attention to the gas-fired hot water heater, a critical feature in any house and an important item on the inspection checklist. Replacement of such a high-ticket item, if necessary, would be a negotiating point on the sale price. Mr. Grugett gives this unit a thorough going-over, establishes the age and capacity, and gives it a passing grade. Then, as is typical in a home inspection, he advises his client when to think about replacing it in the future.
"This is a decent tank," he concludes. "You have two-plus years left on it; there are newer components in there."
The water main is another story. Checking the house trap in the basement floor for the main sewer he notes what good condition it's in ("never had a pipe wrench on that cover," he says, approvingly), but the presence of an original lead main prompts him to suggest a test for lead in the water supply. It is one of the environmental tests that is not part of a standard inspection.
"It costs $75 to take a test sample of water from the kitchen sink," Mr. Grugett explains. He keeps a supply of containers for such samples in his S.U.V., in addition to the standard equipment for doing an inspection: screwdrivers, flashlights, ladder, moisture meter, electrical testers and combustible gas detectors.
Then it's upstairs for the final phase of the inspection of the two-family house that Ms. Farnsworth is buying for $560,000. It's evening now, and the tenant in the duplex apartment, also a firefighter, is home, so Mr. Grugett and Ms. Farnsworth are able to check out the state of the rental.
Up in the attic, Mr. Grugett switches to his from-the-top-down approach. First stop is the bathroom, at the top of the stairs leading from the second floor. He checks water pressure in the shower and sink, gives the toilet a flush and scours ceiling and walls for tell-tale leaks. There were none to be found either in the bathroom or in the two bedrooms. He heads down the short hallway between the two bedrooms and opens the door to a storage area under the eaves.
Having already completed 80 percent of the inspection and found the house to be very sound, the engineer expects no serious problems. But he makes no assumptions, checking for interior signs of leaks in the roof and other symptoms of expensive problems.
"Water damage under the roof, sags and things like cracks indicate major structural problems," he explains from under the eaves, with its neat rows of dark wooden slats and mortar.
The kitchen is on the main floor of the apartment, opposite the living room. It's slightly larger than the McCarvilles' downstairs. Mr. Grugett repeats the inspection routine of the kitchen below, with Ms. Farnsworth paying close attention to his observations while still trying to decide whether she would live in the ground floor unit or upstairs if everything went according to plan.
It's been an intense three hours since Mr. Grugett arrived on the scene. Ready to wrap things up, he improvises a desk from the McCarvilles' coffee table, asks Ms. Farnsworth to sign the authorization for inspection and agreement for services, then goes over the notes he has so copiously taken, to see if there was anything that needed a second look. He gives the prospective homeowner some informational brochures on home maintenance, including one on wet basements, and promises her the written report with its numerically coded priority system in a matter of days.
The sellers have remained cheerfully hospitable throughout the inspection, which gets friendlier as it winds down and their own move gets closer. Ms. Farnsworth is delighted that her future abode got such good grades from someone as rigorous as Mr. Grugett, who came highly recommended by friends.
"He's one of the most thorough inspectors I've ever seen," says Ms. Farnsworth, who has worked with other engineers. "My expectations weren't that high, but now that I've seen how Evan works, I would be hard-pressed to see any better."