Looking inside with James Morrison

Today, Jim shares a couple of his tips for looking around inside your house:

The use of electrical extension cord feeds and electrical receptacle adapters is the cause of many fires. If you see a lot of these in the house, then you’ll know that you’ll need to hire a licensed electrician to install new electrical receptacles and fixtures as needed.

It sounds funny, but I also look for price tags, particularly on the electrical and plumbing components. This is almost always a sign that a homeowner did the work instead of a qualified, licensed professional. If you see price tags and the work appears sloppy, you should check to see if a building permit was obtained.

Look at the insulation on the heating system and pipes or ducts. If it is white and looks similar to a plastered cast, it could contain asbestos. To know for certain, it must be sampled and tested in a laboratory (though some manufacturers boldly brag of the asbestos content on the label if you can find one). If it does contain asbestos, any friable asbestos pipe insulation should removed or encapsulated by a Massachusetts-certified professional, which will be expensive.

If the house has central air conditioning, you should ask the current owners of the property how old the system components are. The average life span of the outdoor condenser unit it typically 15-20 years and the average life span of the interior air handler is typically 30 years or so.

Shine a flashlight inside the heating or cooling ducts and look around. Chances are, the interior will be coated with dirt. You should strongly consider having the interior of the air ducts and the air handler professionally cleaned before moving into the house, especially someone in your family has allergies. For more information about indoor air quality, visit this web site

Inside the house, turn every light switch on and off to make sure they work. You should also try to open and close every window, checking for broken glass, broken sash cords, fogged double paned glass, and loose windows. Operate every faucet, run the shower and tub and flush all toilets looking for leaks at the appliance. When you have operated every plumbing fixture in the house, go back down into the basement and check for leaks.

You should also be looking for water stains on the walls and ceiling which indicate a past or current leak. Notice the pattern of the cracking in the walls and ceilings. It’s hard to find a house with no cracks at all, and cracks are not necessarily a sign of a structural problem. However, certain patterns can tip you off to a settlement problem that will require further investigation.