If you are considering buying a new house, you will find it helpful for pre-inspection preparation. You can also use it if your home is under warranty and want to check any work needed, so they do not come back after expiration for noncompliance. Many buyers put off making repairs thinking, ‘It is not broken, so why repair it?’ Some things are just small issues that seem unimportant when looking at everything else you have to do with moving into your new home.
Your new home may need some repairs, such as HVAC repair before you can move in. New homes often undergo final inspections to check for flaws or issues that need repair before the warranty expires. Inspection is very thorough and usually only misses major problems. It does not cover normal wear and tear, and ongoing maintenance such as plugged gutter drains causes water damage to walls inside the home.
These nine repairs will help you stay under budget and will give your home a great startIf you have an inspection, each of these items can be brought up to be repaired correctly when executing your new home remodeling ideas as you plan on how to move in:
1. Check for Leaks and Water Damage
Once you have moved all your belongings into the home, make a thorough inspection throughout both levels of the house, inside and out. Exterior problems to look for include: leaky pipes or connections; cracked or loose roofing; missing or rotted fascia boards; rotting trim and siding; peeling paint and discoloration under an eave caused by rain runoff; rusted metalwork on doors and windowsills; cracks in masonry or along foundation seams; rust on garage door tracks. If you find any of these problems inside, do not panic. Most of the time, they can be fixed by professional plumbers for not too much money when embarking on new home remodeling ideas.
A leaky roof can cause damage inside the house and down below, where it is seeping into ceilings and walls. Check with neighbors who might have been there longer than you and get an idea of when they moved in and if their roofs were leaking at all when they moved in. If a recent storm could have caused the leak and damage, this repair should be made right away. Contact reputed local roofing companies to assist you with roofing repairs.
A leaky faucet should be repaired right away to prevent the water from running constantly and wasting water which will ultimately add up to your monthly bill. It is also not good for the environment since it wastes water, which we all know is limited. Similar to other repairs, if you ignore this one, you could face bigger problems like rot and mold in wood that has been soaked too many times by leaking sinks or bathtubs.
2. Review How Appliances Work
Review how your equipment, systems, and fixtures operate when looking at new home remodeling ideas to work on. Almost everything should work just fine once your new home is officially yours, but be sure to check all kitchen appliances and make sure they turn on before moving in any of your furniture.
You also should run water into each sink and tub/shower to make sure the water does not run slowly or not at all. Replace any faucet washers that appear worn or corroded, and check the dishwasher drain hose (if applicable) to ensure no leaks.
Other appliances you should test include: refrigerator icemaker, oven timer; stove burners; furnace blower fan; washer/dryer operation, etc. Make sure all switches, receptacles, and light fixtures work before moving in. If you find a problem switch, ask your electrician how much it will cost to replace it if it is not easy to fix yourself for safety reasons. You also want to ensure that all GFCI outlets (the little buttons on the outlets with a reset and test button) are working.
3. Check the Flooring
Another repair you should think of in your new home remodeling ideas is floor repair. If a floorboard is loose, it should be repaired as soon as possible before someone falls through or a pet cause even more damage by clawing at it.
Most of the time, this problem comes from water damage, which means you probably have other issues with your home’s foundation-or old age. What happens is that over time, the wood dries out and shrinks, causing loose boards in your floors. This might seem like a small issue; trust me, it is very easy to fall once you are knee-deep in furniture.
Either from being nailed down too hard or water damage, damaged flooring should be repaired as soon as possible because once you move all your furniture in and put everything back where it belongs will become much harder to make the repairs.
Before you sign your final contract, walk through the home to check for loose floorboards, squeaky stair treads, and carpet wear on stairs. If you notice any objectionable conditions near where carpets will be, ask that they be repaired or replaced before owning your new home.
You can save money by asking the seller if he will do it himself (he may not mind), but this is something you want to be examined by a professional anyway, so expect to pay for granite countertop installation one way or another. It is worth it to incur this cost to determine the need for new hardwood floor installation before moving into the new house for comfort and safety reasons.
4. Look for Cracks Around the House
Before you make a list of your new home remodeling ideas, inspect the house to see if there are cracks in any parts of the whole structure. Check carefully around all exterior doors and windows for cracks in either the door or window trim or between the two. Cracks may indicate that the house has shifted over time, although this does not always mean a serious structural problem.
If you can easily break out surrounding paint with your fingernail, it is probably not something to worry about too much. But if fixing these turns into a bigger project than expected, you might want to negotiate for a lower price or request the seller repair them before closing.
Do not forget interior walls and ceilings. If you see cracks or holes in your interior walls, ceilings, or trim, ask your agent what can be done to repair them if it turns out that all the cosmetic repairs needed will cost more than half of the sale price of the house, you might want to try and negotiate a lower price with the seller before moving forward.
Cracked walls or ceilings can be a sign that there is an issue with the foundation. Depending on how long it happened, they could also result from a leaky roof, which might have caused more damage than just cracking drywall.
5. Non-Working Fixtures
Non-working fixtures should be a priority when implementing your new home remodeling ideas. The lights and other fixtures in your home should be checked for safety before you move anything in so that if there are any issues, they can get fixed immediately. The last thing you want is to have the light go out while trying to move something heavy or see something important inside a dark closet.
If your new home has an alarm system, then it might be a good idea to have this inspected by a professional as well since it could save you from getting hacked. You do not want criminals having access to your house 24/7 through the smart devices hooked up to your Wi-Fi network without even triggering an alarm which gives them all the time they need to steal anything they want.
Broken door handles might seem like a small issue, but you will find that it can be a hassle when moving things in through doors with broken door handles. You might end up damaging other things if the door handle is broken because you will have to force open the door, which could damage both your stuff and the door itself.
6. Check Plumbing and Heating Systems
During your new home remodeling ideas, the next repair you should make is to check your plumbing and heating systems. Do you require services from water heater companies? No one wants a surprise when they turn on the shower for the first time and find only cold water flowing out, nor would anyone like to discover that there was no gas in the house when it is 20 degrees outside with snow on the ground.
Go through all of your bathrooms and see if anything looks amiss or requires attention while at the same time checking to see whether or not your furnace is supplying adequate heat. If you have a fireplace, ensure it is operational too, otherwise use stovetop burners to see if they give off enough heat during an average winter day.
If you see cut or rotted pipes, cracked fittings or loose connections under sinks, clogged drains around toilets and sinks, wet insulation near water shut-offs, leaks in the basement slab (indicating that plumbing behind foundation walls is leaking), your house may have problems that will require professional help to fix if it is not something you want to handle yourself.
If major plumbing repairs are needed, you might be able to negotiate a lower price for your home, so ask your real estate agent how those issues might affect the asking price. It would help consider drain cleaning services to ensure your new home has a clean draining system.
Most houses contain knob-and-tube wiring, which is ungrounded and considered dangerous. It is easily recognized because it is cloth-covered and held together with ceramic or Bakelite knobs. You will want to check all exterior outlets, switches, light fixtures, and junction boxes for worn insulation on wiring due to age, wear and tear. The job requires shutting off power at your electrical panel, so be sure you know how to shut off the correct breaker or fuse before starting work. You may have an electrician check them out if you find damaged connections or loose wires that create sparks or burning odor (especially in the kitchen or bathroom),
7. Check Out Rotten Wood
Although not as common in the new home remodeling ideas and home building projects anymore, some older homes may still have wood siding on portions of exterior walls. Sometimes this wood rots away because water seeps inside the walls/pillars through deteriorated mortar joints. Inspect carefully around door and window frames since rot often occurs in these areas first. As always, if there are major problems here, you might want to adjust your offer to the seller accordingly.
If you find any of these items before moving into your new home, hopefully, a repair here and there will not be a deal-breaker for you! Remember that sometimes with older homes, some problems are just part of the space, so try not to get too frustrated as long as it is unsafe or unmanageable.
8. HVAC System Repairs
Before you have even moved into your new home, a few repairs need to be made. When working on your new home remodeling ideas and projects, some of these repairs can be expensive, and some can get pretty technical, but having them done will ensure the safety and quality of your home both now and in the future. So, before you make this investment or start unpacking, make sure you have taken care of all of the HVAC systems.
This is probably one of the most important things to consider before closing a home, especially an older home. Even if everything seems fine when viewing the unit from the outside, it could have problems that are not immediately visible upon entry, or it could simply be a very old unit. Repairing or replacing a heater or air conditioner can cost thousands of dollars.
9. Structural Repairs
Whether a house will need structural work, but if there will need to be some foundation work done. This could include sagging in the ceiling and gutters, hardwood floors that are slanted or cracking, and even door frames that have shifted. Rotted wood can also be a problem for older homes, so keep your eyes peeled when inspecting different houses.
Inspecting the exterior of the house is something that many homebuyers miss when they are looking at houses. This may impact the choice of new home remodeling ideas you make, as you may fail to notice the need for garage door repair, among other repairs needed on the exterior part.
It is very important to find out more about the house’s history and its condition. Things like stains or paint bubbles in different areas may mean water damage underneath, so check with your realtor before making an offer, so you know what needs fixing without getting too far into negotiations.
When you are moving in, one of the first things you will want to do is inspect your new home for damage or any safety issues that need to be fixed. The best time to plan on repairs for your new home remodeling ideas before the warranty expires is while you are still in escrow or within that first month. Most of these items can be attended to by yourself, but some may need the help of professionals.