What are the 7 Systems in a House that you should check?
In continuing the topic of the March 2024 article, What is the Code of Ethics for a Home Inspector?, what are the 7 Systems in a House that a Home Inspector should check?
What is a System?
A system is a group of related things that work together as a whole.
What is a practical example of a System?
A chair consists of legs, arms, and a seat. Together the parts function to keep a person off the floor, but separately they are useless. For a chair to work, all components must be present and configured in a particular way.
What are the 7 Major Systems in a House?
- Roof: This is a critical system to maintain the structural integrity of a house. It is also a very major expense to consider when buying a house.
- Walls: Like the roof, this is also a critical system to maintain the structural integrity of the house.
- Foundation: Foundations matter, both in construction and in the way a person views the world. To quote the Bible, “…it is wise man who built a house on a rock. Those who ignore Him are like a foolish man who built a house on sand.”
- Electrical: This is a safety hazard if the Electrical System is not built to standards.
- Plumbing: A water leak can cause extensive damage to a house. To quote Bruce Lee, “This water, the softest substance in the world… only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world. Be water, my friends.”
- Grading: In terms of the ground around the home, it is the slope of the ground around the foundation of the home. Proper grading is sloping away from the house. This is vital to ensure proper drainage of water away from the home’s foundation. Proper grading can prevent things like leaks, cracks in foundations, rot of wooden structural members, and other costly foundation problems.
- Interior: The ceiling, walls, and flooring of the Interior provides the comfort of quality living that all Buyers expect when buying a house.
Why look at a house from a System perspective?
Systems thinking allow us to look at a House from the individual parts and then make a better informed choice on the whole of the house.
In the case of purchasing a house, it is wise to fully inspect it before making a “buy or not buy” decision.
For any questions on this topic, please call Oscar Libed of Inspect Hawaii at 808-728-5707 or send an email to oscar@inspecthawaii.com
