Have you ever heard the saying that the cleanliness of the bathroom in a restaurant is a sign of how clean the kitchen is? Well here are 5 things to look for when buying a house that tell you about the quality of the home. These tips are more guidelines than rules, but the insight can be very useful.
You can estimate the age of a high efficiency furnace by the colour of the pipes. Black pipes on furnaces are prior to 2007. This is when building code changed from black ABS piping to white System 636. ABS can melt or crack over time allowing carbon monoxide to escape while System 636 will not. Since 2007 new furnaces are not allowed to use ABS. So furnaces installed after 2007 have the white (or very light grey) System 636 pipes instead. Some people replaced the ABS with System 636 so this is not a rule, but a guideline.
A give-away sign that your electrician pays attention to detail is to look at the screws holding the faceplates against the outlets and switches on the wall. If all these screws are all lined up so the slot is directly vertical up and down, you know the electrician took the time and pride in their work. It is likely they paid just as much attention and pride in their work to everything else they did.
If there are tiles in the kitchen, bathrooms, or even tiled entrance ways, look to see if the tiles are evenly spaced. If the tiles or the gaps in between are uneven it may be a sign of a DIY job or a rushed repair or flip. This could be a big price tag to remove, repair, or replace.
Kitec plumbing was in use from 1995 to 2007 as a cheaper alternative to copper pipe. It also went by other names such as AmbioComfort, AQUA, KERR Controls, IPEX, Plomberie Amelioree, PlumbBetter, WarmRite, and XPA. It has a lifespan of roughly 10 years before it can develop problems. It can be identified by blue or orange piping and one of the names mentioned above written along the side. Another way to identify Kitec plumbing is to look in your electrical panel. Metal plumbing is sometimes used to ground the electrical system of a home. Because Kitec is non-metallic it will not act as a ground. Therefore it is common if the house has Kitec to see a yellow sticker in the panel that says: “Caution: This building has non-metallic interior water piping.” Budget roughly $5,000 per bathroom to replace. So $10,000 for a 2 bathroom or $15,000 for a 3 bathroom, etc.
To find out the age of the windows, look on the inside of the frame between the 2 planes of glass. There will be a date printed or stamped somewhere on the frame. This date is when the windows were manufactured. Keep in mind that this date is manufactured date not installation date. So if the stamp reads 08/2020 it was manufactured in August of 2020. The windows could have been installed any date AFTER the manufacture date. This practice is a great way to find out the earliest these windows were installed, not necessarily the exact date they were.
Hopefully these five things to look for when buying a house can help you learn more about a property before you make a purchase decision, or even to learn more about your own home. Of course these tips are not meant to replace the advice of a home inspector. For more insight when you are considering buying or selling real estate, please send me an email or give me a call. I look forward to hearing from you.
