Plumbing Checks When Buying an Older Home

Topic

home inspection plumbing

For

Newmarket homeowners

Need a hand?

(365) 990-3021

The reason it counts

A general home inspection is valuable, but it often looks only at what can be seen. Much of a house's plumbing is hidden in walls, under floors and underground. In an older home, the sewer lateral, supply pipes and drains may date from different decades and different materials. Learning about them before your offer is firm can affect the price you pay or the repairs you budget for. A modest spend on specialist checks during the conditional period is small compared with an unexpected sewer replacement in the first year.

Steps, in order

1. Consider a sewer camera inspection. A camera pushed through the main drain to the street can reveal roots, cracks, sags and older clay or cast iron pipe. This is one of the most useful checks on an older property.
2. Identify the supply pipe. Look for copper, PEX, galvanized steel or polybutylene. Our guides on galvanized pipe and polybutylene explain how to tell them apart.
3. Check the main shut-off. Find it, and make sure it turns. A seized valve is an early job to plan.
4. Note the water heater age and ownership. Read the rating plate, and ask whether it is rented. A rental contract passes to the buyer in many cases.
5. Look at the basement. Watch for stains, efflorescence on walls, a sump pit and its pump, and any backwater valve.
6. Run the water. Open several taps together and flush a toilet to judge pressure and drainage.
7. Ask for records. Permits, past repairs, and for rural homes, septic pumping dates and well test results.

Rural properties

If the home uses a well and septic system, ask for recent bacteriological test results and the septic pumping history. Our circular on septic system care explains what to look for.

After you take possession

• Label the main shut-off and test it.
• Change the locks and, while you are at it, change the washer hoses.
• Winterize outdoor taps in season; see outdoor faucet winterizing.
• Book any work flagged during inspection before it becomes urgent.

Ringing for help

We can join or follow your home inspection to camera the sewer line, identify pipe materials, and give you a plain picture of what is coming. Where the line is heavily scaled or rooted, hydro jetting can restore flow. If the water heater is at the end of its life, we handle gas water heater replacement as well. Buyers in Glenway and older parts of Newmarket often find the visit gives them the confidence to proceed, or the facts to negotiate.