Inspect before you renovate

A professional can identify lurking surprises

Italk a lot about the value of getting a home inspection. For a buyer, it’s a great tool that can help you assess the state of the home, and you can make an offer based on that reality. For a seller, a pre- listing home inspection can allow you to identify any issues that could cause a buyer to pause, address those.

But what about all that time in the middle? If you already own the home, and aren’t planning to sell for a few years, is there a good time to inspect? Yes, there is.

To me, a home inspection before you renovate is an important step that should not be skipped.

A reno roadmap

A home inspection provides a snapshot of the house on the day it was inspected. If you had one before you bought, that’s a good start, but if you’re renovating after 10 years, that snapshot will have faded.

An inspector can point out any deficiencies and give you an estimate on certain major structural concerns. Your furnace may have been in great shape when you originally bought the home, but it could be on its last legs.

A home inspection will allow you to focus your repair efforts on the necessary aspects of your home (structure, heating, cooling, electrical, and water) before you tackle the lipstick and mascara projects.

It’s rare that a renovation goes perfectly smoothly. When you start opening up walls, you could find hidden issues, corners cut from previous work, or other nasty surprises. The thing is, if you inspect before you renovate, many of these issues can be detected. This can help you avoid major delays during renovation, as well as save you from making potentially costly change orders.

If you do things out of order, and focus on making a beautiful kitchen instead of replacing the roof, when the structure starts to come apart will you have the budget to make your needed repairs?

What’s your plan?

A house is a system, and what you do in one room can impact another. A home inspection can help you determine if your renovation plan is a realistic one.

Adding a new addition to your home is a big job — it’s an extra room to heat, cool, and power. Does your furnace have enough juice to make it as comfortable as the rest of the house? Can the electrical panel handle the extra power it will need to generate? An inspection can help determine if these units are properly sized to provide the right amount of service.

detect toxins

Depending on the age of your home, it could contain some pretty harmful toxins: asbestos, lead, volatile organic compounds, mould or radon. You can have your inspector perform an indoor air quality test to flag a lot of these toxins.

Thermographic imaging can determine if there’s a hidden leak behind the walls, and help you figure out where the water is creeping in.

For a toxin like radon, the only way to know if the level in your home is higher than acceptable levels is to test for it. If it’s too high, focus your renovation budget on mitigating the radon.

I always tell homeowners to set aside 10 to 20 per cent of their renovation budget as a contingency. These funds are meant to help you deal with any surprises. A home inspection can help cut down those hidden issues, and if, at the end of the renovation, you still have some of that budget left, it’s the perfect opportunity to splurge on the finishes.