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Found out the hard way that home inspections can miss major foundation issues
Bought a house in Portland last year. Inspection came back clean. Paid $500 for it. Six months later I noticed a door that wouldn't close right. Turns out there was a slow leak under the slab that was shifting the foundation. Cost me $8k to fix. Now I bring a structural engineer to any house I'm serious about. Has anyone else had an inspector miss something big?
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nancys9019d ago
Oh man, "a door that wouldn't close right" is exactly how these things start, isn't it? I'm so sorry you went through that, eight grand is a brutal surprise on top of everything else with a new house. In my experience, regular home inspectors are good for catching obvious stuff but they aren't specialists and their reports can really lull you into a false sense of security. I had a friend whose inspector missed a roof that was basically patched together, cost them way more than your foundation repair in the long run. It's a hard lesson, but bringing in a structural engineer for the big stuff like foundations is smart, even if it feels like overkill at the time.
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torres.drew19d ago
Totally feel your pain, that's why I always tell people to hire their own specialist for the foundation and roof.
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thomas_young19d ago
What foundation company did you end up using? I've seen too many people get burned by relying on just the general home inspector for structural stuff. A good structural engineer or a foundation specialist will catch things like floor slopes, wall cracks, and door frames that are out of whack way before they turn into $8,000 repairs. The few hundred bucks you spend on their report is nothing compared to what you'd pay to fix a sinking corner or a roof that's held together with tar and hope. Most regular inspectors just walk through with a flashlight and miss half the problems because they aren't trained to look for structural issues. You gotta treat the foundation and roof like the house's skeleton and skin, not just another box to check on a report.
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