Inspector missed a cracked pipe and I paid the price 3 days after closing

We closed on our first house in Portland last month and I was SO excited. Day three I go down to the basement to check the water heater and there's water EVERYWHERE. The inspection report said plumbing was fine but the main drain pipe had a hairline crack that was slowly leaking. I called the inspector and he basically said "not my problem" because it wasn't dripping during the walkthrough. Cost me $1,200 to have a plumber come out and replace a 4 foot section of cast iron. Now I'm wondering if I should have gotten a separate plumber to look at the pipes before closing. Has anyone else had an inspector miss something huge like this? What did you do?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_bennett31d ago

104 year old cast iron drain pipe in my 1910 bungalow and the inspector said it was "functional". Three weeks later I came home to a basement that smelled like a sewer plant exploded. The pipe had a crack so small you could barely see it but it was leaking slow and steady behind the wall where nobody looked. Cost me 800 bucks and a weekend of my life I'll never get back. I joke now that I should have just poured concrete over the whole basement floor and pretended the pipes didn't exist.

the_val1d ago

Did they at least leave you a "congratulations on your new indoor fountain" card?