I am live at a condo inspection today in Twinleaf at Bartram Park! Mark Riccaboni from The Whole Story Home Inspection, LLC shares the differences between a condo and home inspection.

What are the differences between a condo and home inspection?

Condominium inspections are a little different than a typical single family home inspection. We still spend the same amount of time reviewing the major systems and inspecting the residence. One thing to remember is a condo has an condo association. They oversee a lot of the exterior repairs. Even though we want to understand what is going on the outside in order to understand the inside, we have differences in who is going to be making the repairs and how they will affect the transaction. For a condo inspection, we are looking at your roofing system, siding system, and more. Most of the coordination for those big systems are between adjoining units.  We want to make sure we look and see how the exterior systems and adjoining units are affecting your specific condominium residence and your specific lot.

Today, you found possible AC moisture in the ceiling of this unit from the unit upstairs.  How did you discover the issue and how would you go about fixing the issue?

One of the challenges we see in a condominium is what a resident does above or next to you significantly impacts your residence – specifically inside the walls and inside the ceilings.  Because the condo has varying rules about what is actually owned by property owner, a tenant’s or resident’s negligence in an unforeseen water leak or the condition of their systems could impact your walls.  It would be invisible to you though.

What tools do you use during the inspection?

On every one of our inspections, we do an infrared scan. It utilizes thermal imaging technology to see the heat signature that some of the systems are putting out.  It allows us to detect hidden moisture issues, condensation, and thermal temperature changes.  We can also see electrical hotspots and insulation variations.  The thermal imaging gives a heat signature of what is going on behind the walls.  With this information, we can make sure to address all the items on the property.

What items do you send with the inspection report?

We provide every homeowner with a home maintenance manual.  It allows you to review some issues we discussed, and gives you diagrams and details for maintenance to address over the years.  We also do a Homebinder account for you to keep all your serial numbers, manuals, and other items on an online dashboard.