is a Home inspector good for general repair/home maintenance advice?

I have an older house, (one story brick with a crawl space and small utility basement) and since we bought it 5 yrs ago, a lot of things have changed or fallen apart. We added AC/Heat pump within the attic, and since the oil furnace in the little cellar croaked, we are relying on that for our main source of heat. (That's why we got a woodstove last year).

We replaced the 50 year old roof last year as well so the venting is different in the roof now (a continuous ridge roof vent with special intake vents in the bottom shingle since there is no soffit)

I am not sure if we are appropriately insulated in the attic considering there's a heat pump, and all the ducts up there, and the new roof. Conversely, the dirt crawl space under the house, which used to be kept dry and toasty due to the uninsulated ducts running down there for the furnace system, now seems cold and damp and occasionally seems to take some water. I am not sure whether it needs to be sealed better down there or vented better. It's not insulated under the house.

I am afraid if we ask a contractor for advice all we would get is a quote for a lot of $ based on what they would like to do. I am not adverse to spending a bit of money to have something done or to do some things ourselves, but I am just not sure what is needed considering the changes in the house. I just don't want to cause damage by doing the wrong thing nor do I want to throw money away by losing all our heat, etc.

Would it be a good idea to get a home inspector to come in and advise us on what might be needed? I have only had inspectors out when buying my house(s), but they did seem helpful. (Except for the guy who didn't tell us that the roof and furnace would go in the next two years....) I can't remember the cost for a home inspector though either!

BeGreen said:

The operative word here is "good". They can be hard to find. Be sure to get referrals if you go this route.

Also, check the gutters. They may have been put back at the wrong pitch or may be full of roofing debris. Make sure the downspouts are leading the water away from the foundation.

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We got new gutters when we got the new roof, they are larger with larger downspouts. When we are prepared (which is not always) we put plastic piping leading out into the yard during bigger storms. The vents are a concern of mine, whether to close them, seal them, etc. One is right at ground level and probably takes a bit of water, but is necessary I think for ventilation.

Good point about the referrals. I guess a lot of inspectors are just doing checks for folks buying houses, and don't have to give that much practical advice.

granpajohn said:

1. Many home inspectors offer very poor advice. I would not call one out. But, I'll skip this part and concentrate on your actual issue...

2. I had a house with similar situation. My crawl space had a sump pump. I recommend you install one. One day I walked into the house and my eyeglasses fogged up. "Odd", I said. Looked into the crawl space and found items floating in water. (Oh, did I cuss!) Repaired sump pump and was back to OK.
I also spent a few years wondering if I should vent more or less. Also considered insulation. Best thing was when I finally invested the time to put polyethylene sheeting on the ground of the crawl space. Strangely enough, this was recommended to me by a home inspector! (True story)
In summary:
-All the houses in that little neighborhood where we lived needed sump pumps in the crawl space. It will help.
-Place vapor barrier on the dirt floor. You can weight it with gravel. Works nicely.
-Crawl vents were designed to be opened in summer, closed in winter. I had best luck just closing them; (after the other improvements).

Hope that's some help.

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Thank you for the advice! There actually is a vapor barrier (plastic sheeting) in the crawl space already. It's kind of uneven in there though and it was hard to tell where the water was coming from (in the vent or ??) There is a mini-cellar that is probably under about 20% of the house, it provides the access to the crawl space, but it's maybe 3-4 feet deeper than the crawl. It has a sump, and does take on some water during major storms or rainy seasons. It's usually ground water, coming from the outside of the house on those walls, rather than on the wall that is coming from the crawl space. But I am not sure what this means for under the house. We have had such a drought these last months that it's probably very dry under there now but I don't know how (if at all) I should plan to winterize the vents or anything down there.

I am also having some indecision on another issue. The oil furnace and tank are still in the mini-cellar. THey are still operational and all, but we used up as much of the oil as we could and then stopped using the furnace as we were told it needed such a big fix it meant a new furnace. We opted to use the Heat Pump and Wood stove instead. IF we were to get a new furnace, I would want a gas one anyway, as we are already hooked up to gas for other appliances. I figured we could wait a couple years and see how things play out, because hooking up a new furnace to the same ducts and all would (I guess) be cheaper than getting all new ones installed. But on the other hand I guess there's no reason the heat pump can't handle the heating and we shouldn't just retire the old system in total. (I hate the heat pump, I guess is my issue.) But I just wonder for potential resale down the road if it would add or detract to have this other possible heat system down there. Probably detract if it's unworking, but.... I dunno.

Thank you and thanks to the others who have weighed in on the goods and bads of home inspectors! Still mulling this over!