So winter is here. As I am typing this its 18 degrees outside, without the wind chill. Doing home inspections is pretty rough in the winter. From inspecting the outside while its 10 degrees out, to getting a limited view at the roof due to the snow all makes for challenges. But I'd say one of the hardest to overcome is attempting to inspect a winterized house.
Homes are winterized when they are not being occupied. There are a few different ways of completing it, but the overall goal is to drain all the water from every pipe, and fixture to ensure nothing freezes and bursts while its sitting. So you might be asking yourself "how does this affect me buying this house?" Well when an inspector is attempting to inspect a property, if all the water is shut off that means that we are unable to inspect any of the plumbing . Which ultimately means that you, the customer are not receiving a full inspection. And honestly there is nothing that we can do.
So far in the past week I've came across 3 homes that were winterized. 2 were inspected as is, and the 3rd had the water turned on by a non plumbing professional (which is highly frowned upon.) And as you can see in the picture below, the outcome wasn't pretty. Water came pouring from through the ceiling, and got EVERYWHERE.
If you are intending on buying a house this winter, and all the utilities are shut off I highly recommend you getting the correct professional for the job. It may prolong the process; and cost additional money to hire a plumber for the job, but keep this in mind. Your investing possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars into this house. Its much easier to get everything done correctly the first time, then buy a house without having everything inspected properly and run into serious problems down the road.