Inspect the carpets
It is a very good idea having a home inspection carried out prior to deciding on purchasing a home. A qualified and a professional home inspector can bring to your notice a number of problems, present and prospective, which you may face with the home under consideration. It could be as trivial as a broken window frame to as serious as a crumbling foundation wall. If the home you are considering comes along with the carpets, it is worth having this aspect of the home inspected also. It may look like a minor thing, but may turn out not to be so.
To begin with, if you or any member of your family is allergic, having a carpet in the house may aggravate the condition. This could be because of various reasons, not the least the material the carpet is made out of. You may decide not to have the carpet – of course, there is no need of a home inspector for this – and can ask the seller to have it removed and bring the floor back to its pristine condition.
Condition Of The Carpets
Your home inspector will need to check the condition of the carpets in the various rooms. Carpets, if not maintained well, are places where a lot of dust, dust mites, and a variety of allergens accumulate. This is a very unhealthy sign.
Over years of use, the condition of the carpets deteriorates. Carpets happen to be where people drop a variety of things. The home inspection may be able to detect candle wax spills, burn marks from cigarettes, a variety of stains, and the odor of pet urine, etc.
Candle wax spills may seem like a minor point, but at times, it is not easy to remove them. Chances are that the fiber of the carpets may burn in trying to remove wax spill. You can ask the seller to have it removed by professionals, who can do a proper job of removing. Burn marks and holes from cigarettes cannot be removed. The spot has to be patched up from left over materials from the time the carpets were installed. However, the patch will always show.
Many a times, the carpet has black stains at the edge of the walls. Either this could be because the carpet has not been vacuumed well at the edges, or the chances are that the carpet acts as a filter to the air draft from underneath the walls. If this is a vacuum problem, it can easily be rectified, but the draft problem needs to be addressed.
If the household has pets, the problem with the carpets could be the presence of pet urine and fleas. Both are peculiar problems, but need to be addressed. For fleas, a licensed pest control specialist needs to do the job. You can ask the seller to have it done. Urine odor persists even after the carpets have been shampooed. This is because the urine has permeated to the foam at the bottom. This will require a specialist job to rid of the odor.
These things can be discussed with the seller and sorted out.
|