An older house is not a worse house. It is a house whose systems were installed under different rules, replaced piecemeal, and are now of wildly different ages behind the same set of walls.
Knob-and-tube wiring, cloth-sheathed cable, fuse boxes and services too small for how anyone lives now all turn up in houses of this age.
New York requires an inspector to observe the conductors after removing readily accessible panel covers. On an older service that is precisely where the story is.
Cast iron waste, galvanized supply and whatever was fitted during the last kitchen job frequently coexist. Each has a different remaining life.
The service line from the street matters too, and its material is worth knowing rather than assuming.
Slate and tile can run a century, but the flashing, the fixings and the deck underneath rarely do — and a repair done in asphalt over slate tells you something.
New York requires the report to describe how the roof was observed, so you will know whether it was walked, laddered or viewed from the ground.
Older houses can also contain asbestos and lead paint. Neither is part of a standard home inspection — both are separate specialist tests, and Lou will tell you plainly when something is worth one.
Thirty years of building before he started inspecting. Lou has seen how these were put together.
Not sure yet? Read what New York requires of your inspector or see a real report.
Real photographs from Lou's own inspections, chosen because they show a building component and nothing that identifies a property or an owner.
Long Island, the five boroughs and Westchester. The seven areas below each have their own page, because a house in Levittown and a brownstone in Brooklyn fail in completely different ways.
Locator diagram, not a survey. The dark marker is Wantagh, where Lou is based.