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Brooklyn · town home

Home inspector in Red Hook, NY

Between 2019 and 2021, Lou Rubino inspected two properties in Red Hook — two jobs, each with a written report, and the photographs below come from them. The reports cover one town home.

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What the Red Hook reports found

Across the reports, the summaries listed 21 repair-or-replace items, most of them under the kitchen, the rooms and heating and cooling equipment. A repair-or-replace item is HomeGauge's term for something that was not working as intended or needed a specialist's look — it is not a verdict on the house, and the full report explains each one with photographs.

Red Hook is in Brooklyn, and Lou covers it from his base in Wantagh the same way he covers every other place on this site: same licence, same report format, same-day report as a rule. The count above is history from his own files, not a service boundary — call or text 516-330-3870 and he will quote the actual property.

Related: The Brooklyn page · What an inspection costs · Schedule an inspection.

What the inspection can examine here

  • Kitchen plumbing, GFCI protection and the built-in appliances, run through their normal cycles.
  • Walls, ceilings, floors, windows and doors room by room — the evidence of movement or moisture, not the decoration.
  • The heating plant and any central air — operated in normal mode, dated from the data plate, with the flue and clearances looked at where accessible.
  • Radon — a separate, optional test arranged alongside the inspection.

Photographs from Red Hook reports

Black metal railing posts in front of a horizontal wood slat screen, with red arrows at welded joints.
Rust starting to show at welded joints in the railings — the rear deck and front stoop metal railings have only a shop coat of paint. Lou recommended evaluation and repair by a licensed paint contractor.
Gas meter and piping in a small exterior enclosure beside a yellow bollard, with a red box and arrow at the shut-off valve.
Gas meter in the front exterior water closet, with the whole house gas shut-off cock highlighted, as recorded in the plumbing section of the report.

Both photographs are from Lou's own Red Hook inspection reports, chosen because they show a building component and nothing that identifies a property or an owner.

Buying in Red Hook: the questions with sourced answers

Each answer below cites where it comes from — the Census, the office that holds the permits, the state code, or Lou’s own reports.

How old are the houses in Red Hook?

The Census puts the median year built for homes in zip code 11231 at 1938, and about 62% of the 18,265 housing units there were built before 1940. An older house is not a worse house, but its wiring, plumbing and roof were installed under different rules and replaced piecemeal, which is exactly what the inspection looks for. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019–2023 5-year estimates, tables B25035 and B25034, ZCTA 11231.

What kind of housing is Red Hook: single-family, two-family or apartments?

Of 18,265 housing units in zip 11231, about 3% are detached single-family houses, 13% are two-unit buildings, and 31% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. A two-family or a co-op is a different inspection from a detached house: shared systems, common areas and what the board or the other unit controls. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2019–2023 5-year, tables B25024 and B25003, ZCTA 11231.

Who holds the building permits and certificate of occupancy for a house in Red Hook?

NYC Department of Buildings handles permits and certificates of occupancy for every address in the borough. Permits and COs are kept by the municipality, not the inspector; checking them is a records search, usually through your attorney. The inspection reports the condition of what is there and flags work that typically needs a permit — a finished basement, a dormer, a moved panel — so you know what to ask about. NYC Department of Buildings. Lookups: BIS https://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bispi00.jsp; DOB NOW Public Portal https://a810-dobnow.nyc.gov/publish/#!/

Which building code applies in Red Hook?

Brooklyn is governed by the New York City Construction Codes enforced by the NYC Department of Buildings; the State Uniform Code does not apply inside New York City. Source: www.nyc.gov.

Public water and sewer, or well and cesspool, in Red Hook?

NYC DEP supplies the borough with more than 1 billion gallons a day from upstate reservoirs, serving about nine million customers; there is no private-well supply. NYC DEP runs the sewer system (over 6,000 miles of sewers) and 14 wastewater resource recovery facilities treating 1.3 billion gallons a day; homes are on city sewer, not septic. The inspection reports what the house actually has and its visible condition; a cesspool or septic system needs its own evaluation. Source: www.nyc.gov.

Is Red Hook in a flood zone?

Flood zones follow the address, not the town. OpenFEMA holds 6,319 NFIP claim records for Kings County (FIPS 36047). NYC notes FEMA's city flood maps have not been significantly updated since 1983 and insurance rates still rest on the 2007 Effective FIRMs. Look the address up on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center before you sign. Source: www.fema.gov.

Should I test for radon in Red Hook?

Brooklyn is in EPA Zone 3 (low potential) — Zone 3 counties have a predicted average indoor radon screening level below 2 pCi/L; EPA still recommends testing every home. NYSDOH's borough estimate (Feb 2007, 339 homes measured) is 1.3% of living areas and 7% of basements above 4 pCi/L. Radon is a separate, optional test arranged alongside the inspection. Source: www.epa.gov.

Is there a local rule in Brooklyn a buyer should know about?

Co-op and condo units are sold under an offering plan reviewed by the NY Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau under the Martin Act; the AG advises reading the whole plan and consulting an attorney before signing. Source: ag.ny.gov.

What did Lou’s Red Hook inspections actually turn up?

Across his reports in Red Hook, the summaries listed 21 repair-or-replace items, most of them under the kitchen, the rooms and heating and cooling equipment. Every one is in the written report with a photograph; see what a report looks like.

How much does a home inspection in Red Hook cost, and how fast is the report?

Lou quotes the actual property, not a flat rate — what drives the price is size, age and what is included. The written report arrives the same day as a rule; a large or complex house can run to the next morning. Call or text 516-330-3870.

Brooklyn, town by town

Every Brooklyn place with a page here, each with the real count from Lou's records. The Brooklyn page covers the county as a whole.

Where this sits in Lou's territory

Lou covers Long Island, the five boroughs and Westchester from his base in Wantagh, and the archive behind these pages shows where that work has actually concentrated.

Also nearby: Carroll Gardens · Cobble Hill · Sunset Park · all 250 towns.

Buying in Red Hook?

His Red Hook file goes back to 2019. Yours would not be the first.

Schedule an inspection Call 516-330-3870

Not sure yet? Read what New York requires of your inspector or see a real report.

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