Your Trusted Central New Jersey
Home Inspection Company
Turnkey Inspection Services offers a wide array of inspection services for many types of properties and customers’ needs. I inspect luxury homes, private estates, single family and multi-family homes, condominiums, townhouses, large acreage equine properties, and commercial real estate properties in New Jersey. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or an experienced real estate agent or investor, Turnkey Inspection Services has you covered! Anyone else is just looking around.
Commercial and Retail Inspection
Turnkey Inspection Services provides high quality inspections for retail and commercial spaces, like warehouses, office buildings, and restaurants. These inspections focus on all accessible, visible systems and structures of the commercial property and I will provide a detailed report on the building’s condition.
Home Maintenance Inspection
An annual home maintenance inspection ensures that all systems and components of your home remain in proper working order throughout the year. This thorough inspection from Turnkey Inspection Services helps to keep your home in good condition and is intended to discover small issues before they get out of hand and result in the need for costly repairs in the future.
New Construction Inspection
A new construction inspection is performed before the pre-final walkthrough of a brand new home once construction is nearing completion. Turnkey Inspection Services will identify issues that need to be addressed which may have been missed during the construction process.
Well Water Equipment Inspection & Function Test
More information on our service coming soon!
Bank Draw Inspection
I work closely with lenders during a construction project to ensure that the project is progressing according to schedule and that workmanship meets quality standards so that bank funds can be released for the next phase of construction.
Mortgage Field Service Inspection
As a mortgage field inspector, I provide a variety of valuable services to the real estate industry. I will inspect properties for construction progress, determine the occupancy status and condition of a property, complete insurance inspections and identify maintenance issues needing to be addressed.
203K Federal Housing and HUD Inspection
As a 203K consultant, I can help you meet the specifications of your 203K loan. This inspection ensures that the building or renovation requirements are carried out in a timely manner throughout the loan process.
Sewer Scope
Inspecting a home before your purchase is a critical piece of due diligence that you should do as a home buyer. One home system that is often overlooked is the sewer line. Normal home inspectors don’t examine it, since it is buried in the ground and it requires special camera equipment to inspect. The prudent home buyer will always have the sewer line inspected, regardless of the age of a home.
sewer lineA sewer backup is a potentially nasty and expensive event when you own a home. Sewer line repair can also be extremely expensive, as it requires a lot of excavation and potentially street/sidewalk repairs. A cheap sewer line repair can cost $5000, and once you get in to the street, it can quickly reach a $10,000-$25,000 repair, making it one of the single most expensive repairs you could face during home ownership.
The sewer line is the pipe that exits the home and joins up with the city sewer main, usually in the middle of the street. In North and Central New Jersey, the oldest homes have sewer pipes that are made of clay. Sometime around the middle of the 20th century, this changed to concrete. Then came cast iron piping which became recognized by the sewerage and soil pipe industry for residential homes. In the late 70’s-early 80’s, builders began using plastic pipes (PVC or ABS). Clay, concrete and cast iron pipes are susceptible to cracks and tree root infiltration at the joints between section of pipes. Plastic pipes are glued together and impervious to roots. However, there can be issues with new plastic pipes as well. Cracks, pipe shifting, low spots and roots can all cause the sewer to backup into your home.
We have plenty of examples of sewer problems that we discovered in both old and new homes. The lesson here is to not necessarily trust what you are told about a sewer line, unless you have video from a recent sewer scope verifying its condition.
- Our sellers had a sewer backup in 2003 on a house with clay pipes. They paid to have the entire line replaced and had no problems after that. They went to sell the home in 2012, and their buyer found that the last few feet of the line was still clay and was cracked. Our sellers got duped by their sewer contractor 8 years prior.
- Our buyers purchased a home that was built in 2006. However, the builder reused the existing clay sewer line from 1911 to save costs. There were numerous breaks in the line that needed repair, even though the home itself was almost new.
- We just sold a home built in 2012 that had ABS plastic lines. While there were no cracks or root infiltration, there was a section of the line that was angled upwards and not flowing properly. It was filled with rocks and sediment and was a sewer backup waiting to happen.
- Our buyers were purchasing a 1911 home and were told by the seller that “we just did $10k of sewer work a couple of years ago, so it should be good.” Our own sewer scope revealed that indeed they did a lot of sewer repair, but it was only part of the line. The older parts of the line had large root infiltration and a big crack at the sewer main.
- Our buyers buying a 1960’s home in Kirkland were doubtful of issues with the sewer line, given it’s age. Our inspection found a root ball clogging the line. The seller cleared it out and the buyers didn’t keep up with the maintenance and had a sewer backup a few years later when the roots grew back.
- We’ve also found new houses with plastic lines that have been crushed by trucks driving over them, or coming apart when the contractor forgot to glue a joint.
The bottom line is that sewer lines of all ages can have potential issues. Personally I would never buy a house without scoping the sewer line. If you suspect the home has clay, concrete, and cast iron lines, a sewer scope is a must. Even with plastic lines, we’ve found plenty of issues that need to be addressed. The couple hundred bucks you spend on a sewer scope inspection is well worth it to avoid costly and messy repairs in the future.
SPECIAL DISCOUNT
For Service Members
In addition to serving my community as an inspector, I am also a state-certified firefighter and would like to extend my gratitude to other service members’ dedication and sacrifice with a special discount to active military, veterans, police, fire and EMS personnel.