Increasing a home’s value often revolves around visible renovations. Yet one of the most crucial and often overlooked aspects of a home’s value is its plumbing system. A comprehensive plumbing inspection can uncover hidden issues, improve efficiency, and provide peace of mind for both sellers and buyers.
This is especially true in St. Louis, where older homes are much more common. The following guide describes how a thorough plumbing St Louis inspection can enhance home value in and around the local area.
Identifying and Fixing Hidden Issues
Home plumbing difficulties tend to hide out of sight, surfacing only when they’ve grown so bad they’ve caused significant damage. Things like leaks, corroded pipes, poorly soldered joints, and older fixtures and appliances can all ruin a home’s plumbing.
And serious plumbing issues often also hurt the house’s value, many times delaying or even killing sales altogether. Regular inspections can help avoid this issue by letting homeowners stay on top of their plumbing maintenance.
Boosting Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
Today, plumbing has a prominent part to play in home energy efficiency and conservation. That’s why it’s hard to believe that not that long ago plumbing couldn’t even be counted on to work properly, let alone efficiently.
Yet, in the span of less than a century, plumbing has gone from being an unreliable, inefficient, and often wasteful to a smoothly functioning infrastructure, using far less energy and water than even just a few decades ago.
Ensuring Compliance with Local Building Codes
St. Louis plumbing laws and building codes exist to provide safety, efficiency, and a well-functioning water system. Numerous problems can occur, however, if a home’s plumbing isn’t up to par. Unpermitted work and other code violations can create real legal and financial messes for homeowners when they try to sell.
Home inspectors don’t look too closely at plumbing, so if a homeowner has any doubts about the wisdom of plumbing decisions made by the previous owner, a professional inspection is warranted. Any problems detected can then be solved before the house goes on the market.
Enhancing Home Marketability and Buyer Confidence
When prospective homeowners contemplate the purchase of a house, they want certainty that the structure is solid and not plagued by serious, or even insurmountable, problems. Plumbing is one of the most critical systems in any residential structure. Even a recent building inspector’s report and a verifiable history of previous repairs and renovations might be required to satisfy the timorous buyer.
But it is more than worth the hassle as in a highly competitive St. Louis housing market, a properly functioning, well-maintained plumbing system can be viewed as a significant selling point.
Preventing Water Damage and Mold Growth
One of the most destructive issues a home can face is water damage. It usually leads to so many other problems that can range from a minor inconvenience to a major disaster. You might think that water and plumbing problems are mostly limited to basements and upper floors of a house, but it could surprise you to learn that these issues can happen pretty much anywhere.
The added value of having your house inspected by a plumbing expert is that those problems can be found before they do a lot of damage, which is what nearly always happens when these types of issues are left unchecked.
Increasing Longevity and Reliability of the Home’s Plumbing System
Routine evaluations of a home’s plumbing system help prolong its life and minimize problems. They catch little things before they turn into big deals. A professional plumbing St Louis inspection is really nothing more than a plumbing “checkup”. A trained inspector looks at all the same components a plumber would look at when doing an evaluation.
It’s basically a thorough evaluation of the individual components of the system, as well as the overall system itself. This includes looking for leaks, obstructions, or any kind of visible damage.
Improving Indoor Water Quality
Numerous residences in St. Louis, primarily those of an older design, may suffer from problems with the quality of their water, the result of long-neglected plumbing, outdated water filtration systems, and just plain poor local and state-level management. As a result, many residents are subject to water they can’t drink, forcing them to spend extra money on bottled water.
Protecting Your Home’s Value with Regular Plumbing St Louis Inspections
An investment in regular plumbing inspections is a wise one for any homeowner in St. Louis who wants to boost and/or maintain their property’s value. This is all the more important if your home is older or has had any plumbing work done that predates your ownership.
Many of the types of problems that a plumbing inspection can easily catch don’t tend to announce themselves until they’ve done a fair amount of damage. Oftentimes, this means a much more expensive and extensive repair process.
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