Is there flashing over doors and windows? If not, suspect water damage behind.

Examine windows and doors very carefully. Are frames solid? Deteriorated window sashes should be replaced, creating costs that quickly add up. Also inspect doorsills and windowsills, which are rot prone if water collects there.

Before replacing them, you’ll first need to improve drainage.

Carefully inspect doors for fit and function. Look for signs of warping, sagging, or separation between rails and stiles. Examine the jambs of exterior doors for damage from abuse, changing the hardware, or even forced entry.

Doors and windows badly out of square sug­gest a house that has shifted and may still be shifting. This can result from poor drainage and an inadequately sized foundation.

Tattletak

Diagonal cracks running out from the upper cor­ners of windows or doors may telegraph big trouble. Building loads often concentrate on a header—a load-bearing member over a door or window opening—and diagonal cracking may be a sign that the header is not adequately sup­ported. That is, the house’s framing or founda­tion may be shifting. Get a structural engineer’s opinion on this.

Swollen or rotted basement windows will need to be replaced with durable all-vinyl units. But first you’ll need to attend to drainage prob­lems that have allowed water to collect.

AROUND THE HOUSE

Walk around the house. Although you will be able to see more of the foundation inside, damp basements and cracked foundations are often caused by faulty drainage outside.

Does the ground slope away from the base of the house? Or would runoff from the roof collect next to the building? Is the soil damp or com­pacted next to the house? Although drainage may seem a minor factor, faulty drainage can cause wet basements and even foundation failure.

Where do downspouts empty? Is runoff car­ried away from the house by drainpipes or, at very least, are there splash blocks beneath down­spouts to direct water from the foundation?

Mark the positions of foundation cracks on your graph paper, especially cracks greater than!4 in. Also look for signs of foundation settling or
leaning around downspouts, water sources, and areas on the uphill side of the house.

Inspect chimney bases closely, both where additions join the main house and where loads concentrate on foundation bearing points. If there’s cracking where the chimney base joins the main house foundation or if the chimney base is tilting, it may be undersize and need replacing.

Do bushes or dirt touch the siding? If so, prod the siding and splashboard with your pocketknife. If soft, that area is retaining a lot of moisture.

Dirt can also be an avenue for termites, so look for the telltale dirt tubes that termites construct, further discussed on p. 170.

Interiors

Armed with your outdoor observations, go inside. Start with attics and basements. Most vulnerable to the elements, they are prime places for serious house problems.

Eyeball the eaves trim. Is it intact or splitting? Do you see stains or discoloration? Water damage along eaves is usually caused by clogged gutters or missing drip-edge flashing on the roof and, less often, by roof leaks.

You’ll need to replace metal gutters that have rusted through or that leak widely. But this a moderate expense, unless you replace them with copper gutters.

If the deteriorated gutters are wood, they will usually be nailed directly to fascia trim or, less often, built into a cornice. By the time they fail, they may have allowed a lot of rot behind them. Probe to see how much. Wood gutters are the most expensive to replace, so consider alternatives.

Stained siding behind downspouts may have been caused by gutter seams that rusted through. Or if the downspouts and gutters are new, upper downspout sections may have been mistakenly slipped over lower ones, rather than into them.

I Eaves Flashing_____________

Any exterior weathering or deterioration may signal rot behind. To find out, use a pocketknife

or a screwdriver to probe the trim along the eaves, siding-trim joints, discolored siding along the base of a house, and the perimeters of windows and doors. If there’s rot, a gentle pres­sure on the blade will be enough to penetrate damaged areas. But be respectful and discrete: Few owners would enjoy seeing their siding gouged with a knife.

If rainwater gushes over the gutter, either the downspout screen, the downspout itself, or the ground drainpipe is clogged. Aboveground clogs are easy to fix. Belowground clogs require either reaming tools or digging, still only moderate expenses. But if the drainpipe is clogged with tree roots, you’ll need to replace the underground pipe and seal its joints to prevent tree-root penetration.

SIDING

Wood siding will deteriorate if it’s not well main­tained, especially along south-facing walls, which get the most sun. A certain amount of weathering is normal.

Cracked and worn shingles or clapboards can be replaced, but if the deterioration is wide­spread, you’ll need to re-side the whole wall.

If you see widespread vertical black-brown stains on siding that’s otherwise in good shape, installers likely failed to use galvanized or corrosion-resistant nails. Fixing the problem may mean sinking, filling, and priming the nail heads—a tedious undertaking.

Siding that’s discolored along the base could be caused by any of several factors: (1) bottom siding that’s too close to the ground, (2) nearby plants keeping the siding surface damp,

(3) splashback from roof runoff, or (4) a badly positioned lawn sprinkler. All are easy fixes themselves, but moisture may already have caused the underlying framing to rot.

Imitation wood siding that delaminates or sprouts fungus is probably an exterior hardboard that’s been discontinued because of class-action lawsuits. Replace the siding.

Chronically peeling paint on the exterior walls of bathrooms and kitchens is usually caused by excessive room moisture migrating outdoors. The remedy is usually to improve room ventilation—a moderate expense.

Stucco is strong and relatively maintenance free, but it will crack if the building shifts. (See "Tattletale Cracks,”on the facing page.)

Loose or bulging stucco has separated from the lath behind. This is a modest repair, unless the problem is widespread. If you see extensive patching, be suspicious.

Loose, crumbling stucco is common if the base of a wall is close to the soil or in contact with it. This is usually a modest repair cost.

Newer homes with rot in the walls may have incorrectly installed "synthetic stucco,” or EIFS; this is especially a problem in the Southeast. Have an EIFS specialist certify that the house is sound; this is a headache you don’t need.

Brick is strong but its joints may crack if the foundation moves, whether from settling, frost heave, or earth tremor.

If a brick veneer half-wall is pulling away from an exterior wall or if a full-story brick facade is bowing outward, the metal ties holding the brick to the wall sheathing may have rusted out. Repairs will be expensive. This condition may also signal water damage and foundation problems. Eroded mortar joints can be repointed with mortar if the bricks are sound.

Mortar joints that have step cracks above doors and windows are usually caused by rusting steel lintels. Support the bricks above the open­ing before replacing the lintel.

Vinyl or metal siding doesn’t require much maintenance and protects the structure if it’s properly installed. However, if there are gaps between sections or where siding abuts trim, suspect a sloppy installation and probe for rot behind.

On older built-up roofs, there were alternating layers of heavy building paper and hot tar, cov­ered with light-colored gravel to reflect sunlight and protect the layers from ultraviolet (UV) dam­age. More recently, modified bitumin (MB) has largely replaced hot building paper. MB roofs typically have cap membranes "torched on” (heated with a propane flame) to fuse them to fiberglass-reinforced interplies, or base coats.

Blisters in built-up roofs are usually caused by water trapped beneath layers of roofing. Individual blisters can be patched with three – course patches (see Chapter 5), but if blisters are widespread, it’s time to reroof.

Foot traffic, furniture, and such can abrade and puncture flat roofs. If you find no evidence of water damage below, you can spot-patch abused areas, lay down new gravel, lock the door to the roof, and consider yourself very lucky.

Most leaks occur at turn-ups, where the flat roof joins walls, parapets, and other vertical sur­faces. If the turn-up surfaces are cracked, split, sagging, or unpainted, water may have gotten in and done damage. A large amount of tar at the base of walls may indicate inadequate flashing.

Cracking or blistering around downspout out­lets and internal drains indicates inadequate maintenance. Are there wire baskets in the open­ings? Are openings free of debris? If you have doubts, flush the outlets with a hose to see how well they drain.

Is the flashing around plumbing vents sound? This is not a major repair, but it can indicate gen­eral neglect.

CHIMNEYS

Although the homeowner probably won’t let you on the roof, chimneys need closer inspection than binoculars allow. Even if the chimney looks good through binoculars, make the purchase agreement contingent on a professional chimney inspection. Here’s what a pro will look for:

If the flue tile is badly cracked or if you spot shiny black creosote flakes on the roof, there’s been a chimney fire. Chances are the chimney wasn’t cleaned regularly, and combustible cre­osote compounds built up inside the chimney. If the chimney can’t be relined—say, with a flexible stainless-steel liner—it should be replaced. It would also be wise to ask how fre­quently the chimney was cleaned and how recently. If the owner claims that it was regu­larly cleaned, it’s fair to ask to see inspection records. Chimneys should be inspected annually, including a close inspection of the top. Better chimney-cleaning services now lower video cameras into the flue linings to show home­owners the current situation and to make rec­ommendations for relining. More information can be found at the Chimney Safety Institute of America’s Web site (www. csia. org).

► Are mortar joints solid or crumbly? Repointing mortar isn’t a big job unless it’s badly eroded—in which case, the chimney may be unsound and so may need to be partially torn down near the top or removed all the way down to the roof ridge.

► Is there a sloping mortar chimney cap or crown at the top of the chimney, to shed water? A mortar cap is easy enough to repair, but a cracked or missing cap suggests a lack of general maintenance and, possibly, water and ice damage inside the chimney. Concrete- based caps in snow country should overhang bricks at least 1 in. (see "Overhanging Chimney Crown," on p. 194).

► If there is a prefabricated metal or concrete cap elevated above the chimney top to keep precipitation out, it too must be crack free and well attached. Elevated caps interfere with fireplace draft, so look for smoke marks above the fireplace opening.

► Is chimney flashing at the roof intact? Tired flashing can be replaced when it’s time to reroof, but missing or degraded flashing may mean rotted framing in the attic.

► To be safe, chimneys must have an intact liner (usually flue tile in older houses). If the flue is only brick and mortar instead of flue tile or if there’s creosote running down the outside of the chimney, the chimney is unsafe.

Any cracks in a flue—or no flue at all—can allow superheated gases to escape and ignite the adjacent framing.

House Exterior

After inspecting the roof, examine the gutters and eaves. The overhanging eaves are actually a tran­sition from roof to wall and are composed of several building materials.