Home Inspections in Rancho Santa Margarita

A pool is the most expensive thing in most backyards and the one a standard home inspection says least about, because it is not part of the house. It is an addition to the inspection, priced separately on the rate card, and it is worth understanding what that addition actually covers before deciding whether to add it.

Ingraffia Home Inspections has been inspecting in Orange County since 2003. To book in Rancho Santa Margarita, call (714) 371-8422 or request an inspection.

What a pool and spa inspection looks at

Five things, in the order they tend to fail:

• The water. Level, clarity and whether the circulation is doing its job. Water that will not hold its level is the first sign of a leak somewhere below.
• The surface. Plaster, pebble or tile: cracking, hollow spots, staining and the condition of the tile line and coping.
• The deck. Settlement, cracking, drainage away from the pool rather than into it, and the expansion joint between the deck and the coping.
• The mechanical equipment. Pump, filter, heater and the plumbing between them, run and observed. Equipment ages faster than the pool it serves and is where most of the near-term cost sits.
• The safety features. Barriers, gates, alarms and drain covers. These are the items a buyer with children cares about most and the ones a seller is least likely to have thought about.

What it does not do

It is not a leak-detection service or a pressure test of the underground lines, and it does not dismantle the equipment. What it does is the same thing the rest of the inspection does: look carefully, run what can be run, and write down what was found so that the right specialist can be brought in for anything that needs one.

Booking with a pool

Add it when you book, and it is done on the same visit. The rate card publishes the addition; the final figure is confirmed when Mark calls. The house itself gets the full inspection, grounds to bathrooms, whether or not there is a pool behind it.