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The Plumbing a Home Inspection Does Cover

The covered list is shorter than the excluded one but it is not thin, and knowing exactly what was done is what lets you tell a real finding from a standard note.

The one-paragraph answer

The standards require water run at every fixture, every toilet flushed, drainage observed, and the water heater and its relief valve examined. That is a real scope, and it is visual and not technically exhaustive in the standards’ own wording.

Source: ASHI Standard of Practice; InterNACHI Home Inspection Standards of Practice.

PresalePipe is a referral service, not a contractor or a home inspector. We connect homeowners and buyers with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We carry out no inspections and no work, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

Every fixture, with the water running

InterNACHI requires the inspector to check the interior water supply including all fixtures and faucets by running the water, all toilets for proper operation by flushing them, and all sinks, tubs and showers for functional drainage. ASHI requires functional flow and functional drainage of interior fixtures.

This is a live test, not a look. If a fixture was going to reveal a problem in normal use, this is where it does.

Source: InterNACHI Home Inspection Standards of Practice; ASHI Standard of Practice.

The drain, waste and vent system

Both standards cover the interior drain, waste and vent system. ASHI asks the inspector to describe the predominant material of the water service, distribution and drain-waste-vent pipes.

Predominant is doing work in that sentence. A house re-piped in part has two materials, and the report names the one there is most of.

Source: ASHI Standard of Practice.

The water heater, in some detail

InterNACHI covers water heating equipment including the energy source, venting connections, the temperature and pressure-relief valve and seismic bracing, and requires the labeled capacity to be described. ASHI covers the equipment, its energy sources and its vent systems.

But InterNACHI is explicit that the inspector is not required to measure capacity, temperature or adequacy, or to test safety valves. The distinction matters: the relief valve is looked at, not operated.

Sump pumps and ejectors

InterNACHI covers drainage sump pumps with accessible floats; ASHI covers sewage ejectors and sump pumps. Accessible is the qualifier — a float nobody can reach is not tested.

And two locations you should write down

InterNACHI requires the inspector to describe where the main water shut-off valve and the main fuel shut-off valve are, and whether the water supply is public or private.

Those two locations are the most useful lines in the whole report and the ones people never look up until they are standing in water. Find them on the day you move in.

Source: InterNACHI Home Inspection Standards of Practice.

Inspection report in front of you?Read us the plumbing lines and nothing else — we do not want the document. We will route you to a contractor covering your area who can quote the items on it, and you are never charged by us. Inspections are the theme here; calls of every kind are routed.

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