Product Description

Probably the best source available for prospective homebuyer's to use for evaluating property, inside and out. Originally intended to be for buyers and owners, it has sufficient detail that professional home inspectors use it throughout the country. Loaded with charts, checklists, and photographs, this is a must have for anyone considering a new or used home purchase. Nearly 75,000 copies are in print.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34748 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 289 pages

Review
"Very thorough and readable, May 2, 2001; Reviewer: Doug Lorch from California, "I found this book to be very readable even to a home repair novice like me. It contains a lot of information about what to look for when buying a house, and additional information about how houses are constructed which should be useful when maintaining one. I read 3 such books and this is by far the best."; Good, basic starter, January 9, 2000; Reviewer: Ferguson Associates from Kingston, TN, "For a new home owner or home inspector, this book is a good, basic book that the lay person can understand (one that has no knowledge of the field). It's obvious the author has many years of experience and designed the book in the order that he would inspect a home. I highly recommend this for someone starting out in the business as a reference book."; Ferguson Associates continues, "As a commercial and residential inspector, I found this book to be a good reference book over many others I have purchased to learn more about performing good inspections. The book is well written even for a layperson with no knowledge of the field. I would recommend it as a basic, starter book."

From the Back Cover
75,000 COPIES SOLD!

Is that home or condominium apartment you plan on buying a true bargain or an overpriced handyman's special? Here's how to find out!

No other book on the market increases your chances more of getting your money's worth when buying a home than The Complete Book of Home Inspection. If you want to find out exactly what's behind, beneath, above, and around the home you're thinking of making an offer on, this is just what the inspector ordered. And if you're thinking of selling your home, here's the perfect way to accurately evaluate its condition prior to setting a price.

This comprehensive instruction manual covers every aspect of exterior, interior, and electromechanical home inspection and is basic enough for a layperson and detailed enough to be a working on-site tool for professional home inspectors.

Revealing techniques and methods used by experienced home inspectors, this heavily illustrated reference details how to evaluate the condition of a home or condominium apartment – inside and out. Precise step-by-step procedures enable you to inspect a home as though accompanied by an inspector with many years' experience.

Written by a professional home inspector, The Complete Book of Home Inspection is packed with photos, graphs, dozens of checklists, and worksheets and valuable chapter summaries.

If you want to avoid costly mistakes and headaches down the road, don't even think of making an offer on a house without reading this book first!

NEW TO THIS EDITION:
* A new chapter on swimming pools
* An added section on exterior walls discussing problems with synthetic stucco (EIFS)
* New material added to the environmental concerns chapter on molds and associated problems
* Most chapters and sections have been extensively updated and expanded

The Complete Book of Home Inspection, Third Edition:
* Includes professional inspection worksheets with checklists in every chapter
* Fully illustrated (over 150 photos and drawings)
* All the information homeowner's need to maintain their house
* Content based on the author's 30 years' experience as a home inspector
* New material that updates chapters, including synthetic stucco (EIFS), mold, termite bait systems, sagging plaster ceilings, truss uplift cracks, and much more, plus a new chapter on swimming pools.

About the Author
Norman Becker, P.E., a nationally known authority on the subject of home inspection, has more than 30 years’ experience in home and building inspection, and is one of the founders of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). He has been qualified in court as an expert witness on the subject of home inspection. He also writes the widely read "Homeowners Clinic" column for Popular Mechanics magazine. Mr. Becker holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and is a licensed professional engineer in New York, New Jersey, and Florida.

Customer Reviews

okay but not fantastic
Despite the flaws in this book I haven't seen a better book for home buyers and owners. (Although it might not be obvious that is who this book is targetted at, not professional inspectors.) So if you are in the market for a house I would recommend you at least browse through this book.

The good parts are that the author lays out a methodical approach to inspecting a house and usually includes good descriptions of how to investigate and evaluate the various components and systems of the house. The end of most chapters contains a checkpoint summary of that chapter.

The downsides are that the information in the book is almost a decade old now; this second version was published in 1993. Sometimes the author assumes knowledge that I didn't have. The book is targetted at a lay audience but doesn't really have enough illustrations and definitions and examples to really deliver on this promise. For instance, when inspecting a hot-water heating system he says, "A forced system will have a circulating pump in the return line near the boiler." It would be nice a picture was shown to illustrate the difference between having a circulating pump and not having one.

Also, the author gets something wrong in at least one place. When talking about tankless water heaters he says, "From an energy-conservation point of view, a tankless water heater is not desirable. It is inefficient and wasteful of energy." This is untrue today and I doubt whether it was true when the book was written. The US Department of Energy in their reference brief on tankless heaters acknowledges that tankless heaters are more efficient and less wasteful of energy; that is part of the reason they are used in Europe and Japan where energy prices are higher than here in America. They also tend to have longer life expectancies than conventional tank heaters.

I find the author's statements strange because they make little sense. It also makes me a little worried because now I wonder what else he got wrong that I don't know about. Despite this, I still think the book is very useful to potential home buyers.

Superbly written and an informative companion.
This book covers all the major components of home inspection. It is not so obvious by its content that it is intended primarily for the home buyer. I definitely recommend it to home inspectors as it is as good a reference as any of the books written for home inspectors. There are a lot of first-hand cases experienced by the author in lower New York that will give helpful inspection clues to buyers/inspectors. Unfortunately I do not consider the book the "bible" of home inspection. I have not yet come across such a book.. when I do I'll be sure to let you know (in its own review).

Very thorough and readable
I found this book to be very readable even to a home repair novice like me. It contains a lot of information about what to look for when buying a house, and additional information about how houses are constructed which should be useful when maintaining one. I read 3 such books and this is by far the best.