Knowing what an inspection does not check is as useful as knowing what it does.
A general home inspection is a broad, visual survey of a home's condition, not an exhaustive test of every system to its limits. Understanding its edges keeps you from either over-trusting the report or being surprised later by something it was never meant to catch.
A home inspection is non-invasive. Nobody is cutting into finished surfaces, removing insulation to inspect every stud bay, or pulling up flooring to check subfloor condition. What is visible and accessible gets inspected; what is sealed behind a finished wall does not, unless there is already visible evidence — a stain, a bulge, a smell — prompting a closer look at that specific spot.
Standard inspections do not include radon testing as part of the visit. It is a distinct, multi-day test using its own equipment, and if it matters to you, it should be ordered as its own service alongside the inspection rather than assumed to be bundled in.
The inspector can look at visible plumbing and check that fixtures drain, but the underground sewer line running from the house to the street or septic system is a different job entirely, done with a camera on a cable. On an older home especially, a sewer scope is worth ordering as its own service rather than assuming a general inspection covered it.
An inspector will look at the roof surface, usually from the ground, a ladder, or the edge, and note obvious problems — missing shingles, visible damage, flashing issues. A detailed, roof-specific inspection is a separate, more thorough service if you want a fuller picture of remaining condition, especially on an older or more complex roof.
These typically fall outside a standard inspection's scope and need their own specialist. If your property has any of them, ask up front whether they are included or need to be arranged separately, so nothing gets assumed into a report that never covered it.
If a report does not mention something, that means it was not observed as a problem on that day through a visual process, not that it was tested and cleared. Anything hidden, intermittent, or outside the inspection's defined scope can still exist even in a clean-looking report.
Tell us the property and the timeline. We will match you with an inspector who reports to you and sells you nothing afterward.
Schedule an InspectionA property address and a rough timeline is enough to start — we will follow up to confirm the details.