hi i'm ben and we're going to perform an inspection of the kitchen so according to the home
inspections there's a practice a kitchen really isn't part of a home inspection but you'll find as
a home inspector that your clients homeowners home sellers home buyers will expect you to check out
the kitchen maybe the appliances and electricals and things like that so what i like to do is share
how i perform a kitchen inspection and you can take that and build upon it and make it your own
the first thing i do is i simply look around and see what we have in the kitchen before we get to
any components of the kitchen system so what we have here is an electric appliance stove oven
an event hood and light some countertops i hear the dishwasher so we have a built-in dishwasher
i'll turn that on sometimes i'll ask the seller or home occupant to turn that on we have a sink
um i'll run hot and cold water at the sink and test the garbage disposal we have a refrigerator
i see some lights and a window and gfcis the floor the ceiling the walls some doors so
that's the basic first step i do i get a general good idea of what is ahead now i
break the system up the kitchen system into components first the cooking and here's the
stove an oven and hood goes right up into the attic we'll get to that later and what
i do is i make sure all the heating elements turn on be very careful so i crank each one
you don't have to be an appliance expert just try to get it to work and turn on for you now
what you want to do is turn on the oven if you turn on the oven don't let the oven go all day
make sure you turn it off somehow so check the elements
and check out the oven general condition
you don't have to measure anything we're not measuring
things temperature differences delta t uh actual temperature that the appliance achieves
in relation to what was intended we don't do any of that stuff as home inspectors we just want to
make sure that everything is kind of working and our clients know whether something isn't or not so
all the heating elements trying to get turned on looks like they're turning on for me i'll
turn them all off that's the important part don't let anything run so i've got the oven going and
yeah the heating elements look in good shape just using my hand one of the best tools to measure for
temperature is your hand don't leave home without it and then let's see if i can get this to
turn on there we go uh again i'm not an expert i see so many appliances not an expert in any
of them but i'm just trying to get it to turn on and it's all turning on looks pretty clean too
and the exhaust outside so every kitchen exhaust hood
must exhaust outside it can't exhaust in the attic
nice i like that now i want every stove and oven to have an anti-tip device i don't want this oven
falling over this one doesn't i don't see anything in the back there so that's a defect i want to
point that out it's very easy to fix it's like a little bracket so i'll cross my fingers and i'll
take a picture and i'll put that in the report as a reminder that something is not quite right
and the cabinets they open and close they go right by the appliance sometimes they snag so i'm not
an expert on countertops or backsplashes or appliances but i'll take a look around
just trying to give my clients an idea of its general condition looking for obvious problems so
summary with the stove i'm a little concerned with the anti-tip device missing now if i'm doing
a home inspection i'll turn on the dishwasher for my client and myself as part of the process
but ideally it would be ready to go with dirty dishes so that when i turn it on we actually
get something done like the dishes so what i'm going to do is i'm just going to make
sure that the the surround is good um the door itself the racks maybe i'll do a little spin
take a look at the spray everything seems to be good the interior looks really good
i see the gasket i could even touch it when you touch it it kind of compresses it feels good and
then it could be secured here with some fasteners you could also give it a pull or a movement
there looks really good um down below there should be a guard there and there shouldn't
be any water signs of water or movement of the dishwasher itself again i don't want to break it
but it's fastened right there i can see so that's really good so i'll let it run you know we're not
experts on all the models of the dishwasher but um if i can get it to run a short cycle
great if i can also document the model number for my client usually it's on the side oh here it is
so there's the model number and some other numbers there like the serial number i'll document that
maybe i'll put in the report but at least i'll have it if somebody needs it later on
what if it leaks well what if i turn it on and the dishwasher leaks on the floor well
good i'm supposed to find problems so um if the dishwasher leaks on the floor
i'm going to prevent any damage i'm going to clean it up as fast as possible and then i'll
tag this unit as a defect and not to turn it on i want to notify the occupants or the seller and my
client as well that it leaked when i turned it on i'm not responsible for repairing the dishwasher
i found that the dishwasher leaked when i turned it on using normal operating controls just like
anybody would have and it would have leaked on them but my job is maybe to find problems
right before anyone else does if i observe a defect and i think it's a problem that should be
repaired i'm obligated to put it in my inspection report so in my report i said i'll turn it on
it leaked i'll document that with a video or a picture of the leak and the water i'll clean it up
i'll put it in the report as a correction that's needed okay this one is not leaking but make sure
it's turned on okay i think we got it we'll see let's continue with the rest of the kitchen and
see what happens okay i'm at the kitchen sink i'm going to run water at the sink hot and cold
turn it a little bit i see i have a dishwasher sprayer so i'm going to spray that that was good
goes right back and then i'm gonna let it run for a little bit and then take a look
at the underside of the garbage disposal the drain pipes the fittings the connections i'm gonna take
a look at the discharge tube the connection between the the garbage disposer and the
dishwasher we know we have a dishwasher like to do that first and then i'll run my hand underneath
every valve the cold and hot water valve and shut off valves i see under here and i'll take a look
for any electrical wiring or any loose plumbing pipes or signs indications of prior water leaks
and then get my flashlight out and take a look for plumbing leaks at the drains at the traps
at the gaskets i guess that's a high loop i'm not sure but we'll let it go and then there's
the electrical wiring for the garbage disposal and it's missing a clamp there's a clamp right there
where the wire goes into the housing the motor housing and here are the water valves hot and cold
water valves supplying water to the fixture itself and there's the spray dish sprayer fixture feature
i'm going to move the hot water from one sink to the other and then take another look underneath
now i could stay here all day but that's not my job
i have a limited window to perform a visual only inspection to find the problems that
happen to occur while i'm here that's what i'm responsible for not future plumbing leaks
but leaks that i see during the inspection at the time of the inspection okay so this all looks good
next gfcis because i have a sink and i have a kitchen gfcis are required all over the kitchen
so what tools do i use for a kitchen inspection well here's my simple tool bag right here
not much i've got a flashlight gfci tester volt tester little screwdriver moisture meter here's
an infrared camera protection so basically i'm just going to go around with my gfci tester
and test the gfcis i'm going to use my flashlight to look underneath the sink and behind the stove
use my moisture meter and infrared to look for water leaks and use my gfci tester so that's a
light indicator that is properly wired and i'll use my tester there test button on the gfci itself
and all counter receptacles need to be gfci protected and tested i can use my tester there
i like to use both the test button of the manufacturer and mine of my tester
i'll take out my infrared camera now use it on the hot water
obviously the dishwasher is hot just looking for any anomalies then i'll open up the sink cabinets
use my infrared that's what it looks like kind of cool
using infrared helps me be a better home inspector and it distinguishes me from other home inspectors
because i can see things that other home inspectors can't so i'm going to use an
infrared camera to look for anomalies in the ceiling anything unusual there's a light bulb out
and there's the heating elements for the stove they all work
open up the oven infrared helps me see heat there's the heating elements they're on fire
i'll just move back and check it out that's all hot again i'm not measuring the actual
temperature range between a cold appliance and a hot appliance just looking for functionality
and anomalies information that may help my client i'll open and close on the windows and doors
that looks good i'll take a quick look at the countertops and cabinetry the shelves seem to be
fastened well to the wall so that's good there and the flooring the flooring is really nicely done i
don't see any major damage cracks of the masonry tile and the ceiling i don't see any water marks
and that would be a cosmetic issue but my client may be concerned about those
things i'm looking for the major problems the major defects now the refrigerator
can't really see behind the refrigerator or around the refrigerator so i'm just looking for
major damage and usually there's um some damage if there's going to be some on the handle or the
gasket around the gasket door or something inside so i'll take a look at the drawers
but if you wanted to do a step-by-step inspection of a refrigerator internachi has
a refrigerator inspection checklist so you can incorporate that into your inspection software
and if you're using a mobile device you don't have to remember everything that's in the checklist
you just go right down step by step and inspect the refrigerator or any system in the kitchen i'll
open and close a representative number of drawers and handles take a look at how they operate
and the cabinetry looks really good and also the lights so i'll turn on the lights
that's the only switch in the kitchen so we have a garbage disposal i'll turn that on
and i'll go back underneath and make sure it's not leaking and we have a light fixture above
oh behind there we go
so all in all the kitchen is in pretty good shape i don't like the safety device the anti-tip device
missing on the stove but everything else looks really good in the kitchen system and we broke
it down step by step with the components the stove oven the hood the dishwasher the sink
the water lines looking for plumbing leaks the gfci the cabinets the flooring the ceiling the
window the lights looks pretty good so one major recommendation and it's a safety feature and every
stove range appliance needs that anti-tip safety device so that was it for the kitchen inspection
hope you enjoyed it and i'll see you on the next inspection my name is ben gromiko i'm from
internachi that's the international association of certified home inspectors see you next time
you