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Home Inspections can have a lot of variables. Every Home Inspector will have a different
way of doing their inspection as well. With that being said the average house I inspect is about 1500 sq. ft. The average home inspection takes about 3 hours. If I find more problems the home inspection will take longer. I have to take notes and more pictures for every deficiency or safety concern that arises in the inspection. If my inspection only covered the bare minimum of requirements it would only take about 2 hours. I go above the minimum requirements however. For example, the InterNACHI standards of practice requires me to check a representative number of electrical receptacles. I only technically am required to check one. I typically, would check more than this however. I have never done a home inspection where I have only checked one unless certain limitations that made me unable to in the inspection arose. I try to check almost every plug in the house for each inspection. When the house is occupied I will check less as I do not typically unplug devices or anything else in the home. Each individual home provides a unique set of challenges for reasons like this.
The size of the house is an obvious reason a home inspector could take longer on a
house inspection. Sometimes a home inspection takes longer however though because a house has more components as well. Larger homes can have multiple furnaces or electrical panels. This also will have more potential for problems to occur. The plumbing, roof, electric, foundation, structural design, attic, insulation, heating, cooling, crawlspace, basement, fireplace, all have potential to have a deficiency especially when there is just plain and simply more of these components. It is important to remember that I do a snapshot of each of these components. A home inspection is not meant to be an exhaustive inspection for each of these components. The purpose is to simply see if these components are functioning. Ancillary services or add on services I offer can also add to the length of an inspection. A full mold inspection requires a more thorough look into some components of the home such as the HVAC and plumbing systems. On top of that when problems occur or mold is found during a mold inspection this will obviously add more time on. It really depends on the type off inspection that is added on. Sewer line camera inspections can be quite fast sometimes be quite fast. Other times they are more difficult. Finding problems at the sewer connect or sewer pipe blockages such as roots and other obstructions in the sewer pipe can make this type of inspection more difficult. Some other services such as a radon test, lead paint sampling, asbestos sampling, or water testing, can be quite simple and fast. With a radon test kit, I simply
set a radon tester in a designated area of the home. The radon tester needs at least two days for a test. The radon kit is typically collected when doing the home inspection.