Choosing a home: what to look for when buying

Buying a new home is always a joyful event in the life of every person. In order not to overshadow living in your home, you must correctly choose the property you are purchasing. It is necessary to check documents, analyze the quality and correctness of construction. Therefore, you should know what to look for when buying a house for permanent residence or a small summer cottage.

Proper inspection

An ignorant homeowner to assess the quality of construction will be problematic. Therefore, it is easiest to contact specialized companies offering the appropriate expertise services. A professional knows what to look for when buying a house, he will ask the seller the right questions and not only determine the quality of the building, but also give his opinion on the reliability of the load-bearing walls, their thermal conductivity, evaluate the strength of the foundation, floors and utilities.

Having the expert’s opinion on hand, you can get a real idea of ​​the subsequent costs of bringing the house “to mind”, and the availability of estimates will allow you to conduct a reasoned bidding with the seller.

A specialist’s call can cost a round sum, however, if there is a question about buying a house at a cost of 10 million rubles, then saving on an estimate of 10,000 rubles, you may encounter such a situation when you have to redo the foundation or perform expensive wall repairs. Such work will cost hundreds of thousands of rubles or more.

If you buy an inexpensive house and land for temporary residence or a summer residence, then perform an inspection on your own and get a complete picture of the quality of construction completed is not difficult. You just need to know what to look for when buying a private home.

Acquaintance with the layout

Your private house is not only square meters and wall material, it is the convenience of living, which also depends on the layout of the room. A properly planned interior implies that all rooms for a day's stay, including a hall, a living room, a dining room, will smoothly flow into each other. This creates a feeling of spaciousness and freedom, relieving the homeowner of the need to open and constantly close the door. In this case, it is necessary to take care of the presence of a sufficient number of bedrooms in the house, which will allow family members to be alone.

High-quality planning involves:

• spacious rooms;
• excellent proper lighting;
• minimum unused area.

If you choose a private house with several floors, you will need to pay attention to the stairs, which at the same time should be safe and convenient to use. In many ways, the comfort of living in a house depends on the degree of illumination of the room. This is especially true for premises for daytime activities - living room and hall, kitchen, lounge and bedrooms.

When choosing a house, many potential buyers do not pay attention to the layout, evaluating only the quality of construction and the footage of their future real estate. Existing restrictions on the size of the rooms or their poor location cannot be resolved in any way. Therefore, it will be necessary to evaluate the convenience of planning, even to sketch out a sketch of the interior design project to imagine how the house will look after the completion of repair and furniture installation.

Checking the roof of the house

When checking a house, you should pay attention to the condition of the roof. Ideally, such an inspection should be carried out on a rainy day, which will reveal all possible defects. But even in sunny weather, smudges, traces of fungus and mold can be seen in the attic, which indicates poor-quality roofing work. In the future, you will have to raise the entire roof, while the cost of such repairs can be more than ten thousand rubles.

Similar roof checks should be carried out outside the premises, in particular, they pay attention to the correctness of the drainage device. If such work is carried out with a violation of technology or there is no water discharge, then plastic or metal gutter ditches will need to be installed. Otherwise, the decoration of the walls is damaged, water undermines the foundation, which significantly reduces the operational life of the erected structure.

The quality of the exterior walls

To assess how much the house you plan to purchase will stand idle, you need to inspect the exterior walls, evaluating their quality. In wooden buildings, attention should be paid to the condition of the log house, the timber used should not have distortions and significant cracks. If there are any, then this indicates the use of improperly dried wood. Such a house will not be durable, it will require significant costs for repairs.

Signs of quality walls:

• no cracks;
• correct smooth laying;
• perfect geometry.

You can evaluate the quality of the building by the existing shrinkage of the house, the absence of reinforced concrete monolithic belts or noticeable cracks, the appearance of which indicates the use of low-quality materials.

Often, homeowners conduct pre-sale preparation by plastering the walls. Such freshly painted areas indicate an attempt to create the appearance of a quality and reliable structure. Subsequently, cracks already form on the walls, and the homeowner expects an expensive overhaul.

Modern technologies for the construction of private houses imply mandatory insulation of the building. In each case, the thickness of such insulators will depend on the wall materials used. For example, aerated concrete walls can be insulated with mineral wool, and it is not recommended to use expanded polystyrene in a brick house for such work. Thermal insulators of the latest generation not only ensure the comfort of living in the house, but also are environmentally friendly and prevent moisture condensation, which can lead to the formation of fungus and mold.

Floor and floor condition

To assess the quality of the ceilings used, you need to look at the ceiling of the first floor. If there is a deflection of the bearing beams, then this indicates poor-quality construction. Perhaps the reason for this is the insufficient cross-sectional area of ​​monolithic structures. Such a deflection of the ceiling will increase, and repair and strengthening of the entire structure is an extremely expensive and difficult task. Regardless of what material such beams are made of (wood or reinforced concrete), they must be even.

If a house with a rough finish is purchased, such a structure will not have a laid floor covering, and it is necessary to assess the condition of the floor screed, which should be smooth and without serious changes. It is possible to eliminate such defects, but this is a difficult job that will require significant financial costs. If the flooring has already been laid, then you should evaluate its quality, appearance, installation, lack of creaks and other defects in the coating.

Often, homeowners who plan to sell their property use not too high-quality laminate and linoleum, which significantly reduces their repair costs.When buying a cottage with such an economy-class flooring, you need to be prepared for the need for an urgent replacement, while laying parquet or parquet board is quite an expensive pleasure. Therefore, it is preferable to choose objects with a rough finish or ask for a discount, taking into account the subsequent repair and replacement of a low-quality creaking laminate.

Basement and building foundation

When choosing a house, the quality of the foundation will be decisive, while it is difficult to determine the correctness of the performance of such work and adherence to the technology of its arrangement. An indirect sign of the wrong foundation of the house is the presence of cracks in the basement and walls of the structure. A more accurate description of the reliability of the house can only be given by specialists. A professional will assess the risk of living in the chosen house and give advice on what to look for when buying a house.

Choosing a new home, you should not be too lazy and inspect the foundation. There should not be water in the basement, as this indicates the lack of waterproofing and massive savings on construction. If there are traces of past flooding, then this indicates a violation of the technology of arranging the foundation or problems with ventilation ducts and the drainage system. All such work will need to be carried out in the future, to carry out expensive repairs. At the same time, all these costs could have been avoided by choosing the right house.

Engineering Communication

From the availability of utilities and the quality of installation depends on the comfort and convenience of living in a private house. To conduct such an assessment, it is still better to turn to professionals who, having extensive practical experience, will be able to determine whether the equipment is correctly selected and whether the technology was followed during its installation.

Engineering communications of a private house imply the following systems:

• water supply;
• sewage system;
• heating;
• power supply;
• ventilation.

Often country houses have autonomous water supply with sand or artesian wells. The latter are considered more reliable, durable, allowing for many decades to solve problems with water. It is only necessary to inspect the pipeline for cracks, corrosion and high-quality thermal insulation of pipes coming from the well directly to the house.

Sewerage in a private building can be implemented by using septic tanks. All that is needed in the subsequent homeowner is to regularly clean the tanks, causing a sewer machine to do this, while the installed filtration system will work in a completely autonomous mode.

The quality of the heating system installed in the house can be assessed only in the cold season. In the summer, you can ask to turn on the boiler and after half an hour check the current temperature in the batteries. It will also be useful to make sure that there are no leaks through the radiators and pipes. The type of fuel used to heat the room should also be considered.

The cheapest way is to heat a private house with gas, while electric boilers will be expensive to operate, and solid fuel installations are not convenient for their maintenance.

Independent selection and purchase of a cottage - This is a rather complex integrated work, and it is the correctness of its implementation that determines the subsequent expenses of the owner and his comfort in a private house. It is best to entrust such work to professionals who know all the nuances and inspection rules. The cost of such services is not too high, while in the future you can be completely sure that there are no problems with cracked walls or foundations, poured roof or wet basement, as well as heating and power supply of the house.