A home inspection is a snapshot by a generalist who had three hours and could not take anything apart. It is genuinely useful and it is not a mechanical assessment. Here is what to work through in your first month, in the order that matters, most of it free.
Week one: find the shutoffs and test them
Main water shutoff, gas shutoff at each appliance, the water heater’s cold inlet valve, the furnace service switch, the outdoor disconnect, and the breakers for the indoor and outdoor units.
Actually turn the main water valve, do not just locate it. A valve that has sat untouched for twenty years often will not close or will not reseal, and you want that discovered now rather than during a burst pipe. The full walkthrough is here.
Week one: carbon monoxide alarms
Virginia requires carbon monoxide alarms in new construction with fuel burning appliances, but there is no retrofit requirement for existing homes, so plenty of houses in this region have never had one. The alarms that do exist have a service life of about ten years, and the ones that came with a 2009 house are not protecting anybody now.
One on every sleeping floor. It costs less than a service call and it is the single highest-value item on this page.
Week one: write down what you own
Open the furnace door and the water heater panel and photograph the labels. Model number, serial number, and the date if it is printed. Do the same for the outdoor unit.
Two reasons this matters immediately. It tells you the real age of the equipment, which the listing did not. And it is what a warranty check needs: most major brands cover parts for ten years but only if the unit was registered within 60 to 90 days of installation, dropping to five if it was not. If the previous owner registered it, coverage may still be running, and one phone call with those numbers settles it.
Week one: identify your water pipe
Look at the main water entry and under a bathroom sink.
Grey plastic with crimped metal rings is polybutylene, installed nationally between 1978 and mid 1995. It fails at fittings without warning and it makes a house harder to insure. If your house has it, you want to know now rather than after a claim. What to do about it is here.
Copper is the usual find. In pre-1970 houses in this region it develops pinhole leaks, which is a documented regional pattern.
Dull grey threaded metal that a magnet sticks to is galvanized steel, which narrows from the inside. If the water pressure disappointed you on the first shower, that may be why.
Week two: check the pressure
A $12 gauge that screws onto an outdoor spigot. Code requires a pressure reducing valve where static pressure exceeds 80 psi, and parts of this region run well over 100. A failed valve puts the whole house at street pressure, which causes pinhole leaks, running toilets and banging pipes. Replacing one runs $500 to $994 and it prevents a run of other repairs.
Week two: change every filter, and find out what size
Assume it has not been done. Write the size on the furnace in marker so you never guess again. If it is a one inch filter in a slot you can barely reach, ask about a larger media cabinet at your first service visit; in a lot of houses here that single change fixes the comfort complaints people blame on the equipment. What to buy and how often is here.
Week two: run everything, including what you do not use
Run the heat for an hour even in September, and the air conditioning for an hour even in November. In a house with two or three systems, run all of them, including the one serving a guest room nobody has been in. A failure you find in week two is a scheduled appointment. The same failure found on the first cold night is an evening call behind everybody else’s.
Listen to the furnace start: inducer, igniter, burners, blower, in that order, no hesitation. Anything that stalls is worth a look now.
Week three: the sewer lateral, if the house is older
This is the one a home inspection does not cover and the one that costs the most when it goes wrong. The pipe from your house to the public main is yours: Fairfax County states plainly that the homeowner is responsible for the private sewer line from the property to the county sewer, and the region works the same way.
If the house was built before about 1980, and especially if there are mature trees between it and the street, a camera inspection is a few hundred dollars against a repair that can run into five figures. Ideally you did this before closing. If you did not, do it now. When it is worth it, and what to insist on, is here.
Week three: the basement, if you have one
If there is a sump pump, test it: pour five gallons into the pit, the float should rise, the pump should start within seconds and shut off cleanly without water rushing back. Also check whether your homeowners policy covers water backing up through drains or a sump. Standard policies do not; Virginia requires insurers to offer that coverage, which means it is an endorsement you add. More on that here.
Week four: get one professional set of eyes on it
A heating and cooling tune-up plus a plumbing walkthrough is the cheapest way to convert the unknowns above into a list with prices on it. What you want out of it is not a sales pitch but an honest assessment: what is fine, what is weak, what is near the end, and roughly when each will need money.
That matters most for the two big-ticket items. Gas furnaces have a median service life around eighteen years and heat pumps around fifteen; water heaters last eight to twelve here. If the house came with a seventeen year old furnace, you would rather plan for that in a shoulder season than react to it in January. The estimator gives you the replacement range for your system size in about two minutes with no phone call, so you can budget before anything breaks.
Before your first winter
Disconnect every hose, including from frost-free spigots, because a hose left attached defeats the frost-free design and that is the most commonly burst pipe in this region. Insulate accessible pipe in the crawlspace and garage. Know where the main is. The full list is here.
SwiftPro has a new homeowner offer built for exactly this, and we serve Northern Virginia only, so we know what your house probably has in it. Call (703) 997-9757 or book online.
