"It's Going To Rain. Should We Cancel The Inspection?"

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this phrase -

"It's going to rain.  Should we cancel the inspection?"

well, you know the rest.  End the if-I-had-a-dollar phrase any way you want.

Dontchaknow, I hear that question all the time!

What's my answer? 

NO!  WE CAN SEE THINGS DURING RAINS THAT WE CAN ONLY GUESS ABOUT WHEN IT'S DRY.

This is a one-year inspection.  This is an individual who in the year since moving in has never used her back door.  And, she says, she doesn't often open her vertical blinds!

And yes, it was raining, hard, during the inspection.  Which I always like to see!

So, what could we see during the rain that I could only guess about when it's dry?

One thing I could see was a rear gutter that was dripping behind the gutter in three places!

And there was staining from crud behind the gutter at all three of those dripping spots.

What's that mean?

Many things.

There may be no drip edge.

The shingles are cut too short and drip behind the gutter.

There is a gap somehow.

With lightning and thunder during the inspection we aren't going on an aluminum ladder to check out why.

But we really don't have to.  The dripping is evident. 

During the rain, and looking out the rear doors, there were little waterfalls coming from behind the gutter onto both panels of the sliding doors!

That was only two of the three leaks, but what we could see made the problem more than obvious.

So, fortunately, in this case, the rain did reveal something that I could only guess about.

During dry weather, I would look at the crud behind the gutter and wonder if it might simply be crud, or evidence of a leak.  But the rain makes that determination easy!

When developers plan neighborhoods they often change the natural drainage the existed prior to the houses going in.

So they have to provide a new way for street water to go.

Ideally rain water is kept away from the houses, and directed into some developer-arranged drainage system that doesn't clog and sends the water to a natural drain nearby, like a creek.

In this neighborhood, perhaps, they have more work to do!

It it has only been raining for about an hour.

Houston, we have a drain clog.  Dry weather would not have revealed this problem!  I would not have even noticed, likely.

My recommendation:  if you are scheduled for a home inspection and it is raining, don't cancel it!  It is the best time to do an inspection!  Come dressed for it!  Bring your slicker, the golf umbrella and maybe waders!  And have some fun looking around.