Inspecting Older Properties in the Nashville Real Estate Market - Part 1

Inspecting older properties in the Nashville real estate market can be quite challenging at times. Older properties are not built to current building standards although they certainly met the standards applicable at the time. Many of the building standards in the Nashville TN real estate market were not put into place until the early 1940's. Many new home inspectors in the area do not realize this or take this into consideration when writing their reports.

Many of the older properties in the East Nashville real estate market consist of post and beam construction. In this construction methodology, the house is supported by brick piers or cedar posts. The support girders or beams lie on top of these posts thereby transmitting the load or weight of the house and live loads to the ground. Hence the term post and beam construction.

Because, the weight is transmitted to the ground through the posts, deterioration or leaning walls around the crawl space become more of a cosmetic issue. Inexperienced inspectors often point this out as as structural issue and call out the services of a structural engineer. An experienced inspector will call this to the buyer's attention as an area that needs to be repaired more so to prevent vermin from entering the underfloor areas.

I will be posting several articles about inspecting homes in the Nashville TN real estate market and will provide links. Remember, a good home inspector will save you money in the long run.

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