Home Inspection in Norfolk County

If you're buying in Norfolk, a home inspection in Norfolk County is something Jim Ward does on his own doorstep. Complete Home Inspections is based in Delhi, and Jim has been inspecting homes here since 2009, after a year working alongside a Registered Home Inspector and training through the Carson Dunlop program. He is an InterNACHI Certified Professional Inspector and a Certified Master.

Norfolk is not one kind of housing market. In a single week you might look at a brick house on a quiet street in Simcoe, a storey-and-a-half farmhouse outside Langton, and a seasonal place a few steps from the beach at Turkey Point. Each one asks different questions of an inspector.

In the older parts of Simcoe, Delhi and Waterford, the houses in town are often a century old or close to it. Expect Jim to spend time on the chimney, the masonry around doors and windows, and the water lines in the basement, where galvanized steel supply pipe is still found in homes of that age.

Farmhouses and the old tobacco belt

For most of the last century, the sandy soils of the Norfolk Sand Plain made this the heart of Ontario's tobacco belt, and Delhi was at its centre. Many farms have since moved to other crops, but the houses that went with them are still here, often added onto by several generations. Those additions are where an inspector slows down: rooflines that meet at awkward angles, flashing that was patched rather than replaced, and wiring that was extended one room at a time. Jim's own photos include unsecured wiring at a main panel and a gap in roof flashing, two things that turn up more often in an old house that has grown in stages.

Many former tobacco properties still have kilns, barns and sheds. A standard home inspection centres on the house and an attached garage, and detached outbuildings usually sit outside that scope, so if a kiln or barn matters to your plans, mention it when you book and ask Jim what he can look at.

Wells, septic and oil tanks outside town

Delhi, Simcoe, Port Dover, Waterford and Port Rowan have municipal water, but drive a few minutes out of any of them and most homes rely on a private well and a septic system. Jim offers a water sample and water flow test (call for pricing), which is worth having on any property where the water comes out of the ground. Septic systems are evaluated by septic specialists; our guide to buying a rural home with a well and septic explains what to arrange and when.

Older rural houses were often heated with oil. One of the photos on Jim's site is a pipe from an underground oil tank, the kind of clue that tells a buyer to ask questions before closing, because insurers and lenders in Ontario usually want to know about buried tanks.

Cottages along Lake Erie

From Port Dover west through Turkey Point to Port Rowan and the Long Point area, Norfolk's shoreline is lined with cottages, some of them winterized and lived in year-round, others closed every fall. Seasonal homes often sit on piers or shallow crawlspaces, with plumbing that is drained and refilled every year. Jim has found laundry taps and a toilet leaking into crawlspaces, and an exterior outlet with no GFCI protection, both of which matter near water.

Booking an inspection in Norfolk

A home inspection for a house up to 1,800 sq ft is $500 including HST; for anything larger, call Jim at 519-550-4998. He is available 7 days a week, and you get a full-colour report emailed with every photo, the same day. Tell him the address and square footage through the quote form and he'll take it from there.