Plumbing to check before you buy a house in North Alabama

A general home inspection looks at the plumbing you can see. It usually can’t see inside the sewer line, and that’s where some of the biggest surprises hide. For an older house or one with big trees in the yard, a sewer camera inspection is worth considering before you close. On any house, check what the pipes are made of, how old the water heater is, whether there are signs of past leaks, and what’s going on in the crawlspace.

Why a sewer camera inspection is worth considering

Your home inspector will run the faucets, flush the toilets, and look under the sinks. What they usually can’t do is see the pipe that runs from the house out to the city sewer. Roots, cracks, sags, and sections that have shifted apart all hide underground.

A sewer camera inspection fixes that. A plumber feeds a camera through a cleanout and down the line, and you watch the video. It’s most worth doing on older homes, where the drain line may be cast iron or clay, and on any lot with big trees near the line.

This matters because of who owns the pipe. In Huntsville, the city says the sewer line from the house to the main is the customer’s responsibility. The day you close, it’s yours. Other cities around here are usually similar, but check with the local utility.

What are the pipes made of?

Look at the water lines at the water heater, under the sinks, and in the crawlspace. Copper and PEX are what you want to see. Two older materials deserve a closer look.

Polybutylene is gray (sometimes blue or black) flexible plastic pipe, often stamped “PB2110.” It went into a lot of houses built from about 1978 to 1995, and it’s known for failing. Some insurers ask about it, so check with yours before you buy. Here’s how to spot polybutylene.

Galvanized steel is dull gray metal with threaded joints, and a magnet will stick to it. It’s common in houses from the 1950s and early 60s, and there are a lot of those around Huntsville. It rusts and narrows from the inside over time. More on galvanized pipes in older homes.

Ask the sellers if the house has ever been repiped, and when. A partial repipe is common, so one copper line under a sink doesn’t tell you what’s in the walls.

How old is the water heater?

Find the label on the side of the tank. The manufacture date is usually printed on it or coded into the serial number. Tank water heaters commonly last around 8 to 12 years, so if it’s near that range, plan on replacing it soon. Our post on how long water heaters last goes into the details.

While you’re there, look for rust around the fittings on top, rust or water at the base, and water sitting in the drain pan. Also check that there’s a pipe running from the relief valve on the side of the tank down toward the floor or outside. That valve is a safety device, and it needs somewhere to discharge.

Signs of past leaks, and how the plumbing performs

Old leaks leave marks. Look for:

• Stains, swelling, or soft spots in the cabinet floor under sinks
• Water stains on ceilings, especially under bathrooms
• Soft or spongy spots in the floor around toilets and tubs
• One patch of ceiling that’s been painted fresher than the rest

A stain could be from a leak that got fixed years ago. Ask what happened and whether it was repaired.

Then test how the plumbing handles real use. Turn on the kitchen faucet and a shower, then flush a toilet. Watch how much the pressure drops and whether the drains keep up. Gurgling, slow tubs, or water backing up somewhere it shouldn’t are all worth asking about. If you can, put a cheap pressure gauge on an outside spigot too.

And find the main water shutoff before you move in. If it’s stuck or missing, that’s an easy thing to fix now and a bad thing to discover during a leak.

What to look for in the crawlspace

Lots of homes in North Alabama sit on crawlspaces, and that’s where a lot of plumbing lives. If you’re not going to crawl under there yourself, ask your inspector for photos.

Look for standing water, active drips, and wet or sagging insulation. Check whether the water lines have pipe insulation on them, especially near the foundation vents and along the outside walls. Our winters are mostly mild, but we get a few hard freezes most years, and crawlspace pipes usually freeze first.

Is it on septic or city sewer?

Don’t assume. Out in the county, plenty of houses are on septic. A general home inspection usually doesn’t cover it. A septic inspection is a separate job, done by a septic company. Ask the sellers where the tank is and when it was last pumped.

Whatever you find, you want to find it while you can still ask the seller about it.