The 7 Most Common Problems Found During Home Inspections in St. Augustine

Roof findings lead the list, and they carry the most weight because roof condition drives insurability in Florida as much as it drives whether the house stays dry. On asphalt shingles we routinely document granule loss with exposed mat, cupping and edge curl, blistering, lifted or missing tabs, exposed nail heads, and patch repairs done in mismatched shingle.

On tile roofs the common findings are cracked and slipped pieces, failed mortar at hips and ridges, and underlayment that has deteriorated where it is visible at the eave, which is the actual waterproofing layer on a tile roof. On metal we find backed-out fasteners, failed neoprene gaskets, and corrosion at panel laps that accelerates noticeably as you get closer to the water.

What it means for a buyer: get the roof age and the permit record from the seller during your inspection period, and talk to your insurance agent early. A roof that is functional today can still be the thing that determines whether the home is insurable at a rate you are willing to pay.

Water intrusion is the second most common category and the one with the widest range of severity. We find it around windows and doors where sealant has failed, at roof penetrations, at wall-to-roof junctions, in bathrooms where grout and caulk joints have opened, under sinks where a supply connection has been weeping for months, and around water heaters.

The evidence takes several forms: staining on ceilings and walls, tide lines on framing in an attic or crawl space, swollen cabinet bases and door casings, cupped or lifted flooring, efflorescence on masonry, and a musty odour that persists in one part of the house. We photograph what we find, identify the moisture source where it is identifiable, and describe whether the condition appears active.

What it means for a buyer: fix the source before anything else. Repainting a stained ceiling costs very little and tells you nothing. Where we find suspected microbial growth we describe it and recommend a licensed mold assessor, because mold sampling is outside our scope. We are happy to help connect you with one. Repaired-looking drywall that stops at a consistent height in several rooms is always worth a direct written question to the seller.

Electrical findings are the most common safety items we write. Inside the panel we regularly find double-tapped breakers, breakers oversized for the conductor they protect, missing knockouts and open slots, improper neutral and ground bonding in subpanels, and evidence of overheating at connections. Older housing stock adds fuse panels still in service, small original services, and obsolete panel brands with known concerns.

In the living space the recurring findings are missing GFCI protection at kitchens, bathrooms, garages, exteriors and anywhere near water; ungrounded two-prong receptacles; three-prong receptacles installed on ungrounded wiring, which advertises protection that is not there; reversed polarity; open grounds; and unprotected junctions in attics, garages and crawl spaces where someone extended a circuit without a box.

What it means for a buyer: most individual electrical findings are inexpensive to correct and worth correcting immediately regardless of who pays. Panel-level findings are a different conversation, both in cost and because your carrier may have a position on the panel brand. Ask your insurance agent about it during the inspection period rather than after.

In Florida the air conditioning system does two jobs, cooling and dehumidification, and we test whether it is doing both. Common findings are a weak temperature differential across the coil, a system that cools but leaves the house humid, dirty or wrongly sized filters, a condensate drain that is partially blocked or improperly terminated, a missing or non-functional float switch on a secondary pan, and standing water or rust in the pan indicating a history of overflow.

Outside, we find corroded condenser coils and cabinets, damaged fins, missing disconnect covers, degraded line set insulation, and units sitting out of level on settled pads. Near the coast the corrosion timeline is materially shorter, which is why we report the observed condition rather than relying on the nameplate age.

Duct problems in attics are their own recurring finding: crushed flex runs, disconnected branches dumping conditioned air into the attic, torn insulation, and plenum connections that were never properly sealed. What it means for a buyer: get the install date on the equipment, and in an older home ask about the water heater and roof age at the same time, because those three often reach end of life together.

St. Augustine is flat and low, and drainage problems are extremely common. The findings look small on paper and cause disproportionate damage. Negative grade where soil falls toward the foundation instead of away from it. Soil, mulch or an added planting bed built up against the wall. A patio or driveway poured at a level that dams water against the slab.

Gutters are the other half of it. Downspouts that discharge at a foundation corner with no extension put an enormous volume of water into one small area during a single summer storm. We note gutter pitch, blockage, separated seams, fascia condition behind them, and where every downspout actually terminates. On crawl space homes we look at standing water, soil dampness, vapour barrier coverage and vent blockage.

What it means for a buyer: this is the cheapest category on the list to fix and one of the most valuable. Regrading a few feet around the foundation and extending downspouts costs a fraction of what the resulting moisture damage costs. Where a site has a genuine drainage design problem rather than a maintenance problem, that is a larger conversation and worth pricing before you close.

Northeast Florida has real termite pressure, and evidence turns up regularly. Here is the boundary, stated plainly: a wood-destroying organism inspection in Florida is performed under a separate licence issued by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. High Tide does not hold that licence and does not perform WDO inspections. What we do is document visible evidence and conducive conditions.

Visible evidence means damaged or hollow-sounding wood, mud tubes on foundation walls and piers, frass, exit holes, and areas that appear to have been previously treated or repaired. Conducive conditions means wood-to-soil contact, form boards left in place after construction, siding or stucco carried down to grade, firewood and lumber stored against the house, dense vegetation on the foundation, chronic crawl space dampness, and plumbing leaks feeding wet framing.

What it means for a buyer: schedule a licensed WDO inspector separately and early, so both reports land inside your inspection period. We are happy to help connect you with one. On older frame construction with a crawl space it is not optional. Correcting the conducive conditions is usually inexpensive and is what keeps the problem from returning after treatment.

Structural findings are the least common of the seven and the most consequential when they appear. We separate cosmetic cracking, which is normal and everywhere, from indicators of movement. Hairline shrinkage cracking in stucco and drywall is not a structural finding. Cracking that steps diagonally through block courses, appears at the same location on both the interior and exterior, or shows displacement between its two sides, is.

The other movement indicators we look for are door and window openings racked out of square in one area of the house, floors that slope consistently in one direction, separation at the junction between an addition and the original structure, and in crawl space homes, piers that have been shimmed with stacked block or scrap lumber, sagging girders, and cut or notched framing.

What it means for a buyer: where the pattern suggests active movement, we recommend evaluation by a licensed structural engineer. Engineering analysis is outside the scope of a home inspection and we will not guess at cause or repair cost. Most houses do not need an engineer. The ones that do, need one before the inspection contingency expires, so raise it with your realtor the day the report arrives. Call us at 904-806-7679 if you want to talk through what the report says.