Home inspections in Edmonton

Edmonton has more than a century of houses. The City calls its oldest areas mature neighbourhoods, and they were essentially built out before 1970. Highlands started in 1910 as an upscale district, and Strathcona, Garneau and Ritchie sit in what was once the separate City of Strathcona. A house there may still have original wiring, plumbing or foundation walls next to rooms renovated last year. A pre-purchase inspection helps sort out which parts are old and which are new.

From the early 1970s the city planned large suburbs. Mill Woods was approved in 1971 and tested small-lot and zero lot-line housing. Homes from the late 1970s to the late 1990s fall in the years Poly-B supply pipe was in wide use, so the utility room and any exposed piping get a careful look.

Near downtown, Oliver is mostly apartment-style buildings, many from the 1960s and 1970s. Buying a unit there means the building matters as much as the suite, so a condo inspection pairs well with a close read of the condo documents.

On the city edges, neighbourhoods such as Windermere were still in early development in the mid-2000s and keep adding homes. New houses here bring different questions: settled backfill, grading that slopes the wrong way, and finishing details missed in a rush to possession. A new construction inspection is built for that stage.