Published: January 22, 2025 | Closer Look Home Inspectors · InterNACHI Certified · Mankato, MN

DIY Home Inspection Tips for Homeowners Between Professional Visits

By Closer Look Home Inspectors | Updated January 2025 | (507) 721-3820

A professional home inspection provides a snapshot of your home's condition at a single point in time. But homes are dynamic, especially in Mankato's demanding climate where extreme temperature swings, heavy moisture loads, and freeze-thaw cycles create new conditions between professional visits. As home inspectors who have evaluated thousands of southern Minnesota properties, we encourage every homeowner to develop regular self-inspection habits. Here is how to do it effectively.

Monthly Walk-Through: The 15-Minute Habit That Saves Thousands

Set a recurring monthly reminder to spend 15 minutes walking through your home's critical areas. This is not a comprehensive inspection but a quick check of the areas most likely to develop problems between professional visits.

Basement and Crawl Space

Start in the lowest level of your home. Look at the base of foundation walls for new moisture stains, puddles, or white crystalline deposits called efflorescence. In Mankato, where clay soils hold water against foundations, moisture problems can develop rapidly during wet seasons. Sniff for musty odors that suggest hidden mold growth. Check your sump pump pit: is there standing water? Does the pump activate when you lift the float switch manually?

Water Heater Area

Glance at the floor around your water heater. Any moisture or mineral staining suggests a developing leak. Check the temperature and pressure relief valve discharge pipe for dripping. Water heaters in Blue Earth County typically last 8 to 12 years, so if yours is approaching that age, increase your vigilance.

Under Sinks and Around Toilets

Open every cabinet door under kitchen and bathroom sinks. Feel for moisture on the cabinet floor and look for water stains, warped wood, or mold. Check the base of every toilet for soft or spongy flooring, which indicates a failing wax ring seal allowing water to damage the subfloor beneath.

Seasonal Deep Checks

Spring: Post-Winter Damage Assessment

After Mankato's brutal winters, spring is when damage reveals itself. Walk your home's exterior with binoculars and examine the roof for missing or damaged shingles, deteriorated flashing, and ridge cap damage. Check all gutter connections and look for fascia board rot behind gutters where ice dams may have trapped water. Inside, examine ceilings in the top floor for new water stains from ice dam leaks. Visit our ice dam guide for detailed recovery steps.

Summer: Exterior and Attic Focus

Summer's dry weather is ideal for exterior inspections. Check siding for damage, gaps, and deterioration. Inspect window and door caulking. In the attic on a cool morning, use a flashlight to look for daylight penetration, water staining on roof sheathing, and proper insulation coverage. Check that bathroom exhaust fans terminate outside, not into the attic space where they cause moisture problems.

Fall: Pre-Winter Preparation Check

Before Minnesota's freeze arrives, inspect weatherstripping on all exterior doors. Test your furnace by running the heat before you need it. Listen for unusual noises and smell for any burning odors during the first cycle. Check that all windows close and lock fully; loose windows allow significant heat loss and can let moisture into wall cavities during winter temperature differentials.

Winter: Indoor Systems Focus

During winter, focus on interior systems. Monitor your furnace filter monthly, as it runs nearly continuously. Check for frost on interior window surfaces, which indicates excessive indoor humidity or failing window seals. In the attic, look for frost on nail tips protruding through the roof sheathing, a sign of inadequate ventilation. Our thermal imaging service can reveal hidden issues during winter months.

Electrical Safety Checks You Can Do Yourself

Purchase an outlet tester from any hardware store for about fifteen dollars. Plug it into every accessible outlet in your home. It will indicate proper wiring, reversed polarity, open grounds, and other common wiring defects. Test all GFCI outlets by pressing the test button. The power should cut immediately and restore when you press reset. GFCI outlets near water in kitchens, bathrooms, and garages should be tested monthly.

Check your electrical panel for any signs of overheating: discolored breakers, melted plastic, burning smells, or warm spots on the panel cover. If you find any of these, call a licensed electrician immediately. Do not attempt to open the panel cover yourself.

Foundation Monitoring for Mankato Homeowners

Blue Earth County's glacial clay soils create unique foundation challenges. Monitor foundation cracks by marking their ends with a pencil and dating them, or tape a piece of clear tape across the crack. Check monthly. If the crack grows, the tape breaks, or the crack widens seasonally, you may have active foundation movement that requires professional evaluation. Our foundation inspection service can determine the severity.

Monitor basement walls for inward bowing by holding a long straightedge against them. Even slight bowing of a quarter inch over an 8-foot wall indicates lateral soil pressure that may require stabilization.

When DIY Is Not Enough: Call a Professional

Your self-inspections are valuable for catching visible problems early, but some conditions require professional evaluation. Call a licensed inspector when you notice:

• Foundation cracks that are widening, shifting, or accompanied by sticking doors and windows
• Persistent musty odors despite no visible water or mold
• Electrical problems like frequently tripping breakers, flickering lights, or buzzing outlets
• Water stains that reappear after drying
• Unexplained increases in utility bills suggesting hidden efficiency losses
• Any signs of structural movement: sloping floors, cracked drywall in staircase patterns, or gaps between walls and ceilings

Need a professional evaluation of something you have found during your own inspection? Call Closer Look Home Inspectors at (507) 721-3820 for expert guidance.