Plumbing Inspection in Wilmington, DE
20% of owner-occupied homes in Wilmington have changed hands since 2018. That is an ordinary rate, which makes the ordinary mistake more likely: assuming the inspection covered the plumbing.
The one-paragraph answer
Turnover in Wilmington sits near the middle, with 20% of owner households arriving in 2018 or later. The figure that actually matters is in the standards of practice: a home inspection covers what is visible and operable, and the buried sewer lateral is not.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25038.
When Wilmington moved in
At an ordinary rate of turnover, the housing here divides fairly evenly between homes inspected in the last few years and homes that have not been looked at since the previous sale, whenever that was.
| Owner households in Wilmington | Share of all owners |
|---|---|
| Moved in 2021 or later | 6% |
| Moved in 2018–2020 | 14% |
| Moved in 2010–2017 | 24% |
| Moved in before 2010 | 56% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25038 (tenure by year householder moved into unit), 2023 release. Universe: 92,951 occupied housing units, of which 60,669 are owner-occupied. This counts when the CURRENT occupant moved in, so it measures recent moves as a share of the housing stock — not a rate of sales per year.
What the inspection will not cover
Clothes washer connections are excluded, which surprises people because the machine is in the house and plumbed into it. The supply valves behind it and the standpipe it drains into were not part of the job.
Source: InterNACHI Home Inspection Standards of Practice; ASHI Standard of Practice.
What it is required to cover
The water heater is covered in more detail than most of the system: InterNACHI takes in the energy source, the venting connections, the temperature and pressure-relief valve, seismic bracing where it applies, and the labeled capacity. What it stops short of is operating any of it.
The full covered list, and why the distinction between the two lists is the whole of reading a report properly.
What to do about it
Read the exclusions in your own report before the findings. The findings say what was looked at; the exclusions say what you still do not know, and only one of those two lists gets attention.
Ten minutes of reading covers it: what nobody was required to look at, what they were, and the drain run that is a separate instruction altogether.
Other Delaware towns we route in
- Lewes 31% of owners moved in since 2018
- Ellendale 20% of owners moved in since 2018
- Selbyville 37% of owners moved in since 2018
- Camden Wyoming 22% of owners moved in since 2018
- Townsend 22% of owners moved in since 2018
Checking a plumber in Delaware
Checking a credential in Delaware
Delaware licenses are issued by the Delaware Board of Plumbing, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Examiners, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.
Inspection report in front of you?Read us the plumbing lines and nothing else — we do not want the document. We will route you to a contractor covering your area who can quote the items on it, and you are never charged by us. Report or no report, Wilmington reaches a contractor through us.
Call (888) 764-3501