Plumbing Inspection in Des Plaines, IL
In Des Plaines, just 16% of owner-occupied homes have changed hands since 2018. A low rate has a consequence people miss: an inspection is the one moment a house gets examined, and most of these have not had one recently.
The one-paragraph answer
Homes in Des Plaines rarely change hands — only 16% of owner households moved in during 2018 or later — so an inspection there is usually of a house somebody has lived in for years. The buried sewer lateral is still outside both published standards of practice.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25038.
When Des Plaines moved in
Low turnover means the last inspection on most of these houses is old, and the systems in them have had years to change since. Nothing about a settled town makes plumbing age more slowly.
| Owner households in Des Plaines | Share of all owners |
|---|---|
| Moved in 2021 or later | 4% |
| Moved in 2018–2020 | 12% |
| Moved in 2010–2017 | 25% |
| Moved in before 2010 | 59% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25038 (tenure by year householder moved into unit), 2023 release. Universe: 33,659 occupied housing units, of which 23,406 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
InterNACHI requires the location of the main water shut-off and the main fuel shut-off to be described, and whether the supply is public or private. Those are the three lines worth copying out of the report on the day you get it, because nobody looks them up until they are standing in water.
The rest of what an inspector must do is set out here. It is shorter than the excluded list and it is the half that tells you what a finding is worth.
What to do about it
If you are selling, establish it before somebody else does. The same finding is worth more to a buyer who discovered it than to one who was told.
The two standards are published in full and worth ten minutes: what is excluded, what is covered, and why the drains outside the house are a separate instruction.
Other Illinois towns we route in
- Mundelein 19% of owners moved in since 2018
- Fox River Grove 15% of owners moved in since 2018
- Vernon Hills 20% of owners moved in since 2018
- Palatine 21% of owners moved in since 2018
- Leaf River 19% of owners moved in since 2018
Checking a plumber in Illinois
Checking a credential in Illinois
Illinois licenses are issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health, Plumbing Program, 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. We take Des Plaines requests that never appeared on any inspection.
Call (888) 764-3501