Sewer, Radon and Termite Inspection: Which to Order

There is a sticker at the attic hatch of a great many Florida houses, and reading it is the cheapest termite work you will ever do. Three inches by five, made of something meant to last three years, with a pest control company's name, its address, and a date printed on it. Florida law makes the licensee post it immediately adjacent to the access to the attic or crawl area, and makes it a violation of the chapter for anyone other than the property owner to take it down (Fla. Stat. §482.226, read 20 August 2026).

There are two of these, and the difference is the whole point. Subsection (4) is the inspection notice: company, address, date. Subsection (5) is the treatment notice, and it must also carry the pesticide used and the organism it was used on. One tells you somebody looked. The other tells you what they found and what they did about it. Nobody mentions either during a showing, and a ladder is the entire cost of finding out.

The four specialist inspections below cost real money: a sewer scope, a radon measurement, a termite report, a chimney Level II. Asking which are worth it in general gets you nowhere, because in general all four are and nobody orders all four. The useful question is narrower. Which fact about this property triggers which order, and how many days does each need before the answer arrives.

Sequencing is where this goes wrong. The instinct is to read the general inspection report first, then decide what else to call in. That instinct costs people their contingency. Two of the four run on clocks independent of your contract, and both are longer than they look.

The trigger is a fact about the property, not a line in your budget

Sewer scope: the pipe's age, or a city that already decided for you

No general standard sends anything down that pipe; the companion piece on what a general inspection never covers works through that exclusion clause by clause. What matters on this side of it is that nobody will raise the lateral for you. It is an order you place, from a list you build yourself.

What triggers the call is almost always one of five things. Original plumbing that predates the current owner by decades. Mature trees between the foundation and the street. A bathroom, kitchen or addition built later, meaning somebody re-routed a line. A lateral running under a driveway or slab, where a future repair means demolition rather than a trench. Or a seller disclosure that mentions a backup, however casually.

Then there is the trigger that is not yours at all. In parts of the East Bay in California, the East Bay Municipal Utility District issues a Compliance Certificate only when a private sewer lateral is shown to be leak-free, and EBMUD's own page lists buying or selling the property — transferring title — among the events that require one, with the certificate required to close escrow. If it cannot be obtained in time, the property may be eligible for a Time Extension Certificate, which allows 180 days from the issue date to finish the work (read 20 August 2026). Start with EBMUD's property search, which reports a given address's current compliance status for nothing. Which side pays for the work is negotiated, and that negotiation belongs in the contract rather than in an email during closing week.

Nobody licenses the person holding the camera in most states, so specify the deliverable when you book: the raw video file with distance readings, not a summary emailed the next morning. "Roots present" is not something a plumber can bid from, and not something a seller's agent will accept as the basis for a repair request.

There is a certification to ask about, even though no state requires it. NASSCO — the National Association of Sewer Service Companies — runs a Lateral Assessment Certification Program alongside its better-known pipeline and manhole programs, described by NASSCO as the trusted source for consistent condition coding of laterals (read 20 August 2026). LACP is the one that applies to the pipe running from a house to the street. Whether the operator holds it, and whether the report will be coded to it rather than narrated in adjectives, is a more useful question on the phone than asking how bad the pipe is. NASSCO publishes a directory of certified professionals you can search before booking.

A radon number only survives an argument if the house stayed closed

EPA's action level is 4 pCi/L, and its own risk tables also say to consider fixing between 2 and 4 pCi/L, against an average indoor level of 1.3 and an average outdoor level of 0.4 (Health Risk of Radon, read 20 August 2026). Those are the numbers a contingency clause will reference.

The part that decides whether your result survives an argument is the protocol. EPA's Radon Standards of Practice page, last updated 9 July 2026, names ANSI/AARST MAH-2023 as the current protocol for homes, with MAH-2019 as the prior version and compliance effective 1 December 2023. EPA's summary says it applies to anyone determining whether mitigation is necessary "for real estate or non-real estate purposes," and that Sections 8 and 9 add requirements for professionals.

Two changes EPA lists for the 2023 edition describe exactly the two ways a real estate radon test falls apart: test durations when closed-building conditions did not begin 12 hours before the test, and how to handle results that disagree. Both are occupancy problems rather than equipment problems.

The numbers behind those two changes are in the buyer-and-seller guidance the states republish. North Carolina's health department distributes EPA's real estate seller's and buyer's guide verbatim: plan the test for a minimum of 48 hours, longer for some devices; hold closed-house conditions for at least 12 hours before the test begins and for the whole test period; and closed-house means windows shut, doors shut except for normal entry and exit, and fans not running (read 20 August 2026). For a short-term real estate test the guide gives two accepted forms — two passive detectors placed side by side, or one continuous monitor — and says to fix the home if the average is at or above 4 pCi/L.

A seller who props the basement door open on day one, or an open house held mid-test, is why a number comes back low and then gets disputed. So when you order, ask for the closed-house instructions to go to the seller in writing, ask what the device logs if it is moved, and ask what happens if two readings disagree.

Some states add a paperwork layer that is easy to mistake for a test. Illinois requires a seller to give the buyer the state agency's pamphlet "Radon Testing Guidelines for Real Estate Transactions" plus a Disclosure of Information on Radon Hazards under the Radon Awareness Act (IEMA-OHS real estate page, read 20 August 2026). Receiving both means the seller complied. It does not mean anyone measured anything.

Before you buy a termite report, find out whether one already exists

Termites are carved out of every general standard, so this is always a separate licensee. What differs by state is how tightly the report is regulated, and California regulates it more tightly than almost anything else in a purchase file.

Start free. The Structural Pest Control Board runs a public WDO property search that checks the board's own records for any California address and tells you whether a wood-destroying-organism inspection was completed there within the last two years (read 20 August 2026). Companies are required to file those addresses, so the database is a by-product of the statute rather than a courtesy. If a report exists, request a copy in writing instead of buying a new inspection. Ninety seconds, before the phone call.

The report you get is form 43M-41, revision 04/2015. Its front page carries checkboxes for Subterranean Termites, Drywood Termites, Fungus/Dryrot, Other Findings and Further Inspection, with a note that a checked box means visible problems in accessible areas — and a field, like Florida's sticker, recording where the inspection tag was posted. Every copy also prints the entitlement in plain sight: you may obtain copies of all reports and completion notices filed on the property during the preceding two years, from the board directly.

The heading at the top will read complete, limited, supplemental or reinspection, the four report types defined in 16 CCR §1993. A limited report is the one to slow down on. It covers only part of a structure, and the regulation makes it carry a diagram of the area inspected, a recommendation for further inspection of the entire structure, and the name of whoever asked for it to be limited in the first place — which is usually the most informative line on the page.

Four provisions of Business and Professions Code §8516 change what a buyer should do. All were read 20 August 2026.

Two of them govern the calendar and the page. Subsection (b) gives the company 10 business days from the start of the inspection both to file the address with the board and to deliver the written report to the person who requested it and to the property owner — book with that in mind, because the clock belongs to the statute and knows nothing about your contract. Subsection (b)(7) then forces the report to name conditions "usually deemed likely to lead to infestation or infection" even where nothing is currently eating the house: earth-wood contacts, excessive cellulose debris, faulty grade levels, excessive moisture conditions, evidence of roof leaks, insufficient ventilation.

Read the roof line before anything else. Paragraph (b)(8) makes the report carry one of two boldface statements, whichever fits — (A), that the exterior surface of the roof was not inspected and a licensed roofing contractor should be contacted if you want its water tightness determined, or (B), that the exterior surface was inspected for wood destroying pests and organisms. Which of the two is printed tells you the shape of the inspection before you read a single finding.

The other two provisions are things you have to ask for.

• The separate report under subsection (c) splits what is actively infested from what merely invites infestation. The company has to tell you at the time you order that this separate report is available — but you have to request it then. If they fail to inform you and a dispute follows, they owe it within 24 hours and no later than the next business day, at no additional cost.
• A reinspection under (b)(12) costs no more than the original inspection price and must be completed within 10 business days of being ordered. The catch is upstream: the right exists only if an estimate or bid for the corrective work was given with the original report or afterwards, and the company need not reinspect at all where no bid was given. It also expires — four months after the original inspection, everything is a new original inspection, which is a real problem in a long escrow.

A boldface notice required by §8516(b)(13) also tells you that reports from different companies should list the same findings, that recommendations vary, and that you have a right to a second opinion. It is printed on the form because people ignore it.

Florida runs the same idea through a different instrument: form FDACS-13645, incorporated by reference into Rule 5E-14.142 F.A.C., current version effective 18 May 2026. Fla. Stat. §482.226(2) sets its contents: visible accessible areas not inspected and the reasons why, inaccessible areas, visible evidence of previous treatments or infestations, and a certification that neither the inspector nor the licensee has any financial interest in the property or any role in the transaction beyond inspecting it. Subsection (1) is blunt about the trigger — an inspection made for a real estate transaction, plus either a fee charged or a written report requested, means the department's prescribed form is mandatory. A letter on company stationery is not that form. Subsection (1) also makes the licensee keep a copy for not less than three years, which is why a report written two years ago is still worth asking the original company for.

The chimney standard is the only one of the four that names the sale itself

NFPA 211, the standard for chimneys, fireplaces, vents and solid fuel-burning appliances, divides inspections into three levels in Chapter 15. The clause a buyer wants is §15.4.1, headed Circumstances, which says a Level II inspection shall be conducted upon addition, removal or replacement of a connected appliance; before relining or replacing a flue lining; upon sale or transfer of the property; after a building or chimney fire, weather or seismic event or other incident likely to have caused damage; and at other times indicated in the Level I section. Sale is item (3) on a list of five, sitting between a flue reline and a chimney fire.

Section 15.4.2 is why the number is worth quoting. It puts inside the scope every accessible portion of the chimney exterior and interior, specifically naming areas within attics, crawl spaces and basements reachable without destroying permanently attached parts of the building; the internal surfaces of the flue liners, examined with image scanning equipment where that is what it takes to see them; and verification of proper clearance from the chimney to combustibles at every accessible location.

None of that is law on its own. NFPA 211 is a consensus standard and binds only where a jurisdiction has adopted it — but jurisdictions do adopt it. Middletown Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania publishes a chimney inspection standards sheet for residential resale that quotes §15.4.1.3 by number, under a township code section adopting NFPA standards by reference (read 20 August 2026). Before treating a Level II as optional, it costs one phone call to the local fire marshal or building department to find out whether it is.

Otherwise, order it for any solid-fuel appliance, any fireplace showing evidence of use, or an insert added after construction. A masonry fireplace never lit is a weaker case, though a Level II still verifies clearances a previous owner's renovation may have quietly buried — and clearance to combustibles is precisely what the general inspection was never asked to look at.

Book them in the same phone call as the general inspection

Here is the arithmetic that catches people. A 10-day due diligence window opens the day the contract is signed. General inspection day 3, report day 4, and only then does anyone start calling specialists. A radon device placed on day 6 cannot come back before day 8, and only if closed-building conditions began on day 5. A California WDO company may take 10 business days from its start date, which is day 18 on the calendar, eight days after the window closed. Nothing went wrong. The sequence was built backwards.

The fix is unglamorous: build the specialist list from the listing, the seller disclosure and the property's age before the general inspector shows up, and book everything in one afternoon. The general report then confirms or removes items instead of starting the process. If you're unsure which window you're inside, the contingency clause governing inspections names it and the deadline map for the whole purchase shows what it collides with.

One thing left to settle before you pay. Ask each specialist to name, on the invoice, the standard they are working from: MAH-2023 for the radon measurement, NFPA 211 Level II for the chimney, LACP coding for the lateral, the state's form number for the WDO report. "Termite inspection" and "WDO inspection, FDACS-13645" are not the same purchase, and which one you bought becomes clear at the worst possible moment — when somebody disputes what it said.