2.1 Site, Grounds & Exterior

Grading & Drainage

The single most consequential exterior finding is grading — the slope of the soil around the structure. Because most foundation, basement, and crawlspace moisture problems begin at the surface, the inspector evaluates whether the lot directs water away from the building. The accepted benchmark, drawn from the International Residential Code (IRC R401.3), is that the final grade should fall a minimum of 6 inches within the first 10 feet measured out from the foundation wall — roughly a 5% slope. Where lot lines, walls, or slopes prevent that fall, swales or drains must be constructed to carry water away.

Negative grading (also called back-pitch) is the defect: soil that is flat or slopes toward the house. Water then pools against the wall, saturates the backfill, raises hydrostatic pressure, and finds its way through cracks and joints. The inspector also flags impervious surfaces — patios, driveways, walks — that should slope at least 2% away from the building. Other clues to drainage failure include efflorescence on foundation walls, mulch or soil piled above the sill, downspouts discharging at the base of the wall, and erosion channels.

Walkways, Driveways & Retaining Walls

Flatwork is inspected for trip hazards (vertical offsets, typically flagged at about ¾ inch or more), settlement, heaving from tree roots or frost, and slope toward the house. Cracking is normal in concrete; differential displacement — one slab section sitting higher than its neighbor — is the reportable condition. Retaining walls are evaluated for plumb, bowing, cracking, and weep holes or drainage behind the wall; a wall holding back saturated soil with no drainage path is prone to failure. Leaning, bulging, or a wall separating from its return are signs of inadequate design or drainage.

Decks, Porches & Railings

Deck failures cause injuries every year, so the inspector scrutinizes the connections. The ledger board — the band fastening the deck to the house — must be attached with lag screws or through-bolts and properly flashed, never nails alone, which pull out under load. Missing flashing lets water rot the rim joist behind the ledger. The inspector also checks footings, post-to-beam and beam-to-joist connections (looking for proper hangers and hardware), and signs of rot at grade.

Guardrails are required where the walking surface is more than 30 inches above grade. The standard guardrail height is 36 inches (some jurisdictions, such as California, require 42 inches), and the infill must be tight enough that a 4-inch sphere cannot pass between balusters. On stairs, the triangular opening at the tread, riser, and bottom rail must reject a 6-inch sphere.

Cladding, Windows & Doors

Exterior cladding is inspected by type, because each fails differently:

Brick veneer and EIFS are drainage-dependent systems: water passes the surface and must drain back out through weep holes above grade and over openings. Mortar dropped into the cavity that blocks weeps, or an EIFS assembly with no drainage plane, traps water against the sheathing and rots the wood — often invisibly. Maintaining roughly a 2-inch clearance between cladding and soil keeps it out of moisture and termite contact.

Finally, the inspector verifies windows and doors operate, are flashed and caulked, and have intact glazing; failed seals (fogging) in insulated glass and rotted sills are routinely reported.

Standard of Practice & Scope

The NHIE is built around a Standard of Practice (SOP) that defines what is and is not part of a general home inspection, and the site/exterior is where scope boundaries matter most. A home inspection is visual, non-invasive, and not technically exhaustive: the inspector reports on readily accessible components and is not required to determine soil conditions, perform geotechnical evaluation, measure exact grade, inspect detached structures or fences, evaluate erosion-control devices, or operate seasonal items like sprinkler systems.

Trees, landscaping, retaining walls not connected to the dwelling, and the soil chemistry behind a wall are generally outside scope, though the inspector reports observed conditions that affect the building.

This scope discipline is itself tested. A candidate must recognize that the inspector describes and reports defects but does not quantify repair cost, predict remaining life with precision, or perform engineering analysis. When a finding exceeds the visual standard — a bowing retaining wall, suspected structural movement, or a possible drainage failure beneath hardscape — the correct action is to report the observation and recommend evaluation by the appropriate specialist (structural engineer, geotechnical engineer, qualified contractor), not to render a verdict.

Putting the Exterior Together

The exterior tells a connected water story. Negative grading delivers water to the foundation; clogged or short downspouts dump roof runoff there too; failed cladding drainage (blocked weeps, EIFS with no drainage plane) traps it in the wall; and deck ledger flashing failures rot the rim joist. An exam scenario describing efflorescence on a basement wall, mulch piled above the sill, and a downspout discharging at the corner is asking the candidate to connect those clues to a moisture-intrusion root cause and recommend grading and drainage correction.

Reading the exterior as a system — rather than a checklist of isolated parts — is the analytical skill the NHIE rewards, and it sets up every interior moisture and structural finding examined later in this chapter.