Not all homes have an attic but when they do The Orange County Home Inspector and the San Diego Home Inspector looks at them.

Attics can reveal a lot about a home because when a sub-standard tradesman does work up there they seem to think nobody is going to check on the work because it’s a task to go up there. It almost always requires a ladder and a very good flashlight along with an electrical tester and sometimes a moisture meter.

Attics are dusty and dirty and even in newer homes, if at the exterior there has not been good screening of vent openings, there may be rodent droppings. This a vey common occurrence. 

Recently I did a home inspection in Orange County where there was no attic access hatch and when I looked at the garage rafters from my ladder I discovered that someone, probably the A/C installer had broken a hole in the drywall/firewall in order gain access to install ducting to each of the interior rooms. No only did he leave a large opening in the firewall, he cut a hole so that ducting could be run to another room that was added next to the garage. 

This is just one issue I’ve recently discovered but I have plenty of examples where workers, non-licensed contractors, and handymen have done sub-standard work in attics only because ‘nobody was looking’. Well, I’m one of the inspectors that looks in attics.