Baltimore County Home Inspection

We had ours in Howard County and it was actually much more basic and less complicated and detailed than I had myself prepared for. In fact, much of the health inspection "look fors" overlap with the Fire Dept. and SW "look fors". I was able to talk with them before they came out and they were able to give me the general info, you might want to try that. Our Health Insp. looked for child safety precautions such as child proof locks on cabinets containing chemicals and cleaning products, baby gate at top of steps, outlet protectors, working smoke alarms and fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors (we have gas heat), kitchen trash approp. covered. They asked about lead paint, when our furnace was last serviced (wasn't expecting that one), and to see the baby's room (It has to have at least one window and no chipped or peeling paint). If you have dogs you have to show the vaccination records, but licenses and proof of vaccinations is required as part of the homestudy anyway. I was very worked up about this but it went quickly and smoothly. Also, I was told by the health dept. that you don't "fail" an inspection. For example, if you didn't have a working smoke detector for each level they will make a note of it in their report. Your SW will get a copy of the report and will be looking to see if you corrected any problems when he/she comes out for their inspection. Hope this was helpfull. :)

Here is a question. Why would I child-proof a cabinet if I don't know what age the child would be. For example I requested children age 1-6. If I don't have a referal yet why would I do that? I guess it is better to have your bases covered than not. Thanks for the advice.

Im in Frederick County, and I know each county is different, but our was really very simple. It was very much like Sean&Shan stated, but we didn't have to have child locks. They are looking for basic requirements that you probably have anyway. Don't worry.

I agree that it seems silly. We are adopting internationally and will not get our baby until next fall and yet are unable to simply open the knife drawer or pull out the dish washing detergent without clicking the child proof locks. But that is what we were told to do. In the big picture it doesn't matter, they have to eventually go on anyway. This way the agencies know that your home is safe for an infant or child before they sign off on approving you.

We are adopting internationally too and I would rather have everything done at the house than to leave something to chance. I'm happy that we have these boards because with all that it takes to adopt one can really drive themselves nuts. Thanks in helping me reduce some of the stress in this journey!

Hi Andiej We had our inspection through Baltimore County. It is nothing to worry about. Don't bother childproofing the house. The inspector was in my house for maybe 20 minutes. Basically he walked through the house, checked the tempature of the water. He also checked to see if I had any fire extinquisers. Which we did. We had also bought a fire ladder, from a suggestion from our social worker. He then printed out the forms I needed and he was on his way. The longest part of the entire process was getting an appointment! I got tired of waiting for there call and after a few weeks I called them. They had someone out 2 weeks later. Goodluck and don't stress about childproofing the house. They weren't looking for that! Jenn

Thanks everybody! Here is what they checked. Themostats in Fridge and Freezer, water temp in bathroom, screens in windows in childrens room. Smoke detectors in each bedroom and fire extinquisers on each level. No child proof stuff but said that the social worker would check for that. Another thing checked off the list and a little closer to having our kids!