Home Inspections

Our inspections vary from houses under construction, for which the pre-drywall inspection is perhaps the most important, to significant historic structures. We are particularly well known for our knowledge of how historic structures were built and used, and we are skilled at detecting how they have evolved and changed.

Our standard procedures differ from most other inspection companies. We always prefer to go beyond the minimum standards laid down by the State of Maryland and beyond the stricter Standards of Practice of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). For example, in our normal home inspection protocol we will make a professional assessment of the distribution system for heating and cooling, we will examine fireplaces and the accessible parts of chimneys, we will plug shower stalls for over an hour to see if they leak and will rigorously test all plumbing fixtures, and we will advise on potential environmental hazards such as the likely presence of asbestos, lead paint and noticable mold. There are no standards, other than our own, that require home inspectors to go to such lengths.

We like our clients to be with us during home inspections. We videotape the proceedings, which have a great deal of information on what to expect of the various systems and how to maintain them. Within one to two days of completing an inspection we issue a personally typewritten report of the defects and concerns, explaining why they are concerns. The video report, which is also sent electronically, is normally delivered in 4 to 7 days.

In the four decades I have been in this profession, I have seen substantial changes due to the introduction of computer software. Even 25 years ago the vast majority of people in my profession had at least a college education, if not a graduate degree. They wrote their own reports. They understood sentence and paragraph structure. Today that is no longer the case. The vast majority of home inspectors do not have college degrees and many of them have not finished high school. They turn out a lengthy report by pushing computer buttons for generalized verbiage written by someone in California or Chicago. These reports routinely recommend that someone purchasing real estate also obtain further inspections by a licensed master electrician, a licensed master plumber, a licensed master heating and cooling contractor, a professional engineer and a professional environmentalist. We rarely recommend additional inspections, and when we do we have normally made those recommendations prior to the inspection, such as an inspection for well and septic, or radon. In short, we have the expertise to provide a comprehensive inspection.