Top Real Estate Inspectors in Minneapolis, MN 55414
Recent Reviews View all
Omega-H Real Estate Inspection Service
By Tina M. at Judy's Book May 25, 2012
Randy, I have had many inspections done over the years and had lost faith in the inspection profession. Your thorough inspection and detailed report, have restored my faith that there are still professionals out there who care about their c... ...read more
Omega-H Real Estate Inspection Service
By Ralph R. at Judy's Book May 25, 2012
Randy, In my experience in real estate investing of buying and selling 5 homes over the past twenty nine years, I have attended each property inspection. Your property inspection process and report it is by far the most complete report I ha... ...read more
Angstrom Analytical Inc.
By squeakgeek at Citysearch April 17, 2012
I took a sample of plaster to be analyzed. I was promised results by the next day. Having heard nothing after two days, I called Angstom Analytical and was promised results by the end of the day. The afternoon of the third day, I called and left a message (unable to reach anyone). I sent and email and have yet to receive a reply. Subsequent phone calls failed to connect with a person and no calls are returned.\t\n\t\nThe sample is gone, the money is gone, and my patience is gone. Stay away from Angstrom Analytical. ...read more
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My Search For a Home Inspector
I have out-of-state family who are in the process of buying a new home. I told them I'd find a good home inspector in their area, assuming I would already know someone in their area from an online discussion group or from ActiveRain. No such luck. Oh well... the search begins. At first, my search for a home inspector started out kind of fun, a little like searching for a house. It was easy for me to weed out home inspectors, but I actually ended up weeding out way too many. I was left with no one, for one reason or another. Blah I found several themes on home inspector web sites. The 'basic' web sites were all extremely similar - it was "Hire me because:" A home is probably the largest investment you will ever make. Blah blah blah (and now, stop talking). Why do so many home inspectors need to tell people this? If someone is shopping for a home inspector, they're probably already sold on the idea of a home inspection. I'll give you peace of mind. I'd rather find someone who will give me the straight story, even if the information doesn't give me peace of mind. I abide by [insert association]'s Standards of Practice. So does everyone else. I'm licensed. Gee, lets hope so if your state requires it. I'm independent. You mean the real estate agent doesn't pay you off to ignore defects? I suppose that's good... I charge less than my competition. I assume there is a reason for this. Turn-offs I found many web sites that turned me off right away; these sites had common themes to them. Claims to be the best / most detailed / most comprehensive / most thorough / etc. They're making a claim that's impossible to prove. I don't trust this person. As many colors and fonts jammed in to one page as possible. This reminds me of a little girl who got in to her mom's make-up bag. Claims that their home inspection association (ASHI, NACHI, NAHI, etc) is better than the other associations. Badmouthing other associations or claiming superiority of their association doesn't make them look better; it makes them look petty. Warnings about blind home inspectors. I've never met a blind home inspector. I feel as though I'm being talked down to when I hear warnings about unqualified home inspectors, and I'm afraid they're going to talk down to my family members during the inspection. Just tell me about yourself. Turn-ons The better web sites give more specific information about the home inspector. I have these certifications I'm a member of this association I walk on the roof to inspect it I crawl through crawl spaces to inspect them I've been in the business for a long time I'm thorough, detailed, patient... and many other adjectives. After looking through enough web sites, it becomes hard to compare all of that. Also, none of this stuff tells me the person is a good home inspector; it just tells me they are qualified to be a good home inspector. Online presence = bonus points I didn't exclude any home inspectors from my search just because they didn't engage in social media, but I certainly gave them bonus points for doing so. It helps me learn more about them. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube... all that stuff helps me to learn more about the company. Of course, I also gave bonus points to home inspectors with active blogs. How could I not? Online reviews were also nice to see. ...but it all boils down to the report. For me, it all comes down to the home inspection report. This is the single most important part of deciding on a home inspector for me, because it tells me more about the home inspector than anything else possibly could. I started writing about what I look for in a home inspection report, but it started turning in to a whole new topic. I'll save that for another day. Unfortunately, many of the inspectors that I decided were the most qualified didn't even have sample inspection reports on their web site. If I had found a home inspector with a good inspection report, I would have recommended them, but I couldn't find one. I got a few referrals from the ASHI online discussion forums, so I contacted the inspectors that were referred, asking for sample inspection reports. You'd think I was asking for social security numbers. One inspector made me promise not to share the report, even after he removed all of the identifying information, and another refused to let me view a sample report. No joke. The one who sent me a report with no questions asked actually had a very good report, and she's the one I'll end up recommending to my family. Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspector ...read more
By Structure Tech Home Inspections December 20, 2011
Rim Joist Insulation
Have you ever noticed how snow will melt around the foundation on older houses? This will happen at any house with unheated foundation walls, and it's a great visual indication of how the house is losing heat. When there's no melted snow up against the house, we can rely on thermal imaging to figure out where the heat loss is occurring. In the image below it's right at the rim space; that's the part that shows up as the brightest orange / yellow. While houses usually act like chimneys, sucking air in at the bottom and exhausting air through leaks at the top, the photo below is a perfect example showing how it doesn't always work that way. The frost that has accumulated against the siding is all coming from air that's leaking out of the un-insulated, un-sealed rim space. It was about -15 degrees outside when I took the photo below. To cut down on basement heat loss, an obvious place to start at is the rim space. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago when I wrote my post about how I had my entire basement re-insulated, but today I'm going to focus on the rim space alone and discuss the different options for insulating and air sealing this space. The old way of insulating rim joists was to use fiberglass batts. As I've mentioned many times in previous blogs, fiberglass batts are a poor choice of insulation for any project... but they should never be used at the rim space because it's nearly impossible to install a proper vapor barrier here, and fiberglass batts will allow for a lot of air leakage. Without a vapor barrier at the rim space, you'll have relatively warm, moist air passing through the fiberglass insulation and then condensing at the rim joist. This can create mold or rotting. There are only two ways that I ever recommend to insulate the rim space: rigid foam or spray foam. Using spray foam at the rim space is just about the only thing that is ever done on new construction houses in Minnesota today; while it's expensive, it's worth it because it can be applied quickly and does a perfect job of both insulating and air sealing the rim space. Wires, faucets, pipes... they're no match for spray foam. All of the penetrations get sealed. While spray foam is supposed to be covered by an approved material to prevent the possible spread of a fire, the rim space is one exception to this rule; this exception can be found in the Minnesota Amendments to the IRC, sectionR314.5.11. Here in Minnesota, up to 5 1/2" of foam insulation can be sprayed at the rim space and left exposed. The only downside to using foam insulation is that it's relatively expensive. You can buy do-it-yourself insulation kits for fairly small jobs, such as a rim space, but I would personally just hire a professional to do this. It wouldn't cost much more than a spray foam insulation kit. The alternative to having spray foam applied at the rim space is to install rigid foam insulation. Installing foam insulation at the rim space takes a long time, but it's not a very difficult project. Basically, pieces of rigid foam boards get cut to size, placed at the rim space, and caulked or foamed in place to help prevent air leakage. While writing this post, I came across a great blog written by a handy homeowner, showing how he insulated his own rim space with rigid foam. You can view it here - rigid foam at rim space. The one thing to remember when making a house tighter is that you'll have less air leaking in to and out of your house, which can create other problems, such as a backdrafting water heater or excessive moisture in the home. The Minnesota Department of Commerce Energy Information Center has a great handout that specifically addresses this topic, which you can download here - Combustion&Makeup Air. If you don't have any insulation at your rim space, add this project to your list of 'to-do' projects. It's not as critical as attic insulation and it takes more time, but it's a good thing to do. Just don't use fiberglass. Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minnesota Home Inspector ...read more
By Structure Tech Home Inspections December 13, 2011
Problems with stapled shingles
While it used to be common practice to use staples to attach asphalt shingles to a roof, this has been a prohibited method of attachment in Minnesota since 2003. Today, staples are considered an inferior method of attaching shingles to a roof, but it's easy to understand why roofers like staples. Staple guns are smaller and better balanced. Coil nail guns are literally fed with a coil of nails, and the holder for the nails makes the gun much bulkier. Staples are far less prone to jamming up in a gun than nails. Staples cost less money. Staples are much more compact; a roofer can hold a bunch of sticks of staples in their pocket and reload their gun very quickly. Nail coils take up a lot more space, they take more time to reload, and they need to be treated carefully; if a coil of nails gets dropped or stepped on, it deforms the coil and makes it much more prone to jamming in the gun. Staples are used because they make the roofer's job easier; they don't equate to a better installation.The problem with stapled shingles is that they have a much greater chance of coming loose or blowing off the roof because staples are so easy to install improperly. When a roofer holds a staple gun and fastens a shingle, the staples will have a tendency to be driven at an improper angle.Staples are often improperly installed because it's somewhat awkward to hold a staple gun completely perpendicular to the shingle. For someone who is right handed, it's much easier to shoot the staples on the left side of their body at an angle similar to a forward slash, and the staples on the right side at an angle similar to a backward slash. The two super-crude diagrams below should help to illustrate what I'm talking about.When staples are installed properly, they work fine, but they're just too easy to install wrong. This issue doesn't happen with nails, because they have a round head; as long as a nail is driven in to a shingle straight, it doesn't matter which way the nail gun is turned. To know if a roof has been installed with staples, you can sometimes see the outline of the staples pushing through the shingle above. Also notice, these staples aren't perpendicular to the shingle. This is the installation problem that typically happens with staples.If you have a roof that's been installed with staples, is it a defective installation? If it was installed after 2003, technically yes, because staples aren't allowed any more. If every staple was perfectly installed, the installation would work just as well as perfectly installed nails, but I've found improperly installed staples at every stapled roof I've inspected. If you have a roof with stapled shingles, you don't need to replace the shingles as a rule of thumb, but you're taking on some risk. If shingles start blowing off on a regular basis, you'll probably want to have the roof covering replaced. This will be less costly and less of a hassle in the long run than having to deal with constant roof repairs.When I inspect a house with shingles that have been improperly installed, I tell the same thing to my buyers; the shingles don't need to be replaced, but they might cause some headaches. If shingles have already started coming loose and obvious repairs have been made, I typically recommend replacement of the roof covering.P.S. - Special thanks to roof guru and fellow home inspector Mike Moser for always knowing the answer to any technical roofing question right off the top of his head.Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email- Minnesota Home Inspections ...read more
By Structure Tech Home Inspections November 29, 2011