Comprehensive Home & Building Inspections

Unless you live in a water park, a wet building is not fun! Since prehistoric times, man has been trying to improve ways of keeping water out. Moisture intrusion is not healthy for the building, the occupants or their wallets.

 

Although EIFS (synthetic stucco) is most famous for failures, all systems have their problems. Whether the building envelope is EIFS, traditional stucco (sand base), stone, brick, block, wood or whatever, a leaking window installation, flashing deficiency, sealant failure or multiple other anomalies can cause grief. For a building’s envelope to be an efficient watershed, it must deflect, drain and dry out.

 

Price range of the property or location does not matter. I regularly inspect private homes, low and mid-rise residential and commercial buildings throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx, Long Island, Westchester, and parts of New Jersey; it is not uncommon to find flaws with a building’s watershed.

 

There are many things that you can find out about a building’s envelope simply by looking at it, but the most important information needed to make determination about a building envelope's efficiency can only be provided by testing beneath the surface. When selecting an inspector, make sure he understands the system, and knows how to test and evaluate beneath the surface. An inspection limited to visual only, or even an inspection utilizing infrared cameras alone cannot measure the moisture content beneath the surface, nor can they tell you if there is damage occurring.