Reviews

9/10

I hired Ted to inspect a home in North Burnaby. Ted was prompt and thorough. We spent about 8 hours at the home and Ted noticed a number of items that needed attention, he also spent several additional hours explaining the home to me at an offsite meeting. A few items (including potential mold) were items that allowed us to negotiate having the owner fix/inspect at no charge to us. Ted's "book" is very thorough, full of pictures and descriptions of the issues in your home so you can remember what was said during the long inspection day. You can also see what needs fixing now and later and the severity of each issue. I had a book like this with a previous inspector, but it was very "canned", Ted's is very customized to your exact home. I think he had about 40 pictures of my home in it. Ted is not cheap, but I liked that he wasn't in "league" with any realtors so he had no incentive to be "lenient" in his judgement. Ted also has followed up on a number of items and was particularly concerned with a potential health issue and made a few suggestions to help further determine if there was a serious problem or not. We felt he was through and fair and would recommend him to others. Update: Ted called me out of the blue to follow-up on an issue in the home, he was concerned for our long term safety. He came to the home (for free) to do a follow up Infrared scan of the walls, this was well after he was paid. He really cares and that's rare these days.

Approximate cost of services:
$1,200.00
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Company Response

Hi Jazz,
Thank you for your testimonial.
Your 65-year-old completely renovated house reportedly done by a very experienced and well-known and respected builder had some awesome features but typical to any construction project the builder took a few shortcuts. Some of the shortcuts involved work done without permits. I like the way we were assured that everything was done with the best materials, craftsmanship and with all the requisite building permits- “so we really didn't have to waste too much time looking at everything”. As I recall they did have building permits but they were not for the same degree of renovation. A common practice in construction and renovation is to take out building permits for everything, do the work, have them inspected and get an occupancy permit. After that's all done and safely out of the way, the builder will continue with the real renovation: installing new electrical circuits and even elec. subpanels, basement kitchen, bathrooms, decks and even additions, etc. I'm very happy to hear that you had your entire electrical system inspected and repaired. The electrical hazards that we were able to uncover were indications of possible concealed anomalies, potentially dangerous anomalies. It makes me nervous when I discover electrical work that is noncompliant, but especially when I see that contractor didn’t care enough to even try to conceal their dangerous handiwork. That reckless/dangerous regard for human life tends to cast suspicion on all the work. In those situations I consider the entire house may have concealed sizzling or potential sizzling electrical connections which can only be detected by a licensed journeyman or master electrician with specialized circuit testing tools. Another disappointment: it's typical that builders do not replace all the copper piping prior to doing all the finish work. The thing with replacing copper piping with PEX pipe is that the PEX pipe will last the life of the building. This old piping will require replacing in the near future, why didn't the builder do it while he had everything opened up. The simple Answer is: he didn't want to waste any money on a home he was not going to live in. Let someone else deal with it.
I'm very pleased to hear that you are working through some of our discoveries. As you have discovered, every home is a starter kit with alterations and decorations but also there will be a list of necessary repairs and improvements to solidify the home and its function.

Happy trails...
Ted Gilmour