My Job. As I see it, the Home Inspection business is a branch of public education. My main job is to give you an introduction to building technology as it applies to your new or existing home, and help you anticipate what to expect from it. Nearly every aspect of technology ever invented has been applied to homes. No one knows all of it, including me, but I do my best to give you an orientation and provide resources for further study.

My Recommendations. I am in the Information business, not the telling-you-what-to-do business. In reports, I describe conditions I think you should know about, define why they may be of concern, and recommend what to do about them – if anything. A recommendation is just that – a suggestion based on my personal and professional experience as to what is in your best interest in the long term. Like all home inspectors, I have no authority to “call” conditions or order anyone to fix anything. How, when, and whether to deal with defects is nearly always a matter of personal judgment for homeowners.

About Inspections of Older Homes. There has long been a controversy in the inspection industry about how to describe conditions in older homes. This is especially relevant here in the inner East Bay, where most of the housing is 50 to 100 years old. Some inspectors with a conservative approach feel that anything that would not have been considered a defect when a house was built should not be one now. A few conservative Realtors feel that such conditions should not even be mentioned by inspectors.

I take a different view. My main consideration is my clients’ expectations of safety, comfort, and durability, not technical questions as to when certain rules or practices may have been adopted. The public’s expectations have changed enormously in the past few decades, not to mention in the past century. When I inform my clients that an old furnace or electrical system does not meet modern standards, it’s irrelevant that it was considered state of the art in, say, 1920. An example I often use concerns fences around swimming pools, which are required in modern housing to prevent accidental drowning of small children. There is rarely a requirement that a fence be added around a pool in an older home, but if a child drowns – and several drown each year in the Bay Area -- are you going to feel better knowing that a fence was not required?