Warranties Included With Every Home Inspection! See Details

I’ll inspect the structure, systems and components of the home, inside and out, from the foundation to the roof, using the latest tools and technology.

I encourage you to attend your inspection so that I can describe my process, explain my findings, point out important maintenance items, and answer all your questions.

As a Certified Professional Inspector trained by InterNACHI, I adhere to a comprehensive Residential Standards of Practice. This means that I will inspect all of the following, when visible and accessible:

• Roof
• Structural Components Attic, Ventilation & Insulation Exterior Cladding
• Porch & Deck
• Attached Garage
• Driveway
• Foundation
• Basement/Crawl Space
• Fireplace Electrical System Plumbing System HVAC System
• Interior, including Built-In Appliances, Ceilings, Floors, & Walls, Windows/Glazing
• Doors

Following my evaluation, I will compile my findings in an easy-to-read report, which will include detailed descriptions and high-resolution digital photos of any issues I’ve discovered. I’ll email you your report within 24 hours, and my job isn’t finished until you understand everything in it.

Termite Inspection

During your termite inspection, you can expect that I will spend about an hour or two thoroughly going over your property. The timeframe will vary depending on the size of the property. I will look at the interior and exterior of the home and check for visible signs of an infestation which includes:

• Droppings
• Broken wings
•  Mud Tubes
• Damaged Wood

I will also check your baseboards, walls, windows, crawl space, door frames, insides of cabinets and closets. I will need full access to your home including the garage and attic and will pay special attention to the bathroom, kitchens, and utility rooms. This is due to subterranean termites that often use places where plumbing penetrates the slab to gain access to your home.

For the exterior of the home, I will look at the exterior walls and eaves of the house, and closely examine the foundation. In addition to signs of damage to the wood, I will be on the lookout for mud tubes on the foundation. After I have thoroughly inspected the home itself, I will move on to the surrounding property and yard to make sure those areas are not showing signs of termite activity.

Once the inspection is complete, I will let you know the findings. If there’s an infestation, treatment will be recommended, but even if there’s not an infestation, I will suggest preventive treatment to keep your home safe. In order to prevent termite infestations some practices you can do include:

• Getting rid of excess moisture
• Keeping landscaping clean
• Repairing the roof and attic as soon as there’s an issue
• Saying ‘no’ to cardboard
• Keeping your eyes open to signs of termite infestation
• Schedule an annual termite inspection

Monster-Free Inspection

Top To Bottom Services provides this inspection free of charge to any parent who wants their children to feel safe and secure in their new home. I will conduct this inspection alongside any standard InterNACHI based home inspection. If the new home shows no evidence of Monsters, Goblins, Ghouls, etc, I will email you an official Monster-Free Certificate. If your child is present, I will let them know that no monsters were found during the inspection and they can expect their certificate via email ASAP.

Pet Friendly

InterNACHI provides their Certified Inspectors with a pet friendly checklist for both cats and dogs. The detailed checklist includes:

• Take a ‘pet’s eye-view’ of things. Get down to the pet’s level and take a look around. Check areas that a pet can access by way of climbing or jumping.
• Look for choking, strangulation, and suffocation hazards. Window treatment cords should be cut so that there are no loops.
• Look for wires and electrical cords that should be covered or unplugged to prevent pets from chewing them and possibly being electrocuted.
• Look for ‘ladders’ that curious pets can climb to access elevated areas, such as countertops and tabletops. These should be eliminated.
• Check that any indoor plants are of varieties that are pet-safe. Lilies can cause kidney failure in cats. Other common plants that are toxic to pets include amaryllis, poinsettia, mums, and aloe vera.

These are just a few of many questions that you as a homeowner can ask yourself to keep your pets safe. Upon request or prior knowledge of current pets, I will provide you with a copy of the checklist for you to have in order to provide 100% safety for your pets.

Bulkhead Inspections

Bulkhead Inspections or more appropriately Bulkhead Assessments can be limited by water clarity and tides. One of the largest problems with bulkhead systems is erosion of the backfill area. As the backfill begins to erode, the granular surface is affected, as is the drainage. The increase in hydrostatic pressure, coupled with the lateral forces of the earth itself, tend to push the bulkhead over or significantly warp.

Wood is historically the most popular choice of material in residential marine bulkhead construction. With proper treatment the service life for a wood bulkhead might be 20 years. CCA is Pressure Treated lumber or Pilings that have been pressure-impregnated with a preservative which makes the wood resistant to attack by marine borers that cause wood to decay. However, treated lumber is not immune from decay and will eventually rot in water. Any wood preservative starts to diminish from the day it is placed in the water. Secondly, wood bulkheads rot out and aluminum ones can corrode out. Wood pilings may last 15-20 years. Wood poly coated pilings may have a warranty of 25 years. Concrete exceeds most of these and is mostly limited by the life of the metal tie-backs.

In some cases, the bulkhead may be damaged due to loads in excess of what it was originally designed to withstand. For example, the homeowners may have installed a swimming pool after the bulkheading. Adding a pool may have damaged the tie-backs as well and the only way of knowing is to dig up the yard. Planting trees along bulkheads can cause damage.

It would be best if inspections are performed at low tide. Portions of bulkheads underwater or buried in the earth are naturally, not able to be seen or inspected depending on water clarity.

Roof Inspections Using a Mav 3 Pro Drone

The conventional method of roof inspection involves sending personnel up a ladder to observe the condition of the roofing system. This procedure has certain limitations, such as inspectors finding certain areas inaccessible and taking a matter of hours to complete their survey of the roofing system. Each of these concerns can decrease the effectiveness of the inspection while increasing its final cost to the client. Having the inspector walking on the roof can also damage the roof. All of this is in addition to the danger of the technicians falling and injuring themselves. These wealth of reasons make the need for a more efficient method of roof inspection obvious.

Drone-assisted roof inspections remove some of the human element from the equation. For instance, using this inspection method eliminates the danger of falling on the part of the inspector and the risk of liability for injury on the part of the client. Not only do our drone units find no roof area inaccessible due to their tight maneuverability, but also capture those areas in fine detail from any angle conducive to analysis using their high-resolution mounted cameras. Finally, drone roof inspections can be completed much more quickly than an unassisted visual inspection can with a permanent recording of the findings. Each of the advantages that drone-assisted visual inspection offers serves to drive down the final price to the customer as compared to the conventional roof inspection. Coastal Inspections uses the DJI MAVIC 3 PRO with the Hasselblad Camera, same camera used by NASA.

UAV Standards and Regulations

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintains a stringent list of regulations on commercial UAV usage. Coastal Inspections observes the following rules for every flight, doing our part to keep the airways safe:

• Each flight is piloted by a technician, certified by the FAA to fly UAVs for commercial use
• Each unit is registered under part 107 with the FAA
• Each UAV weighs less than 55 lbs, including any payload, before takeoff
• Each pilot operates their UAV within visual line of sight only during outdoor inspections
• Each UAV is piloted below the regulatory maximum speed of 100 mph
• Our pilots do not operate their UAV from inside a moving vehicle