Building Inspections Blog
Keeping water out of your home is one of the most important ways to prevent damage to your structure and belongings. However, that's easier said than done, especially for buildings in older neighborhoods, where proper site grading was not a priority decades ago. So here are the steps, in order of priority, to address site [...]
Home hardening and defensible space are the two main strategies used to protect your home from wildfire. While defensible space addresses the vegetation around the structure - home hardening addresses the structure itself - and "hardens" it against the heat and embers of a wildfire. Most people understand the need to protect a home from [...]
Given the wildfire seasons of the last few years, defensible space is a term you may have heard in the news. Defensible space is an area around your home with reduced vegetation levels, and is used to give firefighters a safe space to defend your home. In conjunction with home hardening, defensible space will give [...]
A commercial inspection can be similar to a home inspection, but there are some key differences. Most home inspectors use a standard of practice developed by an inspection organization, such as ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors). Many commercial inspectors use the E2018 standard developed by ASTM (American Society for Testing & Materials). While the [...]
In 2015, the City of Berkeley passed the Building Emissions Saving Ordinance (BESO), which mandated energy assessments (Department of Energy's Home Energy Score) at time of sale. BESO replaced Berkeley's old RECO ordinance, getting rid of RECO's mandatory energy savings measures, and replacing them with assessments that score homes on a 1-10 scale and provide [...]
This is a question that we get a lot - as you would expect - but the only true answer is: it depends. It depends on the the size of the building and the location. People understand that bigger buildings will be more expensive, but why does the location affect the price? We are based [...]
Certain brands of drain piping, manufactured between 1984-1990, have a history of failure. The type of drain piping is a black plastic material known as ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). While ABS is still a common material used for drain piping, a few manufacturers in the mid-to-late 1980s had what amounted to a few years [...]
If you are looking for fast, friendly, and professional service, give us a call! Customer service skills comes naturally, having helped out at her family's bakery in Berkeley as soon as she could reach the counters. She also attended City College of San Francisco and Gupton Jones in Decatur, GA. Seana has lived all [...]
While looking at houses in the Bay Area you may be curious if you are near an earthquake fault, as several major faults run through our region. Temblor is an app (and website) that makes finding them easy. The app is especially helpful as you can use location services to find your address without having [...]
After patiently waiting through the pandemic to add another rock star inspector to our team, we hired Jeff Spellman! After graduating from American Home Inspectors Training (AHIT), and passing the National Home Inspectors Exam, Jeff started training with JMC Inspections in July of 2021. He is an ASHI Inspector and a member of the local chapter: [...]
