We were seeking a home inspection for a house that had been constructed a year ago (this was for our one year warranty period). We had initially hired another home inspector when we were closing on the home. However, we were very disappointed with our first home inspector because he was not as thorough or careful in his work as we would have liked (this sometimes happens when someone assumes that the home has few problems because it is new). As a result, we chose to go with a different home inspector because we wanted a careful and detailed inspection before the warranty on our home expired. We asked around to find a home inspector with a strong reputation for attention to detail and the name that consistently came to our attention was Susan Walker. Thus, we contacted her. She was very pleasant, prompt, and professional in her response and we were able to quickly schedule a home inspection.
Susan is the 4th home inspector that I have observed complete a home inspection and by far, she was the most thorough. This is not to say that all of the other home inspectors did not complete good work, I just found her to be more complete and detailed in her inspection. She did not seem to make any assumptions that there would not be any problems because our home was newer and was diligently in opening all cupboards, windows, etc., in addition to other elements that would be inspected in a standard home inspection (e.g., all faucets, showers, smoke alarms). This detailed inspection was particularly desired because some aesthetic elements can be addressed in a home warranty that may not typically addressed with an older home.
What was particularly helpful for us was that Susan identified the presence of standing water in our crawlspace (an issue that we did not even suspect had existed). She flagged this as an issue of important concern and strongly encouraged us to contact drainage specialists to obtain estimates and plans of how they would address the problems. We contacted two companies and came to realize how serious the problem in our crawlspace was. We would not have been aware of how serious the problem was without her inspection. The conditions under our house were the same when the first home inspector examined our home but he did not identify the problems as clearly as she did (he indicated that there was some water that should be removed but did not note some important grading deficits that were present) and we thought that the problem had been appropriately addressed by the builder (which it had not). As a result of Susan's inspection and recommendation, we discovered that we had some pretty serious water issues (e.g., the water had accumulated in the low-lying areas in our home with no way to drain (the low point drain was at a high point under our home), the water had been present for a long period of time). After consulting with drainage specialists and completing the work (which required a sump pump given the conditions under our home), we discovered that we had over 30 gallons of water in our crawlspace which would have contributed to serious long term problems to our health and our home had it continued to go undetected. We are very thankful for Susan's careful inspection of our home! read more
