Tom did the inspection for the home that my wife and I purchased in the summer of 2014. Considering…read morehow much stuff I had going on at the time, and considering how the unsexy home inspection is compared to the thousands of other services that exist on Yelp, and considering how little I actually write reviews on Yelp, it didn't really cross my mind to post about my experience. It is kind of hard to accurately remember all the details after five years, but above and beyond simple writing up a report, I do remember that he took his time walk through everything with me, pointed out minor problem areas that I would have to address, as well as suggested some great solutions to them, and he took tons of photos.
So why am I writing a review nearly 5 years later? Fast forward to last week, when I had to contact him again.
Backstory: Our living room has no overhead lighting at all, and is fairly dark all year round. I have been wanting to install some overhead fixtures, but due to having electric radiant ceiling heating cable being embedded directly in the ceiling plaster, this was problematic. I was worried that I would accidentally severe the heating cable and now have a costly repair bill and/or be without heat. Or even more worrisome, not know it and create a scenario that leads to an electric fire.
I did remember had used his thermal imaging camera to take photos of the heating in every single room, and that he had sent us a disc containing all of the images that he took during the inspection. I figured that I could use the images to identify where the element was.
Unfortunately, when I looked in the file drawer where I store all of our home documents, I found the printed copy of his report, but I could not find the disc. Like a jackass, I must have put it somewhere else. 5 years is a long time to remember where I would have put it. I highly doubted that he would still have a copy of those images after all of these years, but I figured I would check with him anyway. I gave him a call and I explained what I was doing and and asked if he would be able to email or dropbox me the images.
I can't remember what he said word for word, so I am paraphrasing his response to me: "I should still have them in the office, but dude, I wouldn't try to locate where to put the hole based on the thermal. I took them to make sure the heating cables were working, probably at an angle, and you probably will not be able to determine the element spacing and orientation. I'll tell you what though. I'll be in your neck of the woods next Tuesday morning. If you can be home, I can bring my thermal imager and help you figure it out."
Sure'nough, he showed up this morning with both his camera and a disc containing the copies of the original inspection images in hand. In no short order were able to measure the spacing and orientation of the cable, as well as mark out the lightbox location. We chatted for a few more minutes about the house, before he left with the following parting words "So now that we know where everything is, have marked out the spot for the box, accurately written down the measurements, you are going to give them to a professional electrician instead of trying to do it yourself, right?"
I think I am going to trust his instinct on the final point - he didn't steer me wrong 5 years ago, didn't steer me wrong one week ago, and didn't steer me wrong today. Tom rocks.