Posted by Can your inspector also do the repairs? It is a frequently asked question yet difficult to respond to.
Since I am an authority in stucco repair, conducting a moisture assessment or inspection would be a conflict of interest. It might be challenging to walk the fine line between alerting a homeowner to prospective stucco problems and then telling them the cost of repairing the damage.
Here’s the Scenario
I’ll tell you about something that just happened. A well-known general house inspector had been recruited by a luxury builder who also happened to be a close friend to see a recently built mansion. Additionally, to stucco checks, this inspector does moisture evaluations.
This inspector has a reputation for doing inspections and providing quotes for repairing any issues he finds. Then, he said, a relative would supervise the project. This was something we knew about.
Therefore the builder/friend asked if I could attend the reinspection since the first inspection seemed a bit “off.”
What We Did
As my first action, I set up a meeting with the inspector with a different, very close buddy for an hour following the re-inspection. The meeting was to discuss a cost estimate for some stucco repairs.
The inspector started his tests once everyone had come for the stucco reinspection. He was using a wet wall meter to test the walls within the house, which is the first unexpected aspect.
It was rather hot and humid outdoors when this test was conducted in the summer. The inside of the house was a chilly 72 degrees. The house had roughly 7,500 square feet, 14-foot ceilings, and magnificent marble floors.
The Problem
This is essential because stucco should NEVER be inspected from the inside. The relative humidity of the interior will skew the moisture measurement, leading to false positives. For the meter’s prongs to reach the plywood under the stucco, it may be remembered from prior articles that a moisture measurement must be taken from the outside.
Our inspector refuted this and cited more places that he thought were highly saturated with water. He looked out more than 20 different locations for us, and the readings were much too high each time he did. To be clear, this was a brand-new home. Although it wasn’t likely, it was very unlikely that these readings were accurate.
As expected, hostilities between the inspector and builder worsened as the inspection went on. The time they had thus arrived to ask that essential inquiry. Do you have a strategy to fix all the harm?
The inspector said no, so I asked him about his forthcoming appointment. He said that he needed to go immediately to work. Then it was explained that his position was to get an estimate for stucco repair, and he was informed that he had to show up.
Conflict of Interest
This information is essential because when we opened a wall from the outside, we found that everything was entirely dry in a sample of the areas that this inspector had assessed and determined to be damaged. Inspector made a mistake.
Does it call into question the integrity of the inspector’s findings? Here his mistakes were unintentional? Has he knowingly made misleading statements to get a repair contract?
There is a conflict of interest here. Only let the inspector tell you what is wrong with your home after giving you a repair cost estimate.
If the inspection turned out to be incorrect, would you be informed? Is there a means to question the inspector, and is there a return from the review or the repair so you can be sure you are not paying for something unnecessary?
These reasons make it essential for your project to use a neutral inspector and a neutral stucco repair contractor. Honesty and integrity cannot be questioned. You can rely on your inspector to ensure that the stucco work is always done correctly. You can always rely on your stucco contractor if the report overlooked something or produced a false positive.
You Can Trust Jersey Shore Stucco
At ICE Stucco, we avoid having conflicts of interest. Never consent to an inspection offer for your stucco home from Jersey Shore Stucco Repair. We can give you with the names of people several top-notch inspectors. Stucco repair is what we do best.
Contact Jersey Shore Stucco right now to learn more about what we can do for you!