Inspections Plus

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately in Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge inspecting high-value condos in older buildings — many of them 100+ years old, beautifully located, and full of character.

But one thing keeps coming up: a great-looking condo unit is not always the same thing as a modern building.

The finishes matter, but so does the infrastructure behind them — electrical capacity, older wiring, shared plumbing, heating systems, masonry, roof drainage, and association responsibility.

For older Boston-area condos, the inspection needs to look past the unit and into the building context.

I wrote more about that here: https://wix.to/ZMf9N86

The Hidden Layer in $1M Boston Condos Inside a 100-year-old Boston-area condo building, the finishes may look great — but the shared infrastructure still matters. Here’s why older condos need a building-context inspection.

Crawl spaces shouldn't be treated like vented dirt cavities. They belong dry, sealed, insulated, and built as controlled environments to protect your home from moisture, mold, and pests. Learn what to look for and why it matters in our latest post: https://wix.to/N7Eeq6B

Crawl Spaces Should Be Dry, Sealed, and Built as Controlled Spaces A crawl space should not be treated like a vented dirt cavity under the house. It should be dry, sealed, insulated, and built as a controlled environment from the start.

Concrete block piers in a crawlspace may look simple, but they carry real floor loads. Here’s what to watch for in older New England homes and cottages: https://wix.to/Dfkpqo4

Crawl Space Support Columns: A Common Structural Detail That Deserves a Closer Look Concrete block support columns in crawl spaces may look simple, but they play a major role in carrying floor loads down to the footing below. In older New England homes and cottages, these areas often deserve a closer look.

Interesting manufactured-home setup today: an exterior packaged AC unit with an electric auxiliary heat coil built into the system.

Primary heat was from a forced hot water boiler, but this unit had the ability to provide supplemental electric heat through the ductwork if activated.

Good reminder: not every “AC unit” is just AC.

Why does foundation anchorage matter? It’s the connection that ties a home’s framing to its foundation so the structure resists movement and stays stable. Learn how anchor bolts, spacing, embedment, and placement all play a role in keeping a house in place. Read more: https://wix.to/VjrSrv4

Foundation Anchorage Basics: The Connection That Helps Keep a House in Place Foundation anchorage is what helps tie a home’s framing to its foundation so the structure can better resist movement and remain stable under load. Anchor bolts, spacing, embedment, and placement all matter because this is one of the basic connections that helps keep a house in place.

Before I even step through the front door, the inspection has already begun. I look at the home’s age, construction, setting, and neighborhood to understand the bigger picture — those first impressions often reveal important clues. Read the full article to learn what I evaluate before I get out of the car: https://wix.to/5jWaWGn

Before I Even Get Out of the Car The inspection doesn’t start at the front door. A lot of times, it starts earlier — with the age of the home, the setting, the neighborhood, and the story a property starts telling before the real inspection even begins.A home inspection doesn’t begin when I walk through the front door. A lot ...

Basement mold is uncomfortably common, and a lot of it goes unnoticed.

Most people are looking for obvious, dramatic growth and miss the more common reality: widespread surface mold and fungal-type staining on basement walls, doors, and floors that only really shows itself under close inspection and strong lighting. In this case, the basement had mold conditions throughout, but much of it was easy to overlook until viewed properly.

That matters, because visible mold growth is usually not the core issue by itself. The real issue is the environment that allowed it to develop — chronic dampness, elevated humidity, past water entry, poor air movement, and basement conditions that stay wet longer than they should.

This is one of the reasons basements need to be inspected carefully and with intention. A quick casual look is often not enough. The point is not just to say “there is mold.” The point is to identify the moisture conditions behind it, because that is where the real correction starts.

This is not an ideal installation condition for an exterior condenser unit.

The surrounding grade is too high and too tight to the base of the equipment, allowing earth, stone, moisture, and runoff to remain in direct contact with the lower portion of the unit and its support surface. That is a bad long-term setup. When exterior mechanical equipment sits in conditions like this, the bottom of the cabinet and base area are more vulnerable to ongoing damp exposure, corrosion, and premature deterioration.

The better approach is to create a more suitable installation environment for the equipment itself — whether that means lowering the surrounding grade, improving drainage and clearance, or mounting the unit differently if the slope makes a ground-level installation impractical.

A lot of HVAC problems are not just equipment problems. Sometimes the site conditions are what shorten the life of the unit.