accutechhi

In my personal opinion, it is hard to justify the inspection fee very convincingly, if the report is delivered on site; because then the client knows exactly how many hours you worked in the process. If however one delivers the report, after you come away (say over night or so) then one can imagine that your time input was much more than just the hours you were inspecting. Not to mention all the other reasons that others have written for not delivering on site. If I have time (which I usually I do not) then I use it to start the process on my laptop. The other reason is that it limits the number of inspections you can do in a day. Last but not the least important is that if you give reports on site, then the agents expect it every time there after, and it is hard to go back to delivery later on. That is how I feel, about not delivering on site. Happy inspecting!!!

I can share my experience in NJ; (I am also a construction manager, so I see a lot of rehabs / additions etc and see the components when exposed). I do not know much about the construction practices in your city, but this info may be of some help. We have some brick foundation in older parts of Jersey City (NJ). Vast majority of these have lime sand mortar (Portland cement became prevalent only after 1908 here). And vast majority have no footers (or footings). Where you do see some, there are no steel re-bars. This type of foundation is generally prone to very high moisture retention (there are rarely any moisture barriers etc). Brick is more porous than cement and lime makes it even worst. This leads to heavy spalling (even the best of kaolin clay would be prone to it; except when it porcelain faced). Tuck pointing is for replacing lost mortars not brick (lost face). (Side issue: I do not recommend on how to repair, at least in writing, but caution, do not use Portland cement admixture for mortar on old lime mortars; that will make it even worst). Besides the usual i.e. cracks, mortar, spalling, sagging, alignment etc I generally test for moisture retention (if you do not have a moisture meter) touch of hand may reveal colder spots (or darker color). There are no authoritative papers on brick life spans but it is generally being assumed at 100 to 150 years. (Lime sand mortar has much longer span). Depending upon the soil bearing capacity of the land it is built on and the water tables in your area (vast majority here are on solid rock formation so we do not have sub soil water problems (even though it is very close to Hudson river), that could be another area of concern (it would be same as any type of foundation). If that were to be case, weep hole (should be recommended; if excessive hydrostatic pressure is suspected). Interior plastering is a poor choice for repairing 100 year old brick (if it has to be done, then there are very special systems for that application) Other than that, if you shoot me pictures, may be I could provide my 2 cents for it, for what ever it is worth. It should not be that hard though, Good luck Jay accutechhi

Does any one know a person who can modify InspectIt (AHIT) software to make me few template (macros)to my style of reports (MS WORD)for a reasonable sum and may be help me run through it few times. I am not a IT geek and the learning curve for me is very frustrating. I do not wish to go to non WORD type of softwares. TKX for help.