We’re pleased to announce that we’ve been retained to perform quality assurance inspections for a medical facility that will be waterproofed with crystalline waterproofing on a building that has suffered from water intrusion.
The facility is an ob/gyn office that needs to be kept sterile and moisture and mold free. Angelus Waterproofing of Huntington Beach will be applying Koster Systems crystalline waterproofing to the interior of the block walls as the exterior has a stucco system that would be costly to remove. With our assistance the owners of the building selected crystalline waterproofing as the best choice given the conditions and restrictions.
With our years of experience conducting quality assurance inspections and having a highly qualified waterproofing contractor perform the work, the building will be protected from water intrusion for many years as crystalline waterproofing is a permanent system that is impervious to degradation unlike many typical liquid or membrane applied systems.
If you are in need of ensuring your building is being waterproofed properly, please contact us to discuss our quality assurance inspections and how they benefit you, ensure that the waterproofing is being installed correctly and meets all requirements for the manufacturers warranty.
Bill Leys performing quality assurance inspections at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto on waterproofing over the surgical ward.
We’re still trying to get more information, a balcony collapsed in Hawaii with 7 people on it. The balcony appears to have only been nailed to the building from what we can see.
As seen here, the deck appears to have fallen off the building. It appears to have been nailed into the building instead of bolted. An inspection probably would have caught that flaw. Photo used under the fair use doctrine for education.
This is why inspections matter! The 11th anniversary of Berkeley was two days ago, and here we are again, another collapse. For the people on this balcony, they were injured but they will all be going home from reports I’ve read.
Please schedule your inspection ASAP, if you are renting property either through Airbnb or long-term, protect yourself and your tenants with an inspection.
We serve San Luis Obispo County as well as Santa Barbara and Ventura County for deck inspections under SB326 and general inspections for rental and personal property.
Does your inspection company have 1099 contractors using Pogo sticks to perform your balcony inspection? This might be a little exaggerated, but the point is, a cheap inspection is a cheap inspection. Hiring the wrong inspectors could cost your HOA dearly. Read on…
Not actual footage of a deck inspection company doing SB326 inspections, but it seems that this method is used in many cases. Blurry photographs, unclear reports, inspections done by 1099 contractors, that low fee for a Stage 1 SB 326 inspection is a loss leader that turns into sky-high engineering and repair fees.
There are still quite a few HOAs out there that haven’t had a balcony inspection done yet. Many are smaller, self managed HOAs that haven’t heard of SB326. These smaller associations are easy prey for unsavory unethical inspection companies that need to feed their never ending high overhead.
By offering ridiculously low initial inspection fees, they Hoover up the unsuspecting HOAs into their pipeline. Once the HOA is in their grasp, they ratchet up the pressure on them; saying you have deck problems and the City is going to fine you $500 a day if you don’t immediately comply… And then they tell you that you need their engineering services, which might be true, although often times it’s not.
This is where the cheap bid the company gave you turns into a high cost engineering job, often coding thousands more than what ethical firms charge. Don’t fall for low fees; all it means is there won’t be an engineer present doing the inspection. That low fee, that’s hundreds or thousands less than legitimate engineers and waterproofing experts fees means there’s going to be a guy on a Pogo stick getting paid $280 a day (we have the help-wanted ads to prove it!) to bounce around your HOA going as fast as he can. He’s probably received very little training, has zero experience in actually building, waterproofing or inspecting decks, yet some people believe that the inspection is just as good as the experts inspections are.
At William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, we and our engineering team are dedicated to providing the very best inspection possible. We know that inspections save lives, protect property and more importantly, reduce liability for the HOA, the HOAs insurance company and the management company.
Bill Leys has performed hundreds of SB 326 inspections since 2020, and with his engineering partners, provides peace of mind with our comprehensive detailed inspections.
Call us today for a free conversation about how we inspect, why we’re better and why your HOA is in good hands with us! Call 805-801-2380 today!
Bill Leys, President of William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC recently completed the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council’s “Design for Fire Resilience” Structure Hardening Course for Architects and Building Designers at the Council’s headquarters on State Street in Santa Barbara. The day long course, led by nationally recognized wildfire expert Dave Shew taught participants about techniques and best practices to harden homes in the WUI. As recognized home hardening building designers, we can now help SLO and Santa Barbara County homeowners with strategies to reduce their homes exposure to wildfire and survive.
We are now offering home hardening assessments for home owners to help you increase your homes ability to survive fires via a variety of preventative methods, including your landscaping, installing ember resistant vents, ensuring that your roof is ember resistant as well as any decks, windows, siding and doors.
Reach out today to learn more about our latest service we offer to help our community survive and resist wildfire!
Call Bill Leys today at 805-801-2380!
Reach out today for a home evaluation! 805-801-2380
Download the Santa Barbara Fire Safe Council/Cal Fire’s free GUIDE FOR HOME HARDENING here at this link below. We bring this guide to you as a public service to increase community safety. No infringement of any copy rights owned by any entity is intended.
Attention HOAs, SB 410 took effect on January 1st and imposes certain requirements on HOAs and on balcony inspection companies.
For HOA Boards of Directors, you are affected in several ways; the first being that SB326 reports are now considered to be HOA records, which means an owner can request and review them at any time. Secondly, reports cannot be withheld or redacted and third sellers of a common interest development property now must provide buyers with the most recent SB326 inspection report.
In regards to inspection companies, their reports must include as of January 1st, the date of the inspection, the total number of units in the community. How many exterior elevated elements there are? And I think it would be a good idea to break down how many of each type there are IE stairs versus balcones versus walkways. How many units have exterior elevated elements? How many exterior elevated elements were inspected and whether any safety concerns were identified.
Our engineering partner is already in compliance with these requirements and so we are ready to forge ahead and set the bar with our superior inspections and inspection reports.
Lastly But probably the most important part of sb410 is the requirement for HOAs to have an engineer issue a final report after repairs are made to life safety issues. This final report is needed to be able to enable buyers of property obtain mortgages and sellers of properties to be able to sell without undue delay. Personally, I expect that we will see legal claims brought against HOAs that fail to obtain final inspection reports and unnecessarily delay there homeowners to be able to close a sale.
As always, this is not legal advice. Please obtain the advice of your HOA attorney related to SB 410 sb326 and any other bills that may affect common interest developments related to balcony inspections.
As deck inspection experts who concentrate on SB 326 inspections for condos, we see a lot of defects in our line of work.
This week was no different, at an inspection we performed with our engineering partners at Critical Structures Inc we found numerous railings that were structurally compromised. The wood railings on 16 decks were assembled using nails to fasten the stiles to the railing frame.
We don’t like nails for structural railings meant to prevent falls from the deck. In the past, nails were the method most often used, whereas today structural screws are required. At this property we check the railings by pushing on them and with a light kick at the bottom. To our horror, we discovered numerous railing stiles were not able to withstand a light kick without pushing out with the nails.
Watch our 30 second video to understand
Hidden railing dangers found by Deck Expert Bill Leys!
Our biggest fear is that a child leaning against the railing stiles might fall if the nails fastening the stiles pull out of the wood rail bottom piece. With these decks over the concrete driveway and being 14′ high on the lower deck and 24′ tall on the upper deck, any fall from that height would probably have fatal consequences.
This discovery highlights why HOAs need to hire the best qualified inspection company instead of the least expensive company. Yeah the cheap company, if they missed these defective railings and an accident happened, would get sued. Small comfort for the victim if they were seriously injured or killed.
At William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, we are very thorough in our inspections, ensuring with our checklist that we check every critical life safety items. Call us today for a free conversation on how we can help you with getting the most thorough inspection at a competitive cost. Call Bill Leys at 805-801-2380.
I started up our company vehicle the other day, and on the dash popped up this warning “Maintenance Required”. We have a Toyota Tacoma, a vehicle that’s legendary for going 300,000+ miles or more. However the taco still needs maintenance, repairs and replacement of parts to get to 300,000 miles. Oil changes, flush the transmission, rotate the tires, a new battery. Take care of your Toyota™ and it will take care of you for years and years.
Why don’t buildings have this?
So I checked and sure enough it’s time for the next oil change. So easy, I don’t have to think about when it is time to change the oil, the vehicle tells me it’s time. And I wondered, why can’t buildings have this built into them? Unfortunately no one has figured out a way to have maintenance required warning signs pop up on a building, at least not yet.
However it’s important to remember that buildings do need required maintenance. Maintenance like roof inspections, cleaning out gutters, repainting, cleaning and repainting the decks,… Stuff like that plus more.
That’s why we here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC are here; to tell you that your building needs maintenance. We offer various services such as roof inspections, deck inspections and building inspections. We do inspections so that you can schedule maintenance when it’s required.
Don’t let your valuable asset deteriorate, keep up on maintenance and inspections and your building will last and last. Call us today at 805-801-2380 for a free conversation about your buildings inspection needs and how we can help your building be the Toyota™ of the construction industry!
Bill Leys on the job inspecting the building for needed maintenance and repairs!
We Will Be Investigating the Source of Water Intrusion on This Medical Center in Santa Maria
William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is pleased to announce that we’ve been selected to investigate the source of water intrusion into a medical building in Santa Maria CA by a well respected local contractor.
The building has been subject to water intrusion over the last several years and is now ready to undergo repairs and upgrades to the facility. As a local consulting firm, William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC offers competitive pricing, building envelope expertise and 20 years of experience in the construction industry.
This is another reason why EEE inspections are necessary!
At William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, we take balcony inspections very seriously as life safety is paramount! Don’t wait until an accident happens, even though no one died in this accident, we’ll bet good money that one or both victims of this railing failure will bring a lawsuit against the building owner. A good inspector likely would have flagged the railing as being unsafe.
Here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC we have found many structural deficiencies over the years on EEEs we have inspected. We have had to post notices informing residents that the balconies were off limits until repairs were made.