Tag Archives: balcony bill

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

SB-410 Takes Affect January 1st 2026, Is Your Inspector Compliant With Its Requirements? We Are!

January 1st is almost upon us and every year in California we see new laws come into effect on the first of the year and this year is no different.

You can watch our video here if you prefer

Deck Expert Bill Leys Discusses SB 410 & How It Effects HOAs & Deck Inspection Firms Reports

Notably for HOAs and balcony inspection companies SB 410 will take effect on January 1st and impose 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.

Please contact us for a quote on a final inspection to be able to close out your documents related to your 326 inspections.

home inspections

A Recent Home Inspection Shows Why a Seller Provided Home Inspection Report is Essentially Worthless

The other home inspector missed this “little” issue

A recent inspection we performed for a prospective buyer of a condominium in San Luis Obispo demonstrates perfectly, why you as a buyer need to have your own inspections done at your own cost. This particular inspection found many issues that were glossed over as simply needing patching and painting rather than complete replacement of major components such as windows, doors, decks and subflooring under a shower.

The seller had a pre sale inspection done at their expense and provided that report to the prospective buyer. He had questions and doubts about the report and reached out to us after searching for a waterproofing and building consultant.

Our inspection found that many items the other inspector glossed over in his report as needing “patching and painting” or minor repairs were far from the real situation which was that all the doors and windows were past their useable lifespan and needed to be completely replaced. We found dry-rotted framing on decks, open and exposed framing on columns, dry-rot in the substrate below a shower floor which requires the substrate to be replaced due to fungus infestations.

Major issues that will require tens of thousands of dollars in repairs are now known issues that will need to be disclosed by the seller if the client who hired us doesn’t complete the purchase. This example illustrates perfectly why inspections don’t cost money, they save you money.

If the prospective buyer does move ahead with the purchase they can negotiate concessions, a lower price or credits to account for the costs necessary to fix the problems we found.

Take a look at the photos below to see what we found, and then give us a call at 805-801-2380 to get a quote on your building envelope inspection on the home or building you are considering purchasing.

When you hire William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC, you are hiring an ethical,  experienced company who puts our clients interests ahead of our own.
SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Santa Monica Condo Board Selects William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC to Perform Their SB 326 Inspection

We’re pleased to announce that we were awarded the contract to perform a SB 326 inspection for a condominium complex on Pacific Street in Santa Monica. The three story building with decks stairs and walkways requiring inspection received several bids from competitors.

The Board after reviewing the bids and each firms credentials, selected our bid over the others, citing that our bid included a guarantee that our engineer will personally inspect the EEEs, that we don’t perform repairs and that our inspection team’s bonafides gave them the confidence in awarding the job to William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC.

These walkways and stairs are EEEs as defined in SB 326 and will be inspected by the best inspection team in the industry.

Of course it might also have helped that the Associations Board has an engineer serving as president and recognized that qualifications matter. Our engineer is an award winning structural engineer with years of experience doing structural inspections.

Don’t leave your critical inspections to the lowest priced inspection company, there’s too much risk in thinking all inspectors are the same. They are not.

Our team has a waterproofing expert with over 20 years of experience in waterproofing and inspections. We guarantee in writing that an engineer will perform the inspection personally and that we don’t bid on any repairs as it’s a conflict of interest. Call today and ask for Bill Leys 805-801-2380.

We aren’t the biggest inspection company, but we are rated highly by our clients and peers as being one of the most diligent.

Articles & Videos

Check Out Our YouTube Videos Here

We just wanted to send you to our articles and videos page to check out the videos from our YouTube channel!

http://sb326deckinspectors.com/articles-powerpoint-presentations-by-bill-leys/

Here are a couple of our most popular vids. Leave a comment and subscribe to our channel!

Learn about how deck drains and scuppers should be installed and why it’s important to counter flash scuppers on the exterior walls.
Learn about ember resistant vents for balconies. Soffits + crawl spaces
Here we discuss who can perform inspections and who must write and sign the report for sb326.
Poor workmanship doomed this new addition with intrusion, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to restore the waterproofing. 

Deck Inspections, SB 326 Balcony Inspections, SB 721 Inspections

Balcony Collapses After SB326 Balcony Inspection Bill Deadline Passes, SB721 Apartment Inspection Bill Was Extended

Balcony collapses in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles CA. Fortunately only minor injuries.



I have questions.
Was this a condo or an apartment?
Was an SB326 or SB721 inspection done and what were the findings?
Who did the inspection if it was inspected?
If it wasn’t inspected, why not? SB326 required inspections to be done by January 1, 2025 and SB721 was extended a year until January 1, 2026.
Did a landlord/property manager delay the inspection if it was an apartment?
Did a board of directors delay an inspection despite the deadline?

All these questions need to be asked by ABC7 Los Angeles who reported this incident. ABC 7 please reach out to me and I will meet you on site today, Sunday Feb 16th to review the accident scene from the street. 805-801-2380 Bill Leys

Someone or someone’s will be getting sued.

Deck Inspections

Why Having a Consultant On Your Side Saves You Heartache…

A client we are working with on a balcony inspection proposal walked us through their underground garage to get to the other side of the building so we could count the decks. As we walked through the garage I mentioned that that were a lot of leak areas and I saw that there was some crumbling concrete as well.

They said oh we are getting the leaks fixed, we have two bids and we are going to hire X company to do the waterproofing on the podium deck above. I said that’s good because you have some problems here… What are they doing? It was then they showed me the two scopes of work that the contractors had proposed to do.

This scope of work mentions nothing about using any particular brand or specific material. It is poorly written and leaves out many important steps that this job requires.
Poorly written as well, this scope of work is ambiguous and like the first scope, has no mention of any brand names or warranty.

We initiated a conversation with the client and discussed these proposals and corresponding scopes of work. The client believed that the work they were ready to award to a contractor was going to fix their problems. Several issues they had were a failing coating on the podium deck, leaks into the building and severe degradation of the structural concrete deck.

Under the podium deck is significant deterioration.
If you see these symptoms in your concrete, you have 99 problems but a waterproof deck ain’t one.
Hidden behind a pan on the ceiling to catch water, hidden structural damage.
Up above on the deck, failing coatings are dangerous to bare feet and they leak into the deck below.
Failing coating at the pool deck coping.
A very clogged up downspout is causing water to back up and causing leaking into the building.

We gave the Association a proposal to consult and perform non destructive percussion testing of their concrete deck and the coating on top. The engineer we partner with and I inspected the deck and as seen above, found some serious damage to the concrete and rebar inside. We found that nearly all of the coating on the top of the deck was delaminated and failing. We found that there was stress on the walls that the pool was set into.

This all added up to the conclusion that simply recoating the deck was not the answer. This Association needs structural concrete repair work done, removal of the coating on the deck, all new flashings around the perimeter, shot-blasting to provide a profiled surface for new coatings to bond to the existing, sloping to drains, cleaning out the drain pipes and a new non slip waterproof coating applied after all prep work was completed.

The job will cost them more than 181k. However, they will receive in return a lot more for their money. They have a consultant on their side that will get responsible contractors to bid on repairs, with quality assurance monitoring to watch over the contractors work and a written warranty from a quality manufacturer.

The Association now knows that they were going to lose 181k of their money and get little in return for it. The two bids were from supposed quality contractors, but we won’t be asking these two companies to bid this project. They should know better than to throw these bids out to their client, but IMO they don’t care about the client and that’s why we won’t ever use them to bid our jobs that we are consulting on.

Reach out today to discuss how we can help your association with your Waterproofing project. Call me, Bill Leys at 805-801-2380 direct or use the contact us box to send us an email. We can get you on the path to completing a successful project that will bring value to your property.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections, SB 721 Inspections

Grover Beach Deck Destroyed By High Winds Reveals Why It Failed -Extensive Dry-rot & Improper Connections

A high wind event that hit Grover Beach in San Luis Obispo county on Wednesday shows us why inspections of decks are so important.

Improper connections of wood panels with glazing in them to the framing & Extensive Dry-rot at posts.

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The apartment building on Grand Ave has a walkway on the second floor, and at some point someone added large panes of acrylic sheets or glass in wood frames to help block the near constant wind that comes through.

The high winds exposed the significant dry-rot that was present in the framing and posts, along with exposing the weak connections. Unfortunately due to the structural damage several residents are not able to access their homes and are living in a motel temporarily.

Because of the damage residents could not return to their homes.

Landlords and HOAs can avoid the liability and potential injuries to residents and guests by having their EEEs inspected by the experts at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC.

We can do your SB721 and SB326 balcony inspections for you and get you into compliance. Do not expose yourself to unnecessary liability by failing to get inspected.

Reach out today for a free EEE evaluation and proposal.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Signs A Simi Valley HOA For a Stage 1 SB 326 Inspection

We are pleased to announce that we’ve just signed a contract with an HOA in Simi Valley for a Stage 1 balcony inspection.

The inspection will include 44 balconies and 32 stairs that are required to be inspected under the bill.

Citing our experience and having the best price of the 3 bidding firms, the HOA has placed it’s confidence in us by voting to hire us

See the difference when you hire William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC! Get in touch today!

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Remembering The Berkeley Balcony Victims on the 8th Anniversary of The Tragedy

Today marks the 8th year since the balcony at Library Gardens literally fell off the building with 13 young adults standing on it to take a birthday photograph Seven people died as a result of a near 40 foot fall to the concrete sidewalk below. Ashley Donohoe, Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Nick Schuster, Lorcan Miller died at the scene and Aoife Beary passed away on January 2, 2022. The survivors were left with lifetime suffering and pain from grievous injuries.

I contributed to several newspaper articles with my opinion, I reviewed plans, photographs and other information sent to me by journalists for the LA Times and Mercury News Group. There is no doubt in my mind that the defect that caused the deaths and injuries to these kids was set into motion the day a carpenter took a saw to the laminated veneer lumber beams and cut them to provide slope on the deck without then sealing up the open exposed wood/glue to prevent water from getting into the material. With the addition of OSB/oriented strand board, and all of that crap wood being soaked for months during a rainy winter set into motion the demise of that balcony.

The builder didn’t protect the deck from moisture the carpenter didn’t protect it from moisture nobody protected it from moisture and as a result of carelessness neglect whatever they want to call it the blood on that sidewalk may be washed away but it’s still there… That sidewalk is holy ground. I make a sign of the cross when I’m on that sidewalk.

There is no doubt in my mind that a balcony inspection should have found problems and that deck would have been. People had reported that the deck had unusual slope… Which seems to indicate that the deep beams were slowly failing. It is also reported that they were mushrooms on the ceiling below that was simply scraped away, which should have been a huge warning sign of moisture intrusion. It certainly would have set alarm bells off in my head.

The Berkeley deck collapse is on my mind every time I perform a balcony inspection. I think what if that was my daughter or son lying on that sidewalk? I think about the parents and families who lost their child and I renew my vow each time in insisting that I do the best inspection possible, that when our engineer signs your report that your balconies are safe, that I won’t wake up one morning to the news of a deck collapse on a property we’ve inspected. This is that important to me.

Contact us today via text or calling 805-801-2380, email us using the contact box to the left …

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Palm Springs HOA Selects William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Perform SB 326 Inspections on Their EEEs

We are pleased to announce that we have been selected to perform inspections under SB 326 for a property in Palm Springs CA. With over 70 EEEs to inspect, the association sought inspection quotes from some of the best inspection companies in California. We are honored to be thought of as highly as Sigler & Associates, A7 and Focused Inspection Group and asked to bid this job.

The Board of Directors interviewed each company after reviewing their proposals. I specifically told the Board during my interview that if our company lost the job, that I knew they had competent bidders that had no conflicts of interest and that I could sleep soundly knowing that they would be in good hands if they selected another company. I continually warn my managers that there are unsavory deck inspectors that are only seeking to take advantage of unsuspecting HOAs that are easy marks. We guarantee that we have no conflicts of interest. Some deck inspectors own waterproofing companies that want to do the repairs without you getting three competitive bids…

People say I’m crazy to talk up my competitors, but I don’t look at these companies as competitors, I look at them as peers worthy of respect and that they represent our industry well. I’m happy that we were awarded the job… And look forward to bringing your Association competitive bids against my worthy peers. May your association win the best inspection it deserves.

Your association deserves the best inspector who has zero conflicts of interest.

Call me, Bill Leys the Deck Inspector at 805-801-2380 for a fast free quote on your SB 326 inspection. We’ll be happy to bid against our peers and so will they.