Tag Archives: building inspector

Deck Inspections, SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Balcony Collapse in Hawaii Injures Seven People!

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.

Call today 805-801-2380

home inspections

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is Now A Home Hardening Certified Provider via The Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council’s “Design for Fire Resilience” Training Course

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.

Guide For Home Hardening Download

Roof Inspections and Consulting

Buildings Don’t Come With “Maintenance Required” Warning Signs That Automatically Pop Up

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!
leak investigation

San Luis Obispo Contractor Selects William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Investigate Leaks at Santa Maria Medical Offices

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.

Continue reading San Luis Obispo Contractor Selects William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Investigate Leaks at Santa Maria Medical Offices →
Quality Assurance Observations

“Structural Issues” Cause Bay Area Condo Building to Be Evacuated Until Temporary Shoring is Installed

UPDATE AS OF 3/19/26

We spoke with reporter Kevin Nguyen at the SF Standard regarding this property after he reached out to us asking about this property. We were the source that alerted Kevin to the fact that the picture below by  Anna Nevskaya showed failed post tension cables poking out from the building.

Turns out that post tension cables that support the podium deck slab have failed. I saw a review on Google by an owner at the property and knew instantly this building is F’d.

I’ll now predict that the slab can’t be fixed and the building will have to be demolished. What engineer in their right mind would believe that the other cables that aren’t broken are ok and just recommend repairs to the failed cables? No one in their right mind would in my opinion.

Post tension cables have broken in numerous places in one area as seen in this photo taken by Anna Nevskaya (and republished here for public knowledge.) The cause is unknown but is likely related to either damage caused by a massive fire that occurred during the construction, water damage or both.
Continue reading “Structural Issues” Cause Bay Area Condo Building to Be Evacuated Until Temporary Shoring is Installed →
Quality Assurance Observations, Roof Inspections and Consulting, Uncategorized

Bill Leys of William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Completes Steep Slope Roofing Systems For The WUI Training

President Bill Leys of William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC recently attended a webinar presented by SGH on “Steep Slope Roofs in the WUI”.

The one hour AIA approved course discussed the additional requirements for roofs on homes and buildings in California’s Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) that increase a roofs resistance to ember storms which are one of the biggest causes of wildfires running unchecked through homes in vulnerable areas.

With this new knowledge and increased awareness of the challenges that homes face in the WUI, William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is better prepared to assist our clients as their building envelope consultant.

Staying up to date on new requirements, products and technologies in construction is important and we are dedicated to increasing our knowledge so our clients can benefit.

Reach out today for a free discussion on what building envelope issues you may be experiencing and how we may be able to help.

Call today 805-801-2380.

Bill Leys performing quality assurance inspections at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto.
When it comes to waterproofing buildings, clients reach out to William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC to bring that dream to life! We do consulting quality assurance inspections and leak investigations.
SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Watch Our Videos on TikTok, Insta & YouTube!

Did you know that we have a YouTube, Instagram and TikTok channel for you to keep up with us? Yep it’s true.

We post our latest videos first on TikTok. Follow us here  http://tiktok.com/@bill_leys_the_deckexpert

Then we generally post to YouTube a few days later. Follow us here https://youtube.com/@bill-leys-is-the-deck-expert?si=CkGOi5RC7ps4w_Z0

Soon after we post the videos to Instagram, follow us here https://www.instagram.com/wleyswaterproofingconsultants?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

We appreciate the outreach from so many people around the state who are appreciative of what we’re doing here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC!

If you don’t trust your balcony inspection report, if your balcony inspection company is pressuring you to take out special assessments, if your balcony inspection company also does repairs, you need to reach out to us today to help you defend against unethical immoral tactics designed to separate your HOA from its money. We perform second opinion inspections that can help an HOA determining if they got a good report or not.

Call today, I answer the phone personally! Bill Leys 805-801-2380

Personal service at affordable prices!
SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Instagram Featured Video Stair Rebuild by One Structural/Balcony 1 Shows Multiple Construction Defects Being Installed in Real Time!

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle…”

A recent Insta video posted by One Structural/Balcony 1 reminded me of the lyrics from a 1972 song by Stealers Wheel… And after watching the video several times I wondered why I wasn’t having a stroke over the numerous defects in their work. The video purports to show their expertise in rebuilding a set of stairs and waterproofing them. (The video appears to have been removed from their profile located here https://www.instagram.com/onestructural?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)

In the video it showed a timeline of rebuilding a set of stairs. As I watched it play out I screenshot a few pics, see below.

Starting with the framing rebuild, we can see water/fungus damaged stair stringers that weren’t replaced, damaged sheathing on the wall that wasn’t replaced and new wood that looks like my 3 year old nephew installed.
Continue reading Instagram Featured Video Stair Rebuild by One Structural/Balcony 1 Shows Multiple Construction Defects Being Installed in Real Time! →
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.

Continue reading A Recent Home Inspection Shows Why a Seller Provided Home Inspection Report is Essentially Worthless →
Roof Inspections and Consulting

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Helps Clients Whose Property Has Been Damaged Caused By Construction Defects Recover Financially

Even before William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC was formed, President Bill Leys has been assisting clients throughout California recover financial damages from contractors who caused construction defects that led to water intrusion and property damage. As an expert waterproofing consultant serving San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kern and Los Angeles counties, we’ve helped clients recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years.

Our expertise in building technology and waterproofing methods, investigative skills and ability to document and report on the problems, the causes and suggested repairs needed have allowed our clients to convince the Contractors State License Board, the contractors at fault and their Bond companies to act. We’ve seen great success with the CSLB investigating complaints, contractors agreeing to repair defective work and have bond and insurance carriers pay on claims made by our clients.

Some recent success stories include helping a client in San Bernardino recover 5k+ in damages caused by faulty deck waterproofing work by a contractor from Palm Springs. Our investigation found that the contractors “expert witness” actually had business ventures with his client, leading to the Judge concluding the contractors witness had implicit bias in favor of his client. In other words, his testimony was rejected by the Court. Our client got a court order that the contractor had to remove a lien on their home and could not collect $5,000 they claimed our client owed.

No blocking between the old and new plywood is a defect that will cause any waterproofing to eventually fail.

Another success story found us assisting a client in Avila Beach whose recent kitchen addition was apparently leaking. Our investigation found windows were leaking from faulty installation, deck flashing that leaked from faulty installation and as a result of our testing and report, the client was able to successfully initiate a claim against the contractors general liability insurance and recover funds to repair their damages. The client made a confidential settlement with the insurance company for well over 6 figures.

Continue reading William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Helps Clients Whose Property Has Been Damaged Caused By Construction Defects Recover Financially →