My name is rich and I am thinking of entering this field. I am an older guy and was wondering if age would be a barrier before I begin investing in training.
Are there companies that would hire someone while training?
Where are you located? If close to Houston, you could ride along with me on a couple inspection? Perhaps you are the best person to answer your question.
Things to think about…
Do you want to be the technician or do you want to run the business and have a younger guy do the inspections?
If my memory does not fail me, the oldest guy in my class when I was training was 72 years old. Great guy, very knowledgeable structural engineer, but honestly couldn’t really walk the roof if needed or go in the crawlspace. He quit after 1 year with only 1 inspection. He also did not know how to properly market himself.
Rich if your in SW Florida I can take you along…You probably know a lot, but there is a lot more than knowing some codes and how to do some things…Your welcome to ride along and see how we do things.
So far about 30 Ride alongs for people looking to get into the profession and I think about 6 of them decided to…the others saw the whole picture and the wachadoodles I deal with sometimes and decided another alternative/job/profession. I wish more people would do this…I think its an eye opening experience
If you are in the Houston area I know of a company that may still offer ride alongs. It is not free though however I have earned back 10 fold the knowledge and experience this industry demands.
re age, are you fit, can you climb ladders, are you able to crawl around on your hands and knees in tight spaces? There are 20 year olds who can’t and 80 year olds who can.
Rich let us know a bit more about yourself as where you live and what do you consider older also what type of background do you have that may serve you in this industry. Some of the meetings I attend look like you were at the old folks home but we all do what is necessary to get the job done. I believe your general health has as much to do with your performing as your age, It can get a bit strenuous in a cramped attic when the temp is 130 or more. I am sure once you give your location someone will be glad to show you a day in the life of an inspector.
I have been doing this for a number of years now and I am 40 right now. If you feel you can’t crawl in attics or crawl spaces then I would consider something else. There are those who feel they can stick their head in a attic hatch and make a good assessment and there are those who will only walk a attic (no crawl). In my opinion you can’t get a good look at the attic or crawlspace without entering and going through it. It’s not fair to clients to have a inspector tell them sorry I can’t crawl because of their limitations when the client could of hired someone without those limitations. Now if insulation is covering joist I will only crawl if I have enough room to walk on hands and knees and I’m very careful to attempt to fix the insulation as I go along. Point being to all of this another 10 or 15 years “NO” I don’t think I’ll be inspecting anymore due to the fact I won’t be able to crawl like I can now.
Char and I are fortunate been active all our life and I can still do the roofs and Crawl spaces .
Hand dug a 1,000 plus gallon fish pond removed a 30 foot tree first .
Removed and replaced 32 solar panels to get their numbers .( the contractor forgot too do it ).
We sold our business three years ago . 78 years old now
We just had another newbie visit to learn inspection things we did an inspection on our home .