Commercial Inspections

Originally Posted By: Lindsey Golubosky
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.



Hello everyone,


I’m basically a new home inspector in Pennsylvania. Less than a year anyway… My question is this, What does the state of Pa. require in order to do a commercial inspection? I’m talking about say a dentist office, warehouse building, building for a store front, etc. I’ve read Senate Bill 1032 at least 100 times. Is there such a thing for commercial inspections?


Originally Posted By: jmyers
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.



Lindsey,


First off...welcome to NACHI.

From the standpoint of the law, commercial and residential inspections are treated equally. The deciding factor here is whether or not the inspection is related to a real estate transaction. If the inspection becomes a negotiating point of the real estate transaction then you must follow the law.

Large commercial inspections are completely different from residential inspections and you should be aware of the differences. For example most commercial electrical services are three phase, residential is single phase. Most large office buildings use built up roofing systems, residential is shingle based.

I am not trying to scare you away from commercial, just make sure you know what you will be dealing with and get educated with it. It would be very helpful if you could spend some time with different commercial contractors that could "teach" you first hand what you are looking at and how to deal with it.

Joe Myers


Originally Posted By: Joe Wright
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.



Joe,


I'm new to HI business as well and have been wondering the same thing...thanks for the info.

Joe Wright


Originally Posted By: jmyers
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.



Joe,


Anytime, that is why we are here.

Joe Myers


Originally Posted By: rmeyers
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.



Locally, commercial buildings are generally designed under the license of practicing Architects and Engineers which in turn supervise the construction. When I get a call to look at a commercial building, I am usually very leary of the situation I may be getting into.


It again comes back to the initial communications between the potential client and myself as to what is expected from my inspection. A commercial
inspection often brings out greater expectations of Code Compliance issues which is generally NOT what our inspections are all about! If I know on my initial contact that this is what my client is expecting I try to get them to deal directly with the Local Jurisdiction Having Authority!

You may also want to get your insurance agents take on the differences between commercial and residential inspections. When we get into public access buildings with Life Safety Codes, Occupancy issues, Fire ratings, Egress, it's a whole new can of worms and we need to be careful how our reports may be interpreted and used.

As Joe Myers pointed out, about every trade does things different on commercial work than they do on residential. So we as inspectors have to broaden our knowledge of the additional construction systems we will be inspecting. As well as learning to deal with what I perceive as a more legalistic and often hostile business environment we may put our self into if not careful.

I'm really not trying to be negative on doing commercial inspections, I just want to emphasize that we do our homework and know what we are getting into! (As on all our inspections!) icon_eek.gif (Clear communications with our client is always the key!) icon_biggrin.gif


--
Russ Meyers