Illinois Comercial Inspection Questions

[oboyer (Orvil Boyer)]

I am an Illinois Licensed Home Inspector
I have a request for 2 commercial building inpections.

1. Quonset hut, 1 story, 2400 sqft, metal building, 1 story
2. Concrete foundation block, 2800 sqft, 1 story, flat roof

The inspections are not for a real estate transaction. The are being performed for a family estate to determine what repairs and/or upgrades need to be done in the near future.

Are there any regulations that keep me from performing the inspections?

What is a common cost for this type of building inspections work?

Does anyone have an Inspections format they will be willing to share?

I appreciate any information. Orvil D Boyer

[belliott (Bob Elliott, 450.0002662)]

You are not required to be licensed for commercial inspections.
Charge what your time worth.
Too many variables as I am sure you do not bid blindly.

[bboerner (Billy Boerner)]

You need to grab a copy of the ASTM Standards and follow that. I would not use anything else. Price would depend on what’s all in the buildings.

[bboerner (Billy Boerner)]

Contact Dale Duffy. He does commercial all the time.

http://www.nspexarizona.com/

http://www.nacbi.com/messageboard/forumdisplay.php?26-ASTM-Standards&

[gromicko (Nick Gromicko, CMI)]

www.nachi.org/comsop.htm is the only commercial SOP in existence.

ASTM’s (albeit titled an SOP) is NOT a commercial SOP at all. It’s just a copyrighted, elaborate Scope of Work permission form written back in the 70’s that they charge for each time you even reference it (which explains why no one publishes it for you to review). If you do get ahold of an illegal copy, you will discover it isn’t an SOP.

Anyway, your state of Illinois approved our commercial inspection course which is based on the International Standards of Practice for Inspecting Commercial Properties.

[ldapkus (Linas Dapkus, CMI)]

I just completed a 6000 sq. ft. commercial inspection in Chicago. !.5 hours on site and 1 hour on the report= $1500.

[ccurrins (Christopher Currins, CMI)]

@ldapkus

I just completed a 6000 sq. ft. commercial inspection in Chicago. !.5 hours on site and 1 hour on the report= $1500.

Did you inspect to Nachi COMSOP?

[ldapkus (Linas Dapkus, CMI)]

@ccurrins

Did you inspect to Nachi COMSOP?

Nope.

[dbowers (Dan Bowers, CMI, EDI)]

I’ve done commercial inspections since 1980. Commercial to me is NOT an apartment building … Its an office bldg; car dealership; church; manufacturing facility; strip shopping center; etc. Since day one, we’ve offered customers 3 choices:

1. Roof & Foundation

2. Roof, Foundation, Structure, Main Electrical Service, Main Plumbing Service, HVAC’s

3. All of #2 and room by room, etc (like home inspection).

NEVER had a request for #3 … We mainly do #2

I looked at both ASTM and iNACHI’s stuff of SoP about 2 years ago and decided they were both too complicated and time consuming for us.

With our program a 10,000sf to 12,000sf bldg takes 2 guys 3 hrs … Then 2 hrs for report

[tthompson3 (Tyler Thompson-Love)]

@dbowers

I’ve done commercial inspections since 1980. Commercial to me is NOT an apartment building … Its an office bldg; car dealership; church; manufacturing facility; strip shopping center; etc. Since day one, we’ve offered customers 3 choices:

1. Roof & Foundation

2. Roof, Foundation, Structure, Main Electrical Service, Main Plumbing Service, HVAC’s

3. All of #2 and room by room, etc (like home inspection).

NEVER had a request for #3 … We mainly do #2

I looked at both ASTM and iNACHI’s stuff of SoP about 2 years ago and decided they were both too complicated and time consuming for us.

With our program a 10,000sf to 12,000sf bldg takes 2 guys 3 hrs … Then 2 hrs for report

I wouldn’t mind some feedback on this Dan as I am looking into commercial in the fall. What kind of standards do you work by? Any advice on some extra training moving over from the residential side?

[jbraun (James E. Braun, CMI)]

@dbowers

I’ve done commercial inspections since 1980. Commercial to me is NOT an apartment building … Its an office bldg; car dealership; church; manufacturing facility; strip shopping center; etc. Since day one, we’ve offered customers 3 choices:

1. Roof & Foundation

2. Roof, Foundation, Structure, Main Electrical Service, Main Plumbing Service, HVAC’s

3. All of #2 and room by room, etc (like home inspection).

NEVER had a request for #3 … We mainly do #2

I looked at both ASTM and iNACHI’s stuff of SoP about 2 years ago and decided they were both too complicated and time consuming for us.

With our program a 10,000sf to 12,000sf bldg takes 2 guys 3 hrs … Then 2 hrs for report

Strange, most of mine is room by room.

NACHI ComSOP actually makes more sense then the ASTM. The customers eyes fog over just reading it. The inspectors I find that use ASTM leave their customers in the blind. They refer to the ASTM but do not provide a copy to the customer. ASTM wants you to pay for each copy you send out.

[jbraun (James E. Braun, CMI)]

The ComSOP was really good until they started to add a lot of crap in it that should be stand alone standards.

[gromicko (Nick Gromicko, CMI)]

They are stand alone ancillary inspections with their own separate checklists. They are only used if you want to use them.

That’s the awesome thing about www.nachi.org/comsop.htm It is a baseline that you and your client add and subtract from and then add the ancillary inspections for additional fees if they are wanted/ordered.

[jbraun (James E. Braun, CMI)]

Thanks for the explanation. Never bothered to check for any revisions in years. Now, I need to throw away all my old NACHI ComSOP booklets away. Maybe I just print the SOP out each time instead of using the booklets.

[jbraun (James E. Braun, CMI)]

The new ComSOP reads a lot better.

[gromicko (Nick Gromicko, CMI)]

The new ComSOP reads a lot better.

Email me fastreply@nachi.org your shipping address. I’ll ship you a bunch of the 2014 versions of The new ComSOP http://www.inspectoroutlet.com/international-sop-for-inspecting-commercial-properties-book.aspx (hard copies).