Chaisson Building Inspection Services Inc

I initially contacted Sidney Chaisson to inquire about his construction monitoring services as we were considering entering into a contract with a builder to build a home. Mr. Chaisson was extremely knowledgeable about construction and spent a great deal of time explaining how the process would work if we used his services. He can come across as a little brusque (as did his assistant who answered the phone,) but I got the impression that he was a perfectionist and would be equally brusque with the builders he worked with if they weren't building the home to his specifications. He confirmed my assumptions when he told me that some builders refused to work with him! This is probably a good thing if you are the home owner but could cause problems with the builder. Anyway, the price he quoted for this service wasn't too firm because it would all depend on the quality of the first few inspections, but he did tell me that "it would cost no more than 3% of the cost of the house". (I immediately presumed that this would end up being the cost.) Anyway, as we hadn't yet signed the building contract and were still hoping to find an existing home, I asked if he performed home inspections on existing homes. He said that that was his primary service, but he quoted me a price of $2000! I was aware that most home inspections cost between $400 to $600, but he explained that his inspections were much more detailed than other inspections and that they usually took him 5 or 6 hours to do. He also pointed out that he was a degreed engineer. Anyway, we ended up finding an existing house and although I considered using Mr. Chaisson, I just couldn't justify spending $2000. We ended up spending $425 with another inspector who spent 2 1/2 hours inspecting the house and another $150 for a pool inspector. I'm not sure what Mr. Chaisson would have provided that would have justified almost 4 times the standard costs. My thinking was that if the regular inspector had found something to justify hiring an engineer, then that would have been the time to contact Mr. Chaisson.

I called Chaisson Building Inspection Services in order to hire a structural engineer to inspect the post-tension slab for my new home construction. As soon as I explained my concerns, he began insulting my choice of homebuilder, and said that I would be crazy if I didn’t walk away from the contract. He then told me that I was handling the process wrong, even though I explained that I hired a contractor to take care of the details. I stopped him and told him that he wasn’t being helpful, and that if he wanted my business he needed to stop criticizing me and work with me to make the construction process better. He then asked for my husband. I ended the call at that point, and am still dumbfounded about what happened. I have honestly never experienced this sort of behavior from a service provider.

As home buyers we were looking for a solid home inspection from someone national professional standards. We wanted both an engineer and inspector, which is what we got for the price. He is not cheap, but his service is an investment. Sidney Chaisson, Jr., P.E. is ethically obligated through ASHI to serve his client. Real estate agents refer to him as, "the deal breaker." So instead of giving the home a good report because he wants more referrals from real estate agents, he gives an honest report. Our case we are the home buyers. Due to a death in the family, he had to reschedule our inspection. He knew our inspection period was pressed for time, so he met us on a Saturday. He was running a bit late, because he does a very thorough job and had another inspection before ours. Worth the wait. He asked us if he had any immediate concerns and got to business. As I checked out the kitchen cabinets, he showed my husband around the house and began to find potentially costly repairs. He showed us some things that were inexpensive fixes but within an half and hour he was able to identify several big ticket major costly repairs. The 2008 roof was put on incorrectly, the house had been falsely rewired, there was a major drainage issue under the house, cupping wood floors, and the HVAC had never been updated since the 1960s. The potential costs were only going to get larger. We knew the seller wasn't flexible on price and would not agree even to share costs. He gave us the option to pull out of the inspection which would have cost around $800. He has a reputation for, "being slow," but he is committed to protecting your investment. Since in this area there are so few ASHI certified Inspector/Engineers it's not really fair to say the service is, "expensive." There are cheaper and faster inspectors, but you are unlikely to get the quality.