ORCA INSPECTION SERVICES

I've had Dylan inspect two homes at this point and based on his thoroughness as well as thoughtfulness during the inspection process I wouldn't call anyone else. I'd recommend him to anyone, but especially a first time home buyer. If you don't know what you are looking at he will be more than happy to stop and explain it.

Wow, I was absolutely blown away at how thorough Dylan's inspection was. There was actually an inspection of the property (different company) a year before. There wasn't a whole lot there and the report was super difficult to read. Conversely, Dylan found every minor thing that was wrong, whether it be some building code change from five years ago or a repair in a hard-to-reach spot that some inspectors might not have ventured to. And the finished report was really nice looking and easy to read. He gave us our own personal link to access it, where we could also make a full color PDF so we could have it offline. This was the best money we've ever spent. I have zero doubt that we will save thousands of dollars in the long term because we went with Orca Inspection Services.

Randy Near of Asgard Inspections saved us from making a huge mistake by finding major issues with a home we did not see ourselves. He also helped us in inspecting our second home. Very thorough, professional, and documents everything in clear concise language! We not only recommend hm we used him twice!

Dylan is absolutely the best home inspector!  He was referred to us and we are so glad we hired him.  He is very professional, knowledgeable, and explains what he is doing, why he is doing it, and what he finds.  The report and the pictures of his home inspection is detailed.  Also, he ranks the things that need to be fixed.  For example:  once he inspected the deck he told us to get off of it as it was so rotten he could put a pen through the joists.  This he rated as needs to be done right now.  He also gave links and information as to where we could find the correct way to have problems fixed.  

Because of his exhaustive and detailed report, the seller ended up replacing the deck and the roof.  Dylan is definitely the home inspector I am recommending to all my friends and clients.

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Great experience

We had Dylan do two inspections for us during our house hunt. We were instantly impressed by his thoroughness. He puts a great deal of thought into his inspection and the report. The report is clear and actionable. I would recommend him even to someone who was not buying a house but who wants to know how best to care for their home.

Dylan arrived on time, and spent roughly 3 hours inspecting a home we had made an offer on. Unlike many home inspectors, Dylan actually encouraged my tagging along with him, which as the potential homes owner I truly appreciated. I learned a great deal about houses, appliances, plumbing, drainage, as well as heating and cooling systems. It was quite an education. Dylan did a thorough job, and I feel confident about our anticipated purchase.

Dylan arrived at our home inspection early, and had already done a preliminary review of the outside of the home. He had identified several items that should be addressed before purchasing the home and before we entered he pointed out each of these items to us. Dylan was very clear in his explanations and would stop to explain some of the construction terms or provide more details in the cases that we didn't understand exactly what he was talking about. In the interior of the house, we went from room to room with Dylan, while he examined all of the visible pieces of the house.
He also noted some improvements we could make to the home in order to make it more energy efficient in the future, and to keep it in good shape. For instance, Dylan noted that there was a large fan in the kitchen, so he turned it on and then took us to the corners of the house and had us feel the floor to note that the fan was pulling air up from the subfloor, which indicated that extra sealing there would make the home have higher air quality and be more energy efficient.
Dylan also took extra steps to make sure he could examine as much of the house as possible - even disassembling a cabinet so that he could reach the crawl space below the house and inspect for moisture problems.
The written report that was provided was very useful, broken down into categories by room and also by severity - items that should be addressed now vs items that could be addressed later.

My wife and I were very happy with Dylan's home inspection. This was our first time buying an older home (1950 - or as he said and quot;mid-centuryand quot;!) and I really didn't know what to look for. The home needed heavy renovation so we were looking for hidden problems or areas that might cost more to update than we might expect. Dylan showed up exactly on time and wasn't at all rushed through the job, he was with me for several hours and pointed out many issues: asbestos tiles, oil tank, old wiring, rusty water, settling of foundation... I was very impressed with his overall knowledge about 1950's home construction and materials.
Dylan took dozens of photos throughout his inspection and used them in his detailed write-up. The report broke comments down into Major Concerns, Repair, Improve, Monitor, Due Diligence (items we should have someone else check - like asbestos), Future Projects and Efficiency. As we've gone through the renovation work his observations have proven out to be very accurate, we didn't hit any major (or even medium) surprises that he didn't catch in his inspection.
The cost was in line with what other inspectors were charging. I liked the fact that he's the owner/inspector.

Fastastic. Dylan was professional, personable, flexible, and knowledgable. He worked around our schedule, and was able to conduct the inspection when I needed him to. Unfortunately, I was unable to be there for the inspection, but his detailed report answered most questions I had. Additionally, he spent another 30 minutes on the phone with me discussing the report after I read it. Although not inexpensive, I strongly feel I got what I paid for. I highly recommend Dylan for future home inspections.

Dylan arrived early to the appointment, and spent about 3 hours looking at the property. We had a contractor friend and the in-laws at the inspection with us due to their experience with homes and improvement projects. Dylan had no problem that there were so many of us following him around. He was incredibly patient and explained everything to us as we walked through the property. He responded graciously to all of our questions.

The inspection started with a walk around the exterior of the main home. As he identified potential repairs, he made notes on a voice recorder and took photos. He also explained what was wrong or needed attention, and what would likely be required to fix it. We found him to be extremely detail oriented.

He's also very focused on finding what adds value to the property and helps you keep repairs in perspective. What we found throughout our inspection was that items on the property that don't contribute to resale value were in need of rather extensive repairs.

By the time the inspection was over, we knew everything that would need to be fixed either immediately, or in the relatively near future. Because of Dylan's detailed explanations, we didn't even really need his written report to make our decision on the house.

When the written report arrived the next morning, I was again impressed with his attention to detail. His report contains both a summary section and detail section. The summary section alone was 7 pages long. The report in it's entirety is 49 pages long.

Because of what Dylan found during the inspection, we chose to walk away from the home. We feel that his fee saved us from buying a property that would have required a tremendous amount of time and money.

Needless to say, we're on the hunt for houses again, and use the knowledge we gained from our time with Dylan to have a better idea of whether or not a home has any apparent issues as we tour it. When we do offer on another home, we will certainly use Dylan again.

Dylan Chalk of Orca Inspection Services was one of those recommended by our realtor and we are very pleased that he was the earliest available. He arrived promptly at the scheduled time. He was extremely thorough, careful and communicative. He covered the entire exterior of the 4-townhouse complex, not just the unit we were interested in purchasing. He welcomed and interfaced with the resident of one of the other units. He diligently pursued and finally discovered (by almost literally bending over backwards) that the hydronic heating systems in the units were piped with Kitec tubes and fittings, a major concern for all owners in the complex. (The inspector for the previous sales in the complex suspected Kitec, but did not find the evidence and concluded that the system was fine.) He took detailed photos of all the areas of concern and included them in his report, which he delivered the evening of the day of the inspection. He declared his availability for any future explanations and, in fact, responded within 20 minutes when I e-mailed him a question a couple of days later.

Great. He was at the house, on time. We got lots of information and had time to ask questions and discuss various issues about the house. The next morning, we had a detailed report with all inspection findings and details. Very organized and easy to understand. We show the report to contractors for bids on jobs. It's extremely helpful. I've been through four home inspections through the years and this has been the best.

We called on a Monday and had an appointment for the next day. He started at the outside taking pictures of issues, with us in tow , pointing things out along the way. Inside and in the basement same story. We did not accompany him into the attic or crawl space. Over all he spent roughly 4 hours going over our soon to be house, including a good 45 minutes walking us thru things at the end. We received a 5 page bulleted list, with 20 pages breaking it out even more within 24 hours.

Our real estate agent recommended Dylan to us, as well as friends of ours whose home he inspected. He was very prompt and began inspecting the roof and outside of the home before we got there. We spent 3 hours with him, walking through everything he could see that was wrong with the home, down to crazy minute details. He answered our first time homeowners questions without making us feel like idiots for asking them. As we walked through the house, he detailed minor verses major problems, and improvements we would want to make to increase the value of our home (like adding more fixed lighting in the living room). Dylan also does energy efficiency inspections, and provided us lots of free energy saving tips as we moved through the home. He also suggested orders in which we might make repairs, for example adding lighting in the living room and fans in the bathrooms before adding more insulation in the attic, that will save us lots of hassle when we fix these. After the inspection, Dylan provided us with a detailed, color-coded report of all the severe, major, minor, improvements, and energy efficient repairs he suggested. He report really helps us determine the best things to get a further, more in-depth inspection on and what to ultimately end up asking the seller for. His report is going on our new fridge so we can spend the next few years checking off all the home improvement items he found for us to do. I will consider hiring Dylan for another inspection even while we live in our home to help keep it well maintained for resale years from now.