Mike homes says Better schooling needed

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Well George Luck Mike is playing your tune

http://www.montrealgazette.com/enter...711/story.html

Many of us are guilty of hiring a cheap inspector when we buy a house.
This irritates Holmes tremendously, so much so, that he has begun to colonize the inspection industry. He launched Mike Holmes Inspections in February 2009, as a pilot project in the Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge, Ont., area. The mission: to make every single house right. (This should really rankle charlatans on the beat.) His company offers a range of property services -- a basic package ($395) includes an examination of your home's foundation, roof, electrical and plumbing. "The base inspection provides a thorough, fully documented report with photographs. It's much better than industry standard," Holmes says. The full monty -- or, in Holmes' parlance: "the infrared thermographic scan" ($695) -- detects thermal defects and air leakages in building envelopes, so you can finally stop wondering why your bedroom feels like the arctic tundra in winter and the Sahara in summer.
Were you one of those dopes who spent all of your Christmas bonus on a fancy-pants kitchen when there were raindrops falling on your head inside your house? Holmes derides such prioritizing, calling them "makeup and lipstick fixes," or surface renovations, that should never come first when there are bigger cracks to be filled. Don't do it again.
However, if you have yet to buy your home, by no means should you hire any old schmoe for a once-over.
"Want to know how easy it is to become a foundation repair guy? It's a verbal exam," Holmes scoffs.
"You have to have a minimum renovator's permit, and you're a foundation specialist.
As for the home inspector," Holmes goes so far as to say, "it's a two-week course -- you could have worked at McDonald's."
Holmes believes the government needs to overhaul the inspection industry.
"They're trying to establish a licensing system in B.C. and Alberta," he says.
"No matter how you look at it, they're going to do it wrong. Anytime something doesn't work, you need to abandon it and think fresh. What do we need?
Better schooling. Make sure the inspectors have a better education and apprentice."

[Nick Gromicko]

www.nachi.org/school.htm

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

NACHI has more education then all other Home Inspection associations put together.