The inspector who reads century-old framing the way an archivist reads manuscript.
Knuckle-tapping plaster, tracing knob-and-tube wiring through horsehair walls, decoding the structural autobiography every pre-war home carries in its bones.
Schedule Your Historic Home InspectionPre-War Homes Inspected
Average Home Age (Years)
Heritage Systems Check Points
Report Delivery
Every system. Every century.
Hover a card to read an actual field finding. Click to expand the full case study.
Foundation & Masonry
Rubble-stone footings, brick mortar joints, settlement cracks, and basement wall deflection.
Field Finding:
Stepped cracking at northeast corner indicates differential settlement — likely clay soil shrinkage. Mortar joints show Type S repointing over original lime, causing spalling.
Original Electrical
Knob-and-tube wiring, fuse panels, cloth-wrapped conductors, and ungrounded circuits.
Field Finding:
Active knob-and-tube wiring found in attic and behind kitchen plaster — estimated 40% of original 1928 installation still live. No grounding continuity on first-floor circuits.
Legacy Plumbing
Galvanized supply lines, cast-iron drain stacks, lead solder joints, and clay tile sewer laterals.
Field Finding:
Galvanized supply lines show significant tuberculation — water flow restricted to approximately 40% of original capacity. Lead-soldered copper joints present throughout pre-1986 addition.
Roof & Slate
Original slate or clay tile, wood sheathing, lead flashing, copper gutters, and chimney crowns.
Field Finding:
Approximately 15% of Vermont slate tiles show delamination or nail-sickness. Lead valley flashing original to 1926 construction — still functional but at end of expected service life.
Interior Woodwork
Original oak floors, plaster-on-lath ceilings, built-in millwork, and structural timber framing.
Field Finding:
Old-growth Douglas fir floor joists in excellent structural condition — this wood is denser than anything available today. Parlor floor sag (1.5") attributable to center girder bearing point settlement, not joist failure.
Hazardous Materials
Asbestos pipe insulation, lead paint on pre-1978 surfaces, vermiculite attic fill, and urea-formaldehyde.
Field Finding:
Chrysotile asbestos confirmed on pipe elbows in basement — intact and non-friable, encapsulation viable. Lead paint present on all pre-1978 surfaces; intact condition, no hazard while undisturbed.
Real findings. Real old houses.
He walked into our 1928 Tudor and within ten minutes was explaining why the parlor floor sagged — not panic, just evidence. The 48-hour report read like a conservation architect's memo. Worth every dollar.
Margaret Okonkwo
Buyer
1928 Tudor Revival, Shaker Heights, OH
We were settling an estate — a 1919 Foursquare no one had opened in eleven years. The inspection report became our legal disclosure document. Thorough, defensible, and delivered faster than any attorney expected.
Randall Czernowski
Estate Attorney
1919 American Foursquare, Evanston, IL
I've owned my 1932 Colonial for eight years and thought I knew every creak. The knob-and-tube finding alone justified the fee — we had no idea 40% of it was still live. The report gave us a five-year remediation roadmap.
Priya Venkataraman
Homeowner
1932 Colonial Revival, Oak Park, IL
Thomas Hargrove
ASHI Master Inspector, Historic Structures
Before the flashlight, there's the listen. A knuckle tap on plaster tells you whether the lath behind it is still bonded. A floor's creak tells you which joist is carrying load it wasn't designed for. After 23 years and 1,200 pre-war homes, the house talks first.
Thomas trained in historic preservation technology before entering inspection practice, which means he reads a sagging parlor floor not as a defect to flag but as a structural autobiography — one that tells you when the problem started, what caused it, and what it will cost to address. His reports are used by buyers, estate attorneys, preservation boards, and insurance underwriters who need more than a checkbox.
Certified
ASHI Master Inspector
Specialty
Pre-1950 Residential Structures
Training
Historic Preservation Technology, Pratt
Licensed
Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana
Member
Preservation Action, National Trust
Reports
1,200+ Delivered Since 2003
Your house has been keeping secrets for a century.
A 14-point heritage systems inspection. A 48-hour annotated report. The answers your old house has been waiting to give you.
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