Heimer Engineering PC

Here’s as honest of a review as I can give on Heimer. For background, a family member who is in real estate strongly recommended them. Harold (the owner) found many important issues with the house my family member had previously purchased and seemed very knowledgeable and thorough. Same for some customers of said family member. A strong endorsement.
Despite that recommendation, I was worried about the negative reviews here on Unilocal,so I gave Harold a call. He pointed out that people are most likely to write a review if they are impassioned (especially negatively). Some people have an unrealistic expectation regarding what can be found in a visual inspection. And there is a difference between a trained engineer like himself, and a home inspector. Fair enough. I gave him a shot.
Inspection Day:
I patiently stood back during the inspection, so Harold could do his job. Their website makes clear that they don’t intend to talk to you during the inspection, but rather do the inspection and then speak with you. For the few questions I asked, his answers were lawyer-​like in their tone: essentially non-​answers. I get it, you want to have a careful look before providing comments, fine.
After Harold went back to his vehicle to write-​up his preliminary findings, we sat down and discussed the house — our time to ask questions. But it was almost impossible to wring useful answers out of him!
He would say things like: «You’ve got a serious issue with the attic wiring. It’s not up to code.» I would then have to work *really* hard to get him to put this into context. He would talk about how the reason for the code was for safety, so its a major issue, but dance around whether it was a true hazard and never put the cost into context. After much work, we finally pulled a useful answer out of him: The homeowner had used the wrong staples to secure the wiring in the attic (they should be insulated staples) and it was not as well-​secured as it could be (needs more staples). An inexpensive fix. Couldn’t you just say that the first time?
Another example: The enclosed front porch is on wood footings. He made this out to be a world of problems — not up to code, etc. Yeah, but the code was different in 1930 when it was enclosed. The key thing I wanted to know is whether this presented a structural issue that we would have to address — and would it be expensive to fix? After much prying, he finally relented that everything looked very solid, but ideally there should be concrete footings. $ 1500 to change. Not a deal killer. Could you just have told us that instead of making us spend 10 minutes trying to pry an answer out of you?
We went on like that until we lost all energy (and hope) of getting better answers.
Evaluation:
1) Okay (but not exceptional) inspection skills. Will find the *really* obvious stuff.
2) Terrible verbal communication skills. Trying to get a straightforward answer is like trying to wring water from a stone.
3) Thank goodness the written report had a section that actually forced a clear evaluation of most of the house’s systems. If his verbal communication were this clear, it would make a huge difference.
4) His inspection was short and not comprehensive. You need Heimer PLUS a regular home inspector. One to cover structural issues (but not very well), the other to cover all of the smaller things that the seller is required to have in working order. We would have saved about $ 1200 just on basic electrical work if the man had brought an outlet tester and plugged it into a few places. You better bring your own.
5) He gave no useful structural advice. That was one of the reasons we hired an engineer over a home inspector. I can’t tell if it is a lack of knowledge or a fear of providing an expert opinion on matters that inherently involve uncertainty.
6) Biggest issue: He missed a bunch of significant, obvious things that were right in front of his nose. He examined the 212k BTU boiler, 40k BTU hot water heater, 30k BTU dryer, and 40k BTU stove = 322k BTU. He also examined the gas meter which has only 175 capacity. He never put two-​and-​two together about this serious issue. He also didn’t see the evidence of termite damage (he gave a clean report), which a termite inspector found and pointed out to me in a few minutes. He didn’t notice that the huge boiler had obviously been shoved into a relatively small closet when the basement was finished, limiting air intake and creating a potential carbon monoxide hazard. Nor did he see that the basement finishing would make it impossible to remove the 12 year-​old hot water heater without tearing out a finished wall or the heating system. And the list goes on…
Summary: I’m not impassioned or upset. This is not an «unrepresentative» review like Heimer says on its website. He just didn’t an amazing job. For cases where he does better, Harold’s poor verbal communication skills may still exasperate. Overall, no better than an average home inspector, despite the degree.

We has Heimer Engineering conduct a home inspection on our condo were we in contract to purchase. The purpose of this inspection was to generate a punch list to give to our developer for remediation before closing. We were very unhappy with the quality of the inspection that we received from the engineer who arrived on site. To begin with, he was 20 minutes late for the appointment and therefore, the inspection felt rushed from the beginning.
We had the following problems with the inspection:
— The engineer did not bring an electrical outlet tester. My wife had to test all of the outlets herself to determine if they were working. The engineer then took credit for this and put the issues found in his report.
— The engineer did not test any of the tub drains. We found them to be defective after he left.
— The engineer did not test any of the sink drains. We found them to be defective after he left.
— The engineer did not test any of the doors or door hardware. We found that one of the bathroom doors would not close. We also found that the front-​door dead bolt did not work.
— The engineer did not test any of the light switched connected to outlets. We found the bedroom light switch to be non-​functional.
We contacted Heimer engineering to attempt to resolve our compliant. We spoke with Harold. He refused to acknowledge our complaint and said he needed to speak to the engineer. We were told he would contact us within one week. We never heard back from him. We then proceeded to file a chargeback with our credit card company. During the course of the dispute (which we lost), Harold accused us of being customers who don’t pay bills. He was EXTREMELY rude. He, to this day, has not apologized for the problematic inspection and continues to blame us.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Not only are the incapable of performing an inspection, they are rude and show no respect for other people.

You’re better off figuring out what your home needs by yourself. these guys couldn’t find my water meter in plain site, or identify a water heater that was less than a year old. They also managed to not be able to tell that my roof was less than five years old even though I had 15 years remaining on a 20 year warranty. They reported that an oven that is barely a year old is in need of replacing. I don’t replace my appliances or roof or water heater every year like their report suggests.