Stay Educated

Hi Ken, I have a question: would you happen to have a picture of what a good roof deck looks like? One that you can properly assess?We really want a place with a rooftop deck, but we can't tell a make-shift bad one, ...

Reinforced poured concrete foundations fundamentally changed the way humanity builds. Today, slab-on-grade, basement, and crawlspace foundations are most common. Chances are, your home has a poured concrete ...

Buying a condo is insane. Buying a condo in Chicago is even crazier because (a) there are thousands of them. And (b), there's a lot of merde.There're the hoops one must jump through. ...the time-suck, the money, the ...

It's wintertime in Chicago! Yay! The annual test of our mettle is at hand. All the fun in the snow we have to look forward to. ... unplowed side streets and alleys, shoveling buried cars, shoveling walks, sub-zero ...

I've been doing some research about Indoor Environment Comfort (IEC) and HVAC systems. For those that don't know, the acronym stands for Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning. Bear with me as this will be a ...

Infrared Thermal Imaging (or just thermal imaging) is an advanced, non-invasive technique that many home and building inspectors, including our team, use to deliver more detailed reports. With thermal imaging, we can ...

An expert witness is a person perceived by the courts to have expertise in a particular area and therefore qualified to testify during litigation. Some examples of litigation that may require the testimony of an ...

Many people don’t realize that home inspections are very different from commercial property inspections. Therefore, to differentiate the two, the term Property Condition Assessment, or simply known as PCA, was ...

What is a home energy audit? We at CBI like to call it an energy survey. An energy survey is an assessment of how much energy your home consumes. It can give you the answers you need to evaluate how to make your home ...

There is so much to do if you are considering purchasing a commercial structure. But there is one step you don’t want to skip. Whether it’s a warehouse, office block, an apartment building, retail shop, childcare ...

We go to great lengths to ensure our home is a safe and comfortable environment for our loved ones. Even after all the precautions we take, there still may be a hidden danger lurking in our homes.