LA Private Eyes Engineers

Abe is a direct and highly knowledgeable professional. Some may not want to hear the and quot;truthand quot; about their home or property and they may not want to hear his expert opinion if it's negative and doesn't meet their expectations of wanting to hear that all things are dandy or they are/did choose a property in stellar condition but if you want to hear the truth and know the real deal with your home, or a home that you are considering buying, this is most certainly the engineer to turn to! All foundations move and in SoCal there are several factors as to what is causing it - soil movement being a factor 100% of the time...but and quot;why?and quot;, will get worse?, is it and quot;normaland quot; settlement?, are there things you can do to improve your home's condition and life expectancy?, etc. These are all things that I found Abe to be invaluable to advise. Due to an insurance claim, I had MULTIPLE engineers assess my home both from the carrier's side and from my own. After dealing with no less than five (5) geo and structural engineers, I called in Abe who IMMEDIATELY pinpointed issues others had missed, and recognized damages and conditions that others missed or down played. At the end of the day, everything Abe stated turned out to be dead-on accurate, and it allowed me to make educated decisions about how to rectify my situation and best create a home to last my lifetime. His report is detailed, more so than most, and he is generous with his time. Of course he inspects all aspects of the home, and not just the foundation condition, but I speak in detail of that aspect since a foundation is generally the #1 concern of any homeowner. For inspections of both property and home structure, I will never call anyone other than Abe again. The others wasted my time and money.

We were considering buying a house and engaged Abe for a geotechnical inspection as we were worried about drainage and structural issues. Abe was extremely responsive to emails and was also prompt for the appointment which was important as we were trying to schedule all several specialized inspections at the same time (so we had a different experience that the other Angie's list reviewer). Abe was able to turn complicated jargon into something was easy for us to understand. After Abe walked around the property, he patiently spent time to show us drawings he had made and his findings/recommendations. He made sure to address all the issues we had previously discussed with him via email. In addition, he spent the time to read our general inspection (which we provided earlier) and highlight his thoughts on our areas of concern. The foundation company we had out there noted how impressed they were with Abe. Abe was able to turnaround a detailed report extremely quickly which was important since our contingency period was expiring - he actually provided us the report days earlier than contracted and at 2am (what other service is willing to work until 2 am!!). We are first time home buyers and so overly nervous about everything, we are thrilled that Abe was able to help us through our inspection. He provided us informative information without making it seem like it was and quot;the end of the world.and quot; We will definitely engage Abe again when we start to implement the drainage system he discussed as we value his guidance. We did call around and get price quotes on some other inspectors and we found his price was in line with others. Some were cheaper but would not provide a written report which was important to us. It seems like geo inspections are expensive compared to a general inspector (due to the amount of education/experience required to perform a geo inspection). We wanted to make sure that our concerns were specifically someone with a depth of knowledge that would make the specialized inspection and quot;worth it.and quot; A house is an expensive purchase and we feel that having Abe inspect the property was money well spent.

Abe was recommended on a few sites and my home inspector knew him as well. When I initially called Abe I left a message and had to wait a few hours for a return call. I assume this is pretty normal, I wouldn't want him taking a break from an inspection to return my call. However, when he did call back he was less than enthusiastic about doing the inspection. He may be a little cautious because people get scared off by his steep price. Abe arrived about 30 minutes late, which did not make my real estate agent very happy, nor me. Shortly after he arrived he gave me a copy of all of the documents that he pulled from the city and asked me to look over them. He then proceeded to venture around the house taking pictures and making notes. The inspection lasted about three hours. This included a detailed floor level measurement. For the most part Abe seemed to want to walk around the house by himself and did not want to explain anything until he was done. This was in stark contrast to my home inspector who requested that I follow him around so that he could explain everything as he went. After the inspection, Abe spent about 30 minutes explaining what he found. I was lucky that the house was rebuilt in 2000 and that the city had detailed records of soil samples and building plans on file. Abe spent a considerable amount of time explaining the soil samples and geologic reports. Then we talked about the building plans that had been filed with the city and then the actual condition of the house. I found Abe's geological analysis to be very helpful, I would never have understood any of the reports without it. I was less thrilled with his analysis of the building reports and actual structural analysis as I will explain in the complaints section below. I received the final report from Abe about 4 days later. The report was fairly detailed and addressed many of the same things we had talked about in our review after the inspection. I would likely use Abe again because he seemed very knowledgable and and quot;the devil you know is better than the devil you don't,and quot; but that is far from a glowing review COMPLAINTS: 1. I paid Abe to go to the city building inspectors office and to pull the records. Yet initially he refused to give me a copy of the records. He complained about the copying cost (30-40 pages) and the mailing cost. In the end I had to give him another $10 in order to get him to do it. For $1400 I would expect a lot more than haggling over copying costs. 2. Abe seemed predisposed to doubt things. The building report for the house shows that a drainage sleeve was to be installed behind the retaining wall. This drainage sleeve would be buried 10-20 feet down and without digging it up or hiring an expensive fiber optic camera inspection there is no way to verify that it is there. Abe seemed to latch onto this as a potential problem. He also said that there was no way to be sure that the contractor had used the higher strength concrete in building the retaining wall. I would appreciate noting that these features cannot be verified, but I did not appreciate the multi-thousand dollar suggestions on how to retrofit the wall and quot;just in case they didn't use the concrete specified.and quot; In the end, I felt like it was the tales of doom, I half expected him to suggest that the walls were made of Styrofoam covered in stucco. 3. Abe is expensive!! This may be the going rate, but wow $1400. 4. I felt like many of Abe's comments exceed the scope of his inspection. Including a detailed analysis of a leaking kitchen faucet. I hired a less expensive home inspector for this kind of stuff! 5. Finally, Abe added his personal opinion that he would not buy the house because and quot;we were paying too much.and quot; I may have taken it a little too personally, but I don't think it was his place to determine what the fair market value of the house was, I have an appraiser to handle that.

He provided excellent through professional advice and answered all the questions we had