Commercial
Commercial property inspections, nine categories deep
Retail, office, industrial and multi tenant buildings across Dallas, Collin and Tarrant counties. Every category inspected item by item, thermal imaging throughout, a PDF report inside three days, and a five year cost breakdown a buyer can plan against.
Chapter 01
Nine categories, item by item
The scope is not a walkthrough with a clipboard. The roof is inspected for its covering and exposed membrane, its slopes, ponding evidence, gutters, downspouts, every vent, flashing, skylight, chimney and penetration, the general roof structure from whatever access panels, doors and stairs exist, and latent moisture read through an industrial grade moisture meter rather than by eye.
The exterior covers siding, flashing and trim, doors, decks, stoops, steps, stairs, porches, railings, eaves, soffits and fasciae, safety on balusters and spindles, representative windows, vegetation, drainage and retaining walls, storm water drainage and topography, parking areas, sidewalks, exterior lighting, fire hydrant clearance and the exterior wall covering.
Then heating and ventilation, cooling, plumbing, electrical, wood decks and balconies, foundation, and doors, windows and interior. Heating and ventilation means the systems run through their normal controls, equipment age and accessibility, permanent access and catwalks where a roof is sixteen feet or higher, service platforms where slopes exceed twenty five percent, gas piping labelling, ignition source location, combustion air, exhaust systems, outdoor air intake clearances, and the flooding and mould potential inside ductwork.
Electrical runs from the service drop or lateral through the meter socket enclosures, service entrance conductors and the service disconnect to the panelboards and over current devices, their accessibility and working space, unfilled panel openings, labelling, grounding and bonding, and then switches, lighting and receptacles including AFCI and GFCI testing, faceplates, junction boxes, painted devices, solid conductor aluminium branch wiring, smoke detectors and improper flexible cord use.
North Texas Property Inspections truck at a steel frame commercial building under construction
The five year cost breakdown, which is the part buyers actually use
Commercial clients get a cost breakdown that sequences costs over five years rather than handing over an undifferentiated list of defects. It establishes the useful life and the replacement cost of the major systems: the structure, the roof, plumbing, electrical, and heating and air.
The difference matters at the negotiating table. A list of two hundred findings tells a buyer the building has problems. A five year sequence tells them which problems are this year's, which are year four's, and what the number is, which is the form the information has to be in before anyone can decide what to offer.
Chapter 03
Roof level ponding survey, flown rather than guessed
On a flat or built up commercial roof, the question that decides the roof's remaining life is where water stands after it rains. We answer it with a roof level survey flown by drone, measuring elevation differences across a grid relative to a centre reference point.
That produces the actual low areas rather than an opinion about them, and it produces a fix that can be specified: inner drains placed where the water genuinely collects, and gravel ballast redistributed where it has migrated. It is also the safe way to read a roof that nobody should be walking on in the first place.
Thermal imaging through the whole building, not as an upsell
Every commercial inspection includes thermal imaging diagnostics and the analysis that goes with them. Infrared is what finds the wet insulation inside a roof assembly, the missing or displaced insulation in an envelope, and the electrical connection that is running hot inside a closed panel before it becomes an outage.
None of that requires opening anything up, which on an occupied building is usually the difference between finding it now and finding it after a tenant calls.
The report, and how long it takes
The PDF is delivered within three days of the inspection. It opens with a summary sheet of the most important items, so the people who will only ever read one page are reading the right one.
Commercial work is quoted individually rather than off a rate card, because a twenty thousand square foot retail box and a multi tenant office building are not the same job. Call and describe the building and you will get a quote and a proposal.
Where we work
Commercial inspections cover Dallas County, Collin County and Tarrant County. That is the whole core of the Metroplex, and it is deliberately the area that can be reached and reinspected without travel becoming a line on your invoice.
The company has also performed electrical infrared work outside Texas, including at a Northrop Grumman facility in Sunnyvale, California. That is national infrared capability rather than part of this service area, and it is worth knowing about only because it says something about the level the infrared work is done at.
Over 45 years of combined experience producing extensive computerised reports. Trevor Battieste, Texas Professional Inspector License #21796.