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| About Safe & Sound Home Inspections, Inc. (206) 226 3205 | |
| Specializing in Puget Sound area pre-purchase home and building inspections Darrell Hay, owner of Safe & Sound Home Inspections Inc., has a lengthy background in the construction and inspection industries, having been involved since 7th grade, skipping school to be out in the field building and remodeling houses with his father---34 years ago. After many years in the construction industry, Darrell began inspecting homes in the middle 1990's, and has completed in excess of 6500 home inspections since that time. For eleven years, until the recent bloodletting in the newspaper industry, Darrell wrote a popular weekly real estate/home maintenance column called "Ask The Expert" in The Seattle Times www.seattletimes.com. You may find Darrell regularly giving presentations on inspections, maintenance, and construction for contractor associations, insurance industry groups, continuing legal education (CLE) for real estate lawyers, landlord groups, and so forth. Darrell has previously taught home inspector education classes at two different local colleges, is a regular guest on local radio and television stations on housing related topics, and has done public service announcements for The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries Contractor Registration Program www.lni.wa.gov That is great and all, but what Darrell really relishes are appearances as a judge for the REX Awards (Remodeling Excellence) sponsored by the Master Builder's Association of King and Snohomish Counties www.mba-ks.com. They are great people and put out a spread that would kill a hungry horse. It is hard to concentrate on judging remodeling projects when you are stuffing your face with catered gourmet food. As you can see, Darrell is a total food whore! Legalities On July 1, 2009 Washington's new home inspector licensing program took effect. This badly needed law takes full effect in July, 2010. Darrell is proud to be one of the first few fully licensed home inspectors, #246. Previously it was harder to become a hair stylist than a home inspector, and there was rumored to be as many as 6000 "inspectors" full or part time in Washington State. Today the numer of fully licensed individuals is less than 350! The new law has obviously screened out a lot of marginal inspectors due to meaningful education and experience requirements. Sad to say, but the extremely high cost of licensing ($980---before the required three weeks of schooling and 40 hours of peer review) and the poor economy has influenced this number as well. Washington State Department of Licensing's list of fully licensed inspectors can be found here: https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/bpdLicenseQuery/Default.aspx All inspections performed by Safe & Sound Home Inspections come with a Washington State Department of Agriculture Certified Pest Inspection at no extra cost. Darrell is WSDA Structural Pest Inspector (SPI), #68875 www.agr.wa.gov/PestFert/LicensingEd/Search/default.aspx#code2) Darrell also a member of the Independent Home Inspectors of North America (IHINA) www.independentinspectors.org. IHINA is an industry group that requires its inspector members to adhere to the industry's toughest ethical standards regarding potential conflicts of interest. Currently Darrell Hay is the only IHINA member in the State of Washington. These ethical standards are beyond better known and better funded inspector organizations such as American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) www.ashi.org, International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, www.internachi.com, and National Association of Home Inspectors, www.nahi.org For formal ongoing education Darrell attends the quarterly locally held ASHI weekend education seminars religiously...and not just for the credits(!), as well as periodic attendance at ASHI, Inter-NACHI, and CREIA national conventions. Several local plumbing and electrical associations also provide ongoing education seminars. Darrell is certified as an EIFS/stucco inspector with the Northwest Wall & Ceiling Bureau www.nwcb.org, as well as a Certified Earthquake Home Retrofit inspector with the local arm of FEMA's Project Impact www.seattle.gov/emergency/info/contractors-print.htm. Who We Work For Safe & Sound Home Inspections provides traditional pre-purchase building inspections for potential homebuyers on used homes, new construction inspections for homebuyers, and warranty-expiration inspections on new homes as well. Individual condominium and townhouse inspections are a large part of the business of course, as are inspections for apartment investors and homeowner associations. Inspection service area is the entire greater Seattle area. All of King County, all of Snohomish County, as well as much of Skagit and Pierce Counties. From Tacoma to Mount Vernon, from West Seattle to North Bend, and everything in between. Sometimes, if the moon is just right, a ferry ride to Kitsap County may be in the cards too. Why We Do It Darrell and his wife Lisa own, manage, and are constantly remodeling several rental houses and apartment buildings that they own. Plus Lisa's damned horse habit needs to be supported! They cost serious bucks. In essence, real estate and construction is and has been Darrell's life. Darrell and Lisa have five back-talking, spoiled children, most of whom are still in their teenage years. As you can imagine, they are looking for someone, anyone really, willing to trade for smaller, cuter children (potty trained only please). The sole consolation is the fact that one all day the children will grow up and leave. To quickly get a feel for the real quality of our inspections, read the true story of a recent visit to the photographer's house. Or, read what customers are saying about our work. | |
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| If you're interested in finding out more about our services or want to schedule an inspection, email or call: | |
| Telephone | (206) 226-3205 Cell (800) 798-7181 Toll Free |
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| DarrellHay@aol.com |
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