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Safe & Sound Home Inspections, Inc. (206) 226 3205  | |
| SPECIALIZING IN SEATTLE AREA HOME 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/construction/maintenance/home inspection column called "Ask The Expert" in The Seattle Times www.seattletimes.com. He is now blogging, and you can find it here: www.darrellhayunplugged.blogspot.com You may find Darrell regularly giving presentations on home 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 and home inspection 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 and Qualifications 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 1500 "inspectors" full or part time in Washington State. Today the numer of fully licensed individuals is slighty more than 400. 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 home inspectors can be found here: https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/bpdLicenseQuery/Default.aspx All home 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 is proud to be Certified Member #202384 of American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). ASHI is the oldest, best known, and most respected home inspection organization in the world, with the toughest membership requirements based on reporting, experience, knowledge, standards of practice and code of ethics. For more information: www.ashi.org Darrell has mentored and trained several new home inspectors, and is willing to help new inspectors with their state required 40 hours of supervised inspections and/or helping them to achieve the minimum 250 inspections for ASHI certification. Darrell also a member of the Independent Home Inspectors of North America (IHINA) www.independentinspectors.org. IHINA is an industry group that requires its home 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 Western Washington, or even anywhere in the State of Washington. These ethical standards are beyond better known and better funded inspector organizations such as 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 local quarterly ASHI weekend education seminars...and not just for the training (they sometimes have great food!), as well as periodic attendance at ASHI, Inter-NACHI, and CREIA national conventions and online education. 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. Many people ask, so to make it clear, there are no subordinates, and no employees. Darrell performs ALL home inspections personally. Who We Work For Safe & Sound Home Inspections provides traditional pre-purchase building inspections throughought the central Puget Sound region for potential homebuyers on used homes, new construction completion 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 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. Yes, that means you too, Ballard. Sometimes, if the moon is just right, a ferry ride to Kitsap County may be in the cards too, just to mix it up a bit... 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, the real reason is that Lisa's horse habit needs to be supported. Talk about a money pit! Darrell and Lisa have five back-talking, spoiled children, most of whom are still lingering 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 |
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| Darrell@safesoundhome.com |
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