Orca Inspection Services

My husband and I hired Dylan Chalk of Orca Inspections to inspect the house we are potentially purchasing this winter. Dylan drove outside of his usual stomping grounds, on the day before thanksgiving in order to help us.
About Dylan: The three words I’d use to describe him are Diligent, Respectful, and Communicative.
Dylan is personable. Other inspectors may expect you to leave them alone while the investigate potential problems; Dylan walks the clients (myself and my agent in our case) through the house room by room and the exterior identifying all of the potential hazards. He is extremely good at explaining not only what a problem is, but why it is a problem, and how it will affect living in the home.
I was really surprised at how much respect Dylan showed the property we were having inspected. It wasn’t as if I was expecting him to tear open a wall– but he was very professional in his mannerisms towards the house and us. It was almost like how in sailor culture ships are treated, and referred to as ‘she’. It felt like he doesn’t think of properties as ‘things’, but a little more personified. I may be over-​reading his general attitude but I got the feeling that he doesn’t feel a house is ‘just a house’. Which meant he took greater care in addressing any issues. It was really nice and refreshing.
About the Inspection Report: Extremely detailed and comprehensive.
Dylan not only outlined what the issues were with the house in detail, and the ways to remedy them, but also included website links to additional information. It was really nice as I’m a first time home buyer and have not dealt with a lot of the issues that are common in older homes. He took pictures of literally everything he looked at and included them in the report. There are things in there that I didn’t know existed in the home until I saw the photos. Seriously, our realtor who has represented literally thousands of clients was extremely impressed with his candor and work ethic.
Bottom Line: I’d hire Orca again in a heartbeat, the wealth of information he brings to the table is incredible. Also, we just found out he’s getting published so go look up his book if you don’t believe me!

Dylan Chalk inspected two homes for us– one that we didn’t buy because of information found because of his inspection, and a brand new home that we did buy. His inspections were very thorough, and he was very personable and skilled at communicating with us in a way we could understand. Because of his very thorough inspection of the new house we ended up buying, we insisted on a builder’s warranty and pinpointed specific issues that we were concerned about to be covered in the warranty. A year later, some of Dylan’s initial findings and concerns turned out to be spot on– and because we had his foresight, all of it was covered under our warranty arranged with the seller and builder of the new house. I highly recommend his inspection services.

I worked with Dylan and he is very professional, friendly and helpful. His inspection gave me a very clear understanding of the issues involved with the house and the region in general, I was very grateful for the lesson.
Would highly recommend and definitely use again myself.

Cannot say enough about the inspection service that Dylan provided for our potential home purchase. Punctual, outstanding attitude, incredible depth of knowledge, and very effective at communicating what he was looking at and doing. I will recommend to friends and use myself again without hesitation.

Dylan did a great job inspecting a home that had quite a few serious issues. He was able to explain all of the problems and suggested upgrades, and produced a well organized report. He was also also available by phone after the inspection to clarify a few issues I had forgotten to ask about at the time of the inspection.
I would definitely use him again.

Great and thorough service. Very informative and helpful.

Our inspector, Dylan, did a fantastic job. He was thorough, explained so much to us, and was a lot of fun to follow around. We learned a lot about our new home and have a wonderful list of improvement projects and things to keep an eye on. =)

Dylan provided excellent inspection services on our townhome purchase. He was very professional and an extremely clear communicator. He performed a thorough inspection and was happy to educate on the various items he was inspecting. After his inspection, we felt more confident in our home purchase and more educated on the various systems and materials used in construction of our home. I would recommend Dylan to anyone looking for a high quality inspection.

Dylan was fantastic! He showed up early, was very thorough, and was extremely knowledgable. This is the third home purchase I’ve had and by FAR he is the best inspector we have used. Not only did he have a great attitude (he came a long way and was doing an inspection on an 80 year old house with some scary crawl spaces) but he was very prompt in returning my calls. I will use him again and highly recommend his company.

It is always amusing when a person writes a review on a building inspector.
Inspectors give their opinion based on the conditions and facts that they have at that time on that day under those conditions. They do not have the luxury of looking into the future or through walls.
As a building forensic expert, our firm has worked with Orca on several projects and found them to be extremely knowledgeable, detailed and accurate.
We will work with them in the future. Happy house hunting!