by Chuck McClain | Jul 8, 2011 | Uncategorized
I always get very excited about July 8th – the anniversary of my first day at my first job out of college. 26 years ago today I was fortunate enough to be hired by a small consulting company that specialized in building diagnostics. I was the 8th employee hired and I... by Chuck McClain | May 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
Sometimes we get caught up in the client requests, the deadlines and the antics of our client managers or co-workers, and the reports just keep flying off our desks into the hands of our clients who sometimes read them but more often than not just glance at the... by Chuck McClain | Feb 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
We recently performed an assessment in an area of Illinois that was extensively mined for coal in the first half of the last century. The neighborhood of the property was situated on top of former mining operations which resulted in land and building movement from... by Chuck McClain | Nov 9, 2010 | Uncategorized
I visited family living in Switzerland this past summer and I was struck by just how amazed our 14-year old nephew was when he found out we had started our own business. Like most of us, he is a product of a typical educational system that trains children to be good... by Chuck McClain | Sep 11, 2010 | Uncategorized
Besides the creation of various active and pending legislation (such as dry-sounding California AB1103 that requires energy benchmarking data released during property transactions) and the ongoing development of national standards (such as ASTM’s Building Energy... by Chuck McClain | Jun 29, 2010 | Uncategorized
One of the great aspects of June for me is a renewed appreciation for my father. He started out as a mechanical engineer and eventually became a Managing Director and Executive Vice President for a worldwide engineering/construction company. He has since retired and... by Chuck McClain | May 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
Determining the age of the building is required for virtually every assessment report we create. Most reports feature various remaining useful life estimates including one for the building as a whole. If the site contact does not know when the building was built,... by Chuck McClain | Apr 15, 2010 | Uncategorized
I love working for clients that appreciate what we provide. They appreciate the report quality and the responsive service. But, as in any field, there are clients you love to work with and clients you’d like to poke with a sharp stick to get them to wander off in... by Chuck McClain | Mar 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
When conducting an assessment of the building, we all know to ask the site contacts about the presence of roof leaks, to look for signs of water damage on upper floor ceiling panels, and to look for obvious signs of damage or potential water entry paths on the roof. ... by Chuck McClain | Feb 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
One of the mystifying aspects of the Property Condition Assessment industry is the conceit of many licensed “professionals” and how many of them snootily look down their crinkly nose at those in the field that are not licensed engineers or architects. Some of the most...