How long does a home inspection take?  It’s like asking your obstetrician how long labor will last. Hard to say. The truth is there are many factors which affect the time it takes for a home inspection. But it’s mostly dictated by four things: TYPE of home, SIZE of home, CONDITION of home, and AGE […]

Kemp Home Inspections is located in Germantown, MD, in Montgomery County Maryland. As the only licensed civil engineer and licensed home inspector in the area, we offer inspection services within 50 miles of Germantown, MD. This includes DC, northern Virginia (Tyson’s, Alexandria, Arlington, McClean, Falls Church, Vienna, Reston, Fairfax, Annandale, Springfield etc.) and such places […]

Recently, I’ve been called out to do a couple of special inspections of damaged and deteriorating floor joists in Maryland and DC. Floor joists, in case you don’t know, are the horizontal “beams” just under the floor. Put another way: the floor rests on the floor joists. Floor joists can be either 2 by lumber, such […]

A few weeks ago, I got a call to do a roof inspection in Bethesda, Maryland. As I always do when I do a roof inspection – I get on the roof. It might sound strange but I’m constantly told by real estate agents that most home inspectors do not get on the roof. I’ll […]

The home inspection industry is well-established nationwide, and especially so in the DC Metro Area where home-buying exceeds the national average. National Organizations such as the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI), and the International Assoc. of Certified Home Inspectors (NACHI) all have standards for home inspections. The […]

So you’ve got cracks in your foundation…who doesn’t? I don’t care if you’ve got a row house in DC, a colonial in Virginia, or a farmhouse in Maryland, everyone has foundation cracks. Even a brand new home will often have cracks in the foundation. New homes with cracks are generally caused by the concrete shrinking […]

So you’ve found your dream home. You did your research, you hired a licensed home inspector, the inspection was going great and then, uh-oh, the home inspector found a crack in the foundation. The home inspector told you, “You need a structural engineer.” This is a common occurrence in the home inspection industry. And it’s […]

Well, Hurricane Sandy has come and gone and thankfully the DC area was spared the worst of the storm. But that doesn’t mean we escaped unscathed. I’ve been driving all over our area (mostly Germantown, Gaithersburg, and Frederick County) the last two days and I’m seeing more damage than is being reported. I’ve seen downed […]

A civil engineer has specialized training related to your home, from the foundation to the roof, from the soils to the plumbing. A licensed engineer combines training with extensive experience, and has passed a rigorous exam earning the letters “PE”, or Professional Engineer after their name. There is simply no one with better qualified to […]

Greg Kemp, PE, is founder and owner of Kemp Home Inspections, LLC, located in Germantown, Maryland. Greg received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology in 1993 and has spent more than 15 years in the field of civil engineering with an emphasis on structural inspections. He has inspected more than […]