Click this link to learn more about the Business Mastery Class for Solo Inspectors:
https://events.iebcoaching.com/BusinessMasteryforSoloInspectors25
In this episode, Reuben Saltzman and Tessa Murry welcome Philippe Heller, a seasoned San Diego home inspector. Philippe shares his journey from corporate life to running a successful home inspection business, emphasizing fire safety in California. They discuss new regulations on defensible space, fire-hardening features, retrofitting older homes, and the role of specialized fire protection companies. The conversation covers air quality concerns, evolving building codes, and fire-resistant materials. Philippe also highlights advanced fire protection systems, personal fire defense strategies, and opportunities for home inspectors to adapt and innovate.
Here’s the link to check Inspector Empire Builder: https://www.iebcoaching.com.
You can find Philippe at https://sdinspect.com.
Takeaways
Philippe Heller transitioned from a corporate job to home inspections.
The importance of fire safety regulations in California.
Defensible space is crucial for homes in fire-prone areas.
Home inspectors can provide valuable insights into fire safety.
Philippe’s company became the largest home inspection firm in San Diego.
Insurance companies are starting to consider fire safety policies.
New building codes require fire-hardening features in homes.
Home inspectors need to adapt to changing regulations.
Philippe’s journey reflects the entrepreneurial spirit.
The podcast emphasizes the importance of community and support in business.
Home fire hardening features are essential for safety.
Retrofitting older homes can significantly reduce fire risk.
Specialized companies offer valuable services for home protection.
Air quality is a major concern, especially during wildfire seasons.
Building codes have evolved in response to past fire disasters.
Fire-resistant materials are crucial for modern home construction.
Advanced fire protection systems can enhance home safety.
Personal fire defense strategies can be lifesaving during emergencies.
Home inspection services vary greatly by region and need.
There are numerous opportunities for home inspectors to innovate and expand
their services.
Chapters
02:05 Special Guest Introduction: Philippe Heller
04:40 Philippe’s Journey into Home Inspections
12:50 Tanya’s Role and Company Growth
14:40 Defensible Home Services and Fire Safety
19:10 California’s Fire Safety Regulations
22:59 Fire Hardening Features in High-Risk Areas
25:06 Home Fire Hardening Features
26:12 Retrofitting Older Homes for Fire Safety
27:43 Specialized Companies for Home Protection
28:50 Air Quality and Ventilation Concerns
30:30 California’s Strict Air Quality Regulations
31:52 Building Code Changes Post-Fires
32:59 Fire-Resistant Building Materials
34:36 Advanced Fire Protection Systems
36:55 Personal Fire Defense Strategies
39:25 Home Inspection Services and Pricing
41:54 Regional Differences in Home Inspections
43:49 Opportunities for Home Inspectors
TRANSCRIPTION
The following is an AI-generated transcription from an audio recording. Although the transcription is mostly accurate, it will contain some errors due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
Reuben Saltzman: Welcome to my house. Welcome to the Structure Talk podcast, a production of Structure Tech Home Inspections. My name is Reuben Saltzman. I’m your host alongside building science geek, Tessa Murry. We help home inspectors up their game through education, and we help homeowners to be better stewards of their houses. We’ve been keeping it real on this podcast since 2019, and we are also the number one home inspection podcast in the world, according to my mom.
Reuben Saltzman (00:01.058)
Welcome to the show. I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else other than doing a podcast today on this gorgeous, warm, sunny day here in Minnesota. It is. Yeah, it is end of January and I think it’s almost 50. Oh, my goodness, Tessa, how you doing today?
Tessa Murry (00:13.142)
In January, it’s what, like 50 degrees out?
Hey, Ruben, I’m doing well. Sadly, I have not been able to get outside yet today. I’ve been stuck at my computer all day. But how are you?
Reuben Saltzman (00:28.976)
I’m great. You know what I did? I went and played around a disc golf today. I resolved to play at least twice a month, rain or shine, snow or no snow. And I went out on Saturday and it was ridiculously windy and it was like the worst I’ve ever played in my life and I was freezing. I had a face mask on all that was exposed to my was my eyes. I took my glove off every time I threw and put it back on and my hands froze. And it was just like, I still had a great time but today
Tessa Murry (00:43.96)
you
Philippe Heller (00:45.106)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (00:57.87)
Perfect day for it. Perfect day. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Well, let’s get into it, Ruben. We have a special guest on today.
Reuben Saltzman (00:57.959)
today was so nice. So I’m just like, I’m giddy. I’m giddy. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (01:08.129)
Hold on, wait, before we bring on our guest, who is an IEB Inspector Empire Builder member, whom I’ve met through IEB many years ago, I gotta give a shout out to IEB. They’re our show sponsors. And I’m gonna give a reminder here about a business mastery class for solo inspectors that’s coming up. Basically, this is…
Tessa Murry (01:11.878)
yes.
Reuben Saltzman (01:35.062)
for anyone who is a one man or one woman shop running their home inspection company. They want to learn more about how to be better at it. There’s a class coming up from IEB. It’s a four hour class. It’s taking place on Tuesday, February 8th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central time, God’s time, the right time. Sorry, Philippe. And it’s a four hour online class. It’s going to be led by Mark Hummel. I will have a link.
Philippe Heller (01:37.937)
you
Philippe Heller (02:04.144)
Bye!
Reuben Saltzman (02:05.25)
to this event in the show notes. And if you’re interested, check it out. You won’t be disappointed. And now let’s bring on our guest, the one honking the horn. wait, hold on.
Tessa Murry (02:16.984)
clarification question sorry did you say Tuesday February 8th?
Reuben Saltzman (02:18.914)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (02:22.87)
February. did I say 8th? I meant to say 28th. Thank you. February 28th. Good clarification there, because there probably is no Tuesday on the 8th. there? No, no. Good call. OK. All right. guest. What is there anything we could talk about before we bring him on one more time? We’ve got drum roll. We’ve got Philippe Heller. Philippe, how are you doing today, my friend?
Tessa Murry (02:27.476)
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. All right. Now, who’s our guest? No, no, there isn’t.
Tessa Murry (02:39.692)
Who’s our guest?
Thanks.
Philippe Heller (02:50.511)
doing really well. The year’s starting to pick up and that’s always a good time for those of us in the home inspection industry. seems like the winter months can be long and protracted and we all sit around waiting for the market to get into gear. so we’re starting to see that. It’s sputtering along and so that’s good. It’s good.
Tessa Murry (03:07.672)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (03:11.284)
Okay. And Philippe, you’re out of the San Diego, the greater San Diego area in California. Is that right? Okay. And all right. What’s your weather like there today? Maybe I could feel really good and have temperatures close to yours. What do you got?
Philippe Heller (03:19.522)
That is correct.
Tessa Murry (03:26.03)
Thank you.
Philippe Heller (03:29.006)
It is a frigid 55 degrees today. Thus the fur line jacket, fleece, everything. Pretty chilly for San Diego.
Reuben Saltzman (03:33.282)
Ooh, I almost got to be.
Reuben Saltzman (03:44.076)
well, that just really makes my day. OK. I mean, I’m sorry for you, Philippe, but anytime that we’re close to California weather in January, yeah, it just doesn’t. It’s not so bad. It’s a good day. Well, so, Philippe, we’ve got you on the show today because, we’re we’re just coming off this big series of interviewing other home inspectors throughout the country about regional inspection differences.
Tessa Murry (03:44.27)
it’s all perspective.
Tessa Murry (03:52.472)
would take it. Yeah.
It’s a good day.
Philippe Heller (03:59.021)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (04:13.35)
I considered having you on, we ended up having Mike Casey on cause he’s kind of similar to your climate, but you’ve got something I really want to talk about and it’s, it’s related to all the fires that were happening in California for, what, like the better part of the beginning of this year. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And, so.
Philippe Heller (04:32.373)
Yes, went on for weeks of endless fires, yes.
Tessa Murry (04:32.887)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (04:39.81)
I actually had somebody write in with a suggestion like, maybe you could do a podcast about what home inspectors could look for to make sure that homes are adequately fire protected. And here I’m going to sell, I have no idea. I mean, that’s just not a thing that we deal with. I mean, I am, I am like an infant when it comes to any of that. We don’t do any of that with our houses, but my understanding is you guys have got some, pretty strict rules about
Tessa Murry (04:58.349)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (05:07.54)
what you’ve got to do to protect your houses from these spreading wildfires. And Philippe, I happen to remember that your company does special inspections just for this. And I thought, what better guy to have on to chat about this, what home inspectors might look for in these fire prone areas. Philippe, you, and you know what? All right. I set it up. I talked about why we’re having you on the show.
But before we just get into it, let’s hear about you. You’ve never been on the podcast. I want to hear about your journey, Philippe. Yeah, how did you get into this business? What is Tanya up to these days and all that other good stuff?
Tessa Murry (05:36.364)
so much.
Tessa Murry (05:41.058)
Hmm. First time guessed.
Philippe Heller (05:43.691)
Sure.
Philippe Heller (05:50.66)
Excellent, excellent question. So it’s very interesting. So back in, we’re celebrating, actually we’re in our 21st year, the company, and way back when in 2004 when I started, I think it was kind of a traditional story where I was just fed up with my corporate job. I had a string of jobs working for big companies. After college, I worked at the SDG &E, which is our local utility.
Reuben Saltzman (06:02.092)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (06:18.954)
Not a cool job like alignment or anything, but just a nerdy behind the computer doing load research is what it was called. And it was great because I learned a lot about the electric industry, how how electricity is generated, distributed, conserved, offset to reduce the amount of power plants you need. It was called demand side management. Anyway, great job. And that was in Northern California.
Tessa Murry (06:27.534)
Mmm.
Tessa Murry (06:36.494)
Hmph.
Tessa Murry (06:43.661)
month.
Philippe Heller (06:45.545)
That was in San Diego. I moved north and worked for GE power systems. They, the small company I was working for, was developing software to help run power plants, cogeneration power plants, efficiently. So there I was working with a bunch of engineers, a super smart crew, and I learned a lot about thermodynamics, more about electricity, et cetera. Then I moved back to San Diego in 2000 and had some jobs at the
Tessa Murry (07:04.174)
Hmm.
Philippe Heller (07:14.865)
local cable companies, Time Warner and Cox, and literally hated every day of it. Like I had such bad management there and it just, I literally felt sick to my stomach. And I was a single dad, one daughter, and I thought, what am I going to do? I got to do something. I want to do something where I could maybe spend more time with my daughter and be more available to her and a job that is fulfilling, et cetera. So I thought somebody had told me that was in the run up before the 08 crash.
Reuben Saltzman (07:21.353)
Philippe Heller (07:44.5)
And somebody mentioned that, home inspections are something that are in demand and there’s never enough home inspectors. And with your background, maybe you should look into that. And I did, I researched and I thought, well, I know about electricity. I know about heat exchangers and obviously that’s HVAC equipment and I’ve lived in a lot of houses. So I figured I’m perfect for this, right? I know everything. And so I said about,
starting this company and I thought like many I would do it part-time and I like I said, I hated my corporate job and but I set this up and I thought hey I’ve built websites I little e-commerce sites. This is when you know guys are still doing the three ring binder thing or NCR forms, know handwritten. It’s right. I’m gonna computerize this. I’m going to have a website where people can schedule online like I’m gonna bring this whole thing. I’m gonna
Tessa Murry (08:28.27)
Thank
Philippe Heller (08:38.881)
because I knew about thermodynamics, because that is used to evaluate rotating machinery and power plants, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna bring that in, I’m gonna just really raise the bar. And that’s what I set out to do. I was just miserable at my regular job and I watched the movie, Office Space. Have you ever seen that movie, Office Space?
Tessa Murry (08:57.934)
Yes. it’s so good. It’s so good.
Reuben Saltzman (08:59.22)
I just watched it again recently. It holds up. It holds up.
Philippe Heller (09:02.584)
It does and it resonated with me so strongly the cubicles hiring people above you that are completely unqualified All this stuff and I said Literally identified with it. I sat there on my couch after watching it just like I got to quit like that’s killing me I feel sick going to work every day and I did I called my boss and I said I’m not coming in anymore
Tessa Murry (09:07.256)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:11.318)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:21.802)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (09:26.158)
And I quit and just plunged into the home inspection thing full time. Now my timing was great. I would hate to be getting into this business right now or last year or the year before because of the, you know, supply problems. When I got into it, it was booming. And so a strong market combined with really being able to change the game just, it was just great timing and a great offering. And I got really good traction almost immediately.
Tessa Murry (09:30.851)
Cheers.
Reuben Saltzman (09:37.591)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:38.669)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:50.542)
Hmm.
Philippe Heller (09:54.041)
And it was off to the races from there. We even did well during the 08 crash because so many investors got into the market that they were hiring us to evaluate the house. There were still a lot of transactions going on. A little bit different. The crash, people have to understand, the crash back in 08 was about the value of these properties, right? People got upside down because they were taking out loans they couldn’t afford and then they went to fully amortize and they just had to walk away.
So there were all these great houses that were selling for cheap and anybody with money could buy, you know, there were thousands of houses for sale. So it was really good time for us. It’s a little bit different than now where there’s just no inventory, even though prices are sky high. There’s just limited transactions in our market. Southern California has been hit really hard for the last three years in a reduction in that. anyway, that’s what happened. And I started hiring and growing and
Tessa Murry (10:37.934)
Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (10:49.648)
We became the largest home inspection company in San Diego. And we work in the counties above us, Orange County and Riverside, but we don’t have that much presence up there. San Diego’s huge. And at the height of everything, we had 20 inspectors and three sewer scope technicians that were just dedicated to doing sewer scopes. And we have had to scale back a little bit over the last couple of years just because we couldn’t support everybody. There wasn’t enough business going around.
Reuben Saltzman (11:18.572)
Sure.
Tessa Murry (11:19.086)
Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (11:19.298)
Yeah, that brings us to here. I’ve been out of the field now for gosh about six years. which is interesting now because I still love it. Like I’ll go to houses and I’m always looking at stuff, but, it would, I’d probably have to go through training again to get back into it. Cause a lot of stuff has changed.
Reuben Saltzman (11:24.277)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (11:31.246)
You
Reuben Saltzman (11:34.082)
Sure, Yeah, we’ve got similar paths, Philippe, so much. And what is Tanya up to these days? Tanya and Philippe are partners in the business. Not only that, but go on.
Tessa Murry (11:35.96)
Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Philippe Heller (11:48.161)
Yep. we, yeah, we purchased, three years ago, we purchased a termite pest control company. So she also helps me run that. And she’s great at developing people, developing leadership, et cetera. But she does, her passion is children. When I met her, she was the head counselor at an afterschool program. And that’s really where her heart is. And her mom is an elementary school teacher at a private Christian school.
And she’s actually there today because they have a field trip and she likes to help her mom. Once every few weeks, she’ll go down and volunteer just because that’s what her passion is. But she’s still very involved with the women of IEB group and planning the women’s calls and the retreats. And she loves doing that. So she’s a little bit less in the day to day with the companies because we have really good leadership team and she’s not needed and we haven’t been hiring so much lately.
But anyway, that’s where she’s at today.
Reuben Saltzman (12:50.026)
Okay, alright, well tell her hi for me.
Tessa Murry (12:51.086)
Wow, thanks for sharing that story, Philippe. I think that’s an inspiration to hear where you were at and where you’re at today because I think a lot of people have experienced what you’re describing as the office space scenario where you get stuck in this corporate job or you get stuck at a job that you don’t love and it just drains you and you get burnt out and you’re frustrated and you’re just a zombie getting through life and it’s like, there’s more to life than this. What can I do to change it?
Philippe Heller (13:05.834)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (13:20.726)
It usually takes a leap of faith and it’s really scary, but clearly you are intelligent and you’re resourceful and you’re entrepreneurial and you’re passionate about what you do and it shows. so it’s cool to hear where you’re at today.
Reuben Saltzman (13:32.063)
Amen. Yes.
Philippe Heller (13:37.15)
Yeah, I love I just loved.
Reuben Saltzman (13:38.476)
Well, Philippe…
Tessa Murry (13:38.638)
We wanna dive in, yeah.
Philippe Heller (13:41.574)
I was gonna say, you know, I love it that you’re dealing with a lot of people every day and and I love the history of houses and so I was really inspired to do I loved it I mean if it was six days a week, know, whatever I would just do it because it I loved it so much but then You know it evolves where you get to be a little bit You have to run the business somebody has to run the place and it got to the point where it’s like, okay I need to step back and we had enough people to support me not being in the field
But yeah, and what’s interesting too is how we’ve developed so many services. Ruben, you touched on our new services that focuses on creating a defensible home so it can resist wildfires. so to be developing new services has been really fun to watch. My team is really good at that. to be kind of behind the scenes watching that happen has been real rewarding.
Reuben Saltzman (14:40.01)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I would love to hear more about what that service looks like. When did you start offering it? And what do you guys do? And what pointers could you give to other home inspectors who are doing this? I mean, so let’s just start off. How did you first start doing this? How long ago was it?
Tessa Murry (14:47.149)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (14:58.982)
Okay, so I think like many home inspectors, would note if there were branches in contact with the house or there were piles of wood next to it. That’s just something you would do because it’s detrimental to the property. But what really pushed us to do it is there was a new law in California called AB 38, which now made it a requirement for the seller to report to the buyer
What? Defensible space man did the house comply with did I lose you guys?
Did I lose you guys?
Reuben Saltzman (15:40.706)
No, I tried turning off your video because it’s getting really choppy. lot of your audio is not working. So, huh, yeah, it’s not coming through for me or Chakra. We can hear you now. Yeah, yeah.
Philippe Heller (15:44.668)
Okay.
I got five bars.
Philippe Heller (15:51.292)
Okay, are you hearing me okay now? Are you hearing me now?
Philippe Heller (15:58.596)
Okay, listen audio podcast.
Reuben Saltzman (16:01.228)
So let’s start over with that question. Yeah, it’s only audio. So let’s start over with that question where I say, how’d you get started with this?
Philippe Heller (16:04.348)
Okay.
Okay, that’s fine. So.
Tessa Murry (16:07.395)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (16:11.75)
Sure. So we always reported on things that might be a hazard to a home, like excessive brush or shrubs near the house or tree overhanging. But what really pushed us to create a service about this is a few years ago, the state of California came out with a law called AB 38. And it made it the responsibility of the seller to disclose to the buyer whether or not the home complied with two things. One was defensible space.
if it was in a high fire risk area. Defensible space has to do with the distance between the house and combustibles. Brush, trees, shrubs, things like that. And number two was whether or not the house complied with the building code as of 2010 in California, which pertains to what’s called home fire hardening. And those are aspects of the structure itself built to help the home withstand the spread of a wildfire. So it had to do with things like
Tessa Murry (16:50.478)
Thanks.
Philippe Heller (17:11.371)
the size of the openings in the vents. Eaves, are they open and exposed? there wood or are they enclosed? So certain things like that. Remember that we were talking about weather when we first started and something people forget is that Southern California experiences what are called Santa Ana winds every year between November and January. And these are really strong near hurricane strength winds.
Tessa Murry (17:21.72)
So.
Philippe Heller (17:38.628)
They can be 60, 80, even 100 miles an hour, and they come from east to west, which is unusual, right? Normally we have an onshore flow here predominantly, and that means that it’s coming from the desert, and it’s super dry and very strong. And when we have protracted periods where we’ve had no rain, which is very common, what they call the chaparral, or the growth that is natural on the hillsides, becomes super brittle.
Tessa Murry (17:47.694)
Hmm.
Tessa Murry (17:54.711)
Hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (18:01.794)
Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (18:07.514)
But it has a high oil content. So it’s like oak, shrub oaks and things like that, chaparral and things. You look at the mountains, you don’t realize that these shrubs are like 10 feet tall and almost impenetrable. You can’t just walk through. It’s like hedgerows. And so when you combine a fire with 60 or 80 mile an hour winds, you can imagine that it’s very difficult to control them. And so with the advent or the passage of AB 38, we thought
CAL FIRE, our fire department, cannot possibly keep up with the number of inspections that was required to keep up with the escrow timeframe. They don’t care about escrow, they don’t care about real estate agents. we created a template and an inspection to inform the buyer and the seller as to whether or not they comply and make suggestions on what they can do.
just like a home inspection to comply with not only the defensible space requirements but also the home fire hardening details and elements of a house.
Reuben Saltzman (19:10.166)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (19:10.51)
Does the state of California require some sort of certification for people doing these inspections?
Philippe Heller (19:16.76)
No, it’s just like a home inspection. We’re not a licensed state. yeah, we can inspect just about anything. I know everything’s regulated, everything except for home inspections. And then you have Texas, which is very unregulated, except for home inspections, which is highly rare. I don’t understand. so what we did is we went through
Tessa Murry (19:22.862)
Okay, okay. Which was surprising. It’s California. Crazy.
Right. Yeah, same thing for Florida. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (19:36.908)
Yeah, yeah, go figure.
Philippe Heller (19:42.999)
and really studied the defensible space requirements, which talk about the distance from the house to combustibles, such as play structures and trees and shrubs and, you know, what are the clearances? Because remember, it’s not just about a fire. It’s a wind driven fire, which and there’s a ladder effect. So let’s say a fire starts at the bottom of a hillside or a canyon. Well, the ladder effect is how it jumps from
Tessa Murry (20:04.429)
Hmm.
Philippe Heller (20:12.438)
one shrub or tree to a bigger tree and it climbs up this hillside and burns the house on the top of the hill. So therefore that house on top of the hill has to have a wide margin between the shrubs on the hillside and the home so that hopefully that fire doesn’t spread to the home.
Reuben Saltzman (20:32.79)
Yep, yep. And is there some specific distance you need to have?
Tessa Murry (20:32.994)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (20:38.964)
Yes, and it depends on, you know, what you’re talking about, whether it’s 50 feet or 100 feet. and it has to be on your property, right? You’re not responsible for things outside of your fence line or your property line. so, you know, now in California, they want 50 feet of clearance, but San Diego has more stringent requirements, which is a hundred feet. Now, does that mean you can’t have any plants on your property? No, of course not. You can, but they have to be spaced out from one another. And if you have a big pine tree,
Tessa Murry (20:52.108)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (21:00.6)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (21:08.797)
or something, you have to clear the bottom branches. So if there is a fire along the shrubs on the ground, it’s much harder for it to spread up to the bottom branches of the tree. So you have to clear all the branches up to 10 feet. You could have a 60 foot tree, but there’s no branches on the bottom. So it’s very hard for fire to start, you know, spread up to the branches. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (21:30.857)
Interesting. OK.
Tessa Murry (21:32.558)
This is a whole different way of thinking. And it’s so interesting to me. Do you have to have, does a house have to kind of pass all of these criteria in order to qualify for insurance? Like, are insurance providers involved in this?
Reuben Saltzman (21:36.032)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (21:51.474)
You would, it’s very interesting here. Insurance companies will write a policy during escrow. So you buy in a house and you think, okay, I got the insurance and my lender’s happy. And then only after within the next 30 days or something, do they evaluate the property and then they can come back. We did a podcast with a gal who moved into our neighborhood and within a month after moving in, she was faced with over, I think it was $5,000 worth of brush and tree trimming because the insurance company said,
We’re gonna we’re gonna drop you, you know, you got too much stuff here. This is too high of a risk and so you would think just like many other things you would think that insurance companies would Ask the home inspector about what’s the plumbing condition like what’s the roof like like a four-point? We’re starting to see that now, but it was not the norm Which is which blows my mind because they should be asking us they should be requiring but if I was the insurance company I’d say wait a minute before I insure you I want to make sure your house is good. It’s less likely to have a leak
Reuben Saltzman (22:23.841)
Mmm.
Tessa Murry (22:38.872)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (22:46.177)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (22:51.217)
I want to make sure the roof’s okay and I want to make sure that it’s not going to burn down. And only recently are they starting to ask for that.
Tessa Murry (22:55.789)
Right.
Reuben Saltzman (22:58.931)
Interesting.
Tessa Murry (22:59.47)
Hmm… Hmm…
Philippe Heller (23:00.787)
So let’s talk about the, if you don’t mind the second aspect of it besides the distance from combustibles is the new building code which requires certain elements of the home to be impervious or resistant to wind driven fires. So what does that mean? Yeah, these are called fire hardening features. these are, we classify homes here in high fire.
Tessa Murry (23:04.632)
Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (23:17.174)
Fire hardening, you called it.
Tessa Murry (23:17.568)
Yeah, what does that look like?
Reuben Saltzman (23:21.73)
Okay, yep.
Philippe Heller (23:28.55)
high-fire risk zones and very high-fire risk zones. And if a home is in one of those, they have to have things like double-pane windows on the exterior perimeter walls, no matter what. They have to be tempered glass, sorry. They have to be tempered double-pane windows. well, excuse me, all new homes have to have double-pane windows. They have to be tempered. And the idea is that they’re less likely to shatter and fall out, allowing sparks to come in.
Reuben Saltzman (23:41.1)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (23:52.674)
Hmm.
Philippe Heller (23:57.22)
embers to come in during wind.
Tessa Murry (24:00.33)
my gosh. Wow. Wow.
Philippe Heller (24:00.913)
Because that’s what happens if there’s a fire outside the house. They’re so hot. You guys are probably seeing pictures. We don’t have vinyl siding here really, but you know, the side of the house melts. There’s so much heat and traditional plate glass windows will just crack and shatter allowing embers to come in. So homes in high and very high fire risk areas have to have tempered glass to reduce that risk. Softed vents, gable vents, any kind of roof vents, dormer vents have to have wire mesh that has an opening of no bigger than 1 16th of an inch.
Tessa Murry (24:17.313)
Wow.
Tessa Murry (24:22.7)
off.
Philippe Heller (24:31.32)
Okay, so yeah, it’s tiny. air can… No, air can get through because it’s like a window screen, right? It’s pretty much that fine mesh.
Tessa Murry (24:31.982)
Whoa, how can any air get in?
Tessa Murry (24:42.223)
one, one nice spring or summer day in Minnesota, and that would be clogged up with cottonwood.
Philippe Heller (24:48.816)
interesting. Yeah, so we have that because a lot of embers, even though most of our houses are stucco and tile roof, due to the wind driven nature of these fires that spread, embers would blow into the dormer vents or gable vents and set the attic on fire. And it was very hard to put it out once that started. Or a Spanish style profile on the roof, embers would get up in there if they didn’t have a bird stop at the end.
Reuben Saltzman (25:06.352)
god.
Tessa Murry (25:08.685)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (25:17.279)
and they would set the roof deck on fire underneath the tile. So, bird stop is required, that’s a home fire hardening feature. Fine mesh screen in the vents is a feature. Tempered glass at the exterior is a feature. All those things play into, know, decks have to be a grade A type of wood or material that is very hard to get going. You can’t just use cedar anymore for a deck.
Tessa Murry (25:18.333)
my gosh.
Tessa Murry (25:22.03)
crazy.
Reuben Saltzman (25:22.038)
Yikes.
Tessa Murry (25:40.949)
Okay.
Philippe Heller (25:42.511)
or redwood anymore. You have to use like Brazilian hardwood or something that doesn’t burn, Class A wood, because embers would fall on it and, you know, set the deck on fire or a patio cover and then that would spread to the home. So those are the home fire hardening features. Now, when we inspect a home that was built prior to 2010 and doesn’t have these home fire hardening, just like any building code, the seller is not required to upgrade the home. But it is good to tell
Tessa Murry (25:43.874)
Bye.
Philippe Heller (26:12.781)
the buyer that this house no longer complies with current code and is at an elevated risk of fire, a wind driven fire because it doesn’t have it and you may want to, and there are companies that will come in and retrofit your home for all this stuff. yeah, so, you know, insurance companies know this and if your house was built prior to that, they’re going to charge you more for a premium. But we created a really good report, just like home inspection reports with pictures. We put the
Tessa Murry (26:18.091)
you.
Tessa Murry (26:27.831)
Wow.
Wow.
Tessa Murry (26:35.522)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (26:40.3)
the measurements in there. We tell them exactly what to do. We give them a plan of action, similar to like you might, you guys might inspect a home and say, Hey, this house was built prior to the requirements of GFCI receptacles, wherever in a bathroom, in a, by a pool, whatever. And we recommend that you get it installed for safety. Well, that’s sort of the same ideology when we’re inspecting an older home idea being that homeowner, the new homeowner will either
Tessa Murry (26:54.062)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Philippe Heller (27:06.309)
try and negotiate maybe for the upgrades or act on that after they move in and take steps to really protect their home.
Tessa Murry (27:09.859)
Hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (27:15.308)
Sure, sure.
Tessa Murry (27:15.392)
Wow, are there companies out there that just specialize in that?
Philippe Heller (27:18.933)
Yes. Yep, they will do vent, roof vent, retrofits, and even at ByteAway, our termite pest control company, we sell little Soffit vent plugs that have fine mesh screen. Now, we’re selling it to keep termites out because quarter inch chicken wire or wire cloth, they’re going to let any big bug in there, right? It’s not going to stop a termite.
Tessa Murry (27:20.834)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (27:35.502)
Hmm. Hmm.
Philippe Heller (27:43.708)
I don’t think you guys have a big problem with termites because it’s so cold, but we do. We have dry wood termites that swarm and they just go right into the attic. So we sell these very fine mesh screens. we’re actually, Tessa, we’re going to make ourselves available to re-screen all these roof vents from our perspective to keep termites out, but it’ll have the secondary benefit of keeping most embers out of the attic.
Tessa Murry (27:44.28)
Thank
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (28:05.848)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (28:10.666)
Wow, is the same thing true for like intakes on combustion air vents or like an air to air exchanger intake? You have to have this really fine mesh screen on the exterior of the house.
Reuben Saltzman (28:10.87)
Gotcha.
Philippe Heller (28:23.389)
No, we don’t have, it’s interesting, we don’t have a lot of heat exchangers because we don’t have that cold, you know, we just don’t have that here very much. So it’s mostly just pretty much wide open combustion, whether it’s a tankless water heater. And think about if an ember went in there, it’s just gonna go into the combustion chamber where there’s fire already. So it’s really probably not that much of a risk to if embers did go in there.
Tessa Murry (28:45.048)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (28:50.974)
Let me clarify it. Maybe I didn’t say that correctly. So what about air to air exchangers that are just for bringing in fresh air for the house? So to provide air exchange and to mix it with the air in the house, usually there’s an intake and an exhaust. And houses in California, I’m sure, are being built pretty airtight to be energy efficient. They probably require some sort of like balanced whole house ventilation. Is that a problem installing those systems because of the intakes on the exterior of the house?
Philippe Heller (29:11.487)
Yes.
Tessa Murry (29:20.854)
What kind of special install do you have to do to meet the fire requirements?
Philippe Heller (29:24.638)
You know, on those, I’m not, you got me on that one. I would have to research that. I don’t think we check. I don’t think that’s part of the home hardening of having screens on those. It’d probably be a good idea just to keep rodents. Cause you know, we’ve all seen where, you know, squirrels or other birds will put things in there. So they are vented, but I’m not sure it’s the same requirement because it’s not, there shouldn’t be any combustible material inside. So again, even if an ember did go in there,
Tessa Murry (29:33.836)
Okay.
intakes.
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (29:44.331)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (29:53.532)
It’s a metal heat exchanger for the fresh air exchange. So I don’t think that has the same risk to it. But that’s a good question. I’ll look in that.
Tessa Murry (29:54.307)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (30:00.012)
Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (30:01.866)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (30:04.93)
Well, and kind of along those lines, do you know of anything like in your guys’ market that, or does your inspection company talk to clients about ways to try and improve air quality in the home? Because I know with all the fires we’ve had recently and not just this year, but previous years, all the smoke in the air, the fine particulates, getting into people’s homes and causing health issues, like does California…
focus on air quality and do you guys specifically talk to clients about that and make recommendations on things to do to the house to make it better?
Philippe Heller (30:38.4)
Well, California is very strict on air quality for sure and What we do what’s interesting is that in most homeowners insurance companies will? Remediate your attic if you got a lot of ash in your attic They will come in and vacuum it out and it should be no charge to the homeowner To keep it, you know help you then while all that ash but during during a wildfire It’s kind of like you’re on your own. You need to keep your house closed
keep your filter in good working order and just recirculate the house air.
Tessa Murry (31:06.348)
Thanks.
Tessa Murry (31:10.222)
Thanks
Okay. Yeah. So it’s just like batten down the hatches, everybody close your windows, close everything and keep your, yep. Keep your internal filters clean and, the air moving in your house. Okay. Yeah.
Philippe Heller (31:16.488)
Truly. Truly.
Philippe Heller (31:23.335)
One interesting other part of the building code is that after the Paradise Fire a few years ago in California, where a lot of people died, I forget the number, but it was close to or just over 100 people died, a lot of them were old. And the problem is that they couldn’t get out of their garage. It was older people, they couldn’t reach or the release was missing or the power was out, and that people didn’t know how to open the door. And so they stayed in their home and they died.
there was a change to the building code where all new garage door openers must have a battery backup so that it will continue to function even if the power goes out. yep, and another mistake people made is when they were evacuating is they left their garage door open. So they’d get out, they’d manually open it, lift it up, back the car out and take off and they’d leave their garage open, which, know, embers blew in and a lot of houses burnt down simply because of that. So,
Reuben Saltzman (31:59.745)
Mmm.
Tessa Murry (32:00.803)
Really?
Wow.
Tessa Murry (32:17.803)
no.
Philippe Heller (32:21.958)
You know, like on my house, I replaced the button with a timer that you could set at 5, 10 or 15 minutes, it will automatically close the door. But that’s something else where they made a battery backup garage door opener as a requirement when they’re replaced in a new build or when you replace so that the elderly, whoever could continue to open the door to escape the home.
Tessa Murry (32:22.466)
Yes.
Tessa Murry (32:37.208)
Wow.
Tessa Murry (32:46.792)
Wow. Wow. What about different types of like sightings that you are there special materials or brands that you see out there commonly that are less likely to catch on fire?
Reuben Saltzman (32:47.468)
Sure. Sure.
Philippe Heller (32:59.575)
Most of our houses are stucco or they’re like hardy siding, know cement fiberboard. Gosh, asbestos was great for this, right? It’s one of those products that worked really well like lead, but it just wasn’t very healthy for us. yes, most houses are built certainly in high or very high fire areas. Most of them are stucco and now the eaves
Tessa Murry (33:06.007)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (33:12.193)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (33:15.918)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (33:23.997)
You don’t see any wood exposed because the fire could burn and then lick up the side of the stucco and set the eaves on fire, again setting the roof on fire, and because it’s tile it’s very hard to put it out. So now all the underside of the eaves are enclosed with stucco.
Tessa Murry (33:35.426)
Wow.
Tessa Murry (33:40.948)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (33:42.178)
We don’t have vinyl to speak of in California. so, know, stucco is great, but you know, it can only, it might deflect the flames and concentrate them on some exposed wood. So, you know, now, now all that is, sealed up. So you minimize the amount of wood that’s exposed. Another problem is people don’t clean their rain gutters and they don’t cover them. So they fill with pine needles or leaves or whatever all year long and
Reuben Saltzman (33:42.636)
Gotcha. Okay.
Tessa Murry (33:54.67)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (34:06.667)
Mm.
dry debris kindling.
Philippe Heller (34:11.967)
Ember goes in there and it doesn’t take much and it sets all that on fire and the little bit of wood decking that’s exposed the wood sheathing catches and again spread so there’s all it doesn’t take much to get a house going and Just like a blast furnace when you apply that much air Blowing on it. It’s going to spread like a campfire, right? You just fan it and it takes off
Reuben Saltzman (34:32.45)
Sure, sure.
Now, Philippe, I’m wondering, are there any other special systems that people can pay a specialty contractor a boatload of money to install that will like, you know, have some type of electric shutters that where you’d have steel going over the windows in the openings? there like some ridiculous systems that people install that do stuff like that?
Tessa Murry (34:36.642)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (34:58.518)
Well, I like those storm windows that I’ve always seen them advertise like in Florida where there’s hurricanes whatever that roll down. I think that’s really smart. so the the basic one is people will run some PVC and put some sprinklers on the roof. The effectiveness, eh, it’s not great because if it’s windy the water may not go where you need it to go. The other ones there are some you asked about specialty. Yes, there are companies that will sell fire retardant systems. So they have like a
Reuben Saltzman (35:05.141)
That’s what I’m thinking of, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (35:15.714)
Huh.
Philippe Heller (35:27.945)
like sprinklers, essentially. And most new houses in those areas have like commercial grade, well, they look like commercial sprinklers built into the interior of the house. That doesn’t save your house, right? Those are built for life safety to get you out of a burning house. But these specialty companies can set you up with the fire retardant that you can either manually spray, like the fire’s coming, you can spray the outside of your house and it’s like a gel that sticks to your house and will keep it from catching on fire.
Most people just they don’t spend the money to get that and they’re victims, you know, because like like a burglar alarm, right? Most burglar alarms are sold the day after they get broken into Not not before The other an easy one and you can buy these even at like harbor freight They’re not very expensive, but you can get gas powered water pumps And if you have a swimming pool or a pond or whatever, know You throw one end into the pool and you may be the first line of defense
Tessa Murry (35:57.889)
What?
Tessa Murry (36:09.398)
Hmmmm
Philippe Heller (36:25.992)
before the firefighters can get there. Because when you have a house, I mean, I’m sorry, if you have a wildfire that’s burning hundreds of acres, they may not, they’re so spread thin, it’s ridiculous. And you may be the only one. So those people in Pacific Palisades recently, who were able, many of them who were able to save their homes had a gas-powered pump and they fought the fire themselves. They wetted down the yard, their house, and they saved their house. A little bit risky.
Tessa Murry (36:28.603)
my gosh.
Tessa Murry (36:49.912)
with their pool water.
Reuben Saltzman (36:50.068)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (36:55.549)
you because you got to stay there and fight that fire. But that’s probably the least expensive way to, you know, try and protect your own home if you’re not going to set up a really good irrigation. You know, again, the problem is the water, right? You heard about Palisades running out of water. Part of it was due to massive mismanagement on the local government and the water district. Part of it was just that the fire was so huge. And we’ve experienced too in San Diego.
Tessa Murry (36:58.613)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (37:25.435)
So many hydrants are open that there’s no pressure because every firefighter is fighting. And interestingly, where I live, it’s called Ramona. It’s kind of inland in San Diego County and it’s elevated about 1500 feet. We have an airport there and that’s where they fly the air attack from Southern California. Those are the planes that drop the retarded. Well, all of our water up there gets pumped from a town called Poway at the bottom of it. The power lines back in 03
Reuben Saltzman (37:28.999)
gosh. Sure. Sure.
Tessa Murry (37:29.176)
Mmm. Mmm.
Philippe Heller (37:55.59)
The power lines burnt down. So the pump station was non-functional. And we have like nine, we had nine huge water tanks around our town, but they were consistently being used to fill the planes and fight the fires that were burning. And the whole system emptied in our town. So, and we didn’t have any new water coming up, being pumped up from Poway, from what we call down the hill, right? So.
They have fixed that since, right? We have a lot of redundancy and we have generators and all this stuff, but it was a case where there was just so much demand on the water system that it failed. And that’s part of what happened in up in LA recently is there were just so many fires, a lack of water, terrible maintenance, and there were just so many hydrants open at once that there just wasn’t any pressure and that they just have to sit back and watch the fires burn.
Reuben Saltzman (38:48.834)
Well, that’s a yeah, running water is something I completely take for granted. I expect open my faucet and water comes out. I don’t appreciate it the way I probably should.
Tessa Murry (38:53.73)
Yeah, we have a lot of it here in the Midwest. Yeah. Yeah.
Philippe Heller (38:59.227)
Well, that’s why those pumps are so invaluable because you know, mean, said, well, I have a hose, right? I’ll just hose down my house. Not if it’s not working, right? Because the firefighters are taking all, and they tell you don’t do that because now you’re taking pressure away from the firefighters. So they really frown on people doing that. But if you’ve got your own pump and you’ve got, you know, pools of 20, 30, 50,000 gallons, you got a lot of water there. You know, you can do what you want with that.
Tessa Murry (39:08.172)
Right.
Tessa Murry (39:15.7)
Yeah… Yeah…
Tessa Murry (39:23.949)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (39:25.526)
Sure. Sure. Okay. Love it. And now for the inspections, this something you would just include with the home inspection or is this an add-on service? How does that work?
Tessa Murry (39:29.069)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (39:38.907)
We did recently for the month of January, because of the fires, we did include it as a promotion, right? It’s two things. We wanted to just use it for a little bit of exposure, right? Like A, that we do these inspections. So even if you’re not worried about it now, hey, if you’re a realtor and your client’s buying a house in a fire prone region, have this inspection done. And the other side of it was, if you’re a homeowner,
Reuben Saltzman (39:45.344)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (39:46.232)
Bye.
Tessa Murry (40:02.52)
Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (40:08.919)
Call us and we can we can do this for you so that you You know that you can protect you could take steps to protect your home So we did do that Otherwise, we charge between if it’s an upgrade and to add on it’s like 150 bucks to add on because the guys are already inspecting most of it So it’s pretty simple addendum to the report for them to do they’ve taken their pictures and they just add some measurements and all the comments are built in
If it’s a standalone, it’s like 350 bucks because it does take an inspection slot and we got to make it worth our guy, you know, our time to send somebody out there and the, you know, the lost opportunity to do a full inspection and it’s well worth it. Like our report’s really, really solid.
Tessa Murry (40:41.646)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (40:53.172)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Reuben Saltzman (40:58.048)
Very cool. Well, this has been enlightening. Thank you, Philippe.
Tessa Murry (41:02.67)
I was just going to say, I’m just processing everything that you said, Philippe. It’s a completely different world that you’re living in, and you’ve got all these hazards that we don’t even think about up here in Minnesota. it’s scary, but it’s also very interesting of what a different job and inspection entails where you are versus where we are up here in Minnesota, the things you have to think about.
Philippe Heller (41:26.521)
And I think you could say that too, like if we went to the southeast and had to do hurricane, like I have no idea. I don’t even know how to inspect a basement because we don’t have them here, right? So it is, I love that topic that you guys have of, you know, the different regions and what is required. You know, your installation requirements are far different than ours. We have a lot of houses in San Diego that don’t have air conditioning at all because they’re along the beach and it’s beautiful and they don’t care. They don’t need it even without insulation.
Tessa Murry (41:32.109)
Yeah.
Hehehehe. Yeah!
Tessa Murry (41:44.387)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (41:50.166)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (41:54.442)
Right. Yeah.
Philippe Heller (41:55.001)
and a lot of post-world war two houses that just simply don’t have insulation like a little gravity heater in the living room and People don’t complain. It’s fine. So I love it. Every region has something unique and This is one that we deal with every year and it just the question it now There’s you know, the whole other side of that which is how are these fires starting? Okay, so
Reuben Saltzman (41:56.908)
great.
Tessa Murry (42:03.547)
Yeah. Wow.
Tessa Murry (42:10.571)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (42:21.006)
Hmm.
Philippe Heller (42:21.769)
Our utility companies are very proactive and if there’s going to be high winds, they will proactively shut the power down. They’ll shut it off. So we’ll have these, you know, blackouts because they’re worried. They’ve been sued many times because it’s their power lines that fall. They spark and they spark these huge fires and then they’re on the hook for billions in damage. So we do have that where we may have three, four days of no electricity. We put in a whole house generator years ago in our house and I love it.
Tessa Murry (42:30.498)
Wow.
Philippe Heller (42:50.655)
You know that way our whole house is lit up. we have that and then you know, the you guys are probably seen on the news We do have a big homeless problem out here because the weather is nicer and we have a big homeless problem and many of the fires do start in those encampments and You know one hand can you blame them? They’re trying to stay warm. They’re trying to cook They’re trying to do this and that and they may not you know think about hey, it’s windy. Maybe we shouldn’t start a fire but it is the cause
Tessa Murry (42:59.32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (43:16.375)
Yeah.
Philippe Heller (43:18.452)
the genesis of many of these fires is that these encampments are the source, for sure.
Tessa Murry (43:21.902)
Thank you.
Yeah, which goes to an even bigger problem, know, housing crisis. Yeah, that is a, that’s a whole different topic. Wow. Wow. We could go on and on, Philippe, and this is fascinating, but I feel like we’ve got a pretty full podcast. I don’t know. Is there anything else, Ruben, did you have any other questions you wanted to ask Philippe before we wrap this one up?
Philippe Heller (43:28.875)
That’s a whole different topic. Yep.
Reuben Saltzman (43:30.528)
Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (43:44.68)
That’s, that’s everything I wanted to cover. Is there anything else we should have talked about or asked you about?
Philippe Heller (43:49.631)
You know, I think that that’s the thing is like, don’t, for home inspectors, don’t be afraid. As a matter of fact, I have a philosophy that’s 90 % of what most professionals do is exactly the same, whether it’s by standards of practice or laws or rule regulation, whatever. I don’t care if you’re a real estate agent or an attorney or a house painter or whatever. 90 % of what you do is the same on paper as everyone else. Builders, whatever.
We differentiate ourselves in the 10 % margin around that, right? It’s our quality of work, like a painter. Anybody can put paint on a wall. How well do they prep it? How well do they tape it? How well do they clean up? All these different things that allows one painter to charge a lot more than another. Same as home inspectors. Don’t be afraid and keep an eye on new regulations, new building codes, new things like that, new real estate requirements that can enable you to take advantage of that.
take that opportunity to come up with a unique service that separates you from everybody else. Because cumulatively, when you look at all your competition and yet you offer things like Sewer Scope and mold testing and maybe radon, like we don’t have radon so I can’t do that. That’s another difference. We have no radon. You know, you have radon, have fire inspection, maybe hurricane, wind mitigation, all these different things. Stay abreast of what’s going on in your local area so that you could be first to market.
Tessa Murry (45:02.936)
Mm-hmm.
Philippe Heller (45:15.676)
And it gives you something else to talk about. And, you know, we always talk about a one-stop shop. Well, really be that one-stop shop. It gives you the opportunity to teach and speak about things other than your shiny tools. You want to say, hey, I want to be here to educate you on this new real estate law regulation, whatever it is. And here’s how we can help with that. So, you know, there’s always opportunity and…
Tessa Murry (45:16.3)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (45:39.649)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (45:39.864)
Hmm.
Philippe Heller (45:43.834)
make sure that you have an A plus team that’s scheduling and upselling. And you can turn a $500 inspection into a $1,200 inspection with the right mix of services.
Tessa Murry (45:56.546)
Mmm.
Reuben Saltzman (45:56.64)
Yeah. And you’re giving people stuff that they need. It’s just you’re a one stop shop. They don’t need to get all this from all these other people. Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. Hopefully. So good to catch up with you. So good to hear about all this stuff. It’s part of the reason I still do this podcast. I still love doing it. It’s just all that I get to learn. I mean, this is forced learning for me and I love hearing about this stuff. Yeah.
Philippe Heller (46:03.325)
Correct.
Tessa Murry (46:04.535)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, great insight.
Tessa Murry (46:11.789)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (46:20.256)
learning new things every podcast.
Philippe Heller (46:21.586)
Always changing, right? New technology. You know, when I started there, there were no tankless water heaters. There were no hybrid anything, you know, like heat pump, water heater. None of that stuff existed. So there’s always something new and I appreciate you doing this.
Tessa Murry (46:32.694)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Thanks, Philippe, for coming on.
Reuben Saltzman (46:37.484)
Yeah, yeah. Well, thanks for coming on. And yeah, if people want to reach out to you, find more information about you, how can they find you, Philippe?
Philippe Heller (46:46.236)
So our website, real easy, SD Inspect, like San Diego, SD Inspect.com, and all our contact information is on there. Or you can, if you’re in IAB, I think pretty much everyone knows how to get ahold of me. If you’re not in IAB, consider it. It’s a great community and we’ve developed not only good skills and knowledge, but really good friendships along the way.
Reuben Saltzman (47:08.862)
Amen to that. 100 % agreed. Well, for our listeners, if you have any questions, thoughts for us, you want to reach out, please email us. We read them all. It’s podcast at StructureTech.com and we will catch you next time. Take care.