Getting a Home Inspection: Why It Matters and What To Look For
In today's competitive real estate market and rising interest rates, you want to make sure you get a home inspection. Having a qualified professional who knows what to look for matters a great deal. In this article, we will give...
12K Inspections & Still Growing
Born in England Ivan Mose (the fonder of Mose Home Inspection Services) immigrated to Canada and worked as an electrical engineer for Pratt and Whitney working on high profile military projects. “That was an exciting time for me. As a...
Join Our Diverse Team
If you visit the websites of home inspection companies in the greater Montreal area, most of them are operated by older white men. Even when I go to home inspection industry events and look around the room, most everyone around...
Protect Your Family from Harmful VOCs
It's a fact, even though the weather is great, we are all spending more time at home. Because of COVID working from home has become the norm. Our kids are studying at home, and we aren't even going out for...
Post Purchase Inspection – It’s Not Too Late
Have a Third Option Your long search is over, and you have made an offer on your dream home, only to find out that you have competition; there are multiple offers. What's worse is that the seller will accept the...
5 Reasons to get a Pre-listing Inspection
Mose has served the Greater Montreal area for over ten years and has conducted over 6000 home inspections. Our inspectors are proud members of the Internachi Québec International Association, THE reference for building inspections throughout Quebec, this ensures our inspectors...
9 Simple Tips for Improving Indoor Air Quality
As the cold weather arrives, we who live in a northern climate, spend more time indoors. In winter months, there is less or no fresh air from the outside flowing into our homes, which means that VOCs (volatile organic Compounds)...
Be Smart When Closing Up Your Country Home This Fall
With COVID-19 travel restrictions in place all summer, many people decided to vacation in the country. Those who already had a cottage spent a lot of their summer in the country and those city dwellers who had never considered having...
Do You Know What Type of Insulation Is in Your Attic?
Many homeowners have good knowledge about the interiors of their home, but when it comes to things like their attic, they may be may not be as informed. An attic is often a mysterious place, where homeowners rarely venture, and...
Mid-Summer is the Best Time for Outdoor Maintenance
A lot of people are still working from home which gives many the opportunity to perform long overdue household maintenance chores. Now that summer is in full gear, it is the perfect time for tackling outdoor projects. Making sure your...
Confinement Cleaning Time: How to Fall in Love with Your Garage
Confinement measures have us stuck at home, but it is a great time to do some cleaning. What better place to start than your garage, often a place where we store junk and things we don’t know where else to...
Your House Stinks – A New Book by Ivan Mose
As most people are at home practicing social distancing, this could be a great time to delve into a new book. We are proud to announce that Ivan Mose, the founder of Mose Home Inspection has written a book that...
Why It’s Good to Perform a Home Inspection in Winter
Many homeowners wonder if a home inspection can be performed during the winter months, leading them to delay purchasing a home until springtime. The most common worry about a winter home inspection is that the inspector won’t be able to...
8 Holiday Hazards and How to Avoid Them
With snow now on the ground, we know that winter has arrived and the holidays are fast approaching. As people start planning to celebrate, many will be going out to get their Christmas trees at the market, and preparing to...
What You Need to Know about Air Quality Testing
Once autumn rolls around, our windows are not open very often. The fresh but cold air is kept out and the quality of our indoor air becomes more important. Air pollution is often thought of as an outdoor threat but...
6 Threats to the Air Quality of Your Office
Many people don’t realize that we spend about 90% of our time indoors. While we spend a lot of our time in our homes but we also spend a large part of our time in offices, commercial buildings and public...
5 Questions You Should Ask After a Home Inspection and One You Shouldn’t
When you have made an offer on your dream house and are booking your home inspection, you will probably want to know about the cost and how long it will take. In addition, you will want to know what kinds...
A Look at a Home Inspector’s Tools of the Trade
Many homeowners are handy when it comes to home maintenance and so they are very curious about how we inspect homes and the tools we use when we perform a home inspection. So in this blog, let’s look at some...
Water-Cooled Air Conditioners to be Illegal in Montreal as of January 2018
As of January 2018, running an air-conditioner connected to the aqueduct that does not have a water recycling system will be prohibited and fined, according to Montreal By-law 13-023. All air conditioning units that use a drinkable water cooling system need to...
Summer! Time to Get Your Deck in Ship Shape
While a ship’s captain may have a little time to batten down the hatch and get all hands on deck when he smells a storm, your deck may not give you the chance before it collapses. Your deck is where...
Hot Real Estate Markets and Home Inspections
Real estate in Montreal has been heating up with some districts experiencing hot market conditions and a shortage of property listings. Stories of tight closing dates and bidding wars are very common. In normal markets, the potential buyers have more...
Spring Cleaning: 5 Tips for Your Furnace
It’s still hard to believe that after our brutal winter, spring is really around the corner. Yes, we see the snow and ice are finally melting and we will need to prepare our annual spring-cleaning to-do list. Spring is obviously...
Can a Home Inspector Detect when a Flip is a Flop?
Canadian investors have been flipping houses at a phenomenal rate. As real estate prices continue to rise, flipped houses have become more common on the market. Realtytrac, a real estate hub, recently reported that 6.6 percent of all single family...
What is Vermiculite and Why Should You Know?
Unless you live in an older home, you may not know about vermiculite. Vermiculite is a natural mineral that was used as insulation in homes from the 1920’s to the 1970’s, and is often found in attics. It is silver-gold...
Carpenter Ants: Facts and Fiction for Homeowners
Carpenter ants are small insects that can cause big problems. As home inspectors, we often come across the signs of carpenter ants in a home and we need to let homeowners know why this could be important. Carpenter ants can...
Top 8 Dos and Don’ts for Water Heaters
The last few weeks have brought the bitter cold, blowing winds and snow we all dread. Winter in these parts is not for the weak. One thing you really want to avoid at any time of the year, but particularly...
Carbon Monoxide Detection 101: What You Need to Know
A few weeks ago, a school in LaSalle had to be evacuated due to carbon monoxide poisoning. 43 people, adults and children, were taken to hospital for treatment. It appears unclear whether the school had a carbon monoxide alarm or...
7 Reasons Why We Love Smart Smoke Detectors
New Year Wish List: Smart Smoke Detector This holiday season, many smart home devices were flying off the shelves in stores. These devices were designed to make life easier by offering connectivity to your smartphone and providing many new and...
Christmas wish list: Renovations that come with a tax credit!
As many homeowners may know, it was announced that the period of eligibility for the RénoVert tax credit offered by the Quebec government had been extended to March 31, 2019. This means that there is still some time left to get...
4 Good Reasons to Test Your Home for Radon Gas
November is Radon Awareness Month in Canada but most people don’t even know what radon is. People are aware of the importance of testing for things like carbon monoxide in a home but not everyone is aware of the need...
Top 5 Reasons for Getting an Inspection Before Renovating Your Home
At Mose Home Inspection Services, whether you are in Montreal, Laval or the South Shore, we are always trying to make home buying and ownership easier, that’s why we have compiled our list of Top 5 Reasons for Getting an...
8 Tips for Staging Your House Prior to Sale
The real estate market in the greater Montreal, Laval and South Shore region is heating up. A strong job market and a thriving economy are increasing demand. Inventory is relatively low with 16% fewer properties for sale than this time...
Top 10 Home Home Inspection Myths
After visiting several homes on the West-Island, in Anjou, the South Shore and even Mont St-Bruno, you and your better half have finally decided on the perfect place to settle down in Montreal. You survived the search and the financing...
Top 10 Home Defects – How to Spot and Deal with Them – Part 2
For nearly 15 years, Mose Home Inspection Services (MHIS) has been working to make home owners and prospective buyers more knowledgeable. The goal is to help them be better prepared to make an informed decision when buying, selling or renovating...
10 Spring Cleaning Tasks Diligent Homeowners Always Do
Spring is here! The flowers are bursting out from autumn-buried bulbs and the bees are buzzing into action. Have you got your spring cleaning checklist in order? Likely, you’ve got the basics on the list; you may already have dusted off...
The #1 Reason Montréal Roofs Leak in Winter
By Michael Winkel, Certified Building Inspector Have you ever been sitting back on your sofa, seeing no evil, thinking no evil, when suddenly, you hear a dripping sound? Alarmed, you investigate and discover water dripping from a single point in...
The Bidet: Everything you ever wanted to know (and more!)
Common in much of Europe and Asia, bidets are toilet-like plumbing fixtures designed to promote posterior hygiene. Although bidet prevalence in certain regions represents a humorous cultural distinction from American-style paper wiping, bidets do sport considerable convenience and comfort advantages....
Winter Preparation: Let’s Go Nuts!
All the squirrels and chipmunks are running around, busy collecting nuts, making sure their homes are well stocked… and you? What exactly are you doing to get ready for winter? Before settling into hibernation mode, it’s a good idea to...
Most Important Thing to Do About Asbestos? Don’t Panic!
From studies of people who were exposed to asbestos in factories and shipyards, we know that breathing high levels of asbestos fibers can lead to an increased risk of lung cancer in the forms of mesothelioma, which is a cancer...
10 Ways You Can Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
Drastic reductions in heating, cooling and electricity costs can be accomplished through very simple changes, most of which homeowners can do themselves. Why make your home more energy efficient? Here are a few good reasons: Federal, state, utility and local...
Do You Like Exposed Brick? It can be Deadly
by Ivan Mose A couple of weeks after last Christmas I received a phone call from a young man who told me he had a terrible smell in his apartment and could I come over as soon as possible and...
InterNACHI: the World’s Largest Professional Inspector Organization
InterNACHI (the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors) is the world’s largest trade organization of certified property inspectors. As our team has expanded to the double digits, and we’ve grown to provide services in multiple specializations, we have sought out...
Climbing Vines on Brick: Much Ado About Nothing?
This year’s Montreal and area Shakespeare in the park series featured Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. The meaning of the title to this play, often misinterpreted, is about making a big fuss when there is nothing to fuss about....
Does Your Bathroom Fan Suck up Toilet Paper? It Should.
Have you noticed that your bathroom fan isn’t quite sucking out the humidity quite like it used to? It might be time for an upgrade. A classic, simple DIY trick is to hold up a piece of toilet paper to...
Carpenter Ants are NOT the Problem, They are the Symptom
Sure, as carpenter ants burrow into wood to create their nests, your home is slowly getting destroyed from the inside out. But carpenter ants don’t generally nest in nice dry areas free of food stuffs. They prefer moist, rotting wood. Carpenter...
The Most Explosive Device in Your Home? Hot Water Tank Checkup
Did you know that a hot water tank can explode? When you combine high water temperatures and neglected pressure relief valves, you could have yourself an explosive tank that can literally blow your home through your roof. An old Mythbusters video...
The Most Important Home Maintenance Tool you will Ever Own
As a homeowner what do you consider the most important home maintenance tool? We’ve heard a wide range of answers: “Screwdriver.” “Hammer.” “Draino.” “Wrench.” “Measuring tape.” “Duct tape.” “Paintbrush.” “Hedge trimmer.” It’s true, trim hedges and fresh paint are all good for a...
How to Save $10,000 on your Electricity Bill
Is your Hydro-Québec electricity bill putting a hole in your wallet? It might be time to fix the holes in your home… I recently had a gentleman ask me how his electricity bill could possibly be $1000 per month. He asked me...
Burnt Toast Made you Disable the Smoke Detector?
You may have the wrong smoke detector. Reduce false alarms by using a different type. There’s nothing more annoying than a smoke detector that goes off every time you use the oven or burn toast. Many people take the batteries...
The GR8 Electrical Acronym Guide for Home Owners
While we hope you’re doing a lot of LOL’ing (laughing out loud) in your home, we also hope your GFI’s (Ground Fault interrupters) are installed in the right places to make sure your home is really safe. Not sure what...
Meet Richard (Not-a-Plumber) Paquette, a Drain Inspection Specialist
Can’t figure out why your drain is backing up? Is there a massive pool forming in the middle of your front yard, for no apparent reason? Are you buying or selling a new home, and want to be sure the...
Ice on the Roof: Remove or Leave Alone?
Deep freeze at -26 Celcius. Next day, a balmy 2 degrees and everything melts. Then it rains. Then freezes again. Then snow. What’s a homeowner to do? Be prepared. Freezing and melting water can be your home’s biggest enemy. Ice,...
Best ‘Smart Home’ Gadgets for 2017
As home inspectors, we’re always on the lookout for new technologies and devices that can improve both home security and home maintenance. 2017 is chalk full of incredible smart home devices that can keep you safe, make your energy consumption more...
Top 5 Gingerbread House Construction Problems
We do a lot of home inspections. This year, we decided to take a crack at inspecting gingerbread houses for the holidays. …we got laughed out of the bakeries! Alas, who doesn’t love a good gingerbread home construction? We find...
Best Time to Test for Radon? First Snowfall. Here’s Why.
Each year, more than 3,000 Canadians die from lung cancer caused by radon—the second most dangerous cause of lung cancer after smoking. Radon comes from uranium, a natural element found in the ground. When uranium breaks down, a radioactive gas...
Home Heating: Dear Liza, there’s a Hole in the Bucket!
Are you excited to get your January heating bill? Those of you who insulated, caulked and plugged the obvious holes might very well be excited to see the resulting savings. But the rest of us are groaning and ready to put on...
Always Book a Roofer in Autumn. This is Why.
While on an inspection, many of our clients ask: “How old is the roof?” If the owner doesn’t have a receipt on file, it’s impossible to know, but it’s pretty fair to say, we don’t see a lot of roofs...
The Cottage Closing Guide
It’s that time of year. The leaves will soon turn red and gold, and the cottage will need to be properly closed up for winter. It’s always good to have a checklist to ensure you don’t forget anything. We’ve compiled...
The Wobbly Porcelain Bowl: Fixing a Loose Toilet
Nope. We’re not talking about a rough night at the bar. It’s one of our favorite expressions here at the office to describe a loose toilet. “I checked the toilet on the main floor– it spun like a top!” A...
Why is Montreal Moving Day on July 1st?
7 per cent of Montrealers move on July 1st, according to 2013 estimates – that’s about 116,000 people. Moving Day causes stress, blocks up streets, and a lot of sweaty people drinking beer and eating pizza with a sore back and...
Spring Brought you a Leak in the Basement?
Smell something mouldy, mildew-y or sour coming from your basement or crawl space? Make no mistake: you’ve likely sprung a leak in the basement. Spring is a likely time of year for moisture problems to arise, and a good time...
Condo Living: Is it for You?
Can’t stand the smell of smoke? Doggy doo-doo makes you gag? You like to express your style by painting your balcony railings red? Having 1970’s shutters on your windows makes you feel at home? – Or maybe you smoke and...
Are you Ready to Become a Montreal Landlord?
This article is part of The Mose Report: New Homebuyer Series. Are you thinking about buying a duplex, triplex or multiplex and making the transition from tenant to landlord? For most tenants, it’s a dream come true. After years of...
Top 5 Threats to the Air Quality in Your Office
Maintaining good indoor air quality for your employees is important not only to their health, but also affects productivity and even sick days. According to Environment Canada, Environment and Workplace Health Indoor Air Quality, Canadians spend close to 90% of their time...
North Pole Calls for Chimney Inspection Reports: Santa’s Database Incomplete
The North Pole is all a bustle this time of year. The reindeer are in boot camp for the big event, while the North Pole (NP) kitchen is quickly churning out high carb and protein-rich meals for them. The toy-making...
Holiday Gift Ideas for the New Homeowner: Basic Tools
Welcome home! Yes, the welcome mat is definitely at the top of every new homeowner’s wish list, and maybe a plunger and a keychain, but wait! Have you considered you might need to maintain that home? A little DIY is...
12 Reasons to do a Pre-Listing Inspection
PRE-LISTING INSPECTIONS Many real estate brokers are recommending pre-listing inspections to their clients, here are some of the reasons: Your home may sell faster.Your home may sell for more money.No more buyers walking away because of a problem with the house.No more 11th-hour...
Your House Stinks! Get an Indoor Air Quality Check
Every house has a signature smell, a certain “Eau de Family Home”. Some are stronger than others; is a strong smell an indication of poor indoor air quality? There’s the smelly socks in the living room, the hair spray and...
Why Water is your Home’s Biggest Enemy and Caulking is Your Best Friend
I went to visit my mother last week. We sipped tea and talked about the latest news and events. My mom likes to express her opinions by using proverbs. Her inventory is quite astounding. If people are not barking up...
Residential Home Structure 101: Which Cracks are the Bad Ones?
Serious structural problems in houses are not very common, but when they occur they are never cheap to fix. Some can’t be fixed at all. This report won’t turn you into an seasoned home inspector, but it will give you...
Vinyl Siding: A flammable material
A few weeks ago a friend called me to say he had some pictures I should take a look at. He told me that a relative of his living in Vaudreuil, (west of Montreal) was hosting a few friends on...
Top 5 Threats to your Brick
The three pigs proved that brick was the best building material – it certainly is. But brick has its natural enemies (and the big bad wolf is definitely not one of them.) Water and paint are at the top the...
Honey, is our Dryer Vent made out of Flammable Flexible Tubing?
Sound crazy? It’s not. It’s unbelievable how often we see homes with flammable dryer vents installed, filled with lint, all ready to catch a spark. It’s winter. Not a lot of clothes hanging out on the ‘cord-a-linge’ this time of...
Beautiful Laminate Flooring? Attn: May Contain Cancer-Causing Formaldehyde
A CBS 60 Minutes report last month found that laminate flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators, manufactured in China, is assembled using glue containing high levels of formaldehyde. The company sold over $1 billion of merchandise in 2014. Signs of formaldehyde...
Is Your Montreal Balcony Secure for Your Family?
Montreal is a city with a great many balconies, porches and back decks; and Montrealers make good use of them during the summers. Playwright David Fennario even referred to the city as “Balconville” in his play of the same name,...
The 5 Minute Sump Pump Test Every Homeowner Should Know
Tulips still underground? Can’t smell the crocuses yet? Good! Because you want to make sure your sump pump works before spring showers are in full flood! This is a good week to check your sump pump. It’ll only take 5...
Home Electricity 101: Safety in Grounded Plugs
All Montreal homes built before 1960 have the same energy: unpredictable. For us, the 1960’s brought about a new era of groovy energy; an energy we could get down with. We’re not talking bellbottoms, afros or free love. We’re talking...