Northwood Home Inspection

I hate to have to leave this review but this company was recommended by my realtor as being very thorough. The original inspection in July went seemingly well. They were quick to book, showed up on time and answered all of our questions. They talked about the warranty and we felt that we could have peace of mind with our nearly $2M purchase. Post-inspection is when all the issues arised. I had to send several emails and phone calls to receive clarification regarding the poly-B pipes found in the bathroom of our home. From previous experience, we knew they are problematic but our inspector reassured that it was a minor problem that would eventually need attention as it was only in some areas of our basement. Our mistake. We should have pushed more but they are the experts. It took me nearly a month to get a hold of someone to receive our printed report. They had issues with their admin so I was understanding. One week after we moved in, we discovered our dryer was not heating. The report had no such claim. The appliance was working. We tried to contact the company but did not reach anyone via phone. Our realtor ended up connecting us. We finally got a claim started with their insurance department but nothing materialized. In the end, we ended up fixing the issue ourselves...out of pocket. Fast forward to this week when we had our basement bathroom being painted. Our painter discovered a bubble in the drywall - not a good sign. He had a moisture detector that found two areas of the bathroom has excessive moisture. We peeled away the baseboard and found an abundance of mold. He removed the drywall where we found an active leak, live electrical buried in the wall and an abundance of mold. Our plumber said that most likely the leaks were a cause of the Poly-B pipes. Our painter followed the pipes and inspected more areas for moisture to which we discovered the basement kitchen also had a substantial leak. We discovered an alarming amount of mold once we removed the cabinets. We decided to follow the trail of plumbing to which we discovered that there is poly-b THROUGHOUT the entire basement resulting in active leaks in the basement bathroom, basement kitchen, upstairs kitchen and laundry room (the basement is a drop ceiling so these were not hidden behind drywall). That is not "some" and not something that should have been dismissed. I have been repeatedly trying to get a hold of Beni (unsuccessfully) to discuss the issue with the mold and get clarification as to how the mold was even undetected by an experienced inspector. I also wanted clarification as to why the poly-b pipes were not given more attention in both the oral and written report. We are now needing to replace ALL the plumbing in our basement as well as drywall that has been damaged by mold. But besides the financial implications of needing new plumbing, drywall and paint, we are distraught that our 7, 5 and 1 year old daughters were playing in the basement daily with the amount of mold that was growing. We are so thankful that our painter was able to detect the moisture issue and we are able to address this sooner rather than later but I am completely at a loss for the lack of communication I have received from Northwood regarding this issue.