​With the recent attention of disasters related to forest fires, you may have thought about the fire safety of your own home. While there are many steps to take for fire-prevention, an easily missed step could be the firestops installed in your home.


Firestops are areas in your home within a rated firewall that can be filled with a material to stop the spread of fire quickly. Basically, if there is a fire, these will contain it or reduce the damage. Because there are occasional openings within a firewall to let pipes, cables or anything else through we look for firestops to fill in these openings.


As we conduct an inspection it's vital we catch any areas where firestops could potentially be missing or found unsuitable. Sometimes, a firestop can be just missing completely in a firewall, and this would greatly reduce the effectiveness of a firewall in stopping and containing a fire.


Another red flag that could be raised when thinking of firestops is if there has been any work done on cables or pipes within a or around a firewall and the firestops, in this case, the plumber or electrician may have removed some of the material without filling the area that was removed. If this is the case in your home, please let us know before conducting the inspection. It is also wise for us to inspect the effectiveness of these firestops to make sure they are suitable and effective.


Firestops are one of the important steps to ensuring fire-prevention in our home.

​FEMA home inspectors. Since we have seen so much damage from disasters around North America in recent months, you may have had to deal with the government aid agency FEMA.

If you have contacted FEMA or feel you should be prepared in case you have to contact them in the future, there are some important reminders that we can go over to help you with an inspection in your home.

After applying for aid from FEMA, hopefully, the applicant will get contacted by a home inspector to assess the damage to the home. This damage could be from wind, floods or even fire as we have seen recently in California. Prior to the inspector arriving at your home, it would good to be aware of how you can facilitate the inspector's job.

If you have flood damage in your home make sure that the inspector comes after the waters have receded and there is no water left in the house, that way they won't be impeded in their inspection. Also, think of how you can clear any debris or other items in or around the house so nothing is obstructing their view of the damage caused.
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Thinking of some things beforehand may help us to get the correct amount of aid that we need in these difficult times.