Providing Whole Home Inspections & Consulting Services
across Westchester & Orange Counties, NY and Fairfield County, CT
Providing Whole Home Inspections & Consulting Services
across Westchester & Orange Counties, NY and Fairfield County, CT
A home inspection in Scarborough, NY has to keep up with houses that were standing above the Hudson before indoor plumbing was common. The hamlet holds the Scarborough Historic District, 376 acres on the National Register since 1984, and much of the surrounding stock dates from the estate era through the mid-1900s.
The full evaluation once your offer is accepted. Chris opens the panel, runs every system, and explains what he finds while you are standing next to it. The report, reaches your inbox within 24 hours.
A shorter look before you commit to a bid. In a hamlet where a century-old house can sit two doors from new construction, an hour with Chris tells you whether this one deserves your strongest offer or a polite pass.
For buyers under contract who want every system documented before closing. Structure, water management, electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling all get covered in a single appointment, along with whichever add-on tests the property calls for.
On a sloped lot, grading and drainage deserve as much scrutiny as the finishes. Chris verifies site drainage, flashing, mechanicals and workmanship before you close, so corrections land on the builder's punch list instead of your to-do list.
Sellers of older Scarborough homes use this to find the surprises before a buyer's inspector does. Repairing or disclosing ahead of listing keeps your sale from being renegotiated around somebody else's report.
Old houses move. An annual check catches the slow problems early: a retaining wall starting to lean, a chimney crown opening up, a boiler quietly losing efficiency. Caught this year, it is a repair. Caught in five, it is a project.
Scarborough buyers tend to interview inspectors carefully, and that suits us fine. Here is what Chris brings to the door:
Scarborough is a small hamlet with an unusually wide spread of construction. Federal-era estate houses share the zip code with the 1960s Scarborough Manor complex and the 1974 Kemeys Cove condominiums near the water, and each type fails in its own way. A buyer’s inspection on the older stock means reading past fresh paint to the bones underneath, while a riverside condo visit leans harder on the unit’s systems and on the damp that Hudson air pushes into lower levels, which is where a mold assessment earns its keep.
Chris also refuses to make you schedule four separate vendors for one house. The general home inspection, radon testing, water quality sampling and a heating and cooling evaluation happen in a single appointment, with mold assessment added when the house calls for it. Everything lands in the same report, and one person answers for all of it. That accountability is a large part of how the company holds a 4.9 star average across 389 Google reviews.
We are regularly in nearby Pleasantville and Elmsford as well; here is everywhere we inspect.
What 45+ years of Hudson River houses teach an inspector to check first
Scarborough's oldest houses go back a long way; Beechwood, the hamlet's Federal-style landmark, dates to 1780. Houses anywhere near that age carry generations of layered electrical and plumbing work, so Chris traces what each renovation left behind: fuse subpanels, undersized service, abandoned knob and tube, and cast iron drains hiding behind new fixtures.
The ground here steps downhill toward the river, and every yard uphill sheds water at the foundations below it. Chris reads the grading, checks where downspouts actually discharge, and examines retaining walls for bulging, open joints and blocked weep holes, since a failing wall is among the costlier surprises a sloped lot can hide.
Stone foundations, river humidity and lower levels cut into the slope add up to damp basements in many older Scarborough houses. Chris checks for efflorescence, old water lines on the walls and musty framing, and can run a mold assessment during the same visit rather than sending you off to book a second appointment.
Westchester County sits in EPA radon Zone 3, the lowest predicted average, yet the EPA still recommends testing every home because readings vary house to house. Since the test runs during your inspection anyway, there is no reason to skip the one measurement that settles the question for your specific address.
Plenty of older Westchester homes heated with oil at some point, and not every tank left when the furnace did. Chris looks for fill pipes and vent lines in the yard and asks for tank closure paperwork, because an undocumented buried tank becomes the buyer's problem the day the deed transfers.
Answers Scarborough buyers and sellers usually want before booking
Schedule Your InspectionReal Google reviews from clients of Longs GCS Home Inspections.
“Mr. Long was referred by a very seasoned agent as I am from another county. My buyer client and I were very very impressed with the thorough extent of his home inspection report, along with photographic images outlining details. I would highly recommend him again!”
Ann Marie SilvaniGoogle review
“Chris was fantastic- professional, friendly, extremely thorough. You can tell he has years of trusted experience and knowledge. He was very kind and patient as we walked through and had questions and then provided a comprehensive guide of what should be done, when and how! An incredible resource to have and I would definitely reccomend!”
Sarah Chin-StevensGoogle review
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The guides we hand clients most often, along with our own service pages.