Twin Peaks Property Inspections

10/09/2026

When you're asking questions about your home's air quality, it helps to have someone take the time to explain the process. You should feel comfortable raising your concerns.

Deshawn R. described Jay as professional and informative, and appreciated his help with their questions about air quality testing and mold assessments. Thank you, Deshawn, for the recommendation and for sharing your experience.

We're here to help you understand the information, not leave you to figure it out alone. That's the kind of support we want our clients to remember.

10/08/2026

Picking finishes is the fun part of a renovation. Understanding the materials you'll disturb belongs in the plan too.

Our new guide looks at asbestos testing before renovations in older Ontario homes, why appearance alone isn't enough to identify suspect materials, and how testing can help you plan the next steps.

Twin Peaks provides asbestos testing, not removal. If abatement is needed, that work should be handled by a qualified asbestos abatement contractor.

You'll find “Asbestos Testing Before a Renovation: What Ontario Homeowners Should Know” in the first comment. What project are you planning this fall?

10/07/2026

David Visentin said what a lot of buyers are thinking: inspection reports are long.

His exact words were that they don't just seem long and daunting, they are long and daunting. Then he added the part that matters. It's good information.

Our job is to separate the immediate safety concerns from the deferred maintenance. Take the plumbing shut off valve we found with the handle missing. It's a small thing and it lands near the bottom of the report, but the day you've got water running somewhere it shouldn't be, you'll want that handle instead of hunting for a vise grip. David asked the smart follow up too: is this the only shut off in the house? There's another one right below it and a main at the water source.

That's why our reports are color coded. You know at a glance what's urgent and what's just on the list for down the road.

What's the longest inspection report you've ever seen?

10/06/2026

An older furnace raises a question buyers want answered: how soon might it need replacing? In this Behind the Walls walkthrough with David Visentin from Love It or List It, we're talking about what goes into that conversation.

Brad explains the maintenance clues he's looking for and shares a rough $6,000–$7,000 replacement estimate for a unit of this size. That's context for this walkthrough, not a quote for every home.

We also get into annual maintenance and planning ahead, rather than waiting for a breakdown. If you were buying this home, what would you want to know about the furnace first?

10/05/2026

When was the last time you pressed the test button on your smoke alarms?

The Town of Cobourg recently reminded residents to test their alarms as part of Ontario's fourth annual Test Your Smoke Alarm Day on September 28. It's a simple habit that's worth carrying into October and every month after.

Cobourg Fire's recommendations are straightforward:

• Test your smoke alarms every month.
• Change the batteries at least once a year.
• Replace your smoke alarms after 10 years.

The notice also points out that Ontario law requires a working smoke alarm on every storey of a home and outside all sleeping areas, and that most fatal fires happen in homes without working alarms.

If you've just moved, or you're helping someone who's living on their own for the first time, it's a good one to add to the move-in checklist. This year's Saved by the Beep campaign at SavedByTheBeep.ca has resources for exactly that.

Read the full reminder from the Town of Cobourg:
https://www.cobourg.ca/news/posts/cobourg-residents-encouraged-to-test-their-smoke-alarms-on-september-28/

How do you remember to test your smoke alarms each month?

10/01/2026

We walked David Visentin into the second floor bathroom and asked him what he saw. He nailed it in about four seconds.

No vent in the ceiling. Black staining on the wall. His call was mold, and he wasn't wrong. Naturally, we told him he's hired.

Here's what's actually going on. There's no exhaust fan installed in this bathroom, so every shower and every bath sends steam straight up with nowhere to go. Add a window that stays closed while all that moisture is being created and it just sits there. You get bubbling on the ceiling, paint peeling, and then the black growth spreading across the surface. It had reached the far corner too.

It matters because mold can affect indoor air quality and respiratory health, and even healthy people can feel it. So the fix isn't a spray bottle. Off the shelf products often aren't strong enough for this. You want a professional remediation company to remove it properly, then repaint, then install a fan in the ceiling so the whole cycle doesn't start over.

Quick check for everyone reading this. Does your bathroom actually have a working exhaust fan?

09/30/2026

Home inspectors carry some pretty cool tools, so we put a couple of them in front of David Visentin.

First up, the thermal camera. It reads infrared, so hot and cold sections of a wall show up on screen. Wet drywall reads cold, and it'd come back blue. Nothing abnormal showed on this one, but a clean thermal scan isn't the end of it. We backed it up with a moisture meter, pressed it into the wall, and waited for the beep that says the levels are high. Quiet again.

Here's the part people miss. A dry reading today doesn't mean there's never been water. David asked a great question about whether the leak might be seasonal, and honestly, that's what makes this job hard. We're piecing together what already happened. The tell here was the baseboards. They've yellowed, and the staining runs worse toward the corner, right under the window. Window wells.

The tools tell you what's happening now. Reading the house tells you what happened before.

Which one would you want to try first, the thermal camera or the moisture meter?

09/29/2026

Brad and Twin Peaks guests had a great time last week at the .ent.group event!

Industry leaders packed the 2,000-person arena for a day of learning, networking and growth, with impactful speakers including Andy Elliott and Daniel G.

We’re always looking for ways to sharpen our skills, expand our knowledge and stay at the top of our industry.

09/26/2026

A stat worth knowing: 94 percent of Canadian homes can technically buy overland flood insurance as of July 2026. But roughly 850,000 homes still cannot get it at all, and sewer backup and overland flood remain optional endorsements rather than standard coverage.

External water damage made up close to a quarter of all home insurance claims last year. Meanwhile national home insurance premiums have climbed as much as 45 percent over the past six years.

St. Catharines is the recent example. Three storms dropped nearly 400 mm of rain in a single week in late July, and the city declared a state of emergency.

If you are buying, this is a good reason to understand a property's drainage, grading, and backwater valve situation before you close. Insurability is becoming part of the affordability conversation, and the condition of a home plays into both.

🔗 Read the article: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/ca/news/catastrophe/flood-coverage-gap-puts-pressure-on-canadas-broker-channel-586992.aspx

94% of Canadian homes can now access overland flood insurance. External water for close to a quarter of all home insurance claims. The gap between those two numbers sits on the broker's desk

09/23/2026

Realtor Spotlight: Brad D'Ornellas 🔦

Every month we shine a light on a Realtor who raises the bar for their clients, and this one was easy.

Brad was born and raised in the Durham Region and works out of Royal LePage Frank Real Estate in Port Perry. He came out of Western University with a marketing degree and never really stopped using it. His listings get a full marketing campaign behind them, plus staging, professional photo and video, and paid promotion, and that effort shows up in his results. Royal LePage Canada Rookie of the Year in 2022, Top 35 Under 35 three years running, the #1 agent in Port Perry three years running, the top 2% of all Royal LePage agents in Canada, and the top producer at his brokerage month after month for as long as we can remember.

Here's the number that means the most to us though. 37. That's how many inspections Brad has trusted our team with so far. When a Realtor sends us that much of their business, it says something, and we don't take it lightly.

His clients are always prepared too. When we show up to inspect, everyone knows what's happening and why, and that makes the whole process calmer for the buyer.

Go give him a follow. Brad D'Ornellas - Real Estate Agent