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Focused Property Inspections Focused Property Inspections has become one of the most respected names in the property inspection industry.

For the rapidly growing and expanding real estate market, Focused Property Inspections provides consistent and superior inspection services that provide unequaled value. Focused Property Inspections was founded by inspectors with years of experience who have preformed thousands of residential and commercial property inspections. Our inspectors preform thousands of property inspection services each year. For the rapidly growing and expanding real estate markets, Focused Property Inspections provides consistent high quality inspection services by leading the property inspection industry with advanced training, products and services of such quality that our clients receive superior value.

An ice dam is a heat problem, not a gutter problem. Heat leaks into the attic, warms the roof deck and melts the snow. T...
10/21/2026

An ice dam is a heat problem, not a gutter problem. Heat leaks into the attic, warms the roof deck and melts the snow. The water refreezes at the cold eave and backs up under the shingles.

When we open the attic hatch, the same things come up again and again in Maine and New Hampshire houses: insulation that thins out at the eaves, soffit vents buried under blown insulation, and bath fans vented into the attic instead of outside.

If you close this fall, the attic is where the first winter shows up.

The full post: fpi-web.com/maine-nh-fall-closing-attic-ice-dam-inspection

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Foundation vents exist for a summer problem, and they create a winter one.The original idea was straightforward: let out...
10/19/2026

Foundation vents exist for a summer problem, and they create a winter one.

The original idea was straightforward: let outside air move through the crawlspace and carry moisture out with it. In practice that works better in some climates than others, which is why encapsulation has become common.

What is not debated is what open vents do in a cold snap. They bring the crawlspace to outdoor temperature, and everything running through that space, supply lines especially, comes along with it. A bare pipe does not need a week of hard freeze. A few hours will do.

So the checks that matter before winter are simple: are the exposed lines insulated, is the ductwork intact, and is the ground barrier still doing its job.

One inspector. One report. Often same day.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Insurance carriers ask about k**b and tube wiring for two specific reasons, and neither is that the wiring is old.The fi...
10/16/2026

Insurance carriers ask about k**b and tube wiring for two specific reasons, and neither is that the wiring is old.

The first is grounding. K**b and tube has no equipment ground. Everything plugged into a modern house assumes one, which is why you find three prong outlets on two wire circuits in these homes, providing the appearance of a ground and none of the function.

The second is heat. The system was designed with conductors running through open air so heat could dissipate. When somebody insulates an attic decades later and buries the wiring in it, that heat has nowhere to go.

Most older New England homes are partially rewired. The useful question is never whether k**b and tube exists somewhere in the house. It is which of it is still carrying load.

All licensed in house. We never refer it out.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Buying a home on a well in Maine? PFAS belongs on the water test.Maine DEP has tested thousands of private wells for PFA...
10/15/2026

Buying a home on a well in Maine? PFAS belongs on the water test.

Maine DEP has tested thousands of private wells for PFAS. About 18 percent came back over the limit, and parts of central Maine run a lot higher than that.

You can't see it, smell it or taste it. A lab result is the only way to know, and your inspection window is the time to get one.

FPI collects the sample during your inspection and coordinates the lab analysis. One visit.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Buyers see a crack in a foundation and assume the worst. Inspectors read the direction first, because direction is most ...
10/14/2026

Buyers see a crack in a foundation and assume the worst. Inspectors read the direction first, because direction is most of the diagnosis.

A thin vertical crack in poured concrete is usually shrinkage from curing. It is extremely common and by itself is not a structural finding, though it can still be a water path.

A stair step crack in block follows the mortar joints and indicates one part of the foundation has moved relative to another. That is worth understanding: what moved, why, and whether it is still moving.

A horizontal crack is the one that earns real attention, because it suggests the wall is being pushed laterally, usually by saturated soil outside.

What all three have in common is that the useful next question is about water and soil, not concrete.

Our own licensed inspectors. No subcontractors.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Septic systems rarely fail all at once. They fail in a sequence, and the early part of that sequence is cheap to catch.I...
10/12/2026

Septic systems rarely fail all at once. They fail in a sequence, and the early part of that sequence is cheap to catch.

It starts in the tank. When the baffle is damaged or the tank has not been pumped, solids carry out into the leach field instead of staying behind. The field is designed to absorb liquid, not to filter solids, so it slowly clogs.

Stage two shows on the surface. Wet ground over the field, a smell after heavy use, a stripe of grass noticeably greener than the rest of the lawn.

Stage three is a backup or effluent surfacing, and at that point you are replacing a field rather than servicing a tank. The price difference between the two ends of that sequence is most of why anyone opens the lids.

One appointment covers every service.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Buyers routinely assume that if the well checked out, the water did too. They are separate questions.Inspecting the well...
10/09/2026

Buyers routinely assume that if the well checked out, the water did too. They are separate questions.

Inspecting the well means looking at hardware: the cap and seal, the casing, the wiring, the pressure tank, and whether the system holds pressure the way it should. All of that can pass.

What it cannot tell you is what is dissolved in the water coming up the casing. In Maine that list is longer than most people expect. Arsenic and uranium come out of the same granite. Radon comes up in water as well as air. Bacteria is a separate test again, and it is the one that should be run every year regardless.

One is a mechanical inspection. The other is a lab result. You want both.

One visit. Radon, water, septic and WDIR.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

Fixture staining is often the first sign something is dissolved in the water, and the color is a genuine clue.Orange or ...
10/08/2026

Fixture staining is often the first sign something is dissolved in the water, and the color is a genuine clue.

Orange or reddish staining usually points toward iron. Blue-green staining points toward acidic water reacting with copper plumbing. Black staining usually means manganese.

A stain is a reasonable prompt to test. It is not a substitute for the result itself.

Every winter somebody replaces a roof to stop ice dams and gets ice dams again the following year.The dam does not form ...
10/07/2026

Every winter somebody replaces a roof to stop ice dams and gets ice dams again the following year.

The dam does not form because the roof failed. It forms because heat is getting into the attic. That heat warms the roof deck, snow on the warm section melts, the water runs down to the eave where there is no heat under it, and it freezes. Do that for a few days and you have a ridge of ice holding meltwater against the shingles, which then finds its way under them.

The fix is upstream: seal the places warm air leaks into the attic, then make sure the attic is ventilated enough to stay at outdoor temperature.

Roofing over a warm attic buys you a season.

All licensed in house. We never refer it out.

Book at fpi-web.com or call (207) 839-6595.

In Maine and New Hampshire, first frost is the real deadline. Not the calendar.Three things worth doing before it arrive...
09/30/2026

In Maine and New Hampshire, first frost is the real deadline. Not the calendar.

Three things worth doing before it arrives.

Drain anything outside that holds water. Hose bibs, irrigation lines, and whatever is sitting in an unheated garage or shed. A split pipe found in April is a lot of water that went somewhere all winter.

Get the heat serviced before the first cold night rather than during it. Every technician in the state is booked the week it drops, and that is the week you find out the system needs a part.

And check the carbon monoxide alarms. They matter most in the month the windows close and the combustion appliances start running hard.

If you would rather have somebody go through the whole house once and hand you a list, that is what we do.

Book your Maine or New Hampshire inspection: (207) 839-6595
fpi-web.com

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347 Main Street Unit 1B
Gorham, ME
04038

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Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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