The SHCC Method

Steve Hill Construction Consulting, Inc. has developed a proven method for carrying out its mission of providing practical solutions to building performance issues. This method is rooted firmly in the scientific investigative method and based upon a very pragmatic and open-minded approach to construction deficiencies and failures.

• Steve Hill personally conducts all inspections himself. In those inspections, every visible surface is investigated for indication of failure not readily obvious to most contractors, home inspectors, or lay people.
• Any indication of failure or damage resulting from a deficiency or even from deferred maintenance is carefully documented and photographed at fairly high resolution using a quality digital camera.
• During the site inspection, measurements are taken of various components for later use in compiling a cost of repair. This saves time later on and eliminates the need for a separate cost estimator.
• Following the site inspection, images are downloaded into a state-of-the-art photo database. The images are then labeled and sorted according to various criteria. Photos that demonstrate specific defect conditions are tagged during the analysis.
• The tagged photos are used to generate an observation matrix which indicates the particular defect conditions that are observed at each location. Note: Only issues that are verified by photograph or other direct observation are included in the observation matrix. Unless tangible evidence exists that can be presented at trial, an allegation is not made.
• The defect list is developed on a case-by-case basis, not copied and pasted from one report to another or based upon the opinions of other experts from other cases.
• The visual inspection analysis usually requires additional inspection to determine causation of observed damage. This is often referred to as intrusive or destructive testing (DT) and involves the disassembly of various building components in order to analyze actual construction and to document concealed damage.
• Repair recommendations are composed in response to the careful analysis of the observed conditions. The analysis aims not only to outline the underlying causes to a particular condition, but also to establish the most effective and efficient repairs. Careful attention is paid to the as-built condition of the structure - sometimes a repair will be much less costly if performed in conjunction with another repair or accessed in a manner more suitable to the actual construction of the house. As with the defect list, repair recommendations are specific to each case.
• Once the repair recommendations have been established, the individual repair items are priced out to develop unit costs. And although these unit costs are unique to each case, establishing these costs requires many years of hands-on experience in construction and more importantly, in the remediation of construction defects.
• By combining the quantitative data from the observation matrix with field measurements of construction components, and using the unit repair costs for each condition, a very accurate estimate is developed.

A Final Note

The observation matrix that SHCC creates is dependent upon the photos taken of actual conditions at the site. Therefore it is possible to trace any cost estimate item back to the original cause of a particular defect documented by a photo and/or other evidence of direct observation. For this reason, extrapolation is not necessary in the normal course of investigation.