Do you aspire to be a certified inspector?

[Bob Foster]

Tell us why and how long it's going to take you got get you there.

 

[rhyde]

Nope

 

[TimP]

I talked to one of the carpet reps.....been in the industry probably 20-30 years when I asked. He said you wont get any inspection jobs because when we call we call up a company that sends people to school for it. In other words you aren't going to get many inspection jobs from the mills because they don't hire out the inspections. That's what he said...may be right may be wrong.

 

[hogjowl]

OMG! You mean you actually have to go to a school to be an inspector?

How did Harold make it then?

 

[harryhides]

The Mills are always looking for competent Inspectors.
Even more so, Inspectors with the skills to recognize & correct as many flaws as possible.
The money is good Inspections start at $200 and go up to the thousands.
The referrals are endless.

Do well ie right accurate and thorough reports and the retailers and Mill Reps will request that you do all of their claims.
Screw up on a few Reports and you will get cut off.
That does not mean calling it against the manufacturer but it does mean causing a second Inspection to be done because the first one was wrong.

They only recognize a few schools not just the iicrc approved schools.
The Mill Reps and store owners ( like Marty who was one ) don't have a clue.

The exam for Carpet Inspector, after a 5 day class, takes at least six hours to complete.
For most Inspection classes there are many prior classes that you have to have passed before you can take them.

ps, btw, Marty, sadly I passed with only a 96% but it was top score for that class. :mrgreen:

 

[Mikey P]

With my male bald pattern color blindness it'll even happen.

 

[The Great Oz]

Do you aspire to be a certified inspector?

Being a pre-installation specifier? Maybe. Being an after purchase educator? No thanks.

I respectfully offer a counterpoint to Tony's post. Here are some general observations of mine.

Mills don't think as much of certain inspector certifications as you think. After seeing some of the "certified" inspection reports I can understand their reluctance to use these guys. Mills will usually use their reps as inspectors until it looks like they're heading for a no-win situation. $200 could include two hours at the job site, two to four hours drive time, an hour or two to write the report and collate photos (if you want be a sought after inspector). You may find it to be more of a hobby than a living. Once you've built a reputation for getting a mill out of jams you might make some money though.

Carpet owners call when they're at the end of their rope and want new carpet or a goodly portion of their purchase price back, and will balk at paying $150 for an inspection. Don't offer any advice unless you have a healthy fee structure in place for "expert" testimony, or you'll get a subpeona to appear and get paid nothing for your time. Make sure you're an expert, or at least absolutely convinced of the accuracy of your report, as the other side may bring in people that have doctorates in textile science and make you look foolish.

If you're also in the cleaning business, you have a conflict of interest. Once you're done with your inspection, someone will be on the losing side. No matter how wrong they are, they have a tendency to blame you for pointing it out. (I don't think Couristan would ever call me, but they cheated and needed to pay for the fix.) So do you adjust your report to side with the retailer that refers cleaning business or risk having them cut you off?

What you learn by taking inspection courses could make a huge difference in your cleaning business though. Once you've seen enough damage caused by guys that buy everything they hear from their bulletin board buddies, you'll learn to clean carpet and stop throwing oxidizers and hide-all goo at every problem.

Good luck!

 

[Nate The Great]

Do you aspire to be a certified inspector?

Being a pre-installation specifier? Maybe. Being an after purchase educator? No thanks.

I respectfully offer a counterpoint to Tony's post. Here are some general observations of mine.

Mills don't think as much of certain inspector certifications as you think. After seeing some of the "certified" inspection reports I can understand their reluctance to use these guys. Mills will usually use their reps as inspectors until it looks like they're heading for a no-win situation. $200 could include two hours at the job site, two to four hours drive time, an hour or two to write the report and collate photos (if you want be a sought after inspector). You may find it to be more of a hobby than a living. Once you've built a reputation for getting a mill out of jams you might make some money though.

Carpet owners call when they're at the end of their rope and want new carpet or a goodly portion of their purchase price back, and will balk at paying $150 for an inspection. Don't offer any advice unless you have a healthy fee structure in place for "expert" testimony, or you'll get a subpeona to appear and get paid nothing for your time. Make sure you're an expert, or at least absolutely convinced of the accuracy of your report, as the other side may bring in people that have doctorates in textile science and make you look foolish.

If you're also in the cleaning business, you have a conflict of interest. Once you're done with your inspection, someone will be on the losing side. No matter how wrong they are, they have a tendency to blame you for pointing it out. (I don't think Couristan would ever call me, but they cheated and needed to pay for the fix.) So do you adjust your report to side with the retailer that refers cleaning business or risk having them cut you off?

What you learn by taking inspection courses could make a huge difference in your cleaning business though. Once you've seen enough damage caused by guys that buy everything they hear from their bulletin board buddies, you'll learn to clean carpet and stop throwing oxidizers and hide-all goo at every problem.

Good luck!

We have been in this situation before. My pops is a inspector and told me I have the right attitude to be an inspector but I don't want the headache. My pops been asked many of times to "Take care of this for a local dealer". My pops integrity isn't for sale. Right is right and wrong is wrong. If half the installers would just read the directions, they would not be a demand for inspectors. Have we lost business due to my pops being an inspector, probably, but those customers we can do without. My pops likes to teach me about inspections that he goes out on.


So to answer your question, No I don't aspire to be one.

 

[hogjowl]

ps, btw, Marty, sadly I passed with only a 96% but it was top score for that class. :mrgreen:

You're welcome.

Now go rest your arm.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Nope, I just want to be a business owner and dab into other interest of mine thats not carpet cleaning related.

 

[Jack May]

I do want to be one. I'm not that long in the tooth having only been in the industry 10 years. I have a desire to learn and to date have between 20-30 courses under my belt.

I sat Eric Brown's course in Nov 2007 and loved it. Sat an exam that took a lot longer than 6 hours and passes ok.

Contrary to what others New Zealland will say, there is a demand for us, and the reports DO carry weight and credibility. And like Tony said above, having the ability to offer corrective services additional to the report is often invaluable to my clients.

I've just completed my first PRIVATE job although it was a referral from an insurer.

Mainly the retailers and insurers that get me to work for them.

Mills, I do corrective services for anyway, but have yet to use me in my inspector role.

I don't know where this will lead me, or to what capacity it'll fill my time. I doubt it'll ever become a full time job, so I see myself having it as a side business that add credibility to my other work.

In the mean time, I'm having fun doing it a learning more each day.

John

 

[harryhides]

I respectfully offer a counterpoint to Tony's post. Here are some general observations of mine.

Mills don't think as much of certain inspector certifications as you think. After seeing some of the "certified" inspection reports I can understand their reluctance to use these guys. Mills will usually use their reps as inspectors until it looks like they're heading for a no-win situation. $200 could include two hours at the job site, two to four hours drive time, an hour or two to write the report and collate photos (if you want be a sought after inspector). You may find it to be more of a hobby than a living. Once you've built a reputation for getting a mill out of jams you might make some money though.

Carpet owners call when they're at the end of their rope and want new carpet or a goodly portion of their purchase price back, and will balk at paying $150 for an inspection. Don't offer any advice unless you have a healthy fee structure in place for "expert" testimony, or you'll get a subpeona to appear and get paid nothing for your time. Make sure you're an expert, or at least absolutely convinced of the accuracy of your report, as the other side may bring in people that have doctorates in textile science and make you look foolish.

If you're also in the cleaning business, you have a conflict of interest. Once you're done with your inspection, someone will be on the losing side. No matter how wrong they are, they have a tendency to blame you for pointing it out. (I don't think Couristan would ever call me, but they cheated and needed to pay for the fix.) So do you adjust your report to side with the retailer that refers cleaning business or risk having them cut you off?

What you learn by taking inspection courses could make a huge difference in your cleaning business though. Once you've seen enough damage caused by guys that buy everything they hear from their bulletin board buddies, you'll learn to clean carpet and stop throwing oxidizers and hide-all goo at every problem.
Good luck!

It's true that some Mills have tried using their Reps for Inspections
It's also true that they recognize many "Certifications"
In Canada, Inspectors charge and get 67cents per km plus $35.00 per hour.
Bryan is quite right about doing "private" Inspections - avoid them like the plague.
In my experience , if the problem is the retailers fault ( usually Installation ) they will fix it. I have had very very few conflict of interest.
Ninty percent of my Inspections go against the Mills and at every Inspecctors Seminar I've been too, the claims managers insist that false reports does them no favors - just cost them more and I believe them.
What you learn in Inspection classes will help you in your business, regardless.

 

[Dale]

Hi Guys:

I'm at this inspection school right now http://inspectortrainingservices.biz/ until Tues. And Tony your name just came up today, in a good way.

The mills recognize this school, and Shaw has limited it to one of the few they will in Jan 09.

Anyway, heres the facts. Mill inspections are way down. So long time inspectors are finding work through other sources. Thankfully, there is one association (NICFI) for inspectors that helps us to market ourselves in this. Their convention was last week, and I went to it. As you can see, to inspect full-time requires a lot of conventions, and schools.

Thx,
Dale

 

[Mark Imbesi]

The Great Oz says it all.

 

[blaisesdaddy]

Interesting topic...I'm planning on attending a school later in '09 or early '10. Not sure why but I've seen an explosion of repair work this year. Way more than ever before. There's virtually no local competition for detail-oriented repair work. So for me, it just seems like a natural progression. Whether I'm fixing a butterfly seam, carpet laid without a power stretcher, or a completely botched whole house install, I'm thinking about the mistakes that the offending installer made. I also like the idea of having greater knowledge of carpet construction beyond what I learned when I attended CCT. I was planning on posting a question this week aimed at the inspectors of the board regarding what schools they recommend. I don't wanna hijack the post, but, what schools/instructors are the best?

 

[B&BGaryC]

The owner of the company I work for told me he was going to make me a carpet inspector, but hasn't taken any steps towards that goal and denied my request for some additional IICRC training courses needed to work towards Master Textile Cleaner.