Serving St. Louis & St. Charles Counties
Call or text (636) 448-7078Lawn and yard work, pressure washing, home and wood deck inspections, driveway snow removal, driveway resealing, cart cleaning, and real estate photo and video. Roy Poteete spent his career walking into houses other people were running out of. Now he looks after them.
Out on the job
Lawn mowing
Snow removal
Deck inspections
Cart cleaning
Property media
Most calls start with one of these. Yard work and pressure washing are the two that bring people in, with the home and wood deck inspections right behind them. Everything else Roy handles is listed in full below.
01Yard WorkMowing, trimming, edging, seasonal cleanup and garden tilling — on a schedule, or a one-time call.
02Pressure WashConcrete drives, walks and patios pressure washed; siding, fences and decks soft washed, at the pressure the surface can take.03Home & Wood Deck InspectionsThe house roof to foundation, and a deck checked at the ledger, the footings and the fasteners — the places decks actually fail.
04Residential Driveway Snow RemovalDriveways, walks and steps cleared after a snow, so you can get out of the drive in the morning.
05Residential Driveway Seal RecoatingAsphalt cleaned and resealed, so water stays out of the surface and the drive stops crumbling through the freeze and thaw.The work is organized into three divisions. Some jobs are seasonal, some come up once and never again, and a few you want on a schedule. Pick whatever you need — you do not have to take the whole list.
Coverage, what an inspection covers, the work beyond inspections, and how to get on the schedule. Tap a question to open it.
St. Louis County and St. Charles County — every city inside them, plus the unincorporated parts — and the City of St. Louis. We do not service Illinois. Home inspections are available anywhere in the State of Missouri, though a travel charge may apply. If you are not sure whether you are in range, call and ask.
Home inspections, with a special focus on wood deck inspections. That also covers multifamily inspections, pre-listing condition reports and annual maintenance inspections.
Lawn mowing, garden tilling, seasonal upkeep and light exterior maintenance. Driveway and sidewalk resealing, pressure washing for decks, concrete and fences, soft washing, residential snow removal, and garbage and recycle cart and corral cleaning.
Yes. Real estate photography, videography and drone imaging (coming soon), plus walkthrough videos and social-media-ready clips.
Send the quote form at the top of the page, or call or text (636) 448-7078. Roy answers his own phone, and quotes are free.
Yes. Real estate agents, buyers, sellers and homeowners.
Roy spent his working life as a firefighter and a public fire educator, and he brings that to every inspection. These are the questions he puts to homeowners himself, and his answers, in his own words.
No, Missouri does not require you to have them. But by not having the inspection you are not buying or leasing a habitable structure, or ensuring your family’s safety.
If you answer that there is no price to replace that life, then why are you not spending the money to ensure the safety of your family?
The panels are a known fire risk, and a fire can happen at any time these panels are in use. The problem is the breaker connection to the bus bar. When the breaker should trip and shut off the circuit it does not always work, so excessive heat builds up and causes the plastic to catch fire.
The cost to replace the panel depends on the size of the home. It covers the discount and removal of bad wiring, knob and tube and aluminum to copper wiring, new wiring, a new 200 Amp panel, GFCI on the panel or within 8 feet of water, each exterior outlet, and a garage on its own breaker, plus Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter protection on the panel. That brings the home to current electrical standards.
Read the full free article on these panelsThe buyer will have a home inspection done. Items that fail an inspection get upwards of 4 or 5 contractor bids to repair, and it is usually the middle to higher bid they choose, after looking at a list of items from the contractor. The buyer will add all the items that failed the inspection. You will be asked to take the lower amount so the buyer has the money to fix the home so it passes habitable codes.
Yes, you should have it inspected, either way, whether you are the buyer or the seller. If the seller has it inspected, the buyer will have their own inspection to compare. The inspection is used as a bargaining lever.
Want to talk it through? Call or text (636) 448-7078.
Before any deck is built, you need to have the following done. This ensures the safety of the deck and the safety of the occupants. You should start by having an architect design your deck. They will get structural and soil engineers involved. The finished blueprint will have the architect’s license and other license numbers on it, with the architect’s blueprint seal embossed in the blueprint. The building department will ask a few questions, look over the plans and issue permits.
Failure to do so will cost you time and money, including fines and a court order to remove the deck and follow building codes. Failure to get a permit and to use a contractor who is licensed and bonded can cause your family to have a deck failure, causing injuries or deaths. This will also cause excessive damage to the home that could cost upwards of $70,000 or more to repair.
No, no wood deck will be supportive or last 20 years the way they are built today. Why? The builders use the cheapest lumber and the cheapest fasteners, such as framing nails, not even a nail made for exterior use with a shear force weight rating of 800 psi. They do not pour the footings correctly. The footings are not properly poured, nor deep enough. The footing pad is correct with 3/4 inch minus crushed rock to allow for drainage. The footing is not a bell style foot such as a big foot footing base.
The pressure treated wood is noted as not ground contact approved, but the contractor will dig a hole, drop the post in the hole, dump the dry concrete mix, add water and mix it, and set the post. This method does not meet current International Residential Building Codes (IRC).
It is a fire hazard, and it cannot be used in apartments, condos, or any elevated deck off the ground. On the ground the pit should be on a non flammable surface, such as dirt, sand, concrete, patio bricks or blocks, or a non flammable grill or bbq mat.
It is a failure in the installation. No spacer was used to allow water to drain and air to move freely to keep the wood dry and prevent mold. And the flashing was not installed correctly to prevent water damage.
The racking, that movement, shows that there is a failure in the attachment to the home. Improperly installed support posts, joists, fasteners or fastener brackets. The stairs were built improperly, or they are past their life of use. The racking, its movement, shows weakness in the joints, and the ledger board has failed.
Every question, including Roy’s own answers to the hard ones, has a page of its own — or just call and ask him.
Roy spent his working life as a firefighter and an EMT, and he still thinks the way that job teaches you: look at the part nobody else looks at, because that is where the trouble starts. A deck rots at the ledger board, not the middle of the boards. A house tells you things from the attic and the crawlspace. He checks those.
He also writes about it — a cookbook from a firehouse kitchen, books on inspecting homes and wood decks, and a fourth still under wraps.
Years on the job, and years in other people’s houses, add up to a lot of things worth writing down.
Embers 2 Ashes · Reid Easton Bilby
This is a cookbook of recipes from a firehouse kitchen, built over years of cooking for a crew. It is about food that feeds a lot of people at once and still tastes good on a busy day. It is for anyone who cooks for a hungry house full of people and needs it to work.
Being written
By Roy Poteete — Missouri State Certified Firefighter, EMT, Home Inspector
This book is about what a homeowner should look at in their own house and where the common trouble spots usually are. It explains what a real inspection report is actually telling you, in plain English instead of inspector jargon. It is written for homeowners who want to understand their own house and their own paperwork.
Being written
This book walks through how a wood deck is put together and how decks go bad at the connections and the flashing. It covers what to check every spring, and when a board is a repair and when it is a rebuild. It is for homeowners and anyone who wants to know if the deck they are standing on is still sound.
Being written
Reid Easton Bilby
The fourth book is underway, and Roy is keeping the subject under wraps for now. What it is about will be posted here when he is ready to say.
Being written
St. Louis County and St. Charles County — every city inside them, plus the unincorporated parts — and the City of St. Louis. Sorry, we do not service Illinois.
Home inspection services are available in the State of Missouri. A travel charge may apply.
See the service areaAll cities within the County, and unincorporated St. Louis County.
All cities within the County, and unincorporated St. Charles County.
The City of St. Louis, end to end.
If you are outside these three, call and ask — it is a short conversation.
Call or text (636) 448-7078. Roy answers his own phone, and quotes are free.
