The walk, in figures
Chapter one — the skin
Every elevation, every material: fiber cement, engineered wood, aluminum, steel, the vinyl that hides a wet wall. Fastener gauge and pattern named, trim and flashing read, the remaining life of each face called in years — measured off withdrawal pulls and the maker’s own exposure tables, not off a feeling from the curb.
Chapter two — the bones
What the skin protects: sheathing probed at the suspicious joints, moisture charted at trim, plate and the never-dry north wall, the WRB’s condition sampled behind one shutter. Chapter two is where a beautiful wall and a rotten one look identical — which is exactly why it is written in percent, never in adjectives.
Chapter three — the budget
The finding, priced: every line item split into now, two-year and ten-year columns, with the dollar figures your negotiation actually needs. Hand it to your inspector, your agent or the seller’s agent — it is written to be read by all three without a phone call.
Priced like a lab, read like a briefing
The survey menu
Every line buys a document, not a sales visit. Sellers get a copy by default — the report is calmer in everyone’s hands than a rumor.
Lotwalk schedule — 2026
Five-elevation survey$480 flat
190 points, material ID, photo record, repair budget line by line
Infrared & moisture add-on$140
Thermal pass plus pin readings at trim, plate and the north wall
Fastener & uplift sample$110
Withdrawal pull tests at six points, gauge and pattern named
Repair scope, itemized$190
The budget broken into now / two-year / ten-year columns
Re-inspection after seller work$210
The same 190 points re-read, deltas flagged
Priority 48-hour turn$150
The PDF in two days flat for closing-week walks
What we do
What we open, what we refuse
What we open
Probe patches behind three butt joints a wall, weep covers off the soffit run, one shutter pulled to read the WRB beneath. It goes back the same visit, caulked and photographed before and after — the wall is exactly as we found it, minus nothing but its secrets.
What we never do
The surveyor quotes no repairs, takes no referrals, and leaves no card for the crew. If you later want Lotwalk’s shop to do the work, that deal is signed after closing, by different people, at list price. The figure you negotiate with should be the figure an enemy could trust.
How the walk runs
From contract to closing table
Four steps, none of them optional, most of them ours.
Book at contract
Call the day your offer is accepted. The walk lands inside 72 hours, before your inspection window closes, with the 48-hour turn held in reserve for closing week.
The walk itself
Ninety minutes on ladders: every elevation, the roof edge, the grade line, the north wall that never dries. Fastener pulls, pin readings, probe patches — photographed continuously.
The 72-hour PDF
One hundred and ninety points scored, material named, moisture charted, and the repair budget split into now / two-year / ten-year. Written so the seller’s agent can read it without a translator.
Negotiate with numbers
You take the PDF to the inspection response as-is. If the seller fixes first, the re-inspection re-reads every point and flags what actually changed.
The independence clause
The surveyor who reads your walls cannot sell you a repair, quote one, or earn from whoever does — not at Lotwalk, not by referral, not ever. If a defect we called "monitor" turns into a repair inside twelve months and our re-read agrees it should have been "now," the re-read and the original are both free.
Windrow to Dovetail Heights, 2025 — 2026
From the report pile
Six walls from the report pile, captioned with the verdicts that mattered. Two of these surveys saved their buyers five figures; one saved them from the house entirely — and that one is the service working too.
Our inspector is excellent and looked at everything for an hour. Lotwalk spent ninety minutes on the siding alone, pulled three fasteners, read moisture in four places, and the PDF’s two-year column matched what our seller’s contractor later bid — within forty dollars. We renegotiated $6,100 off and knew exactly why.
The house we wanted was perfect and the survey said so — $0 in the now column, two items on monitor, one honest paragraph about the north wall. We closed faster because the number was boring. I have recommended the walk to every buyer in our group since, including the ones who were afraid of what it might find.
Before you book
Will sellers refuse the walk?
Almost never — the walk is quiet, non-destructive and returns the wall exactly as found, and the report goes to both sides by default. Sellers who read a boring, itemized PDF negotiate less than sellers facing the word "moisture" over the phone. The refusals we meet are usually houses with something to hide, which is itself the finding.
Can the survey kill a deal?
It can price a problem, which sometimes ends a deal that was already doomed. More often it converts a vague fear into a line item — and a line item is negotiable, a fear is not. Nine of ten reports we issue change the conversation; three of ten change the price; one of ten changes the buyer’s mind, and that one is the service working.
How is this different from my home inspection?
Scope and depth. A general inspector gives the siding an hour inside a whole-house day; we give it ninety minutes alone, with pin meters, a thermal camera, fastener pull tests and probe patches. Inspectors here hand clients our PDFs because it makes their own siding paragraph defensible instead of hedged.
What about new construction?
The schedule is the same and the findings are different — wrong fastener gauge, missing rain-screen, weep paths flashed shut. Builders respond to the withdrawal numbers and the photo record faster than to any verbal complaint, and the re-inspection is the closing gate that actually gets punch-list items finished.
Do you ever do the repairs yourselves?
Yes — after closing, at list price, by the shop crew, on a contract that has never been discussed with the surveyor. That separation is the entire product. If you would rather use your own contractor, the PDF is written to be bid from directly, and we will answer their questions for free.
Walks booked seven days out, priority turns held for closing week · (555) 042-8153 · walk@lotwalkexteriors.example
The walk, on the calendar
Send the address and the closing date. The walk lands inside 72 hours, the PDF lands inside 72 hours after that, and the number in it was written by someone who cannot sell you a single board. walk@lotwalkexteriors.example