MD Inspection Group, LLC

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MD Inspection Group, LLC Residential and commercial property inspections for all of CT; radon, mold, water and well testing.
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Your air conditioner shouldn't be tested when it's below about 60 degrees outside.That goes for my inspections too. A ce...
10/14/2026

Your air conditioner shouldn't be tested when it's below about 60 degrees outside.

That goes for my inspections too. A central air compressor is built to squeeze refrigerant as a gas. Run one on a cold day and some of that refrigerant can condense into liquid inside the compressor, and liquid doesn't compress. That can damage the compressor, which is the most expensive part of the system.

So from now until spring, when it's cold out, the AC on most inspections gets a visual check and a note in the report saying it wasn't run because of the temperature. Same goes for a heat pump in cooling mode. I still look at the age of the unit and its condition, the refrigerant lines, the drain line that carries off the water it pulls out of the air, and the shutoff switch by the outdoor unit.

Agents, set that expectation with buyers before the report shows up, so the line doesn't read like something got skipped. If the AC really matters to them, ask the seller for service records. An HVAC company can check it once it's warm enough, which in most fall deals means after closing.

Buyers, save this one for when you're reading your report this winter.

"…extremely thorough, responsive and do a great job explaining what they see to their clients."Ed Sutton left that in a ...
10/12/2026

"…extremely thorough, responsive and do a great job explaining what they see to their clients."

Ed Sutton left that in a Google review, and of everything people say about us, explaining is the part I'd put on a business card.

A finding with no explanation attached is just a reason to panic. Most of what I actually do on site is context: whether the thing you're looking at is a real problem, normal for a house that age, or something that can wait until spring.

Thanks, Ed.

If we've worked together and you've been meaning to leave a review, it takes about thirty seconds and it really helps. Link in bio.

The Hartford Marathon closes downtown roads until as late as 2:00 this afternoon.The Eversource Hartford Marathon starts...
10/10/2026

The Hartford Marathon closes downtown roads until as late as 2:00 this afternoon.

The Eversource Hartford Marathon starts at the State Capitol this morning. Wheelchair athletes go at 7:57, the marathon, half and relay at 8:00, the charity 5K at 8:10 and the FitKids run at 9:30.

Most of the closures around the Capitol, Farmington Avenue and Asylum Avenue lift between 10 and 11. The long ones are Pearl Street, State Street, Main Street between Sheldon and Church, and the Founders Bridge, which stay closed until about 2:00. Roads reopen as the runners pass, and the course also runs through parts of West Hartford, East Hartford and South Windsor.

If you want to watch, the start on Capitol Avenue and the finish on Trinity Street at Bushnell Park are the easy spots.

Rather be indoors? This is the last weekend for Harvest GLOW Fest at the Connecticut Convention Center. Indoor pumpkin patch, corn maze, mini golf and a train ride, with timed entry at $12 for adults and $10 for kids 4 to 12, plus fees. The Convention Center sits right by some of the last roads to reopen, so an afternoon slot is the easier drive. It closes for the year at 4:00 Sunday.

Agents, if you have a showing or an inspection anywhere near downtown today, leave early or plan around the course.

Know somebody driving into Hartford today? Forward this to them before they leave.

Apple festival or lantern tour? Pick your weekend.The loud option is the Southington Apple Harvest Festival, back on the...
10/09/2026

Apple festival or lantern tour? Pick your weekend.

The loud option is the Southington Apple Harvest Festival, back on the Town Green for its second and final weekend, today through Sunday. Free to get in. Fritters, carnival rides, live music, and the arts and crafts market on Saturday and Sunday. This is its 57th year, and the second weekend is usually a little easier to get around than the first.

The quiet option is the Old Wethersfield Lantern Light Tours from the Wethersfield Historical Society. It is a guided walk of about a mile by lantern light, past the Hurlbut-Dunham House, First Church and the Ancient Burying Ground. Tickets are $30, tours leave the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center every fifteen minutes from 6:30 to 8:00, and each one is capped at 21 people.

Fair warning on that one. As of yesterday, tonight and Saturday were sold out except the 8:00 tours, and Sunday still had seats from 7:15 on. It runs about 70 minutes over some uneven ground in the dark, and they don't recommend it for kids under 13.

Agents, if you put anybody into a house in Southington or Wethersfield this year, this is an easy one to text them.

Want a lantern tour? Book Sunday today, before those last seats go.

If you can see the framing on your attic floor, you need more insulation.That rule of thumb comes from ENERGY STAR, the ...
10/07/2026

If you can see the framing on your attic floor, you need more insulation.

That rule of thumb comes from ENERGY STAR, the EPA's energy efficiency program, and it is the fastest check I know. The framing is the row of wood joists your ceiling hangs from. If the insulation sits level with the tops of them or lower, the attic is short. If it is piled well over them and you cannot see wood, you probably have enough.

For depth, ENERGY STAR calls for about 10 to 14 inches in most attics, depending on the material. Their recommendation for our climate zone runs higher than that, so in Connecticut aim for the top of that range or past it. Plenty of older houses out here still have whatever went in the year they were built.

You can check this from the opening. If your attic has pull-down stairs, go up far enough to see in with a flashlight and stay on the stairs. While you are looking, note any low spots or bare patches, anything flattened under stored boxes, dark dirty streaks, and whether the hatch itself has insulation on the back of it. Dirty insulation usually means air is moving through it, and insulation with air moving through it is not doing much for you.

If the only way up is a hatch in a closet ceiling, leave the ladder where it is. Energize CT runs a home energy assessment through the utilities. A contractor comes out, tests for air leaks, and the program has rebates on insulation. Their site has the current terms.

Agents, thin attic insulation turns up in a lot of reports on older houses. It is a common finding and a fixable one, which is worth telling a buyer before they read it cold.

Go look at yours this week and tell me in the comments. Framing showing, or buried?

Once a house is winterized, half the inspection is off the table.Winterized means the water is shut off and the lines ar...
10/06/2026

Once a house is winterized, half the inspection is off the table.

Winterized means the water is shut off and the lines are drained so nothing freezes while the place sits empty. With the plumbing dry and the utilities off, nobody can run water through the pipes, fire the heat or operate the fixtures, and no inspector should be writing up systems they could not turn on.

So if you have a vacant listing going into the cold months, an estate, a relocation, a bank owned property, get it inspected before it is shut down.

Write down who winterized it and how. Company, date, and whether the lines were drained, blown out or filled with antifreeze. The buyer's inspector is going to ask, and the answer decides whether turning it back on is a phone call or a plumber's appointment.

Settle who pays to turn it back on before you list. That is the most common place I watch a vacant property stall.

If the property can support it, leave minimum heat on. Fifty-five is plenty.

Homeowners, the same order applies if you are closing up a parent's house or a place you only use in summer.

Got a vacant listing going into winter? Text me before it gets shut down and I will get it inspected while the water and the heat are still on.

If you have to guess when your septic tank was last pumped, it is probably due.The EPA's guideline is a professional ins...
10/05/2026

If you have to guess when your septic tank was last pumped, it is probably due.

The EPA's guideline is a professional inspection at least every three years and pumping every three to five, depending on the size of the tank and how many people are in the house.

I bring it up in October because of the ground. Somebody has to find the lid and dig down to it, which is an easy job this month and a miserable one in January. If the tank has not been touched since you moved in, now is when I would make the call.

In the meantime there are a few things you can spot from the lawn. Grass that is greener and thicker over the leach field, the part of the yard where the tank drains, than anywhere else. Ground that stays soggy when it has not rained. A sewage smell outside. Inside the house it is every drain running slow at once, or gurgling. Any of those is worth a call to a septic company this week.

Agents, if you have a listing on septic going into winter, ask the seller for the pumping record now. It is one of the first things a buyer's inspector asks for, and the inspection itself is a lot easier to schedule before the ground freezes.

Go look for your last pumping receipt tonight. If you cannot find one, treat that as your answer and book it.

That burning smell when your heat first comes on is dust.Overnight lows are headed for the forties this weekend, so a lo...
10/02/2026

That burning smell when your heat first comes on is dust.

Overnight lows are headed for the forties this weekend, so a lot of thermostats in Central Connecticut are about to get turned up for the first time since April. About ten minutes later the house smells like something is on fire.

Your heating system sat still all summer and collected everything a house makes. Pet hair, carpet fibers, pollen off the windowsills. The first time it fires, all of that scorches off at once.

The test I use is which direction the smell is going. Dust fades. It should be weaker on the second cycle and gone by the end of the first day of the system running normally. A smell that holds steady, gets stronger, or comes back the next day is worth a call to your heating company.

I would shut the system off for a smell like hot plastic or electrical, a bang a few seconds after the burner lights, or soot on or above the unit.

Rotten eggs is a separate thing. That is the odorant added to natural gas. Get everybody out, then call 911 from outside, and leave the thermostat and the light switches alone on your way out.

Agents, this one is worth forwarding to anybody you closed with over the summer. It is their first heating season in that house and they have no idea what is normal for it.

Save this for the first cold night so you are not searching for it at 11 pm.

The ice at your eaves starts in your attic.Every February I get calls about this, and by then there is nothing to do but...
09/27/2026

The ice at your eaves starts in your attic.

Every February I get calls about this, and by then there is nothing to do but wait for a thaw and hope the water stayed outside. October is when you can still do something about it.

Warm air leaks up out of the living space and heats the underside of the roof. Snow on the middle of the roof melts, even on a day that never gets above twenty degrees. That water runs down the slope until it reaches the eave, which hangs out past the heated part of the house and stays cold. There it freezes again, into a ridge.

Now you have a dam. The next round of meltwater pools behind it and sits. Shingles shed water that is running downhill. Standing water works its way underneath instead, and from there into the house.

So the roof is usually fine. Whatever is wrong is upstream of it. That is also why heat cables along the eave and knocking the icicles down with a rake never get anybody anywhere. Both are aimed at the ice, and the ice is the last thing that happens.

The fixes are unglamorous and they are all in the attic. Seal the air leaks, starting with the hatch, the recessed lights, the bath fans, and anywhere a pipe or wire passes up through the ceiling. Get the insulation depth up. Make sure the attic vents properly, soffit to ridge. And check that the bath fans actually run outside instead of dumping into the attic, because plenty of them do not.

All four are October jobs. By February there is nothing left to do but watch.

Had ice at your eaves last winter? Send me a photo of your attic and I will tell you which of the four is missing.

"Mike and his team were professional and very knowledgeable! They paid very close attention to details in my home. Compl...
09/27/2026

"Mike and his team were professional and very knowledgeable! They paid very close attention to details in my home. Completed my inspection report in a timely manner. Thank you!"

Natasha Vega, Google

Timely matters more than people expect when they are booking. A report that turns up four days later has already eaten a big chunk of your inspection period, and if something in it needs a specialist to go look at, you have lost the time you needed to get one out there.

Ours generally land inside 24 to 48 hours for exactly that reason.

Thank you Natasha.

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Southington, CT

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+18603842741

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