Ask a Home Inspector: Real Answers to Your Preservation Questions
Join the California Preservation Foundation for a conversation-driven online program with home inspector Matt Cantor, who specializes in early 20th-century houses. Together, we’ll explore common questions about older homes, including:
- What are the pros and cons of owning an older home compared to a newer one?
- What seismic issues should homeowners be aware of, and how can they be addressed?
- What are the most common electrical concerns in historic houses?
Participants are encouraged to come with their own questions, challenges, and concerns. You’re also welcome to submit questions in advance here: https://forms.gle/BdkHqXfDCkZyaUkc8.
Whether you’re evaluating a property, planning upgrades, or simply trying to better understand how your building works, this program offers a chance to learn from both professional insight and shared experience.
About our Speaker
Matt Cantor has been performing inspections since 1988 and is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. His work focuses on the retrofitting and upgrading of early 20th-century houses, with particular emphasis on seismic improvements, energy conservation (green remodeling), and moisture issues.
Known for his deep curiosity about how buildings are put together, Matt brings a kind of “architectural archaeology” to his inspections—digging into how homes were built, wired, and plumbed decades ago, and what that means for their performance today. While he sees enduring strength in older construction, he also emphasizes how much building science has evolved, particularly in areas like seismic bracing, electrical systems, and heating.
A strong communicator at heart, Matt believes that inspection findings are only as useful as they are understandable. He has published over 200 articles in the Berkeley Daily Planet on home care topics and has appeared in multiple episodes of HGTV’s House Detective.