Protect Your Investment

A home inspection is about protecting your investment. Buying a home without getting a proper home inspection is taking a risk you may very well regret later. Buyers must take responsibility to check for major and minor defects in a home as they may not be protected if they discover problems after closing. The home inspector is a valuable educational resource. He or she can suggest specific tips on how to maintain the home ultimately saving you thousands of dollars in the long term. After all, this is one of the most important decisions you will ever make so why not protect your investment?

Contact No 1 Home Inspections for Peace of Mind when purchasing a Home in the Shearwater area.  Read more….

Protect Your Investment

A home inspection is about protecting your investment. Buying a home without getting a proper home inspection is taking a risk you may very well regret later. Buyers must take responsibility to check for major and minor defects in a home as they may not be protected if they discover problems after closing. The home inspector is a valuable educational resource. He or she can suggest specific tips on how to maintain the home ultimately saving you thousands of dollars in the long term. After all, this is one of the most important decisions you will ever make so why not protect your investment?

Contact No 1 Home Inspections for Peace of Mind when purchasing a Home in the Shearwater area.  Read more….

Radon Gas Testing

Radon is the second most common cause of lung cancer in Canada. No 1 Home Inspections is trained in the proper method of gathering radon data with a long term test (minimum 1 month, ideally 3-12 months) and work with an independent laboratory to provide detailed reports. We can analyze that data to advise whether steps to mitigate radon are necessary. While the Nova Scotia Government has a radon map that indicates areas of high radon concentration, it is important to note these are general trends. Radon levels not only vary by community, but even individual homes next to each other can have radically different radon levels! The only way to know what the radon levels in a home are an acceptable limit (while there is no established safe limit, the Government of Canada has guidelines for acceptable levels) is to do a long term test.

Please note as short term (48 hour) tests are not a reliable or accurate method of measuring radon, and can provide a false sense of security.

We are constantly upgrading our knowledge and skills by participating in Continuing Education Courses.

Why You Need a Home Inspection

The purpose of an inspection isn’t just to find problems with the house; It’s also about making sure that you don’t buy something that will cost more than you think, or cause other headaches down the road. If you’re planning on purchasing a brand-new home, then hiring a home inspector could save you thousands of dollars. It will also help you understand the property you want to buy and the possible defects. A home inspection can improve your confidence as a buyer or a real estate agent.

Whether you are buying, selling, or maintaining your home, No.1 Home Inspections provides professional and quality service from the moment you call us. Our certified home inspector will walk through your home with you and teach you as much as you want to learn. We strictly follow the Standards of Practice for home inspectors established by InterNACHI, the leading home inspection association.

Benefits:

1. Identification of potential safety hazards: A home inspection can reveal potential hazards such as faulty electrical wiring, gas leaks, and structural issues that could pose a danger to the inhabitants of the home.
2. Detection of costly repairs: An inspector can identify issues that could lead to expensive repairs down the line, such as a leaky roof or a malfunctioning HVAC system.
3. Peace of mind: Knowing the condition of a home before making a purchase can provide peace of mind and help buyers make a more informed decision.
4. Negotiation tool: If issues are identified during an inspection, buyers can use this information to negotiate the price of the home or ask the seller to make repairs.
5. Condition of the home: A home inspection can give buyers a comprehensive understanding of the condition of the home, including the condition of major systems such as plumbing, electrical, and HVAC, as well as the overall condition of the home’s structure and foundation.

Shearwater, Nova Scotia

Shearwater is an unincorporated Nova Scotia suburban community in the Halifax Regional Municipality between Woodside and Eastern Passage occupied by Shearwater heliport. Shearwater is divided into two sections by Main Road, referred to locally as the Upper and Lower Base but part of the same complex. The Upper Base, on the east side of Main Road, houses the airfield and administrative buildings of 12 Wing Shearwater as well as a skate park, pool, gym, and youth centre. The Lower Base, a thin strip between Main Road and Eastern Passage, holds some maintenance buildings, the Atlantic fleet diving unit, training facilities, and a yacht club. Both Bases contain PMQ military housing.

The Shearwater Flyer Trail also begins here. It is a section of the Trans Canada Trail. It is maintained by Cole Harbour Parks & Trails. It was an abandoned railbed, but once it was decommissioned, it was transformed into a recreational trail. You could access it from Corsair Drive, Hines Road, Caldwell Road and Bissett Road.

Shearwater Heliport (ICAO: CYAW), formerly known as Canadian Forces Base Shearwater and commonly referred to as CFB Shearwater and formerly named HMCS Shearwater, is a Canadian Forces facility located 4.5 nautical miles (8.3 km; 5.2 mi) east southeast of Shearwater, Nova Scotia, on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Following a base rationalization program in the mid-1990s, the Canadian Forces closed CFB Shearwater as a separate Canadian Forces base and realigned the property’s various facilities into CFB Halifax. These include:

• Shearwater Heliport, which is operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The primary RCAF lodger unit is 12 Wing, commonly referred to as 12 Wing Shearwater. 12 Wing provides maritime helicopter operations in support of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Atlantic Fleet (MARLANT) from the Shearwater Heliport and Pacific Fleet (MARPAC) from the Patricia Bay Heliport in British Columbia. 12 Wing is also headquartered at Shearwater Heliport.
• Shearwater Jetty, the former CFB Shearwater Annex, which provides dock facilities in support of Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic and MARLANT warships.

History

1918–1939

Shearwater is the second-oldest military aerodrome in Canada. In August 1918 the US Navy established Naval Air Station Halifax, or NAS Halifax, at Baker Point on the shores of Eastern Passage to conduct anti-submarine air patrols. Lieutenant Richard E. Byrd was Officer-in-Charge US Naval Air Force in Canada, with six Curtiss HS-2L flying boats operating from NAS Halifax and six from NAS Sydney. Naval air operations in Nova Scotia were intended to be taken over by the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service (RCNAS), but the war ended before the RCNAS could train sufficient personnel.

Following the end of the First World War, the United States Navy gifted its aircraft and flying facilities in Nova Scotia to the Canadian government. The six aircraft at Sydney were shipped to Halifax for storage and the buildings sold at auction. One of the five stations established by the Flying Operations Branch of the Canadian Air Board during their first season of operations in 1920 was the Dartmouth Air Station at the former NAS Halifax. Initially, the station’s primary role was overhauling the HS-2L flying boats and dispatching them by air or rail to other stations, where they formed the backbone of civil government flying operations for several years.

In addition to serving as the main repair and overhaul depot for the Air Board’s HS-2L flying boats, the Dartmouth Air Station also conducted flying operations. In most years the station flew fewer hours than the other Air Board stations, though some aerial photography operations, surveys, and exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy were carried out each year.

Following the cancellation of part-time training for military pilots on 31 March 1922, the Air Board restructured its flying operations, merging the Flying Operations Branch into the Canadian Air Force in June. Changes to the organization of the air stations were deferred to the fall to avoid administrative issues during the flying season. On 25 November 1922 the Dartmouth Air Station was renamed C.A.F. Unit Dartmouth and the civilian personnel were commissioned or enlisted into the Canadian Air Force. The name changed again when the Canadian Air Force was granted the royal prefix effective 13 March 1923, becoming RCAF Unit Dartmouth, then RCAF Station Dartmouth in early October. None of these changes, nor the official formation of the Royal Canadian Air Force on 1 April 1924, substantially altered the role of the station.

Though the scale of flying operations had increased substantially in 1923 and 1924, the year-round maintenance operations did not continue after the winter of 1923–24. At the end of the 1924 flying season the station was placed on “care and maintenance” with only a skeleton staff to maintain the buildings. The station re-opened in the late spring of 1925 to resume photographic survey operations and artillery co-operation exercises. In July 1925, retroactive to 1 April, all the RCAF’s civil operations stations were re-designated as numbered squadrons, with Dartmouth becoming No. 4 (Operations) Squadron. 

No. 4 Squadron was inactive from the end of the 1925 flying season, but re-opened the station in 1927 and flew more hours than any previous year. Operations for 1927 were mainly photographic surveys using a Canadian Vickers Varuna, but also included some early experiments in forest dusting with a Keystone Puffer. On 1 July 1927 the RCAF’s civil operations were transferred to the new Directorate of Civil Government Air Operations (CGAO), and No. 4 (Operations) Squadron again became the Dartmouth Air Station. This directorate was nominally civilian, the director reporting directly to the Deputy Minister of National Defence, but was still staffed almost entirely by attached or seconded RCAF personnel. The following year all photographic operations were re-organized as independent detachments reporting directly to CGAO headquarters, and the Dartmouth Air Station was placed on “care and maintenance” again at the end of the 1927 season. The facilities continued to be used by mobile photographic detachments operating into the Maritimes from the Ottawa Air Station.

In May 1932 detachments of the Ottawa Air Station were formed at Dartmouth, Shediac, and Gaspé to assist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in combatting rum-running. On 1 November 1932 the Civil Government Air Operations directorate was merged back into the RCAF amid major budget cuts to all government flying.

On 16 April 1934, No. 5 (Flying Boat) Squadron was officially formed at Halifax to control the five patrol detachments on the east coast (additional detachments had been formed at Sydney and Rimouski in 1933). The headquarters of No. 5 Squadron moved to Dartmouth on 1 November 1934. When the RCAF decided, in 1937, to primarily operate landplanes for the defence of the Atlantic coast, Dartmouth was one of four locations selected for construction of a land aerodrome. The station officially became RCAF Station Dartmouth again on 1 April 1938 when a station headquarters was established to control both No. 5 Squadron and No. 4 Repair Depot.