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 Greg Haley, Home Inspection LLC I am a full service home inspector near Syracuse NY, serving all of Onondaga and Madison counties. I do residential home inspections, 48 Hr radon testing, Granite countertop testing for radiation and radon, pest inspections, septic dye testing, well flow and water purity testing. 
For an Informed Decision For Professionalism About the American Society of Home Inspectors Here is a brief history of how I got to be a Syracuse NY home inspector In 1971 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Because no one was hiring engineers in 1971, I took a job working for Great Lakes Steel Company as a turn foreman in the maintenance department. Not liking to play the corporate game I packed up and came to Syracuse, to go into business with my old roommate from collage who was also an engineer. We took over his father's business on the south side of Syracuse and I have been here ever since. Over the next 35 years I owned three business and was involved in many endeavors including construction, retail sales and repairs. Now home inspection is my full time business. As a home inspector in Onondaga and Madison county I don't have the overhead and responsibilities of a large organization with buildings, trucks and employees. I get to meet new people every day and help them with their home buying experience. I do a lot of work in Manlius, Fayetteville, Dewitt, Cicero, Clay, Camillus, Jamesville, Cazenovia, Skaneateles and of course, Syracuse. I love Syracuse University Basketball and playing tennis at East Side Racquet Club. I am an ASHI member and treasurer of the Central New York chapter. I am on the board of directors of the CNY Coalition for Healthy Indoor Air, Inc. "Syracuse New York home inspector" is a good title for me now because the kids are out of the house and I don't mind working weekends and odd hours to help out my clients. Click here to see annual events in Syraucse An article by Peggy Brown of newsday.com You might have heard of granite in the news recently - not for its beauty or practicality, but for its potential dangers. With the increased popularity of granite in kitchens, there have been reports that some of these natural stones emit radon - a radioactive gas that can seep into the air but can be eliminated by ventilation - as well as radiation, which cannot. Both elements can cause cancer, and the U.S. Surgeon General has warned that "indoor radon" is the second-leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking. Given the ubiquity of granite in new and redone kitchens across Long Island, should you worry whether you and your family are being poisoned by your countertops? Probably not, says Dave Ryan, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. But you should be concerned enough about radon to test for it. The EPA recommends that everyone test their homes for excessive radon emissions, whether they have granite or not, since most radon comes from the soil. (Radon is not generally a problem on Long Island because of the sandy soil.) "The really important issue is testing your air," said Ryan. "It's much more important than worrying about radon in countertops." Ryan said that the EPA, which doesn't regulate indoor air quality, isn't logging complaints about granite countertops. It has done no studies itself and is not evaluating other studies, he said. Some studies have been done, however. One scientist who is looking into the potential dangers of granite is William Llope, a senior faculty fellow at Rice University in Houston, who said he became curious about the matter when a TV station asked him to test granite counters in a kitchen. He did, using a gamma-ray spectrometer, which he says is more sophisticated than a Geiger counter, and was alarmed when he found radiation in five places on the countertop far higher than the normal "background" levels that surround people at all times. He said he is analyzing samples, some of which have excessive radon and radiation, and will be publishing his results. "I don't want anyone to get the impression that granite is dangerous as a rule," said Llope. "Most stones that I've looked at are not what people would necessarily consider 'hot.' But there are some." Not all granite is alike, he said. It comes from something like 60 countries and 1,000 providers. He urged people to test their granite. |
