Coastal Home Inspections

Coastal Home Inspections is Patrick Rutledge's one-man home-inspection practice, based in South Boston and covering the greater Boston area — home, pest, radon and septic inspections for single-families, condos and multi-families. The company describes itself as family-owned, has been in business seven years per its BBB profile, and carries an A+ BBB rating. Rutledge holds Certified Professional Inspector standing through NAHI and says the practice follows InterNACHI's Standards of Practice. What comes through across two dozen reviews spanning 2020 to 2025 is a pattern of thoroughness paired with patience — buyers repeatedly describe him walking them through findings item by item rather than handing over a report and leaving. In a 2021 review, a buyer credited his knowledge of older construction with putting them at ease before purchasing a roughly 200-year-old home and barn. He's also shown up on short notice: one customer needed a Title 5 septic inspection immediately after being turned away by other inspectors and had Rutledge on-site the same day, and multiple reviewers describe him fitting them in last-minute ahead of an offer deadline. The one significant exception is a 2022 review: after an initial inspection the customer says clear signs of termite damage and mismatched, apparently recently replaced wood didn't make it into the report, and the issue was serious enough that the family had to sell the property within a year. It's the only account of its kind in the written record and stands out against an otherwise consistent run of praise for catching detail rather than missing it — worth raising directly before booking, especially for an older or higher-risk property. Best fit for a buyer who wants a patient, explain-as-we-go inspector rather than a rushed walkthrough — particularly for antique homes or a same-day septic emergency.