About Matt
Matt Cantor has been performing inspections since 1988 and is a graduate of the University of California (Cal) Berkeley's College of Environmental Design. Matt has been featured on 6 episodes of HGTV's House Detective program and is a weekly columnist in the Berkeley Daily Planet where his informative albeit silly articles on home ownership, remodeling and maintenance are read, collected and used to line birdcages throughout the Bay Area. The Berkeley Daily Planet is not currently in paper publication and Matt is on hiatus while the BDP reforms itself.
Matt, his wife, the Rev. Este Gardner Cantor and their two daughters (Andy and Hannah) reside in Berkeley, CA, though these young women are currently attending Sarah Lawrence and Bard College respectively. Andy will be abroad at the British American Drama Academy during 2011/2012).
Matt's area of expertise is centered the retrofitting and upgrading of early 20th century houses with special emphasis on seismic issues, energy conservation (green remodeling) and moisture issues.
Matt considers communication to be at the heart of the inspection. “If you can’t talk about it in a meaningful way, in context with other issues and people’s lives, the information isn’t very useful.”
Matt loves the crawl (his license plates is, no joke, ICRWL4U) and the archeology of the houses he inspects and loves to share the architectural history and the thinking of those who built, wired and plumbed our houses 70, and even a hundred and forty years ago.
“There’s much to love about how houses were built in 1870 and the bones are often quite good. Nevertheless, we’ve learned a lot since then, and, while quality of construction may have suffered in various ways, the thinking involved in heating systems, wiring and seismic bracing (to name a few domains) has advanced substantially and in ways that we cannot afford to ignore.”
Matt, his wife, the Rev. Este Gardner Cantor and their two daughters (Andy and Hannah) reside in Berkeley, CA, though these young women are currently attending Sarah Lawrence and Bard College respectively. Andy will be abroad at the British American Drama Academy during 2011/2012).
Matt's area of expertise is centered the retrofitting and upgrading of early 20th century houses with special emphasis on seismic issues, energy conservation (green remodeling) and moisture issues.
Matt considers communication to be at the heart of the inspection. “If you can’t talk about it in a meaningful way, in context with other issues and people’s lives, the information isn’t very useful.”
Matt loves the crawl (his license plates is, no joke, ICRWL4U) and the archeology of the houses he inspects and loves to share the architectural history and the thinking of those who built, wired and plumbed our houses 70, and even a hundred and forty years ago.
“There’s much to love about how houses were built in 1870 and the bones are often quite good. Nevertheless, we’ve learned a lot since then, and, while quality of construction may have suffered in various ways, the thinking involved in heating systems, wiring and seismic bracing (to name a few domains) has advanced substantially and in ways that we cannot afford to ignore.”
