Twenty-seven years in the building industry, twelve of them enforcing the code

Twenty-seven years in the building industry, twelve of them enforcing the code

Jeff Pearce started out in heating and air conditioning, working in the trade while earning his degree in industrial engineering from the University of Maryland. After passing his Maryland Master HVACR license he moved into research and design of modern HVAC equipment.

Howard County then asked him to build something that did not exist yet, a dedicated HVAC inspection department inside the Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits. He stayed twelve years, and became a certified combination inspector across building, plumbing, electrical and mechanical.

A home inspector he met on a job site changed his direction. In 2002 he founded The Pearce Group, grew it into a five-inspector firm, and sold it in 2021. Along the way he served nationally on the Technical Review Committee of the American Society of Home Inspectors, writing and reviewing the standards the profession is held to.

In 2021 he moved to the Florida coast and added seawalls, bulkheads, boat lifts and floating docks to his work, learning where these structures fail, why they fail, and what separates one built to last from one poorly built and poorly designed.

Family, Maryland, and a long attachment to Ocean City brought him back. He started Coastal Inspections to bring all of it full circle for buyers along the Maryland and Delaware coast.

A code official reads a house differently

Most home inspectors learned the job from other home inspectors. Jeff learned it from the enforcement side, where the question was never "is this a concern" but "does this meet the code, and if not, what happens next."

He also holds a Maryland master HVACR license, which means the most expensive system in the house is written up by the licensed tradesman rather than by someone recommending you hire one.