Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling inspects and writes the report, Kaminskiy Care and Repair fixes what it finds: one team from our Quail Court office, apartments under SB 721 and condominium mutuals under SB 326.
BBBAccredited BusinessWalnut Creek has more condominiums and apartments than houses, and nearly every wood-framed balcony, deck, exterior stair and walkway on a building of three or more units is now under a California inspection law: SB 721 (Health and Safety Code 17973) for rental buildings, SB 326 (Civil Code 5551) for the condominium mutuals and associations. Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company and a B general building contractor since 2008 (CSLB #922807), performs the SB 721 inspection and signs the written report; Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1120648) prices each finding in writing, pulls the permit with the City's Building Division and completes the repairs for the re-inspection. A Rossmoor mutual or a downtown condominium board brings us its engineer's SB 326 report and we do the work it lists. Kaminskiy Care and Repair runs from the Quail Court office in Walnut Creek, ten minutes from any building in town, and the inspection is booked through that office.
Walk-ups, garden complexes, mutuals and podium buildings.
Own a rental building of three or more units in Walnut Creek and the balcony law asks three things of you: a qualified inspection of every wood-framed element more than six feet up, a written report you keep, and the repairs it lists done inside the statute's deadlines. The inspection covers at least 15 percent of each element type and the report is due within 45 days; we usually beat that. Then every finding is priced on its own line, permitted through the City's online portal and repaired for the re-inspection, so one file answers the lender, the insurer and the next buyer.
AFTERBEFOREThe SB 721 Inspection
The Written ReportDry Rot & Framing
Waterproofing & Coating
Railings & Guards
Stairs & Walkways
Emergency Shoring
Re-inspection & Close-outEvery line above is a building we have seen in Walnut Creek. The inspection is booked within days from the Quail Court office, findings get a written scope and a permit plan inside the deadlines, and anything tagged an immediate threat is closed off and shored first.
Tell us the street address and roughly how many balconies, stairs and walkways the building carries. We confirm which law applies and quote the inspection in writing on that call.
Tenants are notified, the sample is opened or metered from above and below, every element is photographed, and the signed report with a repair list arrives well inside 45 days.
Each finding priced on its own line, the application filed on the City's portal inside the 120-day window, the work completed and finaled, and the closing report for your records.
Every job is backed in writing by our workmanship warranty and done by a Kaminskiy-certified, background checked technician.
The wood that carries the balcony into the wall and the layers that keep water off it. On a Walnut Creek walk-up that means the joist ends and ledger behind the stucco, the deck membrane and its flashing, the drip edge, the scuppers, and the guardrail anchors. Thirty summers of valley heat check a coating; thirty winters of rain follow the checks into the framing. Where the wood is hidden, the law allows a moisture meter, a borescope or an opened soffit rather than a guess.
SB 721 is Health and Safety Code 17973 and covers rental buildings of three or more units: first inspection due January 1, 2026, then every six years. SB 326 is Civil Code 5551 and covers condominium projects of three or more units, which in Walnut Creek means the mutuals in Rossmoor and the associations downtown and along Ygnacio Valley Road: first inspection due January 1, 2025, then every nine years, by a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. A landlord who also sits on a condo board answers to both.
An element called an immediate threat is closed to residents the day it is found, shored if needed, and reported to the Building Division within 15 days. Everything else runs on two 120-day windows: the permit application within 120 days of the report, the repairs within 120 days of the permit. If the work is still open 180 days after the report, the inspector tells the City, and 30 days after that notice a daily civil penalty begins.
Rot confined to a joist end, a post base or a run of ledger is cut back to sound wood, sistered or replaced, and flashed. Rot across the ledger or through most of the joists means the balcony comes off and goes back on new framing. In either case the waterproofing is redone edge to edge, because a patched membrane on a south-facing Walnut Creek balcony is the leak the next inspection finds.
Nearly half of Walnut Creek's thirty-four thousand homes are condominiums or apartments, most of them built between the early 1960s and the late 1980s in two- and three-story wood-frame stucco buildings, and the newest ones went up around the BART stations in the last few years. The street decides what the inspection finds.
Walk-up apartment and condominium buildings from the 1960s through the 1980s with cantilevered balconies over the parking, now standing beside the podium buildings of the last fifteen years. The south and west balconies take the full valley sun, the coating checks, and the November rain follows the checks into the balcony-to-wall joint; the finding is rot at the joist ends behind stucco that still looks sound from the sidewalk. A condominium association here is under SB 326 and hands us its engineer's report; a rental building is under SB 721 and we inspect it ourselves.
The garden complexes of the 1960s and 1970s, with open stairs and second-floor walkways serving every unit, carry the most elements to count and the most foot traffic of any building type in town. Irrigation keeps the stair bases wet year round, blocked scuppers pond water on the walkway coatings, and stringers rot where they meet the landing. The newest stock is on a different clock: the 358 apartments of the Transit Village's first phase at Walnut Creek BART, finished in 2023, and the buildings around the Pleasant Hill station are inspected within six years of their certificate of occupancy, not by the 2026 date.
Rossmoor's six thousand six hundred homes, built from 1963 onward and run as condominium and cooperative mutuals under the Golden Rain Foundation, are about forty percent garden-style duplexes to four-plexes and the rest mid- and high-rise buildings, with wood entry stairs, raised walkways and balconies under oaks that keep them damp into May. The mutual inspects under SB 326 with its engineer or architect; the board brings us the report and we rebuild the soft treads, the rotted post bases and the railings it lists, phased so residents keep their access. Saranap addresses are unincorporated county land, so their permits go to Contra Costa County in Martinez rather than the City.
A rental building with three or more units under one roof is under SB 721; the first inspection was due January 1, 2026 and the cycle is six years. A condominium project with three or more units, which covers the Rossmoor mutuals and the condo associations on Ygnacio Valley Road and downtown, is under SB 326; its first inspection was due January 1, 2025, the cycle is nine years, and the inspector must be a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect. A duplex is outside both, though its balcony rots the same way. Send the address and we tell you on the call.
The inspector lists every type of exterior elevated element on the building, then examines at least 15 percent of each type: the walking surface and its coating, the flashing at the wall, the guardrail and its anchors, and the framing underneath, read with a moisture meter or opened at the soffit where it is enclosed. The report records the condition of each element inspected, how much service life it has left, whether anything needs a closer look, and whether any element is an immediate threat to the people using it.
Health and Safety Code 17973 allows four kinds of inspector: a licensed architect, a licensed civil or structural engineer, a general contractor holding an A, B or C-5 license with at least five years as a license holder building multistory wood-frame structures, or a certified building inspector or building official. Whoever inspects may not be on the City's payroll for the job. In Walnut Creek the inspection is performed by Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company, a B general building contractor since 2008 (CSLB #922807), and the repairs by Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1120648).
The inspection is quoted as one flat figure for the building, set on the call by how many elements there are, how many types, and whether the framing is open underneath or enclosed in stucco. Repairs are priced finding by finding from the report, in writing, before anything is scheduled: a joist end and a membrane patch on one balcony is a short line, a cantilever rebuilt with a new guardrail is a longer one, and the board or the owner sees every line first. Nothing is added at the building.
We confirm SB 721 or SB 326, count the element types from the street and any plans you have, and put the inspection price in writing the same call.
Residents get notice, the sample is examined from the deck and from below, enclosed framing is metered or opened at a soffit, and every element on the building is photographed and numbered.
A signed report with findings, photographs, service-life estimates and a repair list, plus the 15-day notice to the Building Division if anything is an immediate threat.
A written scope per finding, the application on the City's online portal inside 120 days, shoring where it is needed, the repairs inside the permit window, and the final report for your file.
Health and Safety Code 17973(a) names the inspectors the law accepts: a licensed architect, a licensed civil or structural engineer, a general contractor with an A, B or C-5 license and five years as a license holder in multistory wood-frame construction, or a certified building inspector. Subdivision (g) says nothing against the inspector doing the repairs; it asks that a qualified and licensed contractor do them, to the inspector's recommendations, the Building Standards Code and the City's rules. The owner contracts the inspection directly with the inspecting company, as the law requires. In Walnut Creek that company is Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, and the repairs are a separate contract with Kaminskiy Care and Repair, so the report stands on its own if you choose to bid the work elsewhere.
Repairs are permitted through the City of Walnut Creek's Community Development Department, Building Division, which takes every application through its online permit portal rather than on paper. The City's published list of work that needs no permit is short (finish work, fences to seven feet, small detached decks) and its bulletin says a structure is otherwise not altered, repaired or replaced without one, so plan on a permit for any balcony, stair or walkway repair that touches framing, a ledger, a guardrail or the waterproofing. A like-for-like repair is the simple-scope kind the Building Division reviews over the counter in a few business days; a rebuilt cantilever or a changed guardrail goes through plan check. Walnut Creek publishes no separate SB 721 form or portal, unlike Oakland and San Ramon; the report stays in your records, and an element tagged an immediate threat is reported to the Building Division, as the local enforcement agency, within 15 days. A Saranap building is in unincorporated Contra Costa County and its permit and any threat report go to the County's Department of Conservation and Development in Martinez.
The first SB 721 inspection was due January 1, 2026; AB 2579 gave owners that extra year from the original 2025 date, and the cycle from here is six years. Once a report lists repairs, the permit application is due within 120 days and the work within 120 days of the permit. If it is still undone 180 days after the report, the inspector notifies the City, a 30-day notice goes to the owner, and after that a civil penalty of one hundred to five hundred dollars per day runs until the repairs are complete, with a building safety lien available to the City behind it. The owner keeps two cycles of reports and hands them to the buyer when the building sells.
Ten minutes from any building in town. The East Bay office on Quail Court is where the repair crew starts the day and where an inspection is booked, so a Walnut Creek inspection is usually on the calendar within days and a Rossmoor board gets its scope the week the report arrives. Call 925-302-5955, text a photo of the letter or the balcony, or send the form. The numbers since 2023: 627 repair visits, 225 Walnut Creek homes.
Can't find your answer? Call 925-302-5955 and ask us anything.
Call 925-302-5955It is the inspection California requires every six years of the exterior elevated elements on rental buildings with three or more units: the balconies, decks, porches, stairways, walkways and entry structures that stand more than six feet above grade and depend on wood for their support, with their railings and waterproofing. The inspector identifies each element type, examines at least 15 percent of each, and delivers a signed written report with photographs within 45 days. The first one was due January 1, 2026.
Health and Safety Code 17973 accepts four: a licensed architect, a licensed civil or structural engineer, a general contractor with an A, B or C-5 license and at least five years as a license holder constructing multistory wood-frame buildings, or an individual certified as a building inspector or building official, none of them employed by the City for the job. In Walnut Creek the inspection is performed by Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling, our sister company, a B general building contractor since 2008 (CSLB #922807); Kaminskiy Care and Repair (CSLB #1120648) does the repairs.
Two companies in one group do: Kaminskiy Design & Remodeling inspects and signs the report under its own contract with you, and Kaminskiy Care and Repair contracts the repairs separately. The statute does not forbid the inspector from repairing; it requires that a qualified, licensed contractor do the work to the inspector's recommendations and the building code. Because the report lists every finding with photographs and a baseline narrative, you are free to put the repairs out to bid, and the report is just as good in another contractor's hands.
One flat figure for the building, set on the call by the number of elements, how many types there are, and whether the framing is open underneath or closed in by stucco, so a four-unit building near Civic Park and a hundred-unit garden complex on Treat Boulevard get different numbers. Repairs are priced line by line from the report, in writing, before any date is set. Call 925-302-5955 with the address and you have the inspection price in minutes.
Book the inspection and keep the booking in writing. The daily penalty in the law is for repairs left undone after a report, not for a late first inspection, and the Building Division has no reason to pursue an owner who is already moving. If the inspection turns up an immediate threat, that element is closed and shored that day and reported to the City within 15 days; every other finding goes onto the normal 120-day permit clock.
In a condominium project the association is responsible for the SB 326 inspection, and under most CC&Rs for repairing the load-bearing framing and waterproofing it maintains, with exclusive-use balconies split as the governing documents say. In Rossmoor that is the mutual. Its inspection must be done by a licensed structural or civil engineer or an architect; the board hands us the report and we price and complete the repairs, phased so residents keep their stairs and walkways, and documented for the reserve study.
Our office is on Quail Court, so the inspection is usually scheduled within days of the call and the report lands well inside the 45 days the law allows. Repairs follow the statute: a written scope per finding, the permit application inside 120 days of the report, the work inside 120 days of the permit. An immediate threat is closed off and shored on the day the inspector finds it, before anything else.
All of Walnut Creek, including Rossmoor, Tice Valley, Saranap, Civic Park and Northgate, plus Pleasant Hill, Concord, Lafayette, Orinda, Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, Pleasanton, Martinez and Clayton. Call 925-302-5955 with the building's address and we confirm it on the call.
Send the address, the unit count and whether a report already exists. We call back with the price and a date. The phone is still faster: 925-302-5955.
A licensed inspection, a signed report inside 45 days, and every repair it lists, from one Walnut Creek team on Quail Court.
We answer in under three rings, 24/7.No price games. You get a clear written quote before any work begins, backed by our workmanship warranty.
