Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. That's exactly what we do. TONER Home Performance evaluates your home as a complete system - how the building, its microclimate, and the people living in it interact - and gives you a clear, written, independent diagnosis of what's actually causing the problem, along with construction-level steps to fix it. Whether it's moisture, condensation, odd smells, allergy symptoms that ease the moment you leave, or something no one has been able to explain, we're confident we can find the root cause and show you the path to a resilient fix.

A licensed Mold Assessment Consultant (MAC) performs a visual inspection and air testing, tells you whether mold is present, and typically charges a few hundred dollars. That's useful when you simply need to confirm and document spores. We're a MAC too, but we're the next step up: we diagnose why the moisture and biological growth are happening as a building-science problem, then write a comprehensive forensic review letter explaining the causation and prescribing the resolution. Hire a normal MAC when you need to know whether or not. Hire us when you need to know why - and you want it to stop for good.

No - and that's intentional. We consult rather than sell. We never perform or sell the resolutions, so our findings answer to your home, not to a repair invoice. That independence is what makes the diagnosis trustworthy. After our review, we refer you to the best trades and contractors for the work, or help coordinate it directly, but we never profit from the fix itself.

A comprehensive Building Forensic Review Letter that documents the symptoms we observed, the building-science causation behind them, and a prescriptive, step-by-step resolution organized by system - for example, attic first, then HVAC, then envelope. Every letter is internally peer-reviewed and professionally proofread. We then deliver it live over Zoom and walk you through the findings, because these problems are genuinely hard to grasp from a document alone. We never just email a report cold.

Because mold is a symptom, not the disease. In our hot, humid Southern climate the real source is almost always a moisture dynamic - vapor drive pushing moisture from the hot, wet exterior toward the cool interior; HVAC pressure imbalances that fail to control indoor humidity; condensation planes where hot and cold meet; bulk water intrusion from roof, window, or flashing failures; or everyday occupant moisture loads. Cleaning treats the surface. Until the underlying moisture dynamic is identified and corrected, the growth returns next season. Our job is to identify which one is driving your problem and stop it at the source.

Yes - many of our forensic engagements begin with a referral from a physician. A home's moisture and air quality can directly affect the people inside it, especially anyone with allergies, asthma, or autoimmune sensitivity. Because we don't sell remediation, our assessment isn't shaped by a repair we'd profit from. We document what's actually happening so that you, your doctor, and your contractor are all working from the same truth.

We use flat-rate pricing. Homeowners appreciate a single price and a clear deliverable, so we don't charge by the hour - we determine the best solution, find the most economical way to achieve it, and deliver it all for one flat rate. Initial case reviews and consultations are always free, because we want to hear your story first and fully understand your needs. We respond within one business day.

Absolutely - that's our Home Performance Design service. We design and specify the HVAC, insulation, building envelope, attic strategy, and indoor humidity control as a single integrated system, built around the Three C's: your Climate, your Construction, and your family (the Client). The deliverable is a Building Performance Specification Book that your architect, builder, and trades all follow, and we stay with the project through construction with site visits, verification, and final testing. This is where your family's health and comfort get engineered in from the start, not hoped for later.

It's our entire focus. We have 25+ years of experience in the hottest, wettest environment in the United States. The South is a uniquely demanding place to build, spanning two climate zones and six environment types - and we've completed projects in all of them. We also look forward, accounting for how the climate's effects on structures are shifting over time, so the home is resilient not just today but for years to come.

It's systematic, and it treats your house as one connected system rather than a series of isolated spots. We start by gathering the home's full history - construction record, prior repairs, micro-climate data, and how the home is occupied. We interview the people who live there about symptoms and timing. We perform a full on-site review of the exterior, interior, attic, mechanical systems, and surrounding site, using tools like sonar, moisture metering, and laboratory-grade lighting to see what the eye misses. We then pattern-match against our catalogue of more than 6,000 homes we've already corrected, write and peer-review the Forensic Review Letter, walk you through it live over Zoom, and hand you off to the right trades for resolution.

We're an independent residential construction expert-witness firm serving attorneys across Texas and the southern United States in both litigation and pre-litigation matters. We're retained to determine what actually went wrong in a home, why it happened, and who or what caused it - and to document that conclusion in language that holds up under scrutiny. We handle residential cases exclusively, which keeps our opinions focused and credible.

Our independence is structural, not a slogan. We do not sell resolutions, perform the repairs we recommend, or carry any financial interest in the outcome of the work. That means our causation analysis answers to the evidence and the building science alone - a distinction opposing counsel cannot easily attack, and one that makes our testimony more durable on cross-examination. A building professional who also happens to be an expert makes a more believable argument than a career expert who only testifies.

Complex residential failures rarely confine themselves to a single trade. Rather than forcing counsel to assemble and manage a fragmented roster of siloed experts, we consolidate the entire technical investigation under one roof. We identify, retain, and coordinate the complete technical roster the matter requires across all residential disciplines - sequencing site visits, managing discovery deadlines, enforcing quality control, and integrating every trade's findings into a single, unified forensic narrative. You manage one relationship instead of half a dozen.

Whenever the facts allow, we favor resolving a dispute before it becomes a formal lawsuit. Rather than each side retaining its own expert to produce competing, self-interested conclusions, the parties jointly engage us to make a single, neutral determination of what is actually wrong with the home - one expert, one investigation, one set of findings everyone has agreed in advance to treat as authoritative. We evaluate the home as a complete system and recommend the exact building-science corrections required, without assigning blame or liability. The conversation shifts from “what happened?” to “how do we resolve it?” - a far shorter and far cheaper conversation.

We deliver fully documented, peer-reviewed causation reports in an average of about two weeks, against a 45-day industry average - keeping you well ahead of aggressive court scheduling orders. On cost, we consolidate the entire technical team's billing into one transparent, predictable invoice, typically totaling roughly half the cost of comparable legacy firms. Case reviews and initial consultations are free.

The Expert Opinion Review Letter traces the chain of physical causation from observed symptom directly to root structural or mechanical failure. Every conclusion is anchored by verifiable site photography, environmental data, and established building-science principles. Each report undergoes strict internal peer review and professional proofreading before issuance. It's concise by design - written to persuade a judge, jury, or adjuster, not to overwhelm them. We also walk counsel and the client through the findings live so the technical nuances are fully mastered prior to deposition or mediation.

Conflicting testimony within your own camp is a fatal vulnerability on cross. Because we integrate every discipline's findings into a single, unified forensic narrative under one coordinator, internal discrepancies are fully reconciled before they ever reach counsel's desk. You receive one reconciled causation story rather than several experts whose conclusions can be played against each other.

The boundary is deliberate and absolute. We do not practice law, negotiate settlements, draft releases, or advise on legal strategy. We deliver the unvarnished reality of the home - what is failing, why, and precisely what it will take to correct it - documented to a standard that holds up under scrutiny. That gives you concrete, defensible facts to anchor your strategy around. We determine the truth of the building; you decide what to do with it. Throughout, counsel remains entirely in control of the legal strategy.

The facts of a building don't change with the procedural posture - but who establishes them, and how early, changes everything. The earlier independent expertise establishes the unvarnished facts, the more leverage, optionality, and cost control counsel retains. An early, well-documented evaluation collapses the fight over contested facts that drives most of the expense and delay, and frequently keeps a dispute from escalating at all. A good-faith effort to understand and remedy the problem becomes part of the record, demonstrating your client's reasonableness while framing the other side's conduct by contrast.

Naturally. The Residential Construction Liability Act contemplates written notice, an opportunity to inspect, and a chance to respond with an offer of repair or settlement - and an early, highly credible expert opinion is exactly what that framework is built to reward. It allows a builder or contractor to formulate a reasonable, defensible offer grounded in objective findings rather than guesswork, and it gives a claimant a documented technical basis for evaluating whether an offer is adequate. To reach our team directly, attorneys can contact Business Development Manager Terry Nesch at [email protected]; we respond in one business day.

We're never a competitor - always an independent consultant. For more than 15 years we've worked as the building-science partner to architects and builders across Texas and the South: advancing performance into new projects from the start, investigating and resolving callbacks when something isn't performing as it should, and providing expert support when a project becomes the subject of a dispute. We strengthen your work and protect your reputation.

First, Forensics & Mold Assessment - when a home is misbehaving, we evaluate it as a system and deliver an independent, third-party opinion on the cause and the construction-level resolution. Second, Legal Experts - when a project heads toward a dispute, we manage pre-litigation and litigation and assemble the right expert resources quickly and economically. Third, Building Performance Design & Specifications - we align the home to perform around the Three C's and consolidate everything into a Building Performance Specification Book your whole team can build from. Across all three, we look out for your interests.

When an owner reports mold or moisture, the worst outcome is a finger-pointing spiral among the trades - every party defending its own work while the problem, and your reputation, go unaddressed. An independent, building-science root-cause analysis replaces that speculation with documented fact. It pinpoints what actually failed and why, which de-escalates the situation, scopes the correct repair, and keeps a callback from hardening into a claim. Because the finding comes from a neutral third party rather than another trade with skin in the game, it carries weight no one on the project can credibly dispute.

It's our core design deliverable - one document that the architectural team, builder of record, trades, and owner all build from. We consider the HVAC, insulation, envelope, attic, and moisture strategy around the Three C's (Climate, Construction, and Client) in tandem, producing a single coordinated specification rather than a set of disconnected decisions that fight each other in the field. Then we may verify the installation on-site, so the home that gets built is the home that was designed. The result: fewer callbacks, healthier homes, and a stronger reputation.

No. A dedicated project manager can stay with you across the full project timeline - supporting questions, meetings, site visits, verification, and testing from design through completion. We turn performance intent into a buildable, verified specification, and we confirm on-site that it was executed. For established builder partners, field support throughout construction is included.

Our expertise is typically deeper than that of the installing trade, but the point isn't to second-guess anyone - it's that understanding how the trades interact is what makes each of them perform. We're experts in HVAC, insulation, windows, walls, roofing, attic assemblies, foundations, the building envelope, drainage and dissipation planes, indoor air quality, microclimate standards, historic structures, and coastal applications, and critically in how they all work together as one system. Manufacturers even retain us to improve their own products and installation standards.

Contractors, builders, and architects rely on us to manage pre-litigation and litigation and to assemble the right expert resources - quickly, economically, and with a high success rate. We'd rather solve the problem than litigate it: acting as an agreed-upon third party, we assess the home, identify what's actually wrong, and recommend corrections without assigning blame or liability. If the matter proceeds, we review the case, determine the full slate of experts needed, and act as the quarterback for the entire technical effort.

Because it makes our findings credible with the people who matter in a dispute - owners, insurers, and courts - and that credibility protects your liability position. When the diagnosis comes from a firm with no financial stake in the remediation, it can't be dismissed as self-serving. That's exactly what de-escalates an owner conflict and keeps a callback from becoming a claim against you.

We deliver peer-reviewed causation reports in an average of about two weeks, against a 45-day industry average. On the legal side, we consolidate the technical team's billing into one transparent invoice, typically roughly half the cost of comparable firms. Flat-rate pricing and free initial case reviews apply - we want to understand the situation first, and the more we learn, the more economical the work becomes.

Because in the South, resiliency is the goal and efficiency is the byproduct - not the other way around. We provide homes that fight humidity, heat, and vapor drive: comfortable inside, resilient outside. After years of correcting failures, we know exactly what goes wrong, and we apply that knowledge at the front end. We also design forward, accounting for how the climate's effects on structures are shifting over time. A sustainable, energy-efficient home follows naturally once the home is built to survive its environment.