What we do, how we work, and — just as importantly — what this site will not claim until it can be verified.
First Coast Balcony Inspections is a balcony inspection business serving the Northeast Florida coastal corridor from North Jacksonville to Palm Coast. We perform general visual condition inspections of balconies and other elevated exterior components, scoped in writing to each individual property.
We are not an engineering firm. We do not perform Florida milestone inspections or structural integrity reserve studies, and we do not issue structural certifications.
First Coast Balcony Inspections is a d/b/a of High Tide Inspections, a licensed and insured Northeast Florida inspection practice. The balcony work has its own name because it has its own scope — but it is the same inspector, under the same licence, as the parent practice.
Who performs the inspection
Owner & Lead Inspector
William Knight spent more than twenty years building and renovating houses before moving into inspections. That order matters: most of what an inspector needs to know about how an assembly fails is learned by having built one, not in a classroom.
It is directly relevant to this work. Elevated exterior components fail at the details — coatings, sealant joints, railing penetrations, flashing and drainage — and a trade background is what makes those details legible before they become structural.
The experience above is twenty-plus years of construction and renovation work. We state it that way deliberately, and we do not restate it as years spent inspecting, because those are different claims and only one of them is true.
Qualifications
This is the section most inspection websites fill with badges. Ours names what the inspector actually holds, says what each one does and does not authorise, and leaves it there.
The inspector is Florida licensed and an InterNACHI Certified Inspector, and the business is insured. We do not print licence or certificate numbers on this page.
What matters more than a number is the boundary around it: an inspection certification is not an engineering credential, and nothing below authorises a structural certification. Each card says what its credential covers.
Certification
Issued by InterNACHI (International Association of Certified Home Inspectors)
Certification in home inspection practice. It is not an engineering credential and does not authorise structural certification.
Held by the business. No number is published on this page.
Licence · State of Florida
The inspector holds a Florida inspector licence.
Held by the business. No number is published on this page.
Certification
The business carries insurance.
Held by the business. No number is published on this page.
The inspector is Florida licensed and the business is insured. Both are in place before any inspection is booked.
Boards, insurers and attorneys sometimes need more than a website should publish — the qualification behind a particular piece of work, or how a scope will be written for your property. Ask, and you get it in writing before you book.
How we work
These are operating rules, not marketing copy. They determine what shows up in your report.
You see in writing what is inspected, what is excluded and what it costs before anything gets booked. A scope that only lists inclusions leaves the reader guessing about everything else.
Locations that could not be safely or lawfully reached are listed as not inspected, with the reason. Silence about a location is not the same as a clean bill of health, and the report should never blur the two.
Where a condition calls for engineering judgement, the report says so and recommends a licensed engineer. We do not stretch a visual observation into a structural conclusion.
Credentials, licences, insurance, statutory qualifications: each one gets published only once it has been supplied and verified against its source. Until then this site says so plainly.
Where we work
First Coast Balcony Inspections serves the Northeast Florida coastal corridor from North Jacksonville south to Palm Coast.
Staying inside one corridor is a choice. It keeps scheduling tight enough that multi-building and portfolio work can be sequenced properly, and it means the conditions we are looking at — salt exposure, wind-driven rain, the local building stock — are the ones we look at every week.
Several pages here describe Florida inspection requirements — milestone inspections, structural integrity reserve studies, and public lodging balcony certifications. That content exists so visitors can tell those requirements apart from what we actually do.
It was last reviewed on 2026-10-30 against the sources below, and its publication status is: Pending owner and legal sign-off. It is informational, it is not legal advice, and Florida's inspection statutes have been amended repeatedly in recent legislative sessions. For any decision that carries money or liability, read the current statute and talk to your association attorney.
Our parent practice
Balconies are one part of a building. The same licence, the same inspector and the same reporting standard cover the rest of it under our parent practice, High Tide Inspections. The links below open on that site.
Next step
Tell us about the property and you will get a written scope and quote for your buildings, your balcony count and your access conditions — before anything is scheduled.
