Don’t Pay Your Contractor Until An Independent Inspector Checks The Work

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Ever wondered if that “finished” project is actually finished right? We unpack a homeowner’s renovation that looked fine from the sofa but fell apart under closer inspection: a deck ledger bolted into rotten wood, sliding doors with a one-inch gap and nonfunctional locks, and siding so loose the J channel could be moved inches by hand. It’s a case study in why independent inspections—before you release the final payment—can save you thousands and protect your home from moisture, drafts, and long-term structural problems.

We walk through smart timing for maintenance inspections, including pairing an every-two-years radon retest with a targeted moisture inspection. Not all permits are required everywhere, but contractor behavior is a tell: if someone panics when permits are mentioned, that’s a signal to slow down and verify. In this story, the roof was actually done well by a subcontractor, yet warranty expectations were mismatched because the product wasn’t the 50-year shingle the owner thought. Documentation matters. Keep invoices, product data, and warranty paperwork for roofs, windows, doors, and HVAC.

We also dig into the dangers of missing labels and scratched-off serial numbers, which can void warranties and raise serious questions about sourcing. For new construction, a pre-drywall inspection is essential; once walls close, you can’t see wire protection, pipe clearances, or window flashing that keep water and electricity where they belong. Our goal is simple: celebrate what’s right, clearly flag what’s wrong, and give you a practical checklist to hold contractors to professional standards.

If you found this helpful, follow the show, share it with a homeowner who’s mid-renovation, and leave a quick review to help others find these tips. Got a renovation red flag we should cover next? Send us your story.

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com) 

NBC4 news segments: The importance of home inspections, and what to look for | NBC4 WCMH-TV

Advice from experts: Don’t skip the home inspection | NBC4 WCMH-TV

OSU student’s mysterious symptoms end up tied to apartment’s air quality | NBC4 WCMH-TV

How to save money by winterizing your home | NBC4 WCMH-TV

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
All right.
So Laura, often when peoplethink of home inspections, it is
for a home purchase.
True, most of the time.
Most of the time.
It can also be done formaintenance inspections.
Which we have done a lot more ofthis year.
Yeah, which is a nice thing tosee.
People learn how to take care oftheir house.

SPEAKER_01 (00:20):
Well, it's cheaper to take care of it now than have
something go on that you don'tknow about, and then all of a
sudden your roof caves inbecause you've had this huge
leak and all of the stuff rottedand fell.

SPEAKER_00 (00:32):
Yeah, and you neglect the squirrel nest up
there.
Or raccoons.
Raccoons will rip the a newwhole area.
They'll rip a new new vent inyour in your attic space because
they will just tear that up.
Raccoons are nasty in the house.
But so you got home purchase,you got maintenance inspection,
like somebody's owned the housefor five years and they want to

(00:55):
get it checked out because theyhaven't done it forever, which
is fine.
Which is two years is a goodidea to get it checked.
Because that's EPA tells you toget your house retested for
radon every two years.
May as well do a whole houseinspection at that at that point
in time, or maybe just themoisture inspection.
So which is a little morestreamlined inspection, but just
looking for more for moistureissues, which the moisture is

(01:17):
the bane of every house.
Oh, yes, it is.
But here's another reason tohire a home inspector.

SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs.
From radon to mold to warranty.
For a grade home inspection, youreally can't go ball.

(01:44):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_00 (01:49):
Oh, you have a contractor do home and quotes
improvements to your house, andyou're not quite certain he's
doing things right.
Because you talk when you talkto him about maybe going get uh
you know, co getting permits, hefreaks out and almost cries, it
sounds like.

(02:11):
So it's like that that is a bigred flag.
Not not every city or county, Ishould say county, requires
permits to do things to yourhouse.
But if you're if your contractgets nervous, man, that is so
tell me that one.
Wow, is this the one foryesterday?
She yeah, the homeowner told methat, like how much the guy was

(02:34):
freaking out.
So anyway.
And they let him continue?
That's about the time they said,hey, we're we're gonna have
somebody looking about donehere.
Yeah, we're gonna have somebodysomebody look before they give
the payment out.
The last payment payment, Ishould say.
At least I believe.
So anyway, went to the house,check it out.
They did like siding, roofing.
The guy subbed some of the stuffout.

(02:55):
He hired us a roofing company todo the roof.

SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
Oh, that's why the roof was done well.

SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
Roof was done well, which was well, and my goal was
not to say everything's allscrewed up or anything like
that.
Uh if there's good news, I'mgonna tell that as well.
Just like all of our inspectorswill tell them.
You're right.
Like, hey, your AC is runninggreat.
And we we like doing that.
Gives people good, you know,they feel good about this.

(03:20):
Homeowner here was very relievedthat uh the roof was done well.
Roof looked good.
I think there may have been amisunderstanding about how long
the roof is gonna last, becausethey were thinking it's 50
years.
There are some roof shinglesthat will last 50 years.
I don't think this is this iswas this type.
I told him just to verify that,but the installation looked

(03:43):
good.
There were some issues with thedeck that they had put on.
That they attach to the rottenwood on the house.
Yes.
So when you have a house, youcan have a freestanding where
it's not attached to the house,just next to it, and then you
have the ones that attached tothe house with a ledger board
that gets bolted onto the house.

(04:04):
This one, the ledger boardthat's part of the deck, that
was bolted onto rotten wood fromthe old bandboard former deck,
which is not right.
That should have been pulledoff.
So they have that issue.
And of course, I'm not gonnatell you the address or anything
like that or where this is, butanyway, you always need to

(04:25):
double check your contractors,let them know that you're gonna
have a home inspector come byjust to jump double check their
work to make sure it's good.
Because that was not right.
Sliding glass door, man.
Just from the from sitting intheir living room, you wouldn't
be able to see it, but as soonas you get next to it, there's

(04:45):
like a at least an inch gapbetween the sliding glass door
and the top of the frame.
So all this cold air was justrushing.
Pouring in.
Both doors are like that.
So they didn't write the frameis not right for that size door.
It didn't lock.
It didn't lock.
He tried to tell him it was adummy lock on the one side, it

(05:07):
really doesn't work, just justfor looks.
I don't get the purpose of that.

SPEAKER_01 (05:12):
And then the to get his butt out of it.

SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
It's like a pin lock where there's little levers on
the doors when you pull thelever up.
Like we have on our back door.
You pull the lever up, andthere's a rod that goes up and
went through the bottom into theframe that kind of keeps the
door from ever being moved untilthat's unlatched.
Each sliding glass door for thispair had that, neither one did

(05:36):
anything.
I put my finger underneath thereand move that latch, nothing.
There's no metal pin in there.
And also that's not right.
Siding wasn't right, too.
The siding was loose.
They had new siding to put onthe J channel.
Which, if you look at siding,you right where the siding kind

(05:58):
of like meets door frames or theroof, there's like a little lip
underneath it called J channel.
Basically, it it's attached tothe wall and it curls up a
little bit, and you tuck thesiding inside that kind of helps
keep it getting from being blownaway from the bottom edges or
the sides.
The J channel itself was notattached in everywhere.

(06:19):
So it could still, I mean, Icould blown away.
I did a video of that, but I canmove it easy six inches.
Oh, that's it.
I shouldn't be able to move ithardly anything at all.
I mean, just more than thanthis, it will bend because it
was vinyl.
No more than it bend, it'llbend, but no, this was way too
loose, and this is out in thecountry.
This gonna blow.

(06:40):
Had fields, strong winds, and alot more potential for it
getting ripped off.

SPEAKER_01 (06:46):
Well, this is the one where the homeowner told the
person doing the work that wewere coming out, and all of a
sudden he wanted to be there andfollow you while you were doing
your inspection, and I said no.

SPEAKER_00 (07:01):
No, no, I don't need anybody to follow me around
trying to tell me the how how todo how they did things.
You know, I don't knoweverything, but I'd definitely
do research on things that I'mnot positive of.
Which is, you know, I don'tthink a lot of people just make
up something something until youget get evaluated.
You know, like the slang glassdoor, I that is way too big of a

(07:24):
gap.
They're still gonna have to getevaluated because is the framing
wrong?
Did they mess the is the doormissing something on the bottom?
They need to get it all allevaluated, make sure because the
whole frame probably needsresized.
Yeah, something's not right withthat.
Yeah, there's there's severalthings wrong with that door.
Oh, they said also that theidentification numbers which of

(07:47):
the windows were all scratchedoff, which doesn't make sense to
me.

SPEAKER_01 (07:50):
Why would you scratch off identification
numbers?
Wouldn't you need those for awarranty?

SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
To me, it would just be the label describing the
describing the type of window,which is no big deal.
So so they they need to getverification.
Hey, I want I want to see thepaperwork of where you bought
this from, so I have thewarranty information of the
company that manufactured.
That totally makes sense thatyou as a homeowner or having
some work done, you need to havethose receipts.

(08:15):
That way, if there is an issue,you got your little warranty to
uh to help you out.

SPEAKER_01 (08:19):
To help protect you.

SPEAKER_00 (08:21):
Because I have been up on apartment complexes.
Oh, yeah.
Man, they're at least 20, 25.
Yeah, 2530 um air conditionedunits up on the roof.
Every single I because I walkedaround and looked, because it
wasn't on the one I wasinspecting.
I looked at every singlecondenser up on that roof.

(08:43):
The serial number was scratchedoff of every single one of
those.
Which is very unusual.

SPEAKER_01 (08:49):
Very sus.
That's very sus.

SPEAKER_00 (08:52):
Which to me, I'm like, all right, why is somebody
not wanting to know the serialnumber of this unit?
Oh, oh yeah, probably because.

SPEAKER_01 (09:00):
Yes, or they legitimately bought it from
somebody who had stolen them andhad then they took off the
serial numbers before they soldthem.

SPEAKER_00 (09:09):
Yeah, very, very suspicious on that one.
But uh, yeah, have you work donein a house, get a new roof done,
have the con tell thecontractor, hey, just before I
do the final payment to you, Iam going to have a uh
independent home inspector comeby and take a look at it just to
see if it's stalled right.
Or or just to see if it looksokay.
Because like the siding, onceit's on, we can't see the house

(09:33):
wrap or how they did everylittle thing.

SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
Or to see, I can definitely find out if it's
loose or if they well, andhere's my question if they
messed up so much on otherstuff, what's to say they didn't
mess up on underneath it andthat it's not gonna cause more
damage down the road.

SPEAKER_00 (09:49):
Correct, correct, and there's no way and there's
no way to know at this point.
There's no way of knowing atsome point because you look at a
house, this is why it'simportant if you're uh having a
house built, is you havesomebody, a home inspectant,
come to come and do apre-drywall inspection.

SPEAKER_01 (10:04):
Yes, very important.

SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
Once the house has drywall on, I we cannot see did
they position the wires or thepipes correctly so they don't
get damaged from nails andscrews and cause shorts, fires,
uh you know, little leaks in thepipes that end up in uh mold
growth and making everybodysick.
Yep.

(10:25):
We can't see that once thedrywall and the trim's on.
We also can't see once they havethe signal, we can't see do they
put that house wrap, do they putthe house wrap on correctly?
Do they do the flashing aroundthe windows correctly?
Which is the same thing.
Most of the time they don't,yeah.
Which has been a big issue howthey do the flashing, the pan
flashing around the windows.
So a lot of reason to hire ahome inspector, but yeah, just

(10:48):
do not hire just anybody foryour subconscious for your home
improvements, and then alwayshave it looked at.
Always, always, always.
So anything else you can thinkof, Laura?

SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
No, not with that one.
I think that's done.

SPEAKER_00 (11:02):
Alright, everybody.
Take care.
Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
Bye y'all.