PILLAR TO POST

Mike Schray did a great job performing a visual inspection of a new home we are purchasing. He arrived on time; was totally professional in every way; thoroughly inspected every facet of the home within scope; encouraged me to join him as he explained his observations, findings, and recommendations as we went along; and had his fully documented report complete with color pictures and narrative detail in my hands within 24 hours. I have high confidence in his work and would not hesitate to recommend him to others.

Prompt, professional, comprehensive; price is a little high.

Mike was great very thorough and professional, also saved me from making a big mistake by catching a foundation issue with the property that was not disclosed.

I had a home inspection performed by Pillar to Post on 6 July 2016. The inspector walked me through his findings on that day and provided a detailed report the following evening. The report noted that all major appliances were inspected and were working. It noted that there was a leak in the trap of the downstairs bar sink. It noted that the main garage door was disconnected and that the operator did travel correctly. After closing on the property on 3 August, along with my contractor, I discovered that the downstairs bar refrigerator was not working. I contacted Pillar to Post on 4 August and was told that the inspector would contact me that night to come out and fix my refrigerator. I received no response from him. I called the company on 5 August and was given the number to the owner. The owner contacted me back and informed me that the inspector would contact me that weekend (either 6 or 7 August) to fix the problem. (I notified the owner that construction was to start on my kitchen on 8 August, so it was imperative that the refrigerator either be fixed or replaced by then, to which the owner assured me everything would be taken care of that weekend.) The weekend came and went with no contact from anyone at Pillar to Post. I called the office and the owner multiple times and did not receive a response to any of my messages. The morning of 8 August, my contractor came by to fix the leak in the trap of the basement sink. He turned the faucet on to see where the trap was leaking and the faucet sprayed water everywhere. The broken faucet was not listed in my report. My contractor also came over attach the garage door to the operator. He noted that the operator had been torn from the door with no way to re-attach them without manufacturing a bracket. I called Pillar to Post this morning and left a message for the owner to contact me, I also left a voicemail on his personal line. I have not heard from anyone at Pillar to Post since Friday 5 August. The company has known about failures of the inspection report to report the broken refrigerator, the broken faucet, and the corrupted garage door. It has been 4 days and Pillar to Post has not attempted to fix any of these issues. I am now living in a house with the water shut off (to fix the downstairs sink), no refrigerator (because construction has started on the kitchen), and a un-usable garage door.

It was fantastic. Mike did a thorough inspection. He provided a 33 page report with photos and details of the problems. He also provided points for corrective action. The pictures even included details specifying the exact area where the problem is. My husband and I felt extremely confident in what was addressed. I am confident that the sellers of the home felt confident as well. As a homeowner I would want to know that I am not being ripped off. The pictures re-enforced the fact that there were problems that needed to be addressed. I highly recommend Pillar to Post to anyone in need of a home inspection.

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I'll keep this short. I have purchased 12 homes over the years.  Mike is the best inspector I have ever used.. He found every little detail and took the time to explain everything to me right there at the house. He is also very personable and professional. The inspection lasted 3 hours and he took his time. His report arrived by early evening and was excellent. He is a rare find and highly recommended. His prices are competitive and you do get what you pay for.

My company purchased our house from us while living in Michigan. They paid for a whole house inspection and used Pillar to Post. I followed the inspector as he checked every window, faucet, out let, attic, doors, service panel, deck, roof, vents, flashing, siding, etc. outstanding inspection, took pictures, took notes, a great inspection, very detailed. So when we relocated to Dayton/Springboro I wanted to use Pillar to Post - assuming they are all the same- wrong. The person that did the inspection didn't even notice things I noticed while looking at the house. Horrible inspection, Pillar to Post noted only minor issues, took some picture, put together an nice binder, I guess to prove they were actually here. They missed all kinds of major issues, like flashing all the way around the house was not installed right - this was noticeable by the patch job in the ceiling of the family room, nothing noted in the inspection. First good rain - it rained in our family room. This also could be seen by looking in the attic above the garage. Water heater took a dump sortly after moving in, all the bay windows roofs leaked ( previous home owners pumped it full of caulk which you could see on the outside ) nothing noted , basement was so humid all the duct work had mineral build up on the bottom of the duct work where it had water dripping off, again noticeable by the trained eye - nothing noted - I could go on and on about all the misses - a new roof, new flashing, all new windows, a monster dehumidifier, new hot water heater, new AC, refinished hardwood due to the roof leaking, all kinds of dry wall work - and Pillar to Post of Dayton could care less - called the owner - he basically was doing the old duck and cover - I would never use them again. By the way I followed up with the group in Michigan - same inspection was done for the same price.

Great service. They were able to identify a high Radon reading in the property we were purchasing.

Mike knocked this one right out of the ballpark! He knows his houses and inspected every possible area of the home. He is also very professional and personable. He was willing to answer all my questions and also gave suggestions on how to address his findings. We opted for the infrared and the tool is amazing at what it can identify within the walls and ceilings! Prior to the inspection, we watched a youtube demonstration of the infrared technology. This helped us to understand even better what Mike showed us. Thank you, Mike, and Pillar to Post!

Mike Schray was very knowledgeable and we felt that he covered every inch of the house. He did find a few items that did need to be addresses. We were happy to be able to get those resolved before closing. Mike was friendly and efficient.
When I arrived 30 mins into the inspection, the inspector was up on the room looking at all the details. He went through a thorough list on his laptop during the 2 hr inspection. He found several things of note, a couple which were significant to get fixed (water damage under the sliding door due to deck, rotting soffets in the corners). His report was over 40 pages long and included digital pictures of things of interest for us to refer to. He was generally friendly. We let him complete the inspection and then he took us and our realtor to all the items he noticed and answered all questions. A third party chimney guy arrived in the middle and checked out the chimney. This guy knew the inspector. The chimney guy did not have a ladder and so could not inspect the very top of the chimney. That seemed odd to me. He could see up to the top of the chimney from the ground.
In general very happy with this company.

Mike Schray is fantastic! very professional, very knowledgable, and takes the time to answer every single question you have. He is incredibly patient, and thorough, even the seller's agent was impressed!

The inspector arrived on time and proceeded to make a visual inspection of our property. He was efficient but not very personable. Although the company suggested we follow the inspector around the house and communicate with the inspector during the inspection, I did not feel he was open to our tagging along. The inspector was done within an hour and a half, but he did not inspect our well or septic. claiming this was not included in our inspection.

Mike Schray was very professional and courteous. He reviewed all areas of the house quickly and efficiently, noting various things about the property that were either well done or needed further attention by us (the future homeowners). Covered the entirety of the house, including roof. Was quick to point out all blemishes and problems, and say whether those are severe issues (homeowner fix) or minor issues that require our attention later (and detail how the repair might be done). Very satisfied with the home inspection, would definitely recommend Mike and the Dayton branch of Pillar to Post in the future.

I liked that they were very thorough. There was not one area that they missed. They were very knowledgeable. I feel their price was fair. They were prompt, and professional. I would absolutely use them again in the future.

Mike showed up on time and got right to work performing the inspection following a brief introduction and explanation of his services. He performed the inspection over the course of a few hours and along the way he showed me some issues to be aware of. While he did find many of the larger issues, I discovered a number of minor electrical issues on my own that I felt would have been caught had a more inspection been performed (for purposes of disclosure, I spent 4 hours performing my own inspection after he completed his). His written report was very professional and contained a summary as well as detail items which put me in a good position to perform negotiation with the seller. Despite what I considered a few understandable oversights I would use his services again because I have never found a "perfect" home inspector - Mike is about as close as they come.

The home inspection done by this company was lacking in several areas. We bought our new home based on a good report which noted minor problems any homeowner could deal with themselves, but discovered after moving into the house several deficiencies we think should have been discovered in his inspection report. He apparently never went up on the roof of the house, which was 9 years old. We had a leak soon after moving in, and this led to the discovery that there was an opening around the vent pipe. Water stains around that pipe, as well as around the furnace flue, and daylight around the vent pipe were observed by my husband through the attic opening after the leak appeared, but had not been noted in the inspection report. Subsequent visits from several roofing companies uncovered (easily!) that this house has no tar paper or drip edge under the shingles, as well as exposed nails, unsealed flashing, and a vent pipe test cap which had never been removed. We would have liked this information BEFORE we bought the house as we were not expecting to replace a roof that is only 9 years old. But after two leaks and the advice of several different roofing companies, we will have to replace it rather than risk further damage and exposure to ice dams in the winter etc. We now know from the ease with which these problems were found by others that they were easily discoverable, but NOT FROM A GROUND/BINOCULAR INSPECTION, which was the inspection he did. Also missed in the inspection were issues with the windows. We had one window that was not even attached to the house at the upper corner. It had shifted outward toward the outside of the house and had to be secured by a contractor. There were cracks around the drywall inside most windows on the backside of the house and we were given no indication that could be a sign of leaks. But we have two windows in particular that have major leakage problems, which we are still trying to resolve. We did not expect to deal with such major issues in such a new house, and we do consider it inadequate quality of inspection by this company. We have reviewed these issues with the owner of this company, and he took no responsibility for missing these major issues. He claims there were no signs of leaks (which had apparently been painted over on the inside by the previous owners, but showed clearly with the leak) but we know because my husband saw it for himself that the initial problem areas in the roof were discernible from an attic inspection--he could see the water stains and actually daylight around the vent pipe. He further said the inspection was done according to industry standards. We feel strongly industry standards are therefore insufficient if not getting up on the roof is acceptable practice. The lack of tar paper and drip edge was discoverable by checking under the first few rows of shingles (and there is a small area at the first floor level that could have been checked for this.) The roofing companies we called post-leak all inspected the entire roof, and noted the lack of tar paper and drip edge. While he noted some caulking needed around a few front windows which are framed by brick, there was nothing in the report about the remaining windows showing signs of cracks on the inside. He also missed that the front gable has not been caulked at all which was discerned by another roofing company by looking up from the ground. We regret hiring this company to do our inspection, and know because our son and daughter have each bought houses within 9 months of our home purchase that there are others who do more thorough inspections (and even get up on the roof to look at it more closely!!) We are having to spend THOUSANDS of dollars we did not expect to spend at this time, and a more thorough inspection and report on issues which could have been easily discovered but were lacking could have saved us from that unexpected financial loss. For example, had he noted the lack of tar paper and drip edge, we could have consulted a roofing company prior to purchasing the house for a more expert opinion. But the report gave us no indication we needed to take that step. Our advice would be find a different inspector/inspection company, or possibly even hire experts in the areas of roofing, windows, furnaces, plumbing. DO stay at the house during the entire inspection process. Our expectation was that this inspector would know better than we what to look for, since it's his job. We were only present after the inspection was completed and met with him briefly then. Unless you hire someone like 'Holmes on Homes' from TV, make sure you supervise the inspection and keep your eyes open for things to ask about, since apparently the experience of the inspector might not be enough. DO NOT accept a ground inspection of the roof--run quickly to find another inspection company who will get up on the roof. The roof is a major component of a house, and an adequate inspection is essential. DO NOT assume a newer house won't need a roof for 10+ more years and DO NOT assume the quality of roof installation was good. Demand a proper inspection to save yourself some financial grief.

Mike was great. I requested him specifically after reading several of the other comments here. I followed him around as he did the inspection and he pointed out the issues and explained solutions as we went along. We closed on the house shortly afterwards and now we just have to get everything fixed! ;)

Mike Schray was our inspector. He was there early and was prepared to start the second we got there. The thoroughly inspected the house. We have owned 5 houses and this was by far the best inspection. He separated his findings into things that needed to be addressed immediately as well a general maintenance that would have to be routinely done. The findings, including pictures, were available within 24 hours and well documented. He was knowledgeable about how things were built in the 1940s, and gave us several things to look out for going forward. I highly recommend Mike. If I ever buy another house, he will be the first inspector I call!

We had to reschedule our inspection and Pillar to Post accommodated us immediately. We had absolutely no wait! Mike Christian completed our home inspection. He arrived early, was extremely thorough, and took time out to address our concerns. He also made a point to show us where work was needed and why it was necessary. I have had home inspections before, and this is by far the best one I have ever experienced. It has made us aware of immediate needs as well as educating us on maintenance needs for the future. I would highly recommend Mike Christian to inspect your home!

I had 2 different condos inspected, with 2 different inspectors. I would recomend using Mike, he costs a little more but it is worth it. Overall, they were not quite as good as I had heard. The first inspector forgot to include mold in the report and it had to be added (quite a pain). Mike couldn't get to the electric box (which I figured out in a few minutes). Make sure you keep a close eye on any inspector while they are inspecting.

I was impressed by the professionalism and the thoroughness of the inspection. Likewise, the report was provided in hard copy and electronically. It was available at the time of service.

Thanks to Mike at Pillar To Post, I didn't purchase a house that needed over $20K in work. Cosmetically the house was beautiful, but through a thorough home inspection, I was able to find out that the electrical system and roof would need to be replaced. They saved me a lot of time and money.

The representatives were extremely helpful over the phone. They were able to answer all of my millions of questions and schedule the test around my difficult schedule. The inspector was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and early. He spent over three hours at my house, checking it one floor at a time. After each floor he recapped what he found with me and entered data into his report. After the inspection was complete (the same day!) I received a binder with the entire inspection report, a three page inspection summary, and digital photos of problems he found. This was by far the best house inspection I have ever had!

Excellent work, very thorough and professional. The office staff was extremely professional. Highly recommend