Nobody inspects a home they already own, which is why so many expensive failures arrive as surprises. An annual maintenance inspection is the same rigorous walk-through we do for a buyer, run on the home you live in, with a different output: not a negotiating document, but a maintenance plan and a replacement budget.
The economics of finding it early
A flashing failure found in year one costs a few hundred dollars in caulking and a roofer's afternoon. The same failure found in year four, after it has been quietly wetting sheathing and framing, costs sheathing, insulation, drywall, and possibly a mould remediation. Almost every catastrophic home repair began as a cheap repair somebody could not see.
What you actually get
A condition report on every system, with remaining service life estimates, plus a prioritised twelve-month maintenance list and a five-year capital plan with rough costs. That capital plan is the useful part — it tells you that the roof has four years left and the furnace has seven, so you can save for them instead of financing them at eleven percent on a Saturday in January.
Especially worth it after year eight
Builder-grade components in Ottawa's newer suburbs cluster their failures. Water heaters go around year ten to twelve, air conditioners fifteen, roofs eighteen to twenty-five depending on the shingle and the ventilation. If your home is approaching those windows, knowing where each one sits is worth considerably more than the inspection costs.
What is included
- Full-scope condition assessment of every major system
- Infrared scan of the envelope, ceilings and electrical panel
- Remaining service life estimate for roof, furnace, AC, water heater and windows
- Prioritised 12-month maintenance list you can actually work through
- Five-year capital replacement plan with rough cost ranges
- Life-safety check: alarms, venting, GFCI/AFCI protection, egress
Why this matters in Ottawa
Ottawa is genuinely hard on buildings. Thirty-five degrees of summer humidity, minus thirty in February, and a hundred and twenty freeze-thaw cycles a year working on every joint, seal and mortar line. Systems here do not age the way they do in milder climates, and an annual look is proportionally more valuable.