Defect detectives

Construction gumshoe Craig Kobza's day often starts with a call from a builder who realizes he should have hired Kobza before a project began taking on water or showing signs of structural or mechanical defects.

Kobza sees the role of his Naples-based Forensic Construction Consulting as especially important in the final stages of a construction project, in which defects caused by worker error or flawed materials escape the notice of construction supervisors, engineers, architects and other professionals on the job. “That's when it's good to have someone watching on a daily basis,” says Kobza, a Michigan native who began doing custom homebuilding and commercial construction in Florida in the late 1970s.

Kobza eventually developed a side specialty in building repairs, and in 2001 created Forensic Construction Consulting as an offshoot of his high-end commercial and residential construction firm, the Aerial Cos. He prefers to be on the job before the project's architects and engineers do the provision inspection, just ahead of bringing the building online. Not to catch someone doing something wrong, he says, but “to help them.”