Why oh why inspect a new construction home???

The general thoughts about inspecting a brand spanking new home is, ” well, the County Inspector inspected it,  why does it need to be inspected by a Home Inspector?” 

Here are several reasons that you should seriously consider:

Some County Inspectors inspect 10-20 permited structures per day. That with travel time, leaves them with about 15 – 30 minutes to look at the house.  FIFTEEN MINUTES!  http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=79737&src                       

A professional home inspection takes 2-3 hours depending on the size of the house, and is quite thorough.  The lists of items on new homes that I have found are endless, however here are a few:

A Realtor called to inspect thier new construction house that they had closed on already, and low and behold, many items were not up to standards, beginning with the flat roof that hadn’t been coated/sealed yet;

The asphalt driveway was already beginning to show signs of wear after a month, was unprofessionally applied, and was eventually replaced;

The vent pipe for the the water heater didn’t meet the code requirements for the area, and had to be raised by 12 inches to vent properly, otherwise, rust could accumulate in the water heater and shorten it’s life span;

The furnace vent pipe was not installed completely and would have discharged the biproducts of combustion into the residence (carbon monoxide etc.);

The outside portion of the air conditioner was leveled using several rocks, as the grading was improper, and the grading had to be re-done, also as a direct result of the home inspection;

The kitchen kick boards/plates were unprofessionally installed, with nails sticking out by 1/4 inch;

   This previous inspection is from a semi-custom builder that is quite reputable in Tucson. These examples are not the complete list of what I found, however it gives you an idea that the new house you move into is NOT perfect.  There is no such thing. These Realtors I did the inspection for now INSIST on a home inspection for their new construction home buyers.

On other inspections, I’ve found a chimney that was not completed above the roof line, no top, no flue liner.  You could look down and see the framing open to the elements.  This was also a “finished” house. ( See below)

One thing I consistantly find are problems with heating and cooling units that are installed in the attic.   Frequently they do not reach the proper cooling temperatures,  they are missing insulation on the refrigerant lines, and a big thing is the secondary drip pan installed beneath the units to drain condensation are not tilted properly to the drain pipe, thus potentially causing the water to overflow into the house. This just occured in a friend’s house ( which was NOT inspected when she bought it new.)  Water in the pan had been consistantly leaking down the wall and into the bathroom, causing damage that is costing them tens of thousands of dollars for repair of the bathroom walls and vanities, and remediation of the mold, not to mention the repair to the A/C unit and the wood decking bewlow the unit.

  My 14 years of remodeling, inspecting, and building has taught me that sub-contractors don’t know or generally don’t care about the jobs of the other sub-contractors, and with the mass building that is going on, sub-contractors have to hire less skilled labor to do the jobs, which translates into less than ideal workmanship.

A little known fact:  The building codes that are adopted by whatever city or county you live in, are the BARE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS!  There,  I said it.  When a building company tells you that the house is built to code, it means that it is built to the bare minimum requirements that are required. and even then, sometimes they are not.

I could give hundreds of examples, but you get the jist…

Great idea to inspect a new construction home?  If you are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home, wouldn’t you want it to be as near perfect as it could be?  Hire a third party inspector to inspect your new construction home and THEN rest easy.