I'm building a house using a builder & I'm due to do the final inspection. What should I look for?

Question

Have I posted this question in the right place?

any suggestions at all will help

are there any more idea's out there?

Answer 1

if you have a friend knowledgable in this field bring him
along he will know what to look for.
if not call a good independent contractor and take him along
and offer to pay him for his time.
last, be sure a highly competent attorney examines all
papers before they are signed. enjoy your new home.

Answer 2

The above suggestions were all very good. My experience has been that no matter how thorough you think you are being on the walkthrough, you will still miss things. Obviously, you 'll be looking for cosmetic defects, make sure all the appliances appear to be powered, lights working, water running, etc. Look for anything that is completely wrong like not following plans or omissions although you probably would have caught those before now.

However, there will be things that you won't know until after a few days or weeks. For instance, I had a solder joint under a sink go bad after a couple of weeks and someone pierced an air conditioner line with a nail that lost all the freon when under pressure (that one took a while to figure out and didn't show-up until it got warm 5 months after we moved in). If you want to be very thorough, you can hire a home inspector just like you would do for an already constructed home. That way you will have a list in writing to work from with your builder.

Lastly, don't expect your house to be perfect...they never are and the builder knows it. Most will allow for a punch list of things to fix. Depending on the builder, you may have different stages since not everything will be obvious from the beginning. Talk to your builder and see about a 30 day and 60 day punch list. Try to find as much as possible and reasonable for the 30 day since as Nadia wrote that sometimes it's hard to get them to come back after a while. Also, anything they can get to before you move in is easier. Also, follow Jerry's advice and have something in writing as part of the contract.

Good luck and enjoy your new home.

Answer 3

I am not an expert but I decided to answer your question in order to draw your attention to one problem that caused me hassle after I finalised the inspection and the builder refuses to fix it. Check that the flyscreens fit properly when you take them out and replace them. My builder refuses to fix this problem after the inspection papers were completed. It's something you won't discover until such a time when you come to clean them and it will be too late then.

Check EVERYTHING you can think of no matter how trivial. Builders are very reluctant to do any repair after the inspection.

Good luck.

Answer 4

it depends on your city building codes....in general electrical, plumbing stuff should be complete and working and they will usually demand that your crawlspace (if applicable) and attic are insulated fully.