I've been in construction for over 27 years and I've seen some pretty scary things. I'm a glazier by trade. I've had my own glass and storm shutter business. I've been a foreman working on glass buildings. I was a field supervisor managing custom homes,condominiums,tract housing projects and commercial buildings.
What I want to do here is pass on some knowledge to people so that when they go to build or buy a house they can look for things that are normally overlooked. Things that can cause serious damage down the road. I'm going to tell you about things you don't see and about things you can't see. Home inspectors help, but you need to find out their background to see if they have had any experience in construction. I inquired about going to take a course to be a home inspector. They told me that I would spend a week at their facility and 2 days more if I wanted to be certified for mold inspection as well.
I'm sure that you could learn a lot in a week, also it has to be better than the one offered to you by mail, but again a background in construction would help. Give a second thought to using a home inspector that is recommended buy the realtor that is showing you the house. I'm not trying to downgrade the home inspection industry. It's always good to have an inspection done before buying a house. For what little it cost to have one done, it could save you alot of money down the road.
Building inspectors are great, but there are those who do drive buy inspections and what I mean by this is that they go up to the permit board and sign off on an inspection and never even looked at the job they were supposed to inspect. Some of this happens because they are so over loaded with inspections that they can't possibly do them all in one day. Normally if someone calls for an inspection then the building department is obligated to give them one in a certain time frame, like 24 - 48 hours. When construction booms it's hard for them to keep up with the demand. Hurricane Andrew was a fine example of what can happen when inspectors get overloaded.
There are a lot things that happen when a house is going to be built right through to the closing. If you are going to have a house built it would be a good idea to hire someone with experience to keep an eye on the progress of your house. Someone who could do an inspection at each stage of the house. This way things could be corrected before it got to far along. There are certain things you can't see after the job is completed. The person you hire doesn't have to be there everyday, only at certain phases of the project. There is also another way to do this.
As your house progresses, you'll have different trades coming and going . You could find out when they are going to be completed doing their job, and hire someone from a different company to inspect their work. A house is a big investment and for what little it would cost you to hire someone to do an inspection you would benefit in the long run. Even if they found everything up to par, you would be able to close on your new house without any fear.
I'll give you some examples of things that went wrong. One lady just moved into her new custom home. She had to do a load of laundry and run an errand. When she returned home she found her whole floor flooded. Apparently, no one ever hooked the drain up for the washer. At this other custom home which cost about 1.4 million dollars the plumber that installed the toilets left the wax ring in the plastic cup that it comes packaged in. So down the road when they turned the water on and somebody flushed the toilet, they had a small flood. They also didn't install an end cap on a pipe in the ceiling. Water came down through the ceiling and the light fixture as well. In another custom home a plumber hooked up a hot water line to the toilet. It seems like some companies don't take the time to train their employees. I've checked jobs before we would send installers to put windows and doors in and more than once someone installed the concrete window sills in backwards. You just never know what's going to happen when a house is being built.
There are different building codes and manufacturers installation specifications to follow in all parts of the country. In the United States we have earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and other conditions that a house has to be built to be able to withstand. If someone doesn't follow say the NOA'S (notice of acceptance) or product approvals a house could be in big trouble. NOA's are basically test reports and they also have installation details that must be met so that whatever condition that product must face it will be able to perform according to it's purpose. The NOA's can be tricky and confusing to read. Usually windows, sliding glass doors, entry doors, storm shutters and roofing material will have to have NOA's submitted to the building department before a permit is issued.
Once the permit is issued and the house is built you have to rely on the installers to do their installation according to the NOA's. Then it's the inspectors duty to make sure that the installers followed the NOA's. If neither one of them did their job, your house might not make it through let's say a hurricane. You and your family's lives could be at risk as well. That's why it is important to have an outside party do an inspection on your house.
Well I'm going to bring this article to a close. Look for my next article on this subject. I hope this information will benefit you. It also might be a good idea to have an inspection on the house you are living in now. Don't wait till it's too late. Thank you and God Bless You.
