Use an expert for your pre-drywall inspection! (San Antonio, Live Oak: how much, home builders) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

AlamoCpl · 06-05-2007, 05:18 AM

A board member here gave us one of the most valuable tips I've gotten anywhere on the net. I can't thank him enough for it!

We're building a home north of 1604 and using one of the major builders here in San Antonio. It was time for the pre-drywall inspection and instead of going out there ourselves, looking at the construction and really not knowing what we were looking at, we used a professional inspector. He was awesome and caught a bunch of mistakes and shortcuts and some huge potential problems in the future.

It took some negotiating back and forth and 3 inspections by our inspector, but the problems were resolved, the mistakes were fixed and we'll have one of the best built homes in the neighborhood.

The cost is completely worth it!

dendox · 06-05-2007, 07:10 AM

I know I have mentioned it before - not sure if you got the idea from me - but that is the only way I would build any new home now days. My wife and I did that and feel 1000% better about the quality of our home.

A little money now can save you a lot of money in the future.

Latinocowboy · 06-05-2007, 08:14 AM

I'd even go as far as to suggest getting an inspector at the beginning stages (foundation). Foundation issues are pretty common and repairs can be very expensive. Once the concrete gets poured in, you have no idea of how much rebar is missing, not tied propertly, shallow beams, broken seats, damaged cables, etc. The scary part is that these homes usually pass city inspections!

There were two pretty major foundation issues that our builder would not have repaired if we had not fought him on it. It would have taken a few years to manifest, but we would have had some type of foundation failure in addition to a possible plumbing issue.

That's just the nature of the building industry here (and abroad too) that is unregulated and employs an good amount of unskilled sub-contractors.

kevcrawford · 06-05-2007, 12:49 PM

Most inspection companies have a new home package. It's a 3 or 5 tiered program where they'll go out at slab pour, framing, etc, stages. It's WELL worth it. Tell your builder up front that you're going to have it done and judge their response. If they have a problem with it, well, there's probably a reason. These new home builders are focused on knocking out the most homes in the least amount of time possible. That's not a good combo. Most good custom home builders will welcome inspections, as they do the job correctly. (notice I said MOST).

Luckily, they're looking at having a similar licensing program in Texas for builders soon, which will weed out a lot of "builders". It'll be slow to go into effect, but it should start things in the right direction.

johnrex62 · 06-05-2007, 12:55 PM

All of this is good advice. If you do not have the expertise at something, buy it!

My father was a homebuilder and always tried to ensure quality at all stages of construction. He was a small custom builder, so his homes cost a bit more than the big trak-builder.

I grew up as the wrong end of the hammer and wheelbarrow, so I learned many things to look for and I built my own house (using my Dad to act as general contractor) so that I could ensure the quality.

If you cannot trust your builder to absolutely look out for YOUR best interest, even over his own, then you should retain inspectors. A house is only as good as it's parts.

crittergal · 06-05-2007, 03:18 PM

Having been a home owner in NYS for about 30 years, but never have owned a new home that we have had built, this is a teriffic idea for us to think about. We are seriously thinking about having a home built in a subdivision in Live Oak and hiring a home inspection company had never crossed my mind. I can see where it could save major head and heart aches down the line. Does anyone have a ball park figure as to what this might cost? Also the name of some inspection companies that I might contact.. Thanks so much, this forum has been so helpful!

AlamoCpl · 06-05-2007, 04:03 PM

All great advice so far in this thread. Doing a soup to nuts inspection is a great idea. Just a pre-drywall inspection will run about $300 - $350 and then you may have to have your inspector go back and check on the progress of the corrections. Each visit after the initial inspection can cost $100 or so depening on the sq. footage of the home.

As stated, you can do the complete package, 5-7 inspections including the final walk through for about $750. Obviously it depends on the sq. footage of the home to be inspected.

I would highly recommend the inspector we used. He really knows his business and seemed to really be working in our best interests. He even got into a very heated argument with the builder when they questioned his knowledge of building codes etc. I will gladly give out his contact information in a PM to anyone who needs his services.

Again it was money well spent! I agree that it gives the buyer peace of mind that the majority of the problems that normally come up later down the road were properly corrected before they happened.

homew6kids · 06-05-2007, 08:57 PM

Any recommendations on inspectors? We're in the process of building too, and have the pre-drywall inspection coming up. Thanks in advance.

AlamoCpl · 06-06-2007, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homew6kids

Any recommendations on inspectors? We're in the process of building too, and have the pre-drywall inspection coming up. Thanks in advance.

I sent you a PM with some information. Good luck with your build and subsequent move!

Latinocowboy · 06-06-2007, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crittergal

Does anyone have a ball park figure as to what this might cost? Also the name of some inspection companies that I might contact.. Thanks so much, this forum has been so helpful!

Some inspectors can charge well over $1,000 and most of them don't even get up on your roof to inspect shingles up close.

My inspector cost us around 750, which included 5 inspections (foundation, framing, mechanical, drywall, final) on a 3,300 sq. ft., 2-story home. He made quite a number of trips out to the property during the process in order to follow up on repairs. He even took over 2 hours during the final inspection (with a helper), whereas the builder's "third party" inspector took less than 45 minutes.

In our case, 99% of over 100+ items (most of which were code violations) were eventually repaired. I'd say that half of these were not going to be repaired by the builder, but we pushed and fought hard to get them to a code minimum. Our home took much longer to build, but it was worth it.