Building new custom home and live out of town-Inspector recomendations (San Antonio: lawyers, new construction)

[tcbc]

Hi,

My wife and I are building a custom home outside of Boerne and are looking for a good, independent inspector. I want someone who is tough but fair and will not be adversarial towards my builder, a second set of eyes so to speak. I spoke with one man and after that conversation I felt that he would be the type to fight the builder on anything he could find. I thought I had an another inspector picked but I have heard some disturbing things about him so I am back to searching. I have also placed several calls that have gone unanswered. We live out of town about 4 hours away so being there all the time is not an option. Can anybody local recommend a good, honest, qualified inspector to me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a small list and will be making some calls tomorow. Thanks in advance for any recommendations

[TrapperL]

While you'd think this is an easy thing- recommending a home inspector, it's everything but easy. Here's some of the issues. Most home inspectors business comes from the secondary market or the used homes that are sold. Most are familiar with the construction methods used years ago and in that arena we have several real good guys here. But a new home, especially a custom built home, there are few that are even qualified to get out of the truck. It's a totally different market and methodology considering where you are building. Helotes will be using the IRC2003 standards whereas a home built in San Antonio will use a modified IRC2012 which is not the same especially when it comes to short walls, wind loads, and rack control. Most state certified inspectors don't have a clue what that means or the differences as they generally don't work with it on a daily basis. Most inspectors have never built a house or ever framed a house so how are they expected to know what it takes inspecting your house? Most don't know even though they have a state license. Trust me, my sister married into a family of home inspectors and none have a clue how build a dog house. So, the choices are few. There is Bureau Veritas who does nothing but new homes but has no offices in San Antonio. I've worked with their inspectors before and they know their business and won't call absurd things like a coffee stain. But I have no contact info for you- best of luck with that one. You can also hire a structural engineer to inspect. The cost will be about 40-50% more than a common inspector but you have someone that at least has a clue. I've worked with South Texas Engineering and Galbraith Engineering on structural deficient homes before and was provided good information from them. You need a prepour inspection, a frame inspection, and a final inspection. Best of luck with this. San Antonio just doesn't have a good base of folks that know new construction. Add, the state examination is proctored by folks that are also proctoring lawyers, doctors, and children and don't have the faintest clue about constrcution themselves which means the state license is a joke. They're more interested in the inspector knowing how many people sit on the Board in Austin than construction methodology.

[LovingSAT]

Originally Posted by tcbc

Hi,

My wife and I are building a custom home outside of Boerne and are looking for a good, independent inspector. I want someone who is tough but fair and will not be adversarial towards my builder, a second set of eyes so to speak. I spoke with one man and after that conversation I felt that he would be the type to fight the builder on anything he could find. I thought I had an another inspector picked but I have heard some disturbing things about him so I am back to searching. I have also placed several calls that have gone unanswered. We live out of town about 4 hours away so being there all the time is not an option. Can anybody local recommend a good, honest, qualified inspector to me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a small list and will be making some calls tomorow. Thanks in advance for any recommendations

This is who we used and could not be happier.
Trevino Home Inspection

[tcbc]

That's exactly the conclusion I am coming to, the more research I do and the more people I talk to, the more I realize that most inspectors are not up to date with the current trends and standards. Thanks for the reply.

[tcbc]

Will check with Trevino. Thanks for the recomendation.