Pre-Drywall Inspection when building a new home
 

Hello,

I am currently building a new home in the villages. I was wondering if anyone got a pre-drywall inspection during their build in The Villages. (or if this is even allowed). If so, who did you use?

Thanks!

Call the county/city your home is in to see what is inspected.

Can't hurt, everybody makes mistakes. They found a cracked truss inspection a previous (non-Villages) home.

Any of the home inspection services can do it.

Intelligent people get several inspections during the build process.

Also gives you an opportunity to photograph every wall, roof strut, plumbing elements, electrical items, structural steel elements, sliding door mounts, and slab penetration from multiple angles. So later you can determine where hidden things are located. You won't ever get another chance to do that. Put up post-it notes (room, and wall direction... KIT S, KIT N, KIT E, KIT W) to ID every picture. Don't forget garage and exterior. Have a friend extend a tape measure for easier reference later.

Also, if you are here, go visit the house often. Look for stupid things, like garbage thrown into the concrete blocks, broken studs, cracks in concrete, wires pulled too tightly around bends, inaccessible plumbing elements (water hammer arrester located inside a wall), spliced wires (hidden junctions), missing insulation baffles, unsealed exhaust vent pipes, ripped insulation on HVAC lines, where blocking is missing for mounting TV wall brackets and for mounting shades, proper support structure for lights and fans..... The things that should be fixed or done properly in the first place. Take more photos. Try to get irrigation line locations, underground line locations, Close up of roof being installed (number of nails being put into each shingle, warranty might require 5).

So is a professional inspector worth it? Yes. But you can, and should, do things too.

Taking a lot of photos is a good idea, but you need to be able to get the contractor to fix any defects before they get covered up. Otherwise, the photos won't help much. A good contractor will use a very long, steel straight edge to locate and repair crooked studs that can affect the straightness of the drywall.

Maybe a home inspector can come comment on this, but I doubt that the builder will allow a private professional inspection during construction, especially since you don't actually own the house until you go to the closing.

I agree with TrapX. Get in there and take your own pictures! Monitor your build..you will be respected by the crew. Bring a couple X-Large pizzas, your build will go smoother

If you can’t be here you might consider hiring Goldwingnut to take photos and video of your entire build. He will notify you of any items of concern so you can bring them up with your design/build team.

Wing nut is the solution. you will have much documentation

I wish I was here when my home was built. Would love to see what materials were used to tape and spackle my lanai ceiling. Cracks everywhere 14yrs later.

Trespassing
 

Construction sites in Florida are typically posted as such and it is a felony to trespass in it. As someone noted, until closing it isn’t yours. Too much liability for someone to be wandering around, maybe getting hurt. Leave it up to the professional builders and inspectors.

...

Have you visited a construction site here?

I was encouraged to visit, supervisors, workers and even inspectors were happy to chat.

The only sign I saw was telling workers to leave the site clean because buyers might visit.

setting aside the inspection looking for faults....it is a great idea to take photos of all the framework if you plan to be in the house for a while. It can be very handy if you need to make a repair or run cable, etc. in the future.

Good answer. Customers don't understand they don't own the house till closing.

Just ask! I know someone who just completed a new build in Tampa and was allowed to hire a pre drywall inspector and pre closing inspection. Also, the builder did different walkthroughs with the buyers during the building process. Never heard of TV doing that but it can’t hurt to ask!

Pictures, pictures, pictures. I like the post-it note idea. I took lots of pictures for a friends new build in TV a few years ago.

When we first were buying a house here, we noticed it usually rains a lot. So we drove by the houses in our chosen area after a big rain and noticed the first six houses on the block were without cover, and we knew that we were not buying those six houses.

We built in St Cats and were over to our house every day. We watched the roof trusses fall down on Christmas eve at a nearby build. They had them all rearranged by Christmas day. I cant imagine they actually had an inspector out over Christmas lol. Wonder if the owner knew about it.......and if there was no damage.

The Villages strongly discourages ANY inspection before closing. In the thousands of inspections we have done in The Villages, we have only done one.

The key is that within the first 7 days of ownership you need to do a GOOD punch list inspection, keying into the items that are only warrantied for the first 30 days. You can do this yourself easily. We help many with that. Everything else we can find and document during our 11th month inspection.

As to trusses, we often find broken trusses during our attic inspection. This is why it is SO important that your inspector crawls all over the attic. Most do not. They may pop their head up there but their feet never go in the attic. That is not the proper way to inspect an attic. You get what you pay for.

Repaired trusses are perfectly fine, as long as the repair is done in accordance to the truss engineer, AND you have documentation saying that. Repaired trusses are actually stronger. The problem is that you need the paperwork, so if you sell the home years later it does not become a contentious issue.

Hope this helps!