My appointment this morning was for a new construction home built by Ryan Homes, which is a pretty big builder here in these areas. I am probably one of the most nit picky inspectors around here from what I am told (Guess that’s a good thing for my clients) and I could only find a couple of tiny little issues with this place. There was an area on the rear kitchen roof that had ventilation fans installed. The course of shingles that covered the top edge was notched at the bottom of the shingle flaps to accomidate for the vent housing. No big deal, but there was a little bit of the flashing showing and I was concerned that it could be a potenial moisture intrusion point. I pointed it out to the client and the builder and expessed my concerns about it possibly causing problems in the future.
Here’s what made my jaw drop…
The builder gets on his phone and calls the roofer that was working in the developement on a different house and tells him about the problem. I was immediately expecting to defend myself and my findings to the builder and roofer. Next thing I know, about 5 minutes later (no exageration) the roofer pulls up out front with his ladder and a tube of roof sealing compound and fixes what I called out. I typically have defend myself and my finding to builders whenever I call into question any workmanship issues or inappropriate use of materials. I never expected that to happen! The builder was totally professional and did not take offense to something being called out.
Amazing!
All in all the place didn’t have anything major wrong with it, just minor stuff that the builder agreed to have fixed that afternoon or by Monday.
It sure is nice to get these kind of inspections. I just wish they were all that easy!
For the large mark up they have their POC product, they should jump through hoops.
I did an inspection on a new track home today…everything the owner complained about was per code. I took the builders folder and showed them their builder’s motto…“providing more for less”…now they understand the less part.
They did have a lovely home however it was bare bones in quality…sad thing is that I have seen this same formula used for over 30 years…in 5 years it will be a run down neighborhood where I will continue to get more and more inspections after one resale after another. I have new attitude toward track builders…they make it easy to justify my prices.
It was a small enough area that that would have been the appropriate fix for the area in question. The area was flashed properly. There was only about 1/4" at the widest point that I was concerned about that might cause some water or ice to build up under that course of shingles. In my opinion, a bead of roofing compound was the right fix for it and that is exactly what the roofer did. I didn’t make any suggestions on how to fix the problem, he just did what I was thinking.
Hey Scott,
I’ve had close to the same experience with production builders, they have it down to meet the standard at the lowest cost. Most arguments come from the small builder that hasn’t kept up with the changes in building that has evolved over the years.
