New Build Home Inspection: What You Need to Know.
Home inspections are a must when buying a new build home. A certified inspector will be able to tell you if the builder was sloppy or made any shortcuts, which can help you avoid costly problems down the road. In this video, expert home inspector Brian Baltazarand Nathan Beauchamp (best mortgage lender for first time home buyers) discuss some of the things that an inspector may find on a new build home inspection and how they could affect your future homeownership experience. Watch now to see some surprising finds on brand new construction homes (from sewer lines to the rooftops).
Transcript
Nathan Beauchamp: I am here today with Brian Baltazar. Brian is a home inspector. He recently did the home inspection on my home. We’re selling our house and he came out and was super thorough, did a top-notch job. I wanted to invite you in and have you tell a couple of things about why you might want to inspect a new build.
Nathan Beauchamp: Most buyers are probably thinking, “Hey, it’s brand new. I don’t take my brand new car to the auto mechanic. Why would I have a home inspector? Why would I pay for a home inspector to come inspect a new home?”
Brian Baltazar: Absolutely. Well, thank you for having me. It’s great to be here. Big thing with the new builds is how do you know that everything works?
Brian Baltazar: This is likely the biggest investment you’re going to make in your entire life. So you wanna make sure that everything works as best as you can before finding out the hard way. In other words, let’s make sure that we’re looking at the envelope of the home— the exterior, then the electrical, also the plumbing, and that’s a big one too, because of the sewer line.
Nathan Beauchamp: Well, how bad could that be though?
Brian Baltazar: Well, generally, you’re going to get very solid workmanship from a lot of the builders that are in and around Colorado. There’s some great folks out there that take some serious pride in their work. However, we all know that pencils have erasers.
Brian Baltazar: So it’s kind of tough to be able to erase glove, grout, rags, bolts, that type of thing in a sewer line. Additionally, it’s not too easy to go ahead and try to erase, say, for example, something not installed correctly in your roof. Because the big thing is with moisture intrusion, especially when we’re talking about the roof, is that not only can it bankrupt you from the financial standpoint when you have water coming into the home, but mold can be deadly.
Nathan Beauchamp: So I’m now gonna show you what Brian is talking about.
New Build Home Inspection – Sewer Scope Inspection
Nathan Beauchamp: This is an image that Brian sent me from one of his inspections on a new build. This doesn’t look like much to me. It looks kind of like an alien spaceship. What are we looking at?
Brian Baltazar: Yeah, we’re looking at a sewer line on a brand new build in the home. I had pushed about 11 feet with my sewer scope. The pipe is polyvinyl chloride, commonly referred to as PVC. What you’re seeing there at the bottom of the pipe is a bolt, and it’s rusted out. When we move forward, we’ll be able to see it was laying on a rag. You would’ve never known that this was there. You would’ve found out probably in the least happy way with a backup. This could cause blockage.
Nathan Beauchamp: The construction crew left these materials in the drain pipe. And After 20, 30 toilet flushes, it gets blocked. Then you could have sewer water backing into your brand new home.
Brian Baltazar: That’s right. Let’s talk about the solution here.
Brian Baltazar: You would need to have somebody hydro jet this, and what that means in plain English is, basically taking, kind of like when you go to the car wash, and you’re gonna wash by hand yourself, and you’ve got that one that you spray with. Well, the hydro-jetter has that, but it’s got six different exit points for the water. So very high-pressure spray to clean the line, push that out. And then, essentially, it would be removed from the line.
Nathan Beauchamp: So what did the homeowner say when you showed them that their brand new sewer had a bolt and rag in it?
Brian Baltazar: They were really, really surprised because at that point, then that kinda triggered with them. If that’s happening there, what else is gonna show up on the report?
Nathan Beauchamp: Right, yeah. So very worth it on new construction. You don’t know what you can’t see.
Brian Baltazar: Absolutely.
Nathan Beauchamp: And so you’ve got a couple more photos for us, right?
Brian Baltazar: I do.
New Build Home Inspection – Roof Inspection
Nathan Beauchamp: So we’re going from subterranean to the highest point on the property.
Brian Baltazar: What we’re talking about here was that exterior envelope and wanting to make sure that everything is as dry as it possibly can be. When you’re looking at this roof and you see that this vent in front of us, that’s the closest, that’s wrong. You look at the vent in the background and you can see a black part at the base and also see there’s some silver metal back there as well. That all helps water escape and flow down the roof. Allow your drainage system to have the water flow into the gutter and then exit away from the home. As it sits right now, if water or whether it’s even snow at this point, it’s going to exit into the attic.
Brian Baltazar: If you didn’t know this, by not having an inspection, you would end up kind of finding out the hard way in terms of it leaking into the home. In this instance, it ended up this vent sat specifically above the master closet.
Home Inspection or Wait for Home Warranty Claim?
Nathan Beauchamp: Sometimes I’ll hear agents who will say, ” Wait for 10 months, then get the inspection. You can enforce your warranty, get the builder to fix things.” If you left this for 10 months, you could end up with a huge loss or a major insurance claim. Right?
Brian Baltazar: Absolutely. Let’s not forget how it could potentially impact your health with mold. This potential mold problem could come through to the home and then that’s all the air that you breathe.
Nathan Beauchamp: We got one more photo to show you.
Home Inspection – Roof Issue
Brian Baltazar: What you’re looking at here is you’ve got the gutter down below where you’ve got glue. Now the other part is at the top of it; you’ve got the shingle that’s pointing up. This is wrong because you can see there’s something holding that shingle up and making it point up. Well, that’s called the drip edge. And essentially, what that drip edge does is it helps when the water comes off of the roof and it comes off of the shingle. Sometimes it’ll curl and go back. That drip edge makes sure that it exits into the gutter rather going back into the home. What you can also see at the point at the end of the shingle that’s raised up, if you go straight down, you can see where there’s an intersection and there’s a gap right there. And that’s where waters going to go in. Now, the other part is, wait till the wind gets ahold of this. And you remember just exactly how windy our April was. That the wind can take, take that start pulling it back.
Brian Baltazar: Yeah, absolutely.
Nathan Beauchamp: You gotta end up windstorm. It’s gonna peel that whole roof off.
Brian Baltazar: So this needs to be remedied right away.
Why New Builds Have Issues
Nathan Beauchamp: Why do you think things like this happen on new construction? Is it just, is it laziness, sloppiness, lack of attention to detail?
Brian Baltazar: I think people get in a hurry. We’re wanting to make sure that, Hey, let’s get these folks in the home as quickly as we can.
Brian Baltazar: Everything’s on the schedule.
Nathan Beauchamp: Everything’s on a schedule.
Brian Baltazar: So I think what happens is sometimes folks just get into a hurry and then hustle and get it done. It’s taken care of. I check that box. Well, let’s take a step back and make sure that things are the way that they need to be and nice and buttoned up.
Brian Baltazar and Nathan Mortgage discuss the importance of getting a new build home inspection.
Home Inspection When Selling Your Home
Nathan Beauchamp: Well, one of the things that I’d also like to suggest, and this is what I did, is I actually hired Brian to do home inspection on my home prior to listing it for sale. And the reasons that I wanted to do that is I didn’t want a potential buyer to come in after we get under contract at a specific price and then nickel and dime me without me knowing is there legitimacy behind the things that they’re saying. And then also gives you the opportunity, if you own a home, to kind of knock out all the low-hanging fruit in advance so that you have a really clean bill of health for your house. It was really great to be able to tell prospective buyers in my home. Hey, radon is completely fine. There were these, you know, small safety issues that have been addressed. Pretty much all the heavy lifting is done other than my house is gonna need a new roof. Thankfully, that’s an insurance claim.
Nathan Beauchamp: Brian was just super thorough. You know, I’ve got a three-story house— went through absolutely everything. Did radon, did sewer scope, did it all. I think you’ve got a bundle discount if somebody takes on all those services.
Brian Baltazar: That’s right.
Nathan Beauchamp: Your professionalism, the thoroughness of it. You know, I really appreciated. I wanted to give you a chance to educate me and, hopefully, my clients as well on why, if you were buying a new home, you should get it inspected.
Brian Baltazar: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me and you guys were great clients.
Nathan Beauchamp: Yeah. How do people find you?
Contact Brian for a New Build Home Inspection.
Brian Baltazar: You can find me at www.coloradopriorityhomeinspection.com
BrianBaltazar: I’m also out there on Twitter and then on Facebook. And you can give me a call at (720) 925-1725. Thank you.
Buying a New Build Home
In today’s world, more and more home buyers are turning to new build homes for a few reasons. One of the most popular is that many builders offer customizations that you cannot get with resale or existing homes. Another upside is that all of the home’s structure, appliances, and soft finishes are brand new. So homeowners are less likely to be replacing anything for at least ten years. In today’s hot market, where there are more buyers than homes available, a new build is a great option. That being said, it’s important to take time and educate yourself on why if you were buying a new home, you should get it inspected. Ready to learn more? Learn more about Buying a Home in 2022: What You Need to Know.