Are New Construction Home Inspections Really Necessary?

People choose to purchase new-construction homes for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they do so because they want to get out of the middle of town and can get a bigger backyard in a new neighborhood. Some people feel that they’ll never get everything they want in a house unless they work with the builder to get it custom built. Some are happy to not have to worry about the problems that come up with homes that were built decades ago. After all, if they buy a new home, they certainly won’t need a home inspection done as they would if they bought a pre-existing home…right?

Wrong. In many cases, the need for new construction home inspection is just as important as it is with pre-existing home. While a home might look fine while when you take a frame walk-through (and will look awesome once it’s finished), problems can show up at any time. Here’s why you should consider property inspection for any home you’re having built.

House Builders Cut Corners

What’s the purpose of a home builder? To make money. That means that they’ll often use cheaper lumber that might be warped, or hire the most affordable electrician they can. They’re often rushing the project as well, because the sooner they get a part of your house built, the sooner they can move on to the next one.

While it would be great if every builder took their time, hired the best people, and used the highest quality materials, that’s simply not going to happen. But when you hire a home inspector, these problems can be caught before the drywall goes up and covers up the ugliness and the cut corners.

Code Isn’t Always Followed

Just like contractors, cities and counties are always looking to save money. One way they can do this is to hire fewer building inspectors to make sure everything is up to code, and that means that the remaining inspectors have less time to perform their duties. House builders know what’s most important to building inspectors, so they end up doing their shoddy work on areas of the house that a government inspector might not have time to inspect.

Also remember that any government inspection ensures that your new home will meet minimum code. When you’re paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a house, do you really want it to meet minimum standards? If we see parts of the house that are up to code but not up to common standards, we’ll let you know during our new-construction house inspection.

Problems Can Show Up At Any Time

If you have a home built, you might think “its newness will prevent it from having problems that old houses have. After all, new houses can’t have drain or sewer problems!”

We’re here to tell you that new houses can have almost identical problems to old houses. An old house might have old sewer and drain pipes, but if they’ve stayed clean and unbroken for 25 years then they might stay that way for another 25.

New houses, on the other hand, have untested systems. In the case of drains, they haven’t had much water through them so there’s no way of knowing how they’ll do when someone’s having a shower while the washing machine and the dishwasher are going. New homes haven’t had full loads put on their electrical systems yet. Depending on the season they were built, they might not have experienced high-winds. Having new construction inspections done make it that much more likely that problems will get caught.

Contact Total House Inspection Today!

If you’re having a house built, don’t fall into the mindset that everything will be alright. Instead, have a house inspector drop by in order to make sure your new home in Shelby Township, Sterling Heights, Rochester Hills, Washington Township or Troy is up to snuff!