FreeThe Importance of a Pre-Drywall Inspection
If you are getting ready to build a new home, this blog is for you! I believe that your builder usually has your best interest at heart. However, the superintendent that is managing your home also has other homes he has to care for. Being a construction manager myself, I can attest to how difficult it can become to manager your job and all of the other jobs and all of the trades. At one point, I was personally managing 35 homes in 4 communities in 3 different code jurisdictions. One of my communities was an hour commute one way. This makes it very difficult to manage a project. It makes it nearly impossible to spend a significant amount of time in each home every day. I’m not saying every super has this same challenge, but it is frequent that your community is not the only one they manage.
Most builders will offer a pre-drywall inspection, but some do not. Your meeting with your super is going to go over the features of the home that you’re purchasing. They’re not going to walk around and point out the defects in your home. This is where Freedom Home Services comes in. But we will get to that in a minute.
Some True Stories
Working in different code jurisdictions, you find out which ones are the toughest and which ones are the easiest. I’m not going to tell you which one is which, but I will tell you some true stories.
- I had one inspector that was the easiest inspector ever. By easy, I mean that I could have one floor of the home insulated and pass my insulation inspection. He literally would be seen doing an inspection from inside his truck – a “drive by” if you will. (yes, seriously)
- I had another inspector that was pretty strict; he would pull out the plans and walk through and check all of the structural items. Oddly enough, he didn’t care a thing about the trusses. He told me once that it didn’t matter if he checked those or not because if they were broken or built incorrectly, he wouldn’t be the one to pay for it, it would be the builder.
Fortunately, I consider myself a person of high integrity and I’m going to build the home correctly, regardless of the quality of my inspector. Now, back to where Freedom comes in.
Where Freedom fits in
We are another set of experienced eyes. We have done hundreds of pre-drywall inspections for other clients and even more with the companies that many of our inspectors have had the privilege to work. When you hire Freedom, your house is the only house we’re concerned about at the time we’re inspecting it. We don’t have 30 others that day we need to look at – you’re it baby! We know what to look for and we where to look for it. If something is done incorrectly, we can call that out and explain it. We are not structural engineers, but we do know a defect when we see one and have the time to go over your home in detail to find those potential structural issues. In fact, we have yet to perform a pre-drywall inspection and NOT find at least one structural defect.
Seriously, though: this is one of the biggest investments you will ever make. If you’re concerned about spending a couple hundred dollars extra to verify that the meat and bones of your home are put together correctly, you may just want to stick with renting. I have held the position in a company where I have had to move families out of their homes to fix the types of issues that should have been caught before drywall was installed. Believe me, there is no amount of money that will compensate you from the stress that situation brings on you and your family.
Wrap up!
In closing, don’t gamble; have Freedom and peace of mind that you hired me to be an extra set of eyes in your home. I’m not going to promise that we will catch every thing every time, but you can rest assured that we will treat your home inspection as if we’re inspecting our own. If you don’t hire Freedom, at least read this blog on what questions to ask when looking to hire a pre-drywall inspection company.
Contact me to schedule your inspection today!
Links to other previous blogs:
Inspect your home before putting it on the market
