Same S*it_Another Day

**Rick Hurst** · 05-14-2009, 07:45 PM

Ever have the feeling that you just write the same ole comments on your HI reporting over and over again?

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone does any type of maintenance to a home at all.

Rick

**Billy Stephens** · 05-14-2009, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by Rick Hurst

Ever have the feeling that you just write the same ole comments on your HI reporting over and over again?

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone does any type of maintenance to a home at all.

Rick

.
Just Keep Counting.
* job security.
.

**Dan Harris** · 05-14-2009, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Rick Hurst

Ever have the feeling that you just write the same ole comments on your HI reporting over and over again?

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone does any type of maintenance to a home at all.

Rick

Yep. On darn near every new home.
Instead of wondering about maintenace, I wonder why the builders don't change their ways of doing business after correcting the same defects year after year.
To do most of the stuff right the first time sure would cost far less than sending a crew out after closing.

I'm guessing the odds must be in their favor since a small percentage of home owners hire an inspector before the end of the warranty.

**Rick Hurst** · 05-14-2009, 08:05 PM

Dan,

In my area the homebuilder is not out any money on doing the repairs. Anything we find wrong they make the contractor comeback out and redo their work or have a charge back to them.

It is mostly I believe from contractors not staying up with code changes and they do things the old school way day in and day out.

Git er done.

rick

**Dan Harris** · 05-14-2009, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by Rick Hurst

Dan,

In my area the homebuilder is not out any money on doing the repairs. Anything we find wrong they make the contractor comeback out and redo their work or have a charge back to them.

It is mostly I believe from contractors not staying up with code changes and they do things the old school way day in and day out.

Git er done.

rick

It's the same here, if you hear the excuses the builders reps come up with one would think the builder is paying for it.
Yesterday I did a preclosing walk thru, 4 out of the 15 items, the closer tried to convince the buyer they didn't have to do them, the rest they tried to convince the buyer they would take care of it after closing.

mathew stouffer · 05-14-2009, 08:57 PM

I love it when the builder tries to say an issue you idenitified is not a big deal. Then you run accross him a few months later at a different job when his is doing a remodel and he is critiquing the same issue he said a few months earilier was not a big deal. Makes him look good in front of his clients. Then you get to gloat

**Matt Fellman** · 05-14-2009, 10:02 PM

I can relate..... today I happened to be at an inspection with the same RE agent from a job a few days ago. He got the call from the builder saying that there is nothing wrong with installing a deck ledger directly over the siding with no flashing. 'I build all my houses this way' he said.

I told the agent to thank him for me.... he's keeping me busy.

Eric Shuman · 05-15-2009, 04:56 AM

Originally Posted by Dan Harris

It's the same here, if you hear the excuses the builders reps come up with one would think the builder is paying for it.
Yesterday I did a preclosing walk thru, 4 out of the 15 items, the closer tried to convince the buyer they didn't have to do them, the rest they tried to convince the buyer they would take care of it after closing.

Yeah, if i do a reinspect on new-build homes after the repairs were "all competed" I typically find only 50-60% of repairs completed, and many times they did not even repair the important stuff. I have to wonder what happens on all the new-build homes that I don't go out and re-inspect.

Of course, nobody ever wants to pay for a re-inspection.

Eric

**Michael Thomas** · 05-15-2009, 05:31 AM

How many of us have actually got around to fixing everything we know is wrong with our own homes? I know that I've got several weekends work stacked up at the moment.

I report everything required by the state and every other defects I believe is significant, but these days during my verbal presentation at the inspection I expend my limited ammunition for encouraging people to actually "do this, if you do nothing else " on three things: defects that I believe are really significant hazards, and significant structural and water intrusion issues.

A.D. Miller · 05-15-2009, 07:18 AM

How many of us have actually got around to fixing everything we know is wrong with our own homes?

Michael: Though I built and remodeled houses for 20 years, have payed off 4 of them and inspected them for another 13 years, I refuse to fix everything that is wrong with my house.

I have to leave something for the next guy, right? It's only fair, considering the number of things I was left by the guy before me.

Right long side Mom, Apple Pie (or is that computers) and Chevrolet (or is that Toyota) should come another great American aphorism, "we don't fix it until it explodes, burst into flames, or just falls right over."

In most European countries where I have friends they have come to grips with the idea of buying quality products and maintaining them for as long as possible. Wear out and not rust out is the name of the game. Not here.

**Rick Hurst** · 05-15-2009, 07:30 AM

Aaron,

My motto is "If it is not broke, your not trying hard enough!" or "If its not broke, Use a larger hammer!"

rick

**Jerry Peck** · 05-15-2009, 07:49 AM

Matt,

In your photos, those look like screws instead of nails in those hangers.

Not that it matters, they will all have to come out to correct the ledger problem.

By the way, what is that black pipe coming out the ledger and going up into the floor of the deck?

**Matt Fellman** · 05-15-2009, 02:26 PM

Those do kind of look like screws but they were nails... sometimes the nails seem to be left with an uneven surface on the head from when they were manufactured and from a distance they look like screws.

The pipe is a rain drain that runs in through the crawl space towards the front of the house. It always surprises me that they don't mark the waste pipes any differently if they're storm or sanitary. We just had an instance here of a poluted waterway. After much searching it was determined the sanitary lines got attached to the storm drains at the time of construction. The real irony was that the building was some type of government environmental agency

**Jerry McCarthy** · 05-25-2009, 01:06 PM

It's been my experience that far too many clients do not read the inspector's report, at least not thoroughly.
However, attorneys and their expert witnesses read ever word of them.
Keep on plugging away because you never know when you will get hit with a registered letter or tapped on the sleeve by a process server.