TOPIC: What To Do If You're Askew ... Or

I have a question for Jay and others.

I turn down phase inspections for new construction.

What would be the best training to take and then to be able to offer clients phase inspections for new construction?

I do new construction when the home is completely finished.

Thanks for the time!!

I only do two inspections on new construction, Dave.  A pre-drywall, when the house is skeletal, and a final before the closing.  The pre-drywall is the only time to see the house in such a fashion that things can be identified - HVAC ducts, structural weight distribution, placement of walls over load-bearing points, etc.  None of this can be so visible after drywall, obviously.

The Association of Construction Inspectors may have some training literature, but I am not certain.  You might try that.  INachi may have something also.  I have never looked around for that.

You probably can't learn anything from some manual that you don't already know.

Similar to Jay I offer two inspections and two reports for new construction.  One pre-drywall and one final.  I charge 1.5 times the price of a normal inspection.

The first inspection is done a few days before the insulation and drywall is installed.  All the utilty rough-ins, framing, roofing, and often much of the external cladding is complete.  You are able to check all the structural elements and see where the utitlities butchered the framing.  Then I come back a week before the final walk through and perform the final inspection.  Basically it is a punch list for the builder.  Bring a roll of blue painters tape to mark all the cosmetic issues.  Also good to review the previous report to check to see if they fixed the earlier mistakes. 

During the pre-drywall it is much easier to inspect the attic framing, truss plates, and hurricane straps.  The last one the builder had the kitchen receptacles spaced at 36 and 48 inches.  Called it out.  Still wrong on the final inspection on Friday.  Going to be a royal pain to tear out the new tile backsplash and run wiring.  Oh well, can't say I didn't warn them.

Bruce contacted me about ACI.  I have been a member for over 10 years and when I joined there was a test and they sent me many training manuals for new construction inspections, which I found very informative.  If you contact them and that is not still the case it would disturb me.  Let me know!

Jay/Bruce

Thanks for the information.