Inspector Brush Off – Acuspect Home Inspections

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Its hard to convince someone of the importance of a home inspection on a brand new, never been lived in home. The building had to pass inspection, right? Sometimes a few examples help a prospective client see the possible value of checking the builder’s work. Today’s inspection for example, provided me with at least a couple of good stories.

Many patios have what we term “typical cracking” which is cosmetic and usually caused by shrinkage or a small amount of settlement. When I made the remark to my client that the house still needed some work to be finished and the only thing that really concerned me was the significant cracking at the patio, he replied, significant? The builder told him that all concrete cracks, just a matter of where. That this was typical and nothing to be concerned with. Now there’s a brush off. Funny, the front patio, same size and configuration had no cracks to speak of.

Significant cracking, i.e. differential elliptical movement surrounded all of the bearing posts that carried the patio cover. The cracks were a 1/8″ to 3/16th’s wide with vertical movement of a 1/8″ to 3/16th’s. The post areas were sinking. Needless to say, I recommended a structural engineer to evaluate with repair as necessary.

The second example derived from this inspection was that the built up paper roof was never coated with the required UV protectant such as elastomeric. There was a guy there, not sure who he was exactly but, when I was relaying the fact of the missing roof coating he breaks into the conversation and say’s “around here the builders regard the coating as optional, it’s not really needed except to reflect the heat”. I let him save face by remarking that he would be correct if this was a rubberized built up roof, but it wasn’t.

Stuff like this happens all the time on the brand new ones. You can use these examples if you like, in your presentations.

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