Building a Home in Dallas-Fort Worth? Phase Inspections Could Save You Headaches Down The Road

Every week, the detail-oriented folks at Green Scene Home Inspections will give CandysDirt.com readers an education in inspection. Want to see what they see? Tune in for “Upon Closer Inspection.”

The DFW real estate market is on fire, and the demand for homes is higher than the supply of houses for sale. Homebuilders are working as quickly as they can to add to the supply, and inevitably, mistakes can be made. That’s why we do multi-step inspections called Phase Inspections for new construction homes.

During the construction of a home, the inspector will visit the site:

1) just before the concrete slab is poured;
2) after the house is framed but before the insulation has been installed;
3) when the construction is completed, before the final builder walk-through; and
4) about 11 months after purchase before the one year Builder’s Warranty policy expires.

Here are some examples of issues we’ve found during the Phase Inspection process:

Here, our Inspector found a number of small things, but these are important details the home buyer will want fixed before they move in.

In this video, the Inspector finds a plumbing leak – easy to fix, but could have caused major structural damage if it wasn’t caught quickly.

This is a good example of a problem that could have been found during a Framing Inspection, Phase 2. In this case, construction was already completed and it will be a more difficult repair.

Of course, many times, when purchasing a newly built home, the buyer doesn’t find the home until it’s already been completed. In this situation, it’s even more important to have a Final Phase Inspection prior to purchase, so the builder can fix anything that fails under testing.

Find out more about Phase Inspections here.