I am a part of a few new construction groups on Facebook. These groups are great for helping people get answers to questions regarding their new home. One post I have been seeing a lot of recently with these cold exterior temperatures is with people’s basement foundation walls being wet. This is an extremely common issue on new homes and it’s easy to address! Let’s […]
In this article I will be talking about new construction foundation cracks. I will discuss what you should know about them, whether they are a concern or not, and how to deal with them. Your first thought may be “My house is brand new, how is there a crack in the foundation already?”. While I agree with this thought, it is extremely common for a […]
As an inspector I have inspected and seen countless new construction homes. Everywhere from totally custom builds to the bare builder with no options. I have also built a home myself using a well known local builder in 2020. This is a list of upgrades/options I recommend getting when building a new home. 1. Vaulted Ceilings in Living Areas Don’t skip this. It not only […]
A common defect I see in homes, especially newer homes, is the wrong fastener being used to secure kitchen cabinets to walls. I commonly see drywall screws used rather than proper cabinet screws. What’s the difference between the two and why is it an issue? Let’s dive in! Drywall screws are made to serve one purpose and that is to secure full sheets or partial […]
An open ground receptacle is an electrical receptacle that is not showing a ground wire connected. This could be because the ground wire disconnected on the receptacle or somewhere in the circuit or series or because there simply isn’t a ground wire (because it is an old 2 wire electrical system). The reason this is unsafe is that although the receptacle appears to be grounded, […]
A home inspection can take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours. The length of time a home inspection takes depends on many different factors. The main factors are age, size, and condition. The main factor I use to give a rough estimate of how long the inspection will take is the size of the house. Before I dive deeper I want to put a little […]
When buying a home there come some inherent risks, especially when purchasing a used home. However, purchasing a home in the winter time brings some additional inherent risks that you may not know about. Now before I start I want to say that you will probably hear from real estate agents that winter is the best time to buy a house. I’m not necessarily arguing […]
You may be asking yourself “What constitutes as a stupid thing to negotiate from a home inspection report?” Over my years in this industry I’ve been part of a variety of transactions that were stuck in negotiations over extremely minor and stupid stuff that had me saying to myself “They really requested that to be fixed out of everything in that report??”. That, coupled with […]
You’ve landed here wanting to know how much a home inspection costs I suppose? Here I will tell you how much a home inspection costs, but keep in mind that there are many variables to this question. Below I open up and get completely transparent with my pricing, so let’s get started! First off, it’s unfortunately not as easy as just giving you a price […]
Rigid Inspections, LLC offers Radon testing in O’Fallon Missouri. We also do Radon testing in St. Charles county, St. Louis County, and St. Louis city. What is Radon? Radon is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, occurring naturally as a decay product of radium. Radon enters your home through the soil and it is everywhere, some areas just have higher levels of it. Why is Radon […]
I do a fair amount of new construction inspections. On occasion the builder has push back on my report when I write up defects/items on their new house. The common quotes from them are “It meets code” or “That’s not Code”. Yes that may be true, BUT… Code is a minimum. Code is the absolute bare minimum that is required by law for a new […]
You may have heard at some point that double pane windows are better than single pane. The main reason for being better is because of the energy efficiency of double pane and triple pane windows. At an inspection I had the right set up at a home to test and prove this on two different windows using my thermal camera which is a free service […]
I have been Infrared Certified for years now and have come across many different types of issues using my Flir thermal camera. Anytime a client calls me to book an inspection I always mention that the inspection includes Free Thermal Imaging. It’s a outstanding service and tool and I think it’s only fair to include that with the home inspection for my clients. Not many […]
A word I hear tossed around a lot in the real estate industry is “Grandfathered”. What is the meaning of that term? In the housing and real estate industry it’s a term I will sometimes hear agents or sellers use to down play issues that come up in an inspection report. By definition it means “exempt from new law or regulation”. Why?…Because it’s old?…that’s insensible! […]