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 house to pass city inspection. Think about that for a second…It is the absolute bare minimum. You know what else is the bare minimum to pass? A “D-“. That’s right, you can get through school with D- grades which is the lowest score you can get before failing (F). Would you want to get through school getting D’s? Would you want your child to slide through school getting D’s? Of course not!

So why would you want your house to be built to the lowest standard possible to pass? That’s exactly what you get with the majority of new construction homes out there. That’s how home builders save money and make a profit. The less they have to do the more money they will save in labor and materials.

I’ve never inspected a new house that did not have issues. Most of the time the issues are small but occasionally they can be significant. Of course I write all issues up, both big and small, and get a complaint call from the builder days later stating “that’s code” or “the city inspector passed it” or “that’s not required by code”. Well, yeah, maybe it does meet code (the bare minimum requirement) but that doesn’t mean it could not have been done better or built better. Sure the city inspector may have passed it, but they aren’t the almighty – they miss things and make mistakes too, so telling me a city inspector passed it means nothing to me. Most of them don’t even go on the roof! Finally, items may not be required by code, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done just because it’s not required. Some things should just be done because they are the right things to do and a better way to do it.

A note to the above, home inspectors are not code inspectors. We write up issues based on what we see and what we consider and know to be defective. So whether an item is code or not really does not matter to us. For us it’s about safety, working order, and condition. Is it safe? Does it work or perform it’s intended purpose? Those are the questions we ask ourselves for each item we inspect.

Here are just a couple examples that I run into frequently at new construction homes:

1. The builder only hangs drywall on the garage walls that are beside the home’s living space and they leave the rest of the garage walls without drywall so you can see the framing. Why don’t they just drywall the entire garage? Heck, even throw some insulation in those walls. Because code only requires garage to living space separation. If there is a garage wall or portion of the garage wall that does not meet/touch/share the living space then it is not required to have a fire separation. To save a few bucks on drywall and labor the builders forgo dry-walling any walls that do not share the living space walls of the home. Would it be nice to have a fully drywall’d garage and not have exposed framing? Sure, but remember, meeting code is the bare minimum, a D-, just passing, so it’s not going to be nice.
2. The builder installs only one receptacle in the garage. That’s the minimum requirement but if you have a 3 car garage that can be a huge pain! I’d want more than one receptacle, but it meets code, the bare minimum.
3. The builder installs one GFCI receptacle in a garage that has all the exterior receptacles and garage receptacles connected to it. When one exterior receptacle trips you’ll have to go back into the garage to reset it. A bit of an inconvenience, but it saved the builder $15 per receptacle on the exterior ($30 total most of the time). They do this for interior bathrooms too, so when your master bathroom receptacle trips you have to go to a bathroom on the other side of the house to reset it. Wouldn’t it be nice if each GFCI protected receptacle had it’s own reset that way if it trips you can reset it right there rather than have to go back to the reset location at some other part of the house? Code is a minimum though and the one reset location is passing.
4. They don’t put sealant over exposed nail heads on the roof. Sealant may not be required by code but roofers would be ignorant not to install it. If nail heads are left exposed they can rust and cause roof leaks. It’s a simple 10 second job that I see overlooked all the time but since city inspectors usually don’t go on the roof for inspections this is never caught.
5. Not installing drip edge flashing on the roof. The drip edge is a piece that is installed under the shingles at the edge of the roof. It keeps water from working it’s way under the shingles and onto the wood roof decking (eventually rotting it) and also keeps water from draining behind the gutters (missing them and running down the fascia). Drip edge is not required by code in some areas that are still following and older code (Edwardsville is still on 2006 Building Code!). It is a must have on roof systems and builders know it, some would just rather save a few dollars and not install it because it may not required in the area they’re building.

No house is perfect, not even new construction. I just finished two new construction inspections the other week and both of them had mold, one of them a very large amount that required remediation by a mold company.