New Construction Warranty Inspections: Are You Getting Everything You Paid For?

New home buyers look to new construction for a variety of reasons. Among them is the idea that a new home will not have defects that may be present in older homes. Unfortunately, the reverse is often true. Builders do their best to construct the best possible home, but no one can build with zero defects. This is the reason for home warranties — to reassure the buyer that any defects that show up in the first year will be fixed at no cost to the buyer.

While many things are obvious — like a light fixture that is crooked — many more are not so obvious, and will only be found by a trained, professional home inspector.


Because most builders function as project coordinators and do not do the construction themselves, it is the subcontractors who often win the job due to their lowest bid, who are primarily responsible for craftsmanship (or lack thereof). It's not that anyone intends to do shoddy work. It's just challenging to manage so many projects at one time. ...Things slip through the cracks!

Government building inspectors do their best to assure that minimum standards have been met during construction, but they are overworked and often trying to keep to an impossible schedule of inspections. Beyond the sheer load of inspections, their standards are only to ensure safety. They are not looking for aesthetic appeal or craftsmanship.


Since multiple building inspectors are involved in the final approvals for a newly constructed home, some issues can get overlooked, or missed due to lack of communication. It's just not possible to be as thorough as required with the staffing levels that exist or are likely to exist in the future.

Your builder provided you with a legally-required warranty that ends one year after you bought your new home. This warranty is a good thing, as long as you take full advantage of it. At the end of the year, your builder will perform a walk-through with you to list all the things that you have discovered over the last year which need to be repaired. Their motivation is to simply write down what you tell them — since they have to pay for everything you've found. They have no incentive to look any further.

An independent real estate inspector will inspect and report on the entire property, finding defects that were missed or overlooked during the original building inspections, or that have developed during the first year. With the report in hand, you can simply give the list of defects to the builder during or before the warranty walk through.

The average cost of a warranty inspection is a few hundred dollars (depending on the square footage size of the home). The money spent on the inspection not only will save on repair costs but will give you the peace of mind to know that you are getting everything you expected and bought.

Your inspection from American Pride Home Inspections will include a computer-generated report (averages over 40 pages!) with a complete list of all of the issues found that the builder should be responsible to repair. Clear, digital photos of everything in question are included in the report.

With over 30 years in the construction industry, we have the experience to find what needs to be fixed. In fact, we're so confident in the quality of our work, our inspections are backed by a 90-day guarantee (separate and beyond your builder's warranty)!