Pre-drywall Walk-Through

H

happytales

New member
We're about to schedule our pre-drywall inspection walk-through. What should we look out for? We went to our house this past weekend and I had no idea what I should be looking at...completely clueless.  :eek: :eek: :eek:

I read some past comments about hiring an inspector (some people suggested Steve Lottatore from Bilt-Rite) but should we hire him for pre-drywall or final walk-through? Do I need permission from the builder? Should I just bring him before the final inspection? Do I even need an inspector? Or is making sure wood beams are not slanted enough?

All advice appreciated!!
 
Most of the builders require permission to have an inspector on a construction site (not sure why the home buyer doesn't require it). I think most of the time they deny it using whatever excuse. Anything an inspector brings up just slows down the construction for them.

Your options are:

1) Schedule it so that the inspector comes along with you during the pre-drywall walkthrough. This may prove difficult with the inspector's scheduling availability, and I think most probably prefer to do the inspection at their own pace

2) Have your inspector schedule a time to do his own inspection walkthrough several days in advance to provide you with the report when you do your walkthrough with the builder. Preferably during non construction work hours so they don't have to deal with builder potentially questioning who they are and whether they are allowed on site or not.

If you do go with one, Steve Lottatore is a good choice. He will talk your ears off, but I think that's because he's very passionate about his work and very thorough. We hired him for our inspection.

Advice I do have is to take lots of pictures of the different walls and ceilings for your record. It's a big help when you later want to mount TVs etc. and just know where the wall studs/wirings/pipes are and can use it as a reference. Especially the fire sprinkler system pipes! You DO NOT want to accidentally puncture those pipes! So really take note of where the sprinkler system pipes are run.
 
I think you would need the inspector more for pre-drywall rather than final walk through (if you have to choose).  The time to inspect pre-dry wall is very short and once the drywall is up, you can never see/inspect again what's inside.  For the final walk through, you generally have a year, so anything you don't see in the walkthrough, you can still complain afterwards.

One of the common issue that the inspector saw in our drywall inspection was missing nail plates on frame/post where the wiring passes through.  This doesn't really sound bad on most cases, but without nail plates, if you happen to nail something or drill a hole on that spot down the road, there goes your electrical wiring.  He also found a lot of minor things what are somewhat trivial that I would probably not notice but the builder will fix if you point it out to them (eg. insulation material lacking on some spots, gaps here and there around ducts/tubes, protuding nails/screw etc)
 
Thanks for all the great advice! I'll have to hit up Steve Lottatore, hopefully he'll have time to come out and inspect for us.

incognito said:
Advice I do have is to take lots of pictures of the different walls and ceilings for your record. It's a big help when you later want to mount TVs etc. and just know where the wall studs/wirings/pipes are and can use it as a reference. Especially the fire sprinkler system pipes! You DO NOT want to accidentally puncture those pipes! So really take note of where the sprinkler system pipes are run.
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That's awesome advice! Never even thought about that! Thanks!

GH said:
He also found a lot of minor things what are somewhat trivial that I would probably not notice but the builder will fix if you point it out to them (eg. insulation material lacking on some spots, gaps here and there around ducts/tubes, protuding nails/screw etc)
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Yea, I think I'll definitely go with an inspector. There's no way I would know if insulation is lacking...or anything else for that matter.

Irvinecommuter said:
If your builder is Irvine Company related...forget about bring an inspector.
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Mine's through Brookfield. Hopefully they're ok with it!
 
IME, Brookfield was very responsive to having an outside inspector and addressed all the things he found. One of the Brookfield guys even hired the inspector to do work for a family member.
 
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